Five Eco-Friendly Ways to Green up Your Home

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Making your home more environmentally friendly doesn’t have to be a complicated, expensive process. By just changing a few simple habits, you can make your home a greener, more eco-conscious place.

1.) Switch your Bulbs

Traditional incandescent light bulbs use about 70% more electricity than compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL’s), so it seems like a no-brainer to switch them over. And, not to worry, fluorescent bulbs have come a long way since their inception, and now produce a similar light to incandescent bulbs. (As a bonus – CFL’s last about 10 times longer, and they don’t generate heat either (unlike an incandescent bulb), so you aren’t wasting any of your air conditioning power trying to cool down your light bulbs.)

2.) Abandon the Paper Towel

If you’re at all like me, you probably have an unhealthy attachment to your paper towels and can’t imagine your life without them. But really, paper towels are one of the biggest sources of waste stemming from our everyday life. When you use them, you’re wasting your money and our natural resources, so instead, pick up a few micro-fiber towels, which do a great, if not better job of cleaning up everyday messes. Best of all, they’re reusable, which helps your wallet and our environment.

3.) Recycle your Recyclables

There’s no need for items to end up in our landfills that don’t belong there. If you’re worried that recycling is too complicated and you can’t be bothered, not to worry. Simply set up three bins in your home, one for cans, one for paper, and one for trash. When you go to throw something out, just put it in the proper bin and Voila! Recycling made easy.

4.) Put on / Take off your Clothes

Instead of reaching for the thermostat every time the weather changes, try adding and removing layers as needed. If it’s cold outside, there’s no need for you to be walking around in your house in a muscle shirt and shorts. Conversely, if it’s a sweltering hot day, then you shouldn’t be wearing your parka in the house. Save some power and save the earth.

5.) Let Sleeping Computers Lie

Don’t just rely upon your computer’s screensaver to save power, because in fact the screensaver only saves your monitor from getting images burned into the pixels and keeps your machine running at full power. Instead, when taking a break, put your computer into sleep or standby mode. This will drastically cut the amount of power your computer is wasting needlessly and will help save you money as well.

Going green doesn’t have to be a big ordeal. In fact, doing normal, everyday things just a little bit differently make a big difference when it comes to the environment.