It's important to plan ahead when you're moving home and even more so if you're wanting to make your house move a more eco-friendly house move. It's not just by doing the expected tasks of recycling packing and packaging materials or selling items you don't need online or giving them to a charity shop, there's a whole lot of other little things you can do which when added up mean you can look back on your moving day and say, at the very least, you did your bit for the environment.
One example of this is food. Think well ahead to your moving day and look at all the foodstuffs in your house. We hear all the time about how much food an average household throws out at any time. When you're moving home, you certainly don't want to be taking any foodstuffs with you for a reason such as spillages and food going off during the journey.
Also, if you're moving abroad, you should be aware that certain foods, often surprisingly, are not allowed to be entered into certain countries.
In regards to making your house move an eco-friendly home move, however, it's all about cutting down on waste. So, say you have two months till you're moving home then things like sauces, chutneys, jams etc need to be used up beforehand. It's also items like pasta and rice which would usually last a long time but that you need to use up so that you don't end up throwing them out. Of course, the main way you can avoid this is by not buying more of what you already have. This can be easier said than done because there's always the temptation, or indeed it may just be a habit, to buy more of what you already have.
Yet, if you're wanting a greener home move then you have to make that little bit extra effort and make sure you get everything right. So this means that even though you have indeed got all your packing boxes, packing and packaging materials from friends and family and you have sold items such as books and clothes online or given them to a charity shop, you still need to do more. Food is often an area when moving home that is overlooked and only realised at the last minute or at a time just before you moving where you don't have any more time to make a difference.
It's not just foodstuffs but things like washing powder, washing-up liquid, cleaning materials and even bathroom liquids such as bleaches, that ideally you don't want to be taking with you on a long journey and yet you don't want to be throwing these stuffs out if you're wanting to be eco-friendly. So this is why as soon as you know you're moving house, make an inventory of these types of items in your home. Whether it's one month, two months before or longer, the time in the build up to your moving day goes incredibly quickly.
Without adequate preparation you'll find you're throwing out so much stuff in the days leading up to your moving day which could have been avoided if you had acted quicker.
It doesn't mean you have to eat more than you want to or use up more cleaning products just for the sake of it, it's just about being aware of the time you have between now and your moving day and using all the perishable items in your home before you buy new ones as you would often do usually. If you are looking to have a more eco-friendly house move then by doing this that's just what you'll have.
