Share your tips with other members of the Mum and Working Community. Every month there will be a different theme...and for the best advice our partners Community Times are offering a £50 prize!
Our subject in May is about Being Green. To send in your tips about green living, it could be anything from great recycling ideas to ways to encourage your children to be more environmentally aware - email tips@mumandworking.co.uk.
There is a little community of mums here in Bournemouth, that are trying to make the difference and provide others with green alternatives to things. The main one being a local mum at a toddler group I attend. She has a website called www.flossybots.com and being inspired by so many other people I have just started my party bags business - stores.ebay.co.uk/Earth-Mother-Party-Bags which I only have recycled, eco friendly and fair-trade items. From the paper I print on and the cardboard I send items out in, to the paper party bags and the items that go into my bags. I'm sure with lots of little ideas like this cropping up all over the country; us mums can make the world of difference.
We keep the shells of our eggs and let them dry for a week in the sun. (On the windowsill). After they have dried you can crush them and distribute them on the soil amongst your plants in the garden. It helps regenerate the soil by adding calcium. An added bonus is that the sharpness off the crushed shells keeps certain kinds off slugs away.
My suggestion is the website is www.freecycle.org. What you do is find your local group, set up a yahoo email (highly necessary as you don't want all the emails lost in your regular email), and then prepare to be amazed and a little bit obsessed! The ethos is "changing the world one gift at a time". Basically 'one man's junk is another man's treasure'?? It's full of people getting rid of things they don't want in exchange for absolutely nothing. The environmental side is anti-landfill but it has taken me over. We have received clothes, a fireplace, a woodburner, toys, stair carpet and offerred loads of stuff that we would have tipped or taken to the charity shop.
The groups are growing fast, and you can request things too! Worth checking out whether you need somthing for the kids, setting up a business, (we got 3 great filing cabinets) or anything else. It's a great chance to meet your locals, and remind yourself that people are basically decent. So there!
Rachael - Mum to Dylan (5), May (2), and Bailey (10months old)
Both children go with us to the recycling center and love putting the bottles in the right holes!
Natalie
My green tip is to take stuff you would throw away to your local nursery/pre-school/toddler group - they love making things out of it (and then a decent length of time after they bring their wonderful creations home you can recycle them in to the recycle bin!).
Secondly, banish all those nasty chemical cleaning products for homemade green ones. I use white vinegar (mixed with water) all around the kitchen and bathroom, and it's great for taking away nasty smells too! Lemon juice mixed with olive oil (you can also use vegetable oil) is great for cleaning and polishing your woodwork. There are many websites that give you lots of "recipes" for green cleaning, so give it a go!
Sarah
Try www.thenappylady.co.uk for second hand nappies. Modern reusables DON'T need boiling, soaking, folding, pining or chemical sanitising products, are user friendly and come in all sorts of funky designs.
Get a mooncup www.mooncup.co.uk. They really are much easier to use than they sound and no where near as yucky as you might imagine plus the environmental and monetry savings are huge!!
Breastfeeing is eco friendly Here's why, www.treehugger.com
Never use harmful commercial cleaners. Make your own, the kids can help and really enjoy it. It's so much easier than you think. Main ingredients are white vinegar, olive oil, bicarb of soda, lemon juice and tea tree essential oil (naturally antibacterial)
To read January's top tips about Potty Training Click here
To read February's top tips about Food & Feeding Click here
To read March's top tips about Children's Birthdays Click here
To read April's top tips about Holiday Activities Click here
For a fun site for children all about recycling visit - www.recyclezone.org.uk