Happy Earth Day! Hope you’re celebrating all the wonderful things our amazing planet has to offer. I’m ‘celebrating’ by making a few pledges – will you join me?
- Reduce the amount of non-recyclable plastic we use, specifically food sold in bags such as crisps, portions of fruit or other ‘snack’ foods. This may be a little tricky as the toddler (and I!) will grab a bag of fruit, crisps or other snack while we’re out or if I’m packing our lunch box for the day. Yes, it’s convenient BUT I’ve got a growing stack of unrecyclable bags & packaging which is just thrown away;
- Be more water conscious. This covers different things. 1. Nothing is more fun than water play with the toddler and I do try to use any water not soaking us to water the plants. Continue doing this. 2. I’ve been conscious that we’re a mucky family, muddy dog walks, cloth nappies and my propensity to spill every drink over myself means we create a lot of washing. I was reading up about the damage certain washing powders do to waterways so I’ve switched to ‘ecoleaf‘ which is derived from plant extracts, is biodegradable and doesn’t contain harmful chemicals. It’s been working pretty well, I just need to be a bit more organised so I don’t run out & end up running to my local shop to buy some cheap chemical-filled powder.
- Continue to reduce, reuse and recycle. I’m aiming to throw away less than one bag of rubbish per fortnight by the end of the year.
- Buy ethical clothes, repair my old stuff and make my own! This is a bit of a biggie for me at the moment. It’s been brought home how much stuff we go through having the toddler – children grow like magic beans! I’ve already started making her some skirts (see my Instagram for pictures) and I’m planning to reuse the fabric when she grows out of them. The pieces I have bought for her are normally second hand or I try to buy quality pieces as I’ve found items from ‘bargain’ stores fall apart their first wear. Hubby and I also have a bad habit of wearing through jeans so I’ve learned how to repair them – I’ll let you know how I get on! I have taken a skirt-making course which was really interesting, and following it I made myself a lovely skirt so have bought some fabric in order to make some more.
- Going chemical free with all our cleaning products. Obviously we put child locks on the cupboards when we had the toddler, but I got to thinking, if I don’t want her to get into the cupboards due to all the dangerous chemicals in there, do I really want to use them in the first place? I’ve switched to using vinegar more (and have sparkling glass to show for it!) which is great as the toddler is going through a ‘helping’ stage where she wants to help with EVERYTHING! I’m definitely not going to say no to free labour so using no chemicals has been great as I can let her spray vinegar onto the windows and if a bit goes on her finger, I’m not overly worried – the worse thing is she smells a bit like a chip shop till bath time!
- Making my own toiletries. This is linked to both the taking care of water but also going chemical free. Your skin absorbs anything placed on it in less than a minute so wouldn’t it be nicer to be placing something natural on it rather than things you can barely pronounce? I’ve been making handcream and recently made myself a moisturiser which is lovely and doing wonders for certain wrinkles! I need to do a bit more reading around this though to learn more about different butters, waxes and oils. It’s exciting as I can choose the scents of my products (I’m currently addicted to frankincense and orange) but with the added benefit that I’m saving a fortune!
So those are my pledges. What are yours?