Mothballs are Toxic – Use Safe Alternatives

It’s horrible to discover a much-loved sweater has been chomped on by moths while it was being stored.   Would mothballs have saved your sweater?

Luckily, it’s easy to make sure moths don’t make a meal of your clothes and bedding – and you can also avoid the problem of toxic chemicals from mothballs.

What’s the Problem?

Originally, mothballs were made from camphor, but now they’re mostly made from naphthalene which is classified as a toxic chemical.  It’s banned in Europe, but naphthalene mothballs are still available in the USA and many other countries, including where I live.   It’s extremely effective, but not safe for us.

A baby died in Australia in 2011 after being wrapped in a blanked which had been stored in mothballs.   Even if you use mothballs according to the directions, I believe it’s safer and better to use non-chemical alternatives.

Pre-Wash

The secret to making sure moths and silverfish don’t enjoy eating your woollen clothes and blankets is to know what they like.

Moths and their larvae love to feed on human and animal hair and skin, food stains and sweat.

So, the biggest thing you can do to prevent moths is to make sure your clothes are spotlessly clean before you store them away.  This is a critical step that many people forget.

This stops the problem before it even starts!

Airtight, dry storage

If you want to store your clothes away until you need them again, the best place is in airtight containers.  (Cardboard containers are not moth-proof).

You must make sure no moisture gets into these containers.  So the clothes must be totally dry before you store them away, and make sure no moisture can get inside the container

Natural Moth Repellents

Click the pictures to go to Amazon

Storing your freshly-cleaned and totally dry clothes in an airtight container will eliminate most of the moth problems.  Indeed, for many people, that’s all they need to do!

But if you want to be absolutely sure, you can include some natural insect repellents inside the containers – they won’t harm people, animals or the environment.

50 small bags for anti-moth ingredients

Buy or make small sachets or bags to hold natural ingredients.  (The pictures on the right will take you to examples on Amazon).  Then fill them with:

• Cedar blocks smell lovely and are effective moth repellents (but only if used in a closed space or container).  However, they are also quite expensive to buy.

Tip: buy hamster bedding from a pet shop – it’s normally made of cedar shavings and is better priced than the blocks.

25 drawstring bags

• Mix 2oz / 50g each of dried lavender, rosemary and thyme,  with 8 oz / 200g  whole cloves.
• Drop some essential oils onto the sachets as well – lavender and the herbs listed above all make good essential oil repellents, as does citronella oil.

Close the drawstring on the bag and drop them in the containers with your clothing.

No airtight containers?

If you can’t store your clothes in airtight containers, you need to take additional precautions to protect from moth damage.

• Wash and sun-dry woollen items every 6 weeks or so, and shake them well before putting them back.
• Hoover or vacuum drawers and wardrobes or closets frequently, as well as other places where lint, pet hair and human hair accumulate.  Dispose of the dust promptly.

But I’ve Used Mothballs!

If you’ve got clothes that have been stored in mothballs, here’s what to do:

• Never wear clothes immediately after removing them.  Take them outside in their container, and open the container in the fresh air.
• Allow the clothes to hang and air out for at least one day before wearing.
• Remove the mothballs (wear rubber gloves if you wish) and dispose of them properly.

Next time, use natural, safe and non-toxic ways of protecting your clothes from moths!

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An Eco Friendly SmartPhone Saves Resources

In general, smartphones are not green because so many people replace them so often  and then they end up in landfills.

However, if you have a smartphone, you can use it in ways that help you to reduce your carbon footprint and live a greener lifestyle.

How?  Keep it for longer, and take advantage of the scanning capabilities of smartphones.

Why?  Because scanning instead of printing means:

• no paper or ink (save trees, reduce resource use), and
• no paper needing to be recycled or ending up in landfill

Here are my 10 favourite ways to make your smartphone eco friendly:

1.  Keep Shop Receipts on your Eco Friendly Smartphone

Many stores now offer electronic receipts.  They’re great – no printing, and (even better) if you need to return something, you don’t have to hunt frantically for your receipt, it’s there on your phone.

2.  Save Store Points / Loyalty Cards on your Eco Friendly Smartphone

Many stores offer credits for purchases, which are normally paper-based.  Find out if the shop offers an app (many do) so you can have your credits available anytime, with no paper required.

Are you tired of carrying (or losing) store loyalty cards?  The Cardstar app lets you load all your loyalty cards onto your smartphone.  Then the cashier can scan your phone instead of the actual card.  (The app also advises you of special offers).

3.  Copy Sales Fliers on your Eco Friendly Smartphone

A lot of shops will match the price offered in another shop, but of course you need to prove the price offer.  A quick photo of a sales flier will do the trick.

4.  Get Airline Boarding Passes on your Eco Friendly Smartphone

Flying is seriously non-green, so buy carbon offsets for your trips and take advantage of electronic boarding passes – no printing required!

5.  Save Appointment Cards on your Eco Friendly Smartphone

It can be difficult to keep track of the whole family’s various appointments (e.g. dentist).  Keep the family calendar on your smartphone, and you’ve always got it handy wherever you are.  No need for all those little appointment cards (save a tree) and nothing to worry about losing.

6.  Save Coupons on your Eco Friendly Smartphone

If you use coupons, you normally have to print them out.  Download an app that will allow you to use your phone to show the coupon instead of printing it.  There are loads of free apps for this, and you always have the latest coupons.

7.  Read News and Journals on your Eco Friendly Smartphone

Save paper and use a free reader (such Google Reader) to keep up-to-date with news and events, professional journals etc.   You can also use an app called Instapaper to save interesting papers for future reading.

8.  Manage Your Time on your Eco Friendly Smartphone

Do you normally have 20 pieces of paper with different To Do lists, shopping lists and reminders? Easy to lose and messy, aren’t they?  Find an app which you like (there are tons) which provide everything from simple To Do and grocery lists to full-blown time management systems such as Wunderlist.

9.  Track Utility Bills on your Eco Friendly Smartphone

Many energy companies now offer smartphone apps – you can send in your meter readings, view your latest bill, and get energy-saving hints and tips.

10.  Purchase Online with your Eco Friendly Smartphone

When you buy goods online that you pick up later (e.g. movie tickets), always check if you can show the electronic receipt rather than print it out.  This is becoming much more widely available.

What else do you use your smartphone for?  How does it help the environment?  Let me know in the Comments below.

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Related:  Smartphone app that lets you vote with your wallet!

Get cash for your old phone and be green too.

Stop giving your hard-earned money to utility companies!

It’s a Dangerous Life if you’re a Plastic Bag!

Here’s a great little video on just how dangerous the life of a plastic bag really is.

It’s an eye-opener.

The sympathetic narration is by Jeremy Irons.

But be warned – it’s a harsh story.

It’s a fight for survival.

Yes, plastic bags are everywhere.  Luckily, in most of the places where I have lived, plastic bags are charged for.  Even though it’s only a tiny fee, it’s amazing how keen we’ve all become to bring re-usable bags with us to the supermarket.

There’s always an instant drop in the amount of plastic bag litter as soon as a charge is introduced.

If you do forget your bags in the shop, and need to buy a plastic bag, make sure you re-use it.  Using resources to manufacture a plastic bag, and then only using it once is a real waste.

Although this video is fun, it does have a serious message.  Birds, fish and animals often mistake plastic bags for food and eat them.  The bags can then kill them – a slow, lingering death.  Or they may get caught up on a plastic bag and be unable to free themselves – again, a long, lingering death.

Related:  6 more ways to reduce your plastic use.  Plus, why plastic bags impact OUR food too!

You can help, by refusing plastic bags.  Always.

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Green Living Helps you Manage Stress!

We all have some degree of stress in our lives.  Too much, and it’s damaging to our health.  We need to manage stress.

Green living focuses not only on saving the planet, but also on making our own lives better.

Reducing toxins for example really helps with our health.  Green living also advocates finding simple, natural cures for some health issues instead of reaching for medication and prescription drugs.

So, if you’re feeling stressed and pressurised by the daily demands on your time, look at these natural alternatives.

Manage Stress with Sleep

If you’re not getting a decent night’s sleep, everything will suffer.  Some quick tips:

• Switch off all electronics in the room, especially the TV, before you settle down to sleep.
• If you’re having problems sleeping at night, don’t cat-nap during the day.
• Use the bedroom to sleep.  Don’t eat there, or work there, or watch TV there.  In this way, your body associates the bedroom with sleep.
• Try to go to sleep (and get up) at the same time each day, including weekends.  Your body appreciates routine.
• Limit caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes and exercise to daytime.  Avoid them 3 – 4 hours before bedtime.
• Stop work at least an hour before bedtime.  Try to have a peaceful, relaxing time before bed and dim the lights.
• Burn an aromatherapy candle in that last hour before bed – ylang ylang for example is an excellent stress reliever  - but many scents will also work.
• Drink herbal tea before bed (camomile is well-known for its relaxing properties).   A warm (not hot) bath may also be beneficial.

Manage Stress with Exercise

Any form of exercise is great – it decreases the level of your body’s stress hormones.  Plus, you produce endorphins or feel-good hormones, and (as if that wasn’t already enough) you get more blood to the brain which helps you to concentrate better.

Even something simple like walking can help!

Or you could learn a new sport, take aerobic classes, do aqua gym, practice yoga – whatever takes your fancy.  There’s a huge choice.  (Of course, consult your health professional first).

Manage Stress with Food

Don’t reach for the over-processed snacks.  When you’re under stress you’re probably deficient in the B vitamins.  Eat foods rich in the B vitamins  – clams, oysters, liver, fish, beef – use your computer to Google more vitamin B-rich foods.

You also need to keep your immune system working well, so make sure you get lots of vitamin C.

Of course you can buy supplements, but getting these vitamins from real food is more beneficial.

All of these tips are easy to implement and don’t cost the earth.

Go for it – manage stress the easy way!

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Related: 6 fresh tips for really green exercise  and which is the least green gym equipment?

How Green is Your Exercise Routine?

Whatever form of exercise you enjoy, is it a green workout?

These 10 green tips will help you to make your exercise routine even more eco friendly.

You’ll also save time and money, and these changes are easy to make – what’s not to love?

1. A Green Workout doesn’t use water bottles.  If you buy bottled water for your exercise, stop right now!  Bottled water has a massive environmental impact, and is often nothing more than tap water (despite what the marketing tells you).   In blind tests, people consistently can’t tell the difference.  It’s also vastly more expensive than tap water.  Even if you filter your tap water, it’s still hugely cheaper than bottled.  And it’s more convenient – no more bottles cluttering up your home.
2. A green workout  and water: Do you bring water with you when you exercise?  If you go to a gym, they probably have water there.  Of if you exercise in a park, there may be a water fountain.  Look around.  If you do bring your own water, make sure it’s in a recyclable bottle.   There are lots of different styles to choose from – personally I like steel ones – they’re recycled, light, sturdy and hygienic.

• A green workout does not include Designer Waters.  They contain minerals and vitamins, and are in general outrageously overpriced.  You can get the vitamins and minerals you need from your food, and supplement with a multivitamin if you wish.  Just drink ordinary water, save yourself a fortune, and help save the planet.  Only 23% of plastic bottles are recycled in the USA.  That means that almost 40 billion bottles go into landfills each year – that is a HUGE amount.  Do your bit by not buying plastic water bottles.
• A green workout means you shower with care.  Use biodegradable body products.  In many countries you can buy biodegradable body wash and shampoo in bulk, which will save you money and decrease bottle use. Then, fill them into smaller, personal-use size reusable bottles, so you only have to carry a small amount to the gym.
• A green workout showers with MASH – watch a fun, short video on the best way to shower….
• A green workout avoids certain machines.  Gym machines consume energy, but one more than all the others.  Which one?  The treadmill.  Save the planet (and your knees) and use it less often.  Try other machines and weights.
• A green workout uses a local gym – if you can walk to gym from either home or work, you’ll save a fortune in parking fees, save car emissions, and get a well-balanced workout too.
• A green workout curbs consumerism.   Do you work out better in the latest designer gear?  Of course not.  (And all you do is sweat all over the clothes anyway).   If you want to buy, look for gear made from recycled materials, or from genuinely organic materials.   Or check out local, upscale thrift shops.  (Green tip: The best days to find great clothes are Mondays and Tuesdays after people have given clothing over the weekend).  Thrift shops can be a bit hit and miss sometimes, so you may need to visit them more than once.  Or just wear an old t-shirt and shorts.
• A green workout doesn’t buy into the latest fad or gizmo craze.  You KNOW that exercising and eating healthily are the best ways – some fad that will last a few weeks is not worth your money (you’ll want to sell it for half-nothing after it’s taken up space in your home for a year!).
• A green workout is free!  If the weather is fine, exercise outside – it’s free.  Did you know that outdoor exercise makes you less fatigued, more relaxed, and gives a more lasting energy boost compared to indoor exercise?
•  A green workout  changes.  Need a change of routine?  If you want to do some different exercises for a change, find great quality, popular used home workout DVDs at less than half price on Amazon or eBay and even less at Thrift stores and Oxfam shops.  (Just last weekend I went to our local animal rescue thrift shop and found an amazing variety of top quality exercise DVDs selling for almost nothing).

You’ll leave a smaller carbon footprint and leave more money in your wallet too.

Want even more ways to green your exercise routine?  6 more here:  Green Exercise 

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Can  You Have Green Laundry with Clothes Dryers?

Clothes dryers are very convenient, but they’re also big energy users, and thus expensive to use, and not green.

So it makes sense to look for alternatives, and use green laundry practices.

Of course we all know that if the weather is good, and if you have the space, line drying clothes (or using a clothes rack / clothes horse) is the healthiest and the greenest and the cheapest method (see hanging tips).   Using the sun to dry your clothes (solar power) is free.

But what if

• you don’t have a garden / balcony / patio / drying yard?
• you are not allowed to hang your washing out
• the weather is really bad, and it takes up to 3 days to dry laundry inside?

There are actually lots of alternatives to an electric, energy-hogging tumble-drier or drying machine, if you just put your mind to it.

Top Green Laundry Solutions

1. If you’re using a clothes horse indoors and you can’t open the windows for some breeze, then use a fan to move the air around the clothes, or even a dehumidifier.
2. When I was growing up in Ireland most houses had a pulley system – a clothes line (or even a clothes rack) that can be lifted up into the otherwise unused room space near the ceiling.
3. Steal an idea from hotels – use a cable (retractable clothes line) stretching over the bathtub to dry clothes.
4. Buy more of small, inexpensive things you wear a lot – such as socks, t-shirts – so that you can always have a clean supply, and hoard the dirty ones until the weather is good enough to hang them out on the line.  (This also ensures that you run a full load when you do wash them).
5. Use a high spin setting or run an extra spin cycle on your washing machine to get rid of as much water as possible before it comes out.  Yes, you’ll use energy for the spin, but it’s much, much less than the energy needed to dry clothes in a tumble dryer.

Using the sun to dry your clothes (solar power) is free

Use a Combination for Green Laundry

If it’s not possible to dry everything without an electric dryer, use these strategies:

• As much as possible, use drying racks in sunny rooms so the tumble dryer doesn’t have to be used.
• Partly drying clothes outside (even on a cloudy day) will save energy. You can then use a dryer to ‘finish off’ the washing.
• If the weather is poor avoid washing large loads.

Using a Tumble-Drier / Clothes Dryer

If you’re using a machine, there are some simple things you can do to save energy:

• Spin clothes well before putting them in the dryer.
• Only use the dryer to dry damp items that have come off the line on cold days.
• Don’t mix heavyweight and lightweight articles in the same load as they take longer to dry.
• Wool and acrylic items dry at a much lower temperature than cotton.  So sort your laundry for the best (and quickest) results.
• Don’t overload the dryer or over-dry your clothes. A longer drying time uses more electricity.
• (Green Tip – over-dried clothes are harder to iron.  Remove them while they are still slightly damp).
• Run the dryer on a medium heating setting rather than high.
• Don’t add wet items to a load that’s already partly dry.
• Fold your laundry as you take it out of the dryer.  You’ll have fewer wrinkles and you may not even need to iron everything.
• Clean the dryer’s lint filter after each load and keep the room well-ventilated so that the dryer runs more efficiently.
• If you’re buying a new machine, make sure it’s energy efficient (Energy Star or A rated), and make sure it has an automatic drying sensor function so it doesn’t over-dry clothes, but switches off when it senses the moisture level is low.

You might also enjoy:  Go green with your washing machine

It’s easy to use green laundry practices.  Think before you automatically pop things in the clothes dryer.

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Save Money When You Use an Energy Efficient Washing Machine Correctly

For energy efficiency in the laundry, you need:

• An energy efficient washing machine
• Daily energy efficient practices.

First, let’s look at what you can do to make your clothes washing more efficient (with the average family washing 300 loads each year, it all adds up!).

Then there’s what to look for if you’re buying a new machine – including probably the most energy efficient of them all!

Save Money by being Energy Efficient

Cold Water:  Many clothes can be washed clean in cold water.  A cold water wash will save you money, because most of the energy used by a washing machine goes to heating the water.  Plus, you reduce your greenhouse emissions from laundry washing by up to 90%!  Green Tip:  Dissolving powder detergent before you add it to the washer will improve its performance in cold water.

Eco setting: If you don’t want to do a cold wash, then the next best thing is the Eco or Economy setting, which will wash at a lower temperature and use less water.  It will also finish quicker.

Load Size: Wait until you have a full load before washing – unless your machine has an automatic water level function (load detection).

Group: try to group clothes by fabric weight and colour, and by how dirty they are.

You might also enjoy:

• go green with your cloths drier      
• 6 ways to use your TV more efficiently

Buying a New Energy Efficient Washing Machine

One of the first decisions you need to make if you need a new machine is: Front Load or Top Load.

Which is better – front load or top load?  Find out on the next page…..

Which Businesses Cause the Most Damage to the Environment?

If you think of damage to the environment, it’s easy to remember recent news pictures of the dreadful smog in China.  With its growing population and huge exports, it needs lots of power.

What else springs to mind?

Deforestation in the Amazon, water pollution, mono-cropping, mining and drilling, oil spills – the list is long.  Choose  almost any country in the world and you’ll find cities hiding under a haze of pollution.

Are some industries worse than others for the damage they cause?

Well, a United Nations backed report has listed its top businesses for damage to the environment.

The study, by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)  admits that its numbers are uncertain.

They allocated dollar values to the long-term impacts of pollution, water, greenhouse gases and waste generated by these industries – a difficult task.

But here’s what they came up with:

The World’s Most Destructive Businesses

1. Coal-fired power generation.  The biggest culprit is China but most countries have coal-powered electricity.  It causes massive greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change, and pollution affects human and animal health.
2. 

   Intensive meat production – a highly destructive business. Photo Gary Kazanyan for the NYT.

   Cattle ranching – especially in South America where Amazonian rainforest has been cleared to make way for cattle and for agriculture to feed them – causes massive water stress and deforestation.

3. Coal-fired power in North America
4. Wheat and rice farming in Southern Asia.

Do Companies Care?

German sportswear group Puma was the first major firm to do an environmental profit and loss account, estimating it caused 145 million euros ($190 million) in damage to nature in 2010. The cost is not added to the sales price of products and is meant as a guide to consumers.

What about us?

The study estimated that basic goods from cement to wheat caused damage totalling $7.3 trillion a year.  (I can’t even imagine that amount of money).

For us as consumers, it means that we can help by:

• Reducing our energy consumption
• Refusing to buy excess products, “buying out” of consumerism so that we don’t waste yet more energy and cause more pollution for these items to be manufactured
• Reducing our meat consumption

With those sorts of numbers, it’s more important than ever that we do the right thing!

Use Buycott to support what you care about

We all know that an important part of Green Living is choosing eco friendly, sustainable products.

By doing so, we ‘vote with our wallets’ to encourage manufacturers to be more responsible.

But sometimes it’s difficult to know what you’re buying, especially with food for example – we don’t always know who owns the brand that we’re about to buy.

A new phone app called Buycott aims to solve this problem.

Buycott – What Does it Do?

Scan the barcode of a common product, and the app will show you its corporate “family tree” on the phone screen.

That means you can avoid buying products from companies you dislike.

Even better, Buycott lets you join – or create your own – campaigns to boycott business practices that violate your principles.

Suppose, for example, you wanted mandatory labelling of food containing GMOs in the USA.  An existing campaign on Buycott (called Demand GMO Labelling) tells you if a product you scan was made by one of the 36 corporations that donated more than $150,000 to oppose the mandatory labelling of genetically modified food.

It’s not all about NOT buying stuff – you can also look for products made by companies you like.  You can join (or create your own) campaigns to support companies which support LGBT rights or are cruelty-free for example.

Buycott – What I like

• I view Buycott as a way of making a more informed purchasing decision.
• I like that it doesn’t push any specific viewpoint – you simply look for what you want to support or avoid.
• The app is currently free of charge

Buycott Problems

• The app has had some teething problems.  Traffic has been so heavy since its launch that response times are very slow.  (Buycott say they’re working on this).
• I believe that in the UK a few retailers have blanked out the barcodes on their products.  (This was probably as a result of the Red Laser app which checked for the lowest price of a scanned item).  Buycott cannot work without a barcode to scan.
• Not all products are on the database.  It is expanding daily, and you can help by adding info to it.

If you want to be more conscious about what you buy and what political actions your money might be funding, check out Buycott.

(You can download it free from the App Store)

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“Green” kitchens are beautiful!

Photo: slodive com

Here’s how to create modern designer kitchens  that are not just practical but are also eco friendly and beautiful kitchens.

These tips apply whether you are creating a brand new kitchen, or re-modelling an existing one.

Choosing sustainable products for your beautiful kitchen will have a positive impact on the on the environment.

The good news is that it’s now incredibly easy – as modern consumers we have a greater choice than ever before about the materials we use in our kitchens.

Beautiful kitchens use recyclable materials

Glass and stainless steel make your kitchen greener since they are recycled, durable, and recyclable.

Use glass and stainless steel for worktops and splashbacks.

Stainless steel:

• Made of up to 70% recycled material
• 100% recyclable after use
• Hard-wearing and resists everyday wear-and-tear
• Keep it looking good by buffing it with a cloth occasionally.

Recycled glass worktop
Photo: resilica com

Glass:

• Unique look
• Make sure it’s recycled glass, with no resin or additives.
• Glass can be recycled an infinite number of times.
• Hygienic surface
• Hard-wearing, scratch-resistant and durable.
• Choose the colour you want (made from factory waste), or from bottle banks which have slight colour variations
• Flecks of colour reflect the light from the work surface.

Sustainable wood:

Sustainable wood and recycled glass
Photo from glasseco.co.uk

One of the nice things about wooden worktops is that you can choose to give your beautiful kitchen a modern or a traditional look with this material.

Each year in the UK alone, 6,000,000 tons of wood are torn from houses and businesses and dumped in landfill. When pubs are converted into homes they often lose their solid wood bars, which make superb kitchen worktops.

Old wood is often of far better quality because it was generally harvested much later than trees today.

Waste wood can be recycled into wood laminate which is popular for worktops.  (Make sure it’s recycled and not new wood before you buy).

Beautiful kitchens use Nature’s flooring

There’s a wide range of eco friendly kitchen flooring choices.

Linoleum can be a great choice – it’s easy to clean, provides a soft landing if you drop anything onto it, it’s warm underfoot and hardwearing.  If you have an uneven surface, it’s much more forgiving than tiles for example.

However, be careful when you buy.  Modern lino is often made from PVC (plastic, from petroleum, a fossil fuel) which off-gasses and is toxic when on fire.

Instead, look for genuinely natural linoleum made from linseed oil and pine resin, which is recyclable at end-of-life.

Other alternatives include Bamboo and Cork – get a full eco friendly flooring option comparison here

Beautiful Kitchens have Salvage Chic

One of the greenest practices for an eco friendly, beautiful kitchen is to re-use old products.

For example, you can make your cabinets using salvaged materials.

You’ll be surprised by what you can find when you start looking!

Beautiful Kitchens Work!

Of course it’s great to have an eco friendly and beautiful kitchen – but it’s got to be practical too.

Here are some insider tips from kitchen design experts.

1. Consider how your kitchen will function as a room to work in.  Trying to live in a poorly laid out kitchen will reduce your quality of living.
2. Apply the most ergonomic principle in kitchen design – the “kitchen work triangle”.
3. The main work sites are the refrigerator, the sink and the cooking work site (usually including your hobs and ovens).
4. Don’t place these too far away from each other or you’ll waste a lot of time. But equally, it’s important that you don’t have a cramped kitchen either.
5. Each part of the triangle should be between 4 – 9 feet or 1.2 – 3 metres apart
6. There should be no obstructions, and each of the three should be positioned in an area that doesn’t require people to walk past.

Other tips for Beautiful Kitchens

Here are some extra things to think about when creating or re-modelling your kitchen.

• Investing in energy efficient appliances is a fantastic way to reduce bills and be more eco-friendly in designer kitchens.  (It also means you can give less of your hard-earned money to utility companies with these great tips).
• Maximising space in rooms means getting the most out of a house.
• Always bring in as much natural light as possible.  It saves energy for artificial lighting, and it’s better for you too.

Photo: slodive com

To create a sanctuary to return to at the end of a hard day is extremely important.

Remember that it can be difficult to sell a house at a high price in the current economic climate.

Having a beautiful kitchen will make all the difference.

If you enjoyed this article, please Share, Like, Pin or Tweet it (buttons below) – thank you!

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