Little but Effective Ways to Go Green While Living in an Apartment

Small but effective changes can be made while living in
​apartments in Lafayette La.

There was once a time when eco-friendly habits were commended, even when they were considered casual at best. For example, turning off lights when leaving a room, segregating the trash, but these habits wouldn’t be considered conscious green living.  

The news coverage of an escalating climate crisis and mountains of plastics in our oceans has pushed many to think about the amount of attention they dedicate toward eco-friendly habits in their day-to-day lives.   

Over the years, many have added limiting food waste, recycling paper, and properly disposing of remote batteries.  Rarely do the conscious use plastic bags, rather they opt to carry reusable totes to grocery shop.  Shifting to mindful eco-friendly wasn’t a big task, although it didn’t happen in a day.  It required pause and mindful changes in their daily routine.  Careful not to be hard on themselves about past discrepancies, instead they looked to areas where they could slowly integrate better habits.   

Below are several ways to make eco-friendly living a habit while living in apartments in Lafayette La:

Make small changes
Consider unplugging your phone charger when not in use, air drying towels instead of throwing them in the dryer, and consider buying a Brita water filter pitcher and reusable drinking bottle, rather than plastic water bottles.  One or two, maybe all three, small changes are easy enough to integrate into daily life and save you money in the long run.   

As you consider adopting eco-friendly mindfulness, find an area in your life where you can easily do better - then commit to it.   It is easier to make lasting changes if you focus on one facet of your life at a time.

Many eco-conscious choose to change their food consumption practices; forgoing store-bought or processed foods, they choose organic foods grown without pesticides and Genetically Modified Organisms to locally grown produce and organic meats and fish. In contrast, others focus on discarding harmful cleaning products, opting for organic solutions.   

Consider the various areas in your life and how to integrate eco-conscious habits in smaller ways.  For example, if you are in the practice of using your dryer to dry your linens, a workable first step is to commit to line drying your clothes one time a week; you can always throw them in the dryer to soften them – but the time it takes to soften laundry is a fraction of the time it takes to dry an entire load.   Once you establish line drying clothing once a week, you can build on it.   

Don’t be hard on yourself if you slip up.
Establishing new habits takes time, and when life gets busy, it can be challenging to prioritize living greener while you are overwhelmed with responsibilities.  If life becomes hectic, reframe how you view eco-friendliness.  Rather than judging yourself, simply pick back up at your earliest convenience.  Eco-friendly living is not a zero-sum game; the goal is progress.  With good-faith efforts, it’s possible to cause a ripple effect as your friends and family watch you practice eco-friendliness, not to mention the generational influence your actions may have.

Apartments in Lafayette La - Lafayette Gardens Apartment