Your bathroom is one of the most frequented rooms in your home and often times the one that is host to many toxic chemicals.
Making an ecofriendly bathroom in your house requires simple and easy changes that will reduce toxins as well as energy and water usage.
While the bathroom is one of the smallest spaces in your home if you can cut down on energy usage and toxins in your bathroom you’ll create a much more ecofriendly house.
Below are some tips on how to create a more ecofriendly bathroom.
1. Be Water Wise
Toilets have the most water waste in your home, averaging about 27% of the water consumption in your home with older toilets using up to 7 gallons of water per flush.
The best ways to reduce your water consumption, and in turn reduce your water bill, is by installing a low flow toilet that doesn’t require nearly as much water as an older model does.
To take your water reduction even further you can add on a dual flush to your toilet.
You may have seen this in public restrooms already where you flush down for solid waste and up for nonsolid waste or vice versa.
While this may seem a little bit odd to put in your home the dual flusher coupled with a low flow toilet provides you with the most water efficiency in your ecofriendly bathroom.
Another way to reduce water flow in your bathroom is to install a low-flow shower head which can lower water consumption by 30%.
A low flow shower head greatly reduces the amount of water used as well as the amount of energy you use to heat the shower.
Installing a low flow shower head is a fairly easy fix and even the least handy person can make the swap on their own.
To take your water preservation one step further you can install a grey water diverter which recycles the water flow from the shower or bath into a container that you can later use to water the plants in your garden.
2. Lights Out
Switching out your light bulbs in your bathroom to LED is a great and cost-effective way to create a more ecofriendly house.
LED bulbs are known to reduce energy usage by about 80% and last 25 times longer than traditional bulbs. You can also set your bathroom lights on a motion detective timer that will shut off on its own.
For some reason it’s very common to leave the bathroom light on accidentally, the motion detector will switch the light off after a pre determined amount of time passes, significantly lowering energy usage and once again your energy bill.
3. Go All Natural
Bathroom cleaners contain some of the harshest chemicals and toxins out of all other cleaners.
These bathroom cleaners can be detrimental to you health especially since you’ll be breathing in the harsh smells more while you’re in the confined space.
Switching out your cleaners to all natural or even home made solutions will make cleaning your bathroom a much healthier and ecological experience.
Vinegar delivers the same strength of bathroom cleaners to cut through hard water buildup and other grime. Vinegar is a great replacement for your cleaner and the odor can be easily masked by adding essential oils.
Aside from cleaning the bathroom, you should be using all natural products to clean yourself as well. All natural bath products from soap to shampoo to toothpaste are friendlier to your body then the chemical laden alternatives.
