Making your home more eco-friendly is the right thing to do. After all, we all want to support a sustainable environment. But a lot of green products cost more. That can put your budget in a pinch and dampen your enthusiasm for adopting new ways. We have good news, though: there are lots of inexpensive ways you can make your home a better friend to the environment. Here are 25 ideas:
- Get rid of incandescent light bulbs. There are several alternatives, including new LED lights that burn long and cool and produce beautiful light.
- Wean yourself from those small bottles of water. If your tap water isn’t exactly tasty, buy bottled water in large containers and refill your hand-size bottle.
- Take full advantage of your garbage company’s recycling program.
- Don’t throw batteries in the trash. Yes, they’re small, but they contain toxic chemicals no one wants in the water supply. Recycling is free, you just have to follow through.
- Use fewer paper towels. Instead, buy a stack of cheap bar towels from a restaurant supply store and use them to mop up messes. Your dish towels will stay pretty, and your home will be greener.
- Don’t heat or cool your house when you aren’t around. A programmable thermostat is a wondrous investment that will quickly pay for itself in savings and reduced hassle. It will even warm up your rooms before you get out of bed in the morning.
- Don’t leave the lights on when you aren’t home, either. Invest in a timer if you want to come home to a welcoming well-lit living room.
- Use a thermal coffee cup instead of paper or plastic throwaways.
- Invest a little time in winterizing your home with caulk, window and door seal-strips, etc.
- Switch to organic cleaning products – or make your own super-inexpensively with non-toxic products such as white vinegar.
- Take tote bags to the grocery store rather than getting yet more paper or plastic bags every time. If you always forget your bags, keep them in your car.
- Shorten your showers.
- Switch to artificial turf for landscaping, pet and play areas. It looks and feels better than the real thing and requires virtually no maintenance, so you save time, money and water and won’t pollute waterways with fertilizers. Artificial turf is even recyclable (not that you’ll care about that for years to come).
- Use the things you buy longer. Just because there is a new version doesn’t mean you need it. Yet.
- Help someone else recycle by purchasing used items, at garage sales, on Craigslist, in thrift shops. You’ll be amazed what you can find for almost nothing.
- Help someone else purchased used by donating things or holding a garage sale rather than simply heading for the trash can.
- Unplug your electronic gear once it’s charged or when you aren’t using it. Collectively, these things use more energy than you think.
- Go paperless with online banking, bill-paying, etc.
- Don’t buy foods packaged in small or individual wrappers. That goes for yogurt as well as cheese and snacks.
- Install an adjustable low-flow showerhead or low-flow faucet aerators.
- Share tools and equipment such as lawnmowers with your neighbors.
- Plant a veggie garden – in pots, if you’re short on space.
- Water your garden with “gray” water you’ve used to rinse dishes or laundry.
- Collect rain water to use on your garden (every drop counts triple in our extreme drought conditions).
- Don’t want to buy a low-flow toilet? Create similar results for nothing by filling a plastic bottle with water and setting it in your toilet tank to displace some of the flush water.
Think of going green as a game. It can be a simple, funky, fun, whatever you want, but it doesn’t have to be expensive.
