Mummy Milli

In the days of disposable and single use everything, how can we look after the environment better, and not stress ourselves out in the meantime?

Below are some ways I have tried to do better for the environment. I have not been able to do all of these at once, and in the early times 0 – 8 months I could only manage the most basic. I hope these ideas encourage you to make small changes that could have a big impact. I would also like to clarify that I am not affiliated with or get kick backs from any of the brands I have linked to below. These are just the brands that we tried and liked.

Cloth Nappies

One that everyone has heard of are Cloth Nappies. I am not talking about the square cloths we think of our grandparents using, but the modern ones that also look cute. With a washing machine these were actually incredibly easy to look after and I was able to use these from about 4 months old. They normally come in two sizes, new-born and older. The older ones grow with your child so once you invest you don’t need any more. We bought ours on special from Babybare, and have been happy with them, they had a lot of cute designs and reasonable prices, especially on sale.

Unfortunately, we had to stop using the cloth nappies as Monkey had bad eczema and we couldn’t get it under control in the cloth nappies. I have heard of many people moving to cloth nappies to help control eczema but it didn’t work that way for us. We have since loaned out our cloth nappies to friends who were interested but found the initial start up cost prohibitive to trying them.

Reusable Wipes / bamboo wipes

With Monkey at two and a half years months we love our reusable wipes, for all food related messes at home we use them exclusively and it is so easy. We have been using these wipes since Monkey was about 6- 8 months old. We just have some organic cotton face wipes from Big W- affordable although if you are handy you could even make your own from old cotton tops.

When Monkey was under 8 months, life was really hard and I was extremely sleep deprived with so much washing to do I couldn’t fathom doing anything else, so we used the New Beginnings Bamboo Dry Wipes and would moisten a days worth with cooled boiled water. These wipes are chemical and fragrance free and were very gentle on Monkey’s eczema skin.

Reusable breast pads 

Still in the reusable area, I absolutely loved my reusable breast pads, I paid only $16 for a set of 5 days worth and that was all I needed for our breastfeeding journey.

I have suggested these to other mums as an easy swap and everyone has loved them – so easy to use and cheap for how often I used them. Often they come with a laundry bag for them as well, I would add them to my normal laundry load inside a laundry bag and done.

Toy library 

A personal favourite of mine is the toy library. Young children go through stages so quickly and apart from the annual membership fee (mine was $35) you don’t spend anything else. With some toys being used for such short periods of time, I didn’t want to buy and then store these items so the ability to give them back was so useful.

The range also helped keep Monkey engaged, we could really focus on his interests. Diggers were and still are a prevailing interest and the toy library had an amazing wooden digger, you just wouldn’t be able to find it in shops these days let alone for a decent price.

Baby shower registry

This one is a bit more unusual, but you can be very thoughtful with a baby shower registry. It can be a great place to start your Eco Friendly journey while not have to outlay much of the cost.

Cloth nappies can get expensive, however it is affordable for people attending a baby shower to buy two or three. Therefore you could end up with a day set without paying yourself or asking guests to pay large amounts of money.

When I attend baby showers I often buy clothes and I buy them in larger sizes. When you have a little baby people want to give you little baby clothes but they grow out of them so fast. I actually had a hard time getting Monkey into all the clothes and a photo of him wearing the clothes to everyone before he grew out of them. It was funny to me that I had to do some photo shoot days just so people could see Monkey in their clothes and that was the only time he wore it them. However when he got to size 1 (which he stayed in for over 6 months) there were no gifts in this size.

Buy second-hand or organise clothing swaps

Along with being good for your budget, buying second hand means less to landfill. I love that they also give me the opportunity to find clothes that not everyone else has.

When I was younger, clothing swaps with all my cousins was super common. I was in the middle so I got lots of cloths given too me and got to pass a lot on too. It was always so much fun to get a big bag of clothes and I got to do a fashion show with before deciding what to keep. I hoping to bring this back in my family and I think you should introduce it too.

Grow your own food

This is the most labour intensive of the suggestions I have, but I have found it really worthwhile for many reasons. We have gotten to eat our own organic food, picked straight from the garden (so no transport costs).

It has been an absolute pleasure to watch Monkey in the garden, he loves to feed our chickens, pick any ripe (and unripe) fruit and dig in the least opportune places but he is always so happy. He has gotten to see where food comes from and can identify many different plants.

A way of reducing the intensity of this option is to start small, maybe try with just a few pots? or if you have the space and have bigger garden beds, make sure you install timer irrigation. Without the timed watering we would not have had a crop last year.

Look after your mental health

But all this being said, look after your mental health. I worked so hard on some of these that it was detrimental at an already hard time. I had to give some of these practices up.

Know that you can make changes as your child/ren grow, we tried reusable wipes when Monkey was really little but I found it was too much among other things. As he got older we introduced reusable wiped for all things food, the wipes are now a benefit to my life rather than a stressor.

Please remember to be gentle with yourself, any change will be beneficial for the environment. Add your changes slowly so that they aren’t overwhelming. Let me know, in the comments, if you have any suggestions or how it goes if you have tried any of these.