Making Your Bedroom Green

Making Your Bedroom Green

March 9, 2015
Green LivingIn the Bedroom

A big trend in the past few years has been “going green”, meaning, becoming more environmentally friendly. While it might be an over used tag line, people are trying to clean up in all areas of their lives. This ranges from the way they travel to the way they eat. A recent trend has people trying to make their bedrooms a healthier place as well, and while you might be thinking there isn’t much you can do to make a bedroom a more pure environment where you can breathe easier, here are a few things you can do to improve the “green-quality” of your bedroom.

Here’s a Bright Idea

First, you can replace your regular light-bulbs with either CFL or LED bulbs. They can last 10x as long, and only use 75% as much electricity as the standard incandescent bulbs. That’s a win for your wallet and the environment! By simply changing out a single incandescent 60 watt light bulb to a a CFL 14 watt bulb, home owners can have equal lumens of emitted light; and by switching out to an LED bulb with equivalent lumens, savings can drop to 9.5 watts of conserved energy. If lighting was changed in an entire house and not just the bed room, wattage savings could significant reduce the average from 2820 watts to 446.5 watts of usage.

Plant a Tree, Save a Life

There just might be something to that familiar catch phrase, “Plant a tree, save a life” by adding a few small common houseplants to your family’s bedrooms. Plants can improve the air quality and help everyone sleep better. Interestingly, NASA’s 1989 space space station research showed that plants not only reduce carbon dioxide and release oxygen, but that simply introducing living plants to the home can also eliminate significant amounts of trichloroethylene, formaldehyde, and benzene found in common household items like carpeting, adhesives, etc.

While we are on the topic of air quality, you can also improve it by ditching your aerosol deodorizers and cleaning products, and opting for more natural vinegar based products. Doing so will lower the amount of chemicals you are releasing into your room, and according to some studies, that could also help you achieve a better nights rest.

If you are more of the “go big or go home” type, there are some major changes you could make to your room that will improve air quality to turn it into a very eco-friendly zone. You could add more windows to your room, which would create more natural light so you wouldn’t have to rely on electrical lights as much. You could put some solar powered lights near you windows, so your light sources can be as green as possible. You’ll just want to make sure your lights have an on/off switch!

There’s a Surprise in the Bedroom

Final suggestions include a few items you may not of given much if any thought to, your bedding and mattress. Replacing them can significantly affect you and your family’s exposure to harmful toxins inside the bedroom. Organic pillows, mattress pad, and sheets made free of  dyes and harsh chemicals are not only safer by are also  hypoallergenic. This not only improves air quality, but virtually eliminates the possibility of being exposed to harmful toxins through skin contact and absorption.  Many of today’s mattresses include questionable synthetic materials and potentially harmful and controversial fire retardants, choosing an eco-friendly mattress /organic bed could be a smart investment in personal health. They are often up front more expensive than standard beds and mattresses, but they are made with 100% natural materials, and won’t seep harmful toxic chemicals into the air like other beds and mattresses can.

I hope this short list of options helps you realize, there are lots of “green” changes you can make to not just your bedroom, but every room in your house. It’s all done in an effort to lower our impact on the earth and personal health, so future generations can enjoy it just as much as we have.

Make a difference in your bedroom with Savvy Rest Natural Organic Mattresses.