How to Make Your Home Eco-Friendly

An eco-friendly home is the home of the future, not a fad or trend not worth investing a bit of time and energy in creating. A home that is environmentally conscious is not only inviting to guests, but will provide your family with an oasis that will nurture and not harm.

What Makes an Eco-Friendly Home?

A desire to live a more natural existence is the first step in obtaining a green home, but desire alone is not enough. Many families are fearful of going “eco” because they believe that the products will be harder to find, less convenient and, ultimately, expensive. However, there are small ways that you can make your home eco-friendly without taking out a second mortgage or traveling miles to an obscure “green” store.

Household Supplies

Cleaners and household supplies like paper towels, toilet paper and even bed sheets are easy solutions to begin living in an eco-friendly way. Let’s talk about cleaning products for a moment.

Many of the well-known household cleaners found in your discount store aisles are made with a cocktail of chemicals that in certain circumstances have been linked to diseases like diabetes. Studies have suggested that pre-natal exposure to chemicals in household cleaning products lead to an increased risk of childhood eczema. In addition to these conditions, frequent exposure can also lead to certain cancers as well as fertility problems in women hoping to conceive a child.

Companies like Gaiam and Seventh Generation sell cleaning products that are chemical-free, natural and safe to use on household surfaces. They are competitively priced to compete with traditional household cleaners and are as effective.

Composting

Composting does not mean food rotting in a dark pantry or left to shrink in the fridge into a former image of the fruit or vegetable it use to be. Establishing a place in your home, inside or out, for a compost bin is a natural way to enrich your soil with nutrients and provide an organic option for caring for a backyard garden.

According to Recycle Works, a program of San Mateo County, CA, composting is nature’s process of recycling decomposed organic materials into a rich soil known as compost. Recycle Works cites the following benefits for the average American household:

• Healthy plants from healthy soil look better, produce better and have a much greater ability to fight off pests and diseases. Less need for chemicals to rid a yard of insects.
• Feeding your plants well will improve your own diet. Plants grown in depleted soils have a reduced nutrient content.
• Adding organic materials to the soil improves moisture retention. The more moisture your yard has the more resistant to drought-conditions it will be, while helping you conserve energy and water.

Composting bins can be found in your local home improvement store. These bins can be stored outside for larger capacity or, if you would like to throw your scraps of fruit and vegetables into something more convenient in the kitchen try a countertop unit. These units are are installed to fit flush to the countertop surface, they are small and scraps can be scraped directly into the bin. When the bin fills you can take the compost directly to your yard. They are eco-friendly and kitchen-friendly. No rotting smells will leak from the unit.

A Global Approach

Often times we think that eco-friendly means reducing the amount of chemicals in the air, reducing global warming by conserving electricity, steering away from aerosol sprays. However, sustaining the livelihood of indigenous peoples and cultivating the talents of global cultures is equally important in living an eco-friendly lifestyle.

Decorating your house can be eco-friendly, too. Furnishing and accessorizing your home with fair trade products is a way to accomplish this goal. Gaiam, a company known for its’ global approach to health and lifestyle, has a special program called One World. The purpose of the One World is to “help provide invaluable support to impoverished workers around the world. Preserve native arts and improve the quality of life for communities in countries near and far.”

The Benefits for You

Households that attempt to live a greener lifestyle have less illness, less chronic pain and experience a general upswing in happiness levels. Eco-friendly can have a positive effect on menopause symptoms reducing the need for hormone therapies or other unnatural remedies for soothing menopause symptoms.

In the end, though, only you know what will work best for your life situation. Small steps toward a greener existence will keep our planet and lives in balance , but you must weigh what the benefits will cost you. Hopefully, you will find that a green lifestyle will fit within your monetary and lifestyle budget.

Have you taken steps to live  an Eco-friendly lifestyle? Tell us about the changes you have made in your home.