4 Simple Ways to Practice Sustainability at Home

About Tori Thurmond

Tori Thurmond combines her creative writing background with her marketing experience in her role as the Content Specialist at Brookdale. When she's not writing, she's probably spending time with her two cats or knitting.

sponge, cleaning cloth, brush, soap beads, and a glass bottle of soap

If you’re newer to the idea of sustainability, it’s all about “meeting the world’s needs of today and tomorrow by creating systems that allow us to live well and within the limits of our planet.” Practicing sustainability in your own life involves making choices that are better for the future of our planet.

While browsing the aisles of your favorite grocery store, you may have started to notice products toting eco-friendly labels or alternatives to single-use products. Choosing these products can be a great way to start practicing sustainability in your own life, and as an added bonus, sustainable choices in the home aren’t only better for the planet, but they can also save you money!

Practicing sustainability doesn’t have to be difficult. Whether it’s opting for reusable versions of single-use items or saving energy by unplugging appliances, you can lead a more eco-friendly lifestyle and make a big impact on the world around you. If you’ve been curious about making more sustainable choices, here are a few small switches you can make today.

1. Ditch Single-Use Products

Did you know that a single-use coffee cup can have a lifecycle of up to 30 years? Or that a plastic water bottle has a lifecycle of up to 450 years? So, while single-use plastics can be convenient in the moment, they can stick around for hundreds of years and end up in our oceans, landfills or even break down into tiny pieces called microplastics that can eventually move up the food chain and affect our health as well. While it may be difficult to eliminate all single-use products from your life overnight, start by making a few simple changes. Swap your plastic water bottles out for a reusable water bottle you can refill over and over. And instead of getting your coffee in a disposable cup, bring in a mug or thermos to your local coffee shop and ask them to make your drink in your personal cup.

With many of these single-use replacements, you may spend more money up front, but when you do the math, you’ll spend less money over time since you won’t have to replace your reusable items very often.

Other eco-friendly replacements to try:

Reusable “Paper” Towels: Instead of traditional paper towels, try washable cloths like these that you can keep on a roll like traditional paper towels.
Reusable Grocery Bags: How many plastic or paper bags do you have shoved in the back of your cabinet from trips to the grocery store? While it can be nice to have a disposable bag for trash or easy transport sometimes, most likely, you’ll end up throwing those bags away when your stash gets full. Instead, buy a few reusable options you can keep by the door or in your car for grocery trips. There are many different shapes and sizes available that fit whatever your needs are.
Refillable Cleaning Solutions: Think of all the packaging that comes with your cleaning products, like household surface cleaners, soap, dishwasher detergent and laundry detergent. If you’re interested in finding a more environmentally-conscious option, consider refillable cleaning supplies. Some companies offer bundles where you can purchase glass cleaning bottles and a concentrated cleaning solution that you dilute with water at home. Once you buy your bottles the first time, you’ll only need to re-purchase the cleaning concentrate as needed.

2. Shop Second Hand

If you’re someone who gets a dopamine high from shopping but wants to make a more sustainable shift, try second-hand shopping. While thrift stores are great places to shop second-hand, they aren’t the only option. If you’re looking for high-end and designer brands, see if there are any consignment stores in your area. Sometimes, consignment stores have a more curated collection than you would find in your local thrift store. If you’re looking for something specific, try websites like Poshmark or Ebay where you can search products by name or brand.

Second-hand shopping saves items that otherwise would have been thrown away and saves energy and water that would have been used to make new products. As a bonus, you’ll most likely be saving money while curating a unique personal style.

3. Save Energy Where You Can

Using less energy may not be at the forefront of your ideas on how to live more sustainably, but in actuality, energy generation is one of the leading contributors of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. While installing solar panels on your house might be out of reach for some, there are simple alternatives you can use to cut back on your energy usage.

Unplug electronics when they are not in use: Did you know that electronic equipment can still use small amounts of electricity even when they are turned off? Unplug your electronics when you’re not using them, and to make this practice even easier, you can plug several electronics into a power strip. Power strips can make unplugging several devices at once a little faster. Just make sure your devices don’t need to be plugged directly into a wall outlet.
Clear your air vents: If you live somewhere where it gets extremely hot in the summer or cold in the winter, you know how expensive it can be to keep your house at a comfortable temperature. Just think about how much energy is being used to maintain your house’s temperature! To help with airflow, make sure your vents are clear and that there’s no furniture blocking the airflow. An additional step you can take to cut back on energy use when heating and cooling your home is to block any outside airflow coming in through gaps in windows or under doors. There are products you can purchase to help with drafts or you can try rolling up an old towel to keep the draft out and the heat or AC in!
Use the cold cycle when washing clothes: When you wash your clothes on the hot cycle of your washing machine, water heating is responsible for about 90% of the energy your machine uses during that cycle. Not only is cold water washing better for energy consumption, but it’s also gentler on your clothes and cleans just as well as hot or warm water.

4. Consider Eating More Plant-Based Meals

When thinking about making more sustainable choices, your mind may jump to cutting back on waste or saving energy, like the options listed above. But did you know you could also make some dietary changes that are more sustainable than others? In one year, U.S. livestock care, cultivation and breeding produce as many carbon emissions as the entire transportation sector and uses 50% of fresh water.

If you’re worried about getting enough nutrients from a plant-based diet, keep in mind that ounce-for-ounce, the amount of protein in plant-sources, like legumes, seeds and grains, is closely on par with animal-based alternatives. In addition to protein, these plant options are full of other nutrients, including fiber, sterols, stanols and vitamins and minerals.

Consider going plant-based once or twice a week to start. Even this small shift can help reduce your carbon footprint and water usage. If you’re new to the idea of plant-based cooking, don’t be afraid to try out plant-based meat alternatives. You might just find a new favorite addition to your weekly meal rotation!

Committing to living a more sustainable life can feel intimidating at first, but there are hundreds of little changes you can make in your everyday life to move just a little closer to that goal, one change at a time.

_{The above content is shared for educational and informational purposes only. References to any products or services, or links to any third-party websites, do not constitute an endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation of such products, services, or third parties by Brookdale or its affiliates.}