This is how to make your house go VEGAN

Kayla Gulec Kayla Gulec
Christmas Range, The White Company The White Company
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The prices of meat, milk, cheese, and eggs are constantly on the rise due to the ever growing costs of animal feed, as well as the time and resources necessary for proper growth and farming. That being said, it is a great time to be vegan. Not only are vegans saving animals, the environment, and our their lives by eating healthy, nutritious plant based foods, in general, they are also saving money at the market.

There are quite a few myths and misconceptions about what it really means to be a vegan and to live the vegan lifestyle. To put it simply, vegans don't eat anything that comes from an animal or uses animal labor to be produced, and they also do not wear any animal products, such as leather, suede, fur, wool, silk, or feathers, and they avoid products which have used animal testing. That being said, the vegan philosophy extends beyond the plate. So if you're a new vegan, just how do you restructure your home to fit your new lifestyle? 

Reasons to have a vegan friendly home

Even if you're not a declared vegan, there are still plenty of good reasons to have a vegan friendly home. For one, a vegan friendly home is more environmentally friendly. The production of meat and animal products places a heavy burden on the environment, in that it requires vast amounts of resources to house, feed, and transport animals and animal products. When you don't buy animal products, you don't contribute to the deforestation that is a result of feeding the animals, and furthermore, significantly lower quantities of crops and water are required to sustain a vegan diet, making your individual carbon footprint much less severe. 

It's surprisingly inexpensive to furnish a vegan friendly home, too. Many people think that anything vegan is going to be outrageously expensive, but that's simply not true, and you can find vegan friendly furnishings in almost any store you visit.

In addition to the economical reason for having a vegan friendly home, there are also moral and ethical reasons why you would want it. There are thousands of vegans out there who don't eat or use animal products based solely on the fact that they feel bad for the animals going through the economic process. 

Buy silk free cushions

Silk is a natural protein fiber, which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is produced by certain type of insect larvae – normally the mulberry silkworm – to form cocoons, but we have harnessed this larvae's ability to produce this material and have transformed it into products of comfort. Having a vegan friendly home means not having any products in the home that are made from an animal or come from animal labor, and that includes the small labor done by the mulberry silkworm. 

Although silk is soft and stylish, some may argue it's better not to have silk in their homes at all just because of the price. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of worm power and many hours to produce a suitable amount of silk to use in a product, therefore the product itself is quite expensive. So staying away from that will also help your pocket. Instead of silk, buy cotton based textiles and cushions. They're just as comfortable and about half the price you'd pay for silk.

Use fur free rugs

Fur rugs are basically animal skins with their hair still intact, stretched and formed to create a soft, rustic look and feel to your space, so naturally, they have no place in a vegan friendly home. Thankfully, fur rugs aren't the only floor covering option at your disposal. You can opt for the classic cotton rug, a rug made from synthetic fibres such as nylon, polyester, or acrylic, or for a more natural look, you can even buy a rug made from bamboo!

If you like the style of a fur rug, you don't have to compromise your personal taste. There are hundreds of stores that offer faux fur throws for any room in the house. Now you can have your rustic style and keep your morals intact without any worries. 

Get a leather free sofa

homify Minimalistische Wohnzimmer

Leather products are created by skinning a cow and using the pelt to make popular products such as jackets, shoes, and of course, sofas. Having a vegan friendly home means that leather should not be anywhere near you or your furnishings. Since leather sofas are quite expensive to begin with, making the switch to a cotton or linen sofa will help you save some money in addition to saving lives. 

Cotton and linen aren't the only couch making materials out there. You can also purchase sofas made from synthetic fibres like microfiber, a type of very fine polyester that is soft but durable, chenille, which is often made from rayon or olefin, or acrylics, which resemble wool and are equally soft to the touch.

But if you really love the leather style and are hoping to bring a rustic vibe to your home, faux leather sofas are also on the market and they're much less expensive than real leather, so you really can have it all.

Acquire feather free bedding

Feathers are another thing you need to avoid when creating a vegan friendly home. The feathers we find in jackets, pillows, and bedding are collected in three different ways: post mortem, live plucking, and by gathering. In post mortem, the feathers are collected once the bird has already passed. Live plucking is exactly how it sounds, in that the bird is held down and the manufacturer plucks the feathers from the bird. The third, less traumatic way of getting feathers is by gathering, meaning manufacturers use nature's timetable and gather the feathers that have already molted. It's easy to see why vegans prefer not to have feathers in their home or on their bodies. Luckily, not every bedspread out there is made using feathers. In fact, most bedding is made from cotton, making this transition very easy for you. There are also specialty stores you can go to that offer things like vegan bedspreads or tapestries

Invest in beeswax free candles

Last, but not least, we want to address candles. You may be thinking, what kind of animal product goes into making candles? Well, beeswax, to put it simply. Beeswax is a natural wax produced by a certain genus of honey bees. The wax is formed into scales by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal segments of worker bees. Because beeswax products use bee labor to produce, vegan friendly homes should do without them. Of course, beeswax candles aren't the only kinds of candles you can buy. So having a vegan friendly home doesn't necessarily mean you have to do away with the small luxury of candles. You can buy soy candles in many retail stores, and there are also candles made from vegetable oils that are hardened and scented. 

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