Eco Friendly Home
Here you will find resources that will help you declutter your home responsibly, focusing on where to donate items you no longer need and recycling options for items no longer fit for use. You will also find organising tips to help you simplify your life and integrate sustainable living practices into your home, so you can live a life with less overwhelm while making a positive impact on the environment.
Donate responsibly
If you have explored my About page you will know that my interest in minimalism predates my interest in sustainable living. I decluttered first, getting rid of excess items in our house that I knew we didn’t need.
Charities used to be me go-to to dump excess stuff but I have since discovered charity stores can’t deal with all our stuff. Read this blog post for more on the negative impacts of our donations: What REALLY Happens to Donated Clothes in Australia?
So let’s not dump things at the charity store – learn from my mistakes! When it comes to clothing, explore some of the options outlined in these blog posts:
- What to Do With Unwanted Old Clothes – A Complete Guide
- Is Selling Your Clothes Worth It? Tips to Help You Out
- Where to Donate Clothing In Australia – A Full Guide
- What to Do With Clothes that CANNOT be Donated
- What To Do With Old Underwear and Bras – Practical Tips
- Where to donate items you no longer need
- What to do with your unwanted shoes – a complete guide
- Where to donate books – plus other options you will want to know about
- Guide to decluttering home decor – advice based on real-life experience
- Best app to find recipes for ingredients you need to use up (you will want to know this when you do a pantry declutter)
- Disposal of paint in Australia – how to do it responsibly
- What to do with old photos – reuse and disposal options covered!
- How to get rid of wires, cabling and charges
Recycling solutions
For items that are not in a condition to be donated, recycling is the next easiest option. There are so many options worthwhile exploring. For a one-stop shop to understand what items can be recycled in Australia (and most other western countries) check out this blog post: Items You Can Recycle – Tips and Resources for Aussies
There is a lot of confusion and misinformation out there about household recycling. The fact that each council area – let alone each country – has different recycling rules does not help. For an overview of recycling bin colours and what goes into which bin, check out this blog post: Recycling Bin Colours in Australia – Guide on Council Bins.
For more detailed information on particular items check out these blog posts:
- Clothing: Where to Recycle Clothing in Australia – All Options Covered
- Underwear: What To Do With Old Underwear and Bras – Practical Tips
- Eyewear: Recycling Prescription Glasses and Sunglasses – Your Options Covered
- Shoes: Where to recycle shoes in Australia – updated for 2023
- Paints and chemicals: Disposal of Paint in Australia – How to Do it Responsibly
- Metals: Recycling Household Metallic Objects – A Complete Guide
- Wires, charges and cabling: Get Rid of Scrap Cables, Chargers and Wiring – Responsibly
- Photos: What to Do With Old Photos – Reuse and Disposal Options Covered!
- Paper recycling – busting some common myths (Part 1)
- Paper recycling – busting some common myths (Part 2)
These posts about organisation strategies also touch on recycling options:
Organising systems
If you declutter without organising your space, you will find your home will get cluttered once again, leading you down a consumption cycle as things get disorganised and you end up buying multiples of things you already own.
If you want to stop this cycle, consider some of the organising systems and tips covered below:
- How to keep your pantry organised and prevent food waste
- How to organise your paperwork – to keep your sanity and do it sustainably!
- How to organise household receipts – and dispose of them correctly!
- How to organise wires, chargers and cables
- 5 eco-friendly storage solutions for wires, chargers and cabling
These organising systems are not designed to add to your to-do list – in fact, it’s the opposite. Having a system in place will simplify your life, stopping things from getting too overwhelming.
Another way to prevent overwhelm is to do less. If cleaning is one of those things you would like to do less of (who wouldn’t!) then you would want to check out this post: Cleaning routine for lazy clean freaks who care about the environment
If you would like more general information about organising, explore these posts:
Capsule wardrobe
A capsule wardrobe is a seasonal wardrobe, with a limited number of interchangeable and complementary pieces.
Perhaps that sounds complicated or too restrictive for you? Well, before you brush it off, stick around, because you might discover something that could work for you. Some of the general principles behind capsule wardrobes can be adopted to create an organised wardrobe that suits your needs.
And if you are not put off by the idea of a capsule wardrobe and it sounds like something that could work for you, explore these posts where I have documented everything I have learnt from having one myself:
