Replace 3 Crucial Household Items With These Green Alternatives

Going green can be a real challenge — especially when you lead a busy lifestyle.

It can sometimes feel like you’ve enough on your plate between childcare and holding down a job, without trying to save the planet.

But there are some simple steps you can take around your home in order to become more eco-friendly.

With that in mind, here‘s how to replace three crucial household items with green alternatives.

Kettle

Tea drinking is popular in many countries, but it’s certainly a strong tradition in Britain.

So it’s rare to enter any UK kitchen and not see a kettle.

But British households waste $114 million every year by overfilling kettles, so the global cost is huge.

The Eco Kettle is the only product available that only boils the exact amount of water necessary each time it’s used.

A clever boiling chamber and valve system make it simple for users to select the precise volume needed for cups or mugs and both water and electricity usage is reduced.

The device was invented by Tarige Hassan, an engineering student at Scotland’s Heriot Watt University, after he noticed his mother always filled the kettle to its full capacity to make only two cups of tea.

Upcycled furniture

Sprucing up vintage furniture for your home is nothing new — but upcycling takes items of furniture designed for diverse applications and completely repurposes them for domestic use.

For instance, Denver-based Ski Lift Designs takes abandoned ski chairlifts and transforms them into trendy standalone or hanging benches that look fabulous in your home.

Designer Jacques Boiteau travels across the US sourcing models from the 50s, 60s and 70s that are abandoned once ski resorts upgrade.

The chairs are sandblasted to remove any rust, mounting brackets are fitted to make them safe for installation in homes, and finally the frames are repainted and the bench sections given a durable wood or metal finish.

Purchasing upcycled rather than newly-manufactured household furniture allows you to make your house a little more eco-friendly.

Mats

Any homeowner who takes cleanliness seriously will want to invest in door mats for each entrance.

Their practical purpose is keeping the dirt and detritus from shoes outside of course — but they can also be personalised with a witty family motto or favourite quote.

Some mats aren’t manufactured in the most sustainable manner, but the eco-scrape model from the Mat Factory is made from PE plastics that are 100 per cent recyclable.

The hard-wearing design removes all dirt from shoes and single mats can be linked together in a larger module for greater floor coverage.

By taking a little more time to find out whether your home mats are made in an eco-friendly manner, you can be sure you’re keeping the environment as clean as your shoes.

By replacing these three crucial household items with green alternatives, you’re taking a small step towards sustainable living — and you’ll really boost your eco-credentials once your home’s completely green.

Is your household green? Share your tips in the comments section.