Re-use butcher's paper to save on paper towel

Instead of buying expensive paper towel, which doesn't seem to last in our household, we use the butcher's paper that is wrapped around purchases such as deli products to clean out oily pots and pans. This saves us money, as well as a heap of paper towel, landfill space and our precious trees!

NLP means great nails for me!

If nail biting or picking is an issue for you or someone you know, you may like to consider Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). I had just one session and it made a fantastic difference for me. I was sceptical throughout the session, until the end of the session when the problem had completely gone away. I was really surprised and completely pleased! Would definitely recommend.

Compost for small gardens

This idea is for those who live in a home with a garden that is too small to have a compost bin. I use an empty garden pot, cut a square of one of those net bags oranges come in to cover the hole of the pot. Put in a layer of old potting soil (from a pot where the plants have had their day). Each day save your fruit and vegetable scraps in a container. Place in a layer of scraps, then cover with another layer of old soil. Repeat layer by layer until the pot is nearly full, ending with a layer of soil (water as you go).

Then, while the compost is breaking down and baking, plant some seasonal seedlings on top and in no time you will have potted colour and compost underneath, not only feeding your seedlings but ready for the garden when the flowers are spent at the end of the season. I sometimes benefit from crops of vegetables germinated from the seeds in the compost such as tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicum and butternut pumpkin.

This is a multi recycling exercise using unwanted orange bags, unused pots, old soil and fruit and vegetable scraps and, of course, it is a great medium for the latest seedlings. Instead of flowers on top you could plant your favourite herbs while the compost is baking.

An organised family is a happy family

In the spirit of getting organised for May, my tip has to do with letting go of control and coming up with organisational ideas that work with the people you love.

For example, my partner is a wonderful, talented individual who wouldn't know how to put away his clothes even if he was bribed! Clothing was constantly strewn over the floor, on the furniture or stuffed into cupboards and this drove me to distraction on more than one occasion.

Finally it dawned on me that the neatness issue was mine and the organising issue was his, so I discussed what would work best for him. I found out that he would prefer a single place to keep all his clothing, something portable and easy. I went away and, based on what he had told me, set up a system consisting of one large plastic tub on wheels and one small wicker basket. I placed both of these in the bottom of the wardrobe.

Clean clothes now go in the tub and dirty clothes in the basket. When the wicker basket is full, it goes in the wash; I made sure the basket was the same size as a machine load. When washed and dried, the clothes go from the basket back to the tub. Simple!

Now I have a clean bedroom and my partner can always find clean clothes. As a bonus, he's reduced his washing by two-thirds because he is only washing dirty clothes, not a mixture of clean and dirty.

Best of all, there is no longer friction surrounding the tidiness of the bedroom. The idea of working with those you love to create a harmonious living environment, where their needs and ways of doing things are heard and acted on really can have a positive impact, both financially and emotionally.