Today, most houses have turned not only into mini-factories for the production of waste and places where, having secluded themselves, but you can also consume excessive natural resources. Besides, we, their owners, trying to make these places more comfortable and pleasant to care for, turn our own hands into houses to destroy our own and our children’s health. It is time to change everything. Fortunately, you can start in stages, and with relatively simple steps.
1. Minimize household waste. Sort garbage by collecting fractions of biodegradable waste, separately paper, separately plastic and also aluminum cans.
2. If you live in a private house, build a compost bin, and compost biological waste. It is only the first look that seems unaesthetic and complicated. In fact, with your own hands, you create the soil in the most real sense of the word.
3. Recycle as much as possible. For example, an old thing can be used as material for a new one, and it will be no worse than a purchased new one.
You can breathe new life into old clothes, textiles, furniture, fog and cardboard, aluminum cans, bottles.
4. If you are planning construction, it is worth investing in the design of a passive house, where orientation to the cardinal points, as well as a well-thought-out form, design, and materials, will allow the use of a minimum of thermal and electric energy.
5. Choose the area of the house that suits your needs. In the past half-century, the area of residential buildings has only increased. Today, now and then, an ample space becomes burdensome – not only due to high utility payments, it is difficult to maintain such an area. And the house itself becomes an unbearable burden for its owner.
6. Switch to heating/cooling with renewable energy systems.
7. Generate your electricity by installing solar panels on the house.
8. Get an eco-friendly kettle. Most dummies use egregious amounts of power. People, however, do not think about it at all. They make enough boiled water to make six cups of tea, while they can do just one cup. Eco-teapots are more power-efficient and, if you are an avid tea lover who does not feel comfortable without a cup of drink, an eco-teapot will have a good effect on the energy consumption in the house.
9. Minimize energy consumption by eliminating unwanted losses. Insulate the home, replace entrance doors and windows, minimize heat leakage through the attic and basement.
10. Turn off all electrical appliances and remove the cords from outlets when not in use, as they can consume energy even when turned off but connected.
11. Minimize (and even better, eliminate) the use of household chemicals. Choose detergents and cleaning products only with reputable eco-labeling.
12. Use soda, mustard, lemon to wash/clean the dishes and the bathroom. With these pure and natural remedies, you can deal with most of the pollution.
13. Use cold water for washing dishes. If pollution is small, cold water can handle them.
14. Use reusable tissue wipes and discard paper.
15. Use reusable dishes and eliminate the use of plastic
and paper plates and glasses, as well as disposable appliances.
16. Cook and eat at home. Of course, this advice does not work if homemade cooking is something like dumplings cooked from semi-finished products. At the same time, any attempt to cook healthy food at home is more valuable than that bought in a restaurant.
17. Plan to cook several dishes at once when using the oven to load it fully.
18. Instead of buying books, order them online or digital versions, or pick them up at your local library.
19. Use a shower instead of a bath, and reduce the time spent in the shower. It is still great to help save water in new shower sprays that turn water into a kind of steam.
20. Do not let the water flow out senselessly from the tap – whether it be in the bathroom when brushing your teeth, or in the kitchen when you wash food or utensils, turn off the tap when you do not need water.
By the way, this also applies to the toilet. You do not always need to pour a full tank of water.
21. Before you buy something new in the house, look at auction sites. Not only on eBay but also websites like olx.com and specialized websites, they exhibit a lot of things in excellent condition, who are looking for their second life.Explore used furniture and hardware stores, let alone second-hand stores. Why should all furniture be brand new? People are used to taking this for granted, and yet their homes can be filled with both new and used furniture.
22. If you buy something new in the house, let it be environmentally friendly. This applies to everything. From non-toxic natural paints for walls and LED bulbs to dishes and home cleaning brushes made from plant and recycled materials, plant-filled pillows instead of down and your organic cotton dressing gown instead of acrylic.
23. Close your doors, windows and chimneystightly. If something remains unlocked, then youwaste your energy. A considerable number of front doors are poorly installed these days, so they consume energy. It is a critical issue.
People do not try to make their habits less harmful to preserve the environment, and they requireseeing the advantages of environmental friendliness.
There is an opinion that eco-friendly houses are entirely new buildings, with many high-tech technologies. But most houses become eco-homes if we minimize our carbon footprint, according to the Kyoto Protocol. Just imagine how much power and money resources you are to saveiftothink about heating bills by only using an insulated roof and double-glazingwindows.