Revelstoke Mountaineer Reads: A guilt-free guide to simple, eco living

“Relax and unpack your bags – we won’t be going on any guilt trips today.” So begins Madeleine Somerville’s wonderfully practical and humorous debut book, All you need is less: the eco-friendly guide to guilt-free green living and stress-free simplicity. Despite Somerville’s less than desirable credentials (she is an eco-blogger – that’s it) her tips and recipes are tried, true, and researched. This book is about simplicity and I think she achieves this precisely because she does not approach this subject from a scientific or philosophic point of view, but rather from a real-world-actually-living-it perspective.

Revelstoke Mountaineer Reads is a summer series hosted in the Revelstoke Mountaineer

The blogging tone makes the book really enjoyable to read. But it’s Somerville’s humor that really stands out. She is hilarious and writes about herself and her family as if she is writing to a close friend. She is persuasive because she is likeable but she is also persuasive because we can all relate to the feeling that our lives are overly complicated and stressful and too full of buying goods/taking care of goods/disposing of goods. She is also convincing because we all know that we must stop abusing our environment

In chapter one Somerville focuses on the home and the most ignored “R” of the “3 R’s”: Reduce. She argues that we have made great progress in the Reuse and Recycle departments, but that we are not living our lives with a reduced amount of stuff yet.  She writes that in order to consume goods, we must give up our time, our money, and, when the good is no longer desired, our landfill space. Just when the reader feels like s/he never wants to go shopping again, Somerville offers a wonderful variety of recipes using ingredients that we very likely already have in the cupboard for dealing with the home under the “Make It” section of the chapter.

The book follows this pattern with a brief, guilt-free, funny, personal, supportive, helpful, and persuasive introduction leading into her fabulously simple recipes for everything from weed killer to diaper rash cream. The latest/greatest/tried-and-true/how-to tips for making things easier, simpler, and greener pop up throughout the book as well. I especially like the recipes for the body in chapter two. I have used the toothpaste recipe for two months now and love it! Next — homemade deodorant! I also love the section called “Apple cider vinegar cures everything” because after discovering the awful taste of it, I’ve had a large bottle sitting in my fridge without knowing what to do with it.