Make your home eco-friendly and healthy: Check out the tips
This is the time when many people started realizing that each one of us affects the environment, whether positively or negatively. Our influence on the environment starts inside our households – we are the ones making the decisions there that lead to specific consequences. If you, as a homeowner, want to reduce your carbon footprint and leave a positive mark on the environment, here is what you can do starting from today to make your home eco-friendly and healthy for everybody.
Switch to energy-efficient light bulbs to Make your home eco-friendly and healthy
Incandescent bulbs should be history – it’s time you switched completely to CFLs, which have been around for quite some time but people have not yet grasped just how important it is to use them exclusively.
They use much less electricity to produce the same intensity of light, which also makes them the cheaper choice in the long run as well, especially as they last longer.
Make your home eco-friendly and healthy with right Bathroom choices
The bathroom is the room where you can introduce many changes positive for the environment.
First of all, you can start washing your clothes in cold water. Up to 90% of the energy that the washing machine uses goes to heating the water. So, simply skip that step and reduce carbon dioxide emissions in that way. As a bonus, your clothes will last longer because high temperatures tear the fabric over a longer period, ruining the intensity of the color in the process as well.
Hot water is only necessary if you need to remove stubborn stains. Alternatively, warm water is a better option than hot water – you will be using less energy.
Another thing you can do is to skip using the dryer whenever possible. During warm months, it’s better to hang your clothes outside to dry in the fresh air. In case you don’t have a garden or a yard, simply install a drying rack on the balcony.
Kitchen choices
The kitchen is filled with various electric appliances, meaning there is a lot of electric energy being used every single day.
The first thing you should do is to make sure that every appliance is working optimally – every time an appliance doesn’t work well or it has a part which is broken or malfunctioning, it requires more electric energy than usual to do its job. So, it is an environmentally-friendly and economical choice to get new home appliance parts every time you notice something wrong with an appliance.
Also, it is better to have a toast together with the oven – the oven takes up a lot more energy, so if you simply want to make a few slices of toast, then there is no need to warm up the entire oven. During times when you do use the oven, make sure it is properly closed so that id doesn’t lose any of the heat inside.
In case you love coffee, get yourself a drip coffee maker instead of using a pod coffee maker. Having to use new pods over and over again makes it a bad choice for the environment, as the plastic capsules pile up in the landfill. On the other hand, drip coffee makers only require ground coffee.
Healthy cleaning products
Many cleaning products in the kitchen and the bathroom contain VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds). They are a danger to your health both short and long-term. The majority of all types of cleaning products contain these compounds. Every time you want to buy a cleaning product, check the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) to see how to use the product safely.
The alternative is better – switch to natural cleaning products that are based on ingredients that are not harmful to your health and environment, such as baking soda, lemon, or any other ingredient our parents and grandparents used to use.
Create your compost
Kitchen scraps and leftover food should not be thrown away in the garbage, from where it will end up in a landfill, polluting the soil and air.
Most of that food can be recycled by turning it into a compost – just place a compost bin in the garden or on the balcony. Compost is excellent as a natural fertilizer for the garden and indoor plants.
The eco-friendly furniture
As people used to smoke more back in the 70s, flame retardants were added to the furniture to reduce the chances of hose fire. However, these compounds are actually very toxic to people and animals, leading to hormone disbalances, reproductivity issues, and even cancer.
So, avoid furniture with flame retardants and stick to foam-free furniture pieces. All you need is a good vacuum cleaner to keep your furniture clean and neat.
Indoor plants to Make your home eco-friendly and healthy
Plants not only turn carbon dioxide into oxygen but they also absorb harmful chemicals from the air. Every house and building has some toxic substance vaporing, and plants, with its leaves and roots, remove the traces of those toxins.
Low levels of carbon dioxide and formaldehyde can be removed from a household solely by indoor plants. some plants are better at that job than others but the point is they don’t serve the aesthetical purpose only.
Insulation
The economical and eco-friendly decision is to ensure proper insulation in your household so that you lose as little heat as possible. The better the insulation, the less you’ll need to keep reheating your home during the winter. It’s good for your energy bill and the environment.
Double-glazed windows not only reduce the outside noise but they also prevent the heat from coming out. Huge, thick rugs are also a way to insulate your home and prevent the warm air from slipping through the cracks on the floor.
Lastly, checking if the doors and windows have any cracks will also ensure you keep the cold air inside during the summer, as well as the heat in the colder months.
Final words
An eco-friendly house is always a healthy house – that is the fact that should inspire you to care more about your carbon footprint. Only a healthy household is a happy household – let that be your inspiration to go green.
