5 Ways to Make Your Home Kinder to the Planet

Looking to make some changes around your home to help reduce your impact on Mother Nature? It’s easier than you think, and can save you some cash too.

1. Unplug your appliances
   Do you leave the toaster switched on and plugged in after breakfast? The printer powered up when you only use it once a month? Start turning them off at the power point, and taking out the plug too. Plugged-in but unused appliances use up 5.9% worth of our total residential power totals each year, in what’s called “vampire power.”
   
   
2. Go natural with your cleaning products
   Not only are a majority of cleaning ingredients non-biodegradable, some that claim to be eco-friendly are nasty to our health. There are a ton of items you’ll find close to home already (see: your pantry) that can replace these unhealthy and un-eco-friendly chemicals.
   
   
3. Ditch the coffee pods
   Think about how much waste the little guys who deliver your caffeine kick can pile up into. They can hang around for up to 150 years, so it’s worth making the switch to a drip coffee maker, or investigating reusable or compostable pods instead.
   
   
4. Revamp second-hand furniture
   You can find perfectly sturdy second-hand furnishings at your local op-shops or even off eBay. Choosing to re-upholster and re-paint them saves chemicals like VOC’s that are used during the production process being released into the environment.
   
   

Get rid of the plastic wrap
In a properly equipped household, plastic kitchen wrap has no place. Didn’t finish your dinner? Pop it in the Tupperware you have in your cupboard. Need to take your salad to work? Use a glass jar. There are so many viable and eco-friendly alternatives to fiddly cling film that won’t break the bank.