Live Lagom!

Ad – This post is in collaboration with Ikea and Hubbub.

Have you ever heard of Lagom? No, well until recently we hadn’t either.

Essentially it’s all about living in a more sustainable way, but living lagom doesn’t mean that you have to completely change the way you live and the way you do things. Living Lagom is all about finding a balance – literally – as it comes from the Swedish phrase Lagom är bäst’ which translated means “The right amount is best”.

Both Jan and I have grown up with a much more sustainable way of life than (at least used to be) common in the UK. Both of our parents have always recycled. You name it, it was recycled. Almost every plastic bottle was one you paid a deposit for and then got a refund when you returned it, any glass container was taken to the bottle bank (and sorted by colour!), any bit of paper was recycled and we never used plastic bags when out doing a weekly food shop.

So, what are we actually doing?

As part of the Live Lagom campaign which is hosted by Ikea & Hubbub, we’re setting ourselves three main areas that we’d like to improve upon. They are areas where we think we could live more sustainably and to help us achieve these goals Ikea are kindly providing us with a selection of products that should make it possible for us to do so.

Firstly we’d love to grow more of our own fruit and veg.

It’s something that we’ve attempted before (with varying degrees of success) and it’s something that we believe is worthwhile and not to mention tasty, too!

The second area we think we could try to live lagom is by reducing waste.

We already compost most food waste and although I would say that we aren’t wasteful, I still think that we could do better. We’ll definitely have to improve upon our food storage, freeze more and make more of leftovers.

This goal also ties in with the first goal, as we’ll hopefully also help us reduce excess food packaging, too.

The third area we’re focussing on as part of this campaign will be reducing our overall energy consumption.

We already shared a few home improvement projects where we’ve tried to improve the energy efficiency of our home. We’ve insulated under our floors, insulated the loft, are replacing our windows and have filled the gaps between our skirting boards and floors to reduce the draughts.

As part of this campaign, we’ll also be aiming to improve a few more areas like making sure that all of our light bulbs are LED, saving water and making our house cosier without having to turn up the heating.

All of these small things and changes in the way you live don’t cost anything and aren’t difficult to do, but they do make a difference. The “right amount” is obviously a very objective thing, but we think that it’s the little changes in our everyday lives that actually make a difference.

I would say that we’re already fairly conscious of energy saving, recycling and waste, so for us, it will be really interesting to see if we can improve and really see a change in cost and energy consumption.

The Live Lagom project will run over the next few months and along with the other participants, we’ll be documenting our experiences on the Live Lagom blog and sharing the steps we’re taking to live more sustainably and healthily and hopefully results we’re seeing.

Maybe you’ll be inspired to make a few little changes to your own life and home!

Do you try to live sustainably? Are there areas that you know you could improve upon? Do you have any energy-saving or general sustainability tips for us? Any fruit and veg growing tips would also be appreciated!