These useful homemaking skills were common knowledge in our grandmothers’ day.
Our grandmothers had many useful homemaking skills that are quickly being forgotten today.
I remember spending time with my grandmother and just being amazed that she knew so much! Her life was a handmade life, making her own clothing, making food from scratch, canning, quilting, and gardening.
Useful Homemaking Skills Our Grandmothers Knew
Here are 8 of those useful homemaking skills that our grandmothers knew, but that aren’t as common in our day.
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1. Cooking From Scratch
Our grandmothers could cook from scratch, often not even needing a recipe. My grandmothers and my husband’s grandmas all had delicious recipes stored in their memory.
Related Post: 20 Frugal Depression Era Recipes
2. Sewing
Most women in the past knew some basic sewing, even if they didn’t sew all of their family’s clothing. Learning to sew was one of the main skills I wanted to learn after I got married (I wish I would have learned before I got married, but I was busy working full-time and going to school part-time, so I never got around to it.).
3. Mending
Today, when an item of clothing gets torn or a button is missing, many people just throw the item away rather than taking the time to fix it. This is in stark contrast to our grandmothers, who even darned socks!
I have no desire to darn socks, but it does make sense to learn basic mending skills, like how to sew on a button or how to patch an item of clothing when possible.
4. Quilting
I know not every woman in the past learned to quilt, but our grandmothers did. We’re so thankful for the quilts that have been handed down from my maternal grandmother and my husband’s grandmother. Quilts are such useful works of art.
5. Gardening
It used to be the norm to have at least a small garden, and most people had larger ones. Many families also relied on foraging for wild edibles, knowing which plants and berries (and mushrooms) were safe to eat and which ones weren’t. Many of our grandmothers also knew how to save seeds for use the following year.
6. Canning and Preserving Food
Most women in the past learned how to can and preserve food. Canning and drying food was a way to preserve the summer’s harvest of vegetables from the garden. My grandmother almost always had home-canned jams and jellies on-hand. She would use whatever fruit was growing on her property to make her jelly.
7. Bread Making
Making your own bread used to be a more common skill than it is today. Many women didn’t even need yeast (and often couldn’t obtain any), so they made sourdough bread with sourdough starter.
Now it’s so easy just to purchase all of our baked goods at the store, but baking your own used to be a necessity.
8. Natural Remedies
I’m so thankful for the many benefits of modern medicine when we need it. I wouldn’t want to go back to the past, with outdated procedures and dangerous practices.
However, I still think it’s a good idea to know some basic natural remedies and to keep a well-stocked natural medicine cabinet. Many of our grandmothers passed down time-honored remedies like eating chicken soup made from bone broth to strengthen the body and restore health.
Reviving Homemaking Skills
Many people still possess these useful skills today. And there are so many other useful things that could be learned.
This is just a basic list of the most basic skills. You could also include animal husbandry, keeping chickens, making soap, making candles, knitting and crocheting, and so much more.
But it’s a fact that life is so incredibly busy these days that many people just don’t have time to learn or practice these things (and not everyone is interested in learning them, and that’s okay!).
If you have a desire to learn any of the above skills that you haven’t yet had a chance to develop, it’s never too late to learn something new! (Teach yourself, ask a friend, or take a class.) Which one would you start with?
Probably my favorite homemaking skills are baking bread, sewing, and quilting (even though I’ve done very little quilting so far). And although it’s not on the above list, making soap would also be another favorite.
Did your grandmother have any of the above skills? What are your favorite homemaking skills?
Free Depression Era Cookbook – Click here to download our FREE cookbook –> 25 Depression Era Recipes
Don’t miss these related posts:
20 Frugal Recipes from The Great Depression
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Hi Joy, my grandma also did all of these things and I got interested in them as a child, too. So I still do a lot of these things when I can. I even darn socks, because they’re such bad quality these days they get holes in them at the toes almost as soon as you start wearing them! Thanks for this list of useful skills, I hope it encourages others to start learning them. 🙂
You’ve inspired me to learn how to darn a favorite pair of socks! I have a certain type of sock that isn’t made anymore (I bought them about 10 years ago), and I love wearing them every winter. But now one of them has a hole, but I’m not ready to throw it out! Thanks so much for stopping by, Cheryl!
Hi Joy, that’s great! Darn those socks! I started darning (although I use that word loosely, I’m sure I’m not doing it properly, I’m just sewing up the hole) socks because my husband is a Spiderman fan (yes, I know) and he didn’t want to throw away his holey Spiderman socks!! True story! Now I even darn my own socks, I can’t see the point in throwing away a sock that is good except for one tiny hole. Enjoy your darning! 🙂
Oh, how funny about your husband’s Spiderman socks! 🙂 I agree with you, no point in throwing them away when there’s just one hole!
My grandmother was a farmer’s wife and used all of those skills throughout her life. I was lucky to get to spend holidays and summers with my grandparents on their one acre “retirement” home. I grew up in the city and didn’t start using those skills myself until I retired and started living off-the-grid in a float cabin in Coastal BC. – Margy
What a blessing to spend time with your grandparents. And your off-grid float cabin sounds like an amazing experience!
I love this! My grandma did some of these things although not all of them. She definitely cooked from scratch and she SEWED! She sewed all the time and made lots of her own clothes as well as clothes for her 5 children and husband. And when us grandkids came along, she sewed for us too. She passed along her love of sewing to me, and now I do all of the sewing myself as well as my mom and sister besides teaching others now and then and running my sewing business. 🙂
Thank you, Sarah!
Hi. I would like to say I don’t appreciate an ad for a planner being shoved in my face while trying to read an article and having to do detective work just to find the x button. if i didn’t know how to find it I would have left the site.
please make the x more visible. other than that this was a very informative article. (was using it for some light research.)
Our grandmothers were such wise women! I’m happy to follow in their footsteps (as best I can)! Congrats, you’re featured at the This Is How We Roll Link Party.
Thank you so much for the feature, Susan!
Such great memories of how things used to be. I love the tricks that I learned from my Mom, and can still do today. The world got too into doing things fast and cheap, now they’re paying for it. Old school is always the best. 🙂
Yes, so much we can learn from previous generations!
I was raised a city girl but my mother canned fruit and did some crafts. I moved into the country and raised four children and learned from books how to quilt, repair, make soap, pressure can soups, grow a vegetable garden, bake bread and tend chickens, goats, etc. Now Im 69 and mostly quilt, cook, make soap and grow vegetables…but I havent forgotten the rest so am an information source for others learning how…and now I Google for the info I need.
Thanks for sharing! That’s so wonderful that now you’re able to help others learn these skills!
Not old enough to be a grandmother, but I do all eight of them. I have much more to learn in some of the areas though, such as canning. I enjoy the gardening, but tent to freeze more than I can.
That’s wonderful! I know what you mean about preferring freezing over canning. I tend to do that as well.
#thisishowweroll
I love this. I have a similar post on my blog – except it’s about the vintage skills that I practice! I always say I was meant to be a housewife in the pioneer days.
Your post sounds awesome, Katelynn! I agree, I’ve always been fascinated with vintage home-keeping skills. 🙂
I never knew either of my Grandmas as they died before I was born, but I am sure they had many of these skills. I know my maternal grandmother was said to be able to turn her hand to just about anything – including wallpaper hanging! I think it’s great to keep as many of these skills alive as we can, and such a good idea both to learn them and teach them to our kids! For example, I learned to sew from patterns as a kid, but I’ve really not done if for years, and frankly I’m not sure I still could! I really regret that. Scheduled to pin and also scheduled to share on the Hearth and Soul Facebook page. Thank you so much for being a part of the Hearth and Soul Link Party, Joy!
Thank you so much for sharing, April! And thank you for hosting!
I have done a little canning in my day, homemade vegetable soup was great. I can make cornbread but not biscuits. I agree, so many thing we could learn, but also a lot of hard work many women didn’t live as long in the good old days. It makes me very thankful for modern conveniences, though I wouldn’t mind some peppers or tomatoes.
I agree Rebecca, even though I love learning from the past, I’m so thankful for modern conveniences!
Great post! Sometimes I wish I grew up in that time. Although things are more efficient now, it’s not of the same type of quality. I definitely want to find time to learn to sew and quilt! It’s on my to-do list. 🙂 Thanks for the post.
-Ashley
http://www.truehappinessathome.com
Thank you, Ashley! Have fun learning to sew and quilt! 🙂
Hi Joy,
These resourceful self-help tips are great for sustainable off the grid living. I know how much we miss the basic life skills that our older relatives took for granted.
Thanks,
Bren
Thanks for stopping by, Bren!
I can mend, but I never learned to sew (didn’t know when I picked Spanish that it would cost me a Home Ec class). I’ve been cooking and baking since I was little. and I’ve been baking bread for about 10 years now. I also make a lot of herbal home remedies. I want to try canning and learning to sew and quilt.
Bread baking is such a wonderful skill! I think that’s my family’s favorite thing I do. 🙂 I’m still a hesitant canner (always worried that I’m doing it wrong and will poison someone!), so I’d really like to get a bit more confident in that. So far I’ve only done jams and jellies. I’m too scared to use a pressure canner! So glad you stopped by, Davette!
I guess I have an old soul – I enjoy doing all of these things! Loved reading your post!
Same here! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, Roseann!
Agreed! There is so much useful information we can learn from our grandmothers and others in that generation. Great post and wonderful encouragement.
Best,
Bibi
Thank you so much for stopping by, Bibi!
Wonderful post, Joy ! I learned how to sew my dolls’ dresses just from my grandmothers and I still sew summer bermuda shorts for my two sons :)!
Vale ,
Franca
Thank you, Franca! That’s so wonderful that you learned to sew from your grandmothers! What a sweet memory. ♥ And I love that you still sew shorts for your sons!