7 Easy Tips for an Eco-Green Sustainable Bathroom

It doesn’t take a major remodeling job to bring a bathroom up to a highly sustainable eco-green standard. In fact, the bathroom offers many variables to upgrade easily to make it one of the most sustainable eco-green rooms in your home.

This is an important topic for any homeowner and one that not only leads you to maintain a lower carbon footprint, but it also saves you money in the long-run. So, let’s take a look at seven ways you can bring your bathroom up to a new sustainable eco-green standard this year.

7 Steps to an Eco-Green Bathroom

1. Install a Low-Flow Toilet

Do you know that toilets use about 27 percent of the water in your home? That’s more than any other plumbing – even more than the shower, washing machine, or dishwasher. The older toilets found in older homes sometimes use up to 7 gallons per flush.

We recommend that you search for a low-flow toilet with a dual-flusher. This type gives you a choice between a one-button flush for liquid waste at about .8 gallons of water and another for solid waste at about 1.6 gallons. That’s a huge difference!

2. Install a Low-Flow Showerhead

Install a low-flow showerhead to cut down on excess water use. The easiest way to cut down is to take shorter showers. But if you love to linger, a low-flow showerhead is a good choice. Most showerheads use about 5 to 8 gallons of water per minute. However, a low-flow showerhead brings that down to 2.5 gallons or less without sacrificing water pressure.

What’s even better is that you also save on the amount of energy used to heat your water. Also, you’ll be pleased to know that this is an inexpensive upgrade that is easy to install with very little time.

3. Install Motion Sensor Faucets

Another way to waste a lot of water in your home is in the bathroom sink. I think most people would be shocked if they knew the amount of unused water they let run down the bathroom drain. The solution is to install a motion sensor faucet. With this upgrade, you won’t use more water than you need and you really don’t have to give it a lot of thought because the motion sensor does the work for you.

4. Change Your Light Bulbs to LED

There is no time like the present to make the switch to LED lighting if you haven’t already. The statistics show that an LED bulb uses 80 percent less energy and lasts 25 times longer than its energy-consuming predecessor.

LED lights have progressed in their design and not only operate at lower wattage but switching out a single 75W bulb brings an energy savings of around $160 per bulb.

5. Clean with Homemade Products

By now, we all know that the harsh cleaning products we grew up with are detrimental to our health and our planet’s health. But, there are alternatives for cleaning with eco-green ingredients you have in your cupboards right now. For instance, try mixing baking soda and vinegar along with a few drops of an antibacterial essential oil for a sparkling clean bathroom.

Try these essential oils to get an antiseptic and antibacterial agent plus you get the wonderful benefit of a nice scent filling the air.

Lavender • Eucalyptus • Lemongrass • Rosemary • Sage

Additionally, remember to use an eco-green sponge or brush for an even better experience all the way around.

6. Install an Energy-Efficient Vent Fan

Is your fan running up your energy bill? Try an energy star rated fan instead to cut your energy savings by 60 percent. It’s also an important consideration to keep your fan running during your shower and 15 minutes after to ensure the moisture doesn’t turn into a toxic mold in your walls. An energy-efficient fan in your bathroom will help eliminate this very unhealthy substance from growing and potentially save you thousands in mold elimination costs.

7. Choose Eco-Green Bathroom Products

Here are some tips to swap out certain bathroom products for a more eco-green option. These are great ways to make your carbon-footprint even lower with these simple suggestions.

• Use Eco-Green Toilet Paper

It’s a fact that approximately 27,000 trees get cut down every day to accommodate the millions who use toilet paper. So, make a switch today to a recycled product or one that doesn’t use plastic packaging.

• Refill the Shampoo and Conditioner Bottles

Purchase in large quantities to save money and refill smaller bottles to cut down on single-use plastic bottles. That’s something we can all easily do to decrease plastic waste in our oceans.

• Use Soap Bars Instead of Bottles

Eliminate soap bottles altogether and instead use bar soap. There are so many lovely varieties available today for your facial cleansing, and for toning and moisturizing your entire body, that there is literally no need to continue to purchase body cleansers in individual plastic bottles.

• Use Bamboo Toothbrushes

Plastic toothbrushes are small but they fill up landfills all over the world. However, there is a modern eco-green alternative in the bamboo toothbrush. Moreover, bamboo is naturally antimicrobial. So, that makes bamboo toothbrushes both biodegradable and antimicrobial. You can’t get that in a plastic toothbrush so I’m switching. How about you?

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