Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World

by Kelly Coyne, Erik Knutzen

Spending money is the last thing anyone wants to do right now. We are in the midst of a massive cultural shift away from consumerism and toward a vibrant and very active counter-movement that has been thriving on the outskirts for quite some time — do-it-yourself-ers who make frugal, homemade living hip are challenging the notion that true wealth has anything to do with money. In Making It, Coyne and Knutzen, who are at the forefront of this movement, provide readers with all the tools they need for this radical shift in home economics.

The projects range from simple to ambitious and include activities done in the home, in the garden, and out in the streets. With step-by-step instructions for a wide range of projects—from growing food in an apartment and building a ninety-nine-cent solar oven to creating safe, effective laundry soap for pennies a gallon and fishing in urban waterways Making It will be the go-to source for post-consumer living activities that are fun, inexpensive, and eminently doable. Within hours of buying this book, readers will be able to start transitioning into a creative, sustainable mode of living that is not just a temporary fad but a cultural revolution.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Sustainability, Gardening, Reference, How To, Crafts

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2010

Reviews

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Making It" is a collection of recipes and how-tos to create items from toothpaste to garden beds and everything in-between.

The dedication says it all: "To anyone who is in their kitchen, garden, or garage right now, making it."

I picked this book up because I was curious about the processes listed in it. How does one forage? Or create drip irrigation for vegetables? Or create a variety salves? The topics go on and on in this book.

The recipes and instructions are divided by time - how long it will take you to complete the various projects.

I could see it being incredibly useful for homesteaders both experienced and not.

As for me, I'm not in a place right now where I can do much of this. But, I'm hopeful I will be in that place some day in the future.

Highly recommended.

[Tinea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a fantastic collection of DIY home-centered projects written for an audience that resembles me: cheap, environmentally & punkishly inclined, discretionary but fairly ambitious, and an urban USA eco-hipstery type. Probably not for everyone, but sat exceptionally well with me. With DIY project books, the tone & style really matters; I can read about a project twenty times but I generally won't attempt it until it's explained just so, in a way that I "get."

Exceptional projects in here include the easiest soap-making recipe I have ever come across (15 minutes, 2 ingredients, and a kitchen blender); simple homemade vinegar, some super quick hygiene ideas (teeth, deodorant, lip balm), the most basic composting toilet, and how to build a little garden home for pollinating bugs. I guess what appealed to me was the emphasis on absolute ease and simplicity, and the way this book was organized by time & ease: day to day (from ten seconds + available materials, make when needed), week to week (healthy habits, mostly food), month to month (large batches of regularly used things), season to season (gardens & brewing), and infrastructure (one time major & lasting changes). This is how I like to think and plan-- get something now, dream and work for something big in time. Also, this book is not gimicky. Soooooo nice. Might buy it as my indoor (non-gardening) reference.

[Gail Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

i cannot give this book enough stars. i found their first book, 'the urban homestead', to be quite inspirational and something of a catalyst for me. that book planted the seed for many of the things i do now in my day to day life, such as cooking most of my meals from scratch, using homemade cleaning products, etc. however, the new book takes it to a whole new level. i've been wanting to try soapmaking, but the resources i've come across have these long lists of items you need and make it seem almost daunting. 'making it' makes soapmaking look like something i can do (or at least begin) in an afternoon, with minimal financial expenditure, as i already have much of the equipment needed. and several other projects are like that. i've had the book two days and it's already marked up with projects i want to tackle over the next several months, in addition to the soap. i love their website, root simple, and i love this book. this book, and their insights, are indispensable resources for anyone wanting to step back from consumerism and do more things for themselves.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely love the idea of this book, but I found many of the projects a little too off-the-grid for what I'm willing or able to try at this point. But I do appreciate that the authors anticipate that, and encourage you to try the ideas that seem intriguing to you and leave the rest for another person or another day. When my current cleaning supplies run out, I am excited to try their mixes. I am not, however, willing to brush my teeth with a stick. I also get frustrated any time I read books or blogs of this type that I live in an apartment with no outdoor space at all and little control of the temperatures in my apartment, so there are many projects that I would like to try, but can't given my situation. That is no reflection on the quality of the ideas--or perhaps reflects well because of my inherent interest, despite my circumstances. But it was the case that quite a few of the projects were of no use to me until I have a home and yard of my own.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title did not lie. It was definitely radical home economics. Some of the projects I do already: clean with vinegar, compost, grow my own herbs and vegetables and sew, but some of the projects I will NEVER do. Yes, I am talking about making my own sanitary napkins. An admirable idea, but not going to happen.
I really liked the section on beekeeping and on raising chickens. They were both very informative, but also made the reader feel like those projects were doable. I also really liked that the authors showed you how to do these projects without spending a ton of money. This is a great reference book.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty standard fare for those somewhat versed in homesteading

[Shannon Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an intelligent compendium from my favorite bloggers, Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne, over at Root Simple.com.
I first met Erik and Kelly when I was researching Radical Homemakers, and I was blown away by their creative union of theory and practice to build a radical urban homestead in the most unlikely location of downtown Los Angeles. This is their second book, and true to form, they pay close attention to the how to details that enable a radical homemaking family to sink or swim -- from homemade medicinals and garden and beekeeping guidance, to recipes for fermented beverages, shampoos, soaps and body scrubs, and of course, great compost.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Great if you want to go totally hippie or if you just want to do a few things yourself, whether it be make your own shampoo or install a garden drip system. Just lots of great information with zero smugness and lots of humor (directed often at themselves). I also highly recommend the authors' blog Root Simple - read it every day. Now I'm off to turn the compost and order some seeds :)
Very much recommended.

[LG · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has a little bit of everything. The internet has a little bit of everything. I get books to help me go deeper with any one topic. The section on grow lights looked good. But I still suspect I can learn the same things from the internet and not hold on to the book.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very interesting and it's a cool window into their world. I'd say they're almost modern homesteaders, in the sense they really seem to make as much as possible. I'm at a different place on the making it spectrum as they are, but this peek into a different life is very interesting. There are some great ideas in here, like making your own condiments. There are some very basic things in here, like sewing and how to cook beans. And there are some pretty advanced ideas, like making your own sanitary products.

I'm going to pick and choose from these projects, to fit my life. But I like that there is such range, and the instructions are very clear and the tone is non-judgmental. These writers seem like they'd be fun to hang out with. This would also be a good gift for someone who's interested in living a little cleaner or more off the grid, but isn't sure how far they want to take it. This book encourages baby steps.

[Janelle]

Overall enjoyed this book. The tone was encouraging and the instructions seemed clear and helpful. A few of the sections might have benefited from actual photographs (I'm looking at you urban foraging), but the illustrations were well done.
Not all of the projects are for me. I don't drink so have no interest in homebrewing, am not legally able to own chickens on my lot, certainly have no plans to explore "Humanure", and am extremely skeptical of their dental hygiene suggestions. However, there are a number that I am interested in trying, making apple cider vinegar (if my apple tree over produces), making shampoo bars, ect. There was also some basic intros for a few interesting topics like herbalism for minor ailments, cleaning supplies to use for each part of the house, saving different types of seeds and more. I almost skipped the beekeeping section since I just read a full book on the topic, but they actually have a different take on caring for bees, which I found interesting.

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Radical this certainly was, although post-consumer our world definitely is not. But how many DIY books have you read that contain instructions for making a self-composting toilet or slaughtering your own chickens?? I liked this a lot - the DIY situations were right up my alley and I learned tons about, for example, making your own fermented foods and espaliering fruit trees. Some of this information is sure to be useful.

[Rebecca Ohler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I got this primarily to make cleaning products and found the recipes/instructions to be pretty complex and not really that helpful. I have seen much better ideas almost everywhere else. I also did not feel like this book was radical at all, even in the other sections. In fact, a lot of the items seem pretty basic or more work than they need to be even from a DIY perspective. Maybe you really need to be a hipster to appreciate it, but my grandma has better advice than these authors.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good cleaning recipes. Also recommended soaking time for beans that isn't too long. I wondered why my beans came out like mush when I followed the Instant Pot's timing. Need to soak them for much less time. I thought they would soak up as much water as they could & leaving them in it wouldn't matter. Silly me.

[Christy Wilhelmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creative ideas for using fewer resources, and living lighter on the planet. I found myself bookmarking many projects for future reference. I can’t wait to make the body products, and I am already using the baking soda toothpaste recipe. Interesting info delivered with humor and class.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting variety of projects with clear instructions and helpful illustrations. Some projects have safety warnings but some warnings are missing such as boiling water before using it as a nasal rinse to ensure avoiding rare but deadly brain-eating parasites.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

may not make these exact items; book does generate a lot of ideas

[Honey P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for the off grid library.... or anyone else who wants to be a radical homemaker/homesteader.

[Lindsay P · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is everything I want in life.

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute, very informative little book.

[Shozee Rip · Rating 2 out of 5]

good introduction for those unfamiliar or inexperienced at DIY home care

[Christy Nealon]

excellent book for those wanting to review heritage on how to make the simple things in life.

[Michaela Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome collection of home DIY’s for the homesteaders, and all self sustaining human’s.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many things to like about this book. If you're already active in living a more sustainable life, this book will present some challenging next steps. If you're just beginning, you'll still find a lot of easy and involving projects to try as first steps.

The author was one of a few "self-sufficiency experts" who were profiled in this month's (Feb/Mar 2012) Mother Earth News. Coyne is the author of a blog called "Root Simple." Her description: Root Simple is about back to basics, DIY living, encompassing homegrown vegetables, chickens, herbs, hooch, bicycles, cultural alchemy, and common sense.

One thing I really liked was the organization of the book, split up into sections called "Day to Day," consisting of items to make for daily use, like body care products and herbal medicines; "Week to Week," containing laundry, cleaning, mending & cooking items; "Month to Month," including more about herbal preservation, salves, food preservation, reusable menstrual pads, indoor gardening, deodorant, bug spray, etc. The "Season to Season" section focused on larger gardening projects, harvesting chickens, and fermentation. And the last section contained "Infrastructure" projects which require equipment, such as beekeeping, a dry toilet, native plants, solar cooker, worm composting, chicken coop, etc.

I've tested some of the projects myself and found them pretty good! I liked the writing style and I'll definitely be keeping up with Kelly's blog. I liked the urban focus of the projects: even though most of us live in cities with limited land, there is still so much we can do to make our lives more sustainable and move ourselves into the producer end of the spectrum, rather than the consumer end. Their projects are doable, they invite experimentation and taking control of one's life & activities, are inexpensive, well-mapped out and described, and use easily obtained materials -- plus a lot of reused materials.

I've been actively engaged in creating a sustainable community and life for about the past 15 years, so I have looked at A LOT of these kinds of books. I must say this, although I've been at it so long, there were a lot of projects in this book that I hadn't yet tried: like hair products, vinegar based drinks (like "shrub"), like growing sweet potato vines for greens indoors, making soap, and espaliering fruit trees. Kelly's clear instructions and positive attitude made me feel like I could succeed and I'll be trying many of them.

My only caveat is that, in terms of a sustainable life, building community and interdependence are key skills to master. Coyne doesn't really touch on the importance of community and how to build it -- though if you look hard, it is there. I would have liked to see that as a section unto itself. We can't do everything for ourselves -- how much better to rely on our neighbors for the stuff that we don't care to do or aren't good at. (Like I am not good at jams, so I trade for 'em.)

Usually, it's important to me to get books out of the library, so they are freely available to all. But this might be one I want to buy.

[Victoria]

I want to buy this book.

[Loren · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun book. It gives me comfort to know there are other couples out there asking themselves ways to make things themselves in a safe, environmentally friendly, cost-effective way. It doesn't cover quite all the stuff discussed in Home Economics, but rather expounds on a new generation's concerns and puts focus back into so much stuff long forgotten. Home Economics was once said to be the backbone of Democracy because it instilled a family foundation in all matter of household living, from food preparation, to etiquette, sewing, cooking and even how to raise your children. But with the advent of the industrial military complex, the nuclear family model has dissolved, roles have been muddled and meals come from the microwaves instead of ovens. We can thank the Mad Men of the fifties and sixties for convincing us that you should be embarassed for wearing homemade clothing and should instead buy them new from corporations that ironically still make them by hand, just behind the curtain and across our seas in sweatshops. How we shouldn't fix our cars ourselves, but take them to a mechanic. And only poor people and Mexican landscapers shop at Home Depot.
Can you imagine what it must of been for the first settlers here? Granted they knew how to build a home with their hands and didn't have to learn how to gather weeds and not hemlock from a book. But it must of been tough. When I decide to start making soap (last hygiene product left), I'll be able to make it in my blender with lye purchased from a store. They were out rendering fat from hogs and gathering ash from fires. Everyday is another day we as a human species fall farther and farther away from our natural evolution to a dependency on a technology that hangs in the balance. Don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-technology. I just believe we should be investing in alternative resources and not sticking all our eggs in the petro oil basket. Things are getting messy. At least there's these guys. Some hope.

[ػᶈᶏϾӗ]

This is about as close as any book has ever come to changing my life. Not to say it's perfect, or even the best book I've read about homesteading. It's far from that. The directions aren't always as clear as I, a book-smart person lacking so-called "common sense," need. The projects aren't always useful (I mean, an oil lamp? Really?) or relevant (there'd be no place to put a humanure toilet in my apartment complex even if I, or my neighbors, wanted one). There *are* some projects I have tried, or continue to try, or continue to *aspire to try*, however. Today is the second time I've tried to make sauerkraut, for example. This book and I have been through a lot, though. Every time I feel the itch to do a new project, I start here - even if I have better books on gardening, canning, or building stuff (Making Stuff & Doing Things has an even better guide to a humanure toilet, for example). I think part of what makes this book so good is that it puts home ec front and center, and does consider apartment dwellers as a focus. Other sources assume you're already middle class, or own a little land (all the books on permaculture, or Possum Living, for example) - or, alternatively, they assume you're a teenager, or dead broke (MS&DT again). This book at least starts right, and keeps in mind the kind of fundamental, post-consumer changes you might want or need. I plan on using this book for a long time to come.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are intrigued by the theory of urban homesteading but aren't sure how to put the ideas into practice, this is the book for you. It's full of projects and how-tos, ranging from the simplest 5-minute oil lamp (olive oil, a piece of string, and an Altoids tin) to how to set up beekeeping or a long-term compost system. The book is arranged by time of project, with sections broken out into daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, and annually (or once ever) descriptions of time commitment. The instructions and diagrams are clear and easy to follow, and the authors really make all of the projects understandable so that anyone can follow them. I really liked reading about all of the things I could do, that's for sure! The book isn't a deep reference for some of the trickier projects, like chicken keeping, beekeeping, or composting humanure, but they do provide references should you want to learn more about those topics. This is definitely on my bookshelf - and going with me in case of apocalypse. Where else am I going to have a reference of how to make soap from wood ashes and bacon fat?

[Go2therock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read books like this all the time. I'm one of those 'aspiring homesteaders' who is constrained by a neighborhood association. Who knows what I would or wouldn't do if that were not the case.

This book's instructional range covers so many bases. The length of coverage falls within a pretty decent ballpark for my attention span. Not to brief as to frustrate, not too long as to lose me, just enough to satisfy my educational needs but leave my looking for more if need be.

Within the past 6 months, three neighbors have informed me that I can raise up to three chickens in my yard. I recently added two pups to our family home and duties, so I was thinking that I'd allow some time before I stepped with ready excitement into that enticing endeavor. Making It has given me the wisdom to realize beforehand that my yard is simply not sunny enough to support the health of chickens.

But! I might venture into home-soap-making or my own apple cider vinegar! Also, my ever-growing grasp of composting was furthered by reading within these pages. AND, I now know how to make a dry toilet, should the need arise. How many folks can claim that?

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow. comprehensive. from diy lipbalm and shampoo bars to processing a chicken and a diy composting toilet. wow. I'd say that this is a must-have if you're really interested in homesteading (urban or otherwise), living more lightly, spending less money, living more intentionally. Not really bedside reading, as I was ready to drift off right as I got to the latter of my four examples, but certainly informative and inspiring. Can't say I'll jump on that form of composting, but if we needed it, it's good to know how to put such a thing together. The sections on bee and chicken keeping, vermiculture (worm composting), DIY soap and balms, and foraged medicinal plants were particularly inspiring. I am SO glad I bought this book.