Vancouver House Cleaning

The Power Of Power Strips
Turn everything off at one time. In the
average home, 75% of the electricity is
consumed while your electronics are turned
off. Plug several of those power suckers
(cell phone chargers, laptops, and even
microwaves) into one power strip in each
room. When you leave for work in the
morning, simply turn off the power strip.
This will prevent appliances from draining
energy while you are out of the house.

Let There Be Light
The easiest way to help the environment
is to change out your light bulbs with
compact fluorescent light bulbs. They can
be found anywhere you can find regular
light bulbs, and they typically cost less than
$4. If every household in America switched
five regular light bulbs for five fluorescent
bulbs, it would be the equivalent of taking
1 million cars off the highways for a full year.

Cold Water Isn’t Just For Drinking
According to the US Department of Energy,
“About 90% of the energy used for
washing clothes is for heating the water.
There are two ways to reduce the amount
of energy used for washing clothes—use
less water and use cooler water.” Go
green by washing your clothes in cold water.
If you don’t want to completely commit to
cold washing, just wash the clothes that
you are particularly worried about, such as
underwear and pillowcases, in hot or warm
water, and wash the rest on cold.

Dish It Out
Turn off the “heated dry” option on your
dishwasher and let your dishes air dry. If
you don’t have an automatic air-dry switch,
turn off the control knob after the final
rinse and prop the door open a little so
the dishes will dry faster. Also, rather than
rinsing off your dishes before putting them
into the dishwasher, just scrape the food
off into your garbage or compost bin. Most
dishwashers only require pre-rinsing for
burned or dried on food.

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast
An easy way to go green while driving is to
slow down. Speeding and other forms of
aggressive driving are costing you 5-33%
more in gas which translates to about
$0.25-$0.81/gallon. You should also remove
any excess weight. An extra 100 pounds in
your vehicle can reduce your MPG by up to
2% which translates to $0.04-$0.07/gallon.

Open Up
Let the sun pay your energy bills. In the
winter, leave your south and west facing
window shades or curtains open during the
day to let in the winter sun. Keep them
closed at night for added insulation. In the
summer, use white window treatments
to reflect heat away from the house while
still keeping it bright inside. Try energy
efficient double honeycomb cellular shades
that let in lots of light while keeping out the
heat and the cold.

Local Motion
When possible, buy local and/or organic
products. Most produce is shipped for an
average of 1500 miles before it gets to
you, which has a huge impact on our
environment. Buying local minimizes that
impact. The USDA defines “organic” to
mean foods whose ingredients cannot have
been made by using most synthetic
fertilizers and pesticides, genetic
engineering, growth hormones, irradiation
or antibiotics. Not only can these foods be
better for our bodies, organic farming
practices can protect water quality, prevent
soil erosion, and save energy.