Natural and Sustainable

Several times here on Natural and Sustainable I talk about how important it is to use earth-friendly and eco building materials when you go to remodel or even change a room around in your home or office. There are many things that can add to the earth-friendly ways in making your area a better situation for yourself and the earth as well. Here are a few more tips to keeping with the earth-friendly practices that you want to make habitual.

• Leave it exposed: When it comes to concrete floors or rafters and beams being exposed, there is nothing wrong with that. A lot of people want to cover the floors with carpet that can actually bring in more toxins than with just the plain concrete alone. And if you must do carpet, make sure it is a natural fiber carpet like wool or jute. Never place carpet with synthetic latex backing on your floor. Tack down your carpet too rather than gluing it. The best eco-friendly way is to do without though.

• Use local: Always use local materials and onsite materials rather than ones that are made from far off distances and had to travel thousands of miles to get to your. If you go with composite wood too, make sure it isn’t particle board with can contain urea-formaldehyde in the make up.

* Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Buy energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) or light-emitting diodes (LEDs). They will have a longer life rather than tradition light bulbs. Select those that have low mercury in the buying as well.

You maybe thinking, how can a further make my bathroom more eco-friendly without breaking the bank? There are ways you can save the environment and being forth a better eco-friendly and greener bathroom. Here are some easy ways to green your bathroom and still keep that wallet fat.

1. For shelving: Consider bamboo. It is a sustainable material, along with cork that can bring forth a natural tone into your bathroom. You can either get it unfinished, which is just beautiful, or get a painted shelf option. Make sure if you go painted, that it is painted with nontoxic paint through.

2. For toothbrushes: Go with a recycled plastic toothbrush or even a wood handle toothbrush. There are many options on the market now days that offer recycled material. My first post for Natural and Sustainable that gave options for a recycled toothbrushes. Read it here.

3. For towels: Look for towels that are either 100% organic cotton or even made from bamboo. You can even find ones on the market that are reclaimed from other materials as well. Just make sure they are thick and absorbent and don’t tear up the skin when you dry with them. Or find ones made from hemp such as the ones from Rawganique.

4. For the hamper: The Container Store offers a variety of recycled materials like bamboo, palm leaves and even grass. They also have handles to easily carry to the laundry room. They have a snag resistant interior so it doesn’t snag your most delicate clothing.

5. For a bath mat: Look for bath mats that have been reclaimed from other materials and give the utmost in absorbency. You can find ones that have been reclaimed from materials like flip slop sand other rugs from their past.

When it comes to styling your home one thing should be kept in mind, going eco-friendly. Though it may seem difficult to go entirely eco-friendly within your home, it is really quite simple. Here are some ideas to help keep you on the right eco-path.

• Use prefab building resources can help reduce construction waste. If you find a building or home that has been torn down, try to find walls, windows or ever pieces of the old structure that can be incorporated into your new home before considering remodel or adding on.

• When you do consider adding onto your preexisting home, use infill as to not disturb the site too much during the construction of.

• For a better insulation ides, consider adding a living roof garden. It can help insulate your home, repurpose storm water runoff and it can also help reduce the heat that comes into your home during the summer. And installing an irrigation system can help reduce water use as well.

• Changing your items throughout your home to ones that are low-VOC, and formaldehyde free is a great step to becoming more eco-friendly. Consider paint as an option as well. LED bulbs also use less electricity than fluorescents or incandescent and they last twice as long too.

• Make your landscape consist of organically grown plants that are native to your own area and that are drought tolerant as well.

• Make your cabinets from reclaimed or Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood.

• Make your windows thermal and high -performance to help reduce heat loss in the winter season and heat gain in the summer season. And make your appliances Energy-Star approved and install water efficient fixtures as well.

• Consider replacing your kitchen countertops with Paperstone. This material is made from post-consumer recycled paper waste and pressed together to form amazing countertops.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Harvesting rainwater is really pretty simple. You can store reclaimed water in a gray water recycling system and reuse the water for irrigation and even to wash the car.

You can create a space without buying a thing that is not only creative and artistic, but also environmentally friendly. Here’s how….

1. Place reclaimed cinder blocks on your floor and paint them with some left over paint from another project. Place reclaimed 2 x 4s on top and stack the cinder blocks and boards to make a creative bookshelf. You can even paint the 2 x 4s in the same color as the blocks or another color to make a contrasting effect. Then weave things in with the books on the shelf. Stick to a theme of black and white or all bright colors, the possibilities are endless. Cost: the price of gathering reclaimed supplies

2. Take something from your living room such as a painting and place it in your bathroom. The bigger the better and if you have a large mirror put it in a small bathroom to make the space look larger. It will not only change the bathroom’s look and feel it will show you have taste in more than one room. Cost: Nothing

3. Seek out reclaimed furniture no matter what room you are trying to furnish. Reclaimed older furniture that has a history is speaks ten times for volumes than a brand new, right off the show room pieces.

4. Use plants small and large to help decorate a room. If you have cat palms place them throughout the room to give a more natural effect. You can even use a rubber tree to give that natural effect as well.

5. Using recycled paint for the walls or even mixing a few colors you have left over will give you an all new color to work with. If you must go out and buy new paint, make sure it is one that is certified non toxic and has low VOCs.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Camping is the best way to go all-natural. From letting the sun heat your shower water hanging from a tree, or cooking on an open fire. If you feel yourself loosing focus on what’s better for the environment, take your family camping in a tent or an eco-friendly camper to get back to the real focus on what’s important. To find an eco-friendly travel trailer near you, check out these two links below.

Tonke Campers