Being in quarantine isn’t fun, especially in 2020 when one of the deadliest pandemics has spread throughout the globe. But being quarantine doesn’t mean you can’t live sustainably; in fact, being in quarantine means there is even more time to make your home greener. Here are the top 7 eco-friendly tips during quarantine that you can make use of at home.
Save water
Arguably the simplest and one of the most effective things you can do to live a more sustainable life at home during the quarantine is to save water. Start checking for any leaks around the house.
Securely shut all taps after use and advise your family to do the same. Examine those taps which are not used very often, such as a water source in your garage or in your backyard. These taps can potentially leak gallons of water every single day, which adds up if went unnoticed. It’s a good opportunity to check and secure any potential leaks in your home.
Take a cold shower instead of cranking up the air conditioning
Many of us have started working out at home or are just beat up by the heat due to the intense summer weather. To cool off, we tend to turn the air conditioning to max power and end up wasting more energy than we can count.
Instead, why not take a quick shower under the cold running water (remember: quick… we need to save water too). It’ll get rid of the nasty sweaty smell and help you lose heat from your body. When you come out, it’ll be like spring again, in summer!
Composting
Another useful eco friendly tip during quarantine is to start composting all your organic waste. You’re home pretty much all the time, and it’s bound to produce more waste right?
So why not create a bin or an area in your home where you would compost all your organic waste? It’ll help you create free organic fertilizer for your backyard and put your organic waste to good use.
Start gardening
You’re pretty much homebound, and you’re already composting your organic waste. You now have all the required items need to start gardening in your backyard!
Whether you want to plant a few flowers, or fruits and vegetables, all you need are a few seeds that you can get from the local market or order online. Some seeds can be even be found in your own kitchen and you don’t even need to go outside! To find out more about the types of seeds you can find at home, check this cool post by WeHydroponics. Don’t forget to wash your hands before and after gardening!
Organize your stuff
It’s pretty weird to think of this activity as “eco friendly”, but it’s actually pretty useful and sometimes overlooked by many of us. Keeping our stuff organized allows us to find things we can either re-use or recycle, as well as saves us the hassle of losing things when we really need them.
You might find a screwdriver hidden deep within your closet that you would need in your garage someday. If you don’t find it now you’ll probably go out and buy one when you really need to screw something, and later on, find out that you wasted your money and your fuel (which by the way is fossil fuel) because you already had one. Be smart, organize your stuff, you’ll thank me later.
Use power strips
You’re home now, quarantined, watching a lot of television, play games on your console, attending office meetings from your laptop, turning the microwave oven on every few hours to warm your food, and using pretty much every other appliance in your house that I couldn’t think of.
All these appliances, when on standby, consume a huge amount of electricity when added up, and with you using them all the time during quarantine, it’s not doing any favors to the environment. Use good quality power strips to cut their electricity when on standby for long. It’ll save you from a high electric bill and help the environment too.
DIY
Perhaps one an essential eco friendly tip during quarantine that is mostly overlooked is taking interest in DIY projects. It’s especially useful if you have kids around, who instead of wasting their time playing video games would be taking their time to re-use everyday objects to create new things. Not only will it help them learn about the importance of re-using and recycling items, but will also help with their cognitive abilities such as creative thinking, problem-solving and logical reasoning.