Ways to Make Your Home More Environmentally Friendly: Intro

House projects can be daunting and, if you don’t have a frame of reference for it, you might have a hard time deciding where to start on a project, or even which project to start with.  Even for us that was a challenge.  It occurred to me that there is a very rational way to look at this problem.  There is an order in which home updates can and probably should happen.

Sometimes it's easy to prioritize a particular project and know exactly when to do it.  In the case of our moldy carpet, we decided to immediately rip it out, but then paused and decided what the best replacement would be.  We waited 2 months, did some research and saved some money, then bought what we felt was the most sustainable flooring we could.  The flooring is sustainable in several ways.  It is going to last a long time, the material itself is renewable and it was purchased through a company that puts environmental concerns first.  It was not the most expensive thing we could buy, nor the cheapest.  We also tried to make a good decision about the way we installed the floor, knowing that buying a little more up front would allow us to have a seamless transition down our hallway to the bedrooms.  We know that this flooring will not need to be removed until it has completely worn out (hopefully a long time).  My goal in talking about this is to show that even in a crisis, it is important to stop and think long term about your project.

Sometimes however, it isn't so easy. Those reasons can be wide ranging from financial hardship to a lack of time to do it.

So, over the next few weeks, we are going to explore this topic of when and why to do projects, as well as some suggestions on how to make your decisions as sustainable as possible. In the meantime, here is the final result of the flooring project!