A lighter lifestyle

Olio founders Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One share 8 ways to live sustainably (that you may not have thought of yet)

Home » A lighter lifestyle

Published: June 24, 2025
This Article was written by: Contributor
app, circular economy, food, lifestyle, preloved, reuse, secondhand, shopping, tech

0 Shares

This article first appeared in our World Environment Day 2025 issue of My Green Pod Magazine. Click here to subscribe to our digital edition and get each issue delivered straight to your inbox

The climate crisis was created by billions of tiny actions.

At Olio, we believe that by the same logic, a billion other tiny actions should be able to get us out of it.

While many of us want to live more sustainably, the problem can sometimes seem overwhelming.

The good news? You don’t have to make huge changes to your lifestyle; a few little tweaks can add up to make a big difference to the overall health of our planet.

The internet is overflowing with suggestions for living a more sustainable lifestyle, but we’ve rounded up eight tips that we think are easy to implement (and less commonly suggested) to help you get the ball rolling in your own home. Even one small change will make a difference.

1. Have one ‘cupboard meal’ every week

We’ve all got perfectly good food sitting around in the cupboards – it just takes a bit of imagination to turn them into a meal.

Take stock of what you’ve got and plan to cook one meal a week using only what’s in the kitchen.

Got something in your cupboard that you’re not going to get round to eating? You can share it with your neighbours on Olio so it doesn’t go to waste!

2. Understand what food labels mean

Some people live by food dates and others totally ignore them – but a lack of understanding can lead to a lot of perfectly good food being binned.

Here are the facts: a ‘use by’ date is a health and safety date, but a ‘best before’ just indicates the date before which food is optimal.

It can still be perfectly safe and delicious after that for weeks, months or even years.

3. Give gifts mindfully

First, think about the type of gift you’re giving: can you buy secondhand before you buy brand new? Could you gift an experience instead of an object?

If you do need to buy brand new – ideally a last resort – shop at sustainable, small businesses and choose things made from natural materials that are durable.

Doing a secret Santa? Why not make it a charity shop, vintage or homemade-only gift swap?

4. Move your money

Did you know there are savings and pensions companies that are dedicated to investing in environmentally friendly causes?

This means you can have a positive impact with your earnings – and if you’re lucky enough to have investments, you can use them to do even more good for the planet.

Check out Richard Curtis’ organisation Make My Money Matter.

5. Change holiday plans

One of the most carbon-intensive things we can do is hop on a plane. And while travelling the world is a wonderful thing, maybe you can swap the faff of flying for a train ride, road trip or ferry once in a while.

You’ll get to see more of the country and probably have a more comfortable journey – all while massively reducing your carbon footprint.

6. Freeze your bread

24 million slices of bread are thrown away by UK households every day. As well as bread, crumpets, pancakes, wraps, pastries, cakes and all manner of other baked goods can be popped in the toaster or defrosted in the microwave directly from the freezer.

7. Rearrange your fridge

The way we typically organise our fridges doesn’t help us avoid waste.

Instead of keeping milk in the door, you can extend its life by keeping it at the back of the fridge where it’s coldest.

Rather than grouping food by type, put the items that are going off soonest at the top of the fridge, and those with the longest shelf life at the bottom.

That way, you won’t need to root through everything when you want to figure out what’s in danger of going to waste.

8. Borrow, don’t buy

The average drill is used for less than 20 minutes of its entire life, and there are lots of other items that, while necessary, get hardly any use.

Use Olio, or simply befriend your neighbours, to save money and space in
your home by agreeing to share a few necessary but rarely used items within your community.