Making sure your family home is as eco-friendly as possible makes sense. After all, everyone has a responsibility to do their part when it comes to saving the planet. The good news is that you can find out how to make your family property as eco-friendly as possible, below.
Choose Low-VOC Paints When Decorating
Volatile organic compounds or VOC are substances often found in the paints we use on our walls, floors, and ceilings in the home. The problem with these paints is that VOC are quite toxic and they don’t stay suspended in the paint. Instead, they are slowly released into our homes and the environment, making both more toxic places to live.
With that in mind, next time you decorate why not opt for low-VOC paints? You can get them online, and in hardware stores in a range of colours, so your creative flair won't be limited, but the amount of airborne nasties released into your home will.
Make Sure Your Heating System is Working Efficiently
If you live in an area where the temperature drops during winter, you’re going to need reliable heating to make sure you and your family stay warm and cosy. However, it is worth noting that heating systems do tend to use up a great deal of energy, especially if they are not well maintained.
To that end, you must regularly maintain and update your properties' heating systems. Depending on the type of system you have this may mean getting an oil tank installation specialist to put in a new system if your old one is worn. Alternatively, you may need to get an expert to service or replace your central heating so it runs more efficiently.
Find Ways to Use Your Grey Water
Grey water is water that has been used to wash dishes or laundry. It's not clean enough to drink, but it's still not dirty enough to need disposal through the sewage system like black water. Unfortunately, when we send grey water down our drains, we waste a great deal of the energy that is used to clean and pump it to our homes.
The good news is that by reusing grey water we can preserve at least some of this energy. With that in mind, disconnecting your washing machine's drainage pipe and feeding outside to a water barrel where you can collect this grey water is a great idea. You can then use it to water your garden or clean your car, which is much more eco-friendly than using fresh water from the tap.
Be Mindful of Your Child’s Toys
Last, of all, there are several ways you can ensure the toys that your little ones play within your family home are more eco-friendly. The first is to buy only toys that come from sustainable or recycled sources like this doll.
Secondly, you might wish to look into toy leasing schemes. This is where you pay a monthly fee to rent specific toys, that can be traded in when your child tires of them. The eco-benefits of this type of lease system are less waste or materials, and energy from production, and less landfill waste from toys that are discarded once their owners no longer play with them.
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