4 Sustainable Living Ideas For Any Home

It’s not hard to see that many of us are living in ways that are neither good for the environment at large or sustainable over a long period of time. As a society, we create huge amounts of waste and consume a staggering amount of consumer goods. Although instead of beating ourselves up over this trend, we should merely seek new and creative ways to buck it, and to start living in ways that are more in tune with the needs both of the environment and of our society as a whole.

It is often assumed that living in a more eco-friendly way is expensive or overly complicated, where in fact nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, most of the time you can live in accordance with green principles without spending any money or even making too large of a change in your daily habits, it often comes down to thinking ahead and planning your consumption habits in advance to ameliorate the issues that arise from consuming too much and re-using too little.

Here are four common sense tips that will help you live more ecologically and may even end up saving you money in the long run.

- Before throwing something out, try to think of a second use for it. Say for instance you’ve opened up a can of soup, and you’re about to throw out the can. You might be able to use that same can to dispose of old grease, or even after a quick wash with soap and water you could use the can to store grease for future use. The possibility of reusing all sorts of things may not occur to most people, but a quick glance will show you there are often a huge variety of ways you can reuse what earlier you might have considered to be trash.

- Instead of driving, try to limit your consumption of greenhouse gas producing fossil fuels by walking or biking more places. Even a few trips each week that aren’t by car can make a huge dent both in your carbon footprint and also in the pain you feel in your wallet each time you fill up. 

- Reduce your reliance on store bought food by considering planting and tending to your own vegetable garden. For one, you will be avoiding potential exposure to harmful chemical pesticides. And you will be providing your family with virtually free nutritious meals that are likely to taste better than even the best store bought produce. And don’t underestimate the pleasure you will get out of planning, planting and watching a garden grow over time.

- One of the often overlooked places that you can harm the environment is through the use of household chemicals for cleaning and other uses. For instance, say you’re having a roach control problem, your first instinct might be to reach for a can of aerosol insecticide. Think first about using a repellent such as peppermint and rosemary oil. Often it will be effective and will give you a roach free home without having to resort to bringing potentially harmful chemicals into your home.

While these tips should get you thinking about how to reduce your impact on the environment, you should take some time to think of some other ways that you can reduce, reuse and recycle wherever practical.

Good luck!

Author Bio:
This blog post was written by Sam Gerald, who has written a lot about living a more green lifestyle. His areas of expertise include natural pest control, including the use of beneficial insect predators as solutions to certain pest problems.