Purposeful Craft Projects for Necessities Bartering

Focusing on basics such as food, warmth, and cleanliness, offers your family several ways to turn crafts into necessities to use, sell, trade, or barter.

Basic Necessities

Focusing on basics such as food, warmth, and cleanliness, offers your family several ways to turn crafts into necessities, to use, sell, trade or barter. Some of these craft activities are probably already keeping your family busy. If you needed to step it up to the next level, to sell or trade for other necessities, these craft projects could be in demand.

Think Food

If you and your kids enjoy baking, make extra every time you bake, and freeze some in containers or freezer baggies. Baked goods thaw beautifully, as long as those items are unfrosted, otherwise it can turn into a mess.

Try baking muffins, fruit breads, high-protein (Ezekiel-type) breads, and unfrosted cupcakes. Get creative and add your own touches to favorite family baked-goods to sell or trade.

Think Warmth

Crocheted or knitted afghans are not only fun to make, they can keep you warm while working on them. Children or beginners can use spools of multi-colored rainbow yarn to create afghan designs, and those with more experience can create intricate counted-stitch patterns for bedding or throws.

If you're better at quilting or sewing, you can create large crazy-quilts from fabric scraps. Blankets are a necessity in cold weather and your handiwork can be sold or bartered for other items.

Making braided rag rugs to keep floors warm is a craft project in which your family's old clothes can be used. Launder and cut old, outgrown clothing into long strips, and braid into one long, continuous braid. Position braids into an oval or circular pattern, and hand-stitch braids together, for sought-after foot rugs.

Think Cleanliness

Soap-making is a fun craft for the family, making a useful product, which can also be sold or used for barter trade. I have made craft-ready soaps from supplies available at most larger craft stores, to melt in the microwave, and poured into soap molds; but it is an expensive craft.

I came across several soap-making recipes in an old homemade book, and settled on the one below, as it requires the fewest ingredients, and the least amount of work. You might want to try making soap as well, because everyone uses soap (or they should).

Homemade Soap Recipe

Measure 5 ½ pints cold water into an earthen-ware baking pan, adding 2 Tablespoons of (20 Mule Team) Borax and dissolve. Next add 4 ½ pints soft lard (or canned Crisco) not melted, as most recipes require.

Add 1 can (size not stated) Lewis Lye, stirring for 20 minutes with a wooden spoon or paddle, and cover (if possible). Let it stand until it hardens, and then cut into bars for family use, selling, or bartering.

Once you make your own soap, try replacing the lard with thick baby oil gel, or cocoa butter, and always add scented perfumed oil or a teaspoon of vanilla extract (for pleasant fragrance). Store cut soaps in zipper baggies to retain the scents. If selling or bartering, tying several cut bars together, with a satin (or straw) ribbon, or wrapped in tissue paper first, and then ribbon-tied, will present a saleable product.