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A giant list of things you can make yourself

 
Shawn Klassen-Koop
gardener & author
Posts: 2080
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The idea here is to make a thread with a huge list of things that you can make in your home to reduce what you need to buy in the stores. I am always surprised to hear how much people are spending on stuff from the store that can be made at home!

Less plastic. Less toxic gick. Less transport. Less planned obsoleteness.

For the purposes of this thread please leave out any food items. Those are important but not quite what I'm going for here.

I am hoping that each item on this list is relatively short. It could be a word. It could be a sentence. A few sentences is pushing it and more than a small paragraph is too much. :)

Learn more about my book and my podcast at buildingabetterworldbook.com.
Developer of the Land Notes app.

 
Shawn Klassen-Koop
gardener & author
Posts: 2080
Location: Manitoba, Canada
697
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Handkerchiefs - no more boxes of facial tissue!

Learn more about my book and my podcast at buildingabetterworldbook.com.
Developer of the Land Notes app.

 
Shawn Klassen-Koop
gardener & author
Posts: 2080
Location: Manitoba, Canada
697
2
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cattle hugelkultur monies duck forest garden fish fungi earthworks building rocket stoves homestead
posted 7 years ago
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Clothing (including slippers, hats, mittens, sweaters, etc.)

Learn more about my book and my podcast at buildingabetterworldbook.com.
Developer of the Land Notes app.

 
Shawn Klassen-Koop
gardener & author
Posts: 2080
Location: Manitoba, Canada
697
2
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cattle hugelkultur monies duck forest garden fish fungi earthworks building rocket stoves homestead
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We like to reuse our old birthday, wedding, holiday, and greeting cards and make them into "new" cards.

Learn more about my book and my podcast at buildingabetterworldbook.com.
Developer of the Land Notes app.

 
Shawn Klassen-Koop
gardener & author
Posts: 2080
Location: Manitoba, Canada
697
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cattle hugelkultur monies duck forest garden fish fungi earthworks building rocket stoves homestead
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Making your own laundry soap - if you're into the whole laundry soap thing.

Learn more about my book and my podcast at buildingabetterworldbook.com.
Developer of the Land Notes app.

 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9768
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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lye soap
castile soap
lotions
ointments
salves
tinctures


kitchen towels (from thrift store finds)
kitchen rags (to replace paper towels)
potholders
dish cloths

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9768
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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handmade/homemade gifts



"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

 
Nicole Alderman
steward
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Location: Pacific Northwest
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Baby wipes (cut up old towels, rags, bathroabs, and/or t shirts and zig-zag stitch the edges)

Wool diaper covers from old sweaters.

Menstrual pads

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Peter VanDerWal
pollinator
Posts: 596
Location: Southern Arizona. Zone 8b
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With the right skill set you can build almost ANYTHING yourself.

I've built computers from scratch; etching my own circuit cards and soldering on discrete components, vehicles from scratch, houses, solar trackers, grey water systems, water filters and pumps, a china cabinet, book cases, desks, cupboards, closets, etc., an evaporative cooler for a skoolie, 3D printers which I've used to build numerous plastic parts; equipment cases, connectors for rainwater&aquaponics systems, etc., rock walls, bee hives, barns, sheds,  workshops, driveways, radio transmitters, a home control network, clothes, curtains, controllers for solar heaters, tile floors, chicken coops, and the list goes on.

For the most part, the only limits on what you can build are your imagination and willingness to learn new skills.

My opinions are barely worth the paper they are written on here, but hopefully they can spark some new ideas, or at least a different train of thought

 
Marco Banks
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Babies.

And it's actually not that much work once you figure out a system.  We made two of them and my dear wife said that's enough, but I'm willing to do some more research into improvements on the process.

"The rule of no realm is mine.  But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, these are my care.  And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come.  For I too am a steward.  Did you not know?"    Gandolf

 
James Freyr
steward
Posts: 4837
Location: West Tennessee
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Suet for the birds! We use old cardboard milk cartons as a mold, then slice into suet blocks and brush with hot pepper sauce to deter the squirrels.
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"Study books and observe nature; if they do not agree, throw away the books." ~ William A. Albrecht

 
Su Ba
pollinator
Posts: 2170
Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)
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Gosh, I can't think of all the things that I home make, compared to my friends who go out and buy stuff. I don't buy paper towels - I use rags from discarded clothing I get for free. I don't buy flowerpots for my seedlings- I make my own out of discarded containers I get from the dump. I made my own hydroponic system. My own greenhouses and mini greenhouses. My own garden labels. I didn't buy a house address sign (required here)- instead I made my own artsy house number sign. All my yard art is homemade. I've made many pieces of furniture out of purchased cedar and ohia harvested off my own land. I'm presently making picture frames out of wood and other materials from my land. I've made plenty of raised garden containers and mini ponds instead of buying them at Home Depot. Most gifts are handmade. Much of my art decor is handmade by me or my friends, I've been gifted items that my friends sell for in the hundreds, even thousands, so these are not cheesy looking items! Homemade doesn't mean poor quality. I've also made some clothing, but sewing doesn't thrill me, so I don't do it much.

I guess if I thought about it, I could list more. But making my own is a normal way of life now. 20 years ago I would have gone to the store for my stuff.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

 
Su Ba
pollinator
Posts: 2170
Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)
1099
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forest garden rabbit tiny house books solar woodworking
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Instead of a giant list of things, how about a list of giant things.......

More things we've made ourselves instead of buying them....
1- our farm. We started out with 20 acres of once upon a time, many decades before, a place that had been used to graze cattle. Prior to that had been used by an adjacent ranch to work with their ranch horses. It had been abandoned, allowed to regrow into a young woods for years and years to the point that all the buildings and fencing had rotted away and totally disappeared. Instead of buying a farm, we made our own.......buildings, pastures, gardens, rock walls, fences, the whole shebang.
2- our house. We bought the materials, but we did the building.
3- our food. 98% of our food comes from our own effort, one way or the other.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

 
Shawn Klassen-Koop
gardener & author
Posts: 2080
Location: Manitoba, Canada
697
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- tools
- furniture
- pot holders
- dishes
- cutlery

Learn more about my book and my podcast at buildingabetterworldbook.com.
Developer of the Land Notes app.

 
Peter Ellis
Posts: 1670
Location: Fennville MI
83
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I'm somewhat inclined to say that the list of things you can't make for yourself is likely shorter  I'm not going to make my own steel, for example.  But if I have some steel, there is quite a list of things I can make for myself from it
 
Sergio Cunha
Posts: 76
Location: Brazil
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A wheelbarrow. It can be made of wood but people say I am a skilled bamboo furniture maker, so I plan to make a bamboo wheelbarrow, its frame and basket. I guess It can be made of willow too.
I can make a giant list of bamboo things we can make ourselves.
 
Marion Elliot
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I guess there are a lot of things you can make yourself, this has been a good list so far. My top five are planters, compost, soap (you can make soap once a year and have enough), curtains (out of old bedsheets if you have a nice pattern you like), and fish food (if your fish are vegetarians you can grow duckweed and use it for about 1/2 of their total food intake)
 
I'm not dead! I feel happy! I'd like to go for a walk! I'll even read a tiny ad:
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/garden-cards
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