Our Journey in 2023 to more sustainable lifestyle

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Since learning about global warming in detail back during my pre-GCSE years I have always been concerned about how we act and the impact on the planet, but was much less educated about the ways to improve, I liked things like a fast car without thinking about the pollution and had a much more wasteful lifestyle.

Fast forward to the birth of Munchkin, I suddenly had a good purpose to change as it was hard to imagine a world where Munchkin wouldn’t meet an orangutan and instead grow up living on food containing microplastics. This began the start of our more sustainable lifestyle.

What we do now shapes the world our kids will live in after all…

By 2030, the demands from 5.6 billion consumers will be draining the Earth for resources so fast that we need two planets to support us. If everyone lived like western consumers, we would need five.

The World Counts

and that says a lot. Two planets? Last time I checked, we only have one.

This is why we chose to live an ever developing (as I’m still learning and finding new things to change) sustainable lifestyle.

Sustainable life

What do we mean by ‘sustainable living’?

If we take these two things into account:

  1. ‘Both people and nature are facing severe consequences if our current consumption of resources increases’ – WWF.org
  2. ‘The world population is growing by over 200,000 people every single day. It will reach 8.5 billion by 2030 with 5.6 billion people being part of the consumer class’ – The world counts

Then we all need to reduce what we use to keep our consumption at, or below, current rates.

This means we need to use less, use better, reuse more and recycle more.

Otherwise, we risk dangerous global consequences with bigger extremes in climate, with more flooding, fires and drought, more microplastics in our food and more risk of disease.

The beginning of our sustainable living life style.

There’s many things we could change so we looked at starting with the biggest impact. With a baby at the time the answer was simple – plastic – and more specifically wipes and nappies. We keep it going and keep our promises each year by making and posting more plastic free and environmentally sound promises.

Munchkin sporting a reusable nappy - a sustainable lifestyle swap
Munchkin excited to sport a reusable nappy

Then once we had those changed that we looked further – moving around the house and looking at all of our behaviours and changes we could make.

The key was to change gradually. Switching products and lifestyle choices little by little.

Four years on we live, guided by our eco-warrior guidelines, to live our lives as a more environmentally friendly family. So, here we go here are our:

Our eco-warrior guidelines for a more sustainable lifestyle

1. Reduce plastic use

One of main swaps has always been around reducing our plastic use and waste as ‘By 2050, virtually every seabird species on the planet will be eating plastic.’ – The national Geographic .

Ways we have changed this include but are not limited to:

  • Using reusable or plastic free baby products such as nappies and wipes and eliminating bags – We changed nappies with The super reusable nappies and eco-friendly alternatives from Kit & Kin.
  • Cleaning our house without buying plastic contained cleaning products. – We switched our cleaning products to Koh, Smol and, more recently the Bower Collective.
  • Using plastic free deodorants and shower products – I currently use and recommend Wild deodorant Bare bar and Grumm skincare.
  • Removing washing up sponges and using alternatives.
  • Recycling as much as possible with Terracycle and Plastic bag recycling.
Kitchen cleaning plastic free

2. Reuse and recycle

It feels like single use plastics are getting phased out slowly from many consumers however:

‘Plastic production and use is forecast to double over the next 20 years, and quadruple by the early 2050s’

The National Geographic

And furthermore; more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic are already in our oceans. Plastic that endures from 450 years to forever (the national geographic).

This means we first need to reuse and reduce our consumption.

We do this by:

  • Avoiding use of plastic straws by using paper or our own
  • limiting our purchase of plastic by sourcing eco-friendly alternatives
  • Using reusable containers to store food
  • Use metal drinking bottle alternatives

Then for the plastic we do generate (because inevitably there will be some):

We recycle everything we can, filling that bin up every fortnight.

Go one step further by taking a majority of plastic bags to large supermarkets too. This service takes chocolate and crisp packets, frozen food bags, carrier bags, bread bags and more.

Then to top it off we due Terracycle to recycle the things we can’t at home or at larger stores.

3. Save energy

With energy costing horrific levels right now I wouldn’t be surprised that most people are doing their bit to save energy anyway.

We have reduced our thermostat and heating use, swapping for hoodys, installed solar panels and have got smarter with smart plugs turning off devices when not in use.

Solar panels on our roof

We get the rest of the energy we do use from an eco-friendly provider ensuring no energy we use comes from fossil fuels.

Following from the solar panels, I’ll be looking for an electric car in the next few years.

Watch this space🚗

4. Reduce food waste.

Food takes a astronomical amount of carbon, water, and energy for its production, storage and transport and then so much goes to waste:

Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year – approximately 1,3 billion tonnes – gets lost or wasted.

Stop wasting food movement

We make an effort to only buy what we need, and make sure its all used before sell by date, keeping leftovers for the next day.

We compost our food waste, returning it to the soil, which we would use to make more food ourselves if we had the space – something we hope to do one day in the future.

5. Use eco-friendly household products

Eco-friendly household companies exist tackling two problems; plastic packaging and the presence of toxins which are harmful to the environment.

We use/recommend:

  • Smol – Eco-friendly dishwasher, washing machine tabs and surface sprays

See our Smol review here ➡️

Smol surface spray
  • Splosh – Plastic free washing up liquid, soap, toilet cleaner and other household products.

See our review here ➡️

  • The Bower Collective – Plastic free washing up liquid, soap, toilet cleaner and other household products

Review coming soon

  • Koh – all purpose surface cleaner

Here is our review ➡️

6. Chose eco-friendly toys

When the kids are young this was simple. For every plastic car there’s a plastic free alternative. You can also get wooden kitchens and food, train sets, garden toys etc, etc. One of our favourite toys that Munchkin has enjoyed over the years is the wooden Mutable. Review here ➡️

This has admittedly had to change slightly when Munchkin approached 3 to 4 years old. His interest in Lego grew, as well as other plastic-only toys which don’t seem to have the same plastic free alternatives. So I had to alter my perspective.

I decided toys like Lego and Magnetic tiles allow endless opportunities. We could have a Lego city now, and build a Lego aeroplane in a few years on a magnetic tile runway. These toys will then get easily sold one day (not that I’ll ever want to get rid of Lego!). This way we can have some plastic, without feeling too guilty as it will get used for years and years and passed on.

7. Go paperless

With every retailer and bank owning a phone app, its easier than ever to tick that box and go paperless.

Having digital versions of what you previously locked in a box in the wardrobe also makes them easy to archive and then search and find again too plus it saves those precious carbon storing trees🌳.

8. Donate don’t dispose

This is one thing we notice when we had Munchkin. Babies go through new clothes every few months at what seems like a lightning rate. Likewise as adults, we stop wearing otherwise perfect clothing.

Similarly children move on from one toy craze to the next (although we try to limit this waste with adaptable toys like Lego as mentioned before).

To prevent this we store all our children’s clothes and toys in the loft, and now with Sprout, we bring them down eliminating the need for new clothes and toys.

Then when we know we won’t need them again, we pop to the recycling donation boxes and give our clothes to people who may need them more.

This means, in all, close to zero waste.

9. Save water

Water is easy to take for granted, as most of the western world has a continuous clean supply however;

Increased frequency of drought across Europe lines up with climate projections

Energy saving trust

meaning this is an international issue. Furthermore on home soil, 12 our of 23 water companies operated last year in ‘serious’ stress meaning this really can affect us all.

We save water by;

  • Taking short showers, and using the minimum water in the bath with the kids.
  • Use cold water rather than hot when possble
  • Only run the dishwasher and washing machine when they are full (an easy one with two children!)
  • Use the dual flush function on the toilet correctly.
  • Installing a water butt this year

All these little differences add up.


Living by these 9 sustainable lifestyle guidelines we save plastic, water and carbon, but we know we can do more.

So here are some of our future guidelines…

Our future ‘sustainable lifestyle guidelines’

1. Grow produce.

If we eventually move house and have space I will certainly grow our own food, eliminating all the carbon associated with transport and storage. It would also be a great way to teach our children to appreciate where food comes from and put our composting to better use.

2. Eat less meat

This is a huge one as ‘Meat production accounts for 14.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions’carbonbrief.org, and is something we were really good at in recent years but have more recently fallen off the wagon. We will aim to make some simple switches, with tons of meat-less options available now, to increase our meat free days in the coming months.


These have been our sustainable lifestyle swaps because we only have one planet. Do you have any others? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks for reading,

Daddy, Munchkin and Sprout

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Smol Review. Small changes big differences?

When you buy something using the retail links in our blog posts, we may earn a small commission. This money goes towards fuelling further content. If you want to support us, you can also buy us a coffee

I’m always looking to reduce my plastic footprint and live a more sustainable lifestyle. Smol have us sorted for all of our dishwasher and laundry needs whilst being totally plastic free, and we have also more recently tried out their eco-friendly surface cleaner. Here is our Smol Review!

Why choose Smol

If it’s one thing that comes in plastic packaging that could easily be swapped its dishwasher and laundry tabs and, put simply, Smol have it sorted. A simple subscription platform, with tabs posted through the letter box means you never run out and never see a plastic tub again.

With one child that always gets messy and another who’s 2 months old and loves to throw up, its handy knowing we never run out and use a formula that works every time.

It is one step further on our journey to reduce our eco-impact.

Their claims

Smol claim to make high performance, sustainable swaps effortless, accessible and affordable. They say they cut carbon by 35% whilst keeping prices fair. Big bold claims.

So how does it work?

How does Smol work?

I’ll use laundry tabs as an example, but its a similar process for any of their products.

Click this link, tap ‘get started’ and choose the first product to switch, so for this example we picked laundry.

Take a free trial and then tell them:

  1. What type of capsule you need? Bio or non-bio
  2. How many capsules you need in a wash (some cases require two)
  3. How often you run a wash

And they will then send them at the frequency matching your use. Consequently, you never run out.


But what happens if you do run out?

It’s inevitable your dishwasher or laundry use changes from time to time so sometimes you do need more. You can pop back into your account and adjust your usage or click ‘send now’ to be popped in the next post collection.

How environmentally friendly is Smol?

I originally chose Smol as they are 100% plastic free (for dishwasher and laundry). AlI in sent in a clever cardboard child-proof case too.

A child proof case that albeit is clever it’s very hard to master mind you.

Smol review

However, it turns out they do a lot more. The packaging is fully recyclable and compostable, they use vegetable based inks so there’s no nasties there and their cardboard is from sustainable managed sources (Forest Stewardship Council approved). They are also cruelty free having never tested on animals and save chemicals, water, animal fat and carbon.

How do they stack up in terms of cost?

Probably the most important question aside ‘do they work?’ is will they cost me more? It’s disappointing that most eco-friendly swaps are not that economical.

To compare, let’s look at the maths for the laundry capsules. 24 laundry capsules come in at £5.30 or 22.1p per wash.

Top leading brands, Ariel, Fairy and Persil rank in at 23.5p, 28.2p and 21.7p (according to Tesco.com on 05 Jan 2023 for similar quantities). So against the top brands they do rank well.

For the more money savvy though, own brand and buying in bulk can save money? However, that comes with the mountain of capsules for bulk buying, the less acceptable performance for own brand and lack of totally plastic free alternative for any shop bought alternative.

Do they work?

If you need any evidence of how well they work I’ll tell you this. I have kids.

Kids who come back from nursery caked in dinner, love jumping in muddy puddles and generally making a total mess.

Kids who like a fresh bowl with every snack and like all children get pasta sauce caked all over the plate and cutlery resulting in many many dishwasher runs.

If they didn’t work, I’d be looking for an alternative.

Surface cleaner

The surface cleaner is a new addition which I thought I’d try the trial to give my thoughts.

This comes as a reusable plastic bottle which you can keep and reuse forever (It’s seems well built but I imagine the odd replacement spray nozzle will have to be ordered resulting in a little plastic waste over time).

It has a simple process. Fill to a the bottom of the coloured grip. Pop in the tablet. Wait to dissolve and then top up with water again. Very simple. (This is a big improvement on others such as Splosh (see our Splosh Review here) as they require a vigorous work out style mixing.

It couldn’t be easier. The tablet quickly dissolves and I appreciate avoiding the shaking. It smells pleasant and cleans perfectly, tackling our kitchen with ease.

It’s so good we’ve subscribed ?

Verdict and those all important stars

Smol have an easy to use subscription platform, handy email updates to check your stock and the simple system to push it back, order more and never ran out process.

They are moderately expensive being only comparable to top brands, however are fully support our eco-conscious lifestyle being 100% plastic free, recyclable and compostable. You never run out and they are effective for our messy family.

For us its worth every penny.

Grab a free trial by clicking here.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Thanks for reading,

Daddy, Munchkin and Sprout

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Splosh Review

It’s time for ‘another way to reduce plastic product review from me with a Splosh Review.

I have already swapped out my general cleaner/ window cleaner/ toy cleaner/ floor cleaner for Koh (which you can find the review here), and my dishwasher tab and washing tab for award winning provider Smol. These are all changes we have made as part of our more sustainable lifestyle.

These changes still left the problem of buying soap bottles, washing up liquid and toilet cleaner. Whilst these are all fully recyclable by combining general curbside recycling and Terracycle, I thought there could be a better alternative, and for that I turned to Splosh.

Splosh seem to have solved the plastic problem in a different way. Rather than producing and supplying endless plastic bottles they send you one (or as many as you need, like soap and toilet cleaner as you may want one per bathroom). That one bottle lasts and with that, you’ve saved 95% of plastic waste. They do hand soap, washing up liquid, laundry detergent, surface cleaner…. and more.

But you want to save 100% plastic?

Well you can. You can then get refills to resupply the original bottles. These refills are concentrated, so supply a number of refills before they are empty. You can then, save up the refill pouches and send them back for free. Simple, and then its 100% plastic free with an endless reuse and recycle system. The fact the refills are concentrated too also saves on the environmental costs related to shipping, so that’s another win, oh and they fit through the letterbox!


Looking for other eco products. We have reviewed Koh – The universal cleaning solution ➡️


For this review we tried the grapefruit washing up liquid, rose and lotus blossom and blackberry soap and mint and eucalyptus toilet cleaner.

Both the soaps are foaming and moisturising leaving your hands feeling fresh, the toilet cleaner smells lovely and fresh and the washing up liquid is tough and smells summery and fresh. Overall, in terms of scent and effectiveness, the Splosh products work exactly as the standard alternatives (like Fairy washing up liquid, and Carex soap).

But Isn’t refilling a pain?

It’s simple. For the soap, just fill to the line on each bottle with hot water, top up to the neck with the refill solution and shake. in this example, one refill refills the soap bottle 6 times, although others are simply refill and use.

It must be expensive then?

Compared to leading hand soap providers, this does clock a little higher at 8p per 100 ml more. However, if you subscribe you save 10% and with big refills you can save even more. As the website says, ‘With each refill, you get that flicker of satisfaction you’re doing something good for the planet’ which makes up for the tiny price increase.

Overall, its a keeper for me and I thoroughly recommend it.

The ratings

If you’re interested in Splosh, I have a referral code you can use below. To use it visit Splosh.com.

Referral code: IPQMARYYX6

Daddy reviewed, Munchkin approved.

Thanks for reading,

Washing up Plastic Free

I recently decided it was time to change our washing up to plastic free.

We previously used scourers and blue cloths, which firstly contain plastic which breaks down to microparticles with every use, but are also lovely breeding grounds for bacteria.

I opted for a combination of a Silisponge and a Joseph Joesph Clean-tech Scrubber.

Silisponge (yellow) and Joseph Joseph Clean-tech scrubber (Blue)

These work perfect in combination. The Silisponge is flexible so it’s perfect for things like the edges of glasses, and those tight corners of your toddlers animal shaped plates and bowls. The Joesph Joesph however is tough and perfect for tough baked on food. We then also clean the sink using Koh, a multiple use antibacterial single-use plastic free cleaning solution. (I will review Koh in a future post).

The Joesph Joesph sponge also has two edges with different rigidity for tougher or lighter cleans, and also a tough end for scrapping extra tough bits.

Both are silicone, so hardwearing, dishwasher safe to sterilise and most importantly, plastic free.

This is our latest plastic free switch.

Thanks for reading,