Sustainable Living

Many people live in apartments for various reasons.  Let’s face it, houses are expensive and if you buy anything for $100,000 or more and pay over 30 years, you actually end up paying three times the actual cost of the house.  So until we can put a sizable chuck down on a piece of land and build our own “off the grid” self sufficient home, we will begrudgingly rent.

I have rented apartments in Minnesota and Arizona.  My top complaints with these buildings are the lack of foresight into the energy efficiency of the buildings and the lack of recycling in the apartment community.  In Minnesota the insulation was terrible on most places resulting in monstrous heating bills.  In Arizona, so many buildings are colored to absorb rather than reflect the blaring sunlight and so few buildings capture sunlight on the roofs with solar panels.  Appliances are often not energy efficient, window glass is not insulated, carpeting is made from plastics, the list goes on and on.

However, there are some things a renter stuck in a situation where they are unable to control these factors can do to have a smaller eco footprint:

1. Rent small. For most of us who work all day, home is a place for eating, relaxing and sleeping.  Assess your family’s space needs and rent the smallest apartment necessary. This will save you money each month on your rent, and in your
   

   Using the top of the cabinet as a bookshelf. A little herb garen below.

   heating or cooling bills.  For just the two of us, this meant sizing down to a 595 sq ft. Studio.  You may have to get creative in utilizing your space when downsizing.  If you approach it as a challenge and an opportunity to free yourself of unnecessary “stuff” you may have accumulated over the years, it can be a rewarding experience.  We solved our lack of storage predicament by buying a metal frame fold up bed that has 14″ clearance for under the bed storage.  Instead of buying a bookshelf, we used the top of our kitchen cabinet to keep books.  It looks chic, saves space and money!

2. Solar may still be in the cards. Most apartment complexes do not allow you to install solar panels outside your apartment, but there are still some ways to get around this.  If you have a porch that gets full sun, you can rig a mobile solar unit and run the power into your home for day use things like computers.  There are also solar bedside lamps or desk lamps that you can set outside to charge during the day and use at night.  Or if you are a DIY type person, you can rig up a small solar panel light yourself. You can even hang a solar panel in your window that will charge your iphone when you get home from work.
3. Freeing yourself of THINGS. I have a rule about my clothing.  If I have not worn it in a year or I didn’t know I had it, it is time to get rid of it.  This motto bleeds into
   

   The studio laundry/utility room had only one shelf, so we installed two more metal shelves for towels and cleaning supplies.

   other areas of my possessions, making me prone to throw things on craigslist.com or donate to Goodwill.  Keeping my life clutter-free allows me to need less space to live and to store.  In our family, everything we own that is not “in use” a majority of  the time is stored under our queen bed.  This mainly consists of camping gear and out-of-season clothing.

4. Quality over quantity. In our house, we have a very low tolerance for plastic and disposable things.  When we do buy items for our home, we insist that they be made of quality materials, even if it means paying more.  Buying a glass food storage set may cost four times as much as buying a Gladware pack, but the glass will last forever, will not have BPA leaching, and has a better resale value if we decide to pass them along.  Glass and metals are also easier to recycle than plastics.
5. Buy reclaimed. Furniture and antiques are a great way to recycle furnishings from the past.  Make a family project out of finding interesting garage sale pieces and fixing them up to fit your home.  Or if you have a little more to spend, stop by a quality antique shop.  These places carry beautiful reclaimed pieces that come from Europe, Asia and date back often to the 1700’s.  You’ll find dining tables with thick cuts of wood that you would never be able to buy brand new.  These pieces often are comparibly priced with high end Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel funishings, but with antiques you get the benifit of adding some history to your home and recycling all at once.  The quality of the antique wood is often far better than any modern furnishing.
6. Grow your own herbs. Get creative and make a little ledge or indoor garden.  If light is what you lack, use a flourecent or led lamp (powered by solar?) and cut your own fresh herbs, tomatoes, whatever you have space and time for.
7. Recycle! At our current apartment, they do not advertise where the recycling recepticle is located.  I had to call the front desk to figure out where it was.  Because I had a difficult time finding it, I assumed that other residents might not know either.  So I sent a letter to the management of the complex asking if there was a way to make residents more aware of where to recycle and requesting that they put a permanent sign on the recycle bin so that non-recyclables would not be thrown in by accident.  Be proactive in your apartment community.  Most people will not recycle unless it is easy, so you may have to insist that your management be more helpful in letting residents know where and how to recycle.

Learn more: Glass in the Bath, Growing an Herb Garden