8 habits from the USSR that we need more than ever

You can remember the Soviet Union with nostalgia, or you can shudder from just the memory. But we must pay tribute: the citizens of the USSR had many habits that brought undeniable benefits. I wish I could bring them back!

Morning work-out

All preschool institutions and schools in the USSR carried out morning exercises without fail. Most often in the fresh air.

The call to do exercises came from all media. The exercise was broadcast on radio and television.

This is actually a very useful habit. Exercising in the morning quickly puts the body into working condition and lifts your mood. Exercise has a positive effect on digestion, prevents problems with posture, cardiovascular, nervous and many other diseases.

TV on schedule

The release of your favorite show or movie was awaited like manna from heaven. As soon as a fresh newspaper, smelling of printing ink, fell into their hands, the whole family meticulously studied the TV show and traced the most interesting things with a pen or felt-tip pen. During the showing of cartoons, the playgrounds were empty. Just for an hour.

Almost all their free time, children walked, played outdoor games, and adults did useful things. It was also customary to have tea parties, visit each other, walk in the park, hold dance parties and much more.

Today, almost all of our leisure time is taken up by the Internet. You can watch cartoons, programs, and TV series around the clock. Outdoor games have been replaced by games on a tablet, and live communication has been replaced by correspondence and telephone conversations. People have moved away from each other, and many do not even know their neighbors by sight.

Reusable packaging

In the USSR, you could buy a bottle of milk or lemonade, drink it and return the glassware for a nominal fee. Handing over glass containers to collection points was not considered something shameful. Everyone, young and old, did this.

The children earned pocket money in this way (rather than begging their parents for money). Most often, they immediately bought delicious creamy ice cream in a crispy waffle cup. Or berry - in a cardboard box. In any case, the kids were glad and happy, and less damage was caused to the environment.

Love for work

The cult of labor reigned in the USSR. Everyone was obsessed with construction and manufacturing. It was believed that the best thing a person can do in his life is to work hard.

Love of work is one of those useful habits without which it is difficult to achieve success in anything. Without proper work and effort, it is impossible to build a career, open your own business, or start playing the guitar. Even to become a successful blogger, you will have to put in a lot of effort.

Modern people for the most part are not in the mood for work. Everyone dreams of receiving an inheritance. Oligarchs, social gatherings, bohemian life without worries and hassle are held in high esteem. It's good if you were born into a rich family. But if you don’t know how to work, it’s very easy to lose even a multi-million dollar fortune. There are hundreds and thousands of such stories.

Thrift

The Soviet Union is strongly associated with scarcity. But this also had its advantages.The lack of necessary things contributed to the development of such useful qualities as frugality and the ability to save. People treated things carefully, repaired them when they were broken, and did not buy unnecessary things.

In the modern world there is a wealth of choice. You can buy whatever your heart desires. But how many of the things around you are just sitting around? Advertising makes people buy a lot of things. Try to carefully consider your purchases over the course of a month and avoid purchasing unnecessary items. You will see how beneficial this is for the family budget. It’s better to use the money you save to attend a cultural event or put it in a “travel” piggy bank.

String bags instead of packages

Today the world is literally flooded with plastic bags. They wrap everything from groceries to socks and toys. This has a very negative impact on the environment.

Polyethylene takes decades to decompose. It poisons the lives of fish, birds and forest animals.

It's a matter of a string bag. This reusable bag beats bags in all respects: it is durable, compact, easy to wash and practically does not wear out. It also does not pollute the environment.

Labor camps

Soviet citizens from an early age learned to bring real benefits to society. At the same time, in the labor camps they received a heavy dose of useful vitamins. The children ate kilograms of fresh cherries, strawberries, and vegetables. In our free time we talked a lot, went to a disco in the evening, sang songs around the fire. A Soviet child could serve himself without any problems. Not every modern teenager can boast of the same.

Traditional subbotniks

Instead of grumbling about how dirty everything was, the residents of the USSR independently took care of the cleanliness of parks, local areas and other public places. Subbotniks were held not only in schools.

People came out on their own initiative with brooms and garbage bags. Young trees and flowers were planted. It's a pity that this habit has sunk into oblivion. When you regularly clean up yourself, you don’t raise your hand to throw trash or a cigarette butt past the trash can.

A person’s health and his pastime are a personal matter. But you can’t argue with the high level of recycling in the USSR. Instead of plastic bags rotting for thousands of years, there was a permanent string bag. Schoolchildren collected bottles, scrap metal and waste paper, and this was not considered shameful. Today this is done by homeless people and drunks. The streets and landfills are full of containers, and most of them cannot be recycled - at least in the post-Soviet space. In developed European countries, waste-free production, on the contrary, is being promoted. In Germany, stores have machines where you can put a bottle and get some change. Apparently, once upon a time the Soviet Union was truly ahead of the rest. Some Soviet habits would clearly not hurt us.