How To Create An Eco-Bathroom In 8 Actionable Steps

How To Create An Eco-Bathroom In 8 Actionable Steps.

While the whole world is going eco-friendly in every aspect, your home should not be left behind; especially your bathroom.

In this article, we’ll talk about how to create an eco-bathroom.

Let’s dive in.

 

Disclosure: This post features decor ideas to create an eco-bathroom from @Restless.Arch .

Restless Arch was founded by Cristian Trampedach to share home ideas on contemporary living.

1. Pick Eco-Friendly Tiles

Any easy-to-clean bathroom was finished using tiles, majorly. Hence, to create an eco-bathroom, we should not just use tiles, but eco-friendly tiles!

While there is so much information about green products to be used in the bathroom including tiles, here are some easy tips to consider when picking the most eco-friendly tiles:

• Is it made of recycled materials and what’s its percentage?
• Are the tiles made of sustainable materials?
• Is the manufacturing company ensuring sustainability in their manufacturing? For example: Does it have efforts to minimize waste and reduce energy during production?
• Is the manufacturing company employing green business practices?

Some of the most eco-friendly tiles include:

a. Fire Clay Tiles

There are so many variations of fireclay tiles that are so good for an eco-bathroom.

There is:

• Crush which is made of 100% recycled glass
• Debris is a recycled ceramic tile made of 60% locally resources and recycled materials.

b. Tessera is a beautiful hand-crafted glass made from silica sand.

c. Feel is a glass mosaic tile with a soft, smooth and velvety appearance made of up to 78% recycled glass.

d. Koi which is a beautiful ceramic tile with an artistic quality and made of up to 52% recycled material and finished with Japanese glazes, mostly clay salvaged from mining operations.

e. Bamboo, Cork and many others.

2. Know Where & How To Hang Towels In The Bathroom

An eco-bathroom is in the details and one of the spots many tend to not consider is the placement of towel racks. I mean, just where and how to hang the towels.

With good design, the functionality of your eco-bathroom can be highly improved.

When looking for the right place to have your towel racks, you can consider these tips:

• Mount towels behind the door on a towel bar.
• Integrate your towel holder onto your shower’s door frame or hinge.
• Have a long towel bar spanning the length of the vanity.
• Mount your towel bar just under the lip of the countertop.
• Put your towels in a recess where a vanity stool might otherwise go.
• Install a towel rack in the shower.
• Have freestanding racks in your bathroom.
• Incorporate your towel racks as part of a feature wall.

3. Embrace Nature

An eco bathroom powerfully embodies nature!

Hence, you can create a stunning eco-bathroom by bringing nature in it. How?

• Have Plants In The Bathroom. These are the best plants to be planted in your bathroom.

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• You can also let your bathroom face the outdoors.

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4. Use Natural & Reusable Materials In The Interiors

Apart from the use of eco-tiles for your bathroom walls and floor, you can also use wood, concrete, and glass for an eco-bathroom.

Using wood as a finish can transform your mind and soul significantly.

Wood is one of the only materials that can be finished to look like shiny marble or can be left raw and unstained to reveal its gorgeous imperfections of knots and grains.

Bringing wood into your interiors is one of the easiest and warmest of natural materials and comes in a variety of finishes, species, and applications.

You can have:

• Wood walls
• A concrete sink
• Glass panels and the list is endless…

5. Embrace Natural Lighting!

Lighting brings the feel of a spacious and clean bathroom.

And one of the easiest, cheapest and most beautiful natural elements that many forget about is sunlight.

Natural daylighting can make any room come alive, it makes colors pop in your furnishings and wall decor and it makes humans feel healthy and inspired.

Whether you use windows, borrowed light from solar tubes extended from your roof into your bathrooms, natural light can have an effect like no other throughout your living interiors.

Anyway, it can get so hot in the summer months when you have these skylights installed.

So how can you keep your bathroom cool?

Use skylight shades and covers to keep your bathroom cool and energy-efficient. These coverings block the sun to keep the inside of your bathroom from becoming too hot during the summer.

Natural lighting from the sun is the best but at times, for beauty and grooming purposes, we decide to have artificial lights in the bathroom.

If you have to do this:

• You can flank the bathroom mirror with lights. This is great if you use the bathroom mirror during shaving or face clean-up.
• You can layer your vanity lighting and install a dimmer switch to control the intensity of your vanity lights.
• You can choose a decorative fixture for your ceiling light. Small chandeliers and semi-flush ceiling lights can set a relaxed and romantic mood when the other bathroom lights are turned off.

6. Use Heating When Necessary!

Mostly, we use heating for cold water before showering. In this case, you can a solar shower, especially in the hot months.

In the cold winter months, you need to warm up your bathroom in an eco-friendly way and also ensure you’re not freezing cold. To do this:

• You can also have heated floors. Here, be ready to invest in radiant-heat flooring.
•  Install a bathroom-safe heater that you can turn on before your bath or shower.
• Use heated towels after stepping out of the shower. 
• Invest in a bathtub that helps retain heat. Materials like copper, brass, volcanic limestone and soapstone retain heat and will help to keep your hot bathwater warm while you enjoy a magazine or book.
• Have a steam shower to warm up your water before you can shower. Be sure to shorten your shower so that you can save more on the heating and water too.

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7. Use Eco-Cleaning Products For Your Bathroom

{A} Use of Eco-products for Cleaning

When cleaning your bathroom, choose natural products for cleaning. Some great cleaning products include lemon juice and vinegar which can be incorporated in bathroom cleaning and not just in the kitchen.

For example, you can clean your taps by a good wipe with a cloth soaked in vinegar and bicarbonate of soda for toilet cleaning.

It is also advisable to clean your bathroom at least daily to ensure surfaces on your bathroom don’t accumulate dirt and stains.

{B} Use of Eco-Products for Great Smell

To create a fresh fragrance in your bathroom, avoid using processed air fresheners because they can also cause blockages of the nostrils and chest to asthmatic patients.

Instead, go for natural fresheners. You can create your bathroom spray by using lemongrass, lavender and tea tree oil mixed in water.  Also, you can add drops of essential oils to the toilet after cleaning. Some of the best essentials oils include lavender.

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8. Be A Minimalist

The easiest tip to embrace if you should create an eco-bathroom is on minimalism!

Minimalism encompasses the décor and usage of materials and resources in the bathroom.

When it comes to the utilization of bathroom resources, we are talking about the usage of water, heat, and light.

{A} Saving Water In the Bathroom

First off, to save water in the bathroom, utilize spray taps which let out less volume of water. You can also use automatic taps which only open when they detect your hands. I mean, only when you need to wash.

In addition to that, you can use an altered nozzle that when installed on your tap saves much water.

You can also use a dual flush toilet that releases more water for solid waste and less water for liquid waste.

Also, in regards to saving water in the shower, you should:

• Embrace low-flow showerheads that release less water. Conventional showerheads flow at 5 gallons per minute or more, whereas low-flow showerheads typically flow at 2.5 gallons per minute (or less!).
• Spend less time in the showers.
• Stick to showers, occasionally having baths.
• Turn off the water when brushing your teeth, scrubbing your face or shaving in the bathroom.

{B} Saving Toilet Paper

From statistics, toilet paper contributes to deforestation and if we need a sustainable world, we need to stop using toilet paper and find something more sustainable.

Instead of using toilet paper, you can use TUSHY!

What is TUSHY?

Tushy is an eco-friendly system of cleaning your butt after toilet use.

Normally, people use toilet paper to clean their butt after using the toilet and this results in harming trees in the process of production of tissue paper.

But with the wide range of eco-products that Tushy provides, you can say hello to a cleaner butt and a more sustainable bathroom.

Tushy provides 3 types of Bidets that can be connected to your toilet’s flushing system and help ‘spray’ clean your butt: the Single Temperature Tushy Classic Bidet, the Temperature Control Tushy Spa Bidet, the Derriere Collection type of Bidet and the Tushy Travel Bidet that you can carry anywhere you go.

Bidets are beneficial because:

• It leaves you feeling clean. It provides a thorough clean to young kids going through potty training.
• It helps women maintain high sanitation standards during their menstruation period unlike using tissue paper during the time.
• Tushy bidets are helpful during and after pregnancy to help soothe anal irritation, hemorrhoids, and general discomfort.
• To men, bidets help to relieve discomfort associated with constipation and hemorrhoids and provide men with a means for improving their anal hygiene.

TUSHY is for everyone!

Apart from the cleaning Bidets, Tushy also provides bamboo toilet papers, bamboo towels, and bath towels.

Why Bamboo? Bamboo products are so soft and unreplenishable since they grow at a faster rate hence reduce deforestation.

Get Your Tushy Now>> 

{C} Saving Light

You need to use special lighting in the bathroom due to the high humidity in the bathroom.

You can choose a light-emitting diode (LED) that be a viable option.

How To Save The Lights In The Bathroom

• Reduce the wattage. For example, you can buy bulbs of low watts or have the wattage match the use of their lighting- ensuring a highly tasked bathroom has bulbs of higher wattage and vice versa.
• Have fewer light fittings in your bathroom.
• Have multiple switches if your bathroom is larger since you can control the usage of light.
• Turn off the lights every time you’re done using the bathroom.
• Utilize candles in the bathroom when you want to create a romantic environment in your bathroom. Good enough, there are scented candles to soothe the atmosphere.
• Use lamps in your bathroom to enhance the ambiance of the room.
• Go solar.
• Use natural lighting. 
• Install dimmers that utilize less lighting power.

 

{D} Saving Heat

Most of us use warm water for showering; hence, we let the water get heated before using it. Some of us use lighting in really extensive ways that a lot of energy is wasted.

But to save heat in the bathroom:

• Use motion sensors and timers for turning the lights and appliances on and off especially if you keep on forgetting the lights.
• Look for ENERGY STAR® bathroom fixtures when choosing new light fixtures and fans for your bathroom because these models are tested to ensure that they use energy more efficiently than other models.
• Install LED light bulbs that emit less heat. 
• Turn off the exhaust fan 15 minutes after your shower. 
• Use warm or cool water for showering during the hot weather. You don’t need to keep the bathroom exhaust fan running forever in order to remove hot, humid air from the bathroom as 15 minutes are enough.

{E} Saving Space

If you have to create an eco-bathroom,  you also need to mind your space: not just how big or small your space is but also how you can always save space (especially storage space) in your bathroom.

Quick ways to save on space in your eco-bathroom:

• Install a corner sink
• Float the vanity to create more storage space.
• Mount the towel bar.

A minimalist bathroom only has the vital elements of any bathroom hence it looks so spacious. It is also very easy to clean and keep clean a minimalist bathroom.

If you need to create an eco-bathroom that will be easy to maintain, then consider only having the necessary stuff in the bathroom.

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There you have it! 8 workable tips to employ in order to create an eco-bathroom in your home!

Well, are you joining this sustainability bandwagon too? How will you also create an eco-bathroom in your home?

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