Eco Friendly House And Garden

Reusable bags are all around us these days – but what are the pro’s and cons?

I myself use several types of different bags for different occasions – but my friend thinks that they are the worst thing ever! Why are there so many types and why wouldn’t you like them?

Their Purpose In Life:
After listening to my friend discussing why he didn’t like my reusable bags – I asked him why they were invented in the first place. He went for the eco friendly angle – but in reality, they are just a replacement for a plastic carrier bag.

photo credit: Rachel Medina

Now I really don’t like plastic bags from supermarkets as they have no real shape, they are noisy, they tear easily, they are painful to carry if heavy and you can’t put them over your shoulder to carry. However, my reusable bags are the opposite to all this.

Bulky Jute Bag:
My bulky jute bag has great shape to it, even when set on the floor. The handles are soft and wide and just long enough to sit over my shoulder if I want to shift the weight.

It is larger than A4 so I can keep books and notes in it, and being open-topped I can easily get things out and find things as and when needed.

It does have its downsides though; firstly this open-topped feature means that security is low when I am in a crowd or when I take a rest and place my bag on the floor, and if I don’t have anything in the bag (like on the way to the library) you can’t fold it up and it tends to flap about in the wind.

Flimsy Cotton Bag:
I have several flimsy white cotton bags with various different companies advertising on the side – but all are basically the same shape and size. They are very easy to shove into my rucksac or other bags so that when finding something extra to carry they can flap open and be filled with goodies.

They are a light as a feather and so I can take all 4 out with me without them becoming a nuisance – and I am not too bothered if I carry them around all day and don’t use them.

And they can be washed.

Their downside is that they have no structure whatsoever and loading them up 1-handed can be a bit of a pain sometimes. With the extra long and thin handles (perfect for over the shoulder action) they can get all tangled up when trying to unfold and carrying them by your side is impossible – as they drag along the floor.

The Result?
Well, I just love my reusable bags (including the fact that nearly all of them were free with a promotion) and although they each have their uses – they are a zillion times better than plastic carriers – and much easier to use than a bulky rucsack with zips (and the fact that it is on your back!).

I mean, if you get them any bigger, they would just be holdalls – which are of course – reusable bags too!

I think that small reusable bags have filled a niche that needed filling – with or without their perfect eco credentials – and I would be just as happy to use a non-organic material reusable bag over a carrier anyday.

photo credit: New Internationalist

I have been sitting in traffic lately – and have found out why there are always big queues!

People seem to have trouble accelerating away from their standstill when the lights go green; I’m not sure why but there is always a massive delay with people pulling away at the lights when they change.

Seemingly, people forget that they have just been sat in traffic for ages and so pootle about themselves when they get to the front of the queue – creating even more of a queue behind them.

It is the same as the people who queue up for ages in a fast food restaurant, swapping from leg to leg while they wait for the orders up ahead to clear – yet when they get to the front, they have no idea what they want to order – and stand there ‘umming’ and ‘ahhing’.

People don’t seem to connect their actions with cause of the problem – and have just come to accept queuing as a part of life rather than think about how they could make everything that little bit nicer if they just thought about others rather than themselves all the time.

The Traffic Lights:
I always wondered why the traffic all didn’t move forward together when the green light finally appeared.  The whole of a train can move forward at the same time – so why can’t a train of cars all go forward on green.

I thought that having sat in traffic for a while, they would all have their foot on the pedal waiting to take off again as soon as they could – but it seems as though people don’t do this.

photo credit: oksidor

I have recently watched people at the front of the lights sorting through their bag and not spotting the green light appear until someone honks at them.  I have also watched people not know whether to pass on the nearside or far side of a car at a junction when they have clearly had ages to think about it at the front of the queue (especially when passing on the passenger side means more cars can pass through at a time).

People pull away slowly, take extra wide corners, don’t accelerate at a normal speed and basically ‘dolly daydream’ a bit about the whole thing.

Yet we all need to get to work – and noone likes sitting in traffic!

Why Does It Matter?
Well being a slow driver doesn’t really matter in itself – but queues of traffic are no good for anyone.

Yes, we have all heard the stories about avoiding the busiest times on the road unless it is absolutely essential travel – and I am a true believer in this – but sometimes you just have to sit in it.

Now surely, if everyone sped up their actions a little bit around traffic lights and round-a-bouts etc, there would be less queues on the road – and less queues mean less sitting traffic; less pollution; less angry divers; less of a rush hour and faster moving traffic. 

All adding up to a healthier traffic network, less stressed people and means that the morning or evening commute will take less time and so more time can be spent at home with the family and less time is spent in your car polluting.

So next time you are sat in traffic wondering why the traffic isn’t moving up ahead even though you can see a green traffic light – think of the mantra: You aren’t stuck in traffic – you ARE the traffic!

We all love eating outside – but plan ahead otherwise you could be creating waste.

There is nothing better than eating outside with your family and friends in the summer as it isn't something we Brits normally get the chance to do.  But watch out for potential problems that could fill your bin bags and make you break your eco promises!

Shops across the country are currently selling out of everything disposable – and this is where you shouldn't be involved!  However, it is really tempting to do so.  so here are a few tips to keep you on your toes.

The Barbeque Itself:

Now although the food needs to be cooked – it doesn't need to be done outside.  You can bring all the cooked meat outside along with all the salad and drinks you prepare – but using your own oven will actually be more eco friendly than buying a disposable barbeque that stops cooking effectively after about 5 minutes.

Your fitted outdoor cooker may well do a bit better for you, but all that smoke and open spacing means that a majority of the heat you generate with coals or gas is wasted as it passes right by your food and heats up your face!  Not to mention all that smoke.

photo credit: zoetnet

Food For Thought:

Why opt for the standard outdoor fare of sausages and burger slapped in a white bun with some lettuce and ketchup?  When you are cooking indoors you could rustle up some cous cous, pasta and better quality meat products – as well as using alternatives to bleached bread – like wholegrain pittas, corn wraps and homemade breads as they don't have to be burger-shaped!

And these days you don't need to go an buy lettuces and tomatoes – you should be growing them in your garden.  It is so satisfying to go and collect a handful of salad leaves, asparagus and radishes from your own garden to eat – or step in your greenhouse for fresh tomatoes!

The Washing Up:

No need to wash up after a barbeque – just throw everything in the bin!  Only if you forgot to plan ahead….  Buy buying a set of plastic 'crockery', cups and large bowls you can stop worrying about broken plates and dishes and start enjoying yourself!

The dreaded paper plates – aren't so eco friendly if you think about it.  They never last well with sauces and hot food on them anyway – and you can't compost them with cooked food all over them – or really throw them in the recycling – so they go in the bin.

Plastic cutlery rarely serve their purpose and can't be recycled either, and we all know where plastic cups go.

So spend out on a great set of long-lasting outdoor products that you can use year after year for such events without having to worry about breaks or filled to the brim bin bags!

Or that last minute rush to the shops over the bank holiday to get supplies. 

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!

Should you use normal plastic loads of times – or biodegradable plastic just the once?

There have been many recent developments in the plastic industry and the most controversial is the biodegradable versions that we had all waited so long for!

However, there are some unforeseen problems with these new versions – and it is a difficult eco friendly choice between them and ‘normal’ plastics.

See the 2 examples below of the 2 ways in which these plastic can be more eco friendly:

1) Buy a product in a normal plastic bottle and either re-use it forever or recycle it again and again, or;

2) Buy a product in a biodegradable plastic bottle (either HBP or OBP) that contains ingredients that will speed up its bio-degradation or turn it into compost when you dispose of it.

The 2 don’t mix!  It has to be 1 or the other!

What Does Biodegradable Mean?
If you first consider the word ‘biodegradable’ in its general meaning – it is any product (solid or liquid) that will break down naturally into environmentally safe and virtually natural products that can be used by living organisms in around 6 months.

However, there is no legal definition in terms of products in the stores – so anything claiming to be ‘biodegradable’ could be just that – or could be nothing of the sort; even if it has green pattern all over it and a picture of some wildlife on it!

So, what these biodegradable plastics are trying to do is to be better than existing plastics.  They claim that they will break down into less harmful and polluting particles relatively quickly compared to standard plastics, and so will have less of a detrimental effect on wildlife in the long term.

Don’t forget that existing plastics will also break down naturally (in the sense that if you leave a carrier bag part buried in your garden – it will eventually fall apart) but the plastic doesn’t actually disappear, it will just be in ever smaller parts.

Why Biodegradable Plastic Then?
Well, there has been an awful lot of bad press for plastic lately – what with sea turtles swallowing carrier bags and albatross feeding bits of plastic to their young – not to mention the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch that people were looking for a way to make plastic bottles, containers and other products get a lot smaller a lot quicker.

By making a plastic that breaks down as soon as possible means that whole bottles and bags won’t be found floating in the sea killing birds and turtles any more!

Washed Up Plastic Waste

You still need to be aware of the way the products break down though to be most effective – for example the 2 types of biodegradable plastic currently available as HBP (hydro-biodegradable plastic) and OBP (oxy-biodegradable plastic).

And as their name suggests; one needs water to break down quickly and the other needs air – so bury these in bin bags in land fill sites won’t really make either of them disappear any quicker than normal plastics – but imagine they were litter in the countryside or rubbish floating in the Atlantic.

It’s a whole different story then!  They would soon disappear making our wild areas cleaner and safer for living things!

What’s The Problem Then?
We have discussed that biodegradable plastics must be the best for the environment then – as they don’t stay in the environment for ever and ever as whole plastic products – they break down fast into less harmful particles!  Right?

Well, it’s not so clear cut as you can’t recycle them. 

Adding either HBP’s or OBP’s to recycled plastic can actually be more harmful than good – as these new plastics are designed to break down – so they can actually render a recycled plastic product virtually useless in just a few months!  And many councils are actually trying to get them banned as a result!

We all know that there is only a reason to make a product if it is financially viable – so reducing the need for plastic recycling could cause an end to recycled products!

And if the biodegradable products are meant to break down – then we are actually creating a market for more and more plastic to be created.  Rather than re-use your old toiletries bottles and food containers again and again – you would have to keep buying new ones instead!

So, is the new plastic actually any more eco friendly than the old?

Not only will a working smoke alarm save your your life – it will save natural materials!

Imagine the total and utter devastation of a burned-out home.  Imagine all your possessions – gone!

Now think about the tiny little battery that could help prevent that – and all you need to do is press the little ‘TEST’ button every week or so to prevent this waste.

Now let’s not even think about the really personal possessions that will be lost – let’s just think about the rest as well: the sofa, the curtains, kitchen units, beds, wardrobes, carpets, tables, electrical goods, pictures, toys, and everything else you adorn your home – and your life – with.

All gone.

photo credit: Timitrius

Now, think about all those materials that have been needlessly wasted – and which now need to be replaced,  Possibly even your entire house itself is destroyed completely – and maybe even parts of a neighbouring home too.

Yes, if you are insured, the financial costs of replacing it all will be low – but that isn’t what eco friendly living is all about, is it? 

Why Bother Then?
And, I’m not trying to say here that these material things are more important than human lives – but it is yet another reason to check (or buy) a decent smoke alarm for your home!

And yes, I am well aware that a smoke alarm might not be able to save everything in your home – but it gives you the chance to save most of it.

It is really time that we started to value our possessions as more longer term investments., rather than just acting like they are ‘fashion accesories’ that can be replaced whenever we want.

Value Isn’t Always In Money!
We need to start valuing our homes and their contents as though they are as valuable as the natural resources we are plundering to make them.  Your curtains could be made from materials that were grown in a hillside farm in Asia, your table from a forest in South America and your electrical goods from a mine in Africa.

You wouldn’t be so quick to replace them if you could see where they came from, the things that were done to retrieve them and all the natural materials used to get them to you in the first place.

Furniture and the like should be valued at their entire cost – from source to your home – not just their financial cost from the store.

I bet a table made by your grandfather and given to you for nothing would be far more valuable to you than a table you paid £1000 for from a store!  Even though someone elses family has made it for you instead!

We need to start thinking about everything as more valuable these days – and you can start by checking your smoke alarm!

photo credit: comedy_nose

If you live in what is called a ‘hard water’ area, you may consider changing to ‘soft’.

Now it’s not like you can change the bedrock of your house, so it would mean fitting a water softener to your existing water pipes to make the change.

But why would you go to that trouble and expense if you didn’t really have to – I mean the water still runs like normal, is clean to drink and washes dishes etc?

But there is a massive difference between the 2 types of water – and the soft water option can help you to live a more eco-friendly life.

How Can It Really?
Well, hard water contains magnesium and calcium that it picks up from the rocks on it’s path from falling as rain until it reaches your tap.  And these minerals can cause some serious damage to your plumbing and smaller white goods in the kitchen – not to mention your boiler and washing machine!

This build up of minerals in the water is then transferred into your pipes as it sits there waiting to be used – and can reduce the amount of water getting into an appliance, and cause permanent damage to the pipes as well.  Replacing either is a squeeze on natural resources and a costly exercise to boot!

And, with the capacity for water flow reduced, this can sometimes cause the appliance or boiler to have to work harder to keep the same level of function – or use more energy but give a poorer performance!

Soft water doesn’t contain any of these minerals, so leaves your pipes clean and working at their best!

How Can I Tell The Difference?
It isn’t immediately obvious which water you have got based on watching your boiler or feeling your clean clothes – but just using the water from your tap will show which water you have.

These minerals show themselves in water residue in the form of ‘lime scale’, so if you have a white patchy deposit on your shower head, grey residue left on your glass shower curtain, blobs of white ‘chalky’ stuff in your kettle, the list goes on…..

Sound familiar?

Now think of all the chemicals, cloths, scourers and time you have to spend keeping your bathroom and kitchen clean – then think of all that chemical waste!

And, think about washing your hair, hands and body.  Washing in soft water creates a lather more readily using less toiletries – and gives a more thorough clean.  People say that washing in soft water makes their skin feel better and hair look shinier!

How Big Is A Water Softener?
They will easily fit under your kitchen sink in smaller flats, or anywhere in a larger home – even a garage will do.

Basically it works on the main water pipes going in to your home or offices and changes the composition of your water before it enters your home.

Most water softeners are easily fitted and will pay for themselves within around 5 years due to the better efficiency of your heating and hot water systems, as well as in the reduced reliance of cleaning chemicals and toiletries!

And your appliances will last longer and stay efficient throughout that lifespan – and don’t worry about your appliances if you have been using hard water – as the softened water running through will eventually clear all the existing limescale!

So, taking the minerals out of your water could save you a lot of time and money.

If you had a smaller oven tray – would you waste less food?

Today’s society seems to be very much about bigger products for bigger value – and for many products – bigger also equals more eco friendly, for example a larger bottle of shampoo means less packaging than 2 smaller bottles and is usually cheaper as well.

However, there are certain things that we do that a bigger just for the sake of being bigger – and this normally involves food.

Super-Size Me!
There has recently been a growing trend in ordering the largest amount of food possible in restaurants just because you can.  You tell yourself that it is ‘just a little bit more’ so it is worth it.

Well, it’s not.

Have you ever wondered how these chicken breasts or beef burgers can be so cheap?  Well, there is a reason for it – and it’s not nice. 

Large food retailers (chain restaurants, popular take-aways and large superstores) have demanded that the meat for their meals be cheaper – and to make things cheaper, you have to make more.  One quote was that large chicken factories have machines that need to process 8000 birds every hour just to make enough meat to sell at the low prices we are used to.

Around 2 million chickens are ‘processed’ every week by one of the largest factories in the US – just to break even – and that is just one.  Imagine how many chickens are ‘processed’ a week in the whole US?  Or the whole World?

Down-Size Me!
It is a hard thing to think about the minimum you could eat to be satisfied – or in the rising number of people ‘full’.  You always think ‘it would be a waste of money to buy the smaller size and finish it when for just a few pence more I could get a lot more’.  And that’s what retailers want you to think.

They have to produce so much food to keep the prices down that they are forever trying to sell you more of what you already eat to still make money.  And we fall for it every time!

Buy 1, Get 1 Free, 20% extra, 3 for the price of 2.  They are all doing the same thing – they are making the retailers money – not saving us money.

How much stuff do you buy that you don’t eat, or that goes out of date before you get the chance?  Loads.  The stats are terrible.  But they make us buy it because it’s ‘cheap’.

Well, I think you need to change you tactics – and fight back!

First Steps:
Plan your meals – by knowing what you are going to cook and eat on certain days means that there won’t be time for food to go out of date as you have planned to eat it in due time.  Buying too much food sometimes makes you unable to choose the most short-dated ingredients. 

Busy lifestyles also make us eat whatever is ‘quickest’ to prepare rather than what we should be eating – all this leads to waste.  We end up replacing the fast-food over and over again, leaving the healthy foods to sit and rot!

Don’t be lured in by special offers – they are only really there so the store doesn’t lose money.  If the store gets a great deal on 10 million of product A, then they have to sell it – so down goes the price and you buy it.  They win!

Start buying enough to be satisfied rather than full – It’s all too easy to cook to much, then try to cram it all in leaving you ready to pop!  But you don’t want to waste money and larger meals are cheaper per serving, arent’ they?

Well, only if you eat them!  So why not prepare a meal for 4 people to use bulk ingredients, but plan to divide up equally and freeze the remaining portions for another meal time.

Buy Smaller Utensils – if you only had a small oven tray, then you wouldn’t be tempted to cook more than you needed – and you would save power on your cooking as they were smaller. 

Also, rather than cooking parts of your meal at different times or all over the kitchen, why not use smaller pans and fit them all in the oven at the same time.  That way, nothing has to share trays – so the meat juices don’t ruin the potatoes!

And less to wash up – which is always good news!

Choosing The Right Font For Your Printing & Help Save The Planet!

Well, I’m not saying that this new invention will drastically reduce levels of methane in the atmosphere, nor will it clean up the oceans and help coral to re-grow – but it will make a difference to your contribution to other environmental issues haunting us today.

It will save ink – lots of it.

What Is This Great Idea?
Basically it’s a typeface – like Verdana or Tahoma – that has got holes in it!

It’s called EcoFont, and at normal printing sizes (size 10 for example) it looks just like every other mainstream font. Perfect for printing your emails or on-line receipts.

You can’t see the holes in the letters until you make the font larger – for example up to size 32, but for normal use you won’t really notice them. So you can carry on as normal.

Apparently the Dutch company that invented this EcoFont are called Spranq, and they say that this will save a fifth of the ink used in similar fonts – that is a lot of ink for personal uses.

And let’s be honest, there isn’t a lot of personal printing that needs to be in perfect font, apart from the odd letter to the bank or a job application. The rest of the stuff you print won’t do any harm if it’s a bit ‘holey’ will it?

What Can You use It For?
Well, you can download the font free from ecofont.eu and get a good look at it and see what size you are happiest with – or whether the holes at the larger sizes even bother you that much anyway.

And it can only be used for printing drafts of homework and things at the last minute anyway. I mean, you can write you essays or reports in your preferred fonts and sizes, and only when you want to print the draft can you highlight the whole thing and change the font to EcoFont before printing.

After you have printed you can hightlight it all again and return it to your nice fancy font for the final report. That way it doesn’t have to be your ‘new font’ for ever – it can be your new printing font!

And why would the kids mind if their things were printed in a font with microscopic holes in it anyway?

Think of the money saved in ink-cartridges and the reduced pressure on natural resources by using a fifth less ink than you currently do!

Add this to other eco-office inventions such as the Eco Printing Software and recycled paper and you could be eco friendly and money-saving at the same time!

Several continuous small steps are better than one big single one.

I have put together some simple steps in the ‘beauty & fashion’ department that can help you make a move over to more environmentally friendly products without too much hassle.  And it can be a bit of fun too.

Many people are worried about which brand of this they should chose or what brand of that is better – but really the answer is to change bits of your lifestyle not just swap one thing for another.

It is always easiest to Reduce – this is the key to sustainable and eco friendly living.  Reuse comes a close second and of course never forget to Recycle – but focus on the life cycle of the items you are buying or thinking of buying and follow it from production, through use and then to disposal.

This brings me to the first fashion tip:

1) Stop Shopping!  The greenest products and clothes are those items you already have.  They have already been made – and it’s up to you to use them or recycle them.

If you decide to become ‘green’ overnight and go and buy something ‘organic’ or ‘bio-degradable’ instead – you are wasting all the energy, transport and ingredients that have gone into the one you already have, but are going to leave on the shelf.  Wasted.

We need to Reduce our consumption, so make sure that you keep wearing all your old clothes, use the last of that old shampoo or bubble bath, and don’t throw something away because you want something new.  Or, try Tip 2:

2) Have A Swap Party. There are many people like you who grow tired of the same shoes/top/beauty products/etc – so why not give them to your friends in exchange for something they ‘don’t want’.

You could come away with a whole new outfit, and change of facial regime or some household ingredients that your friends would otherwise have wasted.  Similarly, your ‘waste’ finds a second life!

3) Simplify Your Life.  Another things to consider when going to purchase a new item, is whether you actually need it right now.  I mean, rather than buying some nutritional supplements – why not actually consider eating more healthily instead!  Buying fresh local fruit and veg produces far less waste that factory-made tablets in tiny plastic bottles!

Similarly, technology out-dates itself overnight it seems – so rather than make that rash purchase – think about ways you can make do with what you have until you really have to upgrade.  Otherwise, you could be disposing of something that was perfectly usable for something that will be out-of-date in 3 months anyway!

And, most technology and appliances come ‘eco friendly’ these days.  With low energy rating listings and reduced-chemical electronics readily available and at a similar cost to the short-use energy-hungry models we brought last time!

4) Back To Basics.  Why do we need everything so perfumed and highly specific these days?  Can’t we just use unscented nappy-sacks, hygiene products and ‘exotic’ air-fresheners?  Use natural instead: tea-tree oil, lavender, along with other plants and herbs all have their uses – and without the chemicals!

Try Aloe for sun care, oats for facial scrubs, cucumber slices for eye recovery – and many many more.  I have seen quotes that ladies apply, on average, 126 ingredients and chemicals in daily beauty regimes!  That’s amazing really – and seeing as so many of those are potentially harmful to us.

Babies are particularly sensitive to chemicals yet we use an array of man-made (and potentially hormone-affecting) toiletries for them without any real reason – other than ‘we saw the advert’ and it said ‘this does this…..’.  Well warm water and an organic cotton cloth cleans even the dirtiest of bottoms!

See Part 2 tomorrow for further eco friendly tips…….