Green living tips for renters?

Question

My 8yr old has gotten caught up in living green which is great but the majority of tips I find for saving elec, water,etc are for homeowners. Are there any websites for those of us who rent and can't make changes to the home?

Answer 1

You can make a few small changes that will repay themselves over a reasonably short period of time.

Wash laundry in cold water.

Make sure your car is well maintained, with properly inflated tires and clean air filters.

Remind the landlord to replace air filters in the heating/cooling systems.

Ask for compact florescent bulbs if he supplies them, or buy them yourself if you are responsible.

Make sure the coils on the refrigerator are clean and that there is clear and free flowing air space around the refrigerator.

Use box fans instead of the air conditioner when feasible.  By pulling cool air into the house at night, you reduce the amount of air conditioning you have to use in the day time.

Use overhead fans or box fans to move the air in the room, and you can raise the temperature on the thermostat and reduce the amount of AC you need.

Reduce, reuse, and recycle the things you bring into the home.  Be wary of overly packaged products.  They are often more expensive than more simply packaged products.    You'll wind up tossing the packaging as soon as the product is opened, so buying products with less wasteful packages leaves you less to toss or recycle.  

The next time your daughter wants a new "fad" item, remind her that such things require the use of resources to manufacture and transport, and when she's done with it, it has to be disposed of.  Ask her to think about whether the item is really worth the risk to the environment and whether she will be able to keep it out of a landfill.  Not only might she bug you less for toys she doesn't really need, but she'll become more aware of her own buying habits.

You may not have a garden for a compost pile, but perhaps your scraps could go to a neighbor or a community garden.  That might be a bit much for some people, but you'll never know if you don't ask.

Rugs over bare flooring make the room warmer in the winter time.  Carpets made of recycled fibers are more widely available now than just a few years ago.  

Use and reuse a clean glass bottle like the kind tea comes in rather than one-use water bottles.  Ask your landlord to consider installing a reverse osmosis system.  If he will not, buy a pitcher with a filter in it or an "at the tap filter" to get water that is as good as most of the water that comes in bottles, any way.  Te filters are far less expensive and far less damaging to the environment than the millions of little plastic bottles.

Ask your daughter to be sure to turn the tv off when it isn't in use.  Further, plug it  and any peripheral devices (Dvd players, stereo speakers, etc,) into a power strip, and turn the power strip off any time the system isn't going to be in use for an hour or more.  Do the same for your computer and any other electrical items that have a "power on" light.  My printer, speakers, cable router and computer are turned off at the power strip any time I'm going to be away from them more than three hours.

Unplug "chargers" when they are not in use or plug them into a power strip and turn the power strip off.

Remind your daughter to turn the water off when she brushes her teeth.  Have her switch from a tub bath to a 5 minute shower to save water.  

If you don't have access to a clothes line, you can get a rack that sets up in the tub to air-dry some items of clothing.  Some of my husband's  shirts go from the washer straight to hangers, but this won't work for all clothing.  Still any that don't have to be dried in a dryer are a saving both in power bills and to the environment.

Added as edit - To the happy face below my post = EXCELLENT links!  Good on ya!

Answer 2

You can also use green cleaners for your home - like mixing up cleaners from ingredients like baking soda, lemon juice, vinegar, grapefruit seed extract. See recipes here:

http://greenlivingideas.com/housecleanin...

You can setup a vermicomposting bin in your home or apartment and compost most of your kitchen scraps. See link here:

http://www.nyworms.com/vermicomposting.h...

Don't be freaked out about the worms! They stay in the bin and do the composting work, which is where they want to be.

Answer 3

Don't know of any websites, but you can change your lightbulbs to those fluorescent ones and recycle.