20 Simple Ways to Make Everyday Life a Bit More Homemade
A more homemade life is not about doing everything yourself. To me, it is about choosing the things that make everyday life feel more manageable, more capable, more connected, and more like home.
I didn't start thinking about doing more things homemade because I wanted to give up modern conveniences, make every product from scratch, or recreate somebody else's idea of a homestead. I started noticing how good it felt to know how to do more things for myself—to make a loaf of bread, grow something my family would actually eat, preserve food when there was extra, build something instead of automatically buying it, or pass a useful skill on to the next generation.
These changes didn’t need to take over my life or become an obsession to matter. Little by little, one change at a time, they began to build on each other. The things that once felt unfamiliar became easier and more manageable, and my home began to reflect more of who I am and the way I want to live.
That is what A Bit More Homemade means to me. It is not a finish line or a test of how much you can make yourself. It is learning useful things, making thoughtful choices, keeping what works, and giving yourself permission to leave the rest.
Where Would You Like to Begin?
Start with the part that sounds useful or enjoyable to you today. There is no need to tackle all of it at once.
Cook More From Scratch
Start with everyday foods, familiar convenience meals, and a few homemade staples that genuinely earn their place.
Grow Something Useful
Grow food, herbs, flowers, or another plant you will actually use or enjoy—at whatever scale fits your space.
Preserve What You Have
Dry it, freeze it, preserve fruit, or learn a safe way to keep vegetables for later.
Make Home Work Better
Create useful systems, learn what you can build, make practical things, and simplify the routines that repeat every week.
Make Room for Meaning
Hospitality, traditions, seasons, beauty, creativity, and enjoyment are part of homemade living too.
What “simple and intentional” means to me
To me, simple and intentional living means understanding your options and choosing what actually adds value at home. Sometimes that means making or growing something yourself; sometimes it means buying it or using a modern convenience. Keep what makes life feel more manageable, capable, connected, or meaningful—and let the rest go.
The 20 Ways at a Glance
You can read straight through or jump to the idea that feels most useful right now.
Make one everyday thing you usually buy.
Start with one approachable change—not your entire shopping list.
I think this is one of the easiest places to begin because it does not require changing much at all. Pick one ordinary thing you already use and see what happens when you make it yourself.
For me, bread is a good example. It is useful enough to make learning the skill worthwhile, but I do not think learning to bake bread means you have to promise never to buy a loaf again. The same idea can work outside the kitchen too. It might be a lip balm, a simple home-care product I know is safe and effective, or something as easy as a simmer pot when I want a seasonal scent in the house.
The point is not to turn every purchase into a project. It is to choose one thing that makes you curious enough to try.
Homemade Sandwich Bread
A dependable everyday loaf for sandwiches, toast, and the simple satisfaction of knowing how to make your own bread.
Read the post
Homemade Lip Balm
A small everyday-care project that shows a homemade change does not have to be large to be useful.
Read the post
Simple Simmer Pots
An easy idea for bringing a little seasonal scent into the house without turning it into a big project.
One Useful Home-Care Swap
A homemade cleaning or laundry solution only earns a place here if it is safe, effective, and simpler enough to be worth using.
Make one convenience food from scratch.
If it is replacing a convenience food, it still needs to be convenient.
I like convenience. I just do not think convenience and homemade have to cancel each other out.
If I am making a homemade version of something I normally buy because it is quick, the homemade version still has to work on a normal Tuesday night. A recipe that replaces a boxed dinner but takes three hours and every pan in the kitchen has missed the point.
This is why I like familiar skillet dinners, make-ahead pantry mixes, and baking mixes that can be ready when I need them. The goal is not to make dinner harder. It is to keep the usefulness of the shortcut while learning how to make more of it myself.
Homemade Cheesy Hamburger Helper
A one-pan from-scratch version of the kind of familiar dinner I still want to be easy on a busy night.
Read the post
Hamburger Helper-Style Stroganoff
Another familiar skillet meal made from scratch without losing the reason a convenience dinner is useful.
Read the post
Homemade Rice or Noodle Sides
A make-ahead pantry mix can still give me the reason I would have reached for a boxed side in the first place.
Homemade Muffin Mix
One make-ahead dry mix can become blueberry, raspberry, apple-cinnamon, cranberry-orange, pumpkin, banana nut, lemon-poppyseed, or zucchini muffins.
Read the postKeep one homemade staple that makes cooking easier.
I do not need an entirely homemade pantry. I want the homemade things that make the next thing easier.
A homemade staple earns its place for me when I keep reaching for it. Maybe it seasons dinner, flavors baking, finishes a batch of muffins, or turns a plain piece of chicken into something I am actually looking forward to eating.
I do not want to fill the pantry with projects just so I can say they are homemade. I want a few things that quietly help with whatever I am making next.
Homemade Ranch Seasoning Mix
This is the kind of staple I mean: something I can use in more than one way instead of making a separate mix every time.
Read the post
Homemade Vanilla Extract
A good homemade staple does not have to save time today. Sometimes it earns its place because I use it again and again over time.
Make-Ahead Streusel
One versatile topping could make muffins, quick breads, coffee cake, or baked fruit easier to finish.
A Versatile Garlic-Herb Dijon Marinade
A versatile marinade can make a basic protein easier without creating another complicated recipe.
Grow something you actually use.
And I mean “use” in a much broader way than just eating it.
I love gardening, but I do not think everyone needs a big backyard garden to make growing something worthwhile. One pot of basil can count. A pepper plant in a container can count. A few flowers you want to cut and bring inside can count.
I try to grow food we actually eat rather than filling space with things I think a garden is supposed to have. Bell peppers are a good example, and I have a full guide to Growing Bell Peppers if that is a crop you use too.
I also grow mini roses and peonies because I love bringing them into the house. Beauty is a perfectly good use. I plant flowers near the vegetable garden with pollinators in mind too, and I like useful plants such as culinary herbs or lavender because they can connect naturally to cooking, preserving, and handmade projects.
For me, this is where “homemade” gets bigger than food. It can mean knowing where something came from, learning how it grows, using it fresh, preserving extra, or simply enjoying what you grew.
Our Backyard Garden
Our garden started as an ordinary patch of suburban grass and became one of the clearest examples of learning as we go.
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Grow Herbs You Will Reach For
Basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and other useful herbs can move from a pot or garden bed straight into everyday cooking.
Grow Flowers You Want in the House
I count flowers as useful because I actually enjoy bringing them inside and living with them.
Plant Flowers With Pollinators in Mind
I like mixing flowers into the garden too, choosing plants thoughtfully instead of assuming every flower serves the same purpose.
Preserve something when you have more than you can use.
When I have extra, I would rather find one useful way to keep it than feel like I have to preserve everything.
I think preserving sometimes sounds more intimidating than it needs to because people hear the word and immediately picture shelves full of canning jars. Canning is only one option.
Extra food might come from my garden, but it could just as easily come from a farmers market, a grocery sale, a neighbor, or simply buying more than I can use before it starts to decline. The question I ask is much simpler: what is the easiest safe way to keep this for later?
For some foods, that means drying. For many others, freezing is the easiest answer. Fruit might become jam. Vegetables might become refrigerator pickles, a tested canned recipe, or a ferment such as sauerkraut. I do not think anyone needs to learn all of those methods at once.
Dry Herbs and Other Appropriate Foods
Drying is a natural next step when I grow or buy more herbs than I can use fresh.
Use the Freezer When Simplicity Matters
Sometimes the most practical way to preserve food is simply portioning it in the form I know I will use later.
Homemade Strawberry Jam
Jam is one of my favorite ways to turn ripe fruit into something we can keep using after that fruit needs attention.
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Choose the Method That Fits the Food
Pickling, fermenting, and shelf-stable canning are different skills. I use the method that actually fits what I have and how I want to store it.
If preserving is the direction you want to explore more deeply, the ABMH Preserving guide walks through the different methods, and the Beginner's Canning Guide explains the basics to understand before starting a shelf-stable canning project.
Preserving methods are not interchangeable
I am comfortable keeping this distinction very clear: refrigerator preserving, freezing, fermentation, water-bath canning, and pressure canning are different methods with different safety requirements. When safety depends on the process, I use current research-tested guidance rather than improvising. For current research-based home food-preservation guidance, I refer to the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Learn a useful skill—and pass it along.
Learn it. Keep what is useful. Adapt it to your life. Pass it on again.
This one matters to me for a different reason.
I think there is real value in knowing how to do useful things, but there is even more value in passing along the wisdom that comes from doing them. Not just the instructions. The shortcuts that actually work. The mistakes that are not worth repeating. The part that matters most. The step that can be simplified. The thing you wish somebody had told you before you started.
Some of what shaped the way I think about home came from watching people in my own family cook, garden, fix things, welcome company, and simply know how to take care of everyday life. I do not think we have to live exactly the way earlier generations did to keep useful knowledge alive. We can learn it, keep what still serves us, adapt it to modern life, and pass it along again.
That can start with gardening, baking, cooking a dependable meal, or the basic homemaking skills someone may need when they leave home, go to college, get a first apartment, or simply decide it is time to learn something nobody happened to teach them earlier.
I have taught my own kids things such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, and how to take care of everyday life because knowing those things builds independence. There is no embarrassment in learning them later either. Everyone learns somewhere.
Learn to Grow Something
The skill can begin with a pot of herbs just as easily as it can begin with a full raised-bed garden.
Read the guide
Learn the Feel of a Yeast Dough
Once you begin understanding how dough should look and feel, that knowledge can carry into far more than one recipe.
Read the dinner rolls
Learn a Meal You Can Rely On
Knowing how to put a complete dinner on the table with confidence is its own useful life skill.
Read the recipe
Pass On the Everyday Skills Too
Laundry, stain removal, cleaning a kitchen or bathroom, and knowing how to care for a home are useful skills worth teaching without judgment.
Cook once, and make it help with another meal.
Make today’s effort help tomorrow when it makes sense.
I do this all the time, but I do not think of it as formal meal prep. I am simply trying to notice when the work I am already doing can make another meal easier.
One example in my kitchen is green beans and red potatoes. I might serve them with pork one night and make enough so the remaining side can go with chicken the next night. The second dinner is not the same meal, but I already did part of the work.
The same thinking can mean doubling something that freezes well, making extra taco components, freezing a sauce, or making chili for dinner and saving enough to turn into chili nachos later.
I do not double everything. I do it when the extra work is small and the payoff later is useful.
A Bit More Homemade Chili
Make dinner tonight, freeze a portion, or intentionally turn part of it into another meal later.
Read the recipe
Double What Freezes Well
If making twice as much only adds a little extra work, the second meal can be one of the easiest dinners I make later.
Let One Part of Dinner Do Double Duty
A side, sauce, protein, or other component does not have to be served exactly the same way twice to be useful.
Use food before it becomes waste.
This is different from planned extras. Here, I am paying attention to food that already needs a next step.
Sometimes homemade living is as simple as noticing what is already sitting in the kitchen.
If berries are getting soft, they may become jam. Apples that need to be used can become applesauce, cobbler, crisp, or pie. Extra zucchini can become zucchini bread. Ripe bananas can become banana bread. Stale bread can become breadcrumbs. Fruit can go into muffins instead of sitting in the refrigerator until it is too late.
I often use overripe fruit for jam or pie, and usually jam, because I know it will keep and we will use it. I am not talking about rescuing spoiled food. I mean noticing food while it is still safe and good to use and asking, “What can I do with this now?”
And sometimes the best answer is simply: freeze it today and figure out the recipe later.
Create one simple system that makes your home easier to live in.
It does not have to be Pinterest-perfect. It has to work.
I like a pretty room as much as anyone, but when I organize something, I want it to solve a real problem.
A drop station is a good example. Maybe your household needs cubbies for backpacks, hooks for coats, baskets for shoes, and somewhere to drop keys. Maybe you live alone and only need a hook for a work bag, a shoe basket, and one small place for mail. Maybe the problem is not the entryway at all. It might be the pantry, garage, linen closet, laundry area, charging cords, or cleaning supplies.
I think the best organizing systems follow what people already do instead of forcing everybody in the house to behave like a magazine photo.
One rule I come back to: give the things you use most an easy place to go back to.
Create a Simple Drop Station
Hooks, cubbies, baskets, and shoe storage can solve a lot of daily clutter without needing a custom mudroom.
Organize Around the Way You Cook
I care more about finding what I need and using what I have than making every container match.
Make the Space Easier to Reset
Linen closets, laundry areas, garages, and cleaning supplies all work better when the system is simple enough to maintain.
One practical safety note
If you use freestanding cube furniture or similar storage, secure it where appropriate, and install wall hooks with hardware suited to both the wall and the weight they need to hold.
Try building or improving something before assuming you can’t.
I do not think “I have never done that before” automatically means “I cannot learn how.”
My family and I have learned a lot by doing projects ourselves over the years. We have built furniture, worked on our home, created our backyard garden, and figured out projects that looked much bigger before we broke them into individual steps.
That does not mean we knew how to do every part before we started. And it definitely does not mean every job should be DIY.
I think the useful question is, “What would this actually involve?” A simple planter might be a good first build. A garden setup can teach you more. Improving an existing shed, piece of furniture, or storage space can be another step later. One project can build the confidence for the next one.
I also believe knowing when to call somebody qualified is part of being capable. Electrical work, gas, structural work, roofing, major plumbing, and other high-risk projects are not places to prove a point.
Our Backyard Garden
Our garden is one of my favorite examples of turning an ordinary part of our yard into something we use all season.
Read the story
Build a Simple Planter
A small useful project can teach measuring, fastening, finishing, and problem-solving without asking you to renovate a room.
Upgrade an Existing Space
I like the idea of improving something useful rather than automatically assuming the answer has to be replacing it.
Make one useful thing with your own hands.
For me, “useful” can mean function, comfort, organization, repeated use, or even beauty that has a real place in the home.
I do not want DIY and handmade projects on ABMH just because they are crafts. I want them to earn their place.
An herb drying rack has a job. A rice heating pad has a job. A rope basket can hold something that otherwise becomes clutter. A hand-knit blanket brings warmth and comfort. A macramé placemat or rattan charger may be more decorative, but if I actually use it when I set the table, it can still be both beautiful and useful.
One of my favorite connections here is the herb drying rack because it can complete a whole homemade loop: grow the herbs, use them fresh, dry what is extra, then use a simple handmade tool to help with that process.
Hand Knit a Chunky Blanket
A handmade project can be enjoyable to make and still become something that stays in everyday use.
Read the guide
Rope Storage Baskets
This is exactly the kind of handmade project I like: attractive enough to enjoy and practical enough to keep using.
Rice Heating Pad
A simple sewn item can become the kind of useful handmade thing somebody reaches for again and again.
Herb Drying Rack
This is one of my favorite examples of making a tool because it supports another homemade skill I actually want to use.
Make a gift someone will actually use.
I try to start with the person, not the project.
I do not think a gift automatically becomes more thoughtful because I spent six hours making it.
If I am going to make something for somebody, I want to think about what that person actually cooks, uses, enjoys, needs, has space for, or would appreciate. A baker may genuinely use homemade vanilla. Someone else might love a jar of hot cocoa mix, lip balm, a blanket, a woodworking project, or another useful item for the home.
And sometimes the best handmade gift is not another object at all. It might be teaching somebody how to bake bread, working on a garden project together, sharing a recipe, or simply spending the time to show someone how to do something you know.
For me, thoughtfulness comes from paying attention to the person—not from proving how homemade the gift is.
Homemade Vanilla Extract
A good kitchen gift is something the recipient will actually reach for after the ribbon is gone.
Hot Cocoa Mix in a Jar
Simple, seasonal, useful, and easy to enjoy without finding permanent space for another decorative gift.
Read the post
Chunky Hand-Knit Blanket
A larger handmade gift makes sense when comfort and repeated use actually fit the person receiving it.
Read the guide
Homemade Lip Balm
Small, practical gifts can be some of the easiest homemade things to give because they can actually be used up.
Read the postUse what you already have before buying another solution.
Resourcefulness is useful. Deprivation is not the goal.
I do not believe in saving every scrap forever or spending three frustrating hours improvising around something I could reasonably buy for ten dollars.
I do think it is worth looking around before I shop.
Could a basket I already own solve the storage problem? Could I rearrange the shelf before buying another organizing system? Is there leftover lumber that is actually suited to the project I want to make?
In our family, scrap wood has become strawberry planters. That does not mean every leftover board has to be saved indefinitely. It simply means the material was useful when a useful project came along.
Use what you have when it works. Buy what you need when it doesn’t.
Turn Leftovers Into Something Useful
I keep useful material when I can see a reasonable future use for it—not because keeping scraps is a virtue by itself.
Move the Basket Before Buying Another One
Sometimes a useful solution is already in the house. It is just sitting in the wrong room.
Rearrange Before You Rebuy
I want to give what I already own a fair chance to solve the problem before I assume I need another product.
Simplify one routine you repeat every week.
The best routine is not the most impressive one. It is the one I can actually keep doing.
I have no interest in turning simple living into another complicated productivity system.
If I repeat something every week, I would rather make that routine easier to maintain than create ten more rules around it. A short kitchen reset while dinner is already happening works better for me than saving everything for one giant cleanup. A regular laundry rhythm is more useful than an elaborate schedule I will stop following. Keeping the cleaning supplies I actually use is more helpful than filling a cabinet with a separate product for every possible job.
For me, the question is usually: what part of this routine creates unnecessary friction, and can I remove a step?
- Pair a quick reset with something you already do.
- Keep the supplies you actually reach for where you use them.
- Handle one high-traffic area before trying to reset the whole house.
- Let routines reduce mental load instead of becoming another standard to maintain.
Make your home welcoming, not perfect.
I want people to feel comfortable here more than I want the house to look untouched.
When someone is coming over, I do not think every corner of the house needs to be perfect.
I focus on the things that actually affect the person walking through the door. Deal with the dishes. Give the bathroom a quick check. Straighten the main area. Make sure there is somewhere comfortable to sit. Have water or something simple to offer. Then stop.
That is very different from trying to erase every sign that people live here.
A blanket on the sofa, shoes near the door, family photos, a basket that actually gets used, flowers clipped from outside, and a kitchen that sometimes looks like somebody cooked in it can all belong in a welcoming home.
Your home does not have to be ready for a photograph to be ready for people.
Create a tradition people will remember.
Traditions do not have to be old before they become meaningful.
I think sometimes we imagine that traditions have to be handed down for generations before they really count.
But a lot of traditions begin much more simply than that. You make the same birthday breakfast again. Everyone gathers for cookies before Christmas. You decorate the tree together. You preserve something every summer. You make one meal people start asking about before the season arrives.
You do it once. Everybody enjoys it. So you do it again.
Over time, the ordinary thing becomes something people remember.
That matters to me because a homemade life is about more than what we produce. It is also about the experiences that happen around the things we cook, grow, make, and share.
Christmas Cookie Night
A tradition can be built around ordinary time together—baking, decorating, talking, laughing, and deciding to do it again next year.
A Favorite Birthday Breakfast
A tradition does not have to be elaborate to become something somebody looks forward to every year.
Repeat What People Love
Sometimes the tradition is simply an ordinary activity that becomes meaningful because you keep doing it together.
Let the seasons shape some of what you make and do.
I like letting the time of year inspire me without letting it dictate everything.
I notice that the things I make at home naturally change through the year.
Summer may mean herbs, berries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and figuring out what to do with garden abundance. Fall makes me think about apples, baking, cooler evenings, and the end of the garden season. Winter creates more room for indoor projects, handmade gifts, holiday traditions, and food that makes the house feel warm. Spring pulls me back toward growing things and projects that make sense for the months ahead.
I do not think “seasonal living” needs to mean reorganizing your entire life four times a year. You do not even need to grow anything yourself. A seasonal ingredient from the grocery store counts. Flowers from the farmers market count. Bringing out a favorite blanket counts.
I just like letting the season shape a few things I cook, grow, make, or enjoy.
Make your home feel like yours.
A homemade home is not one where everything is handmade. It is one that feels personal to the people who live there.
I talk a lot about usefulness, but I do not think everything in a home has to justify itself through productivity.
I bring in the peonies because I love them. Family photos matter because they are ours. An inherited bowl can matter because of who used it before me. A handmade ornament can matter because of the memory attached to it. A table setting can make an ordinary meal feel cared for even though nobody technically needs it.
I want a home to feel personal without feeling staged or crowded. Trends can be fun, but I do not think they should decide what belongs in the house.
A home can be tidy without being untouchable, beautiful without being expensive, personal without being crowded, and homemade without everything in it being made by hand.
Keep the Things That Tell Your Story
Photos, inherited pieces, books, handmade things, and everyday objects can make a room feel like the people who actually live there.
Bring the Garden Inside
I do not need another justification for peonies or roses beyond the fact that I enjoy having them in the house.
Winter Botanical Resin Ornaments
Not every handmade project has to solve a problem. Sometimes making something beautiful and personal is enough.
Read the postMake something simply because you enjoy making it.
Not everything has to save money, solve a problem, or become a side hustle.
I think this belongs near the end because it is easy to turn homemade living into another list of productive things we are supposed to do.
Sometimes I want to bake because I enjoy baking. Sometimes somebody wants to knit because the repeated motion is satisfying. Gardening flowers, woodworking, decorating cookies, arranging flowers, or trying a new craft can be worthwhile even when the finished thing is not solving an urgent problem.
I do not think every hobby needs to become efficient, profitable, or useful enough to defend itself.
Sometimes enjoying the process is reason enough.
Make Something Because the Process Interests You
The finished blanket may be useful, but enjoying the making can be part of the value too.
Read the guide
Let Some Making Be Just for You
A homemade life should have room for curiosity, creativity, and the simple pleasure of making something.
Keep what works—and let go of what doesn’t.
This may be the most important part of the whole list.
I do not think the goal is to keep adding homemade things until there is no convenience left.
I think the point is to try things, pay attention, and keep the ones that actually make life better.
After I try something, I want to know what it is really adding. Do I enjoy it? Is the result useful enough to keep doing? Does it make something easier? Does it improve quality, connection, comfort, capability, or enjoyment? Does the effort feel worth the result?
Sometimes the answer is yes, and the change becomes part of everyday life.
Sometimes I learn how to do something once and decide I would still rather buy it.
Both answers are useful.
Homemade is not automatically cheaper, healthier, safer, better, or more virtuous. The skill itself may still have been worth learning, but that does not mean I need to keep doing everything I know how to do.
A few questions I think are worth asking
- Is this actually working for us?
- Do I enjoy doing it?
- Is it useful enough to keep doing?
- Does the effort feel worth the result?
- Does it add quality, connection, capability, convenience, comfort, or enjoyment?
- Would buying it or using a simpler option make more sense right now?
The goal is not to keep adding homemade habits. It is to find the ones that make your life better and keep those.
Want a Small Place to Begin?
If twenty ideas still feel like too many, start with one. The free 7-Day Homemade Starter Plan gives you one manageable homemade change at a time. After the seven-day series, you’ll continue to hear from me about once a month with seasonal recipes, garden-to-table ideas, preserving inspiration, and practical ways to make your home a bit more homemade.
Get the 7-Day Homemade Starter PlanI want A Bit More Homemade to be a place where useful knowledge stays useful—not a place that tells you there is only one right way to live.
Make the bread if you love making bread. Buy it when that makes more sense. Grow a tomato or a whole garden. Preserve one jar or fill the freezer. Build something. Learn a skill. Teach somebody what you know. Make your home welcoming. Start a tradition. Make something just because you enjoy it.
Then pay attention to what belongs in your life and leave the rest.
You don’t have to do everything. Just start with something—and make your home a bit more homemade one change at a time.
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