Growing together with Ikea: terrariums and toddlers

Disclosure: I'm an Ikea Lagom Ambassador

This weekend we went over to Ikea for a Lagom project update. It was really interesting hearing how everyone was incorporating the Lagom ethos into their lives, and how it was benefiting them. I popped our three month update up last weekend, and this was really what I went through at our get together. 

One of the areas that the Live Lagom project aims to encourage is growing your own - and as a kind of aside to this, we had a go at planting a terrarium at our workshop. It was a family session so Harry got involved too, and I thought you might like to see our progress. We followed these instructions from the Ikea website and it really was so easy, even a toddler could join in! 

Harry and I have since had a go at planting up some chilli and coriander seeds. He loved getting mucky and I'm really excited to be growing some new plants. They're currently (hopefully) out of reach of little fingers on a sunny window sill.

Living LAGOM with Ikea - month 3 update

This is a sponsored post, written in conjunction with Ikea - I am one of their LAGOM ambassadors. 

How are we going? How is our LAGOM life project three months in? I'm impressed that the differences I've noticed have been for the better - I don't feel like we're sat in the dark, missing out on joy because we're trying to be greener. And I was worried we might. Completely wrongly worried, but worried nonetheless. In fact I've been warmer, cosier, and more relaxed about things like popping the heating on because of the changes we've started making.

In terms of our Ikea shopping - the things that have made the most difference thus far have undoubtedly been in the kitchen. A room that's clearly important to me. We've added a blind to the big kitchen window and back door, put a runner style rug down on the floor and changed the light fitting. And it's made a huge difference. The room is warmer and cosier and somehow the bright floral of the blind distracts from the violently yellow cabinets. The rug is at once a wonder and drives me insane as I have to hoover it, then lift it to sweep and clean the floor daily but it makes the tiny kitchen so much warmer. The light was such a shock - we replaced the fluorescent tube and the difference the LED lights make in our tiny kitchen is huge - it's light, bright and makes such a difference if I'm trying to bake/ cook/ or photograph food of an evening. For a change that vast that uses less power not more, you can colour me impressed.

Across the rest of our home, the changes have been less dramatic, but still making a difference:

All the lights are now LEDs and they're brilliant (quite literally), lovely and bright, and don't need to warm up. We had to change the light fittings in the kitchen and on the upstairs landing, but elsewhere it was a case of just the bulbs which was a quick and easy job.

The lunch boxes, water bottles and glass food savers are being used all the time. M's new job has meant that he can have a hot lunch so often takes leftovers, and Harry has a little packed lunch after church on Sundays so that's all in regular use.

In terms products that haven't done what we'd hoped, the self watering plant pots just don't work for me at all which is a huge disappointment, and neither has the blind in the bathroom as we'd have to drill into our tiles, so that's on hold for the moment.

Things I still need to do include running up a new set of curtains for the back bedroom - the window is massive which is making fabric buying expensive (hence the delay). I've also started decorating the kitchen, the walls and ceiling have been freshened up with a coat of white paint, and I've started painting the cabinets with a chalk paint as that can go straight over that garish yellow with no need for standing or primers. The cupboards will need to be sealed and new handles, but that's all infinitely more within our reach than a new kitchen.

We're also getting our veg patch ready for this years seedlings - I'll probably use Seed Pantry again as I love their varieties, and I'm hoping my Mother-in-law will be able to get us some tomato plants too.

So that's us - still Lagom-ing three months in, and not sat in the dark; cold, miserable and cursing whatever possessed me to take on the project. It's all a win!

Living Lagom with Ikea

A month or so ago I got involved with a new, exciting sustainability project from Ikea. Over the next 6 months, our family are going to be working with Ikea to live a lifestyle that's more Lagom.

Lagom is a partifularly Swedish word that doesn't translate exactly - but lends itself to the concept of just enough - neither too little, nor too much. Much like the Three Bears... As a family we're going to be focussing on the changes we can make to use less power, fewer chemicals and generally live more sustainably.

There's lots of areas you can make changes with Ikea - here are some of the things we already do that you might be able to have a go at...

Lighting: did you know that switching to LED lighting can save you up to 85% on your energy bills? I know! I've always been good at switching off lights, but now realise why M switched us to LED lights when we moved in to our house.

Heating - we have massive windows in our house, it's one of the things I love most about it, but it means it can be blooming freezing. Nearly all our curtains have thermal linings, we've either bought ones that were already lined, or added linings ourselves. Of course Ikea sells thermal linings, but you can also keep an eye out in your local charity shops and strip the linings out of some second hand curtains before stitching them into yours. Quick, and easy.  Also, those crochet blankets, patchwork quilts and camp blankets of mine aren't there to look at, they're all super cosy to snuggle under, all of which should enable you to turn down your heating.

Turning things OFF: Not putting them on standby. This is easy enough for the most part, however, I don't know about you - but I've noticed that our newer telly, and our Youview box don't have off buttons so are permanently on standby whether we wnat them to be or not. Ikea have extension leads that have proper off switches for each item plugged in that we'll definitely be making use of. 

Waste management: If you make it easier to recycle, you'll recycle more. Not long after we moved in, we popped a little blue bucket in our under sink cupboard. All our recycling gets put in there and we take it out when it's full. My kitchen is tiny, and having a box outside of a cupboard would mean I'd trip over it daily, Harry would unpack it hourly and M would get grumpy at us both. It's a simple thing - and when we were looking at new kitchens with Ikea (if only) you can buy units that have space for waste to be separated out as part of your kitchen. If we could stretch to a new kitchen, they'd definitely be on my list. Until that day comes the blue bucket is king.

Fridge bottom soup: When you bring your food shop home, or unpack it if you have it delivered. Stop. Take out any sorry looking veg that didn't get used last week and pop them straight into a big soup pan. Now put your shopping away. Next time you have 10 minutes (If you're like me, then I suggest just after the bubba goes down for a nap) peel and roughly chop the veggies, and a low salt veg stock cube, a teacup of lentils, some spices to taste and a litre or 2 of water. Bring to the boil and simmer until the veggies are soft. Blitz, season to taste (no salt if you're going to be feeding it to little ones) and enjoy those veggies for another week without them mouldering in your veg tray. M likes his topped with crispy bacon and served with my homemade flatbreads.

It seems that we're a little exceptional - early adopters of sustainability it seems. As regular readers know well - I'm keen to reduce waste, so already meal plan, use leftovers ruthlessly, and recycle our food waste. M is super hot on LED lighting which we've pretty much switched to already (our non LED lights are all CFLs), our heating is kept nice and low - which means my crochet blankets get suggled under regularly. We grow lots of our own veggies, have a couple of fruit trees, and a gooseberry bush. To find out where we can work on with Ikea is proving to be a challenge. There's little things we could do, but to find something fundamental we could change is trickier than we'd hoped.

M is monitoring our energy usage at the moment so that we can measure change - and we're in the process of trying to put together our shopping list. Watch this space for regular updates on our journey to live a more LAGOM lifestyle. Just call me Mama bear. If you're interested in this project, do follow the #LiveLAGOM hashtag on Social Media and keep an eye out for a few more posts from me over the coming months.

If you have any suggestions for ways you can think of that we could be more sustainable that'd be terrific - please add them in the comments below.