This year I'm making my resolutions at the start of each month, hoping that this will refocus my attention and make the year a productive one.

1. Get my green skirt zip professionally mended
I tried to replace the zip on my favourite skirt but made a really bad job of it. I haven't worn it for months but I want it fixed and ready for Spring.

2. Get out
I've been hibernating, it's time to get out and about a little more. At the very least I want to have visited the Ed Sheeran Exhibition at Christchurch Mansion, and the new (and only) independent bookshop that's just opened up in the town centre.

3. Get listing
With an ever growing pile of items I want to sell on ebay, I need to put aside some time to get everything listed. It's part of my plan to make 2020 a year of decluttering.


Here's how I got on in February

1. Make a start on my office blind
This is underway. The problem I had was the sun coming in through my office window and blinding me, but, being an awkward sort of person, I didn't want to put up blinds and sit in the dark. I have voile curtains that keep out the sun about as much as a fine mist would, so I needed an alternative.

After some pondering I came up with a solution.

Step 1. Buy a spring loaded shower rail (easy to install without the need to drill holes) to go inside the window recess.

Step 2. Temporarily hang a large scarf over the rail to create a panel that I can slide across as the sun moves round over the course of the day.

Step 3. Create a handmade panel, using either patchwork, lace, felt, possibly some simple embroidery, or a mixture of some or all of them.



Until I decide on how I want to construct the panel Step 3 will remain on the to-do list. As it stands the problem is solved, the solution just needs to move from temporary, to finished. For now I'm just happy that I can sit at my desk and work without being blinded by the sun.

2. Bathroom improvements
I had only three tasks on the list. Install a towel ring, replace the shower head bracket, and reseal the bath. I spent a cold a blustery weekend getting these things ticked off the list.

3. Plan eco friendly crackers
I have a collection of items to use as fillers (kept from crackers of days gone by, all collected during my decluttering in January), along with the snaps, the hats, and the jokes (all recyclable), so now I need the cracker part. I've found some on Amazon - don't judge me, I haven't found any elsewhere - that are plain white recyclable card that I can decorate according to the season or occasion.

When I started looking at ways to cut the amount of plastic packaging I generate in my home, I noticed that natural deodorants were cropping up in my Instagram feed with increasing regularity, I took it as a sign and investigated further.

I was worried about the effectiveness of natural deodorants, but thought if the occasion called for it I could go back to my tried and (thoroughly) tested Dove antiperspirant for a day if necessary.

But the more I read about it the more I began to discover that once you switch, you need to stick with it. There's a whole thing about detoxing your armpits, riding your body of the build up of pore clogging nasties from mainstream products.

Despite the fact that I wasn't looking forward to this detox period, I decided to just go for it. My chosen natural deodorant turned up just as the hottest weekend of the summer was about to kick off. Nothing like throwing myself in at the deep end!

I bought the Your Nature Natural Deodorant Stick in cedarwood and grapefruit. The scent was pleasant enough. I did feel a little damp under the arms on a few occasions, I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't an antiperspirant, nevertheless I was impressed with this from day one.



I was paranoid about odour, but a few quick secret armpit sniffs set my mind at ease and I stopped worrying about it. I couldn't believe I'd been lucky enough to find a natural deodorant that suited me so easily, some people have a reaction to them and have to try loads of options before finding one that suits.

The stick lasted a decent amount of time. I think I finished it in early November, so about four months.

I decided to try a different product, this time opting for a solid deodorant from Lush, mostly because I could pick this up instore locally. This had no packaging at all so I was hoping that I would love it. But I didn't. The scent wasn't all that pleasing but I could've forgiven that if it had worked. I felt smelly on several occasions, and became really self conscious. After a time my armpits became red and felt uncomfortable. Bearing in mind that I was using this in cooler temperatures than the first product, it really didn't do well in comparison.

After about three weeks I gave up and decided to try something else.



Next I purchased a We Love The Planet deodorant stick in mighty mint. I love the smell of this, and so far I've really liked it. I don't think I would've gone for a minty scent before, but this is really unusual. I sometimes catch a whiff of mint and it's actually rather pleasant.

I would've preferred a solid deodorant, without any packaging at all, and I'll keep looking (please leave any recommendations in the comments), but for now I'm happy that I've found a few natural deodorants that work for me, and that have fully recyclable cardboard packaging - better for me, better for the environment.

Another plastic free swap I've made in recent months is toothpaste. Back in June I purchased Georganics Natural Toothpaste from Peace With The Wild.

I've always been a little skeptical about natural toothpastes but the increasing desire to reduce plastic in our household was the push I needed to give it a try.

It smells lovely, very minty. The flavour however leaves something to be desired. After forty odd years of that minty fresh feeling regular toothpaste gives, this took some getting used to.

The texture is harder and drier than normal toothpaste, and it's got a warm, bitter taste. It doesn't foam either, so you can see why it took some time to adjust.

I'm going to stick to non plastic packaged toothpastes but I'd like to try other alternatives, I miss the minty taste, and the fresh feeling the mint gave to my mouth after brushing.

Up next on my list to try are the Peace With The Wild Toothpaste Tablets. I'm hoping these will be a bit closer to the mark.

Any recommendations for plastic free toothpastes?

Another eco swap I've made in recent months is perfume. I discovered this on Instagram, and there are a number of reasons I have for for switching to this brand. One, it uses minimal packaging. Two, it doesn't contain palm oil. And three, it is made with all natural ingredients here in the UK.

Eden Perfumes offer a large number of fragrances matched to those you can find on the high street, but without the excessive packaging and nasty ingredients.

The first one I tried was No.051 which is equivalent to Narciso Essence by Narciso Rodriguez. The first time I wore this was to a family gathering, and on hugging my cousin hello she exclaimed 'you smell delightful!', you can't ask for a better reaction than that.

I've also tried No.401 a sweet oriental vanilla scent equivalent to La Petite Robe Noire by Guerlain, and No.419 a womanly floral scent equivalent to Paloma Picasso by Paloma Picasso.

I was concerned that the scent wouldn't last long but I'm happy to say that I can still smell these on my skin when I go to bed.

The 30ml bottles are all a very reasonable £18.00, and 50ml are £24.00, a fraction of the price you'd pay for these scents on the high street. What's more they offer a refill service. You can return the bottles to be refilled at the cheaper price of £15 for 30 ml, or £20 for the 50ml bottles.

I don't think I'll ever buy perfume from the high street again.

For a while now I've been swapping products around the home for those in plastic free packaging.

One of the swaps I made was my shampoo. I'd been using a solid shampoo bar from Lush but I found it tangled my hair and sometimes left it feeling weird. The conditioner bar from Lush didn't work well for me either, I found that it was difficult to use and added tangles rather than helping to eliminate them.

My search for an alternative offered up Beauty Kubes. I chose it as it claimed conditioner wasn't needed. Having taken two bottles in to the shower for years I had my doubts but the only way to know for sure is to try it, right?

They're easy to use, you just crumble the cube in your hand and add water to make a paste. You use the paste just as you would shampoo. I leave it in while I get on with the rest of my shower, then rinse it out. I find this gives the best results. I never thought I'd be able to go without conditioner but I don't need it after using this. My ancient Tangle Teezer takes care of any tangles with ease and my hair dries soft and smooth, and feels really clean.

The box contains 27 cubes and is £9.50. I don't wash my hair everyday so these will last me a few months and when you consider that I used to spend more than that on bottles of shampoo and conditioner I think these are reasonably priced.

I purchased mine from Peace With The Wild, but Beauty Kubes have a website of their own, and I noticed they're available in Selfridges as well so there are plenty of places to buy, just pop in into Google.

To keep them dry I store them in a glass jar in my bathroom. When I travel I take a few cubes in a small tin, which is so much easier than bottles.

I'm really pleased with this product and highly recommend it.

A few days ago I convinced my husband to spend £160 on toilet paper.

"Has this got something to do with reducing plastic?" he asked.

 "Yes"

"Gimme numbers" he said "don't come at me with a half baked idea"

"Well, the one we have now costs 17p per 100 sheets, if we buy in bulk this one is 13.5p per 100 sheets, it's recycled and has no plastic packaging, it has over 4,000 five star reviews, and 50% of profits go to non-profits to build toilets and stuff"

*short pause*

"OK, get them ordered" he replied.

That was somewhat easier than I expected.

You can read a more eloquent explanation about the 'toilets and stuff' here. The company I'm speaking of is Who Give A Crap - a most excellent name - and now I can go back to not giving toilet paper a second thought, which is exactly how it should be.

Last year I wrote a post about the small changes I'd made to be a little more eco-friendly. Lots of small changes add up and since then I've continued to seek out more alternative ways of doing everyday things.

My most recent change came after reading a post Vix wrote about mindful laundering, with a link to an article about fabric conditioner that had me ordering several bottles of white vinegar.

Long story short - fabric conditioner is not good for your clothes, use white vinegar instead.

Simply mix 500ml white vinegar (it has to be white, no alternatives) with 30 drops of an essential oil of your choice. To use, shake well and fill up to the line on your fabric conditioner drawer.

I used Star Anise essential oil as I love the scent, and had been given a bottle (thank you Sophie) a few days before reading the article, so it seemed to me that it was meant to be. As the (glass) bottles of white vinegar I ordered were just over 500ml, I simply added the oil to the bottle.

The outcome? I love the scent, although I know liquorice won't be to everyone's taste, my laundry feels great, just as good as with a regular fabric conditioner. In the long run using this will help my fabrics last longer, and save on plastic packaging.

Other changes I've made are;

Soap instead of shower gel.
A while ago I switched my regular shower gel for soap to cut out the plastic packaging. My memories of using soap as a child included a horrid tight, itchy feeling to the skin after using it and so I'd avoided it for years. I picked up a Dove beauty bar with it's 1/4 moisturising cream, and so far so good, not a dry itchy patch of skin in sight. I don't use it on my face but for the body it's really nice. It's 80p bar lasts a lot longer than any bottle of shower gel I've ever used, and it comes packaged in a cardboard box.

Bamboo toothbrushes
I've switched to a bamboo toothbrush, and it's just as good as any plastic toothbrush I've used. A recent scroll through my Pinterest feed threw up this article on how to dispose of them properly.

Carry a drink
I asked for a Chilly's water bottle for my birthday last year and received a gorgeous flamingo design that now goes everywhere with me full of tea. Who says a water bottle has to be used for water? I haven't purchased a bottle or carton of drink for months.

Bake instead of buy.
We don't often have sweet treats. We have no self control and eat them at an alarming rate. It's best that I just don't to buy them in the first place. But sometimes a cake or some cookies are called for so I pop on my apron and get baking. It avoids plastic packaging often used for biscuits and cakes, and I can avoid additives and preservatives added to shop bought baked goods.

Going off topic for a moment, I found a lovely recipe for Banana and Oatmeal Cookies. They're perfect for using up aging bananas (which I buy intending to eat as healthy snacks and then don't), it avoids the waste and they're delicious! These Healthier Banana Honey Muffins also look good, and contain less sugar. I'll give these a try next time I buy bananas with good intentions.

Secret Santa
At Christmas we had a Secret Santa with my side of the family, which cut down on packaging (we're a family that shops online), cut down on the use of wrapping paper as we had far fewer gifts each, and cut down on clutter - none of us need more stuff.

I'm planning on making reusable fabric gift bags in cute festive material this year, if I can spread them around my family they'll reuse them in the coming years. There's a Japanese fabric wrapping technique called Furoshiki that I'll be referring to, here's a guide.

Recently Kezzie wrote a post on all the ways she succeeds and fails in this area. I love posts such as this as they are a great source of inspiration, and got me thinking once again about what else I could be doing.

A breadmaker.
We eat a lot of bread and I've been pondering this for a while. Everyone who has one says they'd never go back. I don't know what I'm waiting for really.

Reuseable cotton rounds.
Thanks to my awkward skin I've gone back to using a liquid toner but didn't want to use cotton pads. I'm using up the cotton pads that I had in my drawer but want to switch to reuseable cotton rounds when they're used up. I like the look of these from Peace with the Wild, a company I found through Instagram. Or I could make my own.

Period Pants.
I've been hearing a lot about period pants, and have read some good reviews. I'm definitely intrigued. They are expensive, £20 - £27 approx for a pair of pants depending on the brand, and obviously more than one pair is needed. The cost caused my eyebrows to raise, but if they last you can make your money back ... eventually, and no more sanitary waste. Brands are Thinx or Modibodi. Wuka or Flux. I'll keep you posted, unless that would be too much information?

Just as an aside, all these websites use diverse images of women, different sizes, with stretchmarks, cellulite and lumps and bumps. It's so refreshing, we need to see more of this.

Friendly washing
Using a Guppy Friend Washing Bag to catch synthetic fibres and prevent them from being released into seas and oceans during a washing cycle. Do you use one of these? What do you do with the fibres that are caught?

Hoping and waiting
I'm hoping for a bulk buy shop to open up locally so I can take my own containers to buy store cupboard staples. I've been finding paper or cardboard packaged alternatives for food and household items as much as possible but there is still room for improvement.

Do you have any other tips you can share?

I can often be heard telling people that most of my favourite items of clothing are pre-loved, either from charity shops, clothes swaps or from ebay.

Over the years I've found some lovely pieces, here are my top five.

This is one of my very first charity shop finds, bought it back in July 2012. I had to dye it last summer to bring the colour back to life, but this yellow maxi is set to be around for a while yet. Not bad for £2.99 eh? The jacket and t-shirt I'm wearing in this outfit are also pre-loved, jacket from ebay, t-shirt from a clothes swap.


This Monsoon skirt is gorgeous. I picked it up in 2015 for £4.49. I've only worn this a few times but I can't see it leaving my wardrobe anytime soon. It's so lovely to wear, it swishes and sways and makes me feel incredibly feminine. The beaded evening bag is a charity shop purchase, and the necklace too.


I won this ASOS rose print dress in an ebay auction in July 2016, paying £18.00. I wore it for a wedding and hope to find many more reasons to wear it.


I used to steer clear of denim jackets, although I have no idea why. But then I decided that one would actually make a pretty good addition to my wardrobe, the first one I bought can be seen in the first image. But having not had one for years, I decided I needed two and my second one needed to have full length sleeves. I found exactly what I was looking for in January 2017 on ebay and paid the Buy It Now price of £6.99. I reached for it many times over the course of the year. It's been put away for winter but I'm looking forward to getting it out again in the spring.


I picked up these Oasis jeans in August 2017 on a whim, paying just £2.00. They looked brand new and although I don't normally go for wide leg jeans these have been worn so much! They're in my current capsule wardrobe and have been worn 12 times since the beginning of January (yes, I'm keeping a tally). The green jumper is also a charity shop purchase.

All of this is my round about way of saying - look what fantastic things await you in your local charity shops!! It's a fantastic thrifty and eco-friendly way to fill your wardrobe with great clothes.

Do you shop secondhand? What's your favourite pre-loved purchase?

OK, so the title of this post might be a little bit of an huge exaggeration. My efforts alone will not save the earth, but I am a great believer in lots of little acts making a difference, so I'm trying to do my bit.

I made a few positive changes last year, albeit small ones, that are all very easy to stick to.

I switched my usual supermarket own brand cotton buds for fairtrade ones from M&S. They have cardboard sticks, putting an end to anymore plastic sticks going to landfill from our household.

I switched to using a face wash and a face cloth instead of a cleanser and a cotton pad, which means I'm using fewer cotton pads (that come wrapped in plastic), and although the cleanser does still come in a plastic tube, it lasts much longer than a liquid cleanser, so I'm using fewer plastic items overall.

I now use cleansing balm to remove my waterproof eye makeup, which comes in a metal container instead of eye make up remover that comes in a plastic bottle. It washes off with water, so no more cotton pads required here either.

I use loose washing powder that comes in a cardboard box instead of liquitabs that come in all sorts of plastic wrappers and containers. I get a 2.6kg box and it lasts for several months. The box says 40 washes but that's ludicrous, I use half the amount they say and my clothes are always clean and fresh. It's another benefit to loose powder - you get to choose how much you use.

In the same vein I found some pasta, and some dishwasher tablets that come in cardboard boxes too. I keep my eyes peeled for more products like this.

I buy my books from the bookshop rather than the online giants. It helps the high street, and saves on packaging. I buy most of my books from charity shops, so it helps a good cause too. I don't plan to buy many books for myself this year, but still, it's something to remember for books I give as gifts.

Cooking from scratch. Trying to make as many meals as I can each week from scratch cuts down on packaging. I looked at the recipes I make most often and a lot of them are from scratch (look at my halo shine!), but there are still more things I can do. For example, I make Hummus Pasta at least once a week. The hummus, and spinach come in plastic, so I'd like to look at making my own hummus, and buying spinach unpackaged. Or perhaps I could grow my own? Could I grow enough? Only one way to find out.

I found a lot of these ideas over at Second Hand Susie, she regularly posts ideas on small changes that can be made, and recently she shared some more ideas, including some links to great eco friendly alternatives to glitter, something I feel every self respecting Aunt (aka me) should know about!

One thing I will absolutely do this year is buy myself a water bottle and use it! I like the look of these Chillys Bottles. You'd think after being on this earth for over 40 years I'd remember to take a drink out and about with me...

Do you have any other ingenious ideas I can add to this list?

Image source: Montage of Chilly's Bottles