5 Tips for Designing Your Home as Environmentally Friendly

The term “eco-friendly” is to houses as Non-GMO is to food labeling. More homeowners are making the transition to environmentally friendly products in the home.

Survey your living situation. Consider designing your home with products that make a positive impact on the environment.

Having an eco-friendly home affects your health and the health of those around you. You lower your carbon footprint while creating a cleaner environment. Participation inefficient usage of energy and water further protects the planet.

Also, the greener you go, the more the value of your home increases.

Part of having a quality living situation is making a constructive imprint on the environment. Here are tips for designing your home as environmentally friendly.

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Read Also:

• Go Green and Save Money: 7 Energy Efficient Improvements to Make to Your Home This Year
• 5 Proven Ways to the Reduce Environmental Impact of Construction
• 8 Ways to Make Your Condo Unit More Environment-Friendly
• How to Promote a Healthy Environment to Ensure Maximum Comfort

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1. Designing Your Home for the Better Starts With the Appliances

When people decide to go green, during their house removals, the first things to go are old appliances. Outdated appliances like dishwashers, dryers, and electric stoves waste water and energy.

For smaller meals, cook with a toaster oven instead of a traditional stove. Toaster ovens consume third less energy than stoves when heating up food for one to two people.

Upgrade your laundry machines with greener products. Energy Star dishwashers save an estimated 3,870 gallons of water, while the dryers use 25% less energy in their lifespan.

2. Put Away the Plastic Bottles

Bottled water is a go-to for a quick thirst quencher. But the plastic the water’s enclosed in is killing the environment.

What’s worse is most water bottles aren’t recyclable.

Switch to reusable bottles in place of the value packs of bottled waters. Most are BPA-free and easy to clean.

3. Unplug

We live in an ever-advancing age of technology. Most modern homes have smart TVs, phones, computers, tablets, and laptops. The problem is most of these electronics require constant charging.

In most cases, people plug electronics into electrical sockets and forget about them.

Charging doesn’t take all night. Unplug unused, charged electronics. This will eliminate power and energy waste.

4. Get a Clothesline

Dryers require a lot of heat to dry clothes. That heat sucks the energy out of your home like a vacuum.

Build a clothesline in your garage or in the backyard. Instead of putting heavy garments in the dryer like jeans and blankets, hang them out on the clothesline. You’ll find the dryer takes less to time dry lighter pieces, burning less energy in the long run.

Consider washing and drying once a week. And for smaller loads, don’t bother to use the dryer at all.

5. Put a Pause on the Ice Maker

Having a cool glass of water in the morning and evening isn’t unreasonable. But if you leave your ice maker running during unnecessary hours, you’re consuming a lot of energy.

Let the ice-maker run during business hours but turn it off at night while you’re asleep. That way the fridge makes enough ice cubes during the day to cool off your favorite beverages at night.

Consider keeping a reusable jug of water in the fridge. That way you won’t need much ice, and the maker gives the energy in your home a break.

Go-Green

Designing your home with ecological products leaves a positive footprint on the environment.

Evaluate your living space and use these tips to make your house kinder to the world we live in.

Want to know more about home improvement? Read our guide for unique ways to save money on home improvement projects.