'Five million people saw me empty my dishwasher'
A 75-year-old "Instagran" said she was using her new social media fame to spread the word on how to be green, after videos of her waist-height dishwasher and inventive staircase at her retro-fit home went viral.
Judith Leary-Joyce's reel about her clever dishwasher solution has been viewed more than five million times, and two videos about her counter-weight staircase at her Hertfordshire home have been watched on 30 million occasions.
She said it was "a bit weird [to become so popular] at my age".
Being environmentally conscious since the 1970s, she said she wanted to share on social media how she made her St Albans home as "draft-proof as possible" and show others how they could do it too.
Ms Leary-Joyce, who is known by her family as "Instagran", set up her account "ecorenovationhome" to encourage people to take "small but significant actions on behalf of the climate", she said.
Last year she decided she had to "get into reels, so I couldn't think what to do, so to start with I'll record myself emptying the dishwasher".
The inventive design solution, that avoids bending down, took off, she said, and because it is right next to her crockery cupboard "you are taking the cups and plates and just shifting them sideways".
She said she also has "a very interesting counter-weight staircase" that pulls down from the loft, "so I thought if they liked the dishwasher they might like the staircase".
On the day her dishwasher post went viral she had 311 followers, but by a month later the numbers had soared to 30,000, and have since climbed to 84,000.
When she decided to retro-fit her Victorian home and make it more energy efficient, she said she was "astounded" that she saved 75% energy compared to the 50% she was expecting.
Her advice to people was to make sure their homes were as "draft-proof as possible", with plenty of insulation to stop "uncontrolled air getting in".
Ms Leary-Joyce is taking part in a TEDx salon talk, Living the Green Life, on Monday at 19:30 GMT, at the Harpenden Quaker Meeting House.
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