How to Be More Eco-Friendly In the Home
Are you looking for ways to reduce your environmental impact, but don’t have the slightest idea where, or how to get started? Perhaps it’s just info overload that is affecting your ability to make green decisions.
Whatever the case may be, by the end of this post, you will have made at least one deliberate action to get you on the right track. And we really need to get on the right track!
There are literally hundreds of ways for how to be more eco-friendly in the home. Providing you with a list of all the things you can do however, will not be as effective as providing you with a methodology for upgrading your mindset to welcome sustainable living.
In the end, it’s all about being aware of the impact our everyday choices have. This can be a bit of a challenge actually, since many of the choices we make, particularly at home, are done on automatic pilot. In fact, studies show that more than 40% of the things we do throughout the day is purely habitual.
Generally, this is of course a positive thing. Imagine we had to make calculated decisions about absolutely everything we do all day? That would be incredible exhausting right? On the other hand, it can be useful to occasionally stop, take a minute and rethink some of the practices we do. There may be better ways.
Taking the steps towards reduction of our carbon footprint will require a change of habit, but it does not necessarily have to compromise on the level of convenience. And if it does, it will be well worth it.
‘Good habits are worth being fanatical about’
– John Irving
Start with the home – You are in control
Why focus on how to be more eco-friendly in the home? Should we not aim for sustainable living wherever we are?
Yes, of course we should. However, it is through our homes that most of our waste is produced just by living our everyday lives. Our home is also where we keep most our possessions. At home, we are in control (for the most part).
We are in control over what we buy, what we consume and what we throw out. From the food we eat and the clothes we wear, to the hygiene and cleaning products we use, and all personal items we harvest.
Having power over these choices, and with a bit of education and inner drive, the road to a greener home is right around the corner.
I read somewhere that the average American family owns more than 300 000 items. Say what? We are not an American family but nonetheless I can sadly confirm that this is likely an accurate estimate of many households around these parts too. That is complete madness, if you ask me. Why on Earth (literally) would anyone need or even want that many things?
Well, of course we don’t need it, anything above our basic needs is just a way for us humans to satisfy emotional cravings. But apparently, material possessions make us happy, and the more we get the more we want.
We keep wanting more because the feeling of happiness is generally short lived. A euphoric illusion that quickly disappears once we realize that there is something else out there, something ‘better’ and a must have.
Being exposed to several thousand advertisements every day, tailored to make you feel good about buying stuff you don’t need, does not really help.
Fortunately, there is a way to reverse engineer this vicious cycle, and it conveniently goes hand in hand with how to be more eco-friendly in the home.
“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”
– Socrates
Make it Personal – Find your inner drive
Often something bad or even disastrous has to happen, in order for us humans to take action. And unless it happens to us personally or to someone very close, chances are that the motivation to do something about it, goes down the drain very rapidly.
However, when something becomes personal, we are much more likely to (re)act and make the necessary adjustments to our lives.
Imagine you are told by your physician that if you don’t change your dietary habits, you face a high risk of becoming seriously ill in just a matter of months.
In this case you are quite likely to take action and do the necessary to improve your nutrition.
Now imagine, that you hear about someone on the news who has just suffered a major heart attack as a result of poor diet.
Would this cause you to take action? Or would you think about it, feel sad for the person who was affected, and continue as before? Be honest now…
When we are not exposed to an immediate threat, our sense of urgency is not awoken. Our daily routines snatch us out of any emotional state we were in, that could have encouraged a change of action in the first place.
So even if we know that the environment is in a bad shape, most of us are not personally affected in a way that would trigger us to shift our priorities and take immediate action. At least not yet!
‘The shit is not about to hit the fan, it has been hitting it for decades, and the storm (of you know what) is coming ‘
– Anonymous
What made it personal to me, was when our 8-year old son said that the one thing he was most afraid of in the whole world, was that ‘soon we won’t have a planet to live on, and what will we do then?‘
When I was 8- years old, my greatest fears were kidnappers, burglars and spiders.
The results of our son’s fear, was the birth of Dragonfly Ambitions
So what will make it personal for you?
– Perhaps the feeling of individual responsibility towards providing a habitable planet for future generations, could trigger this sense of urgency.
– The urge to protect your family by keeping a safe home by minimizing pollution and other toxins.
– Educating yourself about the climate and the environment to understand what is truly going on, is also likely to be an influential trigger.
Once you have found your reason, there will be a natural inclination towards making eco-conscious adjustments in your daily life. Before you know it, it has become a habit.
Motivation is what gets you started, habits is what gets you going”
– Jim Rohn
Make a start, Take Action – Any action
Being a person who has felt the need to wash my hair with shampoo every morning, in order to avoid having a pajama feeling for the rest of the day, you can imagine that my road zero waste principles, is light-years away. On top of everything my shampoo bottle is plastic!
To take a stab at the above, I decided to start washing my hair only every other day and reduce my daily shower time by 50%. It isn’t much but it’s a start, and it was easy to do.
Do I still have a pajama feeling those days that I don’t wash my hair, you may wonder? As a matter of fact, I do, but it’s slowly ebbing away along with my embarrassment of surrendering to this feeling in the first place. Seriously, what’s wrong with me?
What else, a few weeks back my oldest son and I were in the supermarket, when we realized that we could use some new toothbrushes. And what do you know, right next to all the plastic ones, we saw some really cool bamboo toothbrushes.
They had an ‘eco-friendly and socially responsible’ label and even the packaging was non plastic and 100% recyclable. What are the chances? Well, quite big actually if you only look for it. This was an easy switch, and after doing a little research I found several other great and natural products within the dental hygiene sector.
Needless to say, very little effort was required for the above-mentioned adjustments. It didn’t cost anymore (it probably even saved us some money). Most importantly, it got us started and made us eager to look for the next opportunity in our mission to be more eco-friendly in the home.
