Welcome to week three of the Eco-Friendly Living Blog Takeover. If you missed last week’s post, it featured four writers who shared their thoughts and tips on waste reduction and eco-friendly living.

This week, I’ve got four more great writers sharing their ideas on how a sustainable lifestyle can save money, conserve water, and even keep cats out of your garden. I’ve also got a special treat – a poem written for us by my friend Pat Keachie.

If you’d like to participate in a future post, I’d love to hear from you.

Without further ado, here are today’s guest writers.

Alison from A Sustainably Simple Life

Living in the Pacific Northwest, my sustainable lifestyle is largely motivated by our beautiful surroundings. The mountains and the ocean are constant reminders of what we are trying to protect and preserve by being eco-friendly.

Another motivation, though, is how a sustainable lifestyle is beneficial for my budget. There are a number of ways that living sustainably can actually save money.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Reduce what you buy. Buying less and using what you have (or borrowing from others) reduces not only waste, but also your expenses.
2. Reuse items you have. There are many items that get tossed to the recycle or waste bin that could be reused several times. My favourite items to reuse are glass jars as they are so versatile, but even reusing simple items like the elastic band from your produce makes a difference.
3. Look for a longer lasting alternative. This can be an investment in quality clothing that will last you for decades instead of cheaper fast fashion. Or it can be as simple as using a bar of soap instead of the liquid version. I recently switched to a shampoo bar from liquid shampoo and one bar lasted me four months—much longer than a bottle, with less cost and less plastic waste.

These are all small, simple steps that can add up to make a bigger impact—both for the environment and for your wallet.

Every Day is Earth Day – A poem by Pat Keachie

Earlier this year, I featured Pat’s Poem “Who Knew” about the effect of the pandemic on the world. I’m delighted she wrote a poem about eco-friendly living for us.

Every Day is Earth Day

Each act of compassion
For dear Mother Earth
Brings change everlasting
You can’t measure 
Its worth.

So pick up your garbage
Don’t leave it for me
I’ll be doing my own part
Like planting a tree.

We have to. For you see, 
Each one of us lives Here
And what will we leave
To the ones who succeed us
Will they cherish or grieve
For our Planet?
It’s up to us.

Things we can do to help our Earth – by Lorraine Emmerson

Unless you live under a rock, I am positive you have heard of Greta Thunberg. I admire this brave young Lady. Greta knows that our little blue Planet Earth is in BIG trouble, AND she is shouting for us to pay attention! We are facing our own extinction! Yes, it sounds harsh, but if your pants are on fire, you’re not likely to stand still and do nothing about it, are you? Of course not! So, get on outta that chair and ​LET’S GET BUSY!

What’s that in your hand?

Out of curiosity, I kept track over a few days every time I threw something in the trash. I paused, looked at the item and thought “Where will this thing end up?” Is there an eco-friendly alternative? Paper napkins I replaced with cloth napkins. We launder cloth napkins with face cloths and and hand towels.

WE CAN change the world, one step at a time! Use refillable cups, stop using plastic cutlery, ditch the Styrofoam and plastic one-use clamshell containers. Be creative and use your imagination!

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  

Saving water is something I am obsessed with. I use rain barrel water for indoor plants, outdoor flowers and plants. Unfortunately, rain barrels work well if it rains and cannot be used here in the winter months. 

NO MORE BOTTLED WATER! We use a Brita water filter system for our drinking water, and we invested in reusable Brita filter water bottles for filtered water on the go! I have learned that buying a Soda Stream (Water fizzer) has reduced our blue box recycling bin from one full bin every week, to not quite half a bin every two weeks! Plus, water is better for us – minus the calories of pop, minus the plastic bottles and cans!

A surprise gardening idea from T.B.C.

Thank you, Michelle for this fantastic opportunity. It’s wonderful to be able to share our eco-friendly ideas for a sustainable environment. Now more than ever, there is an urgency to act, with care and understanding, if we are to create a better and healthier planet for all species. Sadly, it takes a virus for us to take note of mother nature and our soulful connection to her.

Over lockdown we undertook 21 Days of Abundance which guided us to connect to ALL living things. This encouraged us to create an ecosystem in our garden to invite birds, bees and butterflies to visit. We were able to sit, admire the plants, be enticed by the sweet-smelling Jasmine, and enjoy our strawberries. However, we have an issue with cats – they love a bit of foul play in our flowerbeds and strawberries. We needed to take humane action to them to stop messing in our garden.

Could teabags deter cats?

One day, whilst making tea, we had an idea. Could teabags deter the cats? Might the smell put them off? By the end of the week we had a huge tub full of used teabags to experiment with. We set to work strategically placing teabags where the cats loved to mess and anywhere else we suspected foul play. A few days later, no mess. A week later, clean. Two weeks and we had successfully beaten them. We have no idea if the “treatment teabag” did the trick but, inadvertently we were helping our garden. Here is how:

• Teabags/loose tea are a great fertilizer for plants and help with plant growth. 
• Teabags in compost adds nitrogen-rich components to the compost, balancing the carbon-rich materials.
• Digging the teabags in around plants for plant growth not only nourishes the plant as the teabag decomposes but it also aids in moisture retention and weed repression.
• Composting teabags is a “greener” method of disposal and terrific for the health of plants, providing organic matter to increase drainage while maintaining moisture, promoting earthworms, increasing oxygen levels and maintaining soil structure for a more beautiful garden.

Job done!

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Thanks to my guest writers

Thanks to Alison, Pat, Lorraine and T.B.C. for sharing their unique perspectives on eco-friendly living. Here are some of my favourite ideas. Don’t forget to click through and check out their blogs.

The mountains and the ocean are constant reminders of what we are trying to protect and preserve by being eco-friendly.

Alison from A Sustainably Simple Life

To the ones who succeed us
Will they cherish or grieve
For our Planet?
It’s up to us.

Every Day is Earth Day – A poem by Pat Keachie

We are facing our own extinction! 

Lorraine Emmerson

Composting teabags is a “greener” method of disposal and terrific for the health of plants.

T.B.C.

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Which of these ideas on eco-friendly living did you like the most? Join the conversation below.