How to Clean: Tips for a Healthy Home and Safer Indoor Environment

Mold can thrive in the bathroom and present a number of health problems, from watery, itchy eyes to asthma attacks. Using bleach with chlorine will also help remove any virus material related to COVID-19. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ Just don’t use bleach and ammonia together, as they can combine to produce harmful chemicals. Cloth dish towels can also harbor unhealthy microorganisms, even if they’re only used for drying clean dishes.

Upgrade your health and apartment easily with these low-maintenance houseplants. You can also harness the natural water resources through rainwater harvesting. There are various methods you can use to collect and store rainwater for your bathroom, laundry, or even for drinking. If you want your home to be truly environmentally-friendly, it is important to make sure that it is not only well-insulated, but with eco-friendly insulation. Take a look at our wrap up of the different types of eco-friendly insulation for more. For example, in the Pacific Northwest, hardwoods such as Douglas fir, red alder and western juniper are readily available and make excellent building materials.

Incorporate recycled materials into your design

Spring cleaning is the perfect time to go through your closet Marie Kondo-style and get rid of items that no longer bring you joy. But instead of sending items to a landfill, drop them off at a thrift store, such as Goodwill or Housing Works. You will very quickly https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/how-to-make-your-home-more-environmentally-friendly/ recoup those costs when you quit buying a 24-pack of water bottles every time you go to the grocery store. Landfills are becoming increasingly overburdened with rubbish, much of which takes a long time to degrade, producing toxic gases in the process.

We asked experts for their tips to get you started on living a more sustainable life at home every day. Switching out your light bulbs or skipping a week mowing your lawn may not seem like a big deal, but it is all part of your sustainability journey. And if everyone pitches in and does the little things, it adds up to something big. Just like your kitchen tap, plenty of water is wasted through your bathroom sink and shower without you even really realising it.

Go Electric

As much as 30 percent of the air moving through your duct system is lost to leaks. By insulating your heating ducts, you can save money on heating bills and conserve energy throughout your home. When you don’t feel like doing the dishes, plastic plates and silverware feel like an easy out, but these single-use products are costly for both your bank account and the environment. “Packaging and other single-use items form a large proportion of the plastic litter leaking to the ocean.” The Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty Organization (COTAP) reports that an estimated 13 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States stem from the production and transportation of food. Opt for organic and locally-sourced products, especially those from farmers’ markets.

• Drying your clothes on a line outside the old-fashioned way uses less energy.
• Saving water also means less water is lost to contamination, and it helps assure an adequate supply of clean water for the future.
• Upgrading your personal habits is just as effective in improving home sustainability as upgrading your appliances and systems.

Likewise, choose sturdy utensils rather than cheap ones; low-quality wooden spoons, for example, can rot, and plastic will melt if you leave it on the stove too long. Buy high-quality knives that you can sharpen by hand, and use long-lasting cloth towels instead of paper. There are also energy, production costs, and resources involved in the production and transport of this thrown food.

Shut off lights

Simple, environmentally-friendly choices to make today, from composting to energy-efficient devices, that will help to reduce your carbon emissions, plastic and food waste, and create a happy, healthy, sustainable home. Recycling conserves natural resources, reduces pollution and saves energy. Recycling involves sorting and cleaning up trash to produce “secondary materials” — mainly glass, paper, metal and plastic — for reuse in products.

Clothes shipped across the world have a significant carbon footprint, and often come packaged in plastic. If your electrical appliance really is beyond repair, Rhoads suggests you “call the manufacturer or company of purchase to see if they will take back items or packaging for reuse or recycling”. Not all charity shops accept electrical items, but the homelessness charity Emmaus accepts working items. These are tested before being resold, which makes it a good place to purchase secondhand electrical goods, too. Of course, paper is compostable whereas plastic holds a high carbon footprint, so in the end, any bag you use is fine—so long as you keep using the same one. In perhaps the greatest news of all time, energy-saving experts are advising not to pre-wash your dishes before throwing them in the dishwasher.