Sustainable Things To Do This Fall
As summer bids us farewell, you will find yourself eagerly awaiting the bounties of Fall. Chilling, gentle breezes, warm, wooly sweaters and pumpkin spice lattes await! You will want to enjoy the fall festivities to the fullest, but if you have an eco-focused mind like ours, you will seek out environmentally friendly activities and some fall sustainability tips.
Here is a list of sustainable things you can do this fall without missing any fun!
Decorate Using Nature
Instead of buying fall décor for the home, you can make your very own! The best part of incorporating nature into your home is that it creates an unbeatable warm setting. Using only faux items could make your home look too commercialized.
Create a stunning centerpiece incorporating pine cones, dried leaves and branches from your lawn. Or use entwined twigs and leaves to create a lovely door wreath. You can further use dried leaves to make artsy cards for your loved ones.
Go Thrifting
There is no real season perfect for thrift store shopping, but Fall does come close! Fall fashion typically includes standard wool sweaters, scarves, boots and jackets. Instead of wasting hundreds of dollars on purchasing each piece for your wardrobe, go thrifting this fall.
Fast fashion has had disastrous effects on the environment; it is one of the largest water consumers and is responsible for over 10% of global carbon emissions. Thrifting is a much more sustainable option that is not only good for the environment but also good for your wallet!
Visit The Forest
During the Fall, a visit to your closest forests becomes unavoidable. No one would want to miss the chance to go leaf-peeping. Observe nature at its finest as you see the transitions between seasons, old buds making way for the new. It is simply one of the top fall season activities.
Of course, a visit to the forest can absolutely be sustainable. How so? Try following the ‘Leave No Trace' principle. Make sure you are cleaning up after yourself, aren’t disposing of trash freely and don’t harm the natural wildlife during your visit.
Compost Your Leaves
Your lawn will be filled with fallen leaves. Instead of letting them go into the garbage, why not compost them?
Usually, these leaves would end up in landfills, but with composting, you can decompose them at home and use them as a way to give your plants a boost of nutrition. To turn leaves into compost, first gather them up and shred them into smaller pieces. Create a pile of the leaves and pour water until it is thoroughly moist. Now cover with a tarp. Turn it over once a week to ensure airflow. In two months, your compost will be ready for use!
Make Homemade Delights
Instead of buying autumn-themed sweets from outdoors (that will not always make sustainable choices in their production), you should try preparing your own foods at home. Source your ingredients from local farmers and reduce food waste while also making something delightful for your friends and family. With the coming holiday season, this is a prerequisite!
Apple Cinnamon Toast, Pumpkin Pie, soups, roasts and casseroles are all part of the upcoming fall festivities. All of these delights can be prepared at home if you are up for the challenge!
Visit A Local Pumpkin Patch
You might not grow pumpkins, but you can surely support your local farmers who do! Visit a local pumpkin patch where you will not only learn about farm life but will also get the chance to find a pumpkin to take home.
Rather than buying large oversized pumpkins that go to waste, you can sort through and single out an appropriately sized pumpkin from the patch. You can also rest assured that most local farms utilize their pumpkin patches for composting rather than depend on pesticides. Visiting a pumpkin patch is one of the must-do activities in autumn.
Build A DIY Halloween Costume
Halloween costumes are usually single-use items made from cheap material and purchased from fast fashion retail stores and websites. Instead of relying on such websites, why not make your own DIY Halloween costume at home? It is one of our fall sustainability tips.
Not only will you be able to create a sustainable costume, but you will also have the freedom to customize it to your heart's desires. Build a zombie costume from old thrifted clothes, use ethically sourced materials to make a witch’s robe or simply invest in a goofy eye patch to form a pirate costume. The possibilities are endless!
Invest In Sustainable Mushroom Foraging
October is one of the most optimum months for mushroom foraging. But you shouldn’t just drop into your nearby forests and pluck away at every mushroom you see. Instead, adopt sustainability practices.
You should only collect mushrooms that you can positively identify as edible and only pluck the mushrooms that you will actually be using so they don't go to waste. Just as with your forest visit, you want to leave the areas as minimally disturbed as possible, avoid damaging the habitat and dispose of waste properly during your foraging.
Craft Eco-Friendly Candles
Lighting up candles around your dinner table or placing them on the window sill instantly gives your home a warm allure. This autumn, why don’t you formulate and create your own eco-friendly candles at home? It is one of the top fall things to do at home.
Instead of toxic paraffin wax, use all-natural beeswax, carnauba wax or paraffin-free soy.
- First, melt the wax in a measuring cup placed in boiling water.
- Add essential oils to the melted wax and stir.
- Next, pour the wax into the candle container, leaving ½ inch of space for the wick to burn.
- After cooling overnight, the candles are ready for use! You can check out the complete procedure here.
Visit A Farmer's Market
A large part of sustainable living is sustainable shopping. This includes shopping locally and seasonally from your local farmer's markets. Most local farmers use sustainable farming practices, ditching chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides. You can support the growth of these farmers while also getting access to farm fresh produce. Stock up on all your essentials before the holidays come around!
Final Thoughts
This year, you can enjoy the fall season while ensuring your activities don't harm your environment and don't increase your carbon footprint. Investing in sustainable activities can be challenging for beginners, but with the fall season activities we have listed above, you will fall right into the practice!
