Washing. Where to start. Okay, so we want to do away with plastic bottles (if possible) and certain leave nasty chemicals behind.

Just as an aside – my husband and I are both mildly asthmatic. I’d never thought about it before, but when I made the chance to an eco washing liquid for my clothes, lo and behold, I breathed a lot more easily. I’d never thought about that side of things before.

I’m going to start hard core with this post, and gently slip into reverse. So…

Conkers: Yes, believe it or not, you can do your washing simply by using conkers. You’ll need a wee bit of prep first. Collect your conkers and remove the green husks. Cut them into quarters and dry them on a towel if they are damp. Store in glass jar. To use, put 1/4 cup of conker bits into 1/2 cup of warm water and leave overnight. The resulting liquid will do 2 wash loads, and you can re-soak the conkers a couple of times at least.

ecoegg Laundry Egg: Some people love these, others think they’re a waste of space. Essentially, they contain two types of mineral pellets that produce a cleaning foam to lift off dirt without the need for laundry powder or liquid. Although they are made of plastic, you can buy the pellets separately to top up your egg, so it should last for ages. You can buy a scented or unscented version and they are allergy free and you don’t need to use a fabric conditioner. They’re available from Lakeland & Robert Dyas amongst others, or online. I have an ecoegg and I’m pretty pleased with its performance. It’s a good idea to treat stains with a stain remover first, and I must admit I do wash heavy duty dirt or the dog’s towels with an eco friendly laundry liquid. So, a thumbs up from me on the whole.

Smol laundry capsules: These are posted to you in recyclable packing and Smol claim to use less chemicals than conventional laundry liquids. I’ve just applied for a free trial, so I’ll keep you posted on these.

So, going plastic free is a great thing. We’ve all seen the horrific images of beaches covered in plastic, and floating ‘islands’ of plastic that cover hundreds of miles of ocean. Here’s one way to do it. Ditch plastic washing up pads.

There are plenty of alternatives, so there’s something for everyone. I’m quite a picky washer upper – I like a dishcloth (cotton, so not a problem), but I also like a plastic sponge scourer. In fact, I love sponge scourers…sad as it may be. Here are a few environmentally alternatives I’ve tried. So long plastic sponges…

Loofah: I love my loofah! I tried to find a whole loofah, but everywhere I looked was out of stock. The word on the street is that you can buy them in Wilko, Boots, Savers and other high street stores. I managed to find a dedicated washing up loofah online and I love it. It has a really nice feel to it and does the job perfectly. Freshen it up in boiling water if it gets a bit yukky. The best news of all – it can be placed on your compost heap, where it will happily rot down and give you lovely wormy compost.

Coconut husk scrubbie: Great for pans and jobs that require a bit more welly. Loved it and again, the scrubbie bit is compostable.

Washing up sponge: If you really can’t shake the habit, don’t worry. EcoForce make a recycled washing up sponge. It’s a bit tougher than my old washing up sponges, but in the grand scheme of things it’s pretty good.

Unsponges: This is a general term for handmade washing up pads – look out for the ones with an eco friendly filling, made from organic cotton. I’ve not tried to make one myself yet – there are plenty of sources online. Shop small if you can and help an independant crafter. Otherwise, if you’re good at sewing, tutorials aplenty online.

Okay, so many of the cleaning products we purchase in the supermarket contain unpleasant chemicals that are damaging to the environment and not particularly pleasant for us either. And most of them come in plastic packaging.

I’ve been on a mission to test some natural cleaning products and I’m amazed at just how effective they are. In some cases, they’re even better than their shop bought equivalents.

There are 3 main elements to your natural cleaning arsenal: sodium bicarbonate, citric acid and white vinegar. Here’s what they will do for you:

Sodium Bicarbonate: use with a damp cloth to scrub your kitchen surfaces; make into a paste with a little water and some white vinegar – slap it over your dirty oven, leave for a few hours and rinse off; put a teaspoon full in a dirty tea cup, fill with boiling water and watch it get to work.

White Vinegar: it’s great for cleaning kettles – simply put a cup full in a limescaled kettle, fill with water, leave to stand for a while, boil and rinse out a couple of times. You may need to scrub the limescale a bit. Put some in the fabric condition section of your washing machine drawer instead of fabric condition. Make an all-purpose cleaning spray with 50% white vinegar, 50% water and a dash of lemon juice.

Citric Acid: this saved my bacon on our dirty toilet. I clean our toilet regularly, but a limescale build up had left it quite grubby. I poured some citric acid around the bowl, left overnight and scrubbed. Sparkly clean!

The great news – you don’t have to buy these items in plastic containers either. White vinegar is readily available in bottles. Sodium bicarbonate and citric acid are available from Wilkos in cardboard boxes. Or you can buy any of these ingredients in bulk online. Go to it!

Yes I know, it’s far easier to pop a teabag into a cup, pour boiling water over it, swish it around for a minute and hey presto you have a cup of tea. But as you all know, many teabags contain plastic – an environmental no-no.

The great news is that leaf tea is much better quality than the dusty powder you find in many tea bags. So not only does it make a better brew, it can work out cheaper too.

It really doesn’t take much more time to make a pot of tea – if you don’t have a teapot, check your local charity shops. I’m willing to bet you’ll find one pretty quickly. Otherwise, why not buy one from an artisan crafter? I asked for two teapots for birthday gifts – a giant one for tea parties from Mudness Ceramics, and this lovely stoneware pot (above) for just me from Oby Pottery. They are stunning and every time I pour myself a cup of tea, I get so much pleasure.

Why not ditch the bag? Go on, you know you’re worth it…

According to a May 2018 article in the Guardian newspaper, avoiding meat and diary is the single biggest way to reduce your impact on earth.

I went on a quest to find a non-dairy milk, and I have to admit that I struggled. I trawled the aisles of my local supermarket, and bought cartons of soya milk, almond milk, rice milk – you name it. They all tasted like – well of nothing really. Then I came across a recipe for making oat milk, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m a convert – not only does it actually taste good, it’s unbelievably easy to make at home (reducing packaging) and it’s really cheap to make.

Here’s the recipe:

1 Cup Oats / 4 Cups Water / Pinch of Salt / 1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Just pour the oats and water into a blender and whizz for a good minute. Then strain through muslin (I put a small piece of muslin over a 2 pint glass measuring jug, secure it with a rubber band and pour the oats and water through it. You’ll need to push the gloop around with a spoon to get it to strain through the muslin.) When all the liquid is strained, I lift off the muslin containing the leftover bits of oat and give it a good squeeze over the jug to get all the liquid out. Then I add a pinch of salt. You can add a tiny bit of vanilla essence or even honey to taste. Use the leftover oat particles in cookies if you like or you can feed them to the birds.

Oat milk is perfect on cereal and you can use it for tea and coffee. However, if you heat it to use it in cooking, it will go gloopy. You have been warned!