Category: Eco Living

My eco topics category is my latest addition to my blog. I decided to make changes to my lifestyle in 2018 because I knew we needed to take steps to become more eco-friendly. It began with the change to reusable nappies and wipes and from there I made a promise to continue to try and find other ways to improve our wasteful ways and at the same time offer up tips, advice and hopefully inspire others.

Making these changes has had such a positive impact on us as a family. We are enjoying finding new ways of doing things, we love talking about it with others and we are saving money too! Such a win! Eco topics are now a huge passion of mine and I hope you will enjoy them as much as we are.

Orsú radiance products on a white background

Review | Nourish Your Skin With Orsú Radiance

Posted on April 23, 2020November 20, 2024 by Emma Reed

*Ad/Gifted Products

At this current time, most of the world is in lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Here in the UK, we have been carrying this out for around 5 weeks and I am sure that many people are forgetting to take care of themselves. It can be difficult to put yourself first, especially if you have to juggle homeschooling with working from home, if you have a constant stream of mess to tidy up around the house and if your mental health is struggling through isolating yourself from others. So what can you do? In order to be able to take care of everybody else, you must try and give yourself some time and self-care and this is the message that both myself and Orsú Radiance want to spread. You still deserve to pamper yourself, to grab that soak in the bath and you really do need to take that ‘me time’ even if you can only do so for a short moment. With all of this hand washing, staying inside and stress, I expect your skin is dry, dehydrated and bit luck-lustre– I know mine has been– which is why Orsú offered to help me to nourish it again with some of their homemade, sustainably sourced, eco-friendly skincare products and to provide you with an honest review on them all.

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reusable tea bag in a cup, loose tea scattered around, the PG tips box, my hand and the bottle of milk

Review | Reusable Tea Bags

Posted on April 19, 2020November 20, 2024 by Emma Reed

Towards the end of last year, I decided that I no longer wanted to be purchasing tea bags that were bleached and made from plastic so I delved deep into my pockets and splashed out on several cloth reusable tea bags costing a whopping 55p each! Yeah, who says being eco has to be expensive eh? Not me! I managed to find my favourite brand (good old PG tips) in a loose version and, according to my Instagram post, I had my first taste of tea in a reusable bag on 19th December. So, what did I think? Am I still using them? And more importantly, do I recommend them? Here’s my review…

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: What Can You Do With Your Waste?

Posted on April 19, 2020March 12, 2025 by Emma Reed

Reduce, reuse, recycle, we hear that a lot, don’t we? It’s easy to keep saying it as a mantra but how many people actually follow this correctly? You see, it is written in this order for a reason. The best way to make an impact is by reducing what you use, what you buy and what you throw away. By taking it away, you are eliminating a huge problem. However, if you cannot reduce, your next best step towards a more sustainable life is reusing what you have. This is a great way of making the most of your waste or perhaps looking to make more reusable swaps (which we will look at in a minute). And your last choice is to recycle. You may be wondering why I have said the last choice and it is because recycling is not the definitive answer. Yes, it helps, yes it is an amazing resource we have developed, but it still means that there is a lot of packaging being produced, there is still a lot of waste and there is still a lot of energy being used to make recycling a possibility. It is also not a permanent solution as not all materials can withstand being recycled over and over again which means that they will eventually end up in landfill (metal and glass can be). Here I am going to look at what options we all have to help with our waste problem.

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a baby swimming under water wearing a reusable swim nappy

Why You Should Consider Using Reusable Swim Nappies

Posted on April 13, 2020March 3, 2025 by Emma Reed

Swim nappies are probably the most important part of taking your baby swimming. As a parent, it is your responsibility to ensure that your baby/child keeps any little faecal accidents contained so not to contaminate the pool. Any leaks will lead to the closure of the public pool and will result in hours of cleaning… You definitely do not want to be THAT parent! I am sure that everybody reading this is very familiar with the disposable swim nappies that are readily available in supermarkets (Huggies being the most prominent brand) but have you heard of or considered using reusable swim nappies? Let’s take a look at what they are and why I think they are the best option out there…

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a pair of welly boots on a path with weeds

How To Make A Natural Weedkiller

Posted on April 10, 2020November 20, 2024 by Emma Reed

Weedkillers always worry me. Not only do we have kids, we also have pets and I never know how toxic they are to wildlife and insects either. So I decided to do some googling and came across a few recipes for making your own natural weedkiller. Most involved white vinegar and salt but in massive amounts which would make far too much for the average UK garden owner (let’s face it most new homes have a garden the size of a postage stamp!) I gave it a try, after a few hours we already saw results, so here is what we did…

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23 Simple Ways To Reduce Your Household Waste

Posted on April 9, 2020November 20, 2024 by Emma Reed

Reducing our household waste has been an ongoing process for the last 2 years and even though it all comes with research and learning curves we are finally making a huge dent in how many bin liners leave our home for landfill. Our best ever was one bin bag in one week and that’s a family of 4 with one child still in nappies, a dog and a cat!! Yes, it is doable and no it doesn’t have to be hard and I want to share exactly how everybody could make changes within their own lives and lifestyles to work towards a more environmentally friendly future for all of us. Here are 23 simple ways to reduce your household waste…

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Review | Leaf and Root Luxury Eco-Friendly Cosmetics

Posted on April 8, 2020November 20, 2024 by Emma Reed

*Gifted Products

Being more eco-friendly doesn’t stop with ditching those plastic bags or using natural cleaners, for me it is a lifestyle change which means finding businesses and solutions for all areas. I want to be able to say that I am doing the absolute best that I can, I want to know that my carbon footprint is being significantly reduced and feel happy that I am keeping my waste to a minimum. And once you start looking for products you will be pleasantly surprised by how many are available to us, it’s just the case of changing how we shop (not everything needs to come from the supermarket!) Toiletries, cosmetics and other self-care items all tend to come to us wrapped in plastic, contain a variety of perfumes and chemicals and are often tested on animals before coming to us. All of which we all want stopping but the only way to achieve this is by showing these companies that we no longer want products like these and the best course of action is to shop elsewhere and to shop eco.

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