It’s not just a diet: top 5 books on clean living

Clean living is now widely considered a lifestyle approach that incorporates not only what we eat but how we live our lives, clean our homes and wash our face. There have been numerous books published on how to eat cleanly but here are our top 5 books on how to extend the clean living ethos into your home.

Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Bea Johnson

Bea Johnson transformed her family’s health, finances, and relationships for the better by reducing their waste to an astonishing half litre per year. It’s all down to the 5 Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot (and only in that order!). Zero Waste Home shows how these key principles can be applied to every area of your house from the kitchen to the kids’ room, and it’s packed with easy tips for all of us: from buying in bulk and clever meal planning to simply refusing unwanted freebies and using your plants as air fresheners. Johnson shows, by inspiring example, what green living looks like and offers a practical, step-by-step guide to diminishing your environmental footprint and improving your life.

Edible Garden Design by Jamie Durie

Practical and inspiring, Jamie Durie’s Edible Garden Design is a book for our times. As more and more of us recognise the environmental, financial and health benefits of growing our own food, all over the country flower beds are being transformed into vegie patches and empty windowsills into flourishing windowboxes. Here Jamie shows you how to create productive edible gardens that look great. He gives you the lowdown on the design function of each plant, and reveals how to incorporate edibles into even the smallest of outdoor spaces without sacrificing style. Whether you live in an apartment block, in a rental, home, by yourself or with a large family, this book will give you inspirational and delicious design ideas. Create your own edible utopia . . . no matter how big or small.

Simple Home: Calm Spaces for Comfortable Living by Sally Bailey

A beautifully illustrated guide to creating a home interior free from clutter and joy of keeping things simple. The simple home is calm and uncluttered, with each item carefully chosen. It’s in tune with the current desire to buy well-made, well-designed items that will grow old gracefully, and to create homes that are sustainable and stylish. This doesn’t mean a minimalist home – it’s about living in comfort in a carefully considered space. The Philosophy of the simple home explores Mark and Sally Bailey’s design ethos. Their colour scheme is inspired by nature to create a feeling of tranquillity. Materials are reclaimed or reused, and ethically sourced. Calm reigns in the simple home – a haven from the stresses of life. Above all, Bailey urge you to surround yourself solely with the objects that you really love and to enjoy the beautiful calm of an uncluttered home.

Simple Matters: Living with Less and Ending Up with More Erin Boyle

Pragmatic and philosophical, Simple Matters is a nod to the growing consensus that living simply and purposefully is more sustainable not only for the environment, but for our own happiness and well-being, too. Erin embraces the notion that “living small” is beneficial and accessible to us all, whether we’re renting a tiny apartment or purchasing a three story house. Filled with personal essays, projects, and helpful advice on how to be inventive and resourceful in a tight space, Simple Matters shows that living simply is about making do with less and ending up with more: more free time, more time with loved ones, more savings, and more things of beauty.

Hello Glow Natural Beauty Recipes for a Fresh New You by Stephanie Gerber

Forget paying big bucks at a spa, or slathering on overpriced “mystery cream” that contains who knows what. Make your own fresh, organic, and effective spa, skincare, hair maintenance, and cosmetics recipes at home with these beautiful, tried and tested tutorials, brought to you by the popular DIY beauty and wellness website helloglow.co. Stephanie Gerber, founder and editor of Hello Glow, believes the journey to well being can and should be simple and beautiful, natural and stylish. Which is why her site is the trusted destination for organic wellness, nutrition, and skincare ideas. From masks of all flavours and for all skin types, to soothing bath oils and invigorating scrubs, and from treats for your tresses to beauty boosting DIY cosmetics, Hello Glow has you covered.

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Enjoy!