THE REALITIES OF GREENING YOUR HOME

I recently purchased a condominium here is Nashville that needed a bit of work that was mostly cosmetic. Appliances, light fixtures, carpet, and paint. Of course, I was very interested in making it as green as possible; however, I was on a pretty tight budget. Going into it, I knew that it would be tough to do as many green updates as I wanted to do on my budget, but I resolved to do what I could.

I researched the low VOC paints and carpets and new right off that these were going to put me out of my price range given the amount of paint(the whole place) and carpet that the condo required. A little disheartened, I resolved once again to do what I could. So, I purchased energy efficient appliances, efficient light fixtures, a programable thermostat, and a low flow shower head.

A side effect to this remodeling was the amount of junk that needed to be disposed of. Old carpet, light fixtures, etc all needed to be dealt with. Not wanting to dump it in the landfill and searching for a somewhat easy way to dispose of this junk, I came across one of Metro Nashville's recycling convenience sites. They took my old carpet, metal light fixtures, and wood debris all for only $5 dollars. Check out the site here to find out where the centers are located and what materials that they take.

The moral of the story is that not everyone can afford geothermal heating, solar, and spray foam insulation. What we can do is a little at a time. It all makes a difference as a long as we are all making the effort, and maybe someday some of the more expensive changes that we can make in our homes will be more affordable.