What is a "sustainable home?"

A “sustainable home” is a place where a conscious effort is made to use Earth’s finite resources efficiently and create little waste behind. It’s trying your best to have the lowest impact on the destruction of Earth.

Sustainability in a home looks like growing your own food or shopping at a local farmers’ market to reduce the # of miles your food has traveled. It looks like eating less meat, eating leftovers, or eating foods before they expire. It looks like utilizing food preservation methods like freezing or pickling. It looks like composting to reduce your food waste and turning it into usable fertilizer. I would love to implement a rainwater capture system and have green space with wildflowers and water-efficient native plant species. The home would have energy/water-efficient appliances i.e. light bulbs, showerheads, toilets, bidets, washer, and dryer. Better yet, instead of using a drying machine,  air-drying your clothes so they last much longer. 

A “sustainable home” looks like getting good use out of your things. Wearing your shoes, clothes, bags that you love over and over again. Obtaining long-lasting quality items, like furniture or clothing, ideally through second-hand means. Properly disposing batteries, light bulbs, and electronics in the special facilities. Donating or up-cycling clothing. Using non-toxic chemicals cleaning products and cruelty-free skincare and make-up products.

I hope to do an “energy audit” by looking at our family’s water/electricity bill.  It would require at least a year’s worth of data because each month would differ as to the season’s change. 

I’m planning to use a bucket to capture the water that is wasted when you warm up the shower. I love my neighborhood “Buy Nothing Group!” I hope to find my old unused items, a new home, where its value will be seen and get used more often by others who might want it.

Zero-waste is impossible. This is a reminder that a “sustainable home” is also about being comfortable and not burning yourself out where your efforts become unsustainable. It’s a lifestyle mindset shift.

Step 1 is Awareness.

Step 2 is to try your best, forgive yourself, and keep going.

Step 3- Don’t judge others, and lead by example.