annieb123's Review of Simply Living Well

by Julia Watkins

Simply Living Well is a beautiful guide to living well, sustainably. Author Julia Watkins, of the popular Instagram account @simply.living.well, shares rituals, recipes, and projects for living sustainably, inspired by both wisdom rooted in traditional cultures and her own grandparents.

With step-by-step guidelines, gorgeous photography, and easy, comprehensive recipes for everyday use, Simple Living Well is about reducing our footprint for the generations to come.

Simply Living Well covers every area of your household — kitchen, cleaning, wellness, bath, and garden, showing you how to eliminate wasteful packaging, harmful ingredients, and disposable items.

Practical checklists outline easy swaps (instead of disposable sponges, opt for biodegradable sponges or Swedish dishcloths; choose a bamboo toothbrush over a plastic one) and sustainable upgrades for common household tools and products. Projects include scrap apple cider vinegar, wool dryer balls, kitchen bowl covers and cloth produce bags, non-toxic dryer sheets, all-purpose citrus cleaner, herbal tinctures and balms, and more, plus recipes for package-free essentials like homemade nut milk, hummus, ketchup, salad dressings, and veggie stock.

With a clean, inviting aesthetic, Simply Living Well invites you to transform your daily life to move away from harsh chemicals, plastics and wasteful practices. Live simply – well.

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Simply Living Well is a resource guide to a low/no-waste lifestyle by Julia Watkins. Released 7th April 2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, it's 288 pages and available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a very logically arranged and accessible book full of short tutorials and tips gathered by category: low-waste kitchen, natural cleaning, natural wellness, natural bath and body, and kitchen gardening. The author has also included a useful resources and links list for further reading. Each of the larger categories is split into dozens of mini-tutorials and ideas. The photography throughout is clear and clean and harmoniously pleasant.

This book would make a superlative gift for an ecology minded friend/neighbor or a solid addition to the home reference library. It's full of sensible ideas for reducing the family's carbon footprint.

Five stars, a really well made book.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Simply Living Well

by Julia Watkins

Reviewed by annieb123 on Apr 29, 2020

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