Less Waste, Lovelier Homes: 7 Simple Habits for a Cleaner Environment
With waste collection under pressure across Lagos, every household can help keep Lagos clean. The good news: a well-organised home naturally produces less waste.
Here are 7 simple habits for a cleaner home.
1. Sort at source.
Keep two bins in the kitchen, one for food scraps and one for dry waste. Sorted waste is easier to collect and keeps our streets cleaner. Do you know that you can even make money by sorting your waste? Yes! There are recycling companies who are ready to pay you good money to take your plastics, papers and other recyclable waste. Not sorting your waste for recycling is like squeezing ₦1,000 notes and throwing them into the trash bin. Take a moment to imagine that. Would you throw your money into the bin?
2. Bag before you bin.
Tie your trash in bags before putting it in the roadside bin. Neatly packed trash keeps the bin area clean and your kitchen bin easier to maintain. Exposed trash is an eyesore and affects our mental health and the aesthetics of the environment. It tells so much about you as well. How a place looks tells so much about a person.
3. Store it neatly until pickup.
Use bins with tight lids, kept in a shaded corner. That means no overflow, no smell and no rats. Exposed bins pose a serious health risk to people. Exposed bins collect water and breed mosquitoes. They attract all sorts of rodents. They smell and pollute the air.
4. Declutter responsibly.
Struggling with clutter? In my experience as an interior designer, most homes I have worked on had more clutter than the actual useful items. And most times the items end up in the trash bins. Before throwing out furniture or household items, donate them to staff, churches or charities. Good pieces deserve a second home, not a roadside dump.
5. Upcycle before you replace.
I know you’re fed up with your sofa and you cannot wait to replace it with a brand-new set of furniture, yes, that one you saved from Instagram and Pinterest. Before buying a new set, consider reupholstering that old chair or repainting a tired cabinet. It’s stylish and keeps bulky items out of the waste stream.
6. Cut packaging at the door.
I now have a shopping bag I take to the supermarkets these days. Two reasons for that: I want to reduce the number of nylon bags that end up in the trash, and the second reason – yes, you guessed right 😄 – I don’t want to pay for a bag each time I go shopping, which is more often than I would like to admit. Choose refills, buy in bulk and carry reusable shopping bags.
7. Compost if you have space.
Food scraps turn into rich soil for your garden. So if you have the space, turn your vegetable peels, leftover eba and other solid waste into manure for your garden.
A beautiful home starts with a clean environment. Let’s each do our part.
Header photo: Ikoyi, Lagos by Reginald Bassey, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
If you would love a home that is easier to keep clean and lovelier to live in, I would be delighted to help. Send us photos of your space to start.