A green home can be friendly not only to the environment, but also to our wallet. What eco-friendly habits are worth introducing at home in order to reduce monthly expenses?
Instead of buying new items for your home, take a look at the things you already have, look in the boxes in the attic – you may not even realize what treasures you have. Sometimes it’s enough to repaint an old coffee table or give a new use to something instead of going to the store and fueling consumerism. What’s more, if we have manual skills, we can use things that would normally end up in the trash. With a bit of creativity, we can use wine bottles and a piece of board to create a striking and original lamp for the living room.
On the other hand, old blouses and T-shirts, which are no longer used, can be used to make a bathroom mat or a sniff mat for your pet.
If we need new clothes or accessories, we can visit a second-hand clothes store, where for a fraction of the amount we would have to spend in a chain store, we can buy unique items of clothing, thanks to which we will be able to create our own unique style. Despite appearances in such places, we can often buy brand-name clothes of great quality – so what if we are the next owner? The same goes for books – we don’t have to go to a bookstore right away to make our evening more pleasant with a new book. Many interesting items can be found in antique shops and for a few zlotys. A good place to buy photo frames, vases, candlesticks or lamps is a flea market, you can often find real gems there, thanks to which our house will not look like from an IKEA catalog. Remember that objects with history bring a special atmosphere to the interior.
Reduce the amount of plastic in your household – a good habit is to stop buying bottled mineral water and replace it with tap water. If we take our meals to work, we should stop using plastic lunch boxes and replace them with glass equivalents. At the supermarket try to buy fruits and vegetables by weight, using your own bags sewn for example from old curtains. If you need rice or groats – choose products that are not additionally packed in plastic bags, but only in paper.
To save on water it’s worth choosing quick showers instead of long baths which use a lot of water. Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth – it’s an unnecessary waste of water. It’s also worth installing a water aerator in your kitchen and bathroom – a device that aerates the water, thus reducing its consumption. Remember, even such small, seemingly trivial habits are of great importance!
If you are looking for savings in your household budget and want to care for the environment, it is also worth buying a capacious shopping bag, in which you will pack all the food and other products. In this way you will reduce the use of plastic, because you will stop using plastic bags, which take hundreds of years to decompose and pollute the planet. If we want to be even more pro eco and zero waste, we can try sewing a shopping bag ourselves, using old bedding or a tablecloth.
Main photo: freepik.com
