Trends come and go, but these useful Boomer-generation habits are making a comeback.
Walking
Instead of hopping in your car or opening a rideshare app, walking whenever possible has become the new way to travel for errands. Millennials who reside in city or suburban areas have begun taking trips on foot to grocery stores, the post office, and parks to multitask by getting low-intensity exercise while running errands.
Walking saves you money on gas and allows you time to clear your head, while embracing how the generation before you used to live.
Cooking from scratch
Those fancy meal kits and pre-made processed foods are losing their shine. The trend among millennials and younger generations is a move toward cooking slowly and from basic ingredients.
In mid-century homes, the kitchen was a place where people regularly spent their time baking sourdough, creating stocks, and roasting vegetables from the ground up. When you cook from scratch with whole ingredients, you’ll find it’s cheaper and much healthier.
Hanging clothes
Line drying clothes isn’t making a comeback just to save on the electricity bill. Many young people use drying racks and clotheslines because excessive tumble drying can damage some fabrics.
Sweaters, jeans and delicates may retain their shape and stay in better condition longer if treated more gently. Suddenly that backyard clothesline doesn’t seem so archaic.
Coffee at home
Millennials may have become known for buying daily cafe lattes, but many are going back to basics, brewing coffee at home. Using a simple drip maker, French press, or pour-over kit makes that morning coffee a pleasant ritual instead of a costly dash.
You’ll save yourself hundreds of dollars a month in frivolous spending and have full control of what goes into your cup like Boomers have been doing for years.
Handkerchiefs
Lately, handkerchiefs have become popular again with shoppers mindful of the environment and weary of buying tissues constantly.
Even though today’s handkerchiefs feature eye-catching designs and fine materials, the basic notion is one that would be completely commonplace for past generations: use, wash, repeat.
Food preservation
Canning jars used to be a common item for extending a harvest through winter. Now young homemakers are exploring pickling, fermenting, jam-making, freezing and other DIY food preservation methods.
Some pick it up as hobby gardeners; others are inspired by food costs or environmental concerns about waste. The know-how may be spreading via social media these days, but the essence of it all would have been readily understood in a boomer’s kitchen.
Thermos from home
For years, the lowly thermos was associated with lunchboxes, work sites and road trips, and coffee made at home. Reusable insulated bottles and travel mugs have basically revived that habit with a cooler name.
Millennial commuters tote their own coffee, tea and cold beverages instead of purchasing every drink they desire while away from home. The stainless-steel bottle may be new, but the penny-pinching concept isn’t.
Pen and paper
Phones store appointments, reminders, shopping lists and notes. Despite that, notebooks and paper planners are creeping back into our daily lives. Some Millennials and members of Generation Z use them to track spending, plan meals, stay organized at work and even write daily to-do lists.
Bullet journals and artistic planners have made old-school list-making trendy again. Boomers just called it writing things down.
Local clubs and bowling leagues
Many young people who crave face-to-face social interactions are signing up for local rec leagues, running clubs, and pick-up bowling leagues. They find it a good way to distance themselves from screens and create real-world connections.
League activities are the 21st-century version of the Boomer blueprint for social interaction: membership in leagues, civic organizations, and block parties.
Board game nights
Breaking away from video game consoles and smartphones for a night of board games, cards, and trivia questions has become a favorite weekend activity. Sitting down at a table and playing old or new strategy games creates energetic social interaction and competition right across the table. This feels like Boomer family game nights at the kitchen table.
Hand-send letters
In today’s text messaging and rapid-fire e-mail world, writing handwritten thank-you notes, postcards, and holiday cards is a highly personal gesture. Young adults are purchasing stationery, stocking up on sheets of stamps and spending time composing meaningful written letters to faraway friends. Getting an actual piece of mail in your mailbox will forge an emotional bond that no e-mail or text will ever create.
Second-hand
Boomers were raised during a time when hand-me-downs and previously owned housewares were totally acceptable ways to save money. Millennial and Gen Z shoppers have revived thrifting with gusto, but these days thrift stores have competition from resale apps and online marketplaces.
Thrifting clothes, furniture, records, and refurbished electronics is a way to save money and keep functional goods out of landfills. Pre-owned isn’t necessarily a bad thing anymore.
Home gardening
A trend among younger generations has been turning their living space into an urban garden. Planting backyard vegetable gardens, tending to balcony herb gardens, or growing houseplants in apartment living rooms, young people are finding gardening a relaxing way to de-stress and grow their own food.
This recreates some of the homebody lifestyle many Boomers had growing up.
Physical cash
Given how easy it is to spend with tap-to-pay apps and credit cards, a lot of younger people are now embracing “cash stuffing” budget systems. By withdrawing paper bills for weekly categories such as groceries, coffee, and fun money, spending money actually feels real. Watching actual cash come out of your wallet forces financial discipline.
Coupons and deals
Inflation and expensive grocery prices have made coupon clipping fashionable again. Millennials are clipping store loyalty or printable coupons and comparing weekly grocery ads as they stock up on non-perishables. Grocery shopping doesn’t have to break the bank if you shop smart and purchase healthy meals.
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