We do many things to protect our families every day, from child locks on car doors to taking out the trash or removing potentially harmful elements from your home. You wouldn’t just ignore a poisonous plant in your yard, or a dangerous chemical like gas leaking into your home. As more people are spending more time at home, they are focusing on both keeping their family safe, and also becoming more eco-friendly and sustainable around the house. Let’s explore a few very popular options for making your home safer and more eco-friendly!
Wash Your Clothes In Cold Water
Heating a large amount of water for loads of laundry will certainly prove to be costly, especially when washing clothing for an entire family! Washing your clothes in cold water is a great way to remove stains, and also reduce the amount of power you use in your home. You can take this same best practice, and apply it to your shower time! Shorter showers and cooler water are proven to save money on heating and on the cost of water as a whole.
Skip The Dryer When Possible
Just as heating water saps power and costs money, your dryer is a major power suck around the home. Many people are getting around this by going back to more traditional ways to dry their clothes, using an outdoor space or yard to dry clean things. If you don't have outdoor space for drying clothes, consider investing in a small drying rack for your balcony, or set it up to catch some sunlight through a window for faster drying.
Swap Regular Light Bulbs For LED Bulbs
LED light bulbs have progressed light years (no pun intended) recently, from the days when there were complaints about how much light they produced or how much time it took for them to fully light up. Replacing more traditional bulbs with LED bulbs often means an immediate decrease in light bills, a huge help in the dimmer winter months when we use our lights for more hours each day.
Use a Programmable Thermostat
Setting your thermostat for a higher temperature during the day, and lower at night, has long been a money saving and eco-friendly option. Now imagine automating those settings so that you never forget! This type of technology will also allow you to automate your temperature settings for entire seasons, and even for a short period, like while you are traveling for work or on vacation with your family.
Change to Propane
Most modern residential construction is highly focused on energy-efficiency, focusing on propane. Heating with propane means going beyond on-demand comfort, and seeing a very real reduction in energy costs at home. Going with propane means opening up many more options to heat your home, like heated floors, for far less than it used to cost.
Purchase Energy-Efficient Appliances
We rely on our home appliances to make us comfortable, but it’s undeniable that they use a great deal of energy and cost money to operate. Energy-efficient appliances go well beyond your heating, cooling and dishwasher. You can go energy-efficient with other smaller home appliances like eco-kettles or low flow shower heads, which both help you save money on both water and heating.
Pick Water-Based Paints
Oil-based home paints are full of pigments, which are not necessarily eco-friendly. An easy way to go more green around your home is to use more natural paint products. Look for water-based products, which are better for those around you, and also come in what some consider to be a wider range of beautiful and more natural colors.
Think Green When Cleaning
Many associate a bleach or chemical smell with cleanliness, but have you ever considered what chemicals are in your cleaning materials? Did you know that you can easily make your own cleaning products at home, using baking soda, vinegar and even soap? Make sure you look at the list of ingredients in your cleaning products, to make sure you aren’t spreading harmful chemicals throughout your home, and replace more chemical-heavy products with your own homemade cleaning products, or a more eco-friendly option.
Your family and home are at the core of how healthy and happy you feel. It’s important that you create a home environment that is as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible for both yourself and your family and friends. Get serious about sustainability today, by following these simple tips and tricks to update your home to be more earth-friendly.
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