Simply living well: a guide to creating a natural, low-waste home /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Recipes, DIY projects, and inspiration for a beautiful and low-waste life, from the creator of @simply.living.well on Instagram



In this timely and motivational guide, author Julia Watkins shares rituals, recipes, and projects for living simply and sustainably at home. For every area of your household--kitchen, cleaning, wellness, bath, and garden--Julia shows you how to eliminate wasteful packaging, harmful ingredients, and disposable items. Practical checklists outline easy swaps (instead of disposable sponges, opt for biodegradable sponges or Swedish dishcloths; choose a bamboo toothbrush over a plastic one) and sustainable upgrades for common household tools and products. Projects include scrap apple cider vinegar, wool dryer balls, kitchen bowl covers and cloth produce bags, non-toxic dryer sheets, all-purpose citrus cleaner, herbal tinctures and balms, and more, plus recipes for package-free essentials like homemade nut milk, hummus, ketchup, salad dressings, and veggie stock.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

With the message that it's not easy to be green, this simple but comprehensive guide from environmental activist and debut author Watkins helps readers eliminate excess plastic, waste, and chemicals from their lives to whatever extent they choose. Emphasizing the importance of setting attainable goals, Watkins cautions that reaching the state of "zero-waste is a process, not an event." Checklists begin each section, with the kitchen chapter list advising replacing plastic utensils, storage containers, and cooking equipment with wood, glass, and stainless steel. People concerned about the safety of commercially available cleaning products will particularly appreciate the section on making one's own chemical-free solutions. Watkins often refers to the homemaking methods of an earlier time, as with her "Tips for Line Drying," where she posits "working methodically with your hands" as a good "way to slow down and be present." The beauty and wellness section includes recipes for common drugstore staples, including toothpaste made with peppermint essential oil and a hair rinse product made with apple cider vinegar. Whether readers want a smaller carbon footprint or an entirely chemical-free lifestyle, this has all the information needed to get started. Agent: Julia Eagleton, the Gernert Co. (Apr.)

Booklist Review

Many readers are concerned with the environment and are looking for ways to reduce their impact. Living a life with zero waste can seem like an impossible task, and author, conservationist, and Instagram influencer Watkins recognizes that it is, rather hoping that readers will instead strive to do their best to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot (compost). This guide spans a wide range of household opportunities to practice these five Rs by making and using a variety of items, including reusable food storage tools, cleaning products, recipes, personal care toiletries, and objects to enhance a kitchen garden. While there is a hint of nostalgia for so-called simpler times, Watkins mostly sticks to a desire to mitigate the waste and environmental harm that is central to contemporary industrialized society. For those living with the privilege and abundance to make these choices, the result will likely provide personal satisfaction and perhaps the space to pressure large-scale polluters to improve practices that create environmental harm on a scale to which individual practices cannot compare.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

JULIA WATKINS is a mother and maker who creates and writes from her home in Chicago. A lifelong lover of the natural world, Julia has a graduate degree in conservation science and policy. She's worked in environmental and natural resource management for most of her life, including as a naturalist in New England, a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, an energy policy researcher on Capitol Hill, a conservation scientist in the Greater Yellowstone National Park Ecosystem, and an international development specialist in Africa and Latin America. Along with her husband, Scott, Julia co-founded Lookfar Conservation in 2016, a nonprofit that supports conservation and restoration projects in Africa and Latin America. Julia also hosts the popular Instagram account @simply.living.well, where she shares about living simply and sustainably at home and with children. When she's not experimenting with new recipes and remedies, you can find her with her nose in a book--studying holistic living, health, and healing--or gardening, practicing yoga, or crafting with her children.