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Monday, February 11, 2019

Environmentally Friendly Home Designs

~ This is a featured post. ~

For many, a home is a safe haven and a way to escape from the world. It’s your personal space, and for this reason, you want it to be as comfortable as possible. In this day and age of promoting green practices, people are looking for ways to make their homes green, and one approach is to infuse this need it into your home designs. If you aren’t familiar with the ways you can design your home in a way that benefits the environment, you may not know where to start. Keep reading to find out how you can make your home design environmentally friendly.

Use Indoor Plants 
When designing your interior, include indoor plants in your plan. These can do wonders for your home as well as for the environment, too. If you didn’t know, one of the benefits of indoor plants is that they breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. They’re also capable of absorbing other harmful chemicals like benzene or formaldehyde which are typically found in household products. A few examples of indoor plants to buy are asparagus fern, fiddle leaf fig, or the Chinese money plant.

Use Solar Energy 
Another method for designing an environmentally friendly home is using solar energy. Solar energy is so beneficial to the environment because it’s energy that’s renewable. It also has low maintenance costs and can help reduce your electricity bill, which is often an incentive for many.

If you don’t know much about home solar systems, it’s advisable that you soak in as much information as possible using platforms like Going Solar. The first step would typically be to get solar panels installed so that the energy from the sunlight can be converted into electricity.

Choose Durable Materials 
For those who happen to be reconstructing any part of their home or building it for the first time, use durable materials. Bamboo, for instance, is one of the best eco-friendly materials that you can find. It is said to be exceptionally durable, lightweight, as well as less energy-incentive,  to transport.  Other materials to try are cork, which is another fast-growing resource, or recycled wood and metal.

Compost 
If you have the luxury of having a garden in your home, you should explore the idea of composting. You can leave a space in your garden for this as it’s a fantastic way of managing your kitchen scraps and improving the environment too, as compostable materials cannot degrade effectively when sent to landfill.

Here are a few steps regarding how to compost if you’ve never done so before.
  • Combine Materials: Make a pile at least three feet deep of green and brown materials. If you find your compost pile is too wet and smells, add more brown. On the other hand, if you find it’s brown and dry, add green and a little bit of water to make it more moist.
  • Water the Pile: Your compost pile should have the same consistency as a wet sponge, so watering it regularly is a must. However, don’t add too much water as it could result in your pile drowning.
  • Stir the Pile: In order to give your pile oxygen, resolve to use a garden fork to turn it once a week. This should help it cool faster and prevent a smell from developing.
  • Feed Your Pile: Once your pile is dry, brown and crumbly, it’s fully cooked and you can use it to feed your garden.