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Busy mums eco tips
Buy. Less. Stuff. [Basically.] And a few other things…
Here’s my top 10 tips on doing life the eco way whilst working, raising two kids, a husband and a fur baby. It can be done.
1. Produce Bags
Take veg net bags everywhere you go. They’re useful for so many things from storing things such as orange peel when there are no bins around to all those little precious things that kids like to collect! Undoubtedly they are extremely useful in the supermarket to pick up loose fruit and veg.
2. Reusable kit
Alway carry a reusable kit with you. A water bottle (preferably stainless steel as it’ll last a lifetime), a reusable coffee cup, handkerchiefs (if you’re a mum, you’ll understand…) and a spare shopping bag (the ones that fold up really small are great, we’ve had a huge IKEA one for years!).
3. Say no!
Be a proactive decliner! Say ‘no straws please’ when ordering drinks in a cafe – even when you ask for water. Tell the shop assistant you don’t need a bag before they give you one anyway. Put a sign on your door declining junk mail.
4. Bulk buy
Buy in bulk – whether it’s toilet roll, laundry liquid (or soapnuts) or washing up liquid. Saves money and time and is a lot more eco friendly (and time saving) than buying weekly in the supermarket.
5. Plan life
Plan ahead. Make snacks for kids (and yourself) on the weekend and freeze them in paper bags ready to pick out and pop in school bags on the day they’re needed. Don’t get stuck in the position where you have to buy something in plastic because you suddenly run out. Keep tabs on stocks of bar soap, toilet roll, washing up liquid.
6. Plan meals
Do a weekly menu plan. Spending twenty minutes on this the day before you shop will definitely save you money and food waste. Loads of places now have pre-made meal plans with an ‘add to shopping basket’ for the items you need to make the meals, for no extra cost. Here’s Tesco’s meal planner.
7. Buy Secondhand
Buy secondhand. Simple principle, huge impact. The more you buy secondhand, the more you are saving earth’s precious resources. We buy the majority of our clothes second hand either from charity shops or online secondhand shops. Here’s Oxfam’s online shop, we use it and find it has lots to choose from. You get a much wider variety of clothes – just make sure to try buy something that is a brand known for making longer lasting clothes to grab a bargain. For our kids, if they don’t have a hand-me-down bundle from a friend, we buy them bundles of second hand clothes online. The exception to this for our family is swimming costumes and underwear which we still buy new.
8. Embrace homemade
For a while now I have been running ‘Make your own Monday’ posts. Check them out for some inspiration of how to save money and the earth at the same time.
You could try homemade cleaning spray. This is an easy one as it saves a stack of money and is so unbelievably easy.
9. Drive less
Drive less. Cycle, scoot or walk more, where possible.
10. Hang laundry
Hang dry laundry. Dryers use a huge amount of energy. You also get to harness the cleansing power of the sun’s rays if you are able to hang stuff outside. And it smells so good!
I hope these tips can get you started or re-started on your own green journey. Remember that a journey of a thousand miles is started with just one step. As for us, we sometimes take one step forward, two steps back then three steps forward. As long as you’re moving in the right direction, you can know that you ARE making a difference!
