It starts at home!

When you look at the news you see one nature disaster after another. It could be that land is on fire and no rain to be expected in weeks or a region that is flooded and the rain won’t stop. Tornado’s seem to appear more frequently and the experts are still debating if this is caused by climate change. The leaders are dumbfounded and don’t know how to respond to those nature outburst.

So if leaders and experts don’t know what is going on and how to responds, how could you as an individual make sense of it all and find ways to contribute to a change?

Well leave the academics and leaders to the side and leave that discussion somewhere else.

Would it make sense that you as individual have the capability to look at your actions and (carbon)footprint and see where you could make little changes that combined with other little changes of other individuals could add om immensely?

How hopeful does that sound? And how reachable does that feel to you?

Doesn’t that just sound optimistic that you could do something?

Well you could! And it all starts at home.

Your home to be exactly!

What If you could do a DIY energy and environmentally friendly audit of your home? Maybe you could find ways to change things that help the environment, contribute to a sustainable way of living and maybe even be friendly for your wallet?

And audit sounds a bit clinical or even something that needs to be done by an accountant but bear with me.

In this blog I would like to give you some suggestions about how you could do this. I try to get the basics covered, so hopefully you will feel like your could do this as well.

I like to do the audit based on the four elements, just to keep in touch with the nature theme of this website and blog. 😉

Water

Water is so important for us!

Not surprisingly as a human body on average consists of 60% of that precious H20. So this seems like a good element to start with.

If you are one on those people to have a well in their garden with pure, clean water you are one of the lucky ones and I hope you appreciate that lifeline!

The rest of us, most likely, get our water from a water purification company and the water had to be cleaned and transported before it comes out of our faucet. Also on returning the water it needs to be cleaned of all those non organic, well also a little of our organic, matter, before it can be reused or maybe returned to nature(river of ocean).

This is something to keep in mind when performing your water audit.

Kitchen:

Do you keep the water running when you are cleaning your fruit and vegetables? Why not use a bucket to control your water use in the kitchen? How do you do your dishes? Could you change something in that to reduce your water use?

But the most important review you can do is to take a good look at your bathroom rituals. How long do you take a shower or how frequent do you take a bath?

On average we use almost half of our daily water use on taking a shower. <Wow> What if you could reduce that amount by showering a little bit shorter or replace your showerhead with one that uses less water but does give you that clean shower experience? And okay skip your bath more often for a shower? Is that something you could do?

Something to take a look at is what products do you use for your daily shower and health routine? Are those products environmentally friendly and nurturing for the human body or do they contain harmful chemicals and even worse microplastics? Maybe you could find a suitable replacement that would work out for you? Some companies are specialist in those type of products.

And don’t forget about the little room. Is there something you could do to reduce the amount of water you use when flushing the toilet? Or in an ideal world could you use rainwater or recycled water to flush your toilet?

That is inside the house, but if you have a garden with a big beautiful green lawn, you might think about your watering habits. Could you replace your water with rainwater that you collected with a water butt? Or maybe you could come up with something else ingenious that could reduce your water use in the garden? Sometimes it helps to make your garden look like the nature surrounding your hometown.

Wind

Okay let’s think how you could audit this element in your house.

Wind can disturb your comfort of living. Therefore, the first thing that comes to mind is to have a look at the Insulation of your home. Do you feel a draft near your windows or doors? A little insulation tape could fix that.

Maybe you could replace your windows with double-glazed ones? So you can regulate the temperature in your house more comfortable.

Is your roof still okay and could you find some type of insulation to on the top floors to keep the wind and changing temperatures outside?

Earth

We only have one earth and we should treasure her.

So what could you audit with this element in mind?

What type of cleaning products do you use? Most cleaning products contain ingredients that nature can not break down. Maybe you could find a replacement that would be up to the task of cleaning your home, but also will do no harm to wherever it goes?

<Tip>

Why not consider vinegar, baking soda and green soap. Look at the cleaning habits and tricks your( great) grandmother had. You might be surprised at her wisdom!

Also you want to take a look where your groceries come from. Are they from the other side of the world (and had to be transported with plane, boat or big truck to your grocery) or are your products from nearby local farmers?

Maybe you could start a little vegetable garden. From experience I can tell you that tomatoes grow on a balcony. Or maybe you could visit a farmers market the next time you want to fill your fridge and pantry?

Fire

How is your energy use in your home?

Let’s start in the kitchen. Do you cook on gas or have you made the transition to electric cooking? Are there appliances that are on standby; in the kitchen and other rooms in your home?

Those standby appliances are sneaky and add up on your electric bill. Turn them off when you don’t use it or maybe get a power strip with a switch? Once you see that red light in your face, you will want to turn down that switch immediately.

Do you happen to have old appliances in the home? They could be ready to be replaced by a newer version that does not need that much electricity.

How do you heat your home? Are there sometimes rooms that nobody uses, but are heated to the max? And sometimes a blanket helps you keep warm or even better, snuggle up to someone.

Once you looked at your home as how to reduce your energy use, you might want take a look how you can produce your own energy, like from the sun or wind?

Hopefully you are inspired to an audit of your home and could you find little ways that you could improve in your home that contribute to the comfort of your home and health and will help along the change we all have to make to make this earth healthy for us and futures to come.

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