From Guest Blogger Joel Smith: Four Tips for Creating a Greener Home

A green home is always a great choice. Not only is it eco-friendly, it also has healthy benefits for your family, so it’s really a win-win choice. It’s no secret that we all should work hand in hand to keep our planet, our home, livable. Making your efforts to keep the earth green is a noble thing to do, and we should always start within ourselves.

That said, eco-friendliness should start in our homes and within us. Once you find yourself chasing awareness about the environment, you know you are on the right track. Here are simple tips and techniques on moving your home to a green life.

1. Start with some in-home changes

Like we said, going green should start from within your home, so it can become a genuine change as you move further. Here are some changes you can make or do inside your home.

• Change your household cleaners.

Some cleaners may have gases that can be harmful to the atmosphere. On the other hand, there are household cleaners that can help reduce air pollution. Green cleaners are good and efficient because they mostly contain pure cleansing agents, no harmful gases, and can prevent allergy or asthma triggers. When purchasing your home cleaners, choose the products tagged as “green” or safe for the environment.

• Ensure home insulation is well-maintained.

Insulation is one effective way to conserve energy, which as we all know, is also a good move in helping the environment. Energy consumption is cut back with good insulation in your home. Less energy usage means fewer chemicals can be emitted to the atmosphere. Ensure that your windows, doors, walls and shades are well-maintained to keep the insulation in your home working efficiently, especially during hot and cold months.

• Shoes should remain outside.

Your shoes can be the dirtiest part of your outdoor clothes every day, no matter where you go. Taking them inside your home means taking all those germs, chemicals and outside dirt attached to your shoes inside with it. It does not only prompt you to use more cleaners, which too much can be unsafe. These germs can also attack you and your family which can start all sorts of diseases.

• Change microwaveable items from plastic to glass.

Microwaveable plastics are quite common nowadays that we tend to forget plastic is not good when heated or burned. Although some are microwave oven safe, you risk yourself and your family the harmful chemicals melted from the plastic with a simple heating. Glass, on the other hand, is safe to use because it does not easily melt from microwave heat. It is also faster and more effective to use when heating with a microwave. Instead of buying plastic microwaveables, invest in glass bowls and plates that can be washed and reused.

• Donate items not in use.

Think about reducing your waste? Instead of throwing out clothes, shoes, garments and other home stuff that can still be used, collect them and donate them to charity or to those who really need these items. Some of your unused items can still be useful to others. You are helping the environment by reducing waste, and you are helping others by giving them some basic needs.

• Use safe materials for cooking.

Pots and pans play a big role in your cooking and in the healthiness of your cooking. For instance, non-stick pans can become unsafe if the coating is scraped out and is mixed with the food. Safe options for pots and pans are stainless steel and enamel coated cast iron.

• Choose fragrance-free home products.

Studies show that many unnatural fragrance chemicals have contents that can detrimentally affect hormones and health. Aside from that, these chemicals can also be harmful for the environment. When looking into home products for cleaning or adding fragrance to your home, choose oil-based products that have natural extracts listed in the contents.

• Minimize the use of pesticides.

Avoid the use of pesticides because it contains gases and chemicals that are not only harmful to the environment, but also dangerous for your health. The best way to control and remove pests from your home is to keep your home clean and germ-free. Pests normally breed in the kitchen where food can be found and in cracks on the walls. Make sure that your kitchen stays clean and that you cover these wall cracks to prevent pests from breeding.

2. Outdoor greenery

When you have checked off items on the in-home list, it’s time to move outside and improve the greenery of your home. The most common and effective way to promote greenery is to grow a garden or grow some crops in your yard. Ensure that your soil is cultivated so that growing plants can be easy.

When installing automatic sprinklers, arrange it to be turned on during parts of the day when the sun is not too high, to avoid faster evaporation of water, thus needing to water the plants less frequently. Maintain your grass with a lawnmower to keep your garden tidy.

If you live in an urbanized area, maintain the green in your home by adding a plant or two in pots. Keep them exposed to sunlight by placing them by the window.

3. Lifestyle green changes

Lifestyle changes can have a huge impact on making your home green. Apart from the indoor and outdoor green changes, you should also make efforts to change some of your activities and routines to make your home green and help protect the environment. You can:

• Quit smoking
• Eat more vegetables
• Walk to work, if it’s near. Minimize the use of your car.

All these simple changes will not only help save the earth, it can also keep you healthy and fit.

4. Other easy and cheap ways to go green

Eco-friendly practices are a huge craze nowadays, and it is for good reason and benefit. You can go the extra mile in protecting the environment by being aware of eco-friendly ways to maintain your home.

Fixing leaky faucets, choosing organic products and going paperless are a few of the other ways to go green. In making sure that your home and garage is efficiently maintained, you can seek help from Garage Door Nation.

There are a lot of simple and easy ways you can do to make your home green. To go green means to be eco-friendly and it will always have good implications for you, your family and your future. So which ones are you going to start with today?