Renovating a home is difficult. PERIOD! Renovating while trying to do eco friendly home renovations? Yeah, that makes a hard journey even harder.

When we first went into our home renovation journey, I wasn’t super concerned with being eco friendly. I loved the earth, obviously, but I was more concerned at that time with saving money. I had just spent a 🍑-load on a house! And I didn’t need to spend more than I had to on a renovation! Luckily, saving money and sustainability can go hand-in-hand.

Here’s a eco friendly, budget friendly tips I’ve learned in my over 10 years (!!!) experience in home renovating. (Yes, I’m counting the Airstream as home renovations because it was my home!)

5 Tips for Eco Friendly Home Renovations

If you can help it, don’t do renovations right away.

Live with your space for a while to figure out space configurations, what bothers you the most, what you do need to fix right away and what you can hold off on. We all make mistakes, but this can save you from having to re-renovate something in just a couple of years.

Check out salvage yards, Habitat for Humanity Re-Stores, Craigslist and your local FB marketplace for materials.

Our kitchen cabinets are made out of old barn wood bought off Craigslist and the tile for the floors was bought at a local salvage store for a fraction of the price. Saving money and the earth’s materials is a win-win.

Which also leads me to this: when you rip something out, try to do it as delicately as possible, so it can be repurposed!

Maybe you don’t want those cherry oak cabinets anymore, but someone else might! You can get back a little bit of money this way by selling them or you can just list them on FB marketplace or your local Buy Nothing group for free. Someone else can use them!

If you can, DIY.

Now, I know there are eco-friendly contractors and home professionals out there, but most folks just want to make their money and get out. There is a staggering amount of waste on most job sites. And by doing it yourself, you can ensure that there is as little waste as possible. If DIY isn’t an option, be sure to make it clear to your contractors that reducing waste is important to you. (And it’s a pain, but you’ll probably have to monitor that, in addition to the job, as well.)

Ignore trends and be confident in your style.

Home decor trends move almost as quickly as fast fashion nowadays. That’s a rant for another day, but my advice to clients is that it’s ok to like what you like! When I’m working with small space clients confused about their personal style, I encourage them to create a Pinterest board and recognize the themes.

The themes might not be as obvious as “midcentury” or “Art Deco.” It might be more like “white walls with pops of color.” “Lots of plants and greenery.” etc. Your home doesn’t have to have one all-encompassing style either. And I honestly think “timelessness” is really hard to achieve. Pick what you like and DGAF if it’s “unfashionable.” It’s YOUR home!

There’s a lot more tips I can give and a lot more I can say about this topic, but I’d love to hear from you! What tips to do you have in terms of sustainable home renovations?