5 Cost Saving and Earth-Friendly Ways to Design Your House This Summer

Posted on July 18, 2021

In this day and age, there are two very important things to take into consideration when choosing how to design your house, those being how cost-effective the plans will be and making the place as eco-friendly as possible. We all need to do our part to improve the world around us and this can start at home with eco-style and green solutions for our houses, but it is also necessary not to break the bank while doing so. Below are five different ways that you can begin to make a change at home while sticking to your budget this summer.

Buy Used, Not New

The easiest way to design your home while saving money and being Earth-friendly is to buy used instead of new. By doing this, you will save money due to the fact that second-hand items, such as furniture and decorations, are usually cheaper than buying the item new. Also, it helps you to be more Earth-friendly because by doing this you are preventing the item from going to a refuse site and there isn’t as much (if any) packaging on used products. Another reason that this is a good idea is that depending on where you buy the second-hand items from, you could be helping a charity raise money for their cause as well.

Insulation

How you insulate your house can also influence the cost and how eco-friendly your home will be. When thinking about this it is important to think about how much you’d be willing or able to spend in the short term and how long you would want the solution to last. For example, if you were willing to pay more at the start then you could potentially go with thermal wallpaper or improving the general insulation of the house, which would make the property more Earth-friendly for a long time. Otherwise, a cheaper solution would be to use a draught excluder to block any gaps that the cold air could seep through. Insulating your house properly will also save you money because it will lower the heating bills significantly in the winter months and it is recommended especially if you are trying to increase your home energy efficiency on a budget.

FSC Wood

Another way that you can impact the Earth when decorating your house is from the type of wood which you choose to use. By buying FSC’s certified wood which has been sustainably sourced, you are doing your part to stop deforestation. The FSC organization has collated ten rules for forest management to ensure that all the wood collected by them is done so ethically and with conservation in mind, therefore the wood that has their logo will be better environmentally.

Gardening

The outside of your house can impact the cost and ecosystems just as much as the inside can, so it is important to think about how you can design this area with these points in mind. There are many methods of adapting the landscaping around your house to improve its impact on the environment, but the most cost-effective one is to have a water butt or barrel to collect the rainwater as it falls so that this can then be used when you are gardening instead of using water from a tap. Choose carefully the types of plants or trees for your small garden because planting bee-friendly plants in your garden can also make your house Earth-friendly while brightening up your house at the same time. Having a well-maintained garden will also attract more tenants if you have a rental house or you are planning to turn your property into a rental one. Even professionals from property management companies can assure you that a lovely garden can make all the people living in the house feel cozy and comfortable there.

Professional Help

It is always worth seeking professional help when undergoing any designing this summer, as the general contractors will be able to offer valuable advice on how best to design your house as well as be able to help you carry out the tasks when you reach that stage. By using a general contractor, you will be able to know which of your plans are viable, as some may seem possible but in practice wouldn’t work or would be out of your budget.

Conclusion

So, in this article, there have been five different ways discussed, that you can design your home cheaply and be Earth-friendly at the same time, which can sometimes seem a rather challenging feat. It is important to think about how much each design will cost and the amount that you are willing to spend on the house, as well as how the decision will impact the maintenance and cost in the long term.