Archive for April, 2009
Green Living - Is Your Home Green Enough?
If you’re thinking about building or renovating your home, you might want to consider some green options. No – I don’t meant having a green color scheme (although you certainly can if it suits you), I’m talking about making eco friendly choices for your new design.
Green Home Remodeling Products
Certainly one of the first things that comes to mind is using “green” products. Low VOC carpets and floors and cabinetry made from sustainable materials like cork and bamboo should be high on your choice list. In the kitchen and bathrooms, you could opt for recycled glass countertops that add a unique touch to the kitchen and are a great way to put old glass to use. These countertops come in many color combinations and resemble artful mosaics which lend a classy air to your room.
Green Home Remodeling Recycling Ideas
Another thing to consider is recycling your old items or, using items from someone else’s home. These days, wood floors are very popular and if you are considering them for your home you might look around at older homes that are being torn down to see if you can salvage the flooring. Every item that you reuse from your old design or from someone else’s home is one less item that will end up in the landfill.
Green Home Remodeling to Heat & Cool Your Home
If you are redoing your heating, then look into solar or wind power. Wind power might not be practical for all homes since you need to have quite a bit of land and a high area for the turbine. Solar power, on the other hand, can be adapted to almost anywhere. If putting in a solar system is not within your reach, you should at least make sure that you insulate properly and use triple pane windows and tight fitting seals on your doors to minimize loss of energy from your home.
Green Home Remodeling vs. The Environment
Avoiding use of paints and glues that produce air pollution is another consideration. This is not only important for the environment, but for your health as well. Toxic fumes can build up in your home and are bad for your health. In fact, the EPA estimates that the pollution inside your home can be up to 100 times worse than that outside the home! In order to have cleaner air inside, use water based paints instead of oil based and avoid products that have a lot of adhesives. When you do need to use adhesive, try to make sure they are as “green” as possible.
Luckily, there are plenty of exciting options in eco-friendly materials and you don’t have to sacrifice beauty or function to go green. When choosing the new materials and items for your home, be sure you do your homework and look for eco-friendly options – I think you will find plenty of items that fit in your new design!
Green Home Living
Here are 10 “green” things you can do that won’t crimp your style or your wallet:
Use recyclable cloth grocery bags instead of plastic – plastic bags take eons to degrade and can be harmful to wildlife. Cloth bags only cost you $1 and some grocery stores even give you a rebate every time you use them. Not only that but they fit more groceries, can be used over and over again for anything and are easier to carry!
Buy reusable coffee filters – you’ll never run out!
Put your kitchen scraps in a compost pile – you’ll have great organic fertilizer for your garden and be making good use of your scraps.
Use cloth kitchen towels instead of paper towels.
Buy used items – need a new sofa or TV? Try looking at your local consignment store or in the classifieds – you can get like new items for a fraction of the price and it keeps those items out of the landfill.
Don’t print – do you really need to print that out? Think hard before you print stuff on your computer – you’ll save a ton on ink and paper.
Get your news online – instead of getting a newspaper delivered to your house, just go online and read your local news. Almost every newspaper has webpage these days where you can get late breaking news.
Work from home – if your company allows it, try to work from home 1 or 2 days a week. You’ll be producing less carbon emissions and saving on gas (plus you’ll probably get a lot more done without your boss staring over your shoulder!)
Buy local – flying and trucking food all over the world creates a lot of pollution so if you have a local farmers market, try to support your local farmers and buy as much food as you can there. It will be healthier for you and the environment.
Turn down your water heater – most people have their water heater up too high – turn yours down to 120 degrees and make sure you but an insulating sweater around it. This will help it run more efficiently and save you on heating your water. For even more savings, insulate the pipes coming out of the water heater.
There’s plenty more you can do to help the environment but it can be overwhelming to try to implement too many things at once. Try some of the tips above and, once you have them structured into your daily routine take on more green living activities – before you know it you’ll be living a fully eco-friendly lifestyle!