Retrofitting is much harder often than starting from scratch however there’s always something you can do to make your home and living more sustainable and easy going. One great retrofit idea is to move your laundry outdoors near your clothesline (preferably close to your food forest so you can run your grey water into it). We have just done this at Bandusia. Now the old laundry on the south side of the building (off the kitchen) has become our cool pantry (in every sense of the word) where we can store our preserves, seeds, home brews and the like.
The pantry will also include a “Cool Cupboard” – a cupboard with wire shelving that store our pecan nuts, potatoes, melons pumpkins, eggs, and other garden produce that need cool airflow but not too cold. At the bottom of the cupboard there is an opening under the house with an insect screen mesh to keep unwanted insects out. There is a solar chimney whirly bird at the top of the cupboard that draws the cool air from the bottom through the shelves out through the top. This will not only preserve food for longer it will reduce the size fridge we need and save energy, money and time. Stay tuned for our before and after shots in coming months.
