While deciding to lose weight, work out more, and eat less junk food are typical New Year resolutions, among the best ones you can embrace are those that make your living space more organic and green. Our planet is struggling with the population growth and depletion of its natural resources. However, in many cases smart home technology paired with our healthier habits and product choices can help provide a solution.
- Introduce Smart Heating and Cooling
- Declutter Your Home
- Reduce Energy Waste
- Use More Natural Materials
- Purge the Indoor Air
- Bring Your Own Shopping Bags
- Embrace Greenery
Here are our recommendations for the best green New Year’s resolutions to start making progress toward those organic goals.
Introduce Smart Heating and Cooling
The latest generation of ecobee voice-controlled smart thermostats offers more features than ever before. Enhanced with the Amazon Alexa assistant onboard and multimedia support, ecobee 4 thermostats include improved audio components, dual-band Wi-Fi, many third-party support options, as well as a user-friendly app.
Smart thermostats are easy to install, but they generate significant savings on the power bill. Unlike earlier generations of thermostats which relied on timer settings, smart thermostats can be accessed and regulated through a smartphone, and can even learn your habits, like leaving and returning from work.
Declutter Your Home
Getting rid of clutter is one of the best ways of living organic all year long. Not only does it allow you to lead a more stress-free and organized life, but it also makes it easy to adhere to. Schedule monthly house cleaning sessions, where your family can throw away or donate everything you don’t need. On the other hand, you can also become smarter in choosing the things you buy. Make sure you spend only on items you need, or those you can ultimately recycle or repurpose.
Reduce Energy Waste
There are many ways a family can reduce energy consumption at home. You can start small, with easier ways that still make a difference and continue those that require more investment and time upfront. For example, you can try to remember to turn off the lights when there’s no one at home, or better yet, use smart lighting that automatically adjusts itself while you are away. Think about turning off your water taps while brushing teeth or shaving, and check out the latest smart water devices available.
However, if you want to make a real change in 2020, you can boost your home’s insulation and replace the existing windows with more efficient ones.
Use More Natural Materials
Natural materials don’t only make your home look more sophisticated, but also healthier and more comfortable. This is the year when you should limit yourself from shopping synthetic fibers, both in your choice of clothing and home furnishings. Although popular for decades, polyester carpets have been associated with health risks resulting from VOCs used in their fire-retardant treatment. Instead, consider flat-weave and tufted wool rugs. They wear much better than synthetic rugs, while wool also holds color better than other natural fibers, like hemp and jute rugs which are more suited to neutral earthen colors.
Purge the Indoor Air
A part of boosting eco-friendliness is improving the conditions inside your home. A recent study has shown that an average American family spends 83% of the time indoors. The inside air is often full of dust, pollen, mold spores, VOC vapors, and other harmful particles that cause allergies, irritations, and other health problems. Apart from installing air purifiers to make your air clean and odorless in the New Year, there are smart home technology solutions. These include automatically controlled blinds, ventilation, and appliances, as well as air quality sensors that keep your home ventilated without increasing energy costs.
Bring Your Own Shopping Bags
Going shopping with reusable bags is probably the best way to reduce ocean pollution and help prevent the death of thousands of sea mammals each year. After cigarette butts, plastic bags are the biggest source of litter. They are carried by the wind, get clogged in storm drains, and litter our forests, beaches, and waterways. Made of petroleum-based polyethylene, the world’s industry of plastic bags requires 12 million barrels of oil each year. Among many ways to remember to bring your own shopping bag with you every time, the easiest one is to keep a couple of them in your car.
Embrace Greenery
Another way to make your home more organic is to add a lot of greenery to it. Contrary to a popular belief, a few potted plants won’t by themselves purify your air, but being surrounded by nature will make your family members feel better, while your home is enriched with lively green hues. Besides, plants are inexpensive, and if you choose the right type, you’ll have to water them only once every two weeks.
Living an organic lifestyle is often interpreted as growing healthy food, free of pesticides, but there are more aspects to organic living than that. Living green extends to being prepared to introduce organic materials, energy-saving solutions, and embrace life-changing habits that can make our future brighter.
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