While renovating your home can be an exciting endeavour, the mess and clutter that comes along with it can leave you feeling like ripping out your hair! Look on the bright side: This is a great chance to eliminate clutter, clean up your living space and start fresh. When mapping out your cleanup strategy, be sure to keep the earth in mind. Rethink the products you use, the amount of waste you dump in the garbage and the impact all this has on the environment...and your health. Here are some ideas to consider.
CLEANING STARTS BEFORE THE WORK IS DONE
If you’re able to keep the dirt and dust localized in the workspace, you won’t be forced to clean your entire house three times over during the course of renovations. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation recommends protecting your health and the environment by keeping leaded paint and renovation dust confined to the workspace and wearing personal protective equipment when working with mould or dusty environments. Use exhaust fans to redirect airflow away from the rooms you’re using (they can also help extract air from the contaminated work area), keep all work clothing confined to the workspace and clean the area and the rest of the house diligently to avoid tracking around dust.
GIVE TO HABITAT FOR HUMANITY RESTORES
Just because you’ve replaced your sink, windows, doors or flooring, it doesn’t mean that your old stuff should be automatically relegated to landfill. In fact, there’s a good chance that most of it can be reused. Habitat for Humanity ReStores will help you clear away all of your leftover building materials and resell them at inexpensive prices. The money raised helps support Habitat for Humanity’s home-building projects around the world. In 2006, an estimated 12,500 tons was diverted from landfills by the ReStores program. With 60 stores in Canada, there’s sure to be one near you. Visit habitat.ca for locations.
STOCK UP ON GREEN PRODUCTS
Did you know that the most powerful cleaning products can not only be hard on the environment but can also be deadly for your family? While stocking up on soaps and sprays, look for EcoLogo certification on products that are environmentally preferable. Greenforlife.ca, an online distributor of green cleaning products, specializes in high-quality, low-risk solutions like Eco Mist and Benefect. For other all-natural cleaning products, turn to your pantry: Baking soda, lemon juice and vinegar can be just as effective, without all the chemicals. If you prefer to use a cleaning service, Toronto-based EnviroMaid and Vancouver-based Green Maids Canada are a couple of examples of the growing number of green cleaning services available.
OFFSET YOUR RENOS
While it’s best to conserve as much energy as possible during your renovations, once the work is done you may choose to offset some of the carbon emissions caused by using power tools, transport vehicles and extra air conditioning by purchasing a CleanAirPass. This Canadian organization will help you calculate your renovation’s “carbon footprint” and give you an opportunity to invest in carbon offset projects such as tree planting and methane capture.
