bubblyjock Ooh - I LOVE the Lehman's catalogue.

Another similarly great catalogue is the Lee Valley catalogue:

http://www.leevalley.com/US/Garden/Index.aspx

Sierra Jones An absolute must in every home is a battery operated, corded phone. I learned the hard way;
home alone with a newborn in power outage, trying to get ahold of my husband. Never would be without one, and have used it quite a few times since purchasing.
When we moved into our new home, the previous owners left us a gas lawn mower and a push mower. (We were moving out of a condo, so we didn't have, and they were moving into a condo, so they didn't need.) We were very lucky, they were so generous.
Anyway, last year was our first summer, and would you believe...we NEVER used the gas mover! Besides the noise, smell, cost of gas, mess to clean, there are many other advantages...
It is much more enjoyable to mow this way, you feel as though you might be getting (a little) workout, don't have to worry about bugging neighbours on an early Sat morning....plus I feel a lot better about my twelve year old mowing the lawn this way.
My yard is not huge, but a good size. It doesn't take any more time or effort to mow this way. I can still remember my grandfather mowing his yard with a push mower, and he had just shy of an acre to do. Everytime I mow, it makes me remember him, and I smile.
There is lot to be said about these products, besides being green and efficient. A new perspective on life!
Great article!

typingmonkey Great list. Thanks so much!

Annie Thornton My Chemex coffee is delicious every time. And I love to put it in the fridge for iced coffee later.

nikilyn207 My husband found this 1930's phone at a flea market. It works great, even when the power goes out!

spchx74 I find it odd that you would suggest a hand wringer to save energy by reducing clothes drying time in an energy hogging machine (at least that's how I interpreted it), and not just suggest getting rid of the clothes dryer in favor of air drying on a line--reduces energy and wear/fading of your clothes.

blossomangel some great ideas but I wouldn't be spending upward of $100 for some of these products.

Sigrid You can get a decent reel mower for $200, no need to spend 3X as much. The thing to note is that while they cut grass well, they don't do small twigs, thick-stemmed weeds, and other stuff that a power mower will chew up.

They are green, quiet, and smell-free. I'm happy with mine, but just don't expect it to cut like a power mower. There's a reason why the technology was abandoned when power mowers came in.

Sierra Jones I was surprised to read sigrid's comment. My push mower (Ifeel) cuts better than my gas mower. I can adjust the blades very low (how I like) and it pushes through anything. The ball bearings are also very good, because you barely even have to push the thing, it practically glides!
Never had any issues with twigs or weeds. Although I uproot my weeds, don't mow over them. lol

judypiegza The idea of the hand crank wringer gave me the willies. I grew up with one... And memories of buttons cracking, flying across the room, and hitting the wall. The only way we got the wrinkles out was with a lot of ironing. No thank you. My dryer is one luxury I'm keeping (and my dishwasher).

jinglebelle Why is it that all these old fashioned mechanical items, which used to be so cheap, are now ridiculously overpriced, even to the point of being MORE costly than the souped up, electronic versions of themselves? $25 for a mechanical pencil sharpener??? $28 for a glass juicer??? $150 for a hand cranked food mill??? Anyone who pays $600 (or even $200) for a push reel mower should have their head examined!

The rotary phone Nikilyn shows, by the way, is a 1950s-1960s version - my family had one exactly like it. People threw them out when touch tone phones came along, and if you find a working one at a flea market or whatever, it would be nuts to pay more than about $5 for it, and I don't know if the phone companies are supporting rotary lines anymore.

I agree with the comment about clothes wringers, as that's a great way to press in wrinkles and ruin buttons, causing extra work in ironing and sewing on new buttons. The hand cranked radio, flashlight and hand juicer are great, reasonably priced ideas, but the coffee mill and blender are also overpriced, in my opinion. The mechanical version just should never be more expensive than the electrical or electronic version, which needs so many additional parts, like circuits and wiring. to produce the same mechanized results. Lehman's and Lee Valley's catalogs are amazing, but the prices of many items are out of sight!

acadie I have and use several vintage (50+ years old) phones and love them. However, a corded touch tone phone is best for emergencies. When phoning utility companies or emergency services you usually need to enter numbers -- your account, house number etc.

mirella1 So funny....I used to have a lot of these items and still have some of them! I guess that makes me green and everything old is new again.

Tamara B Ahhh....those wringer washers. Thank goodness my fingers survived. Oops I gave away my age.

artzi The main reason they are so high is the trend to sustainable green living again , and these items are not made in the quantities of the power versions. I have my nana's food mill, a juicer like the metal one I use for wheat grass juice, my granfather's pencil sharpener. I have my other grandfather's meat grinder. I have a grain grinder & a solar food dehydrator I got in the early '70s. all used regularily. You can find the manual versions of many electrical appliances at thrift stores & flea markets for lots less. I have a blender, juicer,food processor & find I use the blender for smoothies & the juicer, but rarely the food processor except holidays. I can slice,dice, cube etc with my knives much quicker with less clean up!
When I was growing up we had wringer washer & the double tubs- it took most of the day counting hanging up. You had to wash, put through the wringer, rinse in first tub, wring, do the second tub rinse, wring & then hang on the line. You had to be careful not to get your fingers in the wringers. I helped nana from the time I could stand on a fruit crate so I could catch the clothing as it came through. My next job as I got older was to turn the crank. If it was raining, we set up on the screened in back porch, if sunny, just outside the back door.
I love these sweet memories as she would tell me family stories or sing to me. I learned self reliance and valuable skills from all my extended family on the farm.

tsudhonimh "Why is it that all these old fashioned mechanical items, which used to be so cheap, are now ridiculously overpriced"

Because very few of them are made now and the parts have to be hand-cast.

They were NEVER cheap if you consider what salaries were then. You are thinking at 1930s prices with 2010s wages.

newmouse I wouldn't mind having a vintage phone, but that would mean I'd have to get a land line, and be subjected to all those telemarketers. No thanks.

Fatima Zahra Hassan Excellent !!!

kimdkendall As someone who has costed products for year there is no relationship of manufacturing cost to price. It is simply excess greed of the producer.

How does one justify a mower without an engine costing 2.5 times as much as one with an engine? You don't if you have a brain.

Carolina Girl I enjoyed the trip down memory lane. When I was growing up we had most of these items in our home. You might want to rename this blog "Return of the Redi" (Ready).

Francesca I suppose the frustration with this article is that we came here to hopefully find some ways to improve our lives and yet were accosted a bit by sticker shock. I have a postage stamp lawn and wondered how I was going to mow the very little piece of grass that shouldn't even be called a lawn. I have been contemplating a 'reel mower', and have been looking at them in the price of between $100-200. The one from Lehmen's (shown here for $599) is a very high end, expensive, well made reel mower. There's one from Overstock that is cheap and one from Sears that is right about the price I would pay.

Jedi Design So many of you sound like you do the majority of your shopping at Wal-mart! Lehman's sells stuff with a very limited market, which means it's only going to sell a few of these things compared to the regular, modern electronic versions and in order to justify carrying them they are going to be expensive. Instead of bitching about the prices, get on the internet and search for similar items at lower price you can live with, if such a thing exists. Doing the right thing is seldom the cheapest way to go.

acadie Cheap electronics are a bit like cheap clothes and junk food -- addictive and with hidden costs.

thepaintedmoose So if none of these things are electronic then why are they all so damn expensive?

llswink I have an original 50s dial up that I keep and use in my quilting studio. It was my mother-in-laws and still works! I love it because when a friend from HS was going to get married she asked me to try and find a mutual friend, and my old HS sweetheart. After ten years I still remembered his home phone number, I dialed the number, and he answered! We'll have been married 33 years this June!

(BTW, that magic phone number is still on the dial!)

kimdkendall jedi design

A word of advice. The entire green market is being impinged and restricted not because the technology is significant but because the prices and greed of the producers. You can take two approaches to design: volume sales = expanded market or snob appeal and limited market. Altruistic and competitive designers opt for volume sales.

Jedi Design Kim, I find it interesting that if someone doesn't agree with you, you label them brainless or useless without knowing anything about them. I haven't found your comments to add anything of value to the conversation, and yet, here you are and you are welcome to be here, regardless of whether or not I find you personally hypocritical and useless. Thankfully we live in a free country. I will post as I see fit and be adult enough to just filter out your tripe without further personal commentary on your posts. I doubt you possess the courtesy or discipline necessary to do the same.

calkelley Love the old pencil sharpener! We have had so many of those battery or electrical ones that just die quickly - I hate it! The battery operated shredder seems fun too. I would think they might jam less...
But I have to agree that a $600 lawn mower seems silly. Personally though I don't shop at Walmart (hate their policy regarding promoting women), I cannot image why one couldn't buy such a simple machine there. They use to sell ones that lasted for years and years of heavy useage at Sears; we're not talking a sound system or anything complex. Buying one at such a cost difference to the lowest end would just make me think it was $500 wasted that I could have donated to charity.
The best green products in my opinion are those that might cost a little more than electrical ones, are simple to use (can't imagine frozen margaritas in a hand cranked blender), and are designed and built well enough to have some longevity - another issue in our throw away society.
Very cool book - going to go order those tonight!

mikiwebb spchx74: you wondered why not give up the dryer altogether, and instead hang all your wash on the line. I live in eastern Ontario, where it's too cold to hang the wash outdoors for over half the year, and I simply don't have enough space to hang all the laundry I do. There is just too much! During the warm weather, when it's not raining, I do use a clothesline, but it's not always possible the other 7 months of the year. My spin cycle on my washer does a pretty good job anyhow, so it seems a bit unnecessary to get a wringer.

As for the article as a whole: some interesting products and suggestions. I did find myself wondering how the water for the coffee maker was going to be boiled during a power outage or without using a similar amount of electricity as my coffee maker. I agree that there are ridiculous prices on some of these, but I would simply shop around for them in those cases.

All in all, good food for thought on these types of electricity-free devices, even if I wouldn't personally spend so much for some. I'm sure there are other things like this out there we can take advantage of as well.

Timothy Im wondering how that blender does with ice, vodka, lemonade, and cranberry juice.

cfb1 Rotary phone NO LONGER AVAILABLE

bubblyjock Often stuff that isn't mass produced, but is better quality (one is not necessarily the corollary of the other), is more expensive. Hence the long-standing success and good reputation of companies like Lee Valley and Lehman's, I would venture.

I'm surprised the OP didn't post any images of non-electrical, non-mechanical clothes dryers. We hang all our laundry indoors to dry throughout the winter, and it dries more quickly than a costly tumble-dryer, AND keeps the house's humidity at a comfortable level: a no-brainer, if you ask me!

There are modern ones like this:

http://www.costco.ca/Greenway®--Fold-Away-Bamboo-Drying-Rack.product.10367473.html

And the original and best, from the UK but available in N America, here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Clothes-Airer-Black-4-11ft/dp/B001P7VAQA/ref=tag_stp_s2_edpp_url

Sierra Jones There may be some items on this post over priced, but as others have said, you can find cheaper versions of all of the above items, if you look.
There are reasons for paying a little more for some of these items. The push lawn mower for instance, might cost a little more than the cheapest gas mower, but you are failing to realize while you are filling up your gas container every few cuts, I have paid one price for my mower and not another cent for as long as I own the thing. Which by the way, my grandfather's push mower still goes no problems, (over 60 years old!) Calculate the amount of gas money saved there...
When it comes to these types of products, they may cost a little more in the initial purchase, but they save money in the long run, because it doesn't cost you anything additional to run them! Now that is a no-brainer!

Susan Smith You're killing me with the prices, except for Ikea. We live in the country outside of Phoenix and my husband spent $3.00 on rope for a clothes line. My mother used one of those wooden drying racks to dry clothes on and that worked just fine in the house. I understand that there are some people out there that can afford this stuff, but the majority cannot, especially now. We used a rotary mower in our small backyard when we rented in town and it worked just fine. If you have big sticks, it's great exercise to bend over and pick them up, or have the kids do it. If you take the time to look, on Craigslist or yard sales, you can pick a lot of this stuff up for next to nothing.

It's an oxymoron to me when you want to go green but have to spend outrageous sums of money to do it. After we looked at our electric bill (the breakdown) and found out that out of $150, we actually only used $60 in electricity and the rest was fees for having the privilege of using their power, we have decided to go with solar. Anyone interested in saving money and doing it yourself, go to Power4Patriots and check out their site.

And for the best smelling sheets and clothes, forget the dryer (except for rainy days), hang them up, you probably won't have to use an iron either!

Also, if you have a BBQ, you can boil water and cook just about anything, just get creative. Just have four or five Propane bottles filled and they will go a long ways.

calkelley btw, I think Francesca's comments represent many of our thoughts. I came to this article to find ways to help lessen my footprint. The price of many of these things seem to be presented with the idea that if you wish to do so, the way to do so is to get a $600 mower and a $200 hand wringer (they're presented as the examples). There was an article once on IPHONE speakers and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was blown away at some of the ridiculous prices. More than for quality complex music systems
My mother-in-law is the wife of a lawyer, lives in Beverly Hills and would have even a hard time paying $38 for the juicer (esp as I'm sure there's one just like it for $8 bucks at her high-end grocery store). She would shake her head over the mower.

In reducing your footprint, the philosophy goes against the extra work you would need to do to buy some of these things; the extra utilities, bldg. rent, services, employee salaries...

Love the article's aim. The execution isn't just not practical but green either.

melfehl Just think how many calories you'll burn too while being green!

travelngal $599 for a reel mower? Seriously? Love the crank blender!

reem01 I like all of them especially the hand powered flash light it's great.

Carolina Girl I'm not enjoying getting notices of comments when two of you continue in a personal argument. Is there something constructive we can do to help?

kimdkendall joyce

I don't believe there is a continuing argument now. we both stated our opinions. If you are associated with the website I would appreciate passing along a request that contributors/writers understand people who enjoy the website want value concerning recommendations: promoting over priced product is not it.

spchx74 Joyce, Kim, everyone...it would appear to me that the people who run this website and the author aren't really paying attention anyway... so best not to count on the fact that your statements will affect them...at best, you might be able to affect the opinions of the other readers. I certainly appreciated knowing I wasn't the only one who found some of the ideas a bit ridiculous.

Sierra Jones Completely agree Joyce!
Everyone has the common sense to know these items could be found cheaper. Just because the author chose to showcase some higher end products, doesn't mean you have the right to lash out at them and be insulting. You missed the whole point of the article which was not to emphasize price or value, but to open your mind to some products which may not have got much attention otherwise.
Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, I feel the same goes for saving. We have all went into a dollar store/discount store, and bought something CHEAP only to have it break after ...gosh... sometimes one use! Only to go back and buy another CHEAP product that doesn't last long again. In the end we end up spending close to if not more than we would have, if we had spend a little more initially, to buy a good quality product.
I'm not saying you have to buy the expensive items in this article, but really? To insult the author with your comments is very disrespectful, and no one enjoys them.

kimdkendall well sierra

the author is doing the whole green effort a dis-service. favorable or unfavorable attitudes can be generated by an article like this. the lack of attention to real value makes this an unfavorable article. you spend too much time on pc instead of substance.

Laura Gaskill Hi all, just wanted to clarify a few things - the intent of this ideabook was to get people thinking about ways to cut electricity use. The products I chose were mostly purely because of their usefulness, but a few I added because they were interesting and made me smile, and I hoped others would take it the same way. Speaking personally, I would certainly choose to buy some of these items, but not all of them, and I realize they are not all right for everyone!

As for price and quality, I realize they are not always aligned, but there are times that they are. At home I have an inexpensive reel mower that my family uses to cut the grass in our small yard, and frankly, it doesn't work very well. My father bought a top notch reel mower thirty years ago, and it is still powering through the lawn, twigs and all, without a hitch. I consider that to be excellent value. When it comes down to it, we all must make the decisions that are best for ourselves and our families, and I just urge everyone to remember that the comments section is meant to be a respectful place. Disagreeing is perfectly fine! (Which is why I hadn't stepped in earlier).

Sierra Jones 'Lack of attention to real value?' What the? 'Spend too much time on pc instead of substance??' What are you even talking about?? Your comments are now not even making sense.
The author did an excellent job at promoting these green products in my opinion. She does not know your spending budget...she gave you food for thought...now it is up to you to go out, do your own shopping, and buy based what you can afford to spend. Every single product showcased can be purchased at a cheaper price. Do your own research, the author is not responsible to provide this service for you.
Lastly, this is not an unfavorable article just because you feel the products are expensive. That is an opinion you should've kept to yourself.
Opps...one more lastly....Green products sometimes cost more...yes. I have lots of experience in buying green and promoting an eco-friendly house. So as I've said before you might spend more initially...but you save in the long run, because you are never plugging in the product, or paying a thing to the hydro companies, which is worth every penny!
And by penny, I actually mean nickle (we are done with pennies in Canada!) LOL

rbchfamily So sad that manners have gone out the window. I take most articles on houzz as food for thought. All these arguments about the cost of products suggested seems silly, if you shop for these items to purchase new, well now you have a ballpark list. Just an article, take it or leave it. Let's enjoy each others ideas and creativity, I know that's why I enjoy Houzz.

Carolina Girl Hey Y'all I just checked something and kimdkendall doesn't even have any ideabooks, profile etc. on houzz. Just a heckler! Don't waste your time.

Elise Now we know why prior generations were skinnier. They had to provide the energy to make things work...

kimdkendall joyce

you're abit disappointing. if you read the comments they confirm most thought the prices were ridiculous. I realize you prefer cumbya but you should expect more from your authors.

calkelley Laura, thank you for your comment. Though I disagreed with some of your product inclusions for a green article, I hope I did so in a polite and respectful manner. I will go look up some of your other articles as this was intriguing.

Unfortunately, there is a flurry of comments from here cluttering my email box and this conversation has disintegrated into hostility. I will simply send them immediately to trash now.

Jedi Design Laura, I too thank you for an interesting and informative article. There will always be trolls and folks of ill-temper, but by and large we appreciate your ideas and thoughts; keep them coming! There is certainly a corollary between quality and price, though we do occasionally find happy exceptions to this rule.

Michele Allison-Elwell Great alternatives but $600 for a push mower??? Thats nuts.

artzi " Rudeness is the weak (wo)man's Imatation of strength." Eric Hoffer

jojosail2 The blender would be perfect on our boat.

Carolina Girl jojosail2 what a great idea! I had not thought about other possible uses for these items; great added value.

Carolina Girl For those of you who dont wish to spend $600 for a push lawn mower check out Tractor Supply where you can get one for $130. http://www.tractorsupply.com/husqvarna-reg-64-manual-reel-mower-16-in--1011409

Sierra Jones I'm sure some will appreciate you posting a link. Well done Joyce.
Don't try to hard to convince though, I think some people here just wanted something to complain about.
The article was about eco products and somehow turned into a price debate. One thing with this site, I've noticed, some people are negative for what seems like no reason, and can't be pleased either way.
The articles are meant to be inspiring and educational (I think), and I definetely don't think any author would deliberately offend their readers with the content.

Sierra Jones Also- I'm not sure who is in Canada, but my Mom bought a push mower last year, after seeing how well mine worked, at Canadian Tire for $99!
That's probebly what a gas mower would cost you in gas for an entire summer!

Carolina Girl Kimdkendall so glad you appreciated my cumbya. Maybe we could all use a little more of it.

megajess Prices are outrageous, but I guess they depend on where you are shopping.
Walmart carries the glass juicer for about $3 or $4

judygilpin To purchase all of these "cost saving" items would cost $1605.41 + tax. This does NOT include the Papervore coffee table whose website stated "price on request" which means it's so outragesly expensive they are afraid to tell us. I know you can buy similar items for less....I guess the was just a good ad op for the companies featured.

One question, however, do the rotary phones really work when everything went to push buttons years ago ? Do you need some kind of a converter ?