Resilient Lifestyle

An ongoing list of suggestions that folks can act on now - 
to be better positioned as we enter the Sustain-Age 

Reduce Expenses across the board:

  • No frivolous buying, this is at the heart of economic self-preservation 
  • Save energy by draft-proofing your house or business, this goes before insulation 
  • Zone the house or apartment by turning off heat in rooms with no water and close doors or put up curtains to prevent unnecessary heating and cooling
  • Install a simple set-back thermostat that can turn down heat when you’re away, unless you have a heat-pump
  • Conserve energy everywhere 

Transport:
  • Seek transport for best return on fuel investment
  • Try to work as close to home as possible
  • Figure out the real costs of commuting over an hour each way – time, gas, wear and tear on car, stress, and taking a lower wage may be possible if you live nearer to work
  • Move near to public transport
  • Plan trips in your car, don’t just run out for every little thing. Put spare bread in freezer, group trips together, plan

Join community:
  • We all live in a community, but not all communities communicate. That means, if your house is about to be foreclosed, talk to people about it, maybe someone has a solution, check county housing associations
  • Communication leads to opportunity, sharing, peace of mind, support…etc.

Work:
  • What will the Sustain-Age need? 
  • Many jobs haven’t even been conceived yet 
  • People gardening/growing food increases every year (how much do you spend on food that you could grow?)
  • We may need to have multiple streams of income from small-scale initiatives. E.g. Carpenter fixes house and makes objects for sale at markets, also helps others to reskill
  • There may be a large swing to relocalization 
  • Employed or self-employed continue to preserve what they have in changing times 
  • Look for opportunities, form networks   
  • Consider what you can do at the household economy level (more here) 
  • Don't be a one-trick pony - the more skills we have the better equipped we’ll be. We’re not very practical now in a post-industrial world. We need PDFs but we can’t just be a PDFer! These extra skills are not necessarily corporately marketable, but at least useful to the Sustain-Age
  • The janitor and the lawyer must become amateur ecologists
Home:
  • Have at least one month of food in the house for everyone, canned foods that don’t need cooking, just warming, dried goods like rice and grains, packaged pasta, drinking water (1 gallons a day each person), etc.
  • Use a bread machine for bread (80cents a loaf (with machine costs) instead of as much as $5 and you control the salt, etc., in it. Or use salt, water, flour and yeast and kneed it yourself. 
  • Cook more of your own food for better health. Anything you buy from a corporation is made with the cheapest edible products to maximize profits, not your nutrition
  • Plan cooking. Maybe Sunday afternoon cook for a few days supply and store in fridge
  • Don’t forget a vacuum flask can keep soups, hot water, pre-made drinks hot or cold all day
  • If you have even a small piece of yard surface that gets sun for minimum of 6 hours a day, plant something to give you a harvest, it’s very easy. At least build soil now for when you'll need it and/or be directly in touch with those who grow your food
  • According to TV ratings, most people still watch an average of 4 hours of TV a day. That’s a quarter of your awake day every day. That's equivalent to 3.5 x 8 hour work days a week - lots of time to educate and prepare ourselves (how about cook and watch TV?)
  • The hot water tank in your basement contains 40 – 80 gallons of water always. If there is an emergency it can be accessed from the silt-drainage spout, let it run to clear the silt, this is not the best water to drink but for everything else

Health:
  • According to many experts 75% of our health problems can be mitigated with smart lifestyle choices

Time Bank:
  • Many Time Banks with over a hundred members gives us a great non-cash resource to barter our corporate and minor skills. And because there are so many people in the Bank, we can trade our time with so many different skills, not just the person who served us. This frees up our cash for those that don’t accept barter. More info:  http://timebanks.org/

Visioning: 
  • Overcome the fear of many modern people for taking on physical activities like gardening, cooking, repairing; although it was everyone’s wish to get ‘off the farm,’ today, with our new insights, activities don’t have to be grueling  
  • Look to sustainable and Transition initiatives to get a jump on what the Sustain-Age might look like now and in 3, 5, 7, 10, 15 years. What are people who are thinking about this stuff saying?  More info: here
  • Modern lifestyles, actions and business will need to be guided by Earthcare, Peoplecare and Fairshare Permaculuture principles to prevent further damage to the ecosystem and causing injustices. Systems approach thinking