Eco Friendly House And Garden

Why Not Make Even More Out Of Your Eco Friendly House And Garden This Year?

Rather than just living in your house as normal - why not consider a few of these ways to no only improve the eco friendly qualities of your home - but to make it work for you too.

I mean, why should a house just sit there doing nothing? Make it more useful than it already is by making some small changes or concessions….

Here are a few ideas for you to consider with regards to ’sharing’ your home with others for the benefit of others - as well as your bank balance in some cases!

Empty Rooms Are A Waste:
Even if you turn of all heating and seal up all windows - an empty room is a waste of resources!

It’s already in a home filled with energy and bodies - so why leave rooms empty when you could make them work for a living and keep the worlds ‘footprints’ smaller - after all, the more people living in the same house can save on so many levels!

If you aren’t into a full time tenant and live in a busy town or city, why not consider a Monday-to-Friday tenant instead. No huge commitment, less belongings and they are usually a reliable adult too!

Or the other end of the extreme - if your house is too big for you but you don’t want to downsize for whatever reason, then why not eco renovate and create a self contained unit in the basement or whatever and rent this out as as a permanent let or holiday home depending on your location.

Hotel Rooms Even More So:
Why not treat your home as a swap for a hotel room - either as a holiday for yourself or while you are away.

Firstly, you could take a holiday swap this year instead of booking a hotel. let a family move into your home while you go live in theirs! Not everyone is looking for an equal swap either - you might get a cute cottage for your family home, or a spacious farmhouse for your city flat!

Secondly, if you live near a local attraction or event (like Wimbledon or a show ground) then why not time your holidays to coincide with a huge demand for lettings! Signing up with an agency could bring you up to £2000 a week depending on your home and the event you are close to!

Parking Spot Or Tennis Court?
Same goes for the outside of your home - why not rent out unused space to others at virtually no cost to you or really any effort either!

If you have land that people could park on and you live in a busy location - why not let someone park there? You aren’t using it - and they probably waste time and petrol every morning looking for a spot!

And the same goes for your tennis court, trampoline, pool, piano, climbing frame or anything else you have sitting around that you aren’t using 24 hours a day. You might not want to charge your closest friends - but a few quid for a game of tennis for some young kids or keep-fit oldies won’t go amiss - basically paying for it’s own maintenance.

Your Skills Too:
It’s not just physical things that can help out others and bring in a few extra pounds - what about your own skills?

Music lessons, language lessons, discussion groups, Body Shop parties and product research groups. All could use your skills and your lounge, conservatory or kitchen - and of course - you!

Or if you are on a country walk or in a cute village, why not sell cakes and tea or garden veg and flowers in your front garden for passers-by!

House In The Country

Get Your Home On TV!
If you live in a city, your home has a great garden, great views or great architecture, or you have some great internal features - you could ‘model’ your home!

Let a photo or TV agency know about it and you could rent your house and garden out for magazines, TV or even movies!

You don’t even have to do anything, they set it all up and then take it all away again - pain free and you won’t be in any of the shots - unless you want to be!

Having a small indoor pet can really help you to save on waste and improve your recycling!

The statistics just in on the amount of food families waste is unbelievable and what with throwing away all those cardboard boxes and toilet rolls!

So why not get your very own micro-processing unit for these such things?  And have some great fun along the way…..

Rodents:
Getting yourself a little furry friend from a rescue centre could be one of the cutest things you acquire this year!  Maybe it’s a furry hamster, a cuddly guinea pig or a tiny mouse - whatever tickles your fancy could be worth its weight in gold in terms of that badly bruised apple or those wilting vegetables!

Whether it’s a tiny thing in a cage indoors, or a larger pet outside in a hutch - it can help you to break down your waste into more useful ingredients!

Those cardboard tubes can be chewed up by your gerbils making them easier to compost - or those veg could be converted into concentrated compost by a bunny rather than rotting in the air and attracting flies!

Any pet which has gnawing teeth and eats fruit and veg is a winner!

What’s Best For What?
Well, needless to say, they all have their specialities in the biodegrading world - and size is a factor too.

Guinea Pigs and rabbits are the best for munching large amounts of food waste - such as left-over allotment materials that aren’t great for the family - including stalks and stems of most plants. 

And not only does their used bedding go great in your compost heap - but they can be harnesses in the garden as lawn mowers as well!  Get the right shaped run and you can move it regularly around the lawn to keep it nice and trim!

Communal living smaller animals can be just as useful - for example 3 gerbils.  They love to chew anything and try all sorts of fruit and veg.  Perfect for shredding up those cereal boxes into easy-to-compost pieces - and creating a nice used bedding material or cardboard, vegetable waste and sawdust!

What’s Not So Good:
Syrian hamsters are probably the least useful - but still cute!  They only live alone and aren’t too big - so there is only so much waste they can eat for you!  They also don’t chew up cardboard as much as gerbils - but can be easier to handle for the younger kids!

Rats generally eat meat in their food so aren’t too good at creating compostable waste - however a couple of rats can certainly get through your leftovers if you give them a chance!

Degus and chinchillas are specialist eaters - so can’t be given fruit or too much variety in their diets - hence not many foods and treats available for them in the pet stores!  It makes them very ill - so not too good for an eco friendly pet!

However - whatever small pet you choose to help your out with your composting and waste food control - make sure you consider a rescue animal first.  There are hamsters, gerbils and rabbits waiting patiently in rescue centres all over the country for a good home.

Could you be one of them?

Brilliant ideas to purify your lifestyle and feel good about it - she says….

Basically this book tries to cover all the organic and natural ways you can overcome the ‘evil’ or modern products and all the chemicals they contain.

And to prove it, she divides her advice up into 48 categories of ‘nasties’ including make-up and nappies. She explains in each case why we need to swap to more natural alternatives - by using scientific and medical arguments against each - and then offers organic, (man-made) chemical-free and more ‘natural’ products or ingredients that you could use instead.

The Book Itself:
I loved the layout of this book, and it was so easy to read that you find yourself reading chapter after chapter.  Each chapter is a 4-6 page debate as to the pro’s and con’s of each mini subject including for example, Make-Up, chocolate and toothpaste.

Hughes-Cooper helps to explain some of the main down-sides to the products we use today and offers alternatives.  There isn’t a full explanation of each due to the ’short’ nature of each chapter, and some of her answers or arguments are a bit vague or non-proven - but she certainly makes you think about all these issues while you are reading. 

She regularly uses phrases like ’this is totally natural’ - but remember that this is what they used to say about Arsenic, Lead and radio-active products that ‘glow in the dark’. It’s also important to remember that anything that can be found in plants, animals or in the earth is technically ‘natural’ in origin, but I doubt you will be in a hurry to use toadstools, uranium or snake venom in your kitchen or bathroom!

Due to the way in which you can read through this book relatively quickly, I found that I would stop for a moment after reading a particular fact and think ‘Oh my goodness, I should stop using that’ but then read on through to another section and do the same again. It seemed like page after page of doom and gloom, and worries about my health, but then I just carried on reading.  Almost like I wanted to find out how awful I was being to my own body, but then actually did nothing about it.

As with most of the ‘best things’ in this life, whether it’s growing your own veg, not flying, using only organic make-up, growing sprouted mung bens and seeking out the parabens free version of everything, the thought of it all just seems to overwhelm the normal working person.  I myself would love to consider doing most of the things Hughes-Cooper recommends in her book, but the time it would take and the possible financial costs just seem a bit prohibitive.  And it left me feeling like a bit of a failure!

Yes, there are some easy ones to achieve, like growing my own herbs in the window box and buying organic milk (as I do them already), but others I hadn’t really thought of doing, like buying hemp products instead of 100% cotton and un-bleached feminine products - which should both be quite easy to start doing. 

However, something else caught my attention as I read this book: Organic doesn’t automatically mean eco friendly - you might need a trade-off.  For example making your own smoothies, fruit juices, pies and vegetable noodles, all involve buying a new piece of electrical equipment - and creates a lot more washing up!  Neither of these are eco friendly.

Should you buy organic wines from Australia or non-organic British wines?  Think of the weight of the glass bottles coming from the other side of the world!  And there are constant references to using ‘natural’ cleaning products like white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda - but can you imagine what would happen if we all used these instead of all the shop-brought cleaners?  Vinegar is from grapes - so excessive amounts of water-hungry fruits will need to be grown to keep up with demand; and the soda is mined from the ground - so imaging habitats being destroyed to ‘naturally’ clean all the kitchens in the UK and US! 

I totally agree, however, that our actions can make us humans healthier and at the same time have less of a ‘chemical’ impact on the environment.  And sometimes the choice you have is so very simple.  However, there is still so much that you need to work quite hard to achieve, and I just don’t think that everything in this book can be achieved by a working family.

I mean I thought I was putting a reasonable effort in to the whole eco friendly/organic movement, but have only seemed to have achieved about a third of the things mentioned in the book. with maybe alf a dozen or so more in the pipeline now after reading it.  So, I hope that everyone who reads it (just like me) manages to get a few new ideas from it, because all those small things will soon add up!

Result: 3/5
If you were just reading this book the one time, then it might not really be of any use to you, other than making you think about how many toxins you and your children have absorbed over your lifetime, but if you were to use this as a reference book then things could be very different - and my Result would rise to 4/5 for it.

It certainly has it’s uses as a starting point for the layman, and has highlighted a few new things for me, but the thought of searching endlessly on the Internet for the right products, or reading label after label when I only have 10 minutes free time before having to collect the kids from school - or worse still, I have the kids in tow, then these things become unreasonable to achieve.

This book is part of the  ‘52 Briliant Ideas’ series, so I will be looking out for other relevant books to give me some more inspiration!

ISBN: 978-1-905940-57-8

Lighting your home for low energy consumption is an important part of modern eco living.

But don’t forget that it is also very important for all your other hoursehold activities too - like reading, entertaining and general safety.  So do think about these when trying to change your lighting for the better.

If you don’t plan for the correct number of light fixtures in your rooms - or bulb brightness; then you may end up having to make adaptations to the room, or changing room uses - which could all be avoided with better planning.

For example, if the lights are not bright enough in your lounge, you may want to read and use your laptop in the kitchen instead, where seating is usually more uncomfortable - and you may have to keep moving out of the way for others to eat.  And why heat the front room if noone ever really uses it anyway?

But then what if your kitchen is open plan to the hall, the stairs or the conservatory - heating that space is going to cost you more money and energy than having fitted a suitable light in the lounge in the first place!

No Need To Compromise:
Planning for a greener home doesn’t mean you have to ask for less stylish fittings - and you can still take advantage of contemporary designs like modern alessi Designs or AXO’s avant-garde approach in your home.  ‘Eco Friendly’ doesn’t have to mean ‘boring’ - just plan ahead and choose the eco options where possible, for example fittings that work with low energy bulbs and lighting that makes a room in your home fit for the purpose you want to use it for. 

I mean, you can still have glitz and glamour in your home - but make sure it is with a purpose: like some delicate chandelier lighting in the dining room!  If you have a dining room that you want to glam up for special occasions - then go for it!  Energy-efficient light bulbs can be used for most fittings these days - and you still get to enjoy that special treat for yourself without having just a boring single lampshade in your room!

And, as you use it regularly for entertaining - it will be fit for purpose and so make better use of that space, those fittings and your energy choices.  It can also help to keep that room ‘kid free’ so it stays as a special place for grown-ups or special events.

Planning Ahead For A Night In:
Another idea is to have 2 sets of independent lights in a room - for 2 different purposes.  Take your lounge: day to day living for the family, or quiet night in for the grown-ups? 

If you are like me and want the lounge only lit with low light while watching an evening movie - then consider a pendant light - or three.  Rather than leaving the bright kitchen or hall way lights on to create that ambiance; why not light the room with low wattage (and low energy) tiny lights - maybe with colored covers for some warmth. 

And don’t forget - keeping the lighting in the room you are actually in means you can close the door and keep the warmth inside in the winter - rather than it all leaking out of the open hallway door!

So, plan ahead - way ahead - and make sure that the time and energy you spend on planning your new light fittings will fit with your hopes and uses for each room. 

No more having to sit somewhere stupid just because it’s brighter, no more having to move the furniture around to fit in a new lamp - and of course no more compromise on having an eco friendly house!

We bulk buy products to be eco friendly - so does a bigger house give the same benefits?

We’ll not if you are just a single person or a couple - but what if you involved the whole family or some friends?  And I don’t mean join some commune or hippy campsite - although they are both options for some people.

What I am talking about is a great idea for saving energy, combining skills and resources as well as improving everything else ‘in bulk’.  So how about it?

The Theory:
I would love to live in a large home surrounded by land - but I know this would be a bit selfish in the overall scheme of things - so how about a compromise?

How about planning to live in a house with other people, whether they be my mum or sibling - or even friends - And it doesn’t need to be as bad as it sounds: you would plan to buy a property that still allowed you your privacy, for example a 3 story town house, divided into 2 sections or a detached property with a ‘granny annexe’ as part of it.

This way, you can pool resources too, like a joint investment in a garden allotment, solar panels, wildlife garden etc, as not only will you have more combined finances with this arrangement - you will also have a larger amount of space to work with.

2 couples living in townhouses may only have a small courtyard garden and a thin sliver of the terraced roof - but combine those 2 mortgages or using a larger deposit could mean you are able to buy detached, with more garden, off road parking, fruit trees, a larger roof and less overheads: only 1 TV license, one Council Tax, lower energy costs (the first so-many units are higher priced), lower food costs (buying in bulk), the list goes on……

It has all the same advantages as buying a 2 litre bottle of shampoo rather than 4×500ml bottles - but on a much larger scale!

Other Benefits:
For starters, all the maintenance costs will be shared between you all, insurance bills and repairs will all be halved - so more money to spend on green investments.

The security of your home will be increased as when you are away, the other people will probably still be around - and the animals and plants can carry on growing while you are busy.

Magazine subscriptions can be shared, and days out can be treated as ‘family’ tickets as there will always be enough people to make up the numbers! Less cars even, depending on your situation - and more shared journeys - or less journeys even; well if you are going to the store - then your flatmates don’t need to!

Food should never go out of date if there are twice as many people around to eat it - and if you ook together then imagine the energy savings!  And there will always be enough dirty dishes to fill the machine - and clothes for a full wash!

And can you imagine how great it would be for the kids to grow up in a friendly environment where they can learn skills from all the people around them, and live in an house with a bit of character and a large garden with chickens in it!

Sounds perfect - I just need to find some similar-minded friends…………

National Family Week (UK) runs from May 31st to June 6th - but make yours and eco friendly one!

The event is all about celebrating Family and your time together - either indoors surrounded by books and films or outside knee-deep in grass and surrounded by bird song!

But there is no reason why your events can’t be green, local and without creating enough waste to fill your entire bin!

There are many events being held around the country that are on the official website, but why not use their guide to make a week of eco friendly fun for yourself your family and your friends.

The weeks events are running along a sort of ’schedule’ to help give people a rough plan if the week, and you can do as little or as much as you like - or create your own eco fun, but the week is as follows:

Monday - Eco Friendly Picnic:
Why can’t you arrange an event where you make an old fashioned outdoor feast, with local or organic produce brought in bulk - rather than everything in it’s own tiny bottle or individual wrapping.  Why not get one person to bake an enormous cake, one to bake a loaf of fresh bread, one to chop homegrown salad and bring home-laid hard-boiled eggs for the filling. 

Buy huge bumper packs of crisp and nibbles to share out and bring all fully reusable plastic plates and bowls to take home after.  And don’t forget some tubs to collect wild blackcurrants or fallen apples in!

Tuesday - Family Film Day:
Why not extend the picnic theme indoors with a great matinee of one or two of the families favourite films - make sure one is a classic musical to get everyone singing and dancing.  Before the first film, maybe all spend time in the kitchen mixing pastry and cakes so that when the film is over there is plenty of home-made food for everyone to tuck into before the next film!

Wednesday - Great Story Telling Day:
Rather than read other peoples stories - why not spend this day surrounded by scissors, glue and old magazines with a selection of pens and string - and have everyone create their own great adventure story from all your old magazines and bits of the outdoors like pressed flowers and leaves!  Something they can take away and keep.

Thursday - Green Road Trip:
Car or minibus, it doesn’t matter - but if there is an adventure to be had getting there is half the fun.  Rather than take the straight route - why not find the country lanes that go through tiny villages, steepled churches and fields of cows and horses.  Maybe even take in a ruined castle or 2 on the way as well - and don’t forget the camera and a tasty home-made packed lunch!

Friday - Eco Friendly House Party:
Anything goes here - whether it’s literally a party that goes on all night (without annoying the neighbours of course) or whether it’s a day-time party where people bring their family and some tasty goodies to share.  Or maybe help out with some spring cleaning or reducing and recycling.

Take one room of your home that really needs a sort out and get everyone involved. Whether it’s taking stuff to the recycling centre, community furniture project or around a friends - many hands make light work! Maybe get together to help an elderly relative or neighbour - or just your own home and ring some green changes!

Saturday - Eco Garden Fun:
Maybe this one could be an eco garden house party, where you all take it in turns to attack someones garden for the better, laying hedges, creating a wildlife pond, a bug corner, putting up bird feeders or just planting some veg! Things you never really get round to yourself - especially with the kids under your feet! Imagine to things you could achieve with 10 people instead of just you and your mum!

Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have fun - and maybe send in some photos!
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Here we are again - with some quick easy steps to staying green…..

1) Buy Old Stuff:
Choose products that contain recycled materials otherwise why are we bothering to separate out our rubbish in the first place! 

There is no point expecting people to wash out and separate out all their plastics and glass if we aren’t prepared to buy the stuff we make out of it all!  Something is only worth making if people are going to buy it - I mean you don’t see trifle flavoured crisps or eyeball pies in your shops do you?

2) Buy New Stuff:
If you see a new product that supports Fair Trade, palm oil certification, MSC or anything else - make sure you are one of it’s new supporters!

If someone has bothered to make something that supports something you believe in, then the least you can do is buy it occasionally.  Sometimes these eco friendly versions are just as tasty as the normal things you buy, but that extra 50p you spend could make all the difference.

3) Bring Your Own Stuff:
We all remember to save our bags for shopping, and nearly all of us remember to take our bags to the stores - but then we go and leave them in the car! 

So, try to make a concerted effort to remember your bags when shopping, and to take more than you think you will need.  The number of times I only wanted ‘a few things’ and ended up remembering a whole load of other stuff - far out-weighing my original bag capacity! 

4) Leave Stuff Behind:
Make sure that you don’t buy fish that is not MSC certified - otherwise that might become a type of fish that you won’t be able to eat in the future - especially if it is being over-fished!

Isn’t it better to go without it this week rather than lose it forever!

The same goes for everything really.  My local store didn’t have my usual organic, free-range medium hens eggs.  So I didn’t buy any.  Firstly, I can go back to the shop tomorrow without having starved to death overnight: and secondly, buying the less chicken-friendly alternative in the shop lets the shop manager know that I’m not really that bothered about the type of eggs I buy!

I mean, if non-organic supermarket eggs sell just as well when the organic ones have sold out - and there is a better profit margin on the non-organic ones - then they might well let the organic ones ‘run out’ more regularly knowing that it’s more important that customers have eggs than the fact that they are organic!

Don’t let supermarkets decide what you can buy - make sure you tell them what you want to buy.

5) Make Your Own Stuff:
Rather than buy processed foods from Asia, and vegetables from Africa - why not try out some new recipes and using veg you can grow in your own back garden!

Try shopping in the fresh and home baking sections only for a week.  Don’t rely on someone you don’t know making a meal for you miles from your kitchen and then sticking it in a box for you and shipping it to your nearest store!

Give it a go!

There are many great eco friendly reasons to buy a stainless steel kitchen sink!

Especially if the new sink has a small drainer to the side or is a double sink - as this also makes the process of washing up even more eco friendly - twice the eco credentials!

So, what makes them so eco friendly - and why should you consider changing your current sink to a stainless steel kitchen sink?

Why Are They Eco Friendly?
Well, after writing my article on how you could design your new bathroom to be eco friendly with a bit of forward planning, I was starting to look into how to update your kitchen to do the same.

Needless to say, I spent some time investigating kitchen sinks, and found out that stainless steel was actually a very eco friendly material and had extra eco friendly benefits too!

1) Low Carbon:
The production of stainless steel creates very little carbon, and so therefore each product made impacts very minimally on your homes carbon footprint!

2) Very Recyclable:
Steel is very highly prized in the recycling market as it is so easy to melt down a reuse.  Therefore all the old stainless steel kitchen sinks - as well as cars and other electricals - can be melted down a reused, therefore limiting virgin materials being mined elsewhere.

3) Long Life:
As it is so difficult to damage stainless steel products, they have a very long shelf life so to speak - and therefore the initial purchase of your sink could be a long-term investment in terms of expended energy, fitting and money-saving!

4) Hygienic Materials:
As stainless steel is not damaged by kitchen knives and others scrapes and bangs, there is nowhere on it’s surface to harbour germs.  As a result, you see this material used throughout hospitals, large kitchens and fast-food joints - so you know it’s good stuff!

5) Easy To Keep Clean:
Not only is it hygienic in the first place, it is very difficult to stain, burn or otherwise make stainless steel unclean.  All stains can be easily be removed with warm soapy water, club soda or olive oil, and white vinegar will give it a nice polish too.  As a result there is no need to use harsh chemical cleaners which flush straight into your local water works or burn your skin!

6) Can Save Water:
This one only counts if you buy a double sink or use a washing up bowl as it will make washing the dishes more eco friendly.  You can use the other sink to throw your dirty food and liquid into rather than letting all the dirty food waste into the water you are using for cleaning!  The clean water then lasts longer and can clean more for less!

How Do I Get Started?
Well, I’m not suggesting you get a new sink just for the fun of it, but it isn’t a bad idea to start looking for a new kitchen sink before you actually need one - otherwise you could end up buying the first sink you see in an ‘emergency’ rather than searching for the best one for your needs.

I’m sure that if your old sink suddenly broke or cracked, you wouldn’t take your time browsing for a suitable replacement - you’d want one right then and there.  So why not find a preferred dealer with same day delivery and keep them saved in your bookmarks for when you do need them!

The one I found that fits the bill on all counts is the rather simply named Mr Direct, who not only offers a huge range of suitable sinks, but was one of the only ones I found that offers that same day delivery promise that so many other suppliers avoid.

They also have great images on their website of their double and treble sinks - both left and right-sided options - that I think they have every kitchen covered! 

And with their collection of stainless steel faucets added on, your can even be more eco friendly with the delivery: all your products from the same supplier and on the same van!

I bet you never thought your choice of sink could have such an eco friendly impact!

In the UK you can buy meat products that are from a known source.

So you can rest assured that the animals were treated with the basic standards we would expect, received medication when necessary and were not cooped up alone for weeks on end.

So what does the Freedom Food label actually tell you?  It’s not organic, it’s not fair trade - so what is it for?  It has been in place since 1994 so it is obviously here to stay and is taken seriously.

Below I have summarised the 5 main points from their own leaflet, so that you can be sure of these things when choosing this type of meat product over the other similar products on the shelf that don’t have the RSPCA Freedom Foods logo, (or those that are certified organic as this has a similar set of criteria).

Labelling in all countries allows for certain words and images to be used on meat products that are not a true representation of how the animals were treated or where they were kept. 

For example the words ‘natural’ and ‘fresh’ mean absolutely nothing with regards to how the animals were reared or lived, and ‘produced in the UK’ doesn’t mean the animals ever saw the UK while alive - they could have been factory farmed in any other country in the world and shipped here after slaughter.

In addition, this RSPCA label (among others) is not connected to any food brands or food manufacturers, so you know it is only the animals they have in mind rather than profits!

So, here are the summarised points that mean that you could be making a difference to how your food is farmed:

1) Freedom From Hunger & Thirst:
These animals will have had access to fresh water and a suitable diet that maintains health and vigour.

2) Freedom From Discomfort:
These animals will be provided with an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.

3) Freedom From Pain, Injury Or Disease:
These animals will be living in an environment that helps prevent accidents and illnesses and offers rapid diagnosis and treatment if any of these are found.

4) Freedom To Express Normal Behaviour:
These animals are provided with sufficient space, proper facilities and the company of other animals of their own kind.

5) Freedom From Fear And Distress:
These animals will live in conditions that avoid mental suffering and offer a certain level of respect and care.

And due to this continuity of checks, Freedom Foods can be traced from their farm, through to their haulier, the abattoir and even right to the store!  So you know that the animal you are about to eat has been cared for through it whole life.

The meats included in this scheme cover everything you could imagine, from eggs to beef, pork to duck and salmon to cheese!  All meats and animal products are covered by this, so you can rest assured when buying any of them.

Just look for the label!

Here are some quite simple steps to help you keep on the green road…….

If you are having trouble starting your year as green as you had hoped, then take a quick peep at the things listed below and get back into the swing of it!

1) Find Your Nearest Store:
Don’t drive miles to a store to get the cheapest prices on a few main things - visit a store you can walk to and just grab your essentials.

If you do a little shop every so often in your closest store, not only will it be there when you need it, but you will get to talk to your neighbours and maybe find some new products you never see in a larger store.

2) Find Your Nearest Products:
Apples are apples at the end of the day - but were they brought from down the road or from the other side of the world? 

If they were from a local farm, then in buying them you are helping to keep parts of your local area free from urban development and new roads - keeping wildlife close to your own homes.

3) Take A Little Less:
Always buy a bit less than you normally would of the fresh items, as we never eat everything we buy before it goes rotten!  So the less you buy in the first place, the more chance you have of eating it all when it is still nice and fresh!

It may be cheaper to buy bulk and save on packaging when ordering the larger pack sizes, but the cost of transporting and throwing away our food is just as costly!

4) Expect A Bit More:
Make sure you choose the products that are wrapped in compostable packaging.  There is no reason why vegetables these days are not packaged in compostable tray and wrapping.

If one vegetable can be presented and stored effectively using compostable wrapping, then so can nearly all others!  Make your choice right in the aisles.

If you tell the store what products you want to take home by buying them over others, then you don’t have to write in or attend meetings to get your point across.

5) Be Nosy:
Make sure you go up every aisle at least every month or so - allowing you too see new products and make new choices.  Don’t be put off by everything else in that area as you may find some tasty treasures and some eco friendly ideas.

There is more than 1 way to create the same meal - so check out frozen vegetables and canned fruit, pizza base mix and organic alternatives!  You never know what you can find hidden amongst the huge number of products in your local stores.

Going, going green…..