While living eco-friendly in a house may seem easy, eco-friendly apartment living might seem challenging but it is definitely possible! Whether it’s your own apartment or you’re leasing, there are small changes you can make to start following a green lifestyle.
By changing your habits and choices one at a time, you’ll be able to make a sustainable difference. Despite the general thought-train, you’ll be happy to know that you don’t need huge gardening spaces or a place to store recyclables to go green. Being sustainable at home can be a hard commitment to uphold, but you might find some easy solutions with the tips in our guide.
Reasons Why You Should be More Eco-Conscious
Without being dramatic, let’s face the facts. Our world has turned into a breeding ground for pollution, disease and disasters. Contributing to a greener earth has become the responsibility of us all. Implementing habits to create a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle even when living in an apartment is vital. Below are some benefits you’ll enjoy if you start being more eco-conscious.
Environmental Issues: The most apparent reason is ecological problems. The number of environmental concerns we face is tremendous, and making even the slightest change in your life will make a difference.
Health: Living eco-friendly will improve the environment, leading to healthier living spaces. It will also improve your overall health. Purchasing fresh, organic produce (usually the only packed in an environmentally friendly way) and using items such as beeswax wraps instead of plastic can be beneficial to your health.
Savings: While purchasing eco-friendly products might seem more expensive than single-use ones, you’ll soon reap the long-term savings.
6 Ways to Implement Eco-Friendly Apartment Living Changes
1. Switch to Efficient Electronics
Switching everything in your apartment that works with electricity to eco-friendly models is an excellent start! Get rid of old-school lightbulbs and replace them with LEDs. Also, ensure that all your other electric appliances are energy efficient. If you have access to sunlight during the day, open your curtains and utilize this natural light source.
Not only will this make your apartment more environmentally friendly, but it will also reduce your electricity bill!
FIND OUT MORE: 10 Benefits of Saving Energy – Some May Surprise You!
2. Toss Single-Use Items
Getting rid of single-use items significantly reduces waste. All around your apartment, there’ll be items that you can replace with multi-use alternatives, and doing this is an easy step towards achieving sustainable apartment living goals.
You can purchase quality stainless steel straws for home use and take along while out. Invest in a good reusable water bottle, and try replacing plastic wrap with beeswax wraps. Refillable glass bottles and jars work great for soaps and spices. Switch your plastic toothbrush to a bamboo one, and look at alternative eco-friendly hygiene products.
You can also start building a reusable bag collection for grocery shopping and commit to only shop items that don’t come in plastic wrapping. The latter may be challenging, but if you shop around, you’ll soon enough be able to fill your pantry with no plastic in sight. If you get take-out, request eco-friendly take-out containers. Restaurants that don’t currently offer it might even start if more people requested them.
3. Decorate with Houseplants
Adding plants to your indoor spaces not only looks great but also improves air quality. Air-purifying houseplants absorb carbon dioxide and other toxic chemicals and release oxygen into the air. There’s a ton of indoor-friendly plants that are easy to maintain that you can choose from.
Having some fresh, potted herbs can serve double duty, and you can grow them in a windowsill or if you don’t have one, invest in a hydroponic garden. Herbs act as air filters, and you can cut down on your grocery bill if you always have a fresh supply.
4. Recycle
When thinking about how to start sustainable living habits, recycling is usually at the top of everyone’s list. While it can be a bit tricky to recycle when living in a small apartment, the hardest part is disposing of your recyclable materials.
To start, have small containers dedicated to each material instead of one big bin. Ask your friends who have access to curbside recycling if you can drop yours off at their house, or if your work has recycling pick up, take it there. If you’re able to store your recycling until you can drop it off at a recycling drop point, then this is the easiest route to follow.
If you’re up to it, consider speaking to other apartment tenants in your building and get signatures to persuade your landlord to set up a recycling drop point for curbside recycling.
5. Compost
While some make composting seem like a ton of work, it’s really simple to start. Not all compost is created equally, and there are many apartment-friendly methods to do it.
One of the most basic methods of composting is with a DIY worm composter. You can make different versions, but they all work the same with worms turning your food scraps into compost. Other options include compost tumblers and table-top composters. If you can’t afford either, you can simply fill old, sealable plastic containers with all your food scraps and dispose of them at a designated drop-off point.
Coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable peels, and bones are some of the most common compostable food items. Composting food scraps at home is one of the simplest ways to start being sustainable at home.
Embrace Vintage
Whether you’re shopping for clothes or apartment furniture, consider exploring second-hand stores. Supporting second-hand outlets encourage and develop the recycling community. It contributes to creating less waste by cutting down manufacturing and reducing what ends up in landfills.
If there’s one thing you start doing to create sustainable apartment living habits, then shopping second-hand should be it.
Final Thoughts
Leading a more sustainable lifestyle shouldn’t be limited by your living spaces. These ideas are easy and simple measures that you can take to do your bit for the environment. You can do a lot to contribute to a greener earth, whether you live in a big house or need to use eco-friendly apartment living ideas to achieve it.
