How to Style your Homelife Sustainably

In our modern world with its many changes and challenges, the one place we can have more control of, is our home. This website is a space on how we can create a home that nurtures us so we can have a place of sanctuary to come home to. There are many ways that you can create a homelife that supports your lifestyle. Today, I am sharing with you how we can design our homelife in a sustainable style or way, both for our families and our environment.

What is a styled homelife?

A styled homelife is the way you want your home to function according to your own preferences, requirements, and ideals. This blog explores one way to style or design your homelife in a way that is sustainable both for your home and the environment. I also share my insights on how you can practice sustainability at home and the benefits such a lifestyle can give you.

The benefits that I personally want for my family are saving money, caring for our bodies not just with food but also to make our home environment safe from chemicals most importantly, caring for our environment in the process. If you are thinking how living sustainably can look like and why it matters, I invite you to read this article about a sustainable homelife.

One way to style our homelife is making decisions for our family around our values. For example, from time to time, I reflect on this aspect of designing one’s homelife through the value of sustainability. I define values as a set of attitudes and beliefs which shapes our decisions and guides our actions. In this blog, I am sharing my reflection about how we can live sustainably at home, its benefits, and how we can approach this way of living more intentionally.

What is sustainable living?

I define sustainable living as having the habits, the predispositions, and attitudes that make us care and look after our environment. This means using resources in a way that looks after them, so there will be plenty to go around.

This also means choosing products and services that look after our planet. On a bigger scale, it means replanting trees each time we use them or making sure enough trees are planted to compensate for our harvesting them. At home, on a smaller scale, it means a set of small actions which when done regularly, can make a significant difference over time for our own and our planet's wellbeing.

I think about this sustainability issue from time to time but especially now that our world is being affected negatively by humanmade activities that are not environmentally friendly, causing the world to be polluted. On the other hand, I am encouraged by the many ways that are being done in our society to also look after our environment.

My reflections

I was doing my grocery shopping one time and I thought of buying my deli meat from the deli counter because I realized that their packaging was gentler to the environment (aside from thinking I can find better prices there for what I needed:)

I felt good that I remembered to consider this at the grocery shop and acted on this small sustainable initiative. Often, however, this sustainability practice can be an afterthought for me especially when I am in a hurry to just complete my shopping. I also can’t help but notice the great amount of packaging our food comes with, and it makes me reflect on the different ways that we can consume goods in an environmentally - friendly manner.

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 to 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

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.

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 beside my windowsill 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 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 to help you plan your meals regularly and avoid food waste.

Below is a recap and some additional tips on sustainable home living:

• Reduce, reuse, recycle to reduce waste by buying less, give items an extra lease on life by fixing them instead of throwing them away, recycle.
• Compost kitchen scraps reduces waste and creates nutrient-rich soil for plants.
• Use energy efficient appliances and light bulbs and having habits like turning off lights when leaving a room and unplugging devices when they are not in use.
• Saving water by taking shorter showers, fixing leaks promptly, and collecting rainwater for gardening.
• Sustainable transportation is another way to live sustainably. Activities such as walking, riding a bike, carpooling, or use public transportation whenever applicable can help our environment.
• Buy local and seasonal food reduces the energy and packaging needed to transport goods.
• Grow your own fruits and vegetables can be a fun and rewarding way to live more sustainably. Growing plants in containers is great even if space is an issue.
• Make DIY Cleaning Products at home using natural ingredients like vinegar and baking soda to reduce the number of chemicals and plastic packaging.
• Make do with what you already have, if practicable. 
• Upcycle or recycle by repurposing items you already have instead of throwing them away and buying new ones. For example, I have a narrow shoe cabinet that became useless for storing many shoes because the shelving came off. I decided to upcycle/repurpose  it by using it as a piece of functional furniture in our narrow corridor to house other household items. Now, all I need to do is to find another solution for shoe storage:)
• Read books on sustainable living to find new and better environment-friendly ideas and products to use at home.

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 making them part of our homelife.

As homemakers who of environmentally sustainable homes, 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.

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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