A 2019 study highlighted how many Irish people want to live more sustainably but don’t know how and this number has undoubtedly increased since then. For many homeowners and renters, it can feel like the effort to be more sustainable is a losing battle as it’s too easy to fall back into non-sustainable ways in favour of convenience. This is especially true if you run a large household where it feels like every room is occupied all day. Despite this, it is possible to run a sustainable household, you just need to know where to start.
Purchase Eco-Friendly Products
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If you want to make an immediate change to your household’s sustainability habits, purchasing eco-friendly products such as laundry detergent sheets, hand soap, and other cleaning products is a fantastic place to start.
As you use these products every day, you can reduce the environmental impact by choosing options that reduce the environmental impact. These products are made using sustainable practices and many contain safe and renewable ingredients that minimise the substantial damage that manufacturing can have.
Track Your Energy Usage
Energy usage is a significant problem for all homes, but large households often bear the biggest brunt. Rather than have a couple in one room using energy, whether watching TV or working, there are often multiple rooms that consume energy at the same time.
Tracking your energy usage can go a long way towards solving this. By knowing how much energy you consume each day, you will find it cheaper to run your household in winter without spending exorbitant amounts. You can also teach your kids to switch off the lights whenever they leave a room.
Spend More Time Outside
Spending time outside means you won’t use energy in the house, but simply not switching appliances on isn’t exactly a solution. However, you can combine reduced energy usage with an eco-friendly garden that allows you to source fruit and veg from your backyard.
You can also create environmentally friendly gardens. Rather than mowing the lawn to a pristine condition, leaving a patch of wildflowers will attract bees and butterflies, giving them much-needed sustenance and helping them to pollinate other plants.
Upgrade Your Appliances
If you haven’t upgraded your appliances since moving in, now is the best time to do so. As your appliances, whether your fridge or washing machine gets older, they become less efficient. Pipes and filters become blocked by dust, meaning the unit needs to work twice as hard.
You can clean these appliances first and see if that makes a difference, but a modern energy-efficient unit will make the essentials easier to maintain. You will still consume energy, but they will not use as much, which means you save money on energy bills and reduce overall consumption, which is environmentally beneficial.
Running Smoothly
Running a household is far from simple. Once you have cleaned one room, you must attend to another issue somewhere else. Your kids also don’t understand why they don’t need the lights on during the day. While they will learn in time, you can take steps to make your home a more sustainable place, doing right by the environment and creating a happy and healthy home.
Note: This is a collaborative post
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