You may be striving for a more organised, easier to manage home. Dealing with clutter is a big part of that. But did you realise that being more eco-friendly can reduce clutter in your home?
In this post you will find out how being more eco-friendly can reduce clutter in your home.
It’s hard not to notice all the climate change and environment headlines lately. From forest fires to floods, from ocean garbage islands to turtles with plastic straws embedded in their faces, cataclysmic images hit us daily.
Most of these problems seem so vast that we as individuals are powerless to do anything about them.
But that is not necessarily the case. And an unexpected side effect of an eco-friendly lifestyle can be a simplified, decluttered home.
There Are A Few Key Elements in Making Your Home More Eco-Friendly
These can be summed up in the 4 R’s – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot.
The first three you may be more familiar with. And the key to reducing clutter and being more eco-friendly is to apply them in the right order.
Reducing your consumption will make the biggest impact on both the environment and the clutter in your home. Buy less and you’ll be consuming fewer resources and bringing in less clutter. It will save you money too.
Reusing what you already have also reduces the need to bring in more.
Recycling is less helpful as many products (like plastics) degrade each time they are recycled. Below you will see ways of ensuring that what you do need to recycle has the best chance of maintaining it’s quality.
And the final, less often mentioned step is rot. Otherwise known as composting.
Read on to find out how these principles can help you be more eco-friendly and reduce clutter in your home.
Money is Power, Vote Wisely
To have a clutter-free, organised home you need to have a balance between the amount of stuff that comes in, and the stuff that goes out.
So one side of that is being conscious in your buying decisions.
The most powerful tool we have in voting for the kind of world we want to live in is the cash in our pocket. (Or more likely the money in our bank account, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it).
Every item we buy creates demand for that product. So if we spend our hard-earned money on cheap, poor quality products, guess what? That tells manufacturers to make more cheap, poor quality products.
On the other hand, when you make a carefully considered purchase, valuing quality over quantity, then that is the kind of product your purchase creates a market for.
And you get to have items in your home that truly add value to your life, rather than adding to the clutter.
Buy One, Buy Once to Reduce Clutter
On the same theme, choose the best you can afford. Buying quality is actually better for the environment. It takes a similar amount of resources to produce a cheap object as it does a more expensive one. Except that a cheaply made one may break and need replacement much quicker than it’s better quality counterpart.
Look for products that are made of quality materials that will stand the test of time. Plastics break and degrade quickly and are difficult if not impossible to repair.
On the other hand wood, metal, glass and ceramic can last much longer. Most metals and glass can be infinitely recycled without loss of quality.
I keep my cooking utensils in an earthenware jar that is older than I am.
And if you are reducing the amount that you buy, you can spend a little more on the few items that you do buy.
A Clean and Healthy Home
An area a lot of clients struggle with are the cascade of cleaning supplies under the sink.
I see lots of posts with organising solutions for these cleaning supplies. But what if you were to get rid of them altogether?
Now I am not suggesting you ditch cleaning and live in a filthy home. But it may be worth reconsidering what you use for cleaning.
For a while, I had a cleaner who was really trigger happy with the Viakal (a limescale remover). We live in a very hard water area, and any splashes quickly build up to unsightly limescale deposits.
But my home office was right across from the bathroom, so I’d be sitting at my computer, gagging at the chemical smell burning my throat.
I was really not happy with the idea of filling my home with these toxic chemicals, so I switched to using just what was in my pantry.
Surprisingly, white vinegar does just as good a job at removing limescale as the branded product. It also makes an excellent glass and mirror cleaner. And it’s anti-bacterial too.
Now, instead of lots of bottles of glass cleaner, limescale remover, multi-surface cleaner etc. I have one large bottle of white vinegar, one jar of baking soda and dish soap.
I mix up my own spray cleaner into glass bottles, one of which is kept in each bathroom, and one in the kitchen. No more nasty chemicals, and no mess under the sink.
The Bathroom Cabinet
Once you switch to a more sustainable and minimal lifestyle it can be easy to forget how much stuff can be “normal”. I saw a post this week in which a girl had hung these cute rails and storage baskets on her shower wall to hold all her shampoos, conditioners and shower gels.
There must have been 20 bottles in the photo. All the comments complimented her lovely storage solution, and only one questioned the number of bottles there.
Perhaps the solution is not in adding storage, but in reducing the amount of product? You have one head. You do not need multiple shampoos. Perhaps you like to alternate between a couple. That’s cool. You do you. But I’d encourage you to take a good hard look at any multiples, and ask yourself if you really need them.
Each bottle is adding to the plastic waste accumulating in the environment. And each bottle is a vote for manufacturers to produce more.
So you can help reduce clutter and help the environment by using up your shampoos, conditioners and body washes and then opting for more sustainable options.
If you have a zero-waste store nearby an excellent option is to buy a refillable container and take it down to the zero-waste store for a refill.
If that’s not an option in your area, look for bulk-size products that you can decant into regular bottles. Some of the big brands, including Baylis and Harding have started to do this. One large package uses a lot less packaging than lots of small ones.
An even better option is to switch to entirely zero waste products, like solid shampoo bars and conditioner. It may take a couple of attempts to find the right one for you, but once you do, they are such a great alternative that you’ll never go back.
The one I currently use and love is from The Kentish Soap Company.
Clothing
Textile production contributes more to climate change than international aviation and shipping combined, consumes lake-sized volumes of fresh water and creates chemical and plastic pollution. Synthetic fibres are being found in the deep sea, in Arctic sea ice, in fish and shellfish.
UK Parliament Publication
The textile industry is not good news for the planet
But you can still be well dressed, reduce your impact on the environment and enjoy a less cluttered wardrobe by using the tips below.
With clothing, quality really does matter. Poorly made pieces will stretch and wear out very quickly. Well made, quality garments can outlast you.
One of the tops I have in my closet is a jersey from the 1970’s that used to belong to my mother. It is still going strong. Whereas some pieces I have bought recently have only lasted a season.
A great starting point is a capsule collection of basic pieces that fit well and you love. Make sure that the colours and silhouettes all go together and you’ll have a great foundation to dress up or dress down.
Go for classic silhouettes rather than fashion fads and you’ll get a lot more wear out of them.
How often do you wear an evening gown? Probably not so often, right? But if you buy one for a special night out, It’s going to sit there, unused, taking up space in your closet probably for years.
Consider renting one instead. You can get a trendy great looking gown for a fraction of the price of buying new. You’ll save yourself the clutter and know that you won’t be seen in the same outfit at every night out.
Lastly, consider buying used. Charity shops, thrift markets and online communities are a goldmine of great clothes that you can give a new lease of life to.
Should you Declutter Your Furniture?
This is usually the last thing people think of when decluttering. But actually, furniture has the biggest impact on your home as these are the biggest pieces.
And here, contrary to what you might think, bigger is better.
Now I’m not suggesting you put a king-sized bed in your kid’s room. That’s definitely going to make it look and feel crowded. But having fewer, bigger pieces can give you a more streamlined, decluttered look than having many small pieces.
This is particularly the case with storage furniture. A mock mid-century console on legs will look great, but won’t hold much stuff. One floor to ceiling cabinet, on the other hand, will offer a lot of storage space without taking up much of the room.
Whilst the size of your furniture may not make much difference from an environmental perspective, what it’s made of and where you get it will.
The cheap flat-pack furniture sold by many high street retailers is made from laminate veneer particleboard. This stuff looks decent in a photo and for about 5 minutes afterwards. But when assembling, screws will rip into the particleboard, making it impossible to take apart and reassemble. And any movement will loosen the screws, making the whole piece unstable.
So go for pieces that are well made and sturdy, from solid wood rather than imitation.
And if you are on a budget, or looking for a great, classic piece, look for second hand and vintage. Lynne Lambourne’s home is proof that budget and upcycled can look fabulous.
And for vintage style and glamour, nothing beats Jay Blades designs at Jay & Co.
The kitchen can be a real clutter-magnet. But here, being eco-friendly can reduce clutter in your home.
The two key areas to look at in your kitchen are appliances and food.
Let’s start with appliances.
Be honest. How often do you really use that pasta maker, ice cream maker or bread machine?
If the answer is not very often, (or never!) reduce the clutter by donating them.
If there is an appliance you think you’d like to have, try it out first. See if you can borrow one, rent one, or buy one used. You’ll get to try it and see if it works for you without consuming additional resources.
And you won’t have the guilt of having to declutter an appliance that you’ve spent good money on if you find that you are really not that into breadmaking after a few weeks.
And now on to food.
Food production is a the biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world. So it makes sence to take a look at the impact of our food.
In terms of environmental impact, meat and dairy are the most polluting and resource intensive. Making even just a small reduction, say one meat-free day per week will make a difference. And if you can go vegetarian or vegan you’ll be making a big reduction in your household impact on the planet.
What you eat will also impact the clutter in your home. There is far less waste from fruit and vegetables than there is from meat and dairy. And the waste from vegetables is far easier to recycle (rot).
How you buy your food will also have an effect both on clutter and the environment. Processed foods are heavily packaged. Meaning that you have trays, films and sleeves to reuse or recycle.
Storing processed foods also takes up a lot of space. Just do a google image search for “pantry” and you’ll see shelves stacked high with the technicolour packaging of processed foods.
But you’ll also see more clean, minimal images with dry goods in pretty glass jars. By swapping out some of the processed foods for raw ingredients you’ll be reducing the number of products you need to store. You will also be doing the planet a favour by reducing packaging, and yourself a favour by eating healthier food.
What steps will you be taking to a more eco-friendly, decluttered home?
Keep in mind the 4 R’s of reduce, reuse, recycle and rot and you will be on your way to creating a better home environment for yourself and for the planet.
And if this sounds good to you in theory, but you need more practical help, then do message me about my declutter coaching. I can meet with you virtually, over Zoom and help you get to a home that serves you wherever you are in the world.
