Grain kernels scattered on a wooden floor beside a weathered wooden door frame

Start here · Draughts

Find the gaps first

Almost everyone seals the wrong things. A smoking taper carried slowly round a closed room on a windy day finds the actual leaks in about ten minutes, and they are rarely where you expected.

Read the survey method →

Worth doing next

Three jobs that repay the afternoon they take.

Water

A butt off a downpipe

A diverter cut into the downpipe, a butt on blocks high enough for a can, and an overflow that goes somewhere sensible.

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Compost

A heap that heats

The difference between a heap that composts and one that just sits is air, moisture and the ratio of green to brown.

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Wooden bench holds twine spools, dried herbs, dark spice piles, and a steaming enamel mug

Mending

Mending instead of replacing

The small repairs worth learning, chosen because they are quick, reversible and need almost no equipment.

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Who keeps this going

Workshops, suppliers, and schemes that share a practical interest in homes that waste less.

Supporting partners

And with support from

A garden fork stuck into a steaming pile of dark compost

How an entry is written

What the job is, what it needs, how long it takes and how you know it worked.

Nothing that needs a qualified person appears at all. Every job here is one you can stop halfway through and come back to.

Compost heap turned open, steam rising

A page from the register

Eight of twenty-seven. The whole register →

The job	Section
The letterbox A hole in the front door by design, and the two ways to deal with it.	Draughts
Lagging the pipes Foam sleeves on accessible pipework in an unheated loft.	Water
Green and brown Nitrogen and carbon in plain terms, and how to judge it by hand.	Compost
A puncture Find it in water, roughen, glue, patch, wait. The waiting is the part people skip.	Mending
Saving seed Take it from the best plant, let it ripen fully, dry it properly and label it — the labelling is where most of it goes wrong.	Growing
What not to seal Airbricks, trickle vents and anything serving an appliance. Ventilation is not a draught.	Draughts
Bokashi A sealed bucket and a bran inoculant for the things a heap cannot take.	Compost
Testing old seed Ten seeds on damp kitchen paper tells you whether to bother.	Growing

No mains electricity, gas, water mains, boilers, flues, roofs, ladders past single storey, structural work or anything requiring a qualified person. If a job could hurt somebody, it is not in this register.