I am currently on maternity leave and am carrying out what can only be described as a sport of "extreme nesting" ... in order to make space for the our arrival .. I have been "freecycling" furniture, old computers etc. I am usually quite efficient at recycling our unused items and normally send clothes, books etc to the local charity shops but the freecycle organisation takes thing one step further.

You can have a look yourself online but the general idea is that nationwide you can join your local community determined by postcode and then offer or ask for any goods that you may want. I have noticed that there is quite a high volume of baby/childrens items on our local site so it could be a good idea to promote. The idea is to stop items going to landfill and the site is also used by local charities who can redistribute your unwanted items.

It is totally free to join the freecycle network all you need is a yahoo identity which found quite easy to register.

Have a look at the site yourself and see if it is something that you might want to promote I am sure a lot of people would benefit to know about this site both to recycle their own belongings and also to save cash.

Best Wishes, Michelle

Something worth thinking about that I heard from a friend of a friend (whose mum is a top midwife) is that during the early months for baby the latest thinking is that they don't like being overhandled (including nappy changing) and given that disposable nappies are now very effective at locking moisture away, it has been suggested that there is no point changing them unless the nappy is dirty (ie if it's just wet - leave it because it won't hurt the baby's skin) - this means that the number of nappies you would go through would go from something like 9 a day to 3 a day - a big plus for the environment.

Best Regards, Elizabeth

Since having my second child, I've become increasingly worried about chemicals around the house and obsessed with green products and recycling.

I hope this has been useful. With all best wishes and good continuation. Stephanie

I know that I am going to give away and sell on all of my baby belongings as I go along. I am also very pleased about the nappies- I read somewhere that 8 million nappies are thrown away every day in the uk and each one akes 500 years to decay- I knew then that I was going to use cloth nappies. They are cost efficient too- one one-off payment of about £200 is much cheaper than buying weekly. I am collecting interesting toys and books as I want to aim to get my child into playing and interacting rather than watching tv and videos. Alongside healthy home blendered food and mums breast milk- I feel that I wont only be setting my child up for a healthier lifestyle and eating habits but I'll be saving money and cutting down on bought packaging and electricity usage. Instead of computer games and videos to entertain the kids- why not put together a gardening kit and dressing up box?

Thanks, Sophie - West Yorkshire

Don't know how helpful I'll be but I certainly do try to do my bit for the environment at the same time as being a mum to Bethan who is 6 months old. I've used real nappies since she was 2months and find them brilliant - no leaks of explosive poo like disposables always managed and no problems with nappy rash either. I've started to make my own reusable wipes using cheap facecloths soaked in chamomile tea, olive oil and lavender oil - again Bethans skin has never been better. I've bought the majority of my baby equipment and clothes second hand (cheaper and reusing things). I also buy as much of my food locally and have an allotment to grow my own veg - hard work but really satisfying!! Oh I suppose breastfeeding is a bit more environmentally friendly too as well as being best for babes??? The one thing I'm rubbish at is using public transport - as yet I haven't!!

Anyway, there are probably other things I've forgotten but hope some of this is of use!!! - Marie

Hi, as a first time parent to a gorgeous little boy Zack who is now nearly six months, I tried to do the right ‘green’ thing and spent £200 on a birth to potty set of washable nappies. I have found them to be a real pain, they leak at the legs, the Velcro is coming through the tabs and scratches my babies tummy, the outers have stained on the inside, the cotton inners have gone hard and shrunk, but are still so bulky my babys trousers don’t fit over them, they don’t hold pee so babys skin stays wet, and they are definitely not ‘green’ when you have to wash them at 60 degrees which in the first few weeks I had to go every day given that you are supplied with 12 inners and only 3 outers for each size stage. I have been buying the environmentally friendly disposables for ease of use including over night nappies. I would be interested in finding out exactly how the washable nappies compare in the ‘green’ stakes to the years a normal disposable takes to bio-degrade.

Thanks, needed the rant!! Sarah – mummy to Zack

Well we are just doing recycling and got also this special controler to switch off all tv,sky ,dvd player from the plug- all at once so its easy way to save some energy.We bought it in asda for 10 £. Also we dont through away plastic bags but try to reuse them as much as possible or bring back to recycling box in tesco. Anetka.

As I use washable nappies instead of using disposable wipes (expensive and not great for the environment) or buying washable wipes (expensive) I just cut up a couple of old white t-shirts into appropriate sized squares and stored a few already wet in a plastic tub. They then just go in with the nappies for washing. They worked well and you know you are only cleaning with water not chemicals and you have recycled your t-shirts and saved landfill space in 2 ways because you are not throwing away wipes every day. My 2 year old now uses a couple to cIean up her dolls when they wet themselves!!

Hope this is the type of thing you are looking for. Sarah - Mum to Isobel 2 and expecting number 2 baby in May.

We are keen greenies which is quite a challenge when you have 2 kids!! With our eldest (now 2 and a half) we used a mixture of reusable and disposable nappies which helped cut down on the whole land fill thing! I was lucky enough for my son to be at a nursery that was happy to use the resusables. I used disposables when we were out and about and overnight. We plan to use resusables again with our second (now 5 months) but are still overwhelmed with the washing quantities two children create - especially as my baby daughter likes to be a little bit sick on everything and everyone in sight!!

I think this a great idea, there are so many occasions when I am aware of the waste we produce in our house due the children and or their activities.

As parents we are responsible for this and I think the smaller things often make the most difference.

I think as new parents we panic so much about cleanliness and use rolls upon rolls of kitchen roll, then we become a little more confident as the kids grow and move onto disposible cloths and then it takes until the children are, well I found at least 3!, to realise that I am wasting money and resources and go back to the good old fashion dishcloths that we wash and reuse until they fall apart!!

The other things I have been using to mop spilages, and wow there are plenty of them!! is old stained vests and T-shirts, instead of throwing them away we use them to clean anything and everything!!

Like most families, my kids love painting and sticking so we get through tons of paper. It is impossible to frame or keep all their art work so most of it ends up in a pile to reuse. We like cutting in our house so they use old paintings to cut and the cuttings to stick and then when it cannot be used anymore, we finally recycle!!

We also try not to waste the paint that sometimes get's left over, so if it is all mixed into one awful colour, we add a bit of flour or sugar and use it as glue or paste for paper or cloth sticking.

The kids think it's great because it's coloured glue!!

The other thing that is always great to re use for sticking is colouring books, they can be cut up and used and then recycled rather than thrown away.

My last suggestion would be kid's parties, why throw away paper plates/cups and napkins (what kid wants to use a napkin??)You can buy plastic at Ikea which costs little more and you can use them, year after year after year. You can even use some of those fantasic A3 sized paintings as wrapping paper for pass the parcel why not, it's all about the prize not the wrapping after all !!

Good luck with this - Dawn

I use terry nappies which are great. To keep my daughter dry at night I use degradable disposable nappies. Rather than use napisan to soak the terry nappies I use a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda and a few drops of tea tree oil. It is cheaper and friendly to the environment, it also keeps my bathroom smelling fresh! - Siobhan

We never throw anything anyway without first asking ourselves whether it can be recycled.

I'm sure there are loads of others, but these are just some I can think of! Being green is just second nature to our household. - Grant

I just wanted to tell you about my experiences with cloth nappies. We made a conscious decision to use cloth nappies for our baby because of all we’d heard about land-fill sites (roughly 8 million disposable nappies are discarded every day just in the UK!!!), and partly to save some money.

Jack is now 17mths old, and we have been using Motherease one-size cotton nappies since he was born (they are usable from 8lbs upwards). They are great because you can change the size of the nappy to fit the size of your baby, using the poppers. We bought a nappy kit from www.peachycheeks.co.uk – kit contained 20 nappies, 12 waterproof wraps (3 different sizes), a roll of flushable liners, 8 booster pads for heavier wetters, 20 fleecy liners, 20 terry baby wipes (like mini flannels), and a nappy bucket for about £240. When it all arrived, I didn’t have a clue what it was all for, and did wonder if I’d made a big mistake, but once I figured out what went where it was as easy as pie! Even Nanny and Grandad can use them!

I do a nappy wash every three days – during the week, I dry-pail the nappies (rinsing out any that are really soiled), and rinse them all in Jack’s bathwater (when Jack has got out, of course!) on wash day before shoving them into the washing machine. I did use to fill the nappy bucket with water and a splash of vinegar (the vinegar is supposed to act as a fabric softener as well as neutralising the smell), but got lazy about filling the bucket, and with the lid on, the nappies don’t smell anyway. They wash as a half-load at 60 degrees, and dry overnight hung up in the house. I usually fluff them up in the tumble dryer for about ten minutes.

I only use wet-wipes if we are out-and-about. When I’m at home, I wash Jack’s bum with warm water and the terry baby wipes that came with my nappy kit (they wash with the nappies). I’ve found that Jack has only had nappy rash when he’s ill or teething. We had a roll of paper one-way flushable liners that came with our nappy kit (you can buy this type in Waitrose), but we are now using Perfectly Happy People flushable one-way liners, which we buy in Tesco.

We do use a disposable nappy at night-time, as we found that Jack was waking quite a lot at night, and was very wet, and a disposable did make a difference to the amount of times he woke in the night (although didn’t stop it completely!).

We chose the velcro-fastened Rikki wraps, which were great when he was really little, but now that Jack is walking and climbing, I find that they leak around the legs occasionally which is a pain, and I am about to buy some Air-Flo wraps with elasticated leg holes, which will help, hopefully (Little Green Earthlets currently have an offer on for 4 wraps for £27).

Our second baby arrives in June, and I will definitely continue using the Motherease nappies, although if Jack is still in nappies then (he will be 21 months), I may have to buy a few more – on the whole they are great, and I’m sure they have saved us an absolute fortune in nappy costs. You can buy them singly in Waitrose, but definitely getting a kit is better value for money.

Hope this info helps anyone who is considering using cloth nappies – they are no trouble at all, and I would recommend them! - Sally

We're managing on one income now, and we've noticed that the majority of the ecological steps we've taken are also economical.

I have managed to kit out the nursery and clothe my son for almost nothing from Freecycle (Freecycle.org for local groups).

People post unwanted items and those who want them pick them up. Everything posted must be free - the idea is to keep stuff out of landfill when it still has life in it - even if not for it's original purpose!

Obviously you need to watch out for damaged / unsafe items, but I have found that freecyclers are all pretty honest about the condition of stuff. I have had a moses basket and cot (I bought new matresses as advised), a baby bath, a high chair, a pram, a changing mat and change bag, some reuseable nappies, loads of toys and loads of clothes.- Leanne

4 little things our family do to help limit our impact on the environment: