Everyday Green Home

Today, I am doing something a little different. Laryssa Kwoczak, my guest, is also a podcaster, so today, I am her guest, too. We will be releasing this podcast on her platform as well as on mine.

Listen in to our fascinating conversation to learn more about Laryssa, why bees are such an important part of our world, what you need to know before attracting bees to your garden, and so much more. Did I mention resources? We'll have plenty of those for you, too.

About Laryssa

Laryssa lives in Hawaii. She has been keeping bees for about ten years. She used to work for a commercial apiary where she was teaching people about bees.

The Buzz About Bees

When she stopped doing that, she started doing her podcast called The Buzz About Bees. Laryssa created her podcast to dive a bit deeper into the hive and what bees do, and what the beekeeper does. She tries to make her podcast as friendly to non-beekeepers as possible.

Why bees are so important

Bees are important because they make honey, plus they pollinate foods like nuts, fruit, and vegetables, and flowers. They are an integral part of our world, and they are fascinating creatures. Bees are also food for birds, and they help the soil.

Honey

Honey has antibacterial properties. It gets used in bandaging for burn victims because it helps pull the moisture out.

Never goes bad

Honey is the only food that never goes bad.

Planting for honey bees

Honey bees have an action called flower fidelity, so they like to fill their sacks with just one kind of nectar for months at a time. So, when you are planting for bees, it is good to have more than one plant of one variety to encourage the bees by making it worth their while to stop by.

One of the best pollinators

The pollen sticks to the fuzzy bodies of the bees. Then they go to the next flower of the same variety, spread the pollen, and pollinate it. That is why honey bees are one of the best pollinators.

Lots of everything

Different things attract different pollinators. So, have lots of everything! Herbs are great to plant if you want to attract pollinators to your garden.

Natural practices

It is healthier for everything in your garden if you use natural practices and trust that the bees know what they are doing.

Attracting bees

Before you try to attract bees to your garden, make it a healthy environment for them by not using harsh chemicals, like weed killers that could kill them. Do not spray any weed killers, even natural ones, in the garden during the daytime when the bees are around. Sunset is the best time to spray. But it is best not to spray at all because some weeds are food for bees.

Planting for the bees

Planting some bee-friendly flowers is a great way to attract bees to your garden. Planting flowers like tulips, or goldenrod, that come up in the early spring or late fall is best because that's when the bees are desperate for food.

Butterflies are amazing

Butterflies can sniff out their host plant from over a mile away. If you plant something that attracts a certain kind of butterfly, there is a chance that they live in your area that they will find it.

Great places to go for resources

The Million Pollinator Garden Challenge is a great place to go for resources. You can also post your garden on that site. There is also Xerces.org, where you can go to your state, and it will tell you what to plant for native pollinators, as well as honey bees.

Finding more pollinator-friendly places

Laryssa encourages people not just to think about their yard, but also to get involved with their homeowner's association and to talk with their neighbors to find places in the neighborhood that can be made more pollinator-friendly.

Potted plants

If you are not interested in pulling weeds or dealing with unwanted pests, potted plants are also great for attracting bees.

Don't be afraid

You do not have to be afraid of having bees in your garden because bees are unlikely to sting. Honey bees will die if they sting you.

Creating a green environment around your home

Many different practices will support you in working with nature and help you create a pollinator-friendly environment around your home.

Referral Links:

My website Green Home Coach

Book: Living Green Effortlessly

Facebook Group: Love Your Everyday Green Home

Curated for your yard and garden

The Buzz About Bees Podcast

Pollinator-Friendly Native Plant Lists

Million Pollinator Garden Challenge

ID plants

Bees in My Backyard videos

"This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. That means that if you make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products or services that I believe in and usually use myself."

Our homes have now become everything for us! That means that we have been a lot harder on them now than we were before, pre-pandemic. But we have also learned a lot more about our homes because we are spending so much more time in them lately.

I have worked from home for years, so I have made sure that my home serves me well. As a result, I have a slightly different perspective, and I've learned many different things over the years.

My goal is to share what I have learned with you through my Facebook group, Love Your Everyday Green Home, through teachings from my book, Living Green Effortlessly, and also through the people I meet.

2020 was the year of the grand experiment for many of us! Now that we know that we are free to experiment, we can become more intentional with whatever we decide to do in our homes. You don't have to do it all. Just pick a few of the things I suggest, and go try them out.

Today, I will focus on the interior of our homes. It is important to have a comfortable home with beautiful spaces that serve your health and wellness. Your home should provide you with the kind of spaces that you want to be in.

Our pre-loved sofa

We recently bought a second-hand recliner sofa. Although we knew it was unlikely to be our forever sofa, we needed a space to be comfortable together. Our pre-loved recliner sofa was a perfect fit for us!

Using pre-loved, or second-hand furniture

Using pre-loved furniture makes it very easy to make short-term, intentional decisions for a specific need. When something we bought second-hand is no longer useful to us, we can put it back into the marketplace for pre-loved furniture and pass it on to someone else.

Off-gassing and older furniture

One of the advantages of buying older furniture is that it has had time to off-gas any chemicals or toxins that could be in the fabrics or the wood.

New furnishings

With new furnishings, you want to do some research to look out for what you are buying. There is a group called Sustainable Furnishings Council. It has a list of companies that adhere to a set of practices in the manufacture of furniture to ensure they meet the sustainability levels.

Things to watch out for

You need to watch out for the materials used in furnishings, rugs, soft goods, and window treatments for their potential to off-gas. It is always best to use natural products whenever possible.

A list of go-to's

Having a list of go-to's for what works well in your home will be helpful for you. Look for products that are sustainable, renewable, or more chemically responsible whenever possible.

Paint

Choose safer paint, preferably with no or low VOCs.

Wallpaper

When choosing wallpaper, you need to consider what is in it and ensure that you select a safe and healthy option for the people living in your home.

Floor coverings

You need to select carpets and flooring products that are safe and healthy for the people living in your home. Carpets and long-shag rugs tend to be dust-traps, so they are not the best option for people with allergies. Try to choose materials and products made from either renewable materials or recycled content. Choose materials that can eventually get recycled to keep them out of the landfills.

Ceilings and walls

Ceilings are usually covered with paint. Ceilings and walls influence the way that the light plays in your home. Light is an important part of health and wellness. Consider that when choosing a color for the walls and ceilings in your home. Light-colored ceilings and walls help to magnify the light.

Heat

Having dark-colored floors and walls is great for holding the heat in your home during the colder months.

Cabinetry

Pay attention to your cabinetry. Formaldehyde is a chemical that you want to steer clear of. It is still in some products, especially those made from pressed wood.

Bathrooms and kitchens

As you fine-tune, remodel, or rebuild your kitchen and bathroom, you need to be specific and intentional about the choices you make. Your choice of tiles, walls, and flooring needs to support your health and your comfort.

Plumbing fixtures

Choose plumbing fixtures that will require little maintenance, last a long time, and optimize the use of the water coming into your home most effectively. Pay attention to the toilet. You might want to upgrade an older toilet to a new one that flushes better and saves you lots of water.

Moisture

You want to keep your kitchen and bathrooms dry. Make sure that nothing you choose for your kitchen and bathrooms mitigates moisture.

Soft surfaces

You want your soft surfaces to be as comfortable and cozy as possible. Use great fabrics that will be safe and healthy to have in your home.

Green Labels

Green labels will help you make better choices for the things you use in your home.

Referral Links:

My website Green Home Coach

Book: Living Green Effortlessly

Facebook Group: Love Your Everyday Green Home

Curated collection for you

What Goes IN Your Home: What To Think About, What to Look For, What to Choose

The Stuff our Homes Are Made of – Resources and Materials

A Place to Dream, Design, and Discover with Sheridan Foster of Elemental Green

Green Interiors

"This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. That means that if you make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products or services that I believe in and usually use myself."

We are talking about landscaping today! Many of us are trying to figure out ways to make our homes look more appealing and feel more comfortable. The pandemic gave us the ideal opportunity to experiment with different ways to improve things in and around our houses. Some of what I will be sharing with you today is about how to take those experiments a little bit further. I, for one, have been having a whole lot of fun discovering what I can do in my yard. And what I can grow there!

One of the things that I have come to recognize from the green living space is that a set of actions can give you all kinds of unintended benefits. Landscaping is one of those. You may be landscaping for beauty to create a colorful garden space outside of your home. Many of us are trying to figure out ways to create edible gardens, but we have not always thought about the idea of landscaping for comfort. Stay tuned to find out more!

Using plants in strategic areas

You can use plants in specific areas around your house to form insulation spaces, dead spaces, to provide windbreaks, and to strategically shield your home and yard from the elements.

Oklahoma

Driving around in the countryside of Oklahoma, I started noticing that there were windbreaks all over the place! You can use the same principle around your home.

A hand out for you

I have added a link for a handout that takes you through the step of how to think about landscaping not only for beauty but also for your comfort.

It all starts with understanding the energy flows

It all starts with understanding the energy flow that comes in and out of your building and how that works with the sun.

The key generator

The sun is the key generator of energy on our planet. So how your home is oriented on the land is the very first thing you need to look at.

Using the sunlight

You want to take advantage of the way the sun is positioned on your house to bring in warmth on the colder winter days.

Positioning

How your house is positioned allows you to take advantage of the sunlight through your windows by warming up the walls.

The foundation of your house

Your house was built on a foundation. That foundation is often a source of leakage. So you can have foundation plantings around the edge of the house. Be sure that the plantings are an appropriate space from the foundation to insulate without encroaching on the structure itself. Nurseries and landscape people can help you with the plantings that will specifically operate and grow the best in your region.

Shade trees

Shade trees are one of the best investments you can make for your land. Shade trees are a huge advantage because they will provide shade for the very sunny windows in the summer and they will lose their leaves in the winter to let the sunlight in when you need it most.

Hardscape

You can use shade trees to shade the hardscape like patios and driveways. You can also use shade trees to shade the concrete in and around your home.

Note: Shade trees take a long time to grow, so now is the best time to get started with them.

Plantings

Use plantings for exterior shading when your shade trees are not yet big enough to provide the shade. You can also use trellises, arbors, awnings, or even solar screens on the outside.

Shrubs and trees

You can plant shrubs and trees in key locations to shield your home from the prevailing winds.

Local nurseries

Local nurseries will be more than happy to help you with a plan to make your landscape beautiful and help you experience more comfort in your home and yard.

Resources

Many resources are available to help you find the best plants to use, and where to plant them. Many universities have extension programs which are a great resource.

Water

Think about how the water is running off on your property and how you are using it. Consider getting some rain barrels. Rainwater is soft and better for your plants than city water.

Native plants

Consider using some native plants in your garden. Native plants require a lot fewer resources in terms of water, pest control, and fertilizer to thrive.

Referral Links:

My website Green Home Coach

Book: Living Green Effortlessly

Facebook Group: Love Your Everyday Green Home

Landscape Guide

EGH for your Garden

Landscaping for Beauty, Energy Efficiency, and Home Comfort with Tony Pratte

Sustainable Solutions For Water and Landscape On Your Home Site

Green Landscaping with Native Plants

Frisella's All Around The Yard Podcast

"This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. That means that if you make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products or services that I believe in and usually use myself."

I'm Marla, on the Everyday Green Home Podcast. I am excited to have Tony Pratte joining me on the show today! Tony and I are good friends. We have known each other and worked together for many years. He used to be a regular co-host on this podcast back when it was called The Green Gab.

Today, we will be talking about a big, hot topic. We will be discussing the climate crisis, also called climate change or global warming.

Our intention for this podcast is to set up some basics around that topic and to look at some of the key points to follow. We hope to give you a baseline for having this conversation in your life and generate some thinking that might be different from the way you used to think.

Tony and I are not in full agreement on all aspects of this topic. However, we both feel that it is important for us, as a society, to learn how to agree to disagree about certain things, to allow us to have these conversations.

We will base our conversation primarily on three things: emotions, transparency and trust, and politics.

Positive conflict is a powerful tool

Tony is an expert in team development. He knows that team building involves understanding conflict and knowing that positive conflict is a powerful tool. It is a tool to unlock creative energies, and those creative energies can always lead to creative problem-solving.

A solution-based mindset

Tony points out that although most people have a problem-based mindset, true leaders understand that you need to have a solution-based mindset to overcome any problem. So, you need to identify the problem and then discuss the solutions.

Framing the conversation

To frame the conversation as we go forward, we need to bear in mind that we should always aim to do no harm.

A complicated issue

Many people feel uncomfortable having the conversation we are having today about global warming because we are dealing with a complicated issue. It is a passionate discussion, and it runs to the emotions. None of us want to think we are bad people or that we are wrong.

Dealing with emotions with grace

Our word for 2020 was grace. We need to be able to both give and receive grace. Grace can be a good baseline to help us get through the emotions that arise when we talk about difficult topics like the one we are discussing today.

Taking action

We need to take action, regardless of our beliefs and emotions. We need to figure out how to find solutions.

This conversation

Sharpening our listening skills becomes vital for the conversation about climate change and global warming. You have to be able to handle another person's emotions on this topic with grace. Our biases are very strong things, so you need to fully understand what the other person is saying and validate their opinions, whether you agree with them or not, to move forward.

Compassion

Developing your compassion will help you to discuss this emotive topic with grace.

Transparency and trust

Transparency engenders trust. Currently, we live in a society and in a time of a constant information cycle. We have a class of leaders in politics, business, and thought who cannot wrap their heads around the current 24/7 information cycle because everything they do can get found somewhere. As a result, they need to be concerned about anything that they might be hiding.

Money

Money is influencing the topic of climate change on all sides. The motivation is to keep the conversation narrow and as simple as possible. Because when the conversation takes its true and complicated form, it becomes hard to influence others.

Influence

For Tony, talking about transparency and trust comes down to the fact that people are trying to influence others based on power and money.

Products

Most of us always trusted the people who provide the products that we buy. Now, we are discovering that there are skeletons in the closet, and there are words in the lists of ingredients on the products that mean something quite different from what those words truly mean. That adds to the element of distrust.

Cognitive bias

When people realize that they cannot trust someone, they revert to their cognitive bias and develop a stronger emotional connection to that bias.

Well-paid spin doctors

Tony believes that in politics, there is a legion of well-paid spin doctors who are there to keep discussions binary. So for today's topic, you either believe in climate change and that it is real and dangerous, or you are a climate deny-er, and you think it is all a hoax.

Constituents

As constituents, we have the power to pay more attention to those for whom we are voting.

We need to question

We should not allow politicians to frame an argument in one way or another. That is ultimately our personal choice, so we need to start questioning everything.

To truly understand

To truly understand what goes on, you have to listen actively, have both eyes open, and leave any preconceived judgment, cognitive bias, or politics at the door.

Referral Links:

My website Green Home Coach

Book: Living Green Effortlessly

Facebook Group: Love Your Everyday Green Home

Follow @greenhomecoach on Instagram

Like Green Home Coach on Facebook

Global Weirding with Dr. Katharine Hayhoe on YouTube

Matt Ridley - A Lukewarmer's Ten Tests (PDF)

Compassion Center @Emory University

I'm Marla, the Green Home Coach. Right now, health and wellness are everything, so I'm excited to have the opportunity to help you explore some things around your home that you may be able to do a little differently.

We are all spending much more time at home lately. That means that we are putting a lot more wear and tear on our homes than we did before, so you may be cleaning things up, changing things around in your house, or even redecorating.

Today, I will be focusing on the health and wellness aspect of cleaning your home. I will be walking you through the process of how you can clean because how you clean matters.

Cleaning impacts various aspects of your home

The way we think about our homes is changing. Today, I heard that healthy is the new green, and that resonated with me because cleaning your home is one of the ways you can impact the health and wellness of everyone living in it. Cleaning also helps with the maintenance side of your home.

The way you clean matters

The way that you clean makes a difference. You want to use something that truly works without requiring any extra work on your part, and you also want to use something that will not contain harmful chemicals that could harm your health and wellness or on that of your family or your pets.

Choices

There are many choices that you can make in the non-toxic, chemical-free space. And many subscription services are coming up in that space.

Step one

The first thing you need to do is to remove all the debris and dust. I never use paper towels unless there is something very nasty to be removed, like pet mess. I use microfiber cloths because they work well, and after using them, I can simply throw them in the wash.

Polishing

I follow up by polishing stainless steel appliances, glass items, and mirrors with all-natural linen or a cotton tea towel.

Shabby Chick

Shabby Chick is a woman-owned company in Oklahoma. At Shabby Chick, all their products are natural, and they list the ingredients on the back, so you know what is in each product. They make an all-purpose cleaner and a stainless steel and glass cleaner. You can order them online.

Better life

Better Life Cleaning Products was founded in St. Louis, and they also make natural cleaning products.

Cleaning floors

We vacuum once in a while to remove the dust. Then we use washable mops to clean our floors. The mops were made by Bona, which also makes other natural cleaning products.

Specialty tools

You can use some specialty tools with microfiber cloths to clean things like blinds and the tops of your ceiling fans. After using them, the microfiber cloths can go into the wash.

Getting rid of dirt and debris

You want to get the dirt and debris off the floors, countertops, bathroom surfaces, faucets, ledges, window sills, blinds, ceiling fans, lamps, and light bulbs.

DIY

Many people make their own cleaning products out of cleaning vinegar. There are many recipes online for making different cleaning formulas, using vinegar, lemons, and baking soda.

Baking soda

Baking soda is abrasive, so it also makes a great scrubby powder to put in with any of your cleaners. And you can sprinkle some baking soda onto your rugs to freshen them up.

Sanitizing and disinfecting

It is best to use an EPA-registered disinfectant. Go to the EPA website to look for registered products. We found two different cleaning products that work similarly.

One is Force of Nature, which is an appliance that rearranges the molecules in water, vinegar, and salt, to make a safe cleaner that also disinfects and sanitizes. The other one is the Tersano iClean, which uses technology to electrolyze the water to create a safe disinfecting and sanitizing agent on the spot, out of tap water.

Preventative measures

We have several doormats, both indoors and outdoors, to capture the dirt and keep it out of the house, so we don't have to clean as much.

Cleaner air

You also capture a lot of dirt in the filter for your heating and cooling unit, so you should clean it regularly. A MERV 13 filter will make for even better filtering if your cooling unit can handle it. I use a Green Screen air filter, which works on a different system from the pleated filters. You can also get HEPA filters with air purifiers to clean the air in your home.

Plants

Having lots of plants in your home also helps to clean some of the chemical toxins and pollutants out of the air.

A schedule

It helps if you can create a schedule where you spend just a few minutes each day doing some quick cleanup tasks so that you don't have to do as much when you do a full house clean. Then you can have weekly tasks like mopping and cleaning the bathroom. You can do a deep clean once a month.

Simplifying and decluttering

Simplifying things, and decluttering, means that there will be fewer things for you to have to clean.

Referral Links:

My website Green Home Coach

Book: Living Green Effortlessly

Facebook Group: Love Your Everyday Green Home

Everyday Green Home Cleaning Collection

Green Your Cleaning

Dusting your Home

Gift of No Touch Home

Home Tips for Women

More Home Tips for Women

I'm Marla, the Green Home Coach, and I'm back today with Chapter 7, the final chapter of my book, Living Green Effortlessly: Simple Choices for a Better Home.

On today's episode, you're going to learn what a Certified Green Home is and the various reasons why you might want to consider one. Whether you dream big or dream small, there's something out there for everyone, as you'll soon find out. Listen in - I think you will hear about some things you can put into action.

I thank you for joining in and learning about how to make simple choices for your better home!

Turning your dreams into goals

Many people have never thought about the possibility of turning their dreams into goals and creating a certified green home for themselves.

Money, time, and effort

Most of us spend a large amount of money, time, and effort on our homes because they mean a lot to us.

An ideal green home

Ideally, a dream green home would be off the grid, with no mortgage or electric bill. The water would come from a well, but it would still have every modern luxury. That is do-able, but you would need a plan.

Energy-efficient homes

There are energy-efficient homes in every part of the country, so you could take a look at them to inspire you.

A road map

You could work with any builder, as long as you have a road map and know what you want. You have to set your priorities, and you need to understand how to accomplish your goals and dreams.

A certified green home

Having a certified green home means that your home has a third-party, independent verification. Having a third-party to inspect everything means that there is someone always looking over the process, the materials, and the selections, to make sure they meet the criteria set forth by that specific plan.

Higher quality

Third-party certification goes hand-in-hand with quality. So, it is usually consistent for green homes that are certified and use energy-efficient programs to be of higher quality.

Energy Star

There is an energy-efficient home certification under Energy Star. So, new homes can be certified under Energy Star for energy-efficiency only. The products inside the house can also be Energy Star certified. There are also other energy-efficiency programs and ratings that you may run into.

Green home certification

The green home certification programs are much more holistic. They include all the different parts of the home, and they take a lot of other things, above and beyond energy-efficiency, into account as well. There are national, as well as numerous regional, and local green home certification programs.

The benefits of a green-certified home

One of the benefits of a green-certified home is the health and safety of you and everyone else living in that home. Another benefit is that the resale value of your home tends to be better, and green-certified houses tend to sell faster. All the certification programs give you, as the homeowner and inhabitant of the home, the peace of mind and reassurance that your home has that third-party stamp of approval that stays with that home, and that can be very important if you ever decide to sell the house.

Comfort

We all want to be comfortable, especially in our homes.

Cost savings

There are many ongoing and long-term cost savings to be had from green-certified homes. Those could be the operating costs, the maintenance costs, and the insurance costs.

Planning is key when building an affordable green home

Like every other home, green homes come in all shapes and sizes. They can range from basic to high-end luxury. Some of the specifics that you follow in the building process are what make it a green home. Sustainable planning is key when building a green home because making changes down the line can create a domino-effect of throwing things off.

Goals

When doing your planning, you need to know what the goals of your planning process are. So, you need to design your home with the end in mind, incorporate sustainable or green and energy-efficient design-building and materials, and you need to reduce the operating, utility, and maintenance costs.

Materials

For a green-certified home, you need to use longer-lasting materials and have lower maintenance and recyclable and renewable contents.

Some things to think about

You have to think in a balanced and holistic way about your home, so you need to consider the categories of selections, products, materials, and processes used to build a home that meets the green homes certification program. You need to think about the materials you use, the indoor environmental quality, the education and documentation, and the energy and water-efficiency of the home. You also need to choose your community, and where you want your home to be situated.

Paying for your home

Incentives and rebates are available in the different states. There are many green and energy-efficient loans available. Green insurance, warranties, and energy guarantees may also be available for your home.

Referral Links:

My website Green Home Coach

Book: Living Green Effortlessly

Facebook Group: Love Your Everyday Green Home

My curated collection for you

eBook – Certifying a Green Home

Helping Builders Build Green

Green Home Certification Program I work with the most: NGBS Green

NAHB Sustainability Kit High-Performance Homes Videos

I'm Marla, the Green Home Coach, and I'm back to discuss Chapter 6 of my book, Living Green Effortlessly- Simple Choices for a Better Home.

I hope you will find some helpful information to help you make simple choices for your better home because that is what this podcast is all about.

Today, we'll dig into understanding the components and the systems in our homes and how to get information about how to take care of them, repair them, and replace them.

I want to help you to learn how to take the power of living healthier and more comfortably in your home.

A home that serves us

There are so many things that we all need to do to serve our homes. What we want is a home that serves us, and works to supports us. One of the main premises behind green and greener homes is having a home that supports us and makes our lives easier and better.

A better home

Everything about green, sustainability, eco-friendly, and high performance boils down to a better home for you to live in with your family, friends, and anyone else who lives in your home with you, including your furry friends.

User manuals

We all need our user manuals. The average home in the US has a minimum of 75 systems and components that are relied on daily. Each of those systems and components has a manual.

When you bring something new into your home

When you get a manual for something new that you bring into your home, I suggest that you write down, on the manual, the serial number of the item, the purchase date, the purchase price, and the place you purchased it from. Then file the manual away in an easily accessible place.

If you do not have a manual

If you do not have a manual for something in your home, you can search the internet to find one. When you find it, bookmark it to have easy access to it whenever you need it.

There are even special sites for old manuals. You can try searching for old user manuals.

Why user manuals matter

User manuals usually tell you how to maintain an item, take care of it, and clean it. They also provide repair and warranty information about the item. They often have a contact number, website, or email for the company that makes the product.

A running list

You need to have a running list of all the items that need a routine inspection and/or maintenance, and having a system to remind you to go through that list regularly, as part of your household chores, is a great idea.

Heating and cooling

You need to change the filter of your heating and cooling system regularly. By doing that, you will impact the efficiency of how that heating and cooling unit runs. It will also make the air in your home better so that you breathe better.

You also need to check your outdoor heating and cooling unit regularly and also get it serviced regularly.

Check your roof

Check your roof by taking a picture of it with your smartphone, and zoom in. You should check your roof regularly if you live in an area prone to hail or wind damage. Also, remember to check the gutters and the downspouts.

Once a year walk-around

Once a year, do a more thorough walk-around. You can look at the outside of your doors and windows, check the weather-stripping, and see if any caulking needs to be replaced.

Garage doors

You need to check your garage doors and the remote opening system regularly.

One of the greenest and most sustainable things that you can do

One of the greenest and most sustainable things that you can do in your home is to make sure that everything in it continues to work and last. That requires basic maintenance, so you need to keep an eye on things.

A tip for your winter maintenance

Do your winter maintenance while the weather is still warm. And make some space to store your outdoor items like your patio and garden furniture during the winter.

Seasonal checklists

My friend, Tina Gleisner, had a handyman business, and she shared some great ideas for my book. She suggests that you make things easier for yourself by dividing your home maintenance into four seasonal checklists.

Winter home maintenance

Winter home maintenance happens indoors. You can find and repair the minor, annoying things you try to ignore for the rest of the year.

Spring home maintenance

Spring home maintenance gets you outdoors to find and repair any storm damage and prepare your yard for the growing season.

Summer home maintenance

Summer home maintenance is about outdoor safety, living spaces, and landscaping projects.

Home maintenance priorities

In all four seasons, your priorities are the safety of those inside your home, water damage inside and outside, and energy-efficiency.

Tips for your checklists

Pick the items on your list that you want to do yourself and find reliable home professionals to do the rest.

Find an experienced homeowner or professional to help you check your home once or twice until you know what to look out for.

A three-part ongoing process

Maintaining a home is a three-part ongoing process: inspect, maintain, and update.

Write things down

You need to write things down and keep records of what you have done because that will make things simpler for you and save you a lot of grief and bother down the road. It will also help you when you want to sell your house.

A home recovery plan

After a disaster, your priority is safety. Once everything is safe, you can focus on recovery. Having a home recovery plan before you need it will help you get things back on track sooner after a disaster.

Referral Links:

My website Green Home Coach

Book: Living Green Effortlessly

Facebook Group: Love Your Everyday Green Home

My curated collection for you

HomeNav

Navigating Home Maintenance Without Driving Yourself Crazy

Home Maintenance Checklists with Tina Gleisner

This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. That means that if you make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products or services that I believe in and usually use myself.

I'm Marla, The Green Home Coach. Thank you for joining me on the journey of learning about your home, and discovering how you can make some simple choices to make it an even better, greener home.

Today, we will be covering Chapter 5 of my book, Living Green Effortlessly: Simple Choices for a Better Home. Chapter 5 is about landscaping. Your home sits on the land, it interacts with that land, the land supports your home, and the landscaping is the crux of that.

Your enjoyment, recreation, and even food might be a part of the land that surrounds your home. Often, when we think of landscape, we think of curb appeal. There are many different things that can come into play with that, and that is what we will be covering today.

Health, wellness, safety, and comfort

For most of the people I talk to, their health, wellness, safety, and comfort are of utmost importance. Often, our homes are not providing that. I would like to help you find how you can do that in your own home. I'd like to help you find the things in your home that may not be working in your best interest, and I also want to help you to create a home that you enjoy, that supports you and the people that live there, and that gives you a great sense of peace, peace of mind, and wellbeing.

Little things that we can do

There are so many little things that we can do in our homes that will add up to a greener home, and I want you to live life to the fullest in your home.

Many ways to do things

There are many different ways to do things. Some of the ways that can be the most supportive of our health and wellbeing are often simple or have been around for a long time.

Your home and that landscape surrounding it

Your home and that landscape around it can even support each other in energy conservation. So, you can use the landscape surrounding your home to make your home more energy-efficient.

Plants

You can have plants planted at the proper distance around your foundation to help insulate the foundation and the bottom part of your home.

Trees

You can plant taller trees on one side of your house to be a wind-break. You can use trees or shrubs for shade. They will also lower the temperature in your home by several degrees.

Hardscape

The hardscape is the hard surfaces that surround the home. They can be concrete patios, driveways, or a flagstone or gravel patio. Dark concrete will absorb the heat, so it is a good option for colder climates. Lighter surfaces like light concrete will reflect the heat and help to keep the surface and the areas surrounding it cool.

Permeable materials

Permeable materials, like stone patios, or gravel, will allow the rainwater to go through them. It will then go down into the ground and the water table.

Water

Water is powerful, so you need to know how to manage the water around your house most effectively. Stormwater is the biggest consideration for the outside of our homes. If you have a lot of water running off of your property, into the street, and down to the watershed system, it will carry away whatever you put onto your yard, your garden, and around your house.

Chemical fertilizers or pesticides

If you have used chemical fertilizers or pesticides, it will all get washed down to the watershed, so it is always best to use as few of those substances as possible. Chemicals genetically alter or kill fish and other aquatic creatures and plants that form part of the closed water system on earth.

To keep more water on your property

To keep more water on your property, you can either use rain barrels or rain gardens.

Sprinkler systems

There are ways to install sprinkler systems so that they are more water-efficient. Some of that is in the settings. Some of it is in the choice of sprinkler-heads, and some of it is adding a rain sensor so that the sprinkler does not go off when it rains.

Smart irrigation systems

Designing or upgrading your water irrigation system to be smart can make a big difference.

WaterSense

WaterSense is a third-party, independent certification program that helps identify water-conserving and water-efficient fixtures and installations.

If you do not need irrigation

If you do not need irrigation, you could install a drip system or soaker hoses.

Having a beautiful lawn and garden

There are eco-friendly and bird and human-friendly ways to make your lawn and garden grow without any chemicals. The cost of using chemicals is very steep for the earth, so it is always better to do without them, whenever possible.

Native plants

Choose native plants that work in harmony with nature, thrive in your area of the country, require little water and maintenance, attract wildlife, and help control invasive species. Native plants do not need chemicals, fertilizer, or water, so they save you water, time, and money. With native plants, you do not have to spend a lot of time working in the garden.

Referral Links:

My website Green Home Coach

Book: Living Green Effortlessly

Facebook Group: Love Your Everyday Green Home

Landscaping for Energy Efficiency and more

EGH for your Garden

Grow Inside

Grow Outside

More on Landscaping

This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. That means that if you make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products or services that I believe in and usually use myself.

Today, I'm sharing a podcast that I recorded with Madison Hopkins for her podcast, the Modern Ways Eco-Friendly Homes Podcast.

Madison is quite the go-getter! She is also a real estate agent with Moving With Madison in the Denver area.

In this episode, Madison and I talk about the 5 Myths of Green Homes. It is a guide that I put out, and it is available on my website.

We dive into the five myths of green homes. We talk about green means in the home environment, when it comes to living in an environmentally friendly way and living healthier, safer, and more comfortably, with more durability and less maintenance.

Living in a green home is vital for having a healthier and more comfortable living experience. And the term "green" describes the products and the practices necessary for making our homes both healthier and more comfortable.

Be sure to listen in to hear my conversation with Madison about the 5 Myths of Green Homes.

The people to who the guide is aimed

The 5 Myths of Green Homes guide are aimed at those who work with homeowners and home dwellers, like builders, designers, and real estate agents.

People who live in rented homes

I would like to remind those of you who live in rented or leased homes that there is still a lot you can do, even if you do not own the property in which you live.

People who live in apartments

Those of you who live in apartments can switch to wind energy, and you can also compost. Those are two easy things that you can do to create a greener home.

City-wide sponsored composting

In Denver, there is city-wide sponsored composting available from the Denver gov when there is a single-family home. There are also private companies that supply compost in the Denver area.

Renewable energy

Many utility companies offer an option for you to have either a part of or all of your electric bill filled by renewable energy. That is a way for us to contribute, as individuals, to our utilities having more renewable energy.

The 5 Myths of Green Homes

Myth 1: Green only matters to certain clients, like millennials

Myth 2: No one is asking for green homes

Myth 3: Green is expensive

Myth 4: Solar panels are the hallmark of a green home

Myth 5: Green is just the latest trend

Those are the five common myths about green homes. We will discuss each of those in a little more detail.

Myth 1 - Green only matters to certain clients, like millennials

It's not just millennials. Everyone needs to be cared for. Many people look to the younger generations for where things are going because that's mostly where trends start. And then those trends move up the demographics, from the people to older people. So, even though there has been lots of action and vocalizing from millennials around green and sustainable living, we still need to understand what is important to everyone in each demographic. For example, a retired couple, or a mom with a young baby that crawls around need to find the specific features in the homes they are looking for, building, or remodeling.

Things to look out for

For cabinets, look for the green label and avoid formaldehyde.

For floors, go for natural products that are produced in a chemically responsible way or those made from recycled materials. Or possibly even a combination of those. If you have allergies, avoid carpets as far as possible because they are a trap for the dirt and dust in your home.

Myth 2 - No one is asking for green homes

People are asking for energy efficiency, and many people assume that green is energy-efficient.

It is important to ask questions, but many people don't know what to ask for when it comes to green homes. That is why Madison and her real estate team tell people about what they can do to make their homes greener.

There are grocery stores or isles in grocery stores dedicated to products with a lot fewer chemicals.

Myth 3 - Green is expensive

Doing the practices and using the products in a home that will help it become green certified can cost a little more. The cost is typically only between three and five percent more than that of a code-built house, and some fixtures in green homes use much less energy. So the operating costs will remain the same, year after year.

Myth 4 - Solar panels are the hallmark of a green home

Before fitting the solar panels, every solar installer that I know personally will have the home undergo an energy analysis and tighten it up before they size the solar panels. After that, a large solar panel might not be necessary.

Newer solar panels are more efficient than the older ones, and they also cost significantly less than they did ten years ago.

Myth 5 - Green is just the latest trend

Green has been around for decades. When the National Association of Homebuilders took an official position on green homes, it was all the proof I needed to debunk that myth.

National Green Building Standard

For the last ten years, I have been teaching around a green building standard called the ICC 700 National Green Building Standard (I call it the NGBS for short) endorsed by the National Association of Home Builders. It provides a framework of categories to follow for homes that are getting built or remodeled.

The NGBS teaches people how to keep their homes serving them.

The five categories of the National Green Building Standard are:

1. Where the home is situated
2. Efficiencies in resources
3. Energy and water
4. Indoor environmental quality
5. Behavioral - for homeowner education and documentation (How to live in your home and operate it to keep it green)

Green and sustainability

I'd like to caution you that "green" and "sustainability" are catch-all terms that could mean different things to different people. These words encompass safer things that make your home more comfortable and durable and require less maintenance.

Different people want different things out of their homes, and green and sustainable practices are almost always the route to get them.

Referral Links:

My website Green Home Coach

Book: Living Green Effortlessly

Facebook Group: Love Your Everyday Green Home

Download: 5 Myths of Green Homes

Curated collection for you

Work with Me

How a Green Home Saves You Money

I'm Marla, The Green Home Coach. I'm back today with another chapter from my book, Living Green Effortlessly: Simple Choices for a Better Home.

I wrote the book to help you and share some of my experiences so that you won't have to make the same mistakes that I was making.

Our homes have a secret life that we may not even know about as a result of all the complexities of our modern lifestyle. You could unknowingly be living in a home that is not in your best interest, and it could be making you sick.

We will be covering chapter four of my book today. It talks about some actions that we can take to change some small stuff in our homes. We will be looking at what goes in your home, what you need to think about, what you need to look for, and what you need to choose.

Choices

Many of the choices you need to make are inside your home. They are the more decorative elements and the fixtures and fittings that you choose.

What the things in your house are made up of

The things in your house are made out of wood, metal, glass, paint, varnish, glue, and plastic. It can be hard to know which products are made the best, the most efficient, and the most earth and people-friendly. To find out, you can check on various websites online, especially the non-profits that set the standards on sustainable, eco-friendly products.

VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and toxins

You do not want to bring VOCs or toxins into your home if you don't have to. If you don't know they are there, however, you might bring them home by mistake.

Labels

There are now labels that go on building materials and other goods that we buy. Those labels are not yet as standardized as the food labels are, but some good strides are getting made, and there are also a lot of independently tested and verified third-party certifications that can go on those labels. Those certifications are a great short cut to knowing that your product has been tested and certified by someone unrelated to the company.

Flooring

There are hundreds of choices for flooring, and they all have their pros and cons. You only need to focus on what will work best for you, based on your personal preference, performance, fashion, and lifestyle. You can also take into account the manufacturing methods and the carbon footprint.

Types of flooring

Wooden floors: You can think of true hardwood flooring as furniture for your floor. When it comes to colors, remember that darker colors show the dirt a lot.

Bamboo floors: Bamboo is a grass that grows very fast. It can get harvested every seven years, making it a rapidly renewable resource. However, it takes lots of resources to transport the bamboo from Asia and manufacture it into products.

Cork floors: Cork is the bark of the cork tree. It is very resilient and the softest of all the hard surfaces, making it comfortable to walk on. It is a natural insect repellent, and it is mold and mildew resistant. Cork is a fairly rapidly-renewable resource because it can get harvested every nine years.

Stone and tile floors: Stone and tile are great choices for asthma and allergy sufferers because they are easy to clean and don't hold dust and dirt. The issue with stone and tile floors is that they tend to get very cold in cold weather.

Local options for flooring

Try to find a local option to supply your flooring, if possible.

Decisions

There are many decisions for you to make when you choose materials to use in your home. Always start with whatever is the most important to you that fits into your budget. From there, consider the pros and cons of all the different options.

The three Rs

Remember to reduce, reuse, and recycle items whenever possible. By doing that, you will help keep the landfills from getting out of control.

Toilet paper

Forests get used to manufacture toilet paper. You can get away from using toilet paper made from big trees by using toilet paper made from recycled paper or non-tree toilet paper made from bamboo or hemp.

Referral Links:

My website Green Home Coach

Book: Living Green Effortlessly

Facebook Group: Love Your Everyday Green Home

Curated collection for you

Paint, etc

Flooring

Green Guard

Environmental Working Group