Greening the House

This July and August, Apartment Therapy is asking for reader submissions on ways to be green around the house. I submitted a bit about my house and decided to cross post it here:

This tip isn't going to be revolutionary to anyone in New York or San Francisco, but I live in Salt Lake City... land of sprawl and strip malls. When I decided to buy a house here a few years ago, I wanted to buy a smaller home closer to where I work downtown. I found a perfect 720 square foot cottage with a little yard two miles away from where I work. It seemed perfect for my significant other, me, and our three dogs. A lot of people thought I was making a bad decision because it's so small by Salt Lake standards, and it's in a gentrifying area. But I went ahead with the purchase, and it's been one of the best decisions I've made.

Because the house is small and has new double-paned windows, it's very cheap to heat and cool. The small size also meant that I didn't need to buy more furniture to fill the space. I actually ended up passing along a few nice pieces that I'd had in my rental to friends who needed them.

But the best part is the location. Most of the places that I need to go are a short walk or bike ride away. I can bike to work, the library, the farmers' market, Whole Foods, the best gelatto place in town, the independent movie theater, etc. I can walk to coffee, the park, and some amazing Thai and Lebanese food. When the weather's bad, there's a bus line around the corner. It's gotten to the point that I drive my car so infrequently that the battery has died a few times, and I'm planning on selling it.

My significant other Brian would probably say that the best part about the house is the yard. we pulled out the lawn the first summer we were in the house. We composted it over the winter and used it to create raised beds for growing veggies. It uses a fraction of the water that the lawn did, but we feast on organic tomatoes, pesto, eggplant, and spinach any night of the week all summer long. And when we're done we throw the scraps in the compost pile or feed it to the worms, so that it will be help out next year's harvest.

If you've done something to make your home more environmentally friendly, you can submit it on Apartment Therapy.