Eco Hacks for Busy Mums
Being a mum is tough, but the one thing that really tests me is the amount of plastic in our family home. From Lego bricks to baby shampoo bottles, from tiny Sylvanian family furniture to cordial bottles. I often feel like I’m drowning both physically and metaphorically in a sea of plastic in my own home.
My kids need to be washed, eat and play and so unfortunately in my busy life, plastic is unavoidable and inevitable in all our homes. But there are small things we can do to help reduce the amount of plastic we bring into our homes and then discard. Here are my top 5 tips for being a tiny bit sustainable while still juggling daily life! Some of them may surprise you! They are simple changes I have slowly introduced and not too tricky to keep up either!
1. Unwrapped bananas
We eat a lot of bananas in our house, especially before bed as I once heard they help promote sleep! In most supermarkets and definitely at your local fruit and veg market stand you can buy bananas not in a plastic bag! I have calculated that we buy at least two bunches of bananas each week. So opting for this simple swap means we have stopped over 100 plastic bags coming into the house each year.
Our bathroom was getting out of hand. At one point in time I counted 13 bottles of different products sat along the side of our bath. That’s 13 bottles which actually couldn’t all be recycled as some colours of plastic can’t actually be recycled. So I went back to basics and bought some bars of soap. The kids love a good block of soap and you can even buy ones which come totally plastic free packaging such as a simple bar of Dove soap. I haven’t yet been able to find myself a shampoo bar which I like but once I do I will report back - that’s a different blog! This change has meant that we have reduced the amount of plastic bottles sat along the side of my bath. I estimate about 35 fewer bottles over an entire year!
3. Bourbon biscuits and custard creams
I have three kids and one day when handing out some chocolate biscuits to the kids I was stood next to the bin literally unwrapping individually wrapped biscuits and placing the rubbish in the bin with one hand and handing out the biscuits with the other. This is the change which I think has seen the biggest impact and one which we have found the easiest. My kids are snack monsters and so things like buying a pack of biscuits as opposed to individually wrapped biscuits has made a massive impact. This is also true for things like raisin and rice cakes. Buying these things in larger bags and then just decanting into little bowls and plates saves at least 2190 little wrappers each year (3 kids x 2 snacks X 365 days a year = 2190).
4. Already unboxed toys
In our house Santa always unboxes gifts as we found it helped with the flow of Christmas morning. This then got me thinking that second hand gifts from Santa would be amazing! This year I managed to get a £70 toy for just £20 off Facebook marketplace. My top tips if you are wanting second hand toys is to shop early.
5. Reusable Straws
Well it goes without saying doesn’t it but we have ditched the single use straws and we obviously use reusable ones instead. You may not be aware but it is estimated in the UK that each person uses on average 120 single use straws a year! By replacing these single use items with high quality reusable ones this will make a massive difference. But it doesn’t have to stop there.
Now don’t get me wrong our recycling bin is still overflowing at different points of the year but these are my easy ways to be a little more green while still getting on with everyday life. What are your favourite ways to juggle being green with family life?
