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| image: Sarah Swainson on Unsplash |
Weekend Readers: Welcome! Grab a tall iced coffee or tea. Once you finish reading, scroll down to the comments and share your thoughts on frugal must-dos before summer comes to a close—I'm hanging out in the replies all weekend!
The final weeks of August hold a unique magic. The days are still beautifully warm, but the subtle shift in the morning air reminds us that autumn is just around the corner. Before the busy September routine officially kicks in, it’s the perfect time to tackle a few quick household check-ins and intentionally savor the season—all without breaking the bank.
Here are 20 simple, practical things to do and enjoy before the calendar flips:
- Make a batch of no-cook refrigerator pickles. Use up an abundance of thick-skinned garden produce or market finds using just basic vinegar, spices, and a touch of sugar.
- Enjoy a twilight neighborhood walk. Take advantage of the long, warm August evenings for a slow walk after dinner while the sunset still lingers late into the night.
- Dry the last of the summer herbs. Tie up bundles of garden herbs to hang-dry, or freeze them chopped and packed into ice cube trays with olive oil or water to bring a burst of summer flavor into winter scratch cooking.
- Wash and hang-dry the quilts and blankets for cooler nights ahead. Use the lovely late-August warmth to dry freshly laundered bedding outdoors.
- Catch the last free summer concert or movie showing in the park. Check public library or community center bulletin board, or parks and rec websites to find the last of the free evening events in town.
- Shop specific seasonal sales. Pick up ketchup, mustard, and other condiments on sale for Labor Day to use during fall and winter, and buy the needed basic office supplies during back-to-school sales.
- Give the deck a quick end-of-season sweep. Pull out dry leaves and weeds from outdoor pots to keep the view crisp, clean, and beautiful to look at while working.
- Cut one last bouquet of flowers from the garden. Use a vase that you already own to make an absolutely free centerpiece for the coffee table.
- Have a farmers-market morning. Don't go with the intention of buying groceries. Go with $5–10 and get one beautiful thing: berries, flowers, a pastry, local bread, etc. Then walk around and enjoy the atmosphere
- Savor a quiet morning coffee outdoors. Before the autumn chill sets in, commit to spending at least three mornings sitting outside at 6:00 AM, enjoying the early peace before the day gets hot.
- Visit a local arboretum or public garden. Late summer blooms like dahlias, asters, and water lilies are in their peak this month, while mature ornamental grasses sway in the afternoon breeze. Crowds tend to be lower in late summer at public gardens, so a calm experience awaits.
- Make a summer playlist and take a long scenic drive. What songs scream summer to you? Build a custom song list on Spotify. Pair your phone with the car's stereo system. Once connected, open Spotify on your phone and press play.
- Make one last batch of ice cream or sorbet. Let the softening fruit in the bowl on the counter guide your choice of flavor if making a sorbet. If making ice cream, consider putting together a toppings bar from baking odds and ends (like jimmies, chopped nuts, coconut, and chocolate chips) for make-your-own sundaes.
- Plan a simple "Cold Supper" evening. Keep the house perfectly cool by skipping the stove entirely and assembling a beautiful platter of garden tomatoes, cheese, and homemade bread.
- Do a spot-defrost of the freezer if you didn't do a full defrost. Take 15 minutes to clear out any frost buildup from the summer heat and inventory what’s hiding in the back to make room for autumn storage.
- Check the status of subscriptions. Do a quick digital audit of any online trials or monthly services to ensure you aren't paying for tools you no longer need.
- Freeze a harvest of fruit and vegetable pieces, such as green pepper strips, tomato chunks, zucchini slices, berries or peaches. Slice up the abundant late-summer fruits and veggies and freeze them on baking sheets to store for a taste of summer in winter meals, smoothies or baking.
- Have a “tourist in my own town” day. Explore all of the sites you'd take out-of-town guests to see. In our town, we have the town's history museum, a public-space art and mural walk, several art galleries, and a waterfront with a ferry terminal, all within walking distance of each other.
- Declutter the main writing or reading workspace. Clear off visual clutter from the desk or table for a clean start of the upcoming month with a fresh, focused mind.
- Replace the furnace filter. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the need for a furnace is not that far away.
Join the Conversation!
What about you? What is the one practical chore you want to get out of the way this week, or the one summer pleasure you are promising yourself to enjoy before September arrives? Let’s chat in the comments below—I’d love to hear your weekend plans!
All good suggestions. I think if I did all of them, it would keep me busy until winter. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteRight you are. But of course, this is a menu of choices. My husband asked me last night what I want to do this summer. He knows I've been mostly at home working in the garden and refurbishing our deck railing, plus housework and cooking. I've only been to the grocery store, the hardware store, and church, plus the one-day outing 2 weeks ago. That's it for the entire summer.
Last night I took a walk at sunset. It was beautiful to see the sun's angle through the trees. Today's summer "job" is to dehydrate watermelon slices. These are wonderful to have in winter as a treat.
I hope your summer has been filled with seasonal adventures. Have a great weekend.
Great list! I'd probably skip many of the outdoor ones until cooler weather (maybe late September or early October) but the rest could work well here. Just replaced the furnace filter this past week, though it's a monthly task for us in the summer as the blower runs a lot more for the A/C than it does for the heat, sadly. We have pets so with the fur we need to stay on top of that for maximum blower efficiency. My husband also sprays out the outdoor part of the A/C unit fairly often. When it cools down a bit, I also need to sweep out our little greenhouse and get it prepped for the cooler months.
ReplyDeleteThe chore I need to get done this week is starting fall greens and lettuces indoors. I've got the trays filled but just need to pull out the seeds and get it done.
Cat
Cat, like you , I need to plant for fall lettuces. But mine can still go outside. I had lettuce and spinach overwinter previously. Not last year as we got snow! But maybe this year. Plus our first frost date isn’t until late November-early December, so I’ve got time. Hopefully they’ll do better than some of our other produce from the garden. I’m waiting for our temps to drop to the 80s.
DeleteHi Cat,
DeleteLiving in an area with such intense summer heat, doesn't it make you wonder how folks managed in your region before A/C? My husband and I have checked out real estate in lower COL areas of the US. Since I have a penchant for older architecture, we've focused on homes built before mid-century (last century, wow, how old am I!). One of the fun things we've seen are sleeping porches for the heat of summer in these older homes.
Anyway, back to topic -- you reminded me that I need to restart the lettuce. I seeded some deck containers, but it got too hot for about a week, and they withered and died. So, I should do that today, so we can have some early October salads. We can keep lettuce going on the deck through about the end of October. What greens besides lettuce do you grow in fall? Good luck with your fall seed-starting.
Hi Lynn,
DeleteIt sounds like you still have plenty of time for fall greens in your garden. The fall must be so beautiful where you live. Have you found varieties of lettuce that have a better germination when planted in warmer soil, as you must have this time of year? The last several years I've grown lettuce in containers on the deck (which gets really hot in summer, south-facing). I do this to keep the slugs from eating all of the leaves. Anyway, mid-summer it's too hot to keep lettuce going on the deck. I need to look for a variety that can tolerate more heat.
Good luck with your fall salad garden, Lynn!
Fall is lovely here as long as you don’t expect leaf colors. :( Our house is situated in a maritime forest, so we have a few deciduous trees mixed in (and vines that change with the seasons!) with all of the pine, cedar and holly trees. We have a few dogwoods that will show some color. One thing about evergreens, is that the area doesn’t look so barren come fall and winter. Fall is part of our “shoulder season” so there aren’t as many tourists in town so things move at a (welcome) slower pace. And the ocean and sound are always lovely, regardless of the weather or season.
ReplyDeleteWhen you mentioned being a tourist at home, our area has lots of places of interest, especially the Wright Brothers Memorial here as Kitty Hawk is one of our towns. We also have several other National (and state) Parks so I often ferry our guests around.
Black seeded Simpson lettuce grows well here and that usually what I buy. But my husband and son in law bought some different varieties so I’ll see how they do.