Our Sustainable Staycation

2021 is the year of staycations and my family and I fully embraced the idea of a greener holiday. We packed our bags, filled the car, and went camping! This is our first family camping trip so I wanted to share with you what we did to make our holiday eco-friendlier and what I would do differently next time, as let’s face it, no one is perfect and there is always room for improvement.

Location, location, location 

The location of our camping trip was fuelled by several factors. With two young children, we didn’t want to be driving for hours and hours, staying fairly local saves filling up the car while the North Norfolk coast is stunning, and we were able to really enjoy getting back to nature. Driving to the next county up from Suffolk is a lot more eco-friendly than jetting off to a foreign country.

Leave nothing behind 

We had two bins in action, one for general waste and one for waste we could recycle but unfortunately the campsite didn’t have a recycling bin so we took our recycling back home with us. We used the Waste Not Compostable Waste Sacks, which are made from 100% natural vegetable cornstarch so they’re totally safe for the environment and strong enough to hold all our waste.

Use the power of the sun

We were lucky to have such beautiful sunny weather and we took our solar powered lights that also charged up our phone, so no need to hook up to the electricity points.

Keep it clean

With two young children it’s important to keep everything clean. We took OceanSaver Anti-Bac Spray and ecoLiving compostable sponge cloths to clean down tables, washing up and inside the tent when it got particularly muddy. The campsite has a shower block, so we took a solid soap bar for washing and took our Bamboo Toothbrushes, even the children had them.

Stasher bags are not just for food

I love how versatile Stasher bags are. I used the sandwich-size bags to keep some of my son’s small toys in, they are great to put in my bag to bring with us to the pub to keep him entertained. I used the snack-size bag to store my keys and phone in, that way I knew where they were and they were kept clean and dry.

Get cooking 

We took full advantage of our portable pizza oven and enjoyed woodfire pizzas using FireUp Natural Sustainable Firelighters and wood. FireUp Natural Sustainable Firelighters are fossil-fuel free, so they’re entirely carbon neutral. Plus, they’re totally safe for the environment, which is a camping must-have. Not only were the pizzas delicious, we also all kept nice and cosy.

What I would do differently next time?

I took my biodegradable facewipes with me but next time I will take my Bambaw Reusable Bamboo Makeup Remover Pads so there is zero waste. About halfway to the campsite I realised I had forgotten washing-up liquid so had to buy some at the supermarket. Next time, I will take some in a small, lidded pot as we only needed a small amount. I would like to invest in a bamboo cutlery set – we used our kids’ plastic plates, cups and bowls but would like to have a separate camping set.

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