105 tips to have a sustainable lifestyle!

105 Tips to Sustainable Lifestyle

There are a 105 tips in this article which helped me live in a more sustainable manner. Remember to read the last one.

What is Sustainable Living?

Sustainable living is a form of a lifestyle where you spend your life with minimal pressure on the nature’s as well as your own resources. Sometimes people refer to it as ‘net zero living’ or ‘earth harmony living’.

Choosing a sustainable lifestyle may, at times, cause you to stop using a product that comes from a company that does not practice sustainability or change the way how you do things like commuting to work rather than driving your own car.

By now most of us have understood how over-depletion of earth’s resources has been happening and that climate change and global warming is not a hoax.

This means we know the detrimental effects when we use and abuse the earth’s resources at an unsustainable rate. Below are some of the tips that will give you the best ways to live sustainably.

These tips have been classified into scenarios where you can be more sustainable.

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Tips to be more sustainable


Sustainable Living Around the House

1. First one is the easiest one! Remember to turn off the lights when you leave a room.

2. Get LED or CFL bulbs which use 5x less energy, Last 25x longer, Cost 6x less and have more variety when compared to incandescent bulbs. One of my LED bulbs has been working for 3 years now!

3. Place a ‘no junk-mail’ sign on your mail box. This will greatly reduce your paper waste.

4. Use a rack or a drying line to hang and dry your clothes rather than putting them in a dryer which uses electricity – not so sustainable!

6. If it’s only a few clothes, hand-wash ’em. Takes minutes honestly and saves you loads of electricity.

7. If you feel cold, wear an extra layer of clothing instead of turning up the heat. A second pair of socks never hurt.

8. Move the blinds from windows to let the sunlight into the house. This is beneficial for your health as well as the environment as this will keep you from turning on lights around the house.

9. Start timing your showers, 1 minute to shampoo, 1 minute for body-wash and 3 minutes of rinse. 10. Get a shower-head that saves water.

11. Grow your own herbs; it’s accessible, doable and very cheap. If you don’t have a garden then you’ll need just a couple of indoor pots. All it takes is a few seeds.

12. Make use of Organic fertilizers for those potted plants or your garden.

13. Turn off all devices that use electricity through the night, such as your Wi-Fi router.

14. Next time you go shopping, get recycled toilet paper that comes in plastic-free packaging.

15. As for your pets, use the paper waste in your house from newspapers, magazines, junk mail or recycled toilet paper to collect their poo.

Sustainable Transport – Commuting!!

16. To get to your apartment, use the stairs not the elevator. It’s good for your heart! You can also use a pedometer which helps to monitor your steps and your health.

17. Get a used bicycle or a bicycle made from recycled material to get where you need to.

18. Make us of a rent-a-bike service if that is available as well as more feasible to you!

19. Public transport is there for OUR use, if we won’t then who will? If you can find all-electric buses or trains then that’s the best choice! Besides, you can read up on the rest of the blog while you do so.

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20. Try car-pooling everywhere you go. There are services that can organize that for you, especially for interstate travel.

21. Get rid of the gas-guzzler vehicle and embrace car-free living! This will free up a lot of space in your garage.

22. But if you HAVE to buy a car, buy an all-electric/ zero emissions car. Also use fully synthetic oil which is eco-friendly and has to be changed after extended mileage so you dispose off the least volume of oil into the environment.

23. If you’re booking flights, book shorter flights and book them with companies that engage actively in sustainable practices.

Sustainable Groceries!

Best guide to Sustainable grocery shopping.

24. Paper Bags! Paper Bags! Paper Bags! Ask for paper bags instead of plastic-wrapped products. This way you will surely get fresher product and won’t use plastic. It’s a win-win.

25. You can also store some folding paper bags at your home and take one when you have to go grocery shopping, for example, when buying bread from the bakery.

26. Don’t accept plastic shopping bags at checkout; instead bring your own reusable (recycled) shopping bags from home.

27. Take your own container to the deli which will allow you to get a fresher product as compared to the one packed in single-use plastic.

28. Farmer’s markets have produce at cheaper rates, so you can buy in bulk for the week at a time.

29. Shop at wholesale stores/ bulk food stores which have cheaper rates and save you the repeated rides to the store which won’t be quite sustainable.

30. Beer bottles are quite unsustainable since you’re using them once only. So a better way would be to get a growler and have it refilled by taking a ride to the local brewery.

31. Stop buying plastic bottles please! They are very unsustainable just like beer bottles, heck! Even more.

You can read more about the Impact of Plastics on the Environment.

32. Any and every product you buy at the store, ensure that the company is involved in sustainability actively.

Sustainable Fashion, Much Awaited!

Fashion has a huge environmental impact. Fast Fashion Industry produced 1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalents in 2019!

Fast fashion is responsible for 20% of global wastewater.

33. Buying second hand clothes is quite hygienic once you’ve washed them thoroughly with a good detergent.

34. Try to be a minimalist if you can.

35. Make sure that whichever clothes or shoes you buy last longer and needless to say that means good quality products. I mean the shirt I’m wearing I bought it 2 years ago and it’s still going strong!

36. Even in fashion brands, I’d like to tell you to buy brands that involve in ethical practices and are not damaging the environment.

37. You can also read up on the textile materials that are sustainable and make sure that’s what you wear such as organic cotton, Linen or Hemp.

38. Don’t wash your clothes every day! That wastes quite a bit of water if you may realize.

39. The method of cutting up your old clothes and repurpose them to clean the house is quite common in developing countries. Otherwise you can also give away these cut out fabrics to local mechanics to be reused.

40. You can very easily get a sewing kit and watch a few YouTube videos to be able to patch holes and put back buttons in just a few minutes.

41. Shop at sustainable clothing stores which offer after-sales services for repairing your clothes.

The Paperless Future is here!

42. Ask for receiving digital letters and invoices rather than through mail. This would be saving mail costs of the company as well as making them more sustainable.

43. We already talked about putting up a ‘no junk-mail’ sign on the mailbox right?

44. Send all the invitations electronically, be it a wedding, a thanksgiving dinner or a Christmas party.

45. Ask the stores you shop at, or your suppliers to email you the receipt rather than printing it out for you.

46. Use electronic devices like a phone, tablet or a laptop to record notes. It’s also quite accessible when you’re on-the-go.

Sustainable Offices

Here’s How to be more sustainable at work!

47. Starting with the things you used most in your office, your computer. Turn it off when you leave work.

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48. Along with your computer turn off all devices that might are useless but still switched on throughout the night.

49. Use an Eco-friendly printer. Along those lines make sure to use recycled ink as well as recycled paper.

48. Make sure to only use the printer when absolutely necessary.

49. Try to print double-sided as much as you can.

50. Make a DIY scrap paper tray with a cardboard box or you can buy one to go with the office decor.

51. Speaking of decor, get some small pot plants to ‘green-up’ your office a bit.

52. Submit an application to your superiors to make all the offices more sustainable and see if they can power the offices with renewable energy.     

Grow your babies in the most sustainable manner.

53. Ensure that the bottle you use for storing milk or liquids for the baby is made by sustainable practices. Stainless steel bottles are a good alternative. Clean them thoroughly before using every time.

54. Make use of wooden teethers for the baby. Plastics are used quite a lot in baby products and that’s not very sustainable.

55. On that note, wooden baby rattles would go along great as well. Also, remember to reuse them for your next baby as well.

56. Use bibs that are eco-friendly or from companies that make them from sustainable materials.

57. Coming on to toys, try to find second hand toys, just make sure to clean them up thoroughly before you share them with the child.

58. If you’re buying toys for your baby or as a gift, see if you can find some made with natural fibers.

59. Natural rubber dummies are the best choice for the baby.

60. Cloth Diapers are much more economical as well as sustainable.

60. Hands down best for diaper balm; Organic Coconut oil!

Sustainable kitchen for sustainable food!

61. When products that come in glass jars are finished, these jars can be cleaned thoroughly to be re-purposed for storage of other kitchen products.

62. The cuts-offs from the fruits and vegetables can be mixed into a bucket and used to make a nutritious juice!

63. Plastic straws have been questioned a lot when talking about sustainability and a good alternative would be to use washable stainless steel or bamboo straws which can be used again and again.

64. Make sure you use the least amount of hot water when cleaning the dishes on the sink because that wastes energy, a good alternative would be to get organic rubber gloves so you don’t feel cold and there’s hot water is not wasted.

A few alternatives to this would be a highly efficient dishwasher or Solar Water Heaters (for plenty of sustainable hot water).

65. In place of paper towels, hang a towel near the sink to dry your hands.

These towels can be washed and used again because let’s face it, paper towels aren’t that sustainable when looking at the amount of trees cut down to make paper towels.

66. Get an eco-friendly coffee maker so you don’t have to go to a bistro and get takeaway coffee because that uses plastic.

67. Get rid of Bin-liners. Alternates would be use a newspaper, get recycled paper bin-liners or otherwise eco-friendly bin-liners.

68. As I said, if you’re worried about wastage of water from hand-washing, get an eco-friendly and water-saving dishwasher.

69. Get organic cleaners for cleaning your home. Another way is that you can make your own cleaners as well.

70. Pressure cookers have their pros and cons but they are known to save energy as well as time when cooking food.

Sustainable Beauty Tips

71. A family of four wastes around 600 gallons per month just by running the water while brushing so try to avoid that!

72. Let’s go make-up free for 7 days a month. This helps you embrace your natural beauty and allows your skin to breathe.

73. Face cleansers today are filled with chemicals that might be damaging to your skin as well as the environment when it’s released mixed with water going down the drain.

74. Gotta remove make-up? Don’t use disposable wipes because that’s not very sustainable. Instead, get reusable cotton pads which work quite as well.

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75. Also, when you’re removing that make-up just remember not to leave the tap running wasting quite a bit of water.

76. Use shampoo bars instead of shampoo bottles. This reduces quite a bit of packaging.

77. If you want to you bottled shampoo, get it in bulk so less bottles end up in the environment. This saves you money as well.

78. Since you’re getting it in bulk it would also make sense to share products like shampoos and face cleansers in your family.

79. Buy shampoo brands which engage in sustainable practices.

80. Just like face cleansers, read about what chemicals are present in your shampoo as well so they don’t go down the drain and damage the environment.

81. Re-purposing empty bottles and jars never gets old. Clean the jar, remove the label and there you have it, an aesthetic storage of pins/needles on you dressing.

82. Make use of reusable menstrual pads or menstrual cups. It’s cheaper and is quite sustainable for the environment in the long run.

If you’re sending a gift, might as well send a sustainable one!

These sustainable gifting tips saved me quite a bit of money and hassle when deciding a gift, so here you go!

83. Whenever you receive a gift, the sustainable way would be to try and save the gift bag, wrapping paper and the gift box. You can reuse it when you gift someone else!

84. Rather than gifting you can send a thoughtful message or video over the internet.

85. Make a thoughtful hand-written note with recycled materials and give it to them.

86. Donate to a trusted charity or a cause like ours (planting trees).

87. You can also plant a tree with the person as a gift or we can plant some under your friend’s name and that will stay forever.

This will be great because we’ll be reminding your friend every year regarding the progress.

88. Make dinner for the person or better yet, bake a cake for them! I mean it is their birthday after all.

Sustainable Technology

89. Rather than buying a new phone, see if you can get your old phone repaired first.

90. When changing your phone, prefer ‘refurbished’ phones rather than new ones. Refurbished phones are just like new as they have been serviced by the company.

91. When buying a new phone, try to get a brand that engages in sustainable practices.

92. When you’re changing phones, have your old phone recycled. There are a number of e-waste recycling programs that will be happy to facilitate you.

93. Even for your other electronics, find e-waste recycling programs to dispose them off.

94. You can also give away your devices to institutions and schools so they keep on being used for a good cause.

95. Batteries in trash are very hazardous to the environment as they keep on discharging chemicals into the environment. A better choice would be to buy rechargeable batteries which are more durable.

96. Going to buy electronics? Look for Eco-friendly and energy-efficient products!

97. Solar Energy Chargers are the best! They use renewable energy and you can take them everywhere you go as they are quite portable.

How to Live a Sustainable Lifestyle?

98. Try spending more time outdoors as it saves energy as well as money. Besides, this will give you a chance to embrace the outdoors.

99. You can use the time outdoors to walk over to the grocery shop and get ingredients to make a home-cooked meal so you don’t have to get take-away all the time because the packaging is not that sustainable.

This also saves you money and besides you’ll learn a new skill too, cooking!

100. Go out and plant a tree with someone. You can also have us plant a tree for you!

101. Borrow books from the library rather than buying. Or better yet, read E-books!

102. Promote sustainable clothing brands by wearing them!

103. Avoid disposable cutlery whenever you go out to dinner.

104. Get a custom-made handkerchief for yourself so you don’t have to use disposable napkins wherever you go.

105. Share this article to your friends and family and help them engage in sustainable practices too! Raising awareness is just as important as being sustainable yourself.

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