Creating an Eco-Friendly Home

Each year on April 22^nd, we celebrate Earth Day! Let’s be honest, friend, everyday should be Earth Day as we continue to be responsible citizens of this planet. J This week, to commemorate the greenest holiday of them all, I’m turning over the reins to my resident eco-friendly daughter, Faith.

Hi guys! You might know me as Patrice’s eldest daughter, Faith! I took over the blog last spring to share my favorite things, but this week, my mom’s letting me write about living an eco-friendly life. Nothing makes me happier than sharing my love of living in alignment with your values and saving the world a bit along the way! To start off, check out this quiz on how to impact climate change in your daily life!

Reduce Your Consumption

I love the intentionality of a lot of minimalist design that I see everywhere now. It’s beautiful, aesthetically clean and simple which I absolutely adore J A key aspect of minimalism is to create a space that has just enough, a topic about which Patrick Rhone wrote a fantastic book with the same title. In that same vein, as you cultivate a space that you love, reducing the items in your space is a good place to start. Reducing your consumption of plastic items is a great place to start, but it can be difficult so have fun along the way!

Use Cleaner, Greener Products

Within my home, I take great care to use green or eco-friendly products as much as possible. This is both for my own health as well as to make sure that my environment stays tidy and minimally invasive on the planet. Some of my favorite brands are Seventh Generation and Mrs. Meyers as they both make products with greater accountability around limiting toxins and harmful ingredients. The Environmental Working Group has a guide to healthy cleaning that’s worth checking out! (Also, if you’ve struggled to figure out what items to buy organic in the grocery story, their “Dirty Dozen” list is essential reading as it highlights the fruits and vegetables which have the most pesticides and recommends a “Clean Fifteen”)

Reduce Food Waste

Other ways that I find it easy to reduce my consumption is in my food habits. Did you know that every day in the United States, we each throw away nearly a pound of food per person? In order to limit that, I started being more intentional with my meal planning and creating a shopping list based on both what is in my home and what I intend to cook in a given week. In addition, I set up a home composting bin where I collect compostable food scraps and then once a week, I take the scraps to a community garden where they use the scraps to create fertile soil for use in the garden. If you are interested in starting to compost at home, check out this guide.

Reuse Items

I’m an advocate of recycling as much as possible. First, check with your local sanitation service to see what items are recyclable where you live. Second, make sure to know how items should be sorted, bagged, etc. depending on the regulations where you live. In addition to curbside recycling, think about the ways you might be able to repurpose commonly trashed items.

Finally, look at purchasing items that are reusable. I always have a few reusable totes in my car for times when I stop by an area farmers market unexpectedly, or even when I need to tote something to another building at my job. I bring my own coffee mug to coffee shops (and frequently get a discount for doing so J), I have a reusable water bottle on my desk at work, and even have aluminum straws in case I need one. I recognize, some of these things will not work for everyone, but try a couple of weeks toting your own reusable items and see what works for you. It’s a small investment with a tremendous impact!

Let us know what small step you can take to create an eco-friendly environment and home. As my mom says, until next time, take good care of yourself (and the Earth!)