Starting With The Household

You can’t turn on a radio, computer, or any other form of media today without finding someone who wants to sell you something or do something for you. Some of these things are helpful, but many of them just fill closets, shelves, and eventually storage units.

We have become a nation of consumers. The average American has $14,000 of credit card debt. Gone are the days when most households were self-supporting–places of enterprise and production. We no longer remember a time when we couldn’t have it if we couldn’t buy it. Now the national pastime is leisure. We live for the weekend and eventually retirement. 

So many of the work-from-home commercials start by addressing the simple yet deep desire of many people, “Do you want to spend more time with your family?” We could probably agree that most people have the ideal of family first. (I say ideal because they may say that family comes first even if the reality is something quite different.) They work to provide for their family. They work so that their family can take the money they make and spend it on products that others make. They trade their time for money. They take that money and buy products made on someone else’s time. 

Since economists tell us that consumer spending accounts for over 60% of economic activity, the conclusion is made that this spending is necessary to keep the economy going.  A lot of people have a vested interest in keeping you and me dependent consumers, to keep us buying.

The root of the word economy–and the meaning of the word economy if it is correctly understood–is in the proper administration of a household. The English words “economy” and “economics” can be traced back to the Greek words οἰκονόμος, or “one who manages a household,” a composite word derived from οἴκος (house) and νέμω (to manage; distribute); οἰκονομία (household management). In other words, “the economy,” properly understood begins with the household.

While most of us couldn’t quit our jobs and completely live the homesteader’s dream, what if instead of being consumers, we began to turn inward to think of ourselves as producers? What if we made it our goal to produce, as much as possible, the materials and the products needed to sustain our own households? What if we began this endeavor, not to make money, but simply to craft the items we need to live? While we may not be able to permanently avoid Walmart, we might by degrees, begin to have more time for the things that really matter.

Becoming producers would certainly require a radical shift in thinking — and eventually in lifestyle. For most of us to live this counter-culturally and to embrace a life with this level of daily labor, some sacrifices would have to be made.  To many, a life without all of society’s stuff would not sound like much of a life, but I believe that the rewards of working side-by-side with your family, learning new skills of which we can be proud and in turn sharing those skills with others, and the opportunity to live richly and intentionally are well worth the effort.  However, I am not suggesting that drastic changes would have to happen over night. A family can start small, but even the smallest steps begin to move us in a healthier direction. Here are a few thoughts:

1. Grow a small garden. Eat and can what you produce.

2. Buy a wood-burning stove, collect your own firewood, and begin to supplement your heating bill.

3. Try planting 10 dwarf fruit trees in your backyard. It will take awhile for them to produce, but when they do, you will reap the benefits. Think of each tree as an investment, representing X pounds of fruit you won’t be buying from the store.

4. Think twice before buying another thing to add to your home, wardrobe, or garage. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

5. Do things for yourself: Change your own oil. Can your own jam. Repair your own appliances.  Recently, when I discovered that calling a repairman for my dishwasher would start with an $85 service fee and then $60 per hour for any needed repairs, I decided to do it myself. A five-hour project and a $10 part from Sears had me “paying myself” $400 for that day’s work. Don’t buy the lie that time is money. Time is NOT money.

6. Trade for help the old-fashioned way. Instead of hiring a professional, meet your neighbors, talk to your friends, barter, and trade goods as well as services.

Starting with the internal economy of the home, the household, means that you (eventually) have something to share with others. When you start by buying from yourself, you save a lot more than money. You are developing enterprises that value everyone in the home. You are creating “employment opportunities” that become training grounds for children who will grow up to do the same in households of their own.

It’s not just about saving money.  It’s about saving our families. It’s about questioning the way our culture dictates how we use our resources and interact with our environment and daring to break that cycle.  It’s about getting back to a kinder, simpler way of living – a life that starts with the household.