You don’t need to spend a fortune on renovations to make your home more environmentally friendly. Simply taking a more thoughtful approach to everyday tasks can make a significant difference. Here are a few good ways to start.

Take shorter showers

It should never take more than a few minutes in the shower to clean yourself properly and therefore every extra minute you spend in there represents a huge amount of wasted water. Limiting yourself to 5 minute showers will save hundreds of litres of water every year. 

Grow your own food

Nothing is healthier and more delicious than fresh vegetables that you have grown yourself, so if you have any spare room in your front or back yard start a vegetable garden. Apart from enjoying healthier food, having it grown in your own garden will also mean that no resources are required to package and transport those veggies to you. 

Compost

Regardless of whether you use an bokashi composting system or a vermicomposter, composting is a fantastic way to keep organic waste out of the landfill and turn it into nutrient rich soil instead. If you have pets, you can even compost their waste using specialised systems such as EnsoPet.

Catch the rain

Depending on where you live, you can harvest a considerable amount of water each year by having a rainwater tank installed at your house. Water harvested in this way is perfect for tasks that don’t require treated or filtered water, such as washing the car, watering your garden or even doing the dishes.

Recycle

A lot of natural resources go into making products such as paper, plastic and metal, and recycling them ensures that those precious resources are put to maximum use. Find out what your local recycling program can process and start sorting your garbage as it accumulates. 

Hang dry your clothes

Unless you need your laundry dried straight away, hang drying your clothes is an extremely easy way to save a significant amount of energy. When it’s sunny out, using a clothes drying is a real waste of electricity, not to mention money. Even on not-so-sunny days, hang your clothes on a airer undercover - they really will dry faster than you think.

Be energy smart

Get into the habit of turning off the lights every time you leave the room, even if you plan on coming back soon, because lighting an empty room is obviously a terrible waste of electricity. Take the same approach with your television, computers and any other electronics. See how you can work together as a family to become more environmentally aware.

Ensuring that you are being green at home will save valuable natural resources, massively helping our environment in the long term. If you need help choosing a composting system for your home talk to the experts at Bokashi.