Today we put up shade to reduce sun getting into the house and heating it up over spring and summer. We’ve also put up better curtains over winter. Here’s hoping our summer electricity use drops compared to last year.
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Does anyone have a microplastic catcher thingy for their washing machine that they like?
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Not so far, but I’ve looked at them before and thought about buying one 
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Dang. Meanwhile, a win: Duckling loves putting things in the bin right now, but he loves feeding apple cores to the worms even more.
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I saved a lot of shipping boxes and packing materials and yesterday it got to be too much stuff, so I listed it in the Craigslist free section. By the end of the day, a nice lady and her daughters had come by to pick it up. One daughter is starting to sell stuff online so those boxes get a second life!
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I like this:
Nothing groundbreaking, but still a good read. We’re not likely to go car free anytime soon, but I’m proud we’ve managed to stay at just one car through the past six months when I really, really wanted the convenience of a second car.
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I love reading these articles even when they’re essentially the same stories - thanks for sharing!
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I enjoyed this, even though I agree that it wasn’t anything new. It’s making me rethink some of our household choices though.
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I bought these a while ago, and can now say they work well. I may buy myself a few scrunchies later.
https://www.floraandfauna.com.au/kooshoo-certified-organic-hair-ties-black-brown
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I’ve seen those at my local zero waste store 
They look really nice!
I currently am still using found hair ties (I always see them on the ground!) but when they finally fail I’m getting some of ckni’s scrap fabric hair ties - I think the design will hold my hair better without breakage. I can imagine shipping to you would not be the environmentally responsible thing 
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Do you want a pack of 100 “ouchless” black hair ties? I can ship them to you! I don’t know if that is what you are already using that you don’t like as much…but I have this massive pack, and my hair destroys them so I can’t use them anymore haha
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This has me thinking again about trying to get off domestic gas… We have gas hot water and a gas oven+stove.
Hot water heater is at least 6 years old so presumably will die in approximately 5 years? We can wait and replace it with electric then. Oven should last another 20 years though 
so that would need to be sold for us to replace with electric. Which is a big job when we’re low on spoons. Hmm.
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Thanks for posting this. I need to look into electric stove options (induction?) for our upcoming renovation. I guess we’re currently working on permaculture point 4.
Like you our water heater is gas and doesn’t need to be replaced yet, but also isn’t brand new. We might replace it when we get solar power.
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Induction is meant to be the most environmentally friendly choice, yep.
We need to work on step 4, and keep working on steps 2 and 5.
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Ooh also then I can show my parents how well it works (hopefully) and encourage them to switch when they renovate their kitchen. I think the only thing they use gas for is their stove and they have to use a bottle (no gas lines) so it doesn’t make much sense for them to keep it beyond “that’s what’s already there”.
I will have to think about our BBQ though.
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My favourite quote:
She has described her older home as being very well ventilated and said she planned to further increase energy efficiency by closing gaps and relying on a pre-existing reverse cycle air conditioner.
Ours isn’t as old and “well ventilated” but we are using a reverse cycle airconditioning to heat our home, and it’s not as nice as when we used a gas one. I’m hoping it will be better after we upgrade our glazing.
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This stroller is too small for Ewok’s rapidly increasing height and weight, but still interesting:
Of course, both our strollers were acquired secondhand (one bought on gumtree, one hand-me-down) which I think would pretty much always beat a brand new stroller made from recycled materials, for sustainability? But anyway. Cool to see a recycled materials option on the market.
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I saw that one earlier this year! Agree with the secondhand/sustainable new point.
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Huh, this hadn’t occurred to me. Our barbeque is gas too, of course. We only use it very very infrequently (old built-in that came with the house was used thrice in five years; since ripping that out we’ve used our tiny hand-me-down weberQ once) and I don’t even know what the alternatives are. I guess I have some research to do…
Double glazing to our front rooms has made a huuuuge difference with heating and cooling (I know, I know I go on about it…).
I need to find some good resources for identifying the “well ventilated” bits and addressing them, with step by step instructions. Maybe when the Fight for Planet A companion book comes out? Because a two second shot of someone covering a vent isn’t enough for me to know what to do.
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