making do
am I making my life harder for no reason?
A few weeks ago, I headed for the airport with the intention of going a true blue vacation. This meant no working, no planning, no expectation. As such, I left my laptop at home.
But when I got back it seemed that my laptop had grown legs & went on a vacation of it's very own.
We searched high & low. We offered the kids a get out of jail free pass if they had accidentally broke it & were hiding it. We offered the kids $100 if they cleaned their rooms and found it. I checked the lost & found of every place I've ever taken the laptop in addition to every place I've never taken the laptop. It could not be found.
It was missing for about 9 days before it was finally found (in the house, in a place we checked on multiple occasions). And over those 9 days I learned something.
Just like some things are better done with pen on paper, there are just things that are better done with a computer (like writing a Substack or making homeschool lesson plans). I actually found myself flat out not doing things that needed doing because I couldn't handle all the extra energy I felt it took to get it done on my phone.
And this got me thinking.
It's okay to have, want, or buy things that make your life easier.
That may sound obvious to some of you but let me explain.
I am a chronic under-buyer & I'd argue that one of my most useful talents is making do with what I have.
I have made homemade pizza for my family every single week for going on 4 years now. I've owned a rolling pin for 1 of those years. After all why buy a rolling pin when a cup works just fine?
Why make an extra run to the store when dish soap can also clean the clothes? (No, I'm not joking. I know some of you will be shocked by this admission.)
I’ve stuffed a child’s swim diaper with a burp cloth as a make-shift cloth diaper until I could run to the store.
Why replace my earbuds when one goes missing when I can still listen with one?
I was even cooking with a completely broken spatula for a few weeks before my husband noticed, shook his head in wonder (amazement? disappointment? awe?), & ordered an entire set of cooking utensils. Which is great because I was getting tired of serving soup with a coffee mug.
And while these may be light-hearted, silly examples of ways I typically make do, the point is I that I am often making do when I don't have to. Not only that, but I actively make my life harder. I cook & entertain quite often but I didn't realize how much more thought & energy I needed to put behind things, how much harder I was making things for myself, until I had the proper tools.
Don't get me wrong. I am all for consuming less.
I am pro making it work until you can't anymore when it comes to big purchases (like spending $100 or more on a new laptop).
But sometimes I think I make do because I think it makes me more noble, or more creative, or more low-maintenance than other people, when all I am really doing is making things way harder than they need to be.
Am I alone here? If any of this resonated with you, I’d love to hear creative, weird, or funny ways you have made or are making do in your life right now.
Are you making do out of necessity or because you have some idea in your head that make do is better than making things simpler?
I was like this! Then, one day, I was doing some "inner work" on my belief system and found that I had a belief that "everything that wasn't directly related to my survival was 'excessive'". 😬 Which had me in the predicament I was in. I've worked with that belief a lot and still find myself scrimping in areas I definitely don't need to sometimes. Life's such an interesting ride.
This made me chuckle: my Granna was the same ♥️ I make things unnecessarily difficult for myself tech-wise. I have an uncanny knack for over-complicating steps - which is exhausting 😬 (& then I second-guess … adding yet more knots!)