How You Can Declutter Without Impacting the Environment

Home should be a refuge from everyday stress and anxiety. Unfortunately, we often find ourselves living in clutter and disorder, which can, in turn, cause us stress. Decluttering can be cathartic, but it can also have a negative impact on the environment if done the wrong way.

Cleansing High-Impact Possessions

An unavoidable facet of modern living is the need to replace things that are obsolete or beyond repair. These items, such as electronics or furniture, can leave a significant footprint if sent to a landfill. Thankfully, you have environmentally friendly options. Electronics, for instance, can be returned to their manufacturer. There are also e-waste recyclers who can dispose of goods responsibly, whether these are smartphones or appliances.

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Another option that works just as well for furniture and bedding is selling these items. According to Gumtree, billions of dollars have passed through the second-hand economy, so this is an opportunity to make some extra cash. You can also give items away. Plenty of charitable stores and organizations welcome donations, and some may even collect them from you. If your big pieces are in decent condition, you can help them find a new home while contributing positively to the environment.

Digitizing and Uploading Your Life

We accumulate a lot of stuff over the years. Clutter can become overwhelming, but it also comes with its own footprint. Digitizing your life changes that, but if you are apprehensive, start small. Switch to e-statements and billing, and take notes using your smartphone to save paper. Yet, it’s most impactful to transfer physical documents and photographs to an online cloud system, but this can also be a very huge undertaking. You want to be confident that your precious memories will be safe and available when you want them. So, thoroughly research a range of companies, but focus on trusted names and know your needs. For example, some services offer enhanced packages for a monthly subscription, whereas others provide ease of access across multiple platforms. These services can free your home of paper piles. Best of all, you can easily and securely safeguard the things that are most important to you.

Be Fashionably Environmental

Wardrobes are vulnerable to overflow. They can become full of clothes we don’t like or no longer wear. However, clothes are often versatile enough that they always have a use. If you’re crafty, you can give them new purpose through upcycling, which doesn’t have to be overly involved. In fact, you could turn t-shirts into cleaning cloths simply by cutting them into pieces. At the least, consider giving surplus clothes to charity or gifting them to loved ones. Someone is bound to want that outfit gathering dust and taking up space in your home.

Eco-Clean

Decluttering is the perfect opportunity to clean up your home. Unfortunately, many commercial products contain environmentally harmful chemicals that can degrade air quality in the home by introducing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Luckily, the market is growing for eco-conscious living. Groups like the Honest Company and Seventh Generation sell environmentally friendly products exclusively, and detail ingredients used. Don’t limit yourself to cleaning products, though, as your efforts can be furthered with a top-range vacuum. In particular, commercial vacuums can make life a lot easier. These models are more resilient than standard models, but they also have the means to collect greater amounts of dirt and detritus.

Return Things to Nature

A truly eco-friendly way to declutter is composting, which doesn’t have to be confined to foods. Of course, this alone is a great way to purge the pantry of anything you cannot donate. Moreover, there are many things you can do with compost, even if you don’t have a yard or like to garden. You could offer it to a school or community garden, or gift it to neighbors. With composting, you can make good use of newspapers or junk mail. Even shredded bed sheets and burlap sacks can be safely applied using this eco-friendly method.

An organized home can free up some much-needed space and foster peacefulness and relaxation. Better still, with an eco-aware approach, you can help improve the environment. After all, any contribution is positive when it comes to protecting the world we live in.

(Visited 38 times, 1 visits today)

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *