The Dunleys’ are a family of five living in an old weatherboard house on a very limited budget (ie, no extra money to spend on renovating) so they have come up with some imaginative solutions for their desire in sustainable living which they really want to share with you.

Below we hear from Meg as she describes the many various activities her and her family have undertaken to minimise their impact on the planet. We have split their ideas into the following areas:

• water consumption
• garden
• insulating
• heating and cooling
• electricity
• gas
• transport
• food
• cleaning
• clothing
• recycling
• education.

Water consumption

We have a well rated front loader machine, have never taken long showers and only water the garden if absolutely necessary, however, this last summer we decided to challenge ourselves. This was a challenge that has certainly paid off. In the last year we have lowered our water consumption from 730 litres per day (2006, May quarter) to 290 litres per day in the May quarter (2007).

The challenge that we took on was a multi-pronged approach. There was the washing clothes, dishes, bathing, toilet and garden that all needed to be taken into consideration, and all of this on a zero dollar budget.

Washing clothes

We decided to get more wear out of our clothes, and only wash them when they were visibly really dirty or smelt. We also changed from washing in warm to washing in cold on the rapid cycle - the clothes are just as clean. The only exception is the sheets, where, due to dust mite allergies, we wash at 60degrees.

Washing dishes

We have an old dishwasher that I am unsure of the energy and water rating on as we got it second hand, so we limit this to only have dishes, cutlery, cups and glasses and was on normal economy to get the most out of each load. Nothing large goes in there as it would take up too much room and waste the load. The hand washing is done in an old bucket that fits in the sink and we use a very small amount of detergent and all water is tipped onto the trees in the back yard. Any water that doesn’t have detergent is tipped onto the pots on the back verandah. We limit the number of times the dishes are done, as this seemed to be a waste of water and generally only wash the dishes once a day. If the load looks like it will be too big, it is done more.

Bathing

We found an old plastic box that was being thrown out and seemed to be very strong and large and fitted into the bath and this has become our kids bath and catchment for showers. The three boys share the water that goes in there and as a general rule, have a shower into the box 4 out of 7 nights, and 3 nights bath in the box. This cuts the water usage a large amount. The shower that they have is a 2 minute timed shower that is a great game trying to get clean before the alarm goes off (kitchen timer). For us adults, we only shower generally every other night. It feels a little like camping sometimes, and in winter is a little harder.

All water from our baths and showers is kept in buckets in the bath to use for the toilet cistern. I splashed out and bought a $5 water diverter to go on the outlet from the bathroom, to which the garden hose attaches and so any excess that goes into the bath dribbles onto the garden. This has saved our backs from hauling the buckets outside.

The basin is attached to a different outlet, so we have put a big metal bowl that we had in the sink and we tip this into the buckets in the bath. One advantage of this is that the children are much more likely to use less water to wash their hands and are much more likely to turn the tap off. It is also very easy to hear the ping of the drip if the tap is not turned off properly.

Toilet

Initially we were just working with the motto “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down”, when we felt that we could probably do more. The water from the bath that we had previously thrown on the garden seemed to be a waste now that it was not so hot and the pots and vegetables and fruit trees didn’t look so dire.

We turned of the water tap going to the cistern and we manually fill the cistern with the buckets that are waiting in the bath. Since we started doing this a few months ago, there have only been a few days that we have actually had to turn the tap back on. The water in the bowl is not ever usually that crystal clear tap water, however, we figure that it is certainly clean enough to flush away our sewerage.

Garden

As I previously discussed, the garden is a highly drought tolerant garden and I have the theory that if it dies, it doesn’t belong. The pots are much more needy and apart from the excess from the bathroom, there is a down pipe that we have dislodge so that it drips into a big old bucket and we use this on the really needy plants. The lawn that we have planted is an indigenous lawn that needed water for the first 2 weeks to settle in and hopefully by summer will have filled out the gaps. We will let it be longer in summer to allow it to survive a little better. The water from the washing machine goes through a diverter hose (very cheap one from the hardware shop) and I just put it in different places each time I do a load. We use a laundry powder that does not have any phosphates in it and I use only ½ of what the recommended amount is. Our clothes are still clean!

The garden was a lovely English style garden with some very interesting plants, and looked very lush through winter and autumn - however, they all required a large amount of water to survive through summer. I investigated the local indigenous nursery and a number of indigenous plant books and after ripping out all of the garden (only the fruit trees remain) I have replanted with a drought tolerant indigenous front garden, indigenous back lawn (still in development phase) and productive vegetable beds.

The indigenous plants are a very low cost way to replanting an entire garden. The tubestock plants are usually around $2.50-$3 each and whilst they are small to begin with (my husband calls them “sticks”), they are really only 6 months behind the plants commonly found in regular nurseries.

The productive plants that actually do require some water are watered with the excess bath water (we do not use any soaps on the children) and are fed with the juice from the worm farm. They have been a real boon.

We keep all garden beds well mulched with compost from our scraps and the green waste mulch from the local council. We have worked out that this is the most sustainable mulch as nothing has been grown and cut specifically for the purpose of mulching. The vegetable beds get a 6 monthly lucerne mulch to ensure that there are the correct nutrient levels in there. All plants and mulch for the vegetable gardens are chosen from our local nursery to support local business and lower the transport emissions from us.

The trees that have been planted have been chosen for their ability to provide shade on the western side of the house to keep our house even cooler for summer.

Benefits on planting indigenous (local native) plants are:

1. drought & quite often smog tolerant - these plants have been in this environment for a very long time & know how to survive it

2. attract local native insects and bird life

Where to get indigenous plants:

1. Many local councils are now setting up indigenous nurseries for their own areas and some of these also have plants available to the public. I don’t know the details for areas outside of Melbourne, however, I do know that for Melbourne there is a large list that is certainly not exhaustive as more and more nurseries are seeing that people are wanting to plant indigenous gardens. If you like I can give it to you - it is quite big…& make leave some out…Newport Lakes Nursery is probably my favourite place to go for stock because we also go for a walk around the old quarry and the girls at the nursery are a great help with advice on what to plant where.

Books that may be very helpful to Melbourne viewers wanting to plant indigenous gardens:

“Native Plants of Melbourne and Adjoining Areas” by David and Barbara Jones Blooming Books 1999

“Flora of Melbourne” by Australian Plants Society Maroondah, Inc. Hyland House 3rd Ed 2001

“Plants of Melbourne’s Western Plains, A gardener’s guide to the original flora” by Society for Growing Australian Plants, Keilor Plains Group

“Plants of the Merri Merri” by the Friends of the Merri Creek

“Indigenous Plants for your Garden” Banyule Council

Most of these books are able to be purchased at the Victorian Indigenous Nurseries Co-op, Yarra Bend Rd, Fairfield ph 9482 1710 where you can also purchase stock for the northern and western region of Melbourne.

Insulation

The first thing that we tackled when we arrived at the house 4 years ago was to look at the insulation because we figured that if we insulated the house well, then we would be warmer in winter and cooler in summer. We had the roof vacuumed out and white polyester 3.0 batts put in the roof space. We also stuffed insulation in the gap in the eaves to stop the wind howling through.

We refuse to put in airconditioning even though the house is very exposed and, being weatherboard, was prone to changes in temperature. Our solution for this was to put in heavy drapes, blinds on the inside and canvas awning blinds on the outside. This dramatically dropped the temperature in the house on the hot days. By pulling the awnings down before the sun hit the windows ensures that that room does not heat up.

Heating and cooling

I have already talked about our system of “shutting up” the house for cooling, we also shut doors of rooms that we don’t need, use the concrete floored room on hot days, and most importantly, we respond to the weather. When it is stinking hot, we lower our activity. We don’t expect to be able to do all the same kind of stuff on a 43-degree day. In the same vein, we also respond to the cold. The main thing that we do is to put more clothes on. I have certainly found that a spencer or thermal under my normal clothes makes me feel warm all day instead of freezing. It is incredibly tempting to just crank up the heater, however, if we want this earth to be in any kind of order for our kids, then we need to be a little more humble in our use of the resources that we do have. In winter, we also make sure that if the sun is shining that the blinds and curtains are right open to get any of the sun heat coming through. If there is a warm breeze in spring, autumn or winter we open the windows to get the warmth through. In summer, when the hot wind blows, shut the windows.

When the natural methods of heating and cooling are not enough, then we turn something on. For cooling we have a couple of pedestal fans that we use. When we can afford it, we will look at ceiling fans in the bedrooms and main room.

For heating we have 2 space gas heaters and 1 portable electric oil heater. One of the gas heaters is very inconveniently placed in small room and this one is very rarely turned on, and when it is, it is very low, as it does tend to overheat the room. The other one is in the family/lounge/kitchen room. This we have turned down just a little this winter. By rearranging the furniture to capture the heat best when doing the “sitting-still-watching-TV” activity, shutting the hall door, curtains, door sausages, cotton wool in the old style key-hole and putting slippers on, we seem to be on to something. We seem to be much warmer than last winter. Sure when we go to other rooms, it is freezing; however, the reality is that we are not really spending time in there during the evening.

We have also retrieved pieces of carpet that friends were throwing out and one from a skip in the city and these seem to have taken the edge off the cold tiled and hardwood floors.

The electric heater is only used for a short time each day, as we are aware how it is not really a very efficient form of heating. It is set very low and put on around 5pm until the kids have hopped into bed - 7pm. Then the kids have their hot water bottles and a heat bag to keep them going until they are asleep. If they feel cold in the night, there is an extra blanket to pull over them. Our experience has found however, that if they have the hot water bottle, they do not really need it.

Electricity

As it is very expensive to suddenly change all of the light bulbs over to the energy saving bulbs, this has been a very slow process. As the lights blow, we put an energy saver bulb in. It has been an interesting learning curve understanding which ones will actually provide us with appropriate lighting. In the room where we spend most of our time in the evenings, there are 6 halogen down lights and we are aware that these are terrible for power usage. I bought an energy saver one to replace a blown one and $25 later, I am terribly disappointed with the light that we get from it. Maybe if I had bought the $44 globe, it would have been a different story. So, using our imagination, we came up with other solutions. In the early part of the evening when we are still playing and eating, the halogens are on, and then at dinner, 4 are turned off. Once the kids have gone to the bath, then the halogens are off and the 3 lamps with energy saver globes are on. This seems to be adequate lighting for us in the evening. We don’t leave the outside light on unless someone is expected, as there is adequate lighting from the street light. We have a small lamp in the hall with an energy saver globe that is all that is on in the evening.

As I said before we have an electric heater to take the ice off the hallway and the front of the house, however, we have turned that down so that the hall is not ever over 15 degrees and the bedrooms are not heated. We use hot water bottles in the beds, wear slippers and put more clothes on. Other power users (ie TV, computer, and hall heater) are all turned off with the button and at the power point when we finish with them. We have avoided appliances that require electricity tend towards using our bodies to make things work. We do not own a tumble dryer and instead, made a clothes line for under the verandah out of a frame of 4 pieces of timber and clothes wire. This ensures that there is enough space to hang even my biggest washday’s worth of clothes. When they are dry enough, I hang them folded on the clotheshorse in our main room and they dry out.

Gas

Our main heater is gas as I said before and we are looking for to seeing if our next bill is much less than last year as we feel that we have done more to cut our use (finishing the insulation, shutting doors, sausages under doors, cotton wool in key hole). Our hot water is an old style storage gas water heater. We will not change this until it dies, as we do not have any money to spare. When we change it, we are planning on solar hot water with a gas booster.

Our stove and oven are gas and I use lids on pots to minimise the time the stove is used, and ensure that I do not overfill the water. The oven when used for slow cooking meals provides the family room with that extra heating which enables us to avoid putting the heater on until later.

Transport

We have one car that, at this stage, we cannot afford to replace. Our plan is to find a diesel van to enable us to fit my mother who lives down the road, in on journeys where we would normally have to take both cars. We have chosen a school that is in walking distance and Matt catches public transport to work or rides his pushbike. Kinder is a little further than a walk and I car pool with another mother to ensure that it is one less car on the road for the kinder run. Occasionally we take the bus instead when we have the time to spare. This is certainly something that we could improve on. I would also like to look into a second hand bike trailer, which would enable me to take 2 little boys in the back of my bike to kinder.

We keep the car maintained to ensure that it is not running badly and using too much fuel with too much emission. We use about 45 litres of unleaded a month.

Cleaning

We do not use any chemicals in our house cleaning, choosing instead to use microfibre cloths and a hepa filter vacuum. We do this every 7 days to keep the dust mite in control and only use about 1 litre of water in the process. The old-fashioned elbow grease and hanging out in the sunshine proves to be quite effective.

Food

We eat with the philosophy of using the most basic of ingredients and building our meals from there. We bottle our own fruit when it is in season and eat our own vegetables. All of our food scraps go into our worm farm or compost (made from discarded tyres at the local tyre shop) which in turn produces our vegetables next season.

Clothing

I mend holes that appear in clothes and only shop for new clothes when I can’t make it and there is nothing to be found in op shops, garage sales. I like to see what I can make out of what we have. If something has great fabric but we don’t like the cut, or it has been outgrown, then I set about pulling it apart and changing it. I look for fabric, wool and buttons in op shops as a way of reducing my impact on the manufacturing of new goods and then go about making new and interesting clothes.

Laneway rubbish recycled

We always have our eyes open to rubbish that is left out in laneways and footpaths. Things that have been left for scrap in our eyes are possibility of something interesting. We fashion furniture out of scrap timber from skips, toy boxes from broken wardrobes, DVD drawers from wrecked dressing table, etc. We like to think that if something is leaving our place that is off to be recycled, it is going to someone who will now be able to use it or wear it, or that it has gone to the end of the line. When every screw has been removed and put in a jar, every button pulled off and good fabric kept then, and only then is it ready for land fill…or is there something else that we could do.

Education

The other impact that we have on the environment that should not ever be underestimated is that educating of our children about what we are doing and why. We hope that the impact that we have on 3 people, who will in turn then have their own turn at making good choices for the future, will be a positive one. We talk all the time about the “solutions” we can come up with to help the earth be a healthier place. The kids are learning and coming up with their own solutions. They are watching and listening all the time and certainly feel that they are a part of what we are doing. They get as excited as we do when we see an indigenous animal drop by our