What is “Green Moving”?

In the recent years, there has been a lot of buzz around “going green”. It means making choices while considering its effects and impact on the environment. It’s about limiting your waste and ensuring that the planet will still be a healthy and liveable place for our future generations.

Decades of abuse and selfishness have left the world damaged, dirty and almost depleted. Today’s super-storms and extreme weather conditions are all effects of our misguided actions from the past. With that in mind, we should remember that whatever we do today will come to either bite or rewards us tomorrow. That’s why it’s important to adopt eco-friendly practices to all aspects of our life including moving.

The moving industry produces thousands and thousands of waste per year thanks to all of the paper and plastic waste that result from packing. Aside from this, all of the discarded materials that moving families throw away (old furniture, damaged clothes, and other useless junk) are included too. And of course, let’s not forget the air pollutants caused by transporting both you and your possessions.

As a responsible citizen of this planet, you need to incorporate eco-friendly acts into your relocation too. You can start by learning about Green Moving. Green moving is the act of relocating with as little impact to the environment as possible. It’s the adoption of eco-friendly practices that will help lessen the trash and toxicities.

Today we’ll identify some practical ways on to make your move greener- majority of which will focus on how to reduce your load, get creative and practice recycling.

Do an Inventory of What You Own

The first step to an eco-friendly move is to take some time to analyze your belongings. Do an inventory of everything you own and categorize them into 4 piles: things to keep, things to throw away (if absolutely needed), things to sell, and things to donate. This is a crucial step towards lessening your baggage and making the best use of what you have.

 Out of Season, Out of Mind

If you will be doing a long-distance or cross-country move, it’s important to study the weather conditions in that area. Do you really need to bring your thick wool jackets if you’re moving to Miami? It could be time to let go of your snow mobile and skis.

Practice Letting Go

Do you really need to bring all of your old books since you were a child? Will you really still make good use of them? Your old clothes, toys and furniture, will not just add to your moving cost, they will also add to the stuff that needs to be packed, wrapped and shipped. Learn to let go of the things you no longer need. Make space for the new. You can hold a garage sale a few months before the big moving day and even make some extra money out of it. If you want the better alternative, you can also donate your old items to charity.

Be Creative on Packing Materials

You don’t need to buy band-new materials. Ask amongst your friends or family if anybody moved recently, maybe they still have some supplies that you can re-use. You can also recycle old delivery boxes from nearby supermarkets or groceries. They for sure have hundreds of them lying around and would be happy to give some to you for FREE.

If you have magazine or newspaper subscriptions then recycle them and use them later on as padding and buffers for your fragile items. They can be used to protect your cups, plates, figurines and other small breakable items. Towels and linens are also effective in protecting other items. This is a great way to avoid too much bubble wrap, or Styrofoam packing peanuts (crucial waste products from moving).

You can also use the drawers of your cabinets and use them like storage boxes for small items such as socks or linens. It’s a must to remove them from your cabinets while moving anyway. Just be sure to safely seal the top portion so the contents will stay in place. Take note that cardboard paper boxes are one of the biggest waste products that the moving industry produces.

Travel Together

If you are moving with a family member or a friend, you can reduce your carbon footprint by travelling together. Take one car to your new address and lessen the need for separate vehicles. If all of your belongings are taken care of, you can even just opt for public transportation if you’re not moving very far. Aside from being eco-friendly, the trip can also be a good bonding activity.

Find Green Moving Companies

There are numerous moving companies that are dedicated to green-living. An example are those who rent out eco-friendly green boxes. They will rent you their recyclable plastic containers and then you can store your items there as you deem necessary. Once you’re done with them (after unpacking), the company will collect the boxes, clean them for the next user. This reduces the need for wasteful paper boxes which are often just discarded after use.

Companies like Go Green Moving, are famous for their use of bio-diesel trucks, moving pads composed of 100% recycled cotton, and rentable crates for packing belongings.

Green moving is not hard to do. The best part about it is that most of the tips listed above will not just reduce your waste, they will also help you to save up on moving costs! That makes eco-moving doubly rewarding.