With more people staying at home, there has been an uptick in people looking to be more ecologically friendly. The main way is to try and make an eco-friendly home. You can accomplish this through multiple different outlets, whether it be converting your home to solar for electricity or starting your own garden.
Here are five ways that you can help your house become more sustainable and eco-friendly.
1. Start a Garden
One of the best ways to start creating an environmentally friendly home is to start with a garden. You could use your backyard to grow fruits and veggies or start a little herb garden in a window that gets a lot of sunlight.
You’ll be cutting back on the amount of food that needs to be bought from stores and focusing on growing your own. Overuse of land and the increase of natural pesticides leads to a situation where we’re needing more land to produce crops. The more land we use for farming, the bigger the ecological impact it has.
On the bright side, you’ll know exactly where your food is coming from every time you pick a pepper or lemon from its branch. Your choices will take away that worry about whether a food is Non-GMO or pesticide-free.
Also, look into composting your waste where possible. Food scraps, hair, coffee grounds, and even junk mail are all items that can be thrown into a compost bin to create healthier soil when yours starts to die out. You can throw in a worm or two to increase the amount of break down for extra soil benefits.
2. Switching to Solar
Solar is the way of the future, and it’s a great way to make the house more eco-friendly. Fossil fuels and natural gasses are a limited resource that is being used at rates that are not sustainable for the long term. The problem is, the majority of houses need to use these methods to power their home.
By switching to solar, you’re taking the option to power your own home into your own hands. The key is to ensure that your house is getting enough sunlight to support going to solar.
Realistically, you’re still hooked up to the utility company’s electricity, but you’re providing enough of your own that you chip away or completely eliminate the electric bill that they send you. When enough people switch to solar through a county or city, there can be enough solar to go around for everyone, minimizing the need for traditional electricity.
In some cases, solar can even act as a backup generator. Often you need a battery to store that electricity while it is waiting to be used. In the case of a major power outage and your battery is hooked up to the house properly, you can then utilize that power to make sure that you and your family are safe during the toughest times.
Check out Blue Raven Solar for all your solar needs.
3. Consider Automating Your Home
Do you ever ask, “how can I save energy at home?”. One answer to that might be through automation throughout your house. Whether it be through lightbulbs, the thermostat, or simply pulling the shades down, you can start going green now.
Lightbulbs that are controlled by smart devices are often energy-efficient in the first place. But being able to control them from where ever and setting routines is an excellent way to reduce the amount of energy used. If you’re at work and check the app and see that you left the bedroom lights on, rather than wasting electricity, you can easily turn them off from your phone.
With a smart thermostat, you can program exactly when to turn on the AC and control the temperature throughout the house. By getting the timing and temperature down, you’re not wasting energy when you accidentally leave the AC on while you’re on vacation.
4. Reduce Waste and Switch to Reusable Items When Possible
Another great way to ensure that your house is meeting the standards for “going green” is to reduce as much waste as possible. That means anything that can be switched out for reusable items, try it out. You’d be surprised what you can make reusable when you find the right items.
A good example would be cotton swabs. They’re one of the most commonly thrown-out items that end up in landfills and a single reusable swab can help eliminate up to 1000 single-use ones. While it may take getting used to it, the eco-friendly impact it has will be worth it.
Another quick and easy switch is the use of reusable bags when shopping. You can use them at the grocery store or your favorite clothing outlet. These single-use bags end up being tossed in the garbage and then straight into the dumps where they don’t break down easily because they’re made of plastic.
5. Buy Second Hand
The need for new items is not a great thing. By buying new items all the time, you increase the amount of waste when it comes to the previous item you’re replacing. That is why you should look into second-hand shopping when possible.
One of the biggest things to consider buying is a used car. Not only are they often way cheaper, but rather than needing to buy the newest model and drive up demand, you’re opting to buy something already made and been around the block a few times. The less demand for new cars, the less waste that is produced making them.
Make the Right Choice: Go for an Eco-Friendly Home
By creating an eco-friendly home, you’re giving the planet a chance to heal from our constant damage to her. You’re also going to reap the benefits of growing your own food and knowing whether you turned off that light in the bathroom.
If you want to learn more about maximizing your time while you’re at home and far away, be sure to check out the rest of our blog. If you know someone that could use some help going greener, be sure to share this article with them.
