Bring Earth Home
Make your home, more like home.
Humans have never been this separated from nature. Green grasslands turned to grey concrete, tall trees replaced by tall buildings, and each animal to a plastic memory. We do not live with nature. We live over her. But we can reconnect back to earth by incorporating elements of nature into our homes. We can take a few simple steps to make our house a home for indoor plants, eco-friendly furniture, and natural light.
One of the most obvious, yet rarely applied techniques to make your home more connected to nature is bringing nature inside. Try putting plants all-around your house, but make sure you choose ones that are hard to kill if you forget to water them. These living greens remove CO2 and increase humidity; in other words, plants get rid of stale air and are natural humidifiers! They also lower stress and boost attention capacity. Spider plants, snake plants, and aloe vera are just a few examples of hard-to-kill plants that purify the air. Check out this list below of additional hardy plants.
Plants That Won't Die On You
Plants can even work as aromatherapy! For instance, hang a large bunch of dried eucalyptus from the showerhead will turn your bathroom into an instant spa. Besides plants, you can incorporate other elements of nature like rocks you collected from trips, sand bottles, and herb gardens.
Next, bring eco-friendly furniture to your house! This can be in the form of rich wood shelves or even plant patterned fabrics. Besides the aesthetic, eco-design can have many positive effects on your mood. "Exposure to nature scenes reduces blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones" finds the University of Minnesota. So maybe painting your walls green isn't such a crazy idea after all.
Techniques like daylighting can help reduce your energy bill and bring sunlight inside. It can even help you focus more! Harvard found, "78% of employees say access to natural light and views improves their well-being and 70% report improved work performance" (Allen, et al, 2016). While this study applies to offices, it can also refer to how productive you are in your home. So how can you achieve these benefits? Ensure that you have lots of windows, skylights, and other exterior glazings to help bring in different daylight sources. Using natural light can save up to 75% of the energy used for lighting buildings and reduce cooling costs, according to Danpal. Natural light is a must-have for an eco-conscious home.
With these tips, you'll be sure to make your home a more welcoming, peaceful, and productive space. Rather than building against nature, we need to welcome it into our homes. It benefits us and the environment. Check out our article on greenspacing to learn how urban designers incorporate nature into the future cities.
