Convenience is a funny thing, isn’t it? When I read historical accounts of people’s lives such as Laura Ingalls Wilder, I am astounded at the sheer amount of labor they had to engage in daily just to survive. We engage in our own labor in our modern age to ensure we have food, and shelter etc, but I think we can all agree that our daily lives look nothing like the pioneers of the west; their endless struggle against the curse of the earth in it’s most literal form. Their very survival depended on rain for their crops, surviving grasshoppers who decimated the land all around them, sickness that they faced on their own, and beside all that they had to provide for themselves even the clothes on their backs. Everything they did was planned out and prioritized so that it all got done simply so that they could live what they considered comfortable lives- lives we would consider below the poverty line and inhumane. We have so many modern conveniences that save us time and are meant to make life easier, but we seem to fill up that time saved with other things that make our lives just as busy, leaving laundry lists of things undone each day. pun intended. 😉

When I got married and we moved into our house I brought with me some basic appliances we had received as wedding gifts. If you’ve ever registered for something like a bridal shower or baby shower, you may have realized some months or years later that half the things you thought you needed you really didn’t find as useful or as indispensable as you anticipated. Those things tend to be different for each couple, each new mom, but we all experience it to a point.

One of the things I brought with me into my marriage was a microwave. We used the microwave, which was already some years old when we obtained it, until it finally broke down. During the course of the years that we used it I began my quest for natural living, and had begun to use the microwave less and less, because I had learned some interesting facts about what it was doing to my food, like making it less nutritious. :0 But because it was there, and was so CONVENIENT I succumbed to using it to heat up my cold coffee or re-heat left-overs, because- how else was one to accomplish such tasks? When the microwave died, I decided not to replace it. We would do without this modern convenience for the sake of health, and for the sake of….just not feeling like we couldn’t live without it…also it saved money. 🙂

Would you believe we’ve never looked back and regretted that decision? We have found other ways to re-heat our coffee, and our left-overs, oh, and defrost our frozen meat. We do still have an oven with a cooktop, (for now lol). I’m not gonna lie, there was a learning curve to re-heating coffee in our stainless steel saucepans! I had to learn how to not walk away from my food, or my coffee as it warmed. Having and using a microwave allows you to push start and walk away to do…well, what is it that you do while you wait for your coffee to reheat? What do you have time enough to do in 30 seconds that couldn’t be done after you have your coffee in hand?

Maybe that’s not fair, maybe you do find it convenient to fold laundry while you reheat your dinner from last night, or is it that you sit down and read a book to your toddler, or maybe you make that important phone call (!! do people make those anymore?) to your friend who needs some encouragement. I’m not trying to be snarky (maybe I am) but I just mean that I found that for all the convenience it provided I didn’t find myself using that extra time for anything truly productive and worth my time.

So….when my toaster broke…I wondered if it too was worth replacing. It would save me money to not buy a new one, it would save space on my limited counter area or in the cabinet where I kept it in-between uses. Could I make toast from bread without a toaster? YES! I have a broiler under my oven. I have been making toast this way for about a year or more now. Full disclosure- sometimes I walk away or forget about the toasting process and I burn my bread. You have to pay attention and flip it when it’s ready to be toasted the other side. I have decided I don’t need a toaster.

I’ve never had a dishwasher. I grew up without one, and have never had one in my house. To answer your question as your mouth hangs open, Yes. I feel like I live in the kitchen making food, snacks, bread, and washing dishes, but…I honestly have no room for one, feel silly pre-washing dishes to stick into a “dish washer” (you’re so close to a clean dish! just finish the job!) and I also quite enjoy the process of washing dishes.

The most recent appliance to fall below the bar of “working adequately” and face the elimination chopping block, has been our clothes dryer. It broke down about a month ago and while we have been awaiting the repairs I have had to hang all the clothes to dry in the basement, or upstairs on a rack if I need them done faster! I don’t have a clothes line outside, but I think I can push it to the top of our priority list if I tell my husband I don’t want a dryer, would you agree? How do I keep up with the laundry for a family of 7 with no dryer? I do about just one load a day and wait for them to dry before I wash another. It’s working. I don’t love the crunchiness of all the clothes, but it’s nothing I can’t live with. I think it also helps me stay more on top of the laundry because I can’t let it pile up! I was never one for letting piles of clean or dirty clothes pile up ( I grew up stepping over heaps of laundry and I think it scared me straight) but you know, 3-4 loads deep is really just a day’s worth of pushing buttons if you have a washer and dryer.

My husband Brandon, as I have shared before, is so tolerant of me and my crazy ideas. He jokes that we are moving back in time instead of forward with technology. I refuse to have one of those Echos or Alexis in the house. I told him, “I’m sorry honey, but I’m firm on this”. We do have wifi, and not dial-up soooo-I compromise! 🙂 He looks at me sideways every time I tell him “I’ve been thinking”.

So, I guess the main take-away for me as I pondered my appliance shortage is- what things do I utilize in my life to save time? What do I do with that time saved? If we are going to utilize time-saving technology, how is it making us more productive, or more present? If it doesn’t, and it is actually just a crutch that is allowing you to not plan well, or give of your time in meaningful ways, is it worth it? Part of me really likes the freedom I feel by not being beholden to something like a clothes dryer. It feels good to know that I don’t NEED that to make my life function efficiently. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no pioneer, and I am so thankful that I have a clothes washer, and running water, and a toilet that flushes, and an indoor shower because it does allow me to have more time for other things that I can take pleasure in- like homeschooling my kids, watching a movie with the family, or going for a hike just for fun and not because I need to find dinner for tonight. I don’t recommend going cold turkey and throwing out your major appliances but maybe you can ask not what your modern convenience does for you, but what you can do with the time you saved by using it. Sometimes I still want a toaster, and maybe when I literally have a place to put it, I’ll get one, but for now, we’ll do without a toaster, microwave, dish-washer, and until further notice- a clothes dryer.