Warm Up to These Small Projects FOR BETTER HOME INSULATION
Does This Belong in the Heap? A FEW THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T EVER COMPOST
Are you feeling a draft, even when you’re nestled on the couch? Even though good home insulation is important every part of the year, chances are you notice its absence much more in the winter months. But before you call in a construction crew to tear down your walls and fix your insulation, try these simple, budget-friendly ways to keep heat inside your home. Weatherproof your doors. If you can feel chilly air coming through the crack between the bottom of your door and your hardwood floors, putting foam or rubber weatherstripping under your doors can stop the cold air from getting into your home and circulating through every room. Even if the crack between your floor and your door is extra large, you can double up on weatherstripping. Plus, it can be easily removed when necessary!
So, you want to start composting? Good! Composting is a great way to save food scraps from rotting in a landfill and instead put them to use fertilizing gardens and flowerbeds. However, not every kind of organic matter is good for composting, and putting something in your compost that doesn’t belong can ruin your garden rather than revive it. Here are a few things you should never use for composting.
Meats, Dairy Products, Greases, and Oils
While biodegradable, meats and dairy don’t smell great when they’re decomposing, and they can attract unwanted pests, like raccoons, to your compost bin. Greasy foods similarly attract pests as well as mess with the moisture balance necessary for compost to decompose properly.
Treated Yard Trimmings and Diseased Plants
If your lawn or plants have been treated with pesticides, those chemicals can potentially kill the microorganisms that make compost so valuable in the first place. At the same time, keep plants that were killed by disease or insects clear of your compost pile. Whatever killed them might spread throughout your compost, rendering it useless.
Install thick curtains over your windows . If you have drafty windows, invest in some thick curtains. Light curtains are great when the weather is warmer, but a good set of heavy curtains will keep the heat from escaping. For added insulation, you can also find curtains with thermal backs. However, if saving money is more important than aesthetics for you, you can also insulate your windows by blow-drying some plastic wrap onto the windows to fill any holes. Keep up with your HVAC maintenance. Maintaining your HVAC system means changing out filters once a month, cleaning ducts regularly, and watching for leaks in the air duct system. (Some key indicators of leaks are higher energy bills during the summer or dust accumulating more in one room than in others.) You can also maintain your HVAC system by simply moving furniture out of the way of vents so it can disperse heat more equally throughout your home. The cold may be sticking around for a while longer. But with some proper insulation, you won’t have to be reminded of that when you’re indoors, all while saving a pretty penny.
Pet (or Human) Wastes
While manure from herbivores makes for great fertilizer, feces from your pet — or from you, for that matter — will lead to some unwanted problems for your fertilizer. It can lead to the spread of germs and parasites that will ultimately kill your fertilizer. Also, these kinds of wastes are going to make your compost smell terrible.
Coal and Charcoal Ash
While ashes from a wood-burning fireplace may benefit the soil by maintaining its neutral condition and adding some nutrients, charcoal ash from a grill will not benefit compost in this way. Charcoal may contain chemical residue that is harmful to plants, so it’s better to just stick with wood ash instead. Composting is easy, good for the environment, and can even be fun! But if you’re not sure whether something belongs in the compost pile or not, it never hurts to check before you throw it in.
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