Eco-Friendly Home Swaps

If you’ve decided it’s time to work on your home, this is the perfect opportunity to make some eco-friendly upgrades. Smart appliances make your life easier, save you money in the long term, and reduce your home’s environmental impacts.

 

Whether you’re looking to add some new tech to your home or you just want to make some small tweaks to your routine, here are some eco-friendly home swaps for you.

 

Conserve Resources with Smart Systems

 

Smart home systems allow you to be in control of your energy and water use. Not only are they more eco-friendly, but they can save you money on your utility bills.

 

Switch Your Shower Head

 

Switching to a water-saving showerhead is an easy way to make your shower more eco-friendly. These showerheads keep up the illusion of high water pressure by aerating the water flow. The effect is similar to a higher pressure showerhead, without all the extra water use.

Install a Smart Thermostat

 

Smart thermostats connect to your phone so that you can always be in control of your home’s temperature. They can be programmed to directly suit your lifestyle needs, all from a mobile device.

Smart thermostats can also automatically adjust your home’s temperature based on the weather. This means that you can truly forget about your thermostat while saving energy and maintaining a comfortable home.

Make These Easy Kitchen Swaps

If working installing smart home technology isn’t for you, there are still switches that you can make for a more eco-friendly home. 

Start A Compost

So what is the big deal about composting? Well, the USDA estimates that 31% of food gets sent to a landfill in the United States alone. You can start your own compost on a spare counter with a small compost bin or see if you have a community garden that you can bring your scraps to.

Cut Out Paper Towels

While paper towels are convenient, they create a lot of waste. Switching to reusable dish towels reduces your home’s waste and gives you more decor opportunities for your kitchen.

 

Working towards making your home more sustainable is an important factor to consider when you decide to make some decor or appliance changes. Download the infographic below to learn about more opportunities to make your home eco-friendly on any budget.

 

How To Safely Hike With Your Dog?

Dogs can be your best companion for hiking. However, preparing yourself well before you step out is really important. There are lots of reasons behind training your buddy to carry his or her own backpack while hiking. While hiking, your nervous or high drive dogs could feel confident as well as comfort to carry their own packs. In addition, it also helps in adding up weights which help them burn more weight while on the go. It is advisable to carry their gear such as carry bowl, waste bags, food, and water by themselves.

A built-in harness on their backpack will be useful as they can host even over tall boulders. Making use of removable saddlebags is yet another bonus as these might benefit them if they want to swim. All you need to do is to remove the bags and leave them. It is better to take your friend out for a few days with a full load before the planned hike for training them well. This will help them in getting used to the weights along with maneuvering through the areas where they could fit while wearing the backpack.

Try to customize the backpacks for canine friends according to their requirements and measurements as it would be helpful for them to carry while hiking in the woods. Doing some research before hitting the trail would help you hike with your dogs adventurous and successful and also helps to increase the bonding between you both.

Home Improvement Advice From HGTV Stars

Home renovation stars like the Property Brothers and Chip and Joanna Gaines sure do know how to transform a house. They take some of the most surprising spaces and turn them into beautiful and cozy living spaces. If you like watching HGTV shows and appreciate a good makeover, you probably have some questions about how these stars do it all.

The secret is there’s a lot of the work behind the scenes. What we see in a 30 minute episode is just the highlight reel of a process that can sometimes take weeks or even months to complete. These HGTV hosts make it look easy but in reality, they do know what they’re doing. Many of these stars have grown their real estate or home renovation businesses far beyond the HGTV network. Many of them are successful business owners with multiple projects going on.

The Zebra created this fun infographic to give you an idea of how these famous home experts take on a project. You’ll see that many of these tips can be applied to any project, from start to finish. When you’re ready to start your next project, keep these lessons on success in mind for your transformation. 

Please include attribution to https://www.thezebra.com/ with this graphic.

Infographic: Sustainable Art

As the world becomes more conscious the impact we make on the environment, sustainable design choices become more accessible. From upcycling furniture to using natural paint, the options are endless. Recently entire industries have adopted eco-friendly practices. In the art industry, designers from all over the world have committed to sustainable artistic practices by creating an entire field of art called sustainable art. Artists operating in this space use techniques such as closed loop fashion, up-cycling, and land art to protect our earth, to add artistic flare, and to inspire world-wide change. Invaluable created this visual that features ways that artists are adopting more sustainable techniques and how they impacts our world. Read through these practices and get inspired to make sustainable choices in your home and in your life.

Please include attribution to invaluable.com with this graphic.

Infographic: Green Alternatives to Getting Rid of Stains

Washing your clothes is one the more mundane chores — it also happens to be very time-consuming and bad for the environment. The average American family consumes over 13,000 gallons of water a year washing clothes, which can get pricy and uses lots of energy.

To avoid the steep utility costs — and to lessen your carbon footprint — there are some easy, green stain remover hacks you can use at home to get rid of pesky stains on your favorite clothes!

For example, did you know that you can get rid of yellowing stains on light colored clothing by using lemon juice and salt? The combination of acidity and salt works as a natural bleach that will eliminate the sweat stains altogether. However, you should avoid this method on dark clothes, as it will fade the color.

This is just one of the many hacks you can take advantage. We’ve included a short list of other tips in the Tommy John infographic below.