My very first blog post for Nature Shack. There’s something so exciting and magical about new beginnings, isn’t there? The possibilities, the allure of the new, the excitement of something born and raised from nothing but mind dust.

When my husband and I first thought up the concept of Nature Shack, we were young, childless, and running an IT business. A year ago, during our first breakaway since having our son, we sipped wine at a Drakensberg resort and gazed at the mountains, considering whether we had the time, energy and resources to actually launch what we’d dreamed up so long ago.

And this is it. Our dream come true. After hours of pouring over excel spreadsheets (my nightmare and my husband’s hobby), debating which products to sell and why, which suppliers to support, what packaging to use and where we would store our stock… this is it.

To say we’re excited would be a gross understatement. But there’s fear mixed up in there too, as there often is with something completely new. We know we have many hours of work ahead of us. Logistics to untangle like late deliveries and stock taking. And I simply can’t wait, because Nature Shack is a concept that was born for me not long after I started replacing our commercial products in our home with greener, safer alternatives. For me, our store will be much more than problem-solving and writing endless emails. We’re hoping to change the world, and your minds, about what you put into your body, on your skin, and what you use to clean your home. We want you to consider the earthly cost of a takeaway coffee cup, or that straw you just stuck in your drink. We want to open up a whole new world filled with possibilities and alternatives, products which will boost your health and wellbeing, while still being kind to the earth and all its inhabitants.

Mindful consumerism sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it? We consume, and often don’t spend any time at all considering where that product came from, who made it, and what was used to make it. I never did either until I attended a natural product expo. I came away from that experience horrified at what I’d learned. And that was the day I started making the changes in my own life. It was an elephant of a task, breaking down where I wanted to start and why. So I started with one room of our home - the kitchen. And because my husband has suffered from eczema since he was a child, I started with a natural washing powder. We understand just how overwhelming it can be to make a change, and to know where to start. If you’d like a guide, and some tips and tricks on how to start your green journey, click here 

I now read labels like a demon, scouring every product I pick up with the meanness and detailed eye of a critical editor, except I’m not looking for typos, but those ingredients which signal the presence of nasty chemicals with maddeningly long and complicated names, which I could never spell, never mind pronounce. That’s our job at Nature Shack – to ensure we stick to our ethos of clean and safe ingredients and bring you the peace of mind that is instantly shattered by copious label-scanning.

We hope you’ll join us on our journey. Not as a once-off customer, but as someone who rides with us, bolsters us when we get it right, and chides us when we don’t. We want to be part of a mindful community of people who will grow and spread the word, who’ll keep coming back to us, because that’s how change starts. With one person, one decision, one ripple in the water. We hope to see you at Nature Shack, again and again, until we become a part of your household in every product you pick up and use, safe in the knowledge that we’re with you, every step of the way. We understand that our customers want more than products – they want to know who’s behind the store, the emails, and the website. If you’d like to know more about us and what we stand for, click here 

So let’s go. Let’s walk together. We hope to see you soon. And soon after that. And again after that. And…well you get the idea.