Easy Ways To Make Your Home Fabulous And Friendly (To The Environment)

At the end of a hard days’ work we all want to come home to a beautiful home. We all want to be able to kick back and relax in the knowledge that we’ve given each and every day our very best (and looked absolutely fabulous doing it). We agonize over our decor, work hard to keep the place clean and tidy and are ever vigilant in the battle against clutter. We want to make sure that our home walks the line between being neat, tidy and organized while also being cosy, welcoming and homely. When it comes to doing our bit for the environment we all like to think that we’re doing enough. We all try and recycle as much as possible, and every once in a while we’re even able to reuse or repurpose something that we’d have otherwise thrown away. However, there may be some ways in which your home is doing a lot more environmental damage than you realize.

Here are some things you’ll frequently fund around the home that can be surprisingly detrimental to the world around us. If you find any of the above in your home, you shouldn’t hang your head in shame, but you should consider a more ecologically sound alternative…

Clear the meat and dairy out of your fridge

Most of us don’t consider the carbon footprint of our food before it goes onto our plates but animal agriculture actually does more harm to the environment than the entire transportation sector. While pork, lamb and poultry all come at a hefty environmental cost, the worst culprit is beef. Beef production requires 28 times more land than pork or chicken and a pound of beef uses 100 times more water to grow than the same weight in wheat. Believe it or not, simply giving up beef would make a bigger impact on the environment than getting rid of your car.  

Switching to a plant based diet will keep you slimmer and healthier while making your household greener. Moreover, getting rid of the meat and dairy will significantly reduce the risk of a smelly refrigerator when things start to spoil. A refrigerator full of fresh fruits and vegetables is infinitely prettier and smells a lot nicer than one full of meat and dairy products, while doing a whole lot more for the environment.

Change your cleaning products… Or better yet, make your own

A good repertoire of cleaning products is essential in a fabulous, fresh, clean and tidy home. We all need to know that the home is neat, clean and tidy before we can relax at the end of the day. However, this doesn’t mean that we need to spend a fortune on a cupboard full of different cleaning products that are lousy for the environment. We;ve been conditioned to think that it’s necessary to fill the cupboard beneath the sink with dozens of garish and ugly plastic bottles full of environmentally damaging products but nothing could be further from the truth.

A much more environmentally friendly alternative can be found at cleanhappens.com. These products are made with natural ingredients using production methods that are solar powered. Just as you can make your own beauty products to save money while helping the environment, so too can you easily make your own cleaning products. Very often a combination of bicarbonate of soda and spirit vinegar can be used to clean virtually every surface in your house from the kitchen sink to the toilet bowl.  

Trade the pod coffee machine for a bean to cup coffee maker

Every gal deserves the rich taste of a freshly made espresso to start her day on a positive note, and the recent boom in pod based coffee machines has enabled people to treat themselves to delicious espresso in seconds. Moreover the machines themselves are elegant and stylish and come in a range of colors to suit just about any kitchen. But no matter how enticing George Clooney may make them look, those Nespresso pods are just awful for the environment. They’re usually made of plastics that are not biodegradable or recyclable. Since they’re made from non recyclable plastics they often find their way into landfills where they can contribute to the growing problem of microplastics leaking into our oceans. These micropastics are created when non biodegradable plastics are eroded by the sun and the ocean and bleed plastic particulates into the ocean, damaging marine life and the communities that rely on them as their protein source.

If you want a gorgeous coffee machine that looks stylish in your kitchen yet benefits the environment and is equally convenient, switch the pod based machine for a bean to cup machine. These also make delicious espresso in seconds without the harmful plastic waste. Since pod machines account for over 30% of coffee machines in the US, something needs to be done about this worrying trend.

Don’t use plastic bottles… ever

Plastic bottles are ugly, they draw attention to themselves and while they can be recycled, far too many are making their way into landfill. For the sake of your health you should try and cut down on sodas anyway, but if you must buy them buy them in glass bottles. Not only do they look way classier on your coffee table, they’re far easier to recycle, reuse and repurpose.

Ditch disposable razors

There’s nothing tackier than walking into a friends’ house and seeing a few disposable razors lying on the corner of the bath, all garish and bright orange, with a pool of rusty water collecting around the blade. Yuk! Not a good look for your bathroom, nor a helpful boon for the planet. Invest in a stainless steel razor. They’re inexpensive, deliver a superior shave and won’t leave a rusty puddle that leaves an ugly stain on your bathtub.

You don’t have to sacrifice your home’s sense of style and glamor to take better care of the environment, nor do you have to go without the things that bring you happiness. Simply making a few judicious changes can literally make a world of difference while helping to maintain a clean, stylish and fabulous home.