If you want to lead a more sustainable, eco-friendly lifestyle, there are numerous aspects of your lifestyle that you can change. However, as your home is the biggest source of energy waste, you should start precisely there. For instance, the kitchen can definitely make your carbon footprint bigger and contribute to unnecessary energy waste more than any other room in your home. If you’re ready to make some changes, an eco-friendly kitchen is undoubtedly the place to start.
What can you do?
Again, kitchen transformations can differ depending on what you want to achieve, what your long-term plans are as well as the budget available. In that respect, you have your simpler tweaks as well as some more complicated makeover options. Let’s start with the simpler ones first.
Declutter and organize
The first thing you should do is get rid of all the things in your kitchen that you don’t need and/or use. This especially goes for cardboard boxes and packaging. It would be excellent if you could equip your kitchen with functional eco-friendly containers so that you can stop relying on purchasing products that will produce a lot of paper, plastic and cardboard waste. In the same vein, ditch the disposable paper towels and opt for reusable fabric towels instead.
Save water
If you have a dishwasher, you want to start using it more compared to regular hand dishwashing. A dishwasher actually wastes a lot less water, which is something not many people know about. However, it’s obvious that you’ll need to use your kitchen faucet from time to time, so why not get a low-flow faucet head, or even replace your old faucet with an automatic (hand movement) one? How about collecting air conditioning water?
Lighting
This is a great eco-friendly solution for all your lighting sources, not just the ones in your kitchen. Namely, replace all your ordinary light bulbs with LED ones. They will last considerably longer yet waste a lot less electricity. You can even get LED light strips for your kitchen task lighting.
Use green cleaning products
In order to avoid spreading toxins that are not only dangerous for the environment but your own health as well, try switching to all natural, green cleaning agents. You can easily get these at stores, and even better – you can make them yourself.
Compost
Collecting compost is a great way to keep your own garden healthy and safe, and you basically won’t have to deal with too much organic waste. Not all organic products can be used for composting though, so keep that in mind. But, if you grow your own fruits and veggies, or even if you just have a flower garden, or plant pots in your apartment, composting can make a world of difference.
If you’re ready to go all in with your eco-friendly kitchen makeover, consider the following ideas as well.
Get star-rated appliances
As mentioned, dishwashers waste less water but electricity as well. Not to mention they save you time, too. If you want to create a fully eco-friendly kitchen, you may want to start replacing these appliance essentials for star-rated (energy-saving) ones, and look into Maytag dishwashers and other appliances as well. Your fridge, freezer, oven and other smaller appliances can all be energy-efficient.
Insulation
If you want to be a responsible homeowner with a very functional kitchen, you’ll probably want to make sure your heating and cooling, as well as air purifying system is in order. However, you don’t want to waste unnecessary energy either. This is why complete kitchen insulation (both for walls and water pipes) can be a great way to keep the kitchen eco-friendly, safe and comfortable.
Remodeling
In case you’re interested in completely changing the look of your kitchen, and are ready for a thorough redesign and remodeling process, consider more durable, green materials for your kitchen floors, elements and countertops. Look for materials like bamboo, cork, recycled wood and concrete as some of the top eco-friendly materials available. Of course, when it comes to paint and other necessary finishes for remodeling, always go VOC-free.
It’s very important that you practice what you preach. Therefore, don’t rely only on kitchen and other home updates for leading an eco-friendly lifestyle. Make sure that you behave and act in accordance with this mindset on a daily basis as well.
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