As the May flowers come into bloom, we are reminded of how beautiful the world around us can be. What better time to make some little changes to our day-to-day life and small switches to eco-friendly products in order to protect the environment we enjoy so much?
From sustainable everyday products to gestures that have received a royal seal of approval, we have put together a list of our top nine tips for simple, eco-friendly living…
1. Plant a tree for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
Ahead of her Platinum Jubilee in 2022, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles have launched an initiative called the Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) which aims to protect and preserve our beautiful British greenery.
The scheme calls for as many people as possible to plant a tree in honour of the Queen’s Jubilee! If you are part of a group or committee, you may also be entitled to free saplings from the three million donated to the project by the Woodland Trust.
To learn more about the benefits of planting trees, read our guest blog from MoreTrees on the topic.
2. Make recycling fun with arts and crafts
From the garden to the crafting table, we have a joyfully creative way for you to kickstart some eco-friendly habits! Whether you’re a keen crafter or a total newbie, you can use your imagination and turn everyday items into beautiful pieces for your home.
You could transform old clothes and unused fabrics into a colourful patchwork quilt, oven mitt or tote bag. Or how about turning old jam jars into storage containers for your sewing supplies?
The Joy Club recommends: finding your embroidery, crochet and knitting supplies at LoveCrafts. They also have a fantastic online community of crafters that you can connect with online and take inspiration from for your project. Plus, members of The Joy Club enjoy an exclusive discount across the LoveCrafts online shop.
3. Cut the plastic, keep the cleaning power
At The Joy Club we were shocked to learn that 95% of what we pay for when we buy cleaning products is water. The plastic bottles we buy and throw away could be easily replaced by taking water from our household taps and mixing it with a cleaning agent.
If you’re tired of buying plastic bottle after plastic bottle of bleach or surface cleaner, why not give recycled and plastic-free home hygiene products a go? We think it’s high time there was a less wasteful and more stylish alternative to the ugly, plastic spray bottles!
The Joy Club recommends: ordering a starter kit now with Raindrop Clean, to save using our discount exclusively reserved for members of The Joy Club.
4. The perfect partner: sustainable home cleaning cloths
We’ve all become so used to single-use products that it hardly crosses our minds to use paper towels, baby wipes or cleaning cloths to wipe something up and then throw them away. We have a solution that will reduce waste and add to all garden composts: biodegradable cleaning cloths.
The wonderful thing about these eco-friendly alternatives is that they are often thoughtfully made and beautifully designed too. Contented Company, for example, is a mum-run family business offering an attractive range of products, all designed with reducing waste in mind.
The Joy Club recommends: getting started with a simple switch to compostable, sponge cleaning cloths from the Contented Company whilst making a great saving with our member discount.
5. Reducing food waste
With impressively stocked supermarkets and more affordable food available, we are all prone to buying more than we need. Even the most kitchen savvy among us will run into the dilemma of having to throw food away because it has spoiled before we could eat it.
Although this seems fairly harmless, throwing food away contributes to tonnes of waste ending up in landfill. Once there, it is responsible for producing high levels of CO2, which ultimately contributes to global warming.
But, there are things we can all do to alleviate the scale of this problem. We can be more careful when we shop to only buy what we need or we can order online food deliveries, reducing the risk of picking something up just because it catches our eye.
Better yet, The Joy Club recommends: a free app called Olio. Olio allows us to connect with one another as neighbours and local businesses to offer free food and household goods that would otherwise go to waste. From a surplus of bread made by the local bakery to a neighbour’s home-grown veg, we love Olio because it gives us access to delicious produce for free and reduces food waste too.
6. Keep food fresh for longer, the environmentally friendly way
So we know Olio can help us reduce food waste, but how can we be eco-friendly when we preserve the food we do have? It has become second-nature to all of us to pop some cling film over leftovers to keep them fresh. However, we hardly consider the plastic waste that doing just that produces.
Thankfully, an alternative method has been gaining in popularity for its sustainable approach to food preservation – beeswax food wraps. They keep food fresh for longer, but, unlike cling film, they look gorgeous and are fully washable and reusable!
The Joy Club recommends: create your own beeswax wraps using at-home kits from The Hessian Shack. Plus, as a member of The Joy Club, you’ll make a great saving, allowing you to get creative and be more eco-friendly for less!
7. Small switches: natural beauty products
If you are looking to make an eco-friendly change to your personal beauty routine, then we have the perfect suggestion for you: effective, long-lasting deodorant with refills that are completely plastic-free.
The Joy Club recommends: order a stylish and durable Wild applicator at an impressive discount as a member of The Joy Club.
After years of buying new deodorants, the idea of choosing a long-lasting applicator with biodegradable and recyclable refills is a small but mighty change that might bring you joy as well as reducing plastic waste. With scents like Bergamot Rituals and Coconut Dreams, who knew saving the planet could smell so good?
8. Saving energy simply
One easy but incredibly impactful way to make an eco-friendly change is to be more mindful of your energy consumption. We’ve all begrudgingly followed the advice to ‘put on a jumper if you’re cold’ rather than switch on the central heating, but keeping warm is important, so what can we do on an even simpler scale?
Our next tip is to switch off electronic items when they are just on standby. A TV, DVD player, microwaves or radio – all of these burn energy just waiting to be used – if it isn’t in use then you could be reducing energy consumption instantly by turning them off properly. It won’t just save the planet but it will save you money on your energy bills in the long run too. We’re talking even smaller changes than that (we all need a cosy home after all!).
9. Transform your garden into a wildlife sanctuary with a few simple changes
Ensuring that we create and cultivate welcoming habitats for all sorts of outdoor creatures can help support the ecosystems that keep the environment healthy.
The Joy Club recommends: reading this helpful guide from the RSPB on how to create a home for wildlife in your garden. The perfect way to spend an afternoon or inspire your grandchildren, this guide will help you make suitable spaces so you can sit back and wait for the frogs, butterflies and even hedgehogs to arrive!
Alternatively, if you don’t have access to a garden or outdoor space, you can create a wildlife sanctuary in a window box. With our fab discount at Seedball, you can choose which colours and types of wildflowers you want and watch your seeds spring to life – the bees will thank you for it!
Not yet a member but would like to access these fantastic offers? Join The Joy Club today!