How Long Composting Takes and What Affects the Speed
How long does compost take? There are lots of questions about composting that we’ll get to eventually, but the one I hear about more than any other is how long…
Eco Friendly Insulation Materials Compared and What Works in Different Parts of a House
Sometime last year I finally sat down and started looking properly at how and where our house was losing heat. My first couple of attempts were half-hearted at best and…
Urban Rainwater Harvesting and How to Set Up a System in a Small Space
It’s true that a hosepipe and summer rain have the potential to start an argument between neighbours. Both will leave you soaked if you’re within range of either and both…
Rainwater Butts vs Underground Tanks and Which System Suits Your Property
Another dry weekend in the garden, sprinkler droning away to keep your lawn alive, with half your brain wondering if that really is necessary and the other half calculating how…
Using Harvested Rainwater for the Garden Toilet Flushing and Washing Machine
How To Use Rainwater for the Garden, Toilet and Washing Machine Standing at your downpipe during a decent summer downpour and seeing hundreds of litres of perfectly good water pouring…
Gravity Fed vs Pumped Rainwater Systems and the Pros and Cons of Each
Rainwater harvesting sounds simple. Harvest rainwater from your roof and redirect it into your toilet and washing machine until there’s none left. But once you start researching how to do…
Rainwater Harvesting for Allotments and Community Gardens
Unless you’re incredibly lucky, water is your biggest consumable cost on an allotment after the rent. And if you are lucky enough to have mains water on site at all,…
Zero Waste Meal Planning and the Weekly System That Stops Food Going in the Bin
Food waste isn’t a nebulous problem that happens across the world. Food waste is sitting in your fridge right now, and costing you money every single week. Households in the…
Building a Capsule Wardrobe and Owning Less Without Looking Like You’ve Given Up
The average UK adult owns 118 items of clothing. 26% of these had not been worn for at least a year (WRAP). I stare out blankly over my shoulder at…
Traditional Food Preservation Methods That Use No Energy and Actually Work
I was standing in my kitchen last winter staring blankly at my outrageously loud fridge during one of our “£300 energy bill months”. There was a bag of carrots on…
Clothes Swapping and the Free Way to Refresh Your Wardrobe
Clothes Swapping: The Free Way to Update Your Wardrobe Louis hadn’t intended to spend his Saturday morning in a rented-out community hall rummaging through strangers’ discards, but there he was…
Understanding Use By vs Best Before and What You Can Safely Eat After the Date
I used to be ridiculously good at throwing away food. I didn’t want to bin edible food, I genuinely believed it would kill someone if I served it. Yoghurt was…
Why That One House Visit Changed Everything I Thought I Knew About Home Heating
About 3 years ago, I had what I call a minor existential crisis, in someone else’s living room. My neighbour Tom had been talking nonstop for months about “the craziest…