How to make your Bedroom Eco-Friendly
The average adult spends around 9 hours a day in the bedroom.
Thus, it is one of the most important rooms in our entire home.
Therefore, not only should you make sure that you feel comfortable and relaxed in your sleeping room, you should also try to make it as green as possible in order to save our planet and also to improve your health.
In this article, many tips on how you can make your bedroom more eco-friendly are given.
18 simple ways to make your bedroom more eco-friendly
- Organic bed and slatted frame
- Eco-friendly mattress
- Organic mattress cover
- Organic bedding
- LED lights
- Eco-friendly curtains
- Eco-friendly furniture
- Replace your windows
- Wash your bedding with natural detergents
- Use environmentally-friendly paint
- Buy eco-friendly pajamas
- Grow plants
- Use natural materials for flooring
- Decoration from recycled materials
- Carpet from eco-friendly materials
- Eco-friendly candles
- Lower your room temperature
- Think long-term
Organic bed and slatted frame
Everyone needs or wants to have a new bed from time to time.
If you are one of those people, make sure that you rely on natural and sustainable materials for your bed frame and your slatted frame.
Don’t buy those things out of plastic materials, since plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental problems.
Instead, look out for bed and slatted frames made out of bamboo.
Bamboo is a sustainable material since it grows quite fast and also is reasonably cheap.
Thus, by buying beds made out of bamboo, you can make your contribution to saving our environment and you can also save money at the same time.
Win-win situation as I would say! 😉
Eco-friendly mattress
When it comes to buying decisions regarding mattresses, people often go for the cheaper ones since they want to save money.
However, a high-quality mattress is quite important for a good sleep, which in turn directly impacts our health and our overall well-being.
For good sleep, it is also important to rely on organic materials rather than on synthetic ones, since they are usually much more breathable and also better for our skin.
Also, from an environmental standpoint, organic mattresses should be preferred over conventional ones made out of synthetic materials, since the use of synthetics leads to the production of plastic waste.
Thus, when you consider buying a new mattress, make sure that it is organic and also produced under fair labor conditions.
Your sleep will be even better if your conscience is clean.
As they say, a clean conscience is a good pillow! 😉
Organic mattress cover
Using organic materials is not only important for your mattress, but also for the mattress cover.
If you use synthetic mattress covers, your skin will be in contact with these synthetic materials every night, which might lead to allergic reactions for sensitive people.
Especially if you are one of those people, you should try to use a mattress cover made out of natural materials.
Chances are that you feel much better.
Since organic mattress covers are not too much more expensive compared to conventional ones, the switch to organic covers should basically be a no-brainer!
Organic bedding
In conjuncture with an organic mattress and a mattress cover from natural materials, you should further make sure that your bedding is also made out of organic fabrics.
If you consider buying new bedding, make sure that it is made out of organic materials.
Moreover, make sure that it has been produced under fair labor conditions.
Many manufacturers that support fair labor have labels to prove it.
Make sure that you look out for those labels in order to improve the living conditions of people in poor countries and to improve your ecological footprint at the same time.
LED lights
Lighting is an important topic in every room in your house, also in your bedroom.
Old conventional light bulbs usually need plenty of energy to work.
There are many more energy-efficient alternatives. Try to use LEDs instead of conventional lights.
You will be surprised how much electricity and money you can save in the long run by simply switching to more eco-friendly lighting.
Many of the LED lighting systems are also not that expensive, so it should be an easy step for you to transit to more energy-efficient lighting.
Eco-friendly curtains
To make your bedroom even eco-friendlier, also try to use curtains made out of organic materials instead of plastic ones.
Also make sure that these curtains are produced under fair labor conditions.
Moreover, make sure to check out the reviews.
You should look out for curtains which are quite long-lasting, since products that only have a short lifespan are quite inefficient and lead to significant waste production and pollution of many sorts.
Thus, it is crucial that you are aware of these facts when it comes to buying decisions regarding new curtains.
Eco-friendly furniture
In general, try to make your whole furniture for your bedroom as eco-friendly as possible!
This could mean buying a cupboard made out of sustainable and organic materials.
The same is true for your bed and shelves in your sleeping room.
For instance, bamboo is a quite superior organic material since it grows quite fast and is also an entirely renewable resource. It is also quite durable.
Thus, when it comes to buying decisions regarding your bedroom furniture, you should seriously consider relying on bamboo since it is simply one if not THE best material from an environmental perspective.
Bamboo is also not quite expensive, which should make it even more attractive for you.
Replace your windows
High-quality windows can be a great contributor when it comes to saving energy in your sleeping room.
Much of our energy is lost every day since old windows are used which are quite energy-inefficient.
If you are one of these people who still use old windows, you should seriously consider switching to new energy-efficient ones.
Due to the transition from fossil to renewable energy sources, energy will likely become more expensive in the future.
Therefore, a switch to modern windows will not only be beneficial from an eco-view, but also to save you plenty of money in the long run!
Wash your bedding with natural detergents
Instead of conventional detergents, try to rely on more natural detergents instead.
Conventional detergents often contain chemicals that are harmful to our environment and may also be harmful to human health.
Thus, since you spend many hours every night in your bed, it is crucial that you switch to more natural detergents that contain fewer amounts and less harmful chemicals.
Since many companies recognized the trend to more organic and green living, it is not hard to find eco-friendly detergents in your store or also online.
Use environmentally-friendly paint
Conventional point often contains many harmful chemicals.
Among others, paint often contains VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which contribute to ozone layer depletion and can also be quite harmful to human health.
In order to protect our environment, you should look for paints with little or even better with no VOCs at all if you want to paint your bedroom.
There are some companies that specialize in offering eco-friendly paints, many of them selling their paints online.
Buy eco-friendly pajamas
When it comes to buying a pajama, you should make sure that it is produced with fair labor and also from eco-friendly and sustainable resources rather than from synthetic materials.
For instance, cotton is a quite environmentally-friendly material, since it is renewable and also fully organic.
Thus, buying a cotton pajama which is also produced under fair labor conditions should be the optimal choice to further improve your ecological footprint.
Grow plants
Having plants in your bedroom can not only improve air quality, but also can be a nice decoration.
Studies have shown that if people are more connected to nature, their mental health often improves dramatically since they are more relaxed.
Another advantage of plants is that they are usually quite cheap.
Therefore, you can save plenty of money for decoration and instead spend it on other things that can make your bedroom eco-friendly.
Use natural materials for flooring
Even though your flooring often lasts for a quite long time, the time will come when you have to replace it.
Make sure that you use natural wood instead of synthetic laminate.
Parquet should be your first choice since it is quite durable, entirely organic and made from renewable resources.
However, make sure to choose the sort of wood for your parquet wisely, as some trees are much more sustainable compared to others.
Bamboo would be an optimal choice since it grows quite fast and is also quite durable.
If you want to make a good choice to improve your eco-footprint, bamboo parquet is definitely the way to go when it comes to flooring materials.
Decoration from recycled materials
People spend large amounts on decoration items every year.
However, a big fraction of this decoration is made out of plastic.
If you buy decoration items, make sure that they are made out of sustainable materials.
If you urgently want to have decoration made out of synthetic materials, at least make sure that those decoration items are made out of recycled plastic.
The eco-friendliest option would simply be to produce your own decoration at home.
This could also be quite a lot of fun when you are doing this with your kids.
In addition, your kids would get a much better connection to nature, if you go out with them in the woods, collect natural materials and make your own decoration out of it.
Carpet from eco-friendly materials
Carpets are made out of many different materials.
However, you should avoid buying carpets made from synthetic materials.
Moreover, you should also avoid buying carpets made out of the skin or animals since those farm animals are often treated quite poorly.
Instead of buying carpets from those materials, try to rely on natural plant materials.
For instance, for carpets, cotton should be the way to go.
Just make sure that the cotton used comes from companies that oblige to fair labor in order to improve the living conditions of poor people worldwide.
Eco-friendly candles
If you are a fan of candles, you should try eco-friendly candles instead of conventional ones.
Conventional candles often contain substances that are quite harmful to our environment and also contribute to resource depletion.
By using eco-friendly candles, you would be able to reduce these negative effects to a certain extent.
Lower your room temperature
Many people excessively heat their bedrooms.
However, this is quite harmful from an environmental standpoint since it implies the use of excessive amounts of energy.
Moreover, studies have shown that the optimal bedroom temperature is actually between 60 and 64 degrees Fahrenheit (16 and 18 degrees Celsius).
However, most of the bedrooms are actually heated up to levels of 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) or more.
Thus, lowering your bedroom temperature would not only significantly reduce your energy consumption and your energy bill, your sleeping quality would likely also be increasing.
Think long-term
Which actions you take to make your bedroom greener is completely up to you.
However, always keep in mind that you should take into account the long-term benefits and costs of changes in your bedroom.
Thus, if you buy items that require some upfront costs, but amortize over their lifespan, it could be a good idea to rely on those items, even if those items might be a little bit more expensive at the beginning.
By taking into account all long-term benefits and costs for our environment and also for your wallet, you can make profound decisions according to your preferences.
Conclusion
There are plenty of ways for how you can make your bedroom more eco-friendly.
Many of them are quite simple to implement, while others take a little bit more effort and maybe also financial resources.
However, it is crucial that you keep in mind that we only have one planet and that everyone of us, especially in our rich Western world, has the responsibility to make his or her contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations.
About the author
My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.
As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.
After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.
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