Our Top 8 Ways to Make Your Cabin Trip Eco-Friendly

Going on a cabin trip can be a chance for you to unwind after a long, work-filled week. You’ll get to escape your busy life and connect with nature. As you know, being outdoors can be stress-relieving and therapeutic.

Now, speaking of nature and Mother Earth, you must pay some attention to how your trip can affect the environment. This article isn’t about myself. However, I do want to mention that I’ve also written an article called “Advantages of living close to nature“. In that article, I use a lot of examples from the experiences I have had because I own a cabin in the woods.

Anyway. Let’s get to what this article is about.

In this article, we’ll suggest our top 8 ways to make your cabin trip eco-friendly.

Table of Contents

• 8 Ways to Make Your Cabin Trip Eco-Friendly
• Wrapping Up

8 Ways to Make Your Cabin Trip Eco-Friendly

This section includes some tips that can change your trip to the better on both levels: environmental and personal. Let’s explore them!

#1: Pick the Nearest Location to Home

This point might seem unusual, but if you give it more thought, you’ll understand what we mean by this. Yes, some spots might be worth traveling for hours, but we’re more concerned with the environment here.

By choosing a short-distance location, you’ll be saving plenty of energy. This point is valid whether you’ll be going by car or plane.

In fact, we recommend that you try to find a holiday getaway that doesn’t require plane travel. According to research, planes are the most pollutive means of transportation.

My own cabin can be found about 2 hours from my home – and I always use my electric car (Hyundai Ioniq) to get there. Easy and comfortable. 🙂

#2: Watch Your Electricity Use

While you’re staying in the cabin, you can reduce energy consumption a great deal if you pay attention to this. There are many ways you can decrease your electricity use.

• Don’t keep the heater on for many hours
• Never leave the air conditioner on for a long time
• Build a fire in the fireplace
• Use fewer electric appliances

Not only can this save a considerable amount of power, but it can also be more relaxing and soothing for your nerves.

To be frank, electronics might be the reason why you might be seeking the comfort of a cabin in nature.

Therefore, giving up or limiting their use should be your obvious intention.

#3: Choose a Cottage that Uses Sustainable Energy

You’ll probably find many locations that provide this sort of cabin.

Look for a holiday spot that runs on solar energy. This way, you can use electrical appliances all you want without feeling guilty about your consumption.

In fact, some cottages aren’t just eco-friendly when it comes to electricity. Some can have more features like:

• Water-recycling systems that should reduce waste
• Sustainable heating systems
• Natural light and air conditioning

These cabins usually come with wide windows to let more sunlight in. As for air conditioning, the design of these cottages can rely on the direction of the wind to allow more cool air inside.

Also read: Why should you buy a solar backpack?

How can I install a solar panel on the roof of my cabin?

PS! This only applies to the ones who own their own cabin. I would be a bit careful installing a solar panel on the AirBNB cabin you rented for a weekend. 🙂

My uncle actually did that last year. He bought a solar panel installation from China (!), got it shipped to Norway, and installed it. After talking to him on the phone, he said it took him about 5 hours of research in order to know how it was done, but only two hours of work to actually do it.

He also provided me with a super helpful Youtube video that shows the whole process:

#4: Keep Your Plastic to the Minimum

It’s no secret that the human consumption and manufacturing of plastics have had negative effects on the environment over the years. Plastic pollution is harmful to wildlife, marine life, as well as plants.

Therefore, make sure that you don’t have any plastic-related belongings with you. From plastic water bottles to shopping bags, these are the exact opposite of eco-friendly.

Instead, you can bring along many plastic alternatives. These include:

• Paper bags
• Glass bottles
• Products made of biodegradable plastics
• Stainless steel cans
• Organic cotton and wool products
• Cardboard packages

These materials, as well as many more that you can find easily, are recyclable and eco-friendly.

#5: Shop Locally

This point might not come to mind immediately, but we think it can work just fine to enhance your eco-friendly approach.

By buying from local markets, you won’t just increase their sales. In fact, you’ll be reducing the energy needed for transportation required to bring in imported goods.

This way, you’ll cut on the release of carbon dioxide into the air, which is another harmful pollutant.

Example from my own life: Sweden or my local shop?

My cabin is placed on the east coast of Norway, which (almost) borders to Sweden. Many of my cabin neighbors are tempted by slightly cheaper tobacco, alcohol, and meat. Therefore, many of them make the 1 hour 30 minutes drive to Sweden in order to shop:

While me…? Well, I’m walking to the local shop 10 minutes away – and I’ll use the three hours to enjoy the sun at my cabin patio. 🙂

Be like me, guys. Don’t drive to Sweden to buy tobacco.

#6: Recycle Your Waste

Naturally, staying in a cabin should produce minimum waste when compared to staying at home. However, you’ll still produce an amount of waste, especially if you have a large family.

To keep this from affecting the environment, your best bet is to recycle. The process is usually simple and effortless.

All you have to do is keep your paper, plastic and glass waste and not throw it away. Later when you return home, contact your local recycling programs. They’ll likely accept most products you’ve saved for recycling.

Where I have my cabin, the local government actually forces everyone to put different waste types into different bags:

As you can see, it’s only allowed to put plastic into the blue bag. The green one is only for food waste – and the white one is “misc”. Quite a cool concept.

#7: Take Longer Breaks

Longer cabin breaks mean fewer trips per year. Can you see where this is going?

If you don’t take a vacation every few months, you’ll be saving more energy than if you do it several times per year. This means less harmful gases released into the air and therefore less pollution.

Also, on a more personal level, you’ll be saving a lot of money in the long run.

#8: Respect Your Surroundings

The last point that we have on this list is as important as any of the above. You should always be careful about how your actions might affect the local environment.

• Don’t cut any plants if you go hiking in the woods
• Don’t cause damage to trees or green areas
• Make sure not to feed any animals in your path
• Never litter

Not only do these harm the environment, but they also represent irresponsible and reckless behavior. I seriously hate finding a lot of trash when I walk in beautiful natural scenery. And I do think most people agree with me.

Also interesting: 5 tips to make golfing more eco-friendly.

Wrapping Up

No one can resist the charm of a well-planned cabin trip. Being out in nature can have calming effects on your mental health and tends to relieve stress.

However, you shouldn’t forget the responsibility each one of us has towards the environment. Making sure that your cabin trip is eco-friendly is an effective way to help Mother Earth reclaim her glory.

Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll have a better understanding of how to do this. By using our top 8 ways to make your cabin trip eco-friendly, saving the environment has never been easier.

Also please note that you don’t only have to act like an environmentalist when you’re on a cabin trip. If you want some more inspiration for what you can do, I’ve put together a list of eco-friendly office habits that you can find by clicking here.