How to Style your Homelife Sustainably
Audience: Moms
Under : Styled homelife topics
This post gives you simple ways to make your home more sustainable as a mom, without adding more stress to your day. In our modern world with its many changes and challenges, one place we can have a bit more control over is our home. This website is a space where we explore how we can create a home that nurtures us, so we have a real sanctuary to come back to. There are many ways we can create a homelife that supports our lifestyle, and today I’m sharing how we can design our homelife in a more sustainable way for both our families and the environment.
What is a styled homelife?
What is a styled homelife?
A styled homelife is simply the way you want your home to function and feel, based on your own preferences, needs, and ideals. In this blog, we explore how to style and design your homelife in a way that is sustainable for your family, your home, and the environment.
I share practical ideas and reflections on how you can live more sustainably at home and the benefits this lifestyle can bring. For our family, the main benefits we’re aiming for are:
- Saving money by being more intentional with what we buy and keep.
- Caring for our health, not just through food but also by making our home environment safer and less chemical-heavy.
- Caring for the environment, which is at the heart of this sustainable lifestyle.
If you’re wondering what sustainable living at home can look like and why it matters, I invite you to read this article about sustainable living.
One way to style our homelife is to make decisions for our family around our core values. From time to time, I reflect on how to design our homelife through the value of sustainability. I think of values as a set of attitudes and beliefs that shape our decisions and guide our actions.
In this blog, I’m sharing my reflections on how we can live more sustainably at home, the benefits of a sustainable homelife for moms and families, and how we can approach this way of living more intentionally.
What is sustainable living?
When I talk about sustainable living, I mean the habits, attitudes, and everyday choices that help us care for and look after our environment. It’s about using resources in a way that protects them, so there is still plenty to go around for our families and future generations.
Sustainable living includes choosing products and services that are kinder to the planet and support an eco-friendly lifestyle. On a bigger scale, it can look like replanting trees when we use them, or making sure enough trees are planted to balance what is harvested.
At home, on a smaller and more practical scale, living sustainably means building a set of small actions into our routines. When we do these small things regularly, they can make a real difference over time for our own wellbeing and for the health of our planet.
I think about sustainability from time to time, especially now that our world is being affected by human-made activities that are not environmentally friendly and are causing pollution. At the same time, I’m encouraged by the many efforts in our communities and society to look after the environment and move toward more sustainable ways of living.
My reflections
I was doing my grocery shopping one time and decided to buy my deli meat from the deli counter because I realized their packaging was gentler on the environment (and I hoped to find better prices for what I needed too). I felt good that I remembered to consider this and acted on this small, low-waste choice.
Often, though, this kind of sustainability practice can be an afterthought for me, especially when I’m in a hurry to just complete my shopping. I also can’t help but notice the large amount of packaging our food comes with, and it makes me reflect on how we can consume goods in a way that nurtures our environment.”
Ways and tools to live a sustainable lifestyle:
This brought me to think of the numerous ways I can do to live a more sustainable lifestyle that include some simple things that I consistently do at home such as:
- using better and more eco-friendly products in the kitchen (biodegradable cleaning cloths, using products that are eco-friendly such as those made of bamboo, natural wood, etc.)
- running the dishwasher mostly when its full.
- opting for real wood furniture when I furnish my house, by buying second hand if applicable.
- using up supplies before using new ones.
- being creative with leftovers so they get eaten.
- cleaning with natural ingredients such as vinegar, baking soda and lemon- great for reducing the number of chemicals in the home and minimizes the use of plastic packaging.
- being mindful of the use of resources such as electricity and water.
- fixing things instead of throwing them out. For example, I sealed with tape the broken part of a plastic bucket instead of throwing it away. It has since then remained usable. I like the shape of the container so I was glad I can keep using it. I also liked not having to spend money on a new one so fixing this broken item made a lot of sense for me.
- planning meals to use up ingredients well and avoid food waste.
- eating food with minimal packaging such as fresh produce.
I would like to do more but the sustainable things I do currently can easily fall by the wayside from time to time and if I do not approach living sustainably in an organized manner. Without conscious planning, my sustainable practices can become irregular. However, I wanted to be more organized in my efforts to live more sustainably and to expand my sustainability practices, so I decided to use a planner for this project to be more focused and stay consistent. The printable challenge and planner "Eco-friendly Living Challenge and Planner" , is a helpful tool to help you in your sustainable living efforts. Below, I mention a few of the planner's pages and how I might use them.
The planner has a page titled “Plant-based Day” and this reminds me to incorporate more vegetables and fruits to our diet. I can also note down on the page how it can help us save money on food as well as cut back on using heavily packaged foods, while nourishing our bodies. My action might be compiling a few plant-based recipes or trying out one vegetable-filled dish, and making more home-cooked meals.
The planner's “Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle” page reminds me to stock up on biodegradable wipes either or recycle our old fabrics so I can minimize the use of paper towels. It also has a page to plan for making homemade cleaning products. I find vinegar to be a great glass window and mirror cleaner and I like to use it for this purpose, but I usually forget to replenish my stock, so this page is where I can remind myself to get this ingredient, prompting me to write in my shopping list to buy vinegar for cleaning and not just for cooking.
With using vinegar, I just dampen my cleaning cloth with it to wipe mirrors and windows. I then buff the window or mirror with a soft cloth or a paper towel. I use paper towels for a specific purpose like this, and to soak up oil from fried foods.
The planner’s “Green thumb” page reminds me that I can have a potted herb or two beside my window in the kitchen. I also can use the pages for journaling and jotting down ideas on how to live sustainably at home. For example, I can journal about how I enjoy using home grown fresh herbs in my cooking. This can motivate me to use more dishes with herbs and vegetables.
Or I can write down my insights when I read books and articles on sustainable living, which I can also write on the "Sustainability Reading Tracker" page from the "Eco-friendly Living Challenge and Planner".
Recently, I researched how having plants indoors can contribute to a sustainable home environment. I jotted down in the planner the information I found, some of which were pleasantly new to me, such as how one can care for houseplants sustainably:) Some planner pages have a section on writing down more information and reasons about a particular challenge (yes, it is a challenge as well as a planner). For me, knowing the "why" motivates me to take part in the challenge and it makes it easier for me to encourage my family to adapt those activities and even do the challenge with me.
Another helpful planner is the Floral Family Menu Organizer, which can help you plan your meals regularly and avoid food waste. As you start making minor changes in your routines and spaces, a simple tool like our Eco-friendly Living Challenge and Planner can help you stay consistent with low-waste habits and sustainable swaps that fit real mom life.
As you start making minor changes in your routines and spaces, a simple tool like our Eco-friendly Living Challenge and Planner can help you stay consistent with low-waste habits and sustainable swaps that fit real mom life.
Recap and some additional tips on sustainable home living:
Here are some simple, sustainable home ideas you can start with:
**Reduce, reuse, recycle**
Buy less where you can, give items an extra lease on life by fixing them instead of throwing them away, and recycle what you can.
**Compost kitchen scraps**
Composting reduces waste and creates nutrient-rich soil for plants.
**Use energy-efficient options**
Choose energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs, and build habits like turning off lights when leaving a room and unplugging devices when they’re not in use.
**Save water**
Take shorter showers, fix leaks promptly, and, if possible, collect rainwater for gardening.
**Choose sustainable transportation when you can**
Walking, riding a bike, carpooling, or using public transportation whenever it is practical can all help reduce your impact.
**Buy local and seasonal food**
This can reduce the energy and packaging needed to transport goods. Growing your own fruits and vegetables, even in containers, can also be a fun and rewarding way to live more sustainably.
**Make simple DIY cleaning products**
Using natural ingredients like vinegar and baking soda reduces the number of chemicals and plastic bottles coming into your home.
**Make do with what you already have**
Upcycle or repurpose items instead of throwing them away and buying new ones. For example, I had a narrow shoe cabinet that became useless for shoes when the shelving came off. I decided to repurpose it as a piece of functional furniture in our narrow corridor to house other household items. Now, all I need to do is find another solution for shoe storage.
**Keep learning about sustainable living**
Reading books or blogs on sustainable living can give you new ideas and help you discover environment-friendly products to use at home.
**Choose eco-friendly products when shopping**
Look for items that are recycled, environmentally friendly, or support sustainable home practices. My latest find was a recycled “mesh-like” bag for fruits so I don’t have to use the plastic bags provided at the grocery store. Keeping reusable shopping bags in your car also helps you avoid buying new bags, which can save money and prevent clutter at home.
**Buy snacks in larger packs and portion them yourself**
Buying snacks in bigger packages and repacking them into serving sizes with reusable airtight containers can reduce packaging waste and often save money (check the unit price to be sure). A bonus is that you can customize your serving sizes. For example, with sweets or chocolate, you can adjust the portions or mix chocolates with dried nuts to make your own snack mix.
There are many other ways to live sustainably at home. One approach that works for our family is selecting a few sustainable practices and habits and making them part of our everyday homelife. As homemakers who believe in eco-friendly living, we can teach and encourage our family to be mindful of our household practices and consumption. With a little (or a lot!) of creativity and organization, we can make sustainability part of our lifestyle and enjoy its benefits.
If you’re ready to take these ideas further and actually build an eco-friendlier home in a more organized way, you’ll love our **Eco-friendly Living Challenge and Planner**. It includes a 30-day challenge page, weekly focus pages, action tips, and even a page on eco-friendly pet care (to name a few), to help you style your homelife more sustainably without overwhelm.
Indeed, there are many other ways to live sustainably at home. One approach that works for my family is selecting a few sustainable practices and habits and making them part of our homelife.
As homemakers who believe in eco-friendly living, we can teach and encourage our family to be mindful of our household practices and consumption. With a little (or a lot!) of creativity and organization, we can make sustainability a part of our lifestyle and reap its benefits in the process.
If you’re ready to take these ideas further and actually build a more eco-friendly home in a more organized way, you’ll love our Eco-friendly Living Challenge and Planner. It gives a 30-day challenge page, weekly focus, pages with action tips and even a page on eco-friendly pet care (to name a few of its pages), to help you style your homelife more sustainably and without overwhelm. The added benefit for you when you use this planner is that you have a starting point and planning pages to help you keep your momentum, or just pages you can come back to even when you take a break from the challenges.
The benefit for you is having a gentle roadmap instead of having to keep all these ideas in mind on your own, so you can live more sustainably at a pace that fits real family life. Our Eco-friendly Living Challenge and Planner can be your roadmap on the road to sustainability, starting with our homelife.
In closing, I invite you to consider these questions to help you look closer in practicing eco-friendly living at home:
- What are my favourite ways to practice sustainability at home?
- What do I already have in place that I need to keep doing or using consistently?
- What other eco-friendly products can I use in my home?
Recommended Resources:
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