We want our home to align with our values

A home is where you rest, recharge, build, grow, enjoy. Lots and lots of life happens with in those walls. Today we’re looking at what happens when your home no longer aligns with your values?

Maybe you have outgrown some things, and it’s time for your house to experience some new features, upgraded qualities that reflect the way you want to live in this crazy world. We’ve got to have some impact where we can, right?

Let’s talk about it.

Firstly, you have to know what it is you want before you can change what you don’t want. Let’s pick 3 core values you would like to focus on.

Then it’s a good idea to declutter. Pairing down, and getting rid of things that no longer reflect what you want, can help you rebuild with intention.

You can be super purposeful in the spaces you lay out. Set up areas you want to use for a particular thing, like reading or yoga for example.

You can be meaningful in what you choose to display. The way you decorate can give a specific vibe, without worrying about current trends for interior design, you can forge your own path.

Another way to be intentional is to be picky with what you’re buying. Put your money where your mouth is. In your home purchasing decisions, you can go eco friendly or fair trade only.

You can bring nature inside to boost calm and mental health benefits. Plants, flowers, textiles that support calmness.

There are really cool options to reuse water, rain water traps that drain into gardens, even water from washing machines that can be re directed to water trees out back. Water tanks can store rain water to use later.

People build all kinds of really cool root cellars that are awesome for storing canned or jarred foods, or even things like garlic bulbs or potatoes.

Solar options are much more common and accessible than they once were. You can sun power all kinds of things in your home and save tons of electricity.

Some of you all may have seen that Kerri was interviewed by a news channel recently about Berkeley and mandatory climate upgrades. Berkeley is the first city in the nation to mandate green upgrades at the time of home sale. The rule is that a home must score a minimum of six credits under the building emissions saving ordinance. The way you go about getting a score, is an assessment called a home energy score assessment. Upgrading to a heat pump gets you six points. Solar panels, EV chargers, and induction stoves provide 2 to 3 credits each. If your home falls short, you can choose to split a $5000 deposit with the buyer which gives the new owner two years to complete the upgrades.

Most Bay Area cities, mandate, energy, audits, and disclosure so buyers know exactly how efficient the home is. Cities like San Francisco, Berkeley and Palo Alto require you to commission a specialized energy audit and present the results to potential buyers.

When we think about making our homes eco-friendly, it can also look more like small daily choices. You can easily save energy and reduce waste by washing clothes and cold water, using cloth napkins instead of paper, switching to LED lightbulbs and setting your thermostat a few degrees cooler or warmer depending on the season. Little changes overtime can make a big impact.

Stuff like composting reduces landfill waste. Air drying by using a rack or clothesline instead of a tumble dryer saves energy and is good for your clothes. Fixing leaks saves a lot of water waste per year. You can swap older showerheads and faucets for low flow models. This also can really reduce water waste.

There are a lot of affordable, relatively simple changes we can make to reflect an increased desire to be a positive impact on the planet. Being homeowners gives us a unique opportunity to control the environment we live in, in a real, tangible way. There’s a lot of scary talk about the state of the world, but we have the power to turn our homes into an environment that promotes healing and leaves a much smaller footprint.