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See inside my drawers

Inside my drawers...My bathroom drawer has not been spared in my quest to live with less.What was once a cluttered wasteland of weird smelling fake tan tubes, 8-step facial routines and an exfoliant for every different limb and appendage – has been ruthlessly simplified. Because you need it…My motivation to simplify my personal care products started with wanting to reduce the amount of chemicals that I was putting on myself. However it then became a realisation that half the sh!t I was ...

Just like MacGyver

Inspector Gadget...In my quest to live with less, my kitchen was not spared.Turns out over time I had acquired a vast number of items that simply didn’t get used.Think double ups and gadgety task specific thingos – you know the ones that end up just hanging out with all of their other random mates in the clutter chaos that is the second drawer down. Don’t be a wasterI have a philosophy of setting things free (my brother didn’t agree with my thinking when I let all of the birds out of his...

Green is the new black

I wanted to green up my wardrobe.It was something I hadn’t really thought about before, but it turns out the fashion industry can be a bit of a shocker when it comes to waste and chemicals. Whilst it can be a great option to donate clothes after you’re done with them, the volume that the world is producing has got a bit out of control. I’m going to share with you my highly technical and ‘patented’ three step process to greening up your wardrobe. Step 1: Less is moreI was ruthless.I did...

One box to rule them all

Kids breed stuff...They may be proportionately small, but kids have a tendency to attract a whole lotta stuff into your house. Being I’m an aspiring minimalist, I’ve had to come up with a few strategies to help me and the little humans develop some ground rules. Two kids, one boxWe have a small toy box for toys. No more, no less.If it doesn’t fit in the toy box, something has to go.The secret to my success… the toy library! It seems so simple, but it is freaken revolutionary.We go e...

Shopping like a boss

I started the year with a mission… to only go food shopping every two months. Talk about living life on the edge!I wanted to prove that I could cut down my waste, eat better, spend less AND save time.How hard could it be?!? The results are in…It’s four months in, and I owe you a report.Savings so far:Time: 24 hoursMoney: $1,280Waste: 128 plastic bags + 160 food packets + 96 meat trays I sound like an infomercial – but it is for real. I’m totally blown awayas to how easy it ha...

More is less

Once I heard that the average house has over 30,000 items in it.WTF??? I think it was at that point that something switched in me. I started to feel that maybe; the world has enough stuff. Less is moreI’m now a bit hooked on this whole minimalism buzz.I’m not a purest. I tried to be, but I got all anal about things and my husband told me I was being a dick, so I backed off.However, the reality is that we now live with a whole lot less than we used to, and that’s despite adding two kids to ...

Love thy freezer

I’ve always been quietly impressed by freezers.They’re so unassuming, but they essentially suspend food in time – how awesome is that?!? My freezer has become a bit of a secret weapon in my quest to only go shopping once every two months.It means I can max out the efficiency of buying and making in bulk.There’s not many things you can’t freeze. Plastic partyPlastic is an obvious storage solution for freezers, but it turns out that extremes of temperature are a real turn on for plastic....

Milk your nuts

My husband uses almond mylk. He’s good like that.In my quest to give up the supermarket, I was simply going to buy heaps and store it.But when I was loading it into the trolley, I started feeling a bit stink about all of the non-recyclable tetra packs that I was piling up. I also read the ingredients and realised I was paying $3.50 a litre for something that was 2.5% almonds. Nuts on iceAll the cool raw foodie people always talk about how easy nut mylk (ha ha) is to make.I always silently judg...

Over-achieving baking

One part of giving up the supermarket for me is reducing the amount of packaged food we buy (less waste, better food). Good in theory, but then what do you do with the kids lunchboxes?!? The time trialPart of this mission for me is to save time. I have saved 2.5 hours per week by not going shopping (trust me it adds up when you include: list writing, driving, shopping, packing, unpacking, kid wrangling, the top-up shops…) I give myself an hour of that time back on a Sunday and go like a T...

Me and Mr T

I’ve gone old school. I found myself a couple of tea strainers at the op shop and have switched to loose leaf.Gotta say… I’m a big fan.It may be psychological, but I swear it tastes better.#Winning I was a bit gutted to find out that a lot of tea bags contain plastic, so was keen to make the switch to free range for that reason alone – but then I found you can buy it in BULK.And you all know what buying in bulk means… no packaging and wayyyyyy cheaper. BOOM!You can even take ...

Knock knock

I have a romantic notion of wearing a flowing dress and a floppy hat and filling a basket with a daily abundance of fresh produce from my garden. The reality is that I’ve nailed growing a few things and am continually trying to learn more, but I can’t deliver on the variety and volumes that I want for our family. I tried substituting my kids daily fruit with green beans or a courgette, but it didn’t go down so well. Given my mission to only go food shopping once every two months, I had to ...

Cracker habit

I eat a lot of crackers. I hadn’t realised the extent of my habit until I was dropping off my soft plastics recycling and saw all of the empty packets that I was responsible for. In my mission to reduce my supermarket shopping to bi-monthly, I had a plan to simply stock up on crackers. But given the volumes and the packaging I was getting through, I started to wonder if there was a better way… DIY stylesI’m not a baker.Sometimes I get the urge, but about 20 mins after I start, both my...

Bulking up

I’ve discovered the wonders of a food buying co-op. Turns out there are awesome people everywhere banding together to buy stuff in bulk and get a sweet deal. All I had to do was fill in a spreadsheet, pay some money, and hey presto – a week later I picked up enough pantry staples to last us at least four months.What’s the big deal? It’s a well known fact that I am a big fan of the bullet point, so here goes:Time: 20mins to order and 10mins to pick up. Boom!Organic: I got fancy and joined...

Go large

We went berry picking on the weekend. I had visions of picking enough to fill the freezer for the next few months to avoid buying them at the supermarket. I even had our own containers to avoid any waste. I took two small children and a husband; it was never going to happen. After approximately four and a half minutes of picking I was on my own, and the only one not eating ice cream.And then what happened??? Luckily they also sold frozen berries. I’m not going to lie, buying 15kgs seemed exces...

Pour yourself a long, cool one

It’s summer time, and it turns out my supermarket trolley was regularly stocked with soda water. I drink it, the kids drink it, and it makes me look fancy when visitors come over and I can offer ‘sparkling water’. Of course I diligently recycle the bottles, but I prefer to avoid packaging where I can and I’m on a mission to significantly reduce my supermarket shopping remember? The 80s had itSodaStreams were an 80s icon, but give the brand credit, they have made a resurgence.Turns out lo...

Getting down to business

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.My journey to only going to the supermarket every two months began with toilet paper – so classy. Start simpleLooking at my shopping habits, I realised there were some easy swaps that I could make which will have a big impact. The supermarket is packed with so many different product options, it’s hard to know where to start. Choosing the right option is personal, but here are my thoughts on what to look out for when it comes to care for...