When moving house, the last thing you tend to think about is the environmental impact of your move. You’ve got a million and one other issues to solve, yet you can’t forget about how non-eco-friendly a house move can be. You use up a lot of energy when moving house, not to forget the amount of waste you can generate.
So, here are some tips to help you move from one place to another with as small a carbon footprint as possible.
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Minimize your waste as much as possible
When you start going through all of your old stuff, you find things that you simply don’t need anymore. As a result, you chuck everything out if it no longer serves a purpose in your life. Don’t do this, it will mean you generate far too much waste from the moving process.
The alternative is simple; find ways of reducing your waste by either recycling old things or finding a new purpose for them. You’ll be amazed at how much stuff in your attic and house can be recycled in one way or another. For the stuff that can’t, think about donating it to charity shops or selling it to people.
Going to a car boot sale is a good way of getting rid of all your stuff, particularly if you don’t care about getting money from it. You can literally sell it all for free, and you have peace of mind knowing that you have minimized the amount of stuff you’re throwing away as waste.
Make one journey when moving your belongings
A big problem is the sheer amount of fuel you use when moving things from one house to another. Essentially, you keep making multiple trips in your car back and forth, burning through your fuel. To make matters worse, the weight of everything in your car puts more demand on the engine, so more fuel is used.
The easiest way to counter this is by ensuring you only make one journey when moving. Two options exist, the first of which is to hire a moving company and use the extra space in their truck to fit everything in one go. The second option is to try and pack everything as condensed as possible, minimizing the number of boxes you have.
This might make it possible to use your car, but you also have to factor furniture into the equation. If you’re moving furniture as well as boxes, then it’s pretty much impossible to get the move done in one go without a removals van.
Reuse old packaging materials
Where possible, try to avoid using brand-new packaging materials for your belongings. If you have old moving boxes and paper, use them again. A lot of moving companies will supply you with packaging materials that have either been recycled or used before. It’s a good idea to ask for those instead of going online and buying brand new stuff.
It simply means that you reduce the amount of packaging used, and help the environment. Effectively, you are reusing old things, saving loads of trees that don’t need to be cut down to create cardboard packing boxes. Be sure you keep all the packaging materials in good condition to reuse them again the next time you move!
Learn to pack efficiently
Last but not least, you should learn to pack efficiently. What does this mean? Well, it basically means that you will pack as much stuff into each box as possible. In doing so, you reduce the number of packaging materials required for your move!
Consider this; you could have 20 moving boxes all half full, or you could have 10 that are full. Right away, you’ve slashed your need for packaging in half. This means fewer cardboard boxes need to be used, less bubble wrap, and less tape to seal everything shut. It all adds up to make your move a lot better for the environment.
Most of us think about being eco-conscious when we’re at home. But, when it’s time to move, we get so caught up in the stress of moving that we forget to be eco-friendly. These tips demonstrate that it is very possible to move houses while still caring for the environment and minimizing your carbon footprint.
It’s all about generating as little waste as possible, recycling and reusing things whenever you can, and taking fewer trips to and from your new place. Do all of this, and you can move houses safe in the knowledge that you’re doing so without harming the planet.
Alternatively, if you’re looking for mover jobs, then you’ve come to the right place. MovingWork.com is a job board specifically designed for people who are seeking employment with a moving company.
