Guest post by Hilary Smith
If you’re environmentally friendly and want to go beyond merely recycling plastic bottles and cardboard boxes, all you have to do is look within. Not within yourself, mind you, but within your own home. Yes, you can practice what you preach by updating the look of your house, apartment, or condo in a way that is environmentally sustainable and esthetically pleasing.
Read on for a look at eco-friendly decoration ideas that will help you to be environmentally responsible without costing you much, if anything, in the process.
Cinder Block Planters
Concrete cinder blocks aren’t just good for the construction site. You can use them as planters for your flowers, herbs, or whatever else you want to plant. Use your imagination to organize a number of them against a wall, use some soil, add some plants, and you’ll have repurposed cinder blocks into unique planters. Cinder blocks are also paintable, so you can paint them if you want a splash of color to fit the decor of the room or hallway where you place them.
DIY Float Booster
While not technically a decoration, a float booster for your toilet will help you save water and demonstrate your commitment to reducing your consumption of nature’s resources. Fortunately, it won’t cost you much if anything. A float booster, in case you’re not familiar with the term, refers to a small floating water reservoir that will displace water in your toilet tank so that you wind up using less water each time you flush the toilet. All you’ll need to do is as follows:
- Use a two-liter soda bottle (you may already have one in your recycling bin);
- Fill 25% of the bottle with sand so that it sinks;
- Fill the rest of the bottle with water; and
- Place the bottle in the toilet tank.
What this will do is force your toilet to fill less, which will save you as much as a gallon of water per flush. When you consider that toilets can use as much as seven gallons of water per flush, you can see how even saving one gallon per flush can really add up over time.
TV Stand
When it comes time to relax and unwind while watching one of your favorite programs, you can add to the benefits of an energy efficient TV set by using an environmentally friendly TV stand. If you don’t currently have a stand or want to change the one you already have, why not check out what your local thrift shop might have on hand? A solid wood unit can be sanded down, painted, or stained to give it an updated look, and you can get a used unit for a relatively low amount of money. Besides, if the TV stand is made of quality wood, it’ll basically last forever.
Try out these eco-decoration ideas if you want to change up the look of your home without having to spend an arm and a leg. You can give your home the oomph factor you want while being a good environmental steward. Now, that’s the best of both worlds.
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