Recently, I moved into my partner’s apartment and to a new part of town.

Let’s just say, my partner is not as green as me.

But she is very supportive, knows that this is important to me.

“If you want to change stuff, do the research and tell me what you want to do”

Fair enough.

We live close to major highway artery and it’s been shown to have one of the highest concentrations of air pollutants in the city according to a recent newspaper article.

At the same time, my partner’s adult onset asthma symptoms seem to be getting worse over the past few years.

Coincidence?

This is the reality in other parts of the world. I’m sure it will never happen in our neighbourhoods – or is it here already?

Who knows but it wouldn’t hurt to try and improve the air we breathe at home. She works from home most of the time, so I figured it’s the time & investment to investigate my our options.

Add to my to-do list:

1. How to improve indoor air quality naturally

eg., Spider plants, no air fresheners or ‘nose blind’ febreze.

Click image to read article on indoor plants that can help detox your home

Readers, could really use your tried & true suggestions and ideas in the comments section.

So the next task is the boiler.

This thing doesn’t even have a thermostat !

Thus, regardless of the temperature, our heating is working full blast if set to ON.

We have this dial thingy that is reminiscent of a timer that allows me to turn or off the heat.

(I’ve been looks into Nest’s thermostat – admittedly it looks so cool but the really neat thing is that it monitors your activities (ie., it knows when you are in or out of the house) and is able to adjust heating by the minute. Just need to find time to do the math of how much all this will cost me to install and potential energy savings)

Add to my to-do list:

2. Thermostat for boiler.

She likes to dry clean her clothes and even linens (Yes, people still dry clean, and I’d stay clear of so called ‘organic’ drycleaners)

Easy fix:  No budget for dry cleaning 🙂

Add to my to-do list:

3.  Machine wash at home and l’ll iron! (Or pay for someone to iron !!)

Porridge.
Her favourite breakfast meals these days is instant porridge with mixed berries.

The ones were you microwave it for 2 minutes add milk and it’s ready to eat.

My issue is the packaging – 4 individually packed porridge containers.

I can only imagine that it’s probably lined with something meant to be convenient like non-stick on the inside / potential Bisphenol-A (BPA) lurking around

(Speaking of non-stick, did you know there is hormone disruptor BPA on cash receipts?)

Add to my to-do list:

4. I’ll get up a little earlier and make oatmeal.

Thus, Readers I’d appreciate any healthy & quick recipes 🙂

Till next time.

Dihan Chandra

Proud-Owner, Organic Lifestyle