Environmentally Friendly Products

The words “environmentally friendly” are everywhere these days, and apply to pretty much everything we use and buy. Read on to learn a few places in your home where you can easily make the swap to more environmentally friendly products without making any substantial sacrifices.

Environmentally Friendly Cleaning Products

Making a big switch with your cleaning products is one of the first things you should do to make your home more environmentally friendly. Most people use cleaning products unconsciously and don’t put a lot of thought into what they’re spraying around their house. For most people, as long as it cleans up the mess in front of them they’ll use it.

Unfortunately, all conventional cleaning products are just filled with dangerous and harmful chemicals. These chemicals are not only toxic to the environment- but they are toxic to everyone in your home.

Most people don’t go for all natural cleaners because they cost a bit more than conventional cleaning products. But when you think about it, the price is negligible. How long does it take to use up an entire bottle or all purpose cleaner? Even if you use a whole bottle every month, an extra dollar or two for a natural and healthy cleaner doesn’t add up to a huge expense.

And if the cost really is a problem, than just make your own! There are tons of recipes out there for making your own environmentally friendly cleaning products from simple and cheap all natural ingredients.

Environmentally Friendly Appliances

Over the last few years there has been a big push to make household appliances more environmentally friendly. Generally speaking, this means making them more energy efficient. Like household cleaners, we don’t tend to think much about the appliances in our homes. We tend to just stuff our fridges with food and not think about the energy that it requires to keep everything cool. We tend to just flip a switch and enjoy our electric lights without considering what it takes to produce that luxury. We like to just wash our clothes in our basements and stay unaware of whether or not our washer and dryer are good for the environment.

The great thing about environmentally friendly, energy efficient appliances is the fact that they directly pay for themselves over time with reduced electrical bills. While the health benefits of taking the chemicals out of your home might not be as directly measureable, it’s easy to see the savings each month on your electrical bill from “green” appliances.

Sustainable Disposables

The last big area of environmentally friendly products where often falter involves all of those things that we just use and toss immediately. Most of these are paper and plastic products- bags, toilet paper, paper towels, all of these take their toll on the environment when you consider the resources that go into producing them.

For more, read our energy saving tips and our article about energy efficient homes.