Living sustainable at home means prioritizing the use of natural and renewable resources. Maintaining a home using sustainable living practices requires time, energy, and a commitment to reduce excess waste and save resources for future generations.
Sustainable Living at Home: Start with Small Changes
Transforming a home to promote sustainable living is manageable when you start small. Simple changes can contribute to a sustainable lifestyle without needing major adjustments. Examples include using energy-efficient appliances or cutting down on single-use plastics.
Even minor shifts, such as choosing reusable kitchen items or planting herbs for home cooking, can support sustainability. As you build these habits, your home becomes a model of eco-friendly living. These changes become second nature, making sustainable living a more approachable, long-term commitment.
In addition to achieving environmentally friendly goals, the rewards of adopting green lifestyle habits can also include economic benefits, environmental impacts, and health advantages. Vowing to become environmentally friendly may yield results such as:
Lowering Utility Bills
Developing environmentally friendly habits like decreased heat and water usage will result in lower bills.
Healthier Indoor Air Quality
Creating a green home means refraining from working with paints, adhesives, and finishes with high VOCs that cause respiratory illnesses.
Increase Home Value
Environmentally friendly homes can increase value by three to five percent.
Easy Steps to Make Your Home More Sustainable
There are various ways to begin transforming your home into a sustainable one. Certain methods are simple, and can jump-start your journey to an eco-friendly home, like the following:
Replace Light Bulbs: Switching from incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs can save 66 percent more energy.
Unplug Unused Wires: TVs are left on standby for an average of 17 hours daily. Unplug devices to save electricity (and money).
Clean with Vinegar or Hydrogen Peroxide: Implement natural ways to fight off mold, bacteria, and germs. Use all-natural cleaning solutions that are safer for the environment.
Choose Low-VOC, Eco-Friendly Paints: Low-VOC, eco-friendly paints release fewer harmful chemicals into the air for a healthier indoor environment.
Turn Off the Water: Roughly 48 gallons of water are lost weekly from a leaky tap and wasted water while brushing your teeth.
Open Windows: Mold grows in humidity. Opening windows helps to decrease excess humidity, thus preventing mold.
Designing a Sustainable Kitchen
Creating a sustainable kitchen is a great first step toward eco-friendly living. Start by trying to reduce food waste, a major contributor to greenhouse gases when it decomposes in landfills. Meal planning, proper storage, and composting help reduce waste significantly.
Aim to shop locally and seasonally to reduce the energy used in food transportation. Supporting local farmers also strengthens the community and reduces the need for long-haul shipments contributing to carbon emissions.
Switching to reusable products in the kitchen further promotes sustainability. For example, replacing single-use plastic wrap with beeswax wraps or using cloth towels instead of paper towels reduces waste. Choose pots, pans, and utensils made from sustainable materials like stainless steel or bamboo. Energy-efficient appliances can reduce electricity consumption, lowering utility costs and environmental impact.
Creating an Eco-Friendly Outdoor Space
An outdoor space with sustainability in mind extends eco-friendly living beyond the home. Begin with planting native plants that require less water, fertilizer, and maintenance. Native species support local ecosystems, attracting pollinators like bees and butterflies for biodiversity. Consider xeriscaping, which reduces water use by incorporating drought-tolerant plants and reducing turf grass areas.
Another sustainable addition is a rainwater harvesting system. Collecting rainwater in barrels can reduce your water bill and provide a free, eco-friendly water source for plants. Installing solar-powered lighting in outdoor spaces also reduces reliance on conventional electricity for better energy consumption.
Additional Ways to Practice Sustainable Living
Donate Unwanted Items.
Most communities have a local donation center that recycles, resells, or gives away second-hand clothing and goods that are still in good shape. This includes stained clothing, ripped linens, and even old socks sent to textile recycling centers. You are reducing waste going to landfills and giving your items another purpose by donating.
Mind Your Shopping Habits.
Shopping can be wasteful. For example, a person consumes gas to physically go shopping and indirectly through online shopping. Additionally, think about the packaging materials used to deliver online purchases. If they cannot be recycled, they flood our landfills instead. Try to minimize your shopping trips and ask to have items sent in one shipment when shopping online. While it may prove inconvenient, every effort helps!
Reuse and/or Recycle
Review your local recycling guidelines; if there are not any, think about getting involved and establishing them. There are also ways to repurpose certain items that you no longer use for their original purpose.
Consider Growing a Garden
Reducing your carbon footprint can be achieved by supporting plant growth and minimizing trips to the grocery store, both of which help decrease carbon emissions.
Use Public Transportation, a Bike or Carpool
While these options have certain limitations, they are well worth the trade-off as each reduces greenhouse emissions. Not to mention, financial savings on gas and vehicle expenses are better off.
Enjoy the Great Outdoors
Just going outside and enjoying the world around you can save you money and save greenhouse gas-producing energy simultaneously. Going for a walk, a bike ride or just sitting outside reading a book can cut down on energy use within the home. It also helps to unplug and experience the many things that make our world great.
Adopting sustainable practices at home lets you create a healthier environment and inspire others toward eco-friendly choices. Cleantec’s cleaning services support individuals and businesses in creating greener spaces. Each small change at home builds a foundation for sustainable habits and greater awareness.
It benefits your household and contributes to a more sustainable community. With organizations like ours supporting these initiatives, we can make a meaningful impact on the planet and create a cleaner, greener future.
Fostering a sustainable environment at home and at work can be equally beneficial. Is your company’s culture sustainable? Cleantec will explore this topic in the near future, so stay tuned!
Cleantec aims to offer helpful information to our clients and friends. We currently serve all of New York, including the Syracuse, Ithaca, Manhattan, Rochester, Utica, and Buffalo regions. We also have operations in Palo Alto, CA; Denver, CO; Muscle Shoals, AL; Tampa, FL; and Sanford, NC. Give our sales professionals a call at (877) 469-0543 for a free consultation and quote regarding janitorial services. Learn how we can help your business achieve your cleaning needs.
Cleantec ensures all staff members are thoroughly vetted conducting background checks and drug testing. In addition to providing professional cleaning services, we are also a supplier of specialized cleaning products and green chemicals. Please call (315) 463-5353 to place an order.
