You don’t have to be a relentless tree-hugging eco-warrior to help the planet; you can do your part by making your home as eco-friendly as possible. As the saying goes, if you want to help the environment you need to think globally and act locally so get started today with these simple tricks. If you want to know more about how you can save energy and the environment by using solar energy, click here.
Don’t flush good water away
To save water, put a brick or a plastic bottle filled with rocks in your toilet cistern; this will reduce the amount of water you use with each flush. Install a water saving shower head and keep showers as short as possible.
Have a veggie patch and herb garden
Even if you live in a small apartment, you should have enough room for a small herb garden on the window sill. Growing your own herbs and veggies is fun for the whole family, and are certain to be super fresh and tasty, but it also saves on all those food miles and plastic waste racked up when you buy them at the supermarket wrapped in plastic packaging.
Make a compost heap
To complement your veggie patch, start a compost heap or get a compost bin made from recycled plastic. This will save all that organic waste from your kitchen going to landfill and will help make your veggies bigger and tastier without chemical fertilisers.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
This means your standard garbage recycling, but you can also recycle your batteries, old appliances and computer equipment. Re-purposing old furniture is another great way to recycle – turn that old desk into a potting table or plant stand in the garden. There are a million things to do with old stuff around the house, check out sites like www.pinterest.com for some great crafty ideas. Also, look at buying second hand furniture and appliances before buying new, it can save you a fortune and give your house a rustic charm.
Insulate
Insulating your house is one of the best ways to save energy, check over the whole house, especially the roof spaces and make sure they are adequately insulated with eco-friendly insulation. Look for gaps and air leaks on doors and windows that can be plugged as well.
Reduce energy consumption
Buy energy efficient appliances when your old ones break down, and make sure you replace all your house’s lights with compact fluorescent or LED lights. Plug all the appliances in one room into a power board that so you can switch them all off when you are not using the room, leaving them on standby can use a lot of electricity.
Go paperless
These days, you can do almost all your bill paying and paperwork online, check with all your banks, power companies and other service providers, they should have a paper-free option for billing and payments if they don’t, change companies and tell them why.
So as you can see, making your home eco-friendly is as simple as can be, if you really want to take it up a notch, switching to solar power can make a huge difference too, contact Australian Solar Quotes to find out just how much solar power can help your house.
