Keeping It Easy and Simple

Cooking In My Kitchen

 After years of cooking large meals for my family, I have given that up. In my mind I still love cooking. Probably is the reason I like to watch cooking or recipe videos. I will copy a recipe and then later look at it and say, "I am not doing that." Usually too many ingredients or too many steps to it. One thing that stops me from making something is how much clean up is it going to make for me. I like things to be easy and simple these days. Not that I cannot do the more complicated ones. I still could.......just don't want to. My favorite food to cook is a burger or a steak put in the NuWave oven. Easy and something I love to eat. Breakfast is usually eggs and some kind of meat. Just recently I have added a cup of Fage Greek yogurt to my daily menu. I needed to add more protein. That is why I often have the Keto Chow replacement shake made into ice cream. The protein and fat is something I have to keep track of or I will not get enough. 

Going to keep the counter clutter free!

Recently I took my small cooking appliances off the counter. I organized my cupboards so that now I can have those appliances in the cupboards out of sight. Easy to get to when I need them. The only ones I left on the counter are the ones too tall to go in a cupboard. I love having that much room on the counters! It looks much better than being cluttered. In the near future I will work on some of the other cupboards. The ones I cannot reach easily. No sense keeping stuff I do not use in them. I have two large stockpots that I don't use for anything other than making my supply of Essiac tea. I brew it from the dried ingredients and it needs to be done in those stockpots. So I will be keeping them. 

My Cleaning Supplies

Keeping with the easy theme in my home I keep my vacuum cleaner close by and easy to get to. No big deal to get it out and do a quick vacuum. Since my apartment is so small it takes less than five minutes. If cleaning or dusting is on my list for the day, I put the cleaning supplies out in the kitchen. As long as I see them I will not forget what I was supposed to do today. Not leaving things out or letting them pile up somewhere has been key for me living here. I do have that problem with papers piling up but make sure to go through them at least once a week. Throwing away or filing every single one. 

Every Day Water Supply in Canning Jars

You may have items you just cannot part with. I did. So I came up with ways I can use those items. This was the case with my canning jars. I have many but I don't think I took them all from my house when I moved. I might ask my husband if he would let me have them now. Not that I need them. I am just attached to them. When I moved from there I left a large amount of foods I had canned in the cupboards. The jars I am missing are the smaller ones. The pints. It was hard moving from a house to a studio apartment. So I was not able to take everything. Maybe it was a good thing........

Bunny Trail

The thing is as you get older many tasks are harder to do. Like standing on a chair or a stool to put something away. Or to fix a curtain rod or blinds. To quickly grab something you forgot to get out and now you need it instantly. That happens way too much. I am a list maker so I make a list of everything I need to do or to get out. That does help me a lot. When making a recipe I always put the recipe on the refrigerator. Then look at it often throughout the process. Label all the jars you store ingredients in so you do not make a mistake......yup, I did that! Doing routine tasks will be easy after you get used to doing them daily. That is why I do not like to change the way or time I do things. Not so much that I am set in my ways. 

Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

The Frugal Life I Lived

Peaceful Forest Homestead

I have been researching for quite awhile now on living the "simple life" and I know many people who follow my blog, think that means the modern homesteading life. All I can tell you is that is not a simple life by any means. No, it is a hard life, even if you are on the grid (electric coming from the utility company). I used to call it the simple life, until I lived it for close to twenty-one years. I am talking about the simple living lifestyle, or minimalist lifestyle, or frugal life. Whatever you choose to call it. I just call it life.

Garden in 2000

Ever since I moved here I have lived very frugally, but it was not by choice, as much as no choice. I have learned to make do with a lot of things I took for granted. I sold a lot of my stuff just so I could buy food, gas and the necessities of life. I bought things I needed from the local thrift stores. I made things out of broken things or nothing.  I learned to garden and can my food, so I would have plenty to get through the winter.

Nikita eating carrion

I bought what I couldn't grow in bulk and canned that. I accepted the parts of the deer the hunters did not want and cut them up, which I hated to do, but did it anyway. Canned that also. Made venison stew and chili and canned that. Our dog's favorite food was raw meat and specifically venison. The hunters in the state forest around us would gut a deer and leave the rest behind. We would find the carcass and bring it home for Nikita. It fed her for weeks sometimes. The cold weather preserved it, but she liked carrion and it fed her well.

After the tornado

For years we did not have to buy fuel for heating. In 2000, we had an in-line tornado that took down over 300 trees on our small piece of property. We were able to heat and cook with that wood for a very long time. Cooking and heating water on the wood stoves all winter, fall and early spring. I even cooked breakfast in the summer on my wood cook stove. I liked it better and it was faster for me. It didn't really heat my house up at all. A very frugal choice back then. Firewood work is not without some sort of payment. The cost is in the manual labor and the chainsaw costs.

Kerosene Lamp

For lighting we used kerosene lights for a number of years. At night our house was lit up like an Amish home. It looked cozy and welcoming. Kerosene though, was not cheap and it went up in price. As soon as we had our solar array up and able to generate more power, out went those lamps. Electric efficient lighting was now free. Talk about frugal! As we enlarged our system, we were able to add appliances, such as our SunDanzer refrigerator, that uses less power than my laptop. Free to run now!

Wild grape or known as "Fox Grapes"

Living out in the forest has made it possible to collect many different wild plants, especially in the spring time. I use many all year round, for eating and for medicinal purposes. No chemicals sprayed on any of them. If you do this, make sure you have good guide book for your area to consult before using any. Or ask someone who might know. I have so many right in my own yard. I don't have to go far from my house to gather weeds for food or medicine.

The road to my house

To live frugally it just takes effort and research to see what you can do to cut your expenses down. I am sure it is much cheaper to live in the country than the city. I know though that my grandmother did it in both places but she was raised on a farm in the early 1900's and that knowledge was common back then. You can do it though, I did.

Copyright © 2018 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2018 Kathleen G. Lupole

What Does Simple Living Mean To You?

What does simple living mean to you? I have been reading a variety of websites and books that proclaim the "simple living" philosophy. The nuts and bolts of most of these books and sites is to get rid of everything you own, except only the things you need to live. So I am asking my readers here, is that what you think it is?

As for myself, I do not own a lot of things. Having moved more than a few things and going through divorce makes you lose things you had. So you end up with less. Then moving into a smaller house that did not have electricity at the time, made me get rid of things I used to have, and then had no use for.

Much of my things are of either necessity or sentimental value. What about you? My next question is how do you rid yourself of the sentimental items? Or do you? And do you have to? Some of mine, I have decided to keep and some, I will get rid of. The only reason I am getting rid of them is that is the only way I can be sure they are going to a home that wants them. If I sell them on eBay, then someone paid money for them so they must want and value them. Right? Not so, when they are inherited by family members who do not.

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole