Self Reliance Tip # 16 By the Light of a Lamp!

I know you're all SOOoooOooo excited to hear todays tip!! So lets get started !


Yesterday was my family's "electricity free" day. Going 24 hours without electricity teaches quite a few lessons. Here are some things we learned.

• Kerosene lamps give more light and are easier to carry than candles (although a bit smelly).
• It gets dang hot without an electricity driven fan or a/c unit etc. What did you do to stay cool? I put some peppermint essential oil in a spray bottle and sprayed the kids when they got hot. The best way was playing on the slip and slide.
• Much of the children's entertainment uses electricity...my kids need to learn a few "unplugged" hobbies.
• Reading a story by Kerosene lamp can be very fun and mystical...and a bit smelly :)
• A five gallon bucket and a (new, unused for other "eww-gwoss" jobs) plunger work pretty good for a washer. Batches are a lot smaller, but perfect for little hands to wash their own laundry! They will be doing this a bit more during the summer...heck all year!
• Learning alternative ways of cooking now will help keep food waste to a minimum later.
• I am so thankful for a refrigerator!!
• In my adolescent to teen years, we only had electricity in the evening with a generator...(yes, I know this explains a lot :) ). Electricity is very convenient. You can live without it if you have to.

And another thing...
Sister Becky C. sent this in. It might give you a few ideas for your clothing storage needs.


I have some thoughts about clothing storage ... particularly for those who don't have a lot of space. Personally, I have gone throught a lot of stages of savings ... I've done the ALL and the NOTHING stages and I LOVE TOTES! My most favorite clothing to save is DENIM. The thought behind my hoarding of denim of the years is that with a needle and thread, I can turn denim into anything. I've turned old jeans into purses and quilts. If you've got a strong rod ... they make great room darkening curtains. I used them to stuff pillows. I've made stuffed animals out of them. AND I've used them to wrap those water pipes you talked about when I didn't have the funds or the stores were out of insulation!!! You can also make rugs, more pants, vests, shirts or jackets out of them. Anyway .... 1 comment about the storage totes ... I find that a bar of soap works well to keep mice, moths and other creepy crawlies out of my storage totes (especially Irish Spring - though I wouldn't use it on my skin LOL).