How to live a sustainable lifestyle with 5 easy tips

We thought we’d share some tips on how you can change little things about your lifestyle that can make a big impact on the planet. By following these tips you can achieve a sustainable lifestyle and help lessen the negative impact people have on the environment.

Don’t worry, these aren’t huge changes that will be hard to attempt, just small steps in the right direction for sustainability.

Say no to fast-fashion

Believe us when we say we know it’s hard to not buy from fast-fashion brands. They are everywhere from the high-street to online. They’re convenient and often very cheap but they don’t have a good impact on the environment. 

Buying from second-hand shops or ‘thrift stores’ is a much more sustainable way to go about buying your clothes. Not only are the clothes considerably cheaper in these shops but you can also pick up a bargain on designer goods too!

If you really want to buy a clothing item from a fast-fashion brand you should consider if you would wear it 30 times. Many sustainable and fashion agencies have said that if you think you would wear an item over 30 times then it is a useful purchase for you. So next time you see a cute dress or a handbag that you’re only planning on wearing to one occasion, maybe you should reconsider it. 

Grow your own

There are many benefits to growing your own fruits and vegetables. Not only is it a fun pastime with a great pay-off at the end, but it is cheaper for you in the long-run and great for the planet at the same time. What’s not to love?

Not everybody has a big garden to play around with but even buying a few small plant pots that you can keep on a windowsill is a great start. 

You can choose exactly what you want to grow and help reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are used to send fruits and vegetables to supermarkets.

Save Water

We’ve all heard that we need to save water in many ways like by not letting the tap run while we brush our teeth or the old ‘if it’s yellow let it mellow’ idea but we’ve thought of other ways that you can easily save water too. 

Leave a bucket outside to collect rainwater. This can be used to water flowers or your own fruits and vegetables that we mentioned earlier!

We know it’s relaxing to sit in a deep bath or stand in the shower while it runs for ages but this wastes a huge amount of water. Try to limit your time in the shower in a fun way. Make a music playlist with only 2-3 songs and once they’re over tell yourself you have to get out of the shower. Or hop in the shower right before your favourite show is about to start so you will be quick in order not to miss the start of it. 

When using the kettle, only fill it with what you need. This saves energy and also water because let’s face it, nobody wants to use water that’s been sitting in the kettle and we so often dump out the water only to refill it again!

Donate

Donating any clothes or unused items in your house not only helps charities but also ensures that unwanted items don’t go to landfill if you were just going to throw them away.

You probably have family members that would make use of items you don’t use or clothes you don’t wear anymore too. 

Haven’t we all found a younger sibling looking through our wardrobe for something to wear? Now’s the chance to help them out as well as letting go of items you don’t need anymore, instead of them ending up in a dump.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Everyone’s heard of this phrase but do you really take it into consideration in your everyday life? Yes, recycling glass and tins in a recycling centre is one way to go about it but that’s only one way to use the three r’s in everyday life.

Reusing containers is a great way for packaging to not go to waste. Use jam or sauce jars to make flower vases, keep shoe boxes as storage containers and reuse plastic ice-cream tubs as lunchboxes.

There are many sustainable shops popping up where you can bring your own containers and measure out how much or a certain food you would like so keeping jars for this is a great idea.

Make a conscious effort to remember to bring a bag with you when you go shopping instead of having to buy a plastic bag every time you forget. This saves you money and keeps your plastic use down.  

If you don’t have a reusable drinks bottle and end up buying a drink in a plastic bottle, keep it and reuse it with tap water so it is not single-use plastic anymore.