Make your own sustainable swaps at home!

There are so many possibilities out there to recycle almost anything; and I’m not talking about dividing your rubbish into different categories and waiting for somebody to pick up your trash.

DIY Cleaning Solutions. A simple mix of water and vinegar can go a long way in cleaning most surfaces and objects in your house.
Homemade Personal Care. You can create items such as shampoo bars, deodorants, and lotions to reduce reliance on packaged products. You can also use natural products like coconut oil for your skin and as a make up remover; and henna powder to color your hair, you can read about my experience using it here.
Upcycling & Repurposing. You can prolong the lifespan of many objects if you get creative and repurpose discarded materials into practical ones instead of throwing them away. Here are a few ideas to inspire you:

• keep your empty sauce jars, and reuse them to store food
• don’t throw away old clothes, but reuse them as rags to clean the house. Just have separate clothes for different rooms and cleaning purposes.
• juice and mils cartons can be repurposed as seed starters, or as organisers for storage
• reuse packing bags as rubbish bags
• old maps, newspapers and magazines can become beautiful wrapping paper for your presents

Sustainable DIY Home Projects. Next time you tackle a DIY home project, try using reclaimed materials like wood from old pallets, glass jars, or even discarded metal.
Bulk Buying with DIY Storage. Not only you can bring your own bags next time you go shopping, to avoid single use plastic bags. You can also DIY homemade, reusable containers to minimize packaging waste. Pillow covers, for instance, are great to store bread.
DIY Composting. Set up a home compost system to recycle kitchen scraps into nutrient-rich soil for gardening. You can simply create a compost pile in your yard or build/use a container or bin. Bins can be homemade (e.g., using wood pallets or wire mesh) or purchased.