Natural/Eco living....

[saraendepity]

ok so i know most of us use Cloth, Baby wear etc but i really wanna get as eco as possible ... we currently use cloth Nappies and wipes, i Baby wear, we do BLW (tho this isnt strictly Eco but still) we use Soap Nuts (well we are trying them out) i cant (and wont ) do CSP but i am thinking about geting a Moon cup, i try to use mostly natural cleaners (well..vinegar, baking soda/bicarb, lemon etc) .........what does everyone else do .......what else can i do to make us more Eco friendly ??

sara

xxxxx

 

[anothersquish]

I make my own compost soil (it helps having horses....*cough*) so I dont buy any of the rubbish from garden centres, I use kitchen waste and horse poop to make the BEST soil for growing stuff in. We always have plenty as the stuff we use for veg goes onto the flower beds or gets revitalised with some fresh and mixed between the different veg so it doesnt go sour or lack in nutrients by having the same veg in it year after year. We do grow in tubs though not in fixed raised beds as our garden is small and I like to grow certain things all year round....I actually grow veg in trugs in the kitchen through winter. All our fruit trees and bushes are mini varieties as well for ease of management, we have little mini apple trees that grow in containers and they give us quite a lot of apples considering how teeny they are, and they are easier to protect from flies and nasties than big trees.
We actually found massive impact in the amount of electric we used when, because of my COPD, we switched ALL the floors in the house to laminate/wood/tile/lino. We dont use a vacuum cleaner anymore and the drop of in electric was startling (we do have four dogs so had to hoover regularly and those hand push things were crap) as we can now sweep and dry mop the floors daily which is much more better for energy consumption and for our pockets.
I do try, OH isnt too bothered (he HATED when I FORCED him to switch all the lightbulbs to energy saving haha) but Ive made a lot of adjustments like putting a block in the toilet so it uses less water and we invested in a really good new boiler with electronic thingy to keep the temperature in the house constant so it uses much less gas. Obviously we went crazy with loft insulation and had the cavity walls filled. I am hoping to save to get better windows and doors in, the ones we have are good but there are better out there and these ones will need replacing before too long so I figure we should go for the best and longest lasting (and friggin expensive....yuk)
Oh and I know its silly but I took the little lightbulbs out of the fridges....it just really irritated me that some random light came on each time I opened the door so I removed them...haha!

Wish we were better than we are.....

 

[Rachel_C]

It's only a tiny thing but if I'm food shopping and I need to decide between two things, I try to go for the one that has the least packaging or is the most recyclable. I hate it when there's loads of unnecessary packaging on stuff.

 

[Maffie]

ok so i know most of us use Cloth, Baby wear etc but i really wanna get as eco as possible ... we currently use cloth Nappies and wipes, i Baby wear, we do BLW (tho this isnt strictly Eco but still) we use Soap Nuts (well we are trying them out) i cant (and wont ) do CSP but i am thinking about geting a Moon cup, i try to use mostly natural cleaners (well..vinegar, baking soda/bicarb, lemon etc) .........what does everyone else do .......what else can i do to make us more Eco friendly ??

sara

xxxxx

im useless at abbreviations, what is CSP?

 

[Fortytwo25]

I love my Mooncup!

 

[saraendepity]

CSP - cloth sanitary Protection (reusable sanitary towels )

 

[BabyHaines]

I keep chooks (ex battery hens) and also grow lots of our own veg. The chooks and dog have all leftover food (hubby thinks it's great that you can feed the hens 'scraps' and a little layers mash and voilà - left over cabbage and eggshells create eggs!!) I try to be very careful about cleaning products etc. too.
I know it's only a silly little thing, but I also think that 'batch cooking' is good (whilst the oven is lit), and I also put a jumper on instead of just flicking on the heating xxxx

 

[saraendepity]

oooh i'd love to have some ex battery hens but OH says no cos we dont have the room

 

[Babyshambelle]

We do a lot of what has been said up there. We don't have a tumble drier so we obviously don't use one! We don't drive so we use public transport to go everywhere or walk. We recycle every scrap of rubbish we can, and I like to buy from the greengrocers and not use packaging for my veggies and fruit. Another very little one...my new years resolution is not to buy bottles of pop any more when i'm out. I'm getting a reusable drinks bottle and washing and refilling that before i leave the house.

I'm sure theres more...I'll add if i remember! xx

 

[Blob]

Hmmm i'm not sure how great i am
However we do have our own chickens and stuff and we get all out meat from farmers markets and most of our veg. We are going to get a garden to grow veg in once the outside of the house is done. We have crazy stuff in the house, we're getting a windmill thingy for outside and all our heating is done by that under the ground heat source stuff See how rubbish i am...i know there is more in the house its pretty eco but i cant remember

Only thing we are bad is that OBV we have a mahoosive HGV lorry which we travel all over the country and also 4X4s at home...but then we have a farm i'm not some crazy woman who lives in a town and owns a landy

Oooooh also we have one of those nature things where we plant toooonnns of trees all over our land and also have birdy crop etc...hmmm i dont know what else...Apart from the obv nappies, wipes, soapnuts etc

Have to say though i'm not an organic person...but thats just cos i know organic farmers around here and they are soooo rotton i refuse to buy the crap they sell

 

[Tiff]

Hmmm...

We try to be "green" as we can, with our living arrangements. We use cloth diapers, and use vinegar to clean most things. We've switched all of our lightbulbs to the energy efficient fluorescents, we only have one car and it is to the highest standards (for Canada) with emissions. We are Bullfrog Powered, meaning we don't have our electric power come from the Nuclear Plants but from clean, renewable energy like wind and water.

We insulate our windows in the winter (by putting the plastic wrap over them) so we don't have to heat our condo as much. We have our heat set to a cooler temperature and will put on a sweater before turning up the heat. Aside from little things like we recycle, use reusable grocery bags... I can't think of much else atm.

I'd love to do compost, but living in a stacked condo townhouse it isn't feasible. Will do for sure once we buy a house!

 

[bky]

My Diva cup is the best thing ever (like a moon cup). Never going back to disposable items unless necessary!
Do a bit of gardening/preserving/freezing. Dogs are fed home made food (not quite raw, but not anything like processed dog food either). No space for chickens though someday plan on chickens, and goats for milk and cheese. Make my own yogurt and cheese. Oh and peanut butter. Make my own liquid hand soap and laundry washing powder. Would probably make my own soap if I had a bit more room/space to handle lye.
I don't consider myself particularly eco though. I just do a lot of stuff as it's easy/cheap and I like being responsible for making my own household items.

 

[Missy]

Going veggie, or even better, vegan is one of the best things you can do for the environment. The livestock industry is the second biggest contributor to global warming. Oh yeah...and it hurts the animals too of course

 

[Rachel_C]

I've just had a look at the actonco2 website and it says that to make a tonne of clothing it takes more energy than a tonne of steel (and one t-shirt takes 800 litres of water to make), and that in the UK we buy 2 million tonnes of clothing a year and half of that gets thrown away into landfill, where it degrades and releases methane.

So although I already do keep clothes for as long as possible, I think now I'll try to spend a little bit more on clothes that will last longer and throw less away. I can tell OH I'm doing my bit for the environment and justify higher prices. Designers here I come!

 

[JayleighAnn]

We obviously CB and washable wipes and BF, I only use my tumble dryer for my nappies (I can't help it, I just hate stiff scratchy inserts) we don't have a garden so we can't grow our own food, but will do when we have one. We buy organic UK grown veg, we use eco cleaning products, recycled biodegradable bin liners, recycled toilet paper. I have a mooncup & CSP.
We don't drive so use public transport or walk everywhere. We recycle what we can. I use freecycle when I can instead of buying new.

 

[Lilyboo]

I do not buy water in bottles. I use filter. When we are out we are getting reusable bottles.
I`m trying not to buy too much plastic staff. When shopping I always remember to get my reusable shopping bags.
We do our own juices and sometimes picles. I like to know what I`m drinking and eating.
I`m using grape oil instead baby oil. Found it much better for my LO skin.
Our dogs are fed home made food. Sometimes raw staff.
We are vegetarian so more chickens is alive or maybe our dogs eats more? :/
I`m also using eco friendly cleaning products.
I`m happy with second hand shops.

 

[Tiff]

I tried to join up for our local Freecycle, and was denied membership! I have NO idea why! It was part of a Yahoo group, and it asked you to state your reasons for wanting to join. I put that I'm a Mom and have lots of stuff to sell/swap and would love to buy... and all I got was a generic email saying "membership declined".

I got that link from the actual Freecycle website too. I'm not good enough!!!

 

[saraendepity]

LOL Tyff, that happened to us..we just re applied and we got acepted...somemtimes if Admin dont have time to read thru stuff it gets automatically declined ...also make sure you are trying to get into your 'home' group as you have to join this one before any other