The kitchen and bathroom at my house now have a very useful feature: when someone walks into the room, a small light senses the movement and switches on automatically for two minutes - longer if the movement continues. That's heaps of time to wash your hands, pick up a forgotten item, get a glass of water, or drop off a plate. These lights plug into a power outlet, and will come on only when it's dark and a movement is detected. The convenience is wonderful, of course - but what's better is that we need to turn on the larger overhead lights much less often, saving energy. And those smaller lights switch themselves off, too - no need to remember to do this manually! If you want to look at getting some, try your local hardware store. Amazon also have them (search "motion night light").
Just over a year ago, I bought myself an ordinary 60L plastic bin and two plant pots (a small one upside down, a big one right side up). In it I put a bit of soil, a bit of newspaper, and 500 composting worms. Since then all of our fruit and vegetable scraps, including the mysterious items at the back of the crisper drawer that get forgotten and rediscovered, have gone into that plant pot, and been silently and cleanly converted into a fantastic liquid fertiliser by the worker worms within. I wish I had done this sooner; it's wonderful how much less is going to waste via our kitchen bin. We empty the bin less often without issue, because it no longer smells or attracts fruit flies even in the height of summer. The fertiliser the worms produce is more than enough to cover the regular fertilisation needs of my pot-based garden - there's enough to give away bottles to keen gardener friends too.
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