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12 Ways to Create an Eco Friendly House
1. Start Composting
What do you do with all your food scraps, onion peels, carrot tops, and egg shells? I’m sure you throw them in the trash. It is actually super easy to start a compost pile in your backyard or buy a compost bin. Here is a great resource for how to compost and the different types of bins. The benefits of composting include: less trash in the landfill, and creating excellent soil right in your own back yard.
2. Stop the Energy Vampires
3. Buy Eco-Friendly Beauty and Personal Care Products
If you’re interested in finding the environmental and health impacts of products, you should check out the EWG, which rates products. I’m quite new to buying products that are eco-friendly, but now that I have kids, it’s become more of a priority for me. Not only do I want to ensure the products are good for our health, I want them to have the least environmental impact possible.
4. Don’t Heat/Cool an Empty House
5. Recycle (duh)
If you’re not recycling, please start. It’s a good habit to instill in your kids and you’re also helping to keep our planet from being taken over by trash. Seriously, I’ve visited countries with poor (or no) recycling and it is frightening the amount of trash I’ve seen. You can make it easy for yourself by buying a dedicated bin or bins for recycling. In my own house, once I bought two cans, one for recycling and one for trash, I was amazed how quickly I adapted and just how much I didn’t have to throw in the trash anymore.
6. Use Cloth or Canvas Shopping Bags
7. Buy Houseplants
Did you know houseplants are good for you? They reduce carbon dioxide levels, increase humidity, reduce some air pollutants and dust levels and also help to keep the air temperature down. Plus, seeing green plants even brings us joy, so get some! If you kill every plant that enters your house like I do, you should look at plants that are hard to kill. Here’s a list of 12.
9. Install Water Savers
You can save a lot of water by installing low-flow toilets and shower heads. Plus, they aren’t nearly as expensive as you might think and you’ll save a ton of water.
10. Repair Leaks
If you have a leaky faucet or any plumbing leaks, you could be causing damage to your home and wasting water, which costs you more money. Make sure to fix leaks as soon as you find them.
11. Only Wash Full Loads
Another way to save water is to run the clothes washer or dishwasher with full loads.
12. Stop Buying Plastic Bottles
It takes 24 gallons of water to make 1 pound of plastic! That’s insane. We all need to use less plastic and an easy way to do that is by carrying around a reusable water bottle instead of buying bottled water. If you hate the taste of your water at home, buy one of those filter attachments for your faucet or buy a water pitcher with a filter.
13. Invest in CFL Bulbs (LED is even better!)
CFL bulbs might seem expensive, but they last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. In the long-run, they will actually save you money.
14. Use Chemical-Free Cleaning Products
We are exposed to a lot of chemicals every day, so why not try to cut back? Plus, it’s good for the environment not to dump more chemicals down the drain or into the landfill. There are lots of homemade cleaning agents like vinegar, baking soda, and borax. Here’s a list of 27 DIY recipes for home cleaning.
15. Use Less Paper
There are tons of ways you can save paper. You can pay your bills online, buy e-books instead of purchasing paper books, cancel your newspaper subscription and read it online, use cloth napkins instead of paper ones, file your taxes online instead of printing them out. All of these little changes will save a ton of paper in the long run.
16. Plant Drought-Tolerant Vegetation
Planting drought-tolerant plants instead of grass saves a ton of water. Plus, then you don’t have to water and cut your grass. If you’re looking for other ways to save water, here’s a list of 25 ways to save water at home.
I hope you will try some (or all!) of these simple ways to create an eco friendly house. What tips did I miss that you’re already doing?
View Comments (1)
These are amazing tips! So many that I never even knew about! Thank you so much! (client)