Back to grandma: why traditional everyday skills are making a comeback

Baking bread, darning socks, preserving jam - for a long time, these activities were considered relics from a time without supermarkets and express delivery. Today they are making a comeback, and not for nostalgic reasons. More and more people are picking up their wooden spoons, sewing needles and screwdrivers again. What's behind this? And what does this trend have to do with sustainability?

The beginnings are easy to date. The first lockdown in 2020 forced many people to stay at home - and find new ways of working. Suddenly, millions were standing in front of a sourdough starter, a sewing machine or a preserving jar for the first time. What began as a pastime has developed into a real habit for many. There is also a growing awareness of consumption and sustainability: those who make their own food know what is in it, avoid packaging and buy less of what they don't need. Perfection hardly plays a role here. The slightly lopsided bread still tastes good. The mended jeans may not be as good as new, but they fit.

In the kitchen: baking, brewing, preserving

No trend in recent years has changed the kitchen as much as the return of home-baked bread. During the pandemic, sourdough became the symbol of a countermovement: away from fast, ready-made goods and towards something that takes time and is all the more rewarding for it. Home baking is far more than just a hobby. Those who bake their own bread save on packaging, know every ingredient and buy regional flour. One bread baking tin, a few basic ingredients, hardly any waste.

It's a similar story with preserving. Anyone who preserves tomatoes, plums or beans in summer is preserving seasonal produce from the region, without refrigeration, without plastic packaging, without long transport routes. The shelf with home-canned jars is also a small food reserve and an alternative to the throwaway society. Fermentation goes one step further: kimchi, kombucha or kefir are created through living processes without any energy input. What was once a conservation technique born out of necessity now saves resources and money in equal measure.

At the sewing machine: when mending becomes a statement

The textile industry is one of the most resource-intensive and environmentally damaging industries in the world. Every year, billions of items of clothing end up in the rubbish bin, many of them barely worn. The counter-movement is growing. Sewing, mending and upcycling are experiencing a real boom. More and more people are repairing what others would throw away or sewing their own clothes, according to their own taste and from consciously chosen fabrics.

Online communities such as Visible Mending have turned mending into an art form: holes are not hidden, but deliberately repaired visibly with colourful stitches. The message behind this is simple. A garment that has been repaired is one that did not have to be produced from scratch. And therefore one for which no water was wasted, no chemicals used and no CO₂ emitted.