Find out how you can lower your impact on the environment when you move house, with useful tips and tricks.
These days, most people care about being environmentally friendly as the effects of pollution and environmental damage become apparent in the media. There are lots of areas of life that can be more eco-friendly than they are now, including moving home. Moving home can take a real toll on the environment for all sorts of reasons like excessive vehicle use and packing materials. If you want to ensure your house move is as green as can be, the following tips will help provide you with plenty of planet-friendly inspiration:
Pick Recycled Packing Materials
Packing materials can be really heavy on landfill, but they don’t need to be. Instead of buying newly made boxes, you could ask local supermarkets for boxes. Banana boxes especially are very strong and often come with lids on. Just don’t forget to recycle them when you’re done with them! Bin bags you might use can be made from recycled materials if you don’t mind paying a bit more, and recycling bags you use for shopping bags make good moving containers.
Choose Eco-Friendly Cleaning And Decorating Materials
When you move you will do a big clean of your house and your new house, as well as decorating your new one and possibly touching your current one up for sale as well. Cleaning products and decorating materials like paint can be heavy on chemicals, which is not good for the environment. Leading supermarkets now offer cheap eco-friendly cleaning products that are effective and smell lovely. With decorating materials, there are lots of eco-friendly companies selling paint and other products, and some well-known home product shops also sell eco-friendly decorating items too.
Cut Down On Vehicle Use
Using larger vehicles for moving means more fuels and emissions. If you can, go back and forth with a smaller vehicle to move items, or perhaps only use the van to move items into a self storage unit local to your new home, then you can back and forth when you need to, moving items in slowly. Cutting down on large vehicle use is a really good idea regardless of how you do it.
Paper Usage
A lot of paper can get used in moving in the way of notepads, labels and paperwork. With companies you work with, try to ask if information can be emailed rather than mailed. You might also want to use apps instead of notepads, and look at purchasing recyclable or recycled labels to use on your boxes.
Throwing Things Away
Although it is easier to just throw away items you don’t intend to use any more, that you don’t want to take to your new house with you, sending items off to landfill is really bad for the environment. So much plastic especially is ending up in landfills and seeping into the sea. Declutter, yes, but do it mindfully. What can you donate, upcycle, recycle or sell on? What can you gift to friends?
The environment needs our protection and with a little consideration and thought, you can easily have an eco-friendly house move that benefits your family, and the planet.