Photo Credit: The Art Of Making A Baby
There are many opportunities in your house to help save the environment. We all know we should turn lights off that aren’t in use and washing clothes on cold saves energy and money. However, if we take the time to to look around ourselves we will see more simple ways to “go green.” Here are 5 more of those simple changes you can make in your house every day.
Get a reusable coffee filter
There is no need to waste a paper product every time you want a cup of joe. Also, the reusable filters often do a better job of keeping any stray grounds from getting into your coffee.
Turn off the heat dry setting on your dishwasher
If you have anything plastic in there it’s not going to do a good job drying it anyway. Run the dishwasher in the evening and when it’s done open it up and let the dishes air dry. In the morning you will have dry dishes without having to hand dry them and you saved the energy from making the machine do it.
Let your grass grow!
When you allow your grass to reach 2-3” long it does a much better job of absorbing sunlight and therefore is going to be much greener. This cuts back on treatments needed as well as the gas used to cut the grass. So, when your husband tells you the lawn can wait another week, maybe he’s right.
Use rechargeable batteries
Batteries leach all kinds of bad chemicals when they breakdown so significantly reduce the amount you add to the landfill by switching to rechargeables. In the long run you will end up saving money too.
Buy second hand furniture
Check out craigslist, freecycle, and garage sales first for the best deals. If you can’t find what you want in these places go to an antique store. If the furniture you’re buying had any nasty chemicals in them before it’s likely they have been off-gased at this point and you’ll be saving landfill space when buying second hand. Have any furniture/building supplies/ household items that you’re looking to get rid of? Sell them yourself or donate the items to goodwill or a habitat for humanity re-store.
