How green is your house?

A friend said she was enjoying my blog…

...and said she’d find it helpful to have a post about gentle living at home.
So here are my thoughts on how to be the queen (or king) of household green!

Be energy conscious

Over filling the kettle, leaving things on standby and having inefficient household appliances are just a few of the bad habits that cause unnecessary energy consumption. By boiling only the water you need, turning things off at the plug when you aren’t using them and replacing your appliances with more efficient models will reduce the energy consumption in your home, helping your wallet and the planet. Little changes in behaviour make a huge difference.
Over filling the kettle is one of my bad habits...there, I’ve exposed myself as a green living newbie. I am now resorting to filling the number of cups I need with water then pouring them into the kettle prior to boiling it. My brain cannot do quantities by itself!

Be green when you clean

There are lots of different eco-friendly cleaning products which seek to minimise the use of harsh chemicals, have recycled or recyclable packaging and, as an added gentle living bonus, don’t test on animals.
I particularly love Faith in Nature. They’re a UK based company who are all round good guys: they don’t test on animals, they’ve got ethical consumer ‘best buy’ status, certified organic ingredients and they’re vegan (no animal based ingredients within their products).

If you’re interested, have a look at the back story page on their website which features a photo of the creator with amazing 1970s hair and the lovely ‘We Believe in…’ page stating their morals and ethics.
Their stuff smells delicious and in addition to wonderful home care products they also have hair, body and skin care ranges – I’ll be doing a post about cosmetics soon. I know lots of health shops in the UK stock Faith in Nature products if you would rather buy in store than online.

I also like Ecover who use plant and mineral ingredients. They have an interesting ocean plastic project which involves recycling waste plastic from the ocean to create bottles. They’ve only made a limited number of ocean plastic containers so far and the ones they have made contain 10% recycled ocean plastic (the other 90% is recycled plastic from other sources) but I think this project has a lot more potential for use in the future. Hopefully other companies will follow their example in finding innovative ways to recycle materials for their products. Ecover show a genuine commitment to eco-friendly working practice.

Go nuts
Soap nuts, that is. If you really want to get brownie points (or greenie points?) you can have a go at washing your clothes with soap nuts. Have a read about what they are and what they do here. I have tried them and they do work, but if you’re used to highly potent floral smelling washing, you’ll have to get used to your clothes smelling of, well, not much really, unless you add some drops of essential oils.

Be water wise
I’ve already mentioned not boiling too much of it in the kettle, but there are many other things you can do to save water, save money and most importantly help the planet too. Leaving taps running is a big one. Don’t leave them on whilst you’re brushing your teeth, wash vegetables in a sink or bowl of water rather than under a continually running tap and if you’re out and about and see a tap running (perhaps in a public washroom for example) turn it off! We have to use a dehumidifier in our little house and I use the waste water collected in it to water the plants.
This clip from my Sesame Street watching youth drilled this message about not wasting water into my consciousness…

Sesame Street obviously did a good job of penetrating my brain because I’m now in my mid-twenties and whenever I think about not wasting water, this song comes into my head too…

And now you’ll have the tune going round in your head all day! You’re welcome! Mwah ha ha ha!

Shower vs. baths

Unless you spend an hour in the shower and your preferred bath depth is akin to that of a puddle, it’s most likely showering will use less water that bathing. If you prefer having a bath, providing you aren’t filthy dirty, let someone else have the water before or after you, just like your parents probably insisted when you were a kid if, like me, you have siblings.

All appliances are not created equal

Some home appliances such as washing machines, fridges and electric ovens come with energy efficiency ratings on a scale from A+++ to D, based on their energy consumption. So next time you’re buying an appliance that is affected by this rating system, you can be aware of its green credentials. You can find out about this labelling system and which kinds of products are subject to the rating here.

Ethical energy

Switch to an environmentally conscious energy provider. Ecotricity are the main contenders in this field; they’re rated top over on Which? for green energy suppliers. Have a look at the ratings for them and other energy suppliers here.

When you switch to this green energy supplier, you can use a code to give a donation to a charity of your choice too, such as Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the RSPB and Trees for Cities. Find out more about Ecotricity here.

Ditch the single use disposables where possible

If you buy cloths and sponges to use for cleaning around the house, buy ones that will have more than one use. Decent quality may cost more initially, but by buying products that can be washed and re-used you’ll save money in the long run and create less waste.



So there you have it peeps, a few tips for eco-friendly living. Thanks to my friend for suggesting this topic for a post, I’ve learned some interesting things whilst doing my research for it!

I hope these suggestions help you to live a little bit more gently. There are so many more things you can do to make your life more kind to the environment, people and animals – do you have any tips? Let me know, I’d love to hear them!