Q&A with Melanie Gnau: Insight on joyful, practical ways to live more sustainably

Meet Melanie. In this fun Q&A, she shares her commitment to repairing, thrifting, and DIY to live sustainably on a budget. Her habits are practical, relatable, and refreshing!

Generic lists of tips and tricks offer ideas about how to make sustainable living work for you. These abound on the internet! But sometimes, the best ideas come from more intimate peeks into the lives of people doing “the thing” day in and day out.

Today, we’re talking to Melanie Gnau, and she’s doing “the thing” incredibly well and with grace and generosity. She writes and shares about her life living in a small space. She teaches her community how to create a beautiful & sustainable home through DIY, thrifting & repair. 

I’ve been following her for a while and wanted to introduce you to her too. She has so many great insights about living sustainably without breaking the bank in a simple and relatable way. I connected with her for a fun Q&A to learn more about her work and how she got to where she is today. Let’s dive in!

Q: Tell us a little about yourself.

A: Hey y’all! I’m Melanie. I am a content creator and a writer. I specialize in sustainability through the lens of home. This includes repair, maintenance, and shopping secondhand. I live in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina. I love to garden, read romance novels, hike, and eat every pickle I can find.

Q: You have a degree in library science. I love libraries! How did you choose that and how has it served your career teaching about small and sustainable living?

A: I’m no longer a practicing librarian, but I still love libraries. I have a deep appreciation for how democratic libraries are – information for everyone! For free!

When I was a practicing librarian, I was an instructional librarian. I taught community college students how to think critically about information and how to do academic research. Teaching such a wide variety of folks has helped me to be able to distill a lot of complicated information – sustainability is complicated – into a more easily digestible format.

Q: What is the best-kept secret about libraries that everyone should know?

A: They’re more than just physical books. Libraries have adult and children’s programs and e-books. Some let you borrow tools, computers, and movies and allow you to access scholarly articles. Some libraries have seed libraries too that allow you to exchange seeds with your community. And no two libraries are the same, so check out what your community library offers.

I also want to add that something folks don’t know is that libraries need your support too. They need you to use the library to show circulation statistics. They often have to prove their worth to get the funding they need, and usage statistics help that effort immensely. You can support your library by using it, of course, but you can also let your representatives know that libraries are essential third spaces in our communities.

Note from Jen: As a library advocate and Board member of my local library, I couldn’t agree with Melanie more. It’s important to let your community leaders know that the library is important to you! If they don’t hear or see through statistics that it’s important, they often assume people don’t use it and reduce or eliminate funding.

Q: Give us a little laugh and tell us about something you tried to repurpose, repair, revitalize, etc.. that was a total flop.

A: Fairly often when I clean items and take an “after” photo, it’s so disappointing. Cameras really can’t capture how much difference a cleaning makes. Or even show how dirty things truly are!

In terms of “total flops,” most things work. I do a lot of research before I try anything. But I will say that recently I had water-damaged AirPods that I was hoping I could clean and they would work again. They didn’t. I’m still using my AirPods that only work in one ear. Haha!

Q: You play a game on Instagram called Smash or Pass. What’s your favorite Smash you’ve shared?

A: When I go out to a big flea market or sometimes when I go thrift shopping, I take photos of things that I think are interesting to post in my stories on Instagram. It won’t be things that I buy, but my followers like to shop along with me.

At a flea market last year, I found a heavy, iron garden arch that looked like it belonged in a 1970s Las Vegas wedding venue. It had a rose and heart design. By the time I saw it, it was already sold! I’m still on the lookout for a good, quality arch to grow things on in my garden.

Q: Where do you learn how to care for all the things you repair and update?

A: Repair has been a life-long habit for me. My parents value repairing items, so I learned a lot from them. I also initially specialized in archival studies in library school, so I took classes about how to preserve books, documents, and photographs. I do a lot of research and consult sources like Consumer Reports to learn about cleaning and repair products.

Q: I loved your Repairuary series. How did it come about and what did you learn? How long did most of the repairs take, including figuring out how to repair things?

A: Thank you! Repairuary was a series I did in my Instagram stories in January of this year. Each weekday, I repaired an item and took my followers along for the ride.

It came about because, after the holidays, I noticed that I had been putting off a lot of repair or maintenance projects. Honestly, most of the projects took longer to film than to repair. I did things like oil my wooden kitchen tools, darn a sock, and clean my vacuum.

I had done most of the projects in some form before. I didn’t want to try too many new things because I had a strict (self-imposed) deadline of putting something useful up every day. Most things took less than an hour, including any research I had to do. I also tried to use tools I already had on hand.

Q: What do you say to those who suggest repairing items is too time-consuming or expensive (i.e. buying tools and products to fix something is more than the cost to replace it)?

A: Sometimes it does cost more and, unfortunately, we’ve become accustomed to and even accepting of a throw-away culture. We need to learn to buy less stuff, buy better quality, and recognize when things can be repaired. We also need to fight for legislation like Right to Repair laws.

Note: I just shared a bunch of information about Right to Repair laws last week! Take a read.

I also think repair is an important life and community skill. Maybe it’ll take you 20 minutes to learn how to sew on a button now, but the next time it’ll only take 10, and the next time it’ll take 5. Soon you’ll be skilled enough to teach someone how to sew on a button and then you might want to explore visible mending. Next time you might borrow a sewing machine from your neighbor or attend a community sewing workshop, creating a trickle-down effect and further opting out of this closed-circle system we have.

You also don’t have to buy every tool or be an expert in all repairs. Repair creates local jobs! We used to have experts fix our vacuums, TVs, clothing, refrigerators, and other appliances. Paying folks to do those repairs goes into your community’s economy. I’d much rather pay a repair person my hard-earned money than give my money to a giant business that doesn’t care about me and creates unnecessary waste.

Q: Do you feel like your lifestyle choices are “weird” or that they go against the status quo in your community?

A: Sometimes! Some of my community values repair and sustainability, even if it is through the lens of saving money instead of saving the planet. I don’t think it’s my job to judge the decisions other people make. Most people are making the best decisions with what they have. I’m happy to talk about my choices if they bring it up first.

Q: Have your repair skills informed or changed your consumption habits?

A: My repair skills have taught me how to look for and buy quality items. It will vary from item to item, but I always look for things that could have potentially been made 100 years ago. Not items that are necessarily 100 years old, but things made of materials and that have the same hand-made aspects as 100-year-old items. I always look for secondhand items first before buying new ones. And I look for materials like real wood, iron, leather, glass, and 100 percent cotton or wool.

Q: What’s something your friends and family love about you that your public audience doesn’t often get to see?

A: Hmmm, maybe that I’m fiercely protective of them? I don’t share much about my family or friends online because I’ve seen the hyper-critical and dark side of the Internet. I also like to be fully present when I’m with them. I don’t take many photos or videos outside of my job. I relish how quiet my life is outside of social media.

Q: Do you think a more sustainable, less consumption-driven future is possible? If so, how do we get there?

A: I do think it’s possible, but I don’t think it’s possible with the current systems we have in place. Right now, we have a very closed-loop system. Most folks I know, myself included, are often forced into the easiest choice possible because we’re overworked, time-pressed, and stressed. Repair isn’t always the easiest choice.

Additionally, we need to reimagine how life can be for the average American. We need quality, no-cost, comprehensive healthcare that isn’t tied to our jobs. We need to have mandatory maternity leave – especially since women are often the purchasers in the home and responsible for everyday maintenance and repairs. We need to rethink the 40-hour work week and suburban planning. All these factors make life harder for average people and make us more reliant on big businesses instead of our neighbors, friends, family, and community.

It’s a complicated problem and I don’t know if I’ll see a solution in my lifetime, but I will continue to do what I can with what I have.

Q: Where else can we find you? Support your work?

You can find me and support me in several places:

• Instagram: @asmalllife
• Blog: asmalllife.com
• Substack: asmalllife.substack.com
• I also take donations if you learn something new or helpful from me. You can buy me a coffee here or donate via Venmo: @melanieasmalllife.

Thanks so much to Melanie for sharing her knowledge and expertise with us. If you’re not following and supporting her already, I highly recommend it. I have learned so much from her! She offers many tips about ways to live more sustainably that make simple sense (and cents!).