It's the old ways I love the most

I'm a practical woman who lives in a 1980’s brick slab house. There are verandahs front and back so I have places to sit outside when it's hot or cold. Those verandahs tend to make the house darker than it would be but they're been a great investment over time because they made the house more liveable. My home is not a romantic cottage, nor a minimalist modern home, it's a 1980’s brick slab house. And yet when people visit me here they tell me how warm and cosy my home is and that they feel comforted by being here. I've thought about that over the years and I'm convinced now that the style of a home isn't what appeals to people. What they love is the feeling within that home and whether it's nurturing the people who live there.

 

I’ve been busy with oranges lately - harvesting and juicing. On the weekend I made a 10 litre batch of laundry liquid, sowed some seeds and planted three native trees. I’ll put up some photos soon of the completed garden - but when I say completed, it’s the first stage of a winter garden so growth is slow. This week I cleaned a cupboards, and got through several loads of washing. Tomorrow? Probably more of the same and honestly, I love it. That rhythm of ordinary work, done over and over again, connects me to something bigger—the past and the future, and it allows me to live the way I do. It's the work that makes it possible.

Yesterday I found myself thinking: it’s the old ways I love the most. Harvesting from the garden, slow-cooked meals, baking, homemade jams, fermenting, sewing and mending. I don’t do these things because I have to - I do them because they mean something. I’ve never once been excited about using a teabag, but I love brewing tea in a pot and pouring it into cups sitting on saucers. I don’t enjoy paying top dollar for supermarket laundry liquid, but I do love opening my own bucket of the homemade stuff. Frozen microwave meals? No thanks. But food made from scratch? That’s something people want to eat. Homemade soap feels like a luxury, sleeping under a handmade quilt is unmatched and being lucky enough to wear home-knitted jumpers and cardigans gives you warmth and comfort without your skin touching synthetic fibres.

Almost all my meals now are based on what I used to eat when I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s. This is my version of a pork roast - it's a pork belly cut in half then roasted in the normal way with vegetables. I use the rest of it for cold cuts.

Recently, I’ve been working in the back garden every day but I had to slow myself down because the rebuilding stage will soon come to an end and the maintenance phase will begin. So I do some work out there, then sit and decide if everything’s in the right place, for me, Gracie and the wildlife. Usually, if I look up, there’s a line of kookaburras or cockatoos in the trees watching. LOL

I made beef bone broth last week. I like drinking it during the day instead of tea.

There’s something really motivating about seeing other people working in their homes. I do that on YouTube - I search for people like me who make their lives better by the work they do in their homes. It makes me feel like we’re all part of one big working bee—even if we’re scattered across the map. We might not all be part of a traditional village, but the spirit is there. We’re doing the work, we’re sharing it while we’re keeping old skills alive. And I think that’s something worth celebrating.

Creating a home you'll love forever

Living simply is the answer to just about everything. It reduces the cost of living; it keeps you focused on being careful with resources such as water and electricity; it reminds you to not waste food; it encourages you to store food so you don't waste it and doing all those things brings routine and rhythm to your daily life. Consciously connecting every day with the activities and tasks that create simple life reminds you to look for the meaning and beauty that normal daily life holds.  It's all there in your home if you look for it. Seemingly mundane tasks like cleaning and cooking help you with that connection for without those tasks, the home you want to live in won't exist in the way you want it to.  Creating a home you love will make you happy and satisfied.

I've been restoring routine and rhythm to my backyard lately. I pulled up the extensive vegetable gardens we used to have and now, three years after Hanno died, vegetables are growing again in raised beds. My good friend Nicole Lutze came over on Friday and helped by weeding and moving a lot of heavy stuff around for me. Thanks Nicole! Unfortunately, it's a job I can't do anymore. Hopefully, by growing everything in raised beds and a variety of pots, I can overcome that hurdle. It also takes me four times as long to do anything in the garden now because, at 77 years of age and with a brain tumour, I'm often unsteady on my feet when I'm walking around on the uneven ground out there.  Inside the house I'm fine and I'm happy that I can still easily do my housework, cleaning and cooking. I'd be miserable if I couldn't do that work.

The raised beds are slowly filling up with vegetables and this week I plan on sowing flower seeds in with the vegetables. I have already planted Gaura and Yarrow seedlings and I have seeds of white Cosmos, Penstemon, Scabiosa, Bee Balm and Thyme. You probably already know this: I have several pots of foxgloves - both this year's and last year's, scattered around the garden. They're biennials so half will flower this year and half next year. I planted a small bay in a pot and have many roses in large pots surrounding the raised beds. Vegetables in so far include perpetual spinach, silver beet, red onion, Egyptian walking onions, parsley, tomatoes, butter lettuce, chilli, capsicum, and today I'll sow seeds for Hokkaido mini orange pumpkin and French radishes. Growing is slow and watching it unfold takes patience, but when everything starts thriving, it’ll be worth it. There’s nothing like stepping outside and picking what you’ll eat that day. Oh, I also planted a Teddy Bear magnolia in a pot. It's in the photo below.

The fruit trees are doing really well, mainly because we had so much rain earlier in the year. The oranges and lemons are ready for picking; blueberries and elderberries are flowering; I've collected about 50 pecans so far; the Brazilian cherry and loquats are healthy; I have just planted a miniature Eureka lemon in a pot and have a passionfruit ready to plant.  Life's good.

Are you creating the kind of home you want to live in? I hope you are because this way of life only happens if you put in the work.  But remember, life comes in stages for all of us. I have time to do the work, if you're still working for a living try to do as much housework as you can because it will help you save money, hopefully you'll be cooking from scratch a few days a week and doing all that will slowly create the home you want to live in. Living on less than you earn is a constant goal that pays off on a weekly basis and in the longer term. I know quite a few young couples who are living on one pay packet while the other partner, male or female, takes care of the house, cooking, organising and child rearing, with daily help from the partner who goes out to work. Living like that sets up a firm financial base and a happy home with less stress than when both partners are working away from home. Of course, it's not always possible but if it is, here is a post I wrote about Living on One Income.

I hope you'll all take a look at my DIL's and grandkids new IG page. They're showing us their duck and rooster. There's also a recycled duck home being made.  https://youtube.com/@kiwiandmandarin?si=Ghd5S130xEw3gVXI

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead. xx

Every morning at home

Every morning when I walk into my kitchen it looks tidy and ready for a day's work. Not so on this morning (above), I saw this when I walked in. Late the previous afternoon when I was looking for something, I came across my rolled up Zwilling vacuum bags and decided they had to be washed and dried. So I did that and although I usually put them outside on the verandah to dry it was dark by then. I turned the just-washed bags inside out and left them like this on a towel. It worked well and now the bags are ready to use when I bring home root vegetables, cabbages or whatever I buy that I want to last four or five weeks.

I love mornings here. It's still dark and quiet, I make a cup of tea and sit on the couch (Gracie's bed) and talk to her. I get a feeling that she enjoys it too. It gives me time to think about the work I'll do during the day. I go out into the world about three times a month. That suits me, I'm an (optimistic) introvert and I usually have more than enough to occupy my time every day at home.

The winter bed.

And now that the cooler months are here, it feels right to be here in my home, staying warm and cozy. Yesterday, I wore a cardigan for the first time this year. I've already had my first soup and there are beef bones and a ham hock in the freezer to make more stock and soup. Simple winter food, like casseroles, stews and soup, is usually suitable for freezing. In the summer, cooking and housework take more effort and there's all that sweating. Yuck. 😕

Soon enough I go back to the bedroom, make my bed and get dressed for the day. Just before I come out again, I wipe the bathroom sink then open the windows to let fresh air in. Often, on the way back to the kitchen, I'll put on a load of washing and let it sit there until I turn the machine on when the sun hits the solar panels. This is my morning routine and despite the changes over the years it's a part of me now. It's a good way to get ready for another busy day full of housework and whatever else I need to do to continue living simply. As the sun comes up, the quiet stillness slowly fades away, the kettle boils, toast cooks and a new day begins. This is how I've built my simple life - one day at a time and one morning at a time.

I'm still using this little wet mop. A few years ago Sunny, Kerry and Jamie brought it back from Korea and gave it to me as a much loved gift.  Gracie is still very wary of it and follows it around whenever it's cleaning.  Most of the time the floors here are steam cleaned, but this handy cleaner does a thorough clean and I don't even have to touch it.

I feel sure about myself today, it's my 77th birthday so I know I'll have visitors and phone calls and work in the garden; after breakfast I'll bake some muffins. When I walk into the back yard I often feel there is a transparent bubble gently lowering over me. I feel that bubble most days - it protects me and tells me that I'm safe here, I can do and be as I please. As long as I take it slow, I can move pots and benches, then move them back if I want to. I am rebuilding my back garden - I ripped the garden out soon after Hanno died, created a front garden in pots and almost straight away, I realised it wasn't what I wanted. Then I stewed over the work I put into that change. When I set the pots out in the back garden again it made me smile. Making mistakes is a great way of learning what you really need. Don't let a mistake paralyse you - learn from it. 

I do a lot of thinking in the back garden and know, with certainty, that it's my place. The birds recognise me, I know where the sun and shade will be during every season and I can sit and think or wander around and get creative. I've spent 27 of my 77 years in this place and I've been here long enough to know that on the bad days and the good ones, there is no other place in the entire world that I'd rather be.  🩵 💛 💚

You’ll save money by going back to basics

When I was doing the workshops and solo sessions, I had a couple of people whose main focus was on creating the fastest way to set up a simple life. You can't create a simple life fast, it's the opposite of that It's not one single thing either - it's a number of smaller, simpler activities that combine to create a life that reflects your values; and that takes a long to come together. When I first started living simply I took an entire year to work out our food - buying it, storing it, cooking it, preserving, baking, freezing, and growing it in the backyard. This is change that will transform how you live and it can't be rushed.

 

You have to work for a simple life and there are two main aspects to think about before you start. One is changing your mindset and your ideas of what success is. When you work on that, you can start thinking about practical things such as the work you can do that will make a difference in your daily life.  Decide what you want to change, that could be how you cook, reducing your debt, making simple cleaners, growing food in your backyard, not wasting food, decluttering, creating a strong family unit or a hundred other things that might be important to you. And while thinking about these things allows you to plan how to get what you want, it’s the work you do that makes it happen. If you scroll through Instagram or Facebook for hours every day you won't have the time you need to do it. This is life changing, so expect to make a lot of changes. If you're like me, the work you do will change you as well - for the better.

I make sure I have a good breakfast every morning. Sometimes it's eggs and tomatoes on toast, sometimes porridge, grilled cheese on toast or crumpets. When I finish breakfast I want to start work and I don't want to stop again until I cook my lunch.  BTW, this is a bread and butter plate, not a dinner plate.

Of course, your new life will grow according to the amount of work you can put into it. When I look back, we started changing our life around 2000 or a little before then. Our two sons were living with us then and I had to reduce our cost of living. I knew nothing about simple living back in 2000 so I returned to what I knew - cooking from scratch, eating leftovers and not wasting food. In that year I learned a lot about how to grow and store food, compost, chickens, baking bread and preserving. That worked well for us and we soon had a budget and stuck to it. We paid off our 20 year mortgage in eight years and that opened more doors for us.  I decided to close my technical writing business and work solely in our home. Hardly anyone was writing about housework or cooking from scratch then. There were a lot of permaculture people writing about growing food but very few of them wrote about the important connection between gardens and kitchens.

Cabbage rolls with pork and vegetable filling and tomato sauce. I added more sauce after I took this photo.

I started reading bits and pieces online about frugal living and worked at that for a while. Then I realised that most of the other people on that website were saving money so they could spend it on travel, cars, clothes etc. and that wasn't what I wanted.  All that was behind me, I could see how wasteful my old life had been and how absolutely wonderful I felt working in my home and taking control of our money. I  dived right in to do more and develop what we'd started. Then I started writing about it.

This is my work room, with sewing on the left and writing on the right. Gracie is pretending to be a guard dog under the desk, in reality she was watching the pigeons. 

You’ll save money by going back to basics.  Giving your time to your home saves the money you would pay to others to do that work for you. When you stop buying supermarket bread, cleaners, laundry products and start making those things yourself, as well as growing food in the backyard, sewing and mending, your living costs are less.  If you do that work instead of buying it ready made at the supermarket, you'll end up healthier, wiser and with more money in your pocket.

But it all depends on time. The time you give to work in your home will be determined by your current circumstances. If, like me, you've got all the time you want, you can create a wonderful life making your home your masterpiece, If you go out to work, your home time will be limited and you'll have to make choices on what you can do and when you can do it. Life is full of various stages, you may be in the stage of saving for a home deposit or paying off a home. But you can still do a few things that will help you save money and don't take a lot of time to do them. 

It takes ten minutes about every three months to make a batch of laundry liquid. The difference in price - the store bought laundry liquid will cost you about $90 for 10 litres and the homemade liquid will cost you about $4 for 10 litres. Imagine the savings that will add up over the years if you make your own. The bonus is no big plastic bottles brought home every week and thrown into landfill, and none of the strange looking ingredients listed on the commercial liquid. Homemade liquid contains three ingredients - soap, washing soda and borax. Making lunch for school kids and adult workers as well as a thermos of good coffee or tea will save money and give you healthier food to eat away from home.  Cooking from scratch will save you money and time if you have staples and back-up food in a stockpile cupboard. And don't make a single meal - make a batch and freeze some or make two meals instead of one and you've quickly cut your cooking time in half.  Cook once, eat twice. If you can freeze some of your extra meals, you could build up a very nice stockpile of frozen meals for the nights when you're just too tired to cook.  Cooking from scratch is cheaper and it won't contain all the preservatives and additives processed food has so it can sit on a supermarket shelf waiting for someone to buy it.

This is how I clean my cleaning cloths and rags.  I use commercial cloths, scrubbers and sponges in the kitchen. In the bathrooms and toilets, I use rags that I cut up from old towels and sheets. That way I never mix up the cleaning cloths and use a toilet rag in the kitchen. Ugh!  I start by collecting the clothes over  7 to 10 days, hanging them over the side of the bucket if they're still wet. When I have enough, I add a scoop of Vanish (ocyclean) to the bucket and fill it with hot water. I tend to leave it to remove stains and disinfect overnight and then the following morning, I wash them with my regular wash.  When they go back in the drawer, they're clean, stain-free and germ-free, and much cheaper than continuously buying commercial cloths.

At first glance, a simple life seems like an easy goal. There are images of peaceful mornings and slow days. However, living simply is far from easy and uncomplicated because it requires discipline, intentional choices and hard work. It is a process of continuing to enrich life, building family strength and being able to remain productive and creative. And of course, over the years it changes because you change. What I do in my home now is different to what I did 10 years ago. It's a process of reinvention and improvement while keeping daily life as simple as possible and always keeping your values in mind.

You can reinvent your life, you don't have to live how others live. Deciding to change will give you a better life as long as you're prepared to work for it.

SOME OF MY OLDER BLOG POSTS FOR FURTHER READING ON THIS SUBJECT

• Homemaking, the radical choice
• Setting yourself up for simple life
• Finding happiness
• Is homemaking different for men?
• Bloom where you are planted
• Work in progress
• Making the bed

Workshops update

 

This photo shows what the weather's been like here.  That's steam coming off my neighbours shed roof after a brief downpour of rain. 

I hope we’re getting closer to organising these workshops. I didn’t explain this clearly enough: Group 1 is four workshops, Group 2 is four workshops. Out of those eight workshops I thought we probably end up doing three or four.

To make it worthwhile for me, I need 10 people in each workshop. After the last update, I got 19 emails suggesting various workshops on the list, a few from people who just wanted me to talk about various simple topics and then open it up to questions. Quite a few want one-on-one sessions. The most popular topics are cost of living/frugal living and gardening, only three want baking.

I thought there’d be more people interested but I’ll try to make it work with the numbers we have. Now, after a rethink, the first workshop will be how I started building my own simple life step-by-step. I think you’ll be surprised by what we did. Then we’ll have questions after that. You can ask me anything. The second workshop will be various gardening topics - starting a garden, planting seeds seedlings, compost, watering, fertilising and harvesting. With this one you can ask questions as we go along. If these go well, we might be able to add more. We can talk about that online.

If you want a one-on-one session let me know what topic you’re interested in by emailing rhondasworkshops@gmail.com I’m happy to do the one-on-one sessions and so far I have bookings for mending, writing a blog and books, starting a simple life, budgeting and family life. If you want to do one of these, you choose your own topic and we talk for an hour. The cost is $75.

In an attempt to offer times that suit I’m thinking Thursday  20 March at 3pm and another at 11am on Saturday 22 March. 

The deadline for booking your place in a workshop is 6pm, 7 March. Payment deadline is 14 March - please pay at PayPal. My username is @rhondahetzel

Thanks everyone. 🙂

rhondahetzel

Hello everyone. I hope we’re getting closer to organising these workshops. I didn’t explain this clearly enough: Group 1 is four workshops, Group 2 is four workshops. Out of those eight workshops I thought we probably end up doing three or four.

To make it worthwhile for me, I need 10 people in each workshop. After the last update, I got 19 emails suggesting various workshops on the list, a few from people who just wanted me to talk about various simple topics and then open it up to questions. Quite a few want one-on-one sessions. The most popular topics are cost of living/frugal living and gardening, only three want baking.

I thought there’d be more people interested but I’ll try to make it work with the numbers we have. Now, after a rethink, the first workshop will be how I started building my own simple life step-by-step. I think you’ll be surprised by what we did. Then we’ll have questions after that. You can ask me anything. The second workshop will be various gardening topics - starting a garden, planting seeds seedlings, compost, watering, fertilising and harvesting. With this one you can ask questions as we go along. If these go well, we might be able to add more. We can talk about that online. The workshops run for 1½ hours.

If you want a one-on-one session let me know what topic you’re interested in by emailing rhondasworkshops@gmail.com I’m happy to do the one-on-one sessions and so far I have bookings for mending, writing a blog and books, starting a simple life, budgeting and family life. If you want to do one of these, you choose your own topic and we talk for an hour. The cost is $75.

The deadline for booking your place in a workshop is 6pm, 7 March. Payment deadline is 14 March - please pay at PayPal. My username is @rhondahetzel

Thanks everyone. 🙂

Simple life workshops on Zoom UPDATED

I've added more topics to the list.

This post is for those readers who expressed interest in doing online Zoom workshops or who want to register now. The topics haven't been chosen yet but potential topics are: 

• vegetable gardening and composting;
• starting a vegetable garden and choosing vegetables suitable for a beginner; 
• cutting costs in the home, housework and routines;
• homemade laundry liquid and powder, soaking, stain removal and washing clothes and household linens;
• cooking from scratch and building your pantry to help you do it;
• homemade bread - white, rye, wholemeal and ancient grains. I'm not doing sourdough;
• living on less than you earn and developing a frugal mindset.

If you have suggestions for other topics, please send them in your return email. I'm happy to consider all simple life topics that might appeal to nine other people as well.

I've been asked by a couple of ladies if I would do one-on-one sessions as well. Yes, I will. These would be a 60 minute Zoom session with just you and me to focus on your hopes, plans or changes and how to implement them, OR particular problems you may be facing. This would cost $75 per session.

Most of you know I'm doing these workshops so I can eliminate fall hazards on my front verandah. Originally I thought it would cost around $2000 but now I've looked into it, it will be much more. Apparently that's due to the high cost and scarcity of building material since Covid. So I'll probably repeat these workshops again later in the year. 

I'm glad I have readers who want to learn more from me because I'll be turning 77 in a few weeks time and apart from writing more books (which I don't have the energy for) there are very few ways for us older folks to earn money. So thank you, I'm grateful to you all.

The cost is $75 per workshop and I'll tell you the payment details when I reply to your email. I expect the workshops to start in mid-March.  Deadline for registration is 8 March, payment deadline is 15 March.

The workshops can be recorded by you with my permission but I still own the copyright. So you can watch the recorded workshops as often as you like but they're not to be given to others or sold.  There is a "record" button in the Zoom room, 

I WANT YOU TO USE THIS EMAIL ADDRESS TO REGISTER: rhondasworkshops@gmail.com 

Tell me which workshop you want to register for, you may register for as many as you like. There will be a limit of 10 people in each workshop so everyone will have a chance to talk.

An authentic look at daily life here — unstaged and real

Most days Hanno was outside happily working in the fresh air.

It may surprise you to know that I started reading my book, Down to Earth, yesterday - the first time since I wrote it 13 years ago.  I had lent it to my neighbor, and when she returned it, I started reading, expecting to find surprises. Instead, I realised the words were still familiar—as if they were etched into my memory. As I flipped through the pages, I was reminded of how important it was for me to share that knowledge with others. The principles in Down to Earth changed my life, and I truly believed they could do the same for others. After just 30 minutes of reading, I put the book down, reassured that its message still holds true: we can slow down and reshape our lives, one step at a time.

Homemade rye bread, this is my favourite bread, but I also make white toast milk bread, ancient grains bread and wholemeal bread.

A view of my kitchen with a carrot cake, just baked, waiting to cool and be iced.

Thumb print butter biscuits with homemade orange marmalade filling.

Kartoffelpuffer - German potato pancakes, one of Hanno's favourites.

Fast quiche made with egg, onion, garlic, asparagus and phyllo pastry.

Bread and butter cucumbers. A staple in our fridge. 

The most powerful force in my life now, and probably has been since I surrendered myself to a simpler life 25 years ago, is housework. You can't buy a simple home, you have to make it and remake it over and over again as it changes with you. It may be repetitive, but it’s never quite the same from day to day. More importantly, it enables the life I want to live and provides a sense of stability amid life’s uncertainties. Maintaining a daily routine keeps my home clean and organized, which in turn allows me to handle unexpected challenges more easily. Today, for example, I’ve already made my bed, prepared food for Gracie for the next two weeks, watered the plants, and cleaned the verandah. I have bread rising, rice portioned and frozen for future meals, and later, I’ll tend to the garden, prune plants, and bring in fresh flowers for the kitchen table.

Comfrey - this makes the best fertiliser.

Glen Large - a warm climate garlic.

This week, I’ve been sorting through thousands of photos, and I’d love to share some with you. They bring back wonderful memories, and I hope they illustrate just how fulfilling and meaningful this way of life can be. When I first started my blog, I wanted to offer an authentic look at our daily life—unstaged and real. At the time, simple living blogs didn’t exist in the way they do now, so I was surprised by how many people connected with my words. If someone had told me back then that a blog about housework, saving money, and growing food would resonate with so many, I wouldn’t have believed it. But over the years, this space has become much more than just a blog—it has fostered a community of like-minded people seeking a simpler, more intentional life.

Another staple in my fridge is tomato relish. All these preserves are delicious and much cheaper than anything you'll buy at the supermarket.

When you start to slow down and simplify, start collecting jars and bottles.

I was fortunate to earn an income from writing while embracing a simpler life, and today, working from home is more accessible than ever. It’s a rewarding way to live—where work and home life seamlessly intertwine. I often find that my best ideas come to me while mopping the floor or harvesting tomatoes. At the moment, I'm thinking of doing some Zoom workshops because I need to earn money for repairs to the front verandah. I thought they'd be covered by my Home Care Plan but it will be a long time before I'll be in a position to do the repairs that way.  The workshops will cost $75 for a 90 minute workshop on Zoom. You don't need to download any software for this, I just send you a link. If you're interested in this, let me know. To start off, I could talk about our topic for 15 minutes then we'd have an open discussion about any problems relating to the topic you might be having at your home.  I can answer all sorts of questions regarding gardening, starting a garden, keeping chickens, baking, preserving, cooking from scratch, saving money, writing a blog or a book, simplifying life and a whole lot more. If enough people are interested, I'll work out some times for us to get together. I look forward to your feedback. 

We always kept heirloom chickens and unless more people seek them out they’ll become another casualty of modern life.  This chook is a Frizzle.

This is the chook house alongside a native fig, a pecan tree and a lemon tree.

I feel incredibly grateful for the connections I’ve made online. In a world that can often feel disconnected and unpredictable, I find comfort in knowing that, from my sewing room, I can share my thoughts and hear from others who share similar values. There was a time when I focused more on life outside my home, without fully appreciating what was right in front of me. But as I slowed down, I began to see the value in what we had—our home, each other, our backyard garden, and the ability to sustain ourselves. Writing about this way of life has been the unexpected gift that has made my calm, home-centered days even more fulfilling.