No Waste Like home

bonnie_2

know its a bit personnel but i just ordered a washable sanitary kit from green baby organic cotton for 17.99. should save money and be kind on the landfill sites.i only spend £50 a week on shopping same target she set them no junk food all home cooked and that includes an organic fruit and veg box for £21 as well. allotment should be up and running next year but sluggies keep eating my seedlings.question is how to only do 1 load of washing a day when i have a child that wets who is handicapped and 7 years old.

Gingham_Ribbon

If you're having to wash bedding and your child's clothes a lot, then maybe other things can have extra uses before washing them? I used to wash bath towels after every use, but we hang them up to dry and get at least 2 or 3 uses out of them before washing.

I don't wash clothes after every wear any more either. I wash underwear after every wear but tops I can usually wear twice and jeans can last about 3 days. Wearing a pinny (sp?) when I'm cooking helps too as I was always getting splashes on my tops. It cuts down on work as well as energy costs.

And my sanitary items get thrown in with the bedding too. Doddle and much nicer than disposables!

se999

On the washing idea. It sounds like some has to be done anyway!! So the main thing is to check when you change your washing machine what the water & electricity consumption levels are, and also the wash efficiency. I always go for one with half load options, also very high spin speed options so that it's quicker to dry things afterwards.

This link explains all the labelling information, which covers energy, water, efficiency and also noise (important if you're thinking of using overnight on economy 7):

http://www.est.org.uk/myhome/efficientproducts/energylabel/

The other thing is to make sure you wash at the lowest temperature to achieve good washing, and to make sure you use full loads.

I always try to check labels when I buy things to try to make sure they go through my standard washes without problems, and also try to minimise the number of different coloured washes, but you do need odd bright clothes it's a bit boring to wear just white, grey, blue and black all the time

DSmiffy

Gingham_Ribbon wrote:

We also found that out. We worked out that if I went back to teaching part time, at the moment, we would be worse off than we are now. It surprised me how much I do to save us money, but I just wouldn't have the time and the costs soon add up.

Does anyone know where to get those stacking bins with lids at the front that they used for their recycling? That's exactly what I need. There's no room to have them side by side.

I got mine from https://www.homerecycling.co.uk who apparently provided the recycle bins for some of the episodes on this programme.

Suewre

There is some nice stuff on there DSmiffy. Thanks for the link.

I must admit I don't like the idea of only having one telly on at a time. Sometimes when football is on, and dh and the kids are watching it, I go into another room and watch what I want to watch. And I also couldn't stick to the one wash a day rule. Three people play football in this house! And dh trains both boys and does his own training as well. Loads of mucky smelly washing.

16011996

i've managed to cut our washing down to 9 a week from about 14, but i'd struggle with just seven.

Gingham_Ribbon

It depends on how big the drum in your machine is too. I used to do at least one or two loads a day but my new machine holds twice as much so I only wash half as often.

Does anyone know if you can put coloured delicates in with white delicates? I never have enough of them for a full load. I end up putting towels in that just need freshening up but then they take ages to dry because it's not as big a spin.

MATH

I do around 10-12 double capacity loads a week. Gymnastics, swimming, cross country, theatre club for three kidz generates plenty of grubby stuff. We are also a bit of an out and about kind of family and are always trecking up the woods or across the beach in the most foul of weather so plenty of mud, sand and muck there. Bed changed once a week and towels twice and you've soon generated a small mountain:D

Gingham_Ribbon

I think when it's unavoidable to do so many loads, a good way to cut back is to try using less powder, use vinegar in place of fabric softener, wash on the lowest temperature you can and line dry, or use a winter dykes/clothes horse where possible.

We didn't replace our tumble dryer (or toaster or microwave) when they broke and don't miss them at all.

Zziggi

culpepper wrote:

seems like so long as you have a few thousand pounds knocking about,you can be ecological without much effort.
They featured a washing machine that cost £1000 which could weigh the load and adjust the water/time of wash to suit.
In previous progs
£17000 for the dual fuel car.
£2000 for a solar panel
etc....

Absolutely!! I'd be willingly more environmentally friendly if someone supplied me with more energy efficient items. As it happens i do what i can but i am not going to pay a lot to be more environmentally friendly. Like those bags at the supermarket - £1.98 for 4 instead of using carrier bags (which are free). I'd willingly use reusable bags but why should i pay for the priviledge?

They cut down to spending £50 a week on groceries - some families have less than that for a family of 5 week in and week out!

Also, did the guy on the programme last night to reaslise that by having a bath in someone else's hosue that he was still using more water it's just someone else's water! And then his comments at the end 'i'm glad that's over' he just didn't seem to get it...