Going green does not have to be a chore or an expensive option. You can make the most of what you already have. Certainly, solar panels and insulating the whole of your house can burn a hole in your pocket, but becoming eco-friendlier does not have to be. Many households are embracing recycling bins and turning the thermostat down a couple of notches over winter. And with a bit more effort, you can foster a lifestyle which while reducing your ‘carbon footprint’, will ultimately make you healthier and happier.

Grow Your Own

If you have the space, growing your own vegetables is a remarkably rewarding experience. A small plot in the back garden is all you need, but even if you are struggling for the space, planters on a windowsill or a balcony provide the perfect environment to nurture your own produce. Simply using a search engine will bring up thousands of tips on how to get the most from your own veg. I can guarantee the overawing feeling of satisfaction of biting into the first carrot you have grown is worth it. Over time, this will not only reduce your weekly shopping bill, but improve your health by removing the chemicals which cover vegetables you purchase from the supermarket.

Up-cycling

I think we have all heard the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ mantra plenty of times now. While in reducing and recycling we are gradually improving over time, a lot of us are guilty of not reusing. Perhaps, it is the time that it can consume, but a trend towards ‘up-cycling’ hopes to encourage more people to reuse discarded materials. In the home, a great example of this is re-purposing glass jars to serve as plant pots. In terms of growing your own vegetable, they provide the ideal base to grow herbs such as basil and mint. For more ideas, just tap up-cycling into a search engine and have a look how others are using their creative juices to create stylish additions for the home.

Unsubscribe Me!

In some of our other blogs, I’ve emphasised the amount of paper that is wasted in businesses across the country. But the same can be said in the home. For example, I don’t think there is anyone who actually appreciates junk mail. Have you ever taken a few minutes to unsubscribe from some of them? Are you still receiving those mail order catalogues which you bought from once, and just throw them away? An incredible amount of paper is wasted via junk mail such as this. Unsubscribing at least means there is on less stack of paper being flung straight in the *recycling* bin.

Finally, as a concluding remark, please endeavour to completely embrace the wonder of digital. The only strain placed on the environment is the power which injects life into your devices. Otherwise it reduces environmental impact across the board. No paper means less trees need to be felled. Online orders mean there only needs to be one vehicle on the road for multiple orders. Ultimately all the eco information you could need is out there on the internet.