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Beautify and Upgrade the Outdoors of Your Home with These 9 Eco-Friendly Tips

There’s no reason you can’t love the outside of your home just as much as you love the inside. You just need to put in a little bit of work to bring what works on the inside to the outside. To help you with this, try out these eco-friendly tips we’ve put together for you:
1. Make Use of Green Materials to Remodel and Renovate
Do you intend on adding a wooden deck? You don’t need to fell a tree or several trees for that. Instead, opt for utilising recycled or reclaimed wood. This type of wood can be retrieved from buildings that no longer need them. Naturally, you should only recycle or use reclaimed wood that is still healthy and strong. To make sure you are getting quality recycled wood, head to a lumber yard so you can find the precise type to suit the home outdoor project you have in mind. You’ll be surprised about the gorgeous green materials you can find if you look for them.

2. Energy-Efficient Lighting Fixtures to Replace the Worn-Out Ones
Your old lighting fixtures are vintage and that’s always a positive. But they also consume a lot of electricity which makes using them a hazard to your wallet and the environment. Since the old fixtures are worn out now, upgrade to energy-efficient light fixture options that are even better looking.With modern energy saving options, your outdoors can have an aesthetic that’s appealing for both functional and eco-friendly reasons. You can also replace old bulbs with LED options that are available in various colour options and also burn cooler yet with a brighter glow. If strategically installed, these can beautify your walkways, porch, general landscaping, and much more while delivering optimal security.

3. Use Innovative Technology to Save Energy
There are a number of innovative options out there that can help you save money on electricity bills while still keeping the exterior of your home impressive. Take, for instance, motion detectors. Your exterior lights don’t have to stay on all night long running up your electricity bill. With a motion detector installed alongside your exterior lighting, the lights will only come on when their sensors are disturbed by movement. This can help you save significantly on electricity.

Motion detectors are most suitable for security lights, not your regular architectural or landscape lighting. You can also have your exterior lighting hooked up to “smart-home” technology that lets you control your lighting remotely from anywhere around the world with a smart device. This is more cost effective than leaving your lights permanently on when you travel.

4. Choose Outdoor Furniture That Is Eco-Friendly
Maybe you already have eco-friendly furniture on the inside of your home, perhaps Modern Sofa Beds Why not extend that to the outside of your home as well? Extend the greening and luxury of your home to the outside, especially the leisure areas with patio and garden furniture.

You can opt for pre-loved patio furniture to decorate with or to serve as comfort pieces for relaxing outside. If buying brand new outdoor furniture, look out for furniture that is made from FSC certified wood or recycled plastics. This means the furniture is made from sustainably sourced materials.

5. Reclaimed Water Solutions to Beautify Your Outdoors
Having shrubbery in green and other delightful colours can be a real delight for your outdoor area but keeping all that flora well-watered can lead to a pretty costly water bill. You can control this and source water in a more sustainable manner by installing reclaimed water solutions. For instance, you can put in a drainage system that catches rainwater from your roof’s gutters and transports this water to irrigate your landscaping.

6. Use Eco-Friendly Materials to Decorate the Kiddie’s Play Area
There’s reason your kids can’t also benefit from going green. You can accomplish this by recycling materials. For instance, you have probably noticed schools recycle rubber tires in playgrounds and also use rubber mulch as ground cover. These materials can take a beating and last for years. They are also safe for children because of their bouncy softness. Painting them in attractive colours will also increase the appeal for your kids. Your imagination is the limit for how these materials can be used to create a fun place for the little ones.

7. Create Soil Naturally for Landscaping
To keep your garden looking healthy and rich, consider making your own mulch. It’s easy and creates an effective way for you to re-use your rubbish. It also saves you money considering how much it costs to buy mulch and soil every season in a nursery. Creating your own nutrient-rich soil from your garbage will help reduce the workload of your local landfill and that in itself is a contribution to the environment.

8. Make Your Exterior and Interior One
By blurring the lines between your exterior and interior, the beauty from inside can smoothly extend to the outside. This will require a bit of work as architectural changes to the design of your home may be required. For example, you can have window walls or glazed doors with operating windows installed. This will allow the inside’s beauty to reflect outside and the view and fresh air from outside to be enjoyed while on the inside. A window wall will let in a fresh breeze without you having to worry about pests getting in.

9. Install Energy Efficient Cooling and Heating Systems
You are probably wondering what this has to do with your outdoors but, let’s face it, what you do indoors in time affects your outdoors. So, opt for heating and cooling options that consume less power and release less greenhouse gases.

There you go! These are your tips to enhance your outdoors while keeping your home environmentally friendly. Do you have any sustainable and eco-friendly tricks you are using? Please share in the comments.

Clay Miller
the authorClay Miller
I am the creator/writer of Ways2GoGreen.com and Ways2GoGreenBlog.com. I'm an advocate for oceans, beaches, state parks. I enjoy all things outdoors (e.g. running, golf, gardening, hiking, etc.) I am a graduate of the University of Kentucky (Go Wildcats!!). I'm also a huge fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I was born and raised in the beautiful state of Kentucky.

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