Getting Green in the Kitchen

It may not be easy being green, but it is getting better. With more and more companies climbing aboard the green parade, making your home more environmentally friendly is becoming simpler and financially more rewarding in terms of energy savings.

While there are the big things you can do to your home like adding insulation and replacing your old doors and windows with energy efficient ones, there are affordable and easy things to do as well. Things like replacing your furnace filters to help make your furnace more efficient and provide greener, cleaner air. You can also use energy efficient light bulbs with timers and watch your use of water.

If you’re interested in reducing the energy footprint for your home, the place to start is probably where you’re using a significant amount of recoverable energy—the kitchen. Your kitchen has some big time energy users.

Making Your Kitchen Greener

Appliances are a huge source of energy use and waste. Pay attention to how much of the time your refrigerator is running. Each minute is using energy and costing you money. Every second the refrigerator door is open it’s acting as an inefficient air conditioner for your kitchen. To get your refrigerator using energy at its peak consider:

• Keeping up with your refrigerator’s maintenance. Keep the back filters clean and pay attention to dust.
• Keep your refrigerator between 36 and 39 degrees. This is optimum performance for most refrigerators.
• Don’t put hot foods in your refrigerator to cool down. Let them cool on the counter first, excluding meats that need to be kept at certain temperatures. Don’t make your refrigerator work harder by increasing the internal temperature with hot foods.
• Defrost frozen foods in your refrigerator, not on the counter, excepting, once again, meat. Frozen foods in the refrigerator can gently defrost your food while keeping refrigerator temps cool.
• Keep that refrigerator clean. Inside and out, and that includes vents and yes, under and behind that refrigerator!

Removing Items Toward a Green Future

There are items in your kitchen that are working against your green efforts. This includes some cooking utensils, pots and pans and, of course, a cupboard full of environmentally unfriendly chemicals and toxins. Many cooking surfaces have been proven to be environmentally unfriendly and toxic. Take them to a nearby toxic waste drop off point and make a trip to the store to buy greener cleaning items. Make the choice to reduce these in your kitchen and your home will be immediately greener, friendlier and safer. There are other great ideas as well.

Do It Yourself

Going green in the kitchen can mean cooking more healthy foods yourself as opposed to frozen store bought meals. This means less processed foods, more fresh fruits and vegetables, and a healthier, greener lifestyle.

Keeping your refrigerator full is also a good idea. A full refrigerator (or freezer) will use less energy than an empty one. After all, with an empty refrigerator or freezer you’re just cooling air. Cold food will help keep your energy use to a minimum.

If you want to get greener, there’s no need to panic and go all in. It is easier to start with the basics. The basics include small, comfortable steps to head you in a greener direction.

Get clean air filters in your home.

Check your appliances for efficiency numbers and make sure they’re clean running.

Keep things clean. Clean is green.

Keep your refrigerator/freezer full.

Buy smarter cleaning products.

Think differently about your energy use. View it as a perishable that’s costing the planet resources, and costing you money. Taking these initial steps will put you on a path that’s not only more environmentally friendly, but healthier for you and your family, and at the same time, more economical!