I dreamed of keeping chickens for a good fifteen years before I finally had the space and time to accommodate them. And it’s the best decision I ever made – they are such fluffy bundles of sass and personality and charm. They make me laugh every day. Two-and-a-half years ago, my first little flock (consisting […] The post Keeping chickens: Omlet walk-in run and PoleTree review first appeared on Treading My Own Path | Less waste, less stuff, sustainable living ..read more

Ah, the annual olive oil harvest. For the last several years, I’ve dedicated a weekend to picking olives and sending them to an olive press to extract the oil. This gives me enough olive oil to last me for a year. And I don’t own any olive tress. Every year I’ll post about it on […] The post Picking olives for oil – how to produce enough oil for a year when you don’t own any olive trees first appeared on Treading My Own Path | Less waste, less stuff, sustainable living ..read more

When I moved to the street where I now live two-and-a-half years ago, I immediately noticed the weedy strip of land at the end of it. My street is a cul-de-sac, but at some stage in the past it must have been a through-road to the street behind, because there is still a road-width strip. […] The post How I started a community street planting project first appeared on Treading My Own Path | Less waste, less stuff, sustainable living ..read more

Talking enthusiastically about recycling might feel like stepping back into the nineties, when most of us thought (didn’t we?) that recycling was an effective way to combat climate change. (Or was that just me…?) A few decades on and the pressing issues of the day have most definitely scaled up. But recycling hasn’t gone away… […] The post 7 common recycling mistakes that people make (+ what to do instead) first appeared on Treading My Own Path | Less waste, less stuff, sustainable living ..read more

As someone who tries to live a low waste, less stuff lifestyle, it won’t surprise you that I’m a cheerleader for borrowing. (I’m not sure that there’s a single mantra for low waste living, but if there was, ‘use what you have’, ‘make do’ and ‘borrow don’t buy’ would probably be hot contenders.) It’s no […] The post Low waste living: when to borrow and when to buy first appeared on Treading My Own Path | Less waste, less stuff, sustainable living ..read more

Where I live, it’s getting hotter. This summer we’ve just seen a record-breaking heatwave of six days above 40°C. There’s been a few other records broken, too. Including, the highest number of days over 40°C between December and February – and we are not yet even through January. Every year we seem to be* (*we […] The post Seven ways I’m retrofitting my house for energy efficiency in a changing climate first appeared on Treading My Own Path | Less waste, less stuff, sustainable living ..read more

Something I’m working to do more of this year is contribute more to my local community and those with less. If 2020 taught me anything, it was that local resilient communities are so important for those that live in them, and the support networks that a good community can offer are priceless. The other lesson […] The post 5 ways you can give back to your community (even under lockdown) first appeared on Treading My Own Path | Less waste, less stuff, sustainable living ..read more

This post is a sponsored collaboration with Zero Co. When I started my waste journey back in 2012, I primarily wanted to reduce my plastic. A few month in I realised that reducing waste isn’t just about the plastic, and so I worked on reducing all my single-use packaging – metals, paper, cardboard, steel and […] The post From landfill to refill: cleaning products that clean the ocean first appeared on Treading My Own Path | Less waste, less stuff, sustainable living ..read more

The world doesn’t have a recycling crisis, it has an overconsumption crisis. These words (by my friend Oberon, author of the book The Family Guide to Waste-Free Living) ring true to my ears. Sure, we need returnable packaging and reusable products and fixable items, single-use items that compost, products that are designed to last, and […] The post Not buying it: 5 tips for buying less stuff first appeared on Treading My Own Path | Less waste, less stuff, sustainable living ..read more

A Grow Free cart is simply a cart (or a stand, or a table – any surface really) where home-grown produce, preserves, seeds and seedlings are placed and made available to anyone in the community. It’s the ultimate answer to “how can I share my surplus with my neighbours”, or on a more basics level, […] The post How to start a Grow Free Cart (+ share surplus produce with your community) first appeared on Treading My Own Path | Less waste, less stuff, sustainable living ..read more