Many people live a lifestyle that is basically wasteful and so it is not sustainable.  Waste in the form of anything you use in life that is discarded into landfill and in some cases causes pollution of some kind should be avoided if at all possible.  Many things can be sold or given to a charity rather than being thrown in the bin. Other things can be mended, repainted and generally make to look like new so they can be re-used. Here are 13 sustainability tips to make your lifestyle more eco-friendly.

• As children outgrow their toys, put them away for the next child to grow into, or sell them, give them away or swap them for something else. The latter is particularly good for computer games.
• Have a garage sale for unwanted goods rather than throwing them away. One man’s trash is another’s treasure.
• Donate goods to a charity or op-shop when you don’t want them.
• Sell unused clothing online. This is very useful for children’s clothing as they can grow out of it so quickly it is still in good condition.

• It’s also often a good idea to buy clothing online from places such as gumtree, especially character or ‘hero’ clothing that is usually twice as expensive as normal clothing in the shops.
• Buy or sell other goods such as furniture online. You can often get great bargains, save a lot of money and re-use furniture that might otherwise end up in landfill.
• Go to garage sales or school fetes to purchase books and children’s toys, storage, plants and many other things that have been donated.
• Consider each new purchase before buying it to see whether you will truly use it, or if it’s just some impulse buy. Often we buy things that we don’t really want, just because it seemed like a good idea at the time.
• Purchase fresh fruit, eggs and vegetables from growers markets because you are helping your local community and often, these are fresher than the supermarket. Sometimes there are organic choices that are less expensive than the organic section of a supermarket.
• When you are out shopping, do several jobs for the one trip to save on fuel consumption. So you can get the groceries, go to the butcher, pick up the dry cleaning and get a hair-cut all on the same day.
• Support your local school, charity or community fete by donating goods that you seldom use for resale.
• If you can garden, grow some of your own vegetables or plant a fruit tree to help improve the air quality.
• When gardening, use home remedies for getting rid of insect pests rather than poisonous chemicals.