What Do You Do to Make Your Home Green?

Staying green is a big priority for my wife and I, and we saw moving in to our first house as a great opportunity to expand our eco-friendly efforts. We chose a house that we thought was pretty eco-friendly; it had double-paned windows, low VOC-paint and Energy Star rated appliances. That was just the start though.

When we moved in, the first thing we did was switch to renewable energy to reduce our carbon footprint. Not only do we feel better every time we switch on a light, but we actually got such a good rate that we’re paying less than we would have with a traditional plan. Score!

Another thing we were excited to do was start recycling on a large scale. Our neighborhood provides curbside recycling, making it easy to recycle everything. In fact, as I put my trash out this morning, I noticed we were actually recycling more than we were throwing away—that feels great.

This weekend though, I took a big plunge. Spring is in full swing here in Houston, and that means my yard is starting to wake up from its winter hibernation. We bought the house after the grass had already gone dormant, so mowing has been a looming fear for a while now. I looked into green options for lawn care and found there were two choices: electric mowers and old-fashioned reel mowers (the ones with no motors at all).

After doing a lot of online research, I found that while the electric mowers were a good alternative to gas-powered ones, reel mowers are just as easy to push and work well for small flat yards like mine. After comparing different models online I decided to go with a model from Fiskars that was lightweight and included a flywheel that stored energy and made mowing easier. It seemed like the perfect solution. After all, what could be greener than a Chris-powered lawnmower?

I’m happy to report that I made the right call, and mowing with the reel mower is easier than pushing a traditional gas mower, though not quite as easy as a self-propelled gas model. Mowing the lawn was so easy that I’m actually kind of looking forward doing it again next week, just don’t tell my wife.

Our future green projects include starting a compost pile to cut down on our garbage flow even more, getting some radiant barrier for the attic and installing a tankless water heater (Eddy already has one and he loves it).

So what are you doing to stay green at your place? Do you have any plans for other green efforts in the future? Let us know in the comments!

Comments

[Amanda]

Wow - these are some lofty initiatives! I'm going to have to look into the radiant barrier and tankless water heater!