Is the hot water in your home burning through your wallet? Fortunately, switching to greener, eco-friendly habits is easy and efficient. For example, adjusting the temperature setting on your hot water heater a few degrees cooler can go a long way in reducing your electricity usage. Which is great for the environment and your bank account.

Remember, saving money with an eco-friendly house is mostly about making small lifestyle and home material changes. Continue reading to learn more about the simple ways you can have a big impact on reducing your home's carbon footprint:

5 Ways to Save Money with Eco-Friendly House Habits & Improvements

1. Look for the Energy Star label. When the time comes to replace your household appliances, be sure to choose a new product with an Energy Star label. This label is a type of certification given to products that use significantly

Home offices have become integral to the modern home, with more people running home businesses and working from home on a regular basis. With so many activities occurring in this space, home office design continues to evolve. Some trends are functional, others cosmetic.

Here are some features trending in 2017 for home office design.

It's only a matter of time. No matter how roomy your kitchen is, the day will come when you find yourself muttering you wish it were bigger. If your kitchen is small to begin with, your imaginative powers probably have been percolating faster than a coffee maker since you first laid eyes on it.

The great American kitchen is also the great American equalizer, for most people want their kitchen to look and feel bigger. This is no easy feat, but you might be surprised what you can accomplish when you follow these seven techniques favored by professional kitchen designers:

Your kitchen is one of the most-used rooms in any home, so you’ll want to create a space large enough to suit your functional needs while looking open and flowing well.

Along with interior window shades, try these six designer tricks to make your kitchen look and feel bigger:

Choose shallow cabinets

Lower kitchen cabinets have a standard depth of 24 inches, while 12- to 15-inch depths are usually found in upper cabinets. There’s no reason you can’t use the shallower depth on lower cabinets as well, since it helps you gain floor space in a smaller kitchen. In addition, shallower cabinets make it easier to find and reach for what you need.

As your spring cleaning gets underway, you may complete some tasks out of habit, doing them the way you – or even your parents – have always done them. You might be making some mistakes, however, and not cleaning as efficiently as you could be.

These are 6 chores you may be doing wrong:

Overloading your washing machine

You may try to save time by doing a huge load of laundry at once, but you could end up with a load of dirty clothes and even a broken washer. Don’t fill your machine more than ¾ full of clothes, and make sure to put them in loosely rather than packing them in tightly. Otherwise, they may not get clean since they won’t be able to move around and be rinsed properly. Overfilling your washer can also cause damage to your agitator.

Cleaning windows on a sunny day

You may be tempted to clean your windows when the sun is shining through them, highlighting every smudge and speck of dirt you want to clean. Doing so will cause them to streak, as the sun’s heat causes the them to dry too quickly. Instead, wait for a cloudy day, or pull your shades down on a day when you’re cleaning the inside of your windows.

There's nothing quite like Nevada's warm spring and early summer weather. Especially in the lingering hours post-dawn and just before dusk. But even the most beautiful weather won't entice people to stand around for longer than a few minutes. Rather, what is needed to entice people to come outside and stay outside is comfortable outdoor seating areas. An outdoor patio set underneath a shady veranda welcomes morning coffee drinkers and late afternoon conversations. A lounge overlooking a garden view or fire pit draws people out and entices them to spend more time outdoors. 

As your child grows, it’s important to update their bedroom to not only ensure their comfort and safety, but to also reflect their style and personality. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to overhaul the look of their room. The simple changes below can easily transform their bedroom.

Here are five simple updates to make to your child’s bedroom:

1. Upgrade to a toddler or full-size bed

If you are transitioning your child’s room from a nursery to a big-kid room, it’s time to switch from a crib to a toddler or full-size bed. Your crib may already have features that convert it from a crib to a bed, such as being able to lower the mattress, installing a toddler rail and removing the dropside from your old crib. If the crib is not manufactured to be convertible, you could purchase toddler bed conversion kits.

If you want to update the look of your backyard, landscaping around your deck or patio can have a big impact. These small renovations can improve the function of your outdoor space by providing more shade making the space more practical. Here are a few backyard landscaping ideas for your deck or patio to get you started.

Add a Pergola

A pergola will create a gathering space, while providing a lot of much appreciated shade and privacy. These beautiful structures add a lot of visual interest to the yard as well. But you don’t have to feel limited to the traditional style pergola. There are many different types of pergolas and pavilions in different colors and made of different materials. You can find the perfect style to complement your home’s exterior look.

From flowers, to foliage, to veggies, home gardens are great! They offer outlet to de-stress and explore Mother Nature in new ways, and when you're done, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.

That said, if your gardening skills are greener than your thumb, it pays to do your homework. Here are a few newbie gardening tips we thought you'd find helpful:

Start Small

It's much easier than you may think to plant more than you can handle. Begin your garden with a small patch. That will allow you to get acquainted with gardening basics while learning about weed and pest control during the process.

Create a Compost Heap

Compost is essentially a world of minerals and nutrients that come together to create happy gardens. It's made of organic matter, which, as it decomposes, becomes rich in elements optimal for enhancing plants' lives.