Hempcrete is used as a highly insulative wall material. It is a carbon-negative, natural, and lightweight construction material that provides highly efficient temperature and moisture control. It is also formable, dynamic, one-seventh the weight of concrete, and cures within hours. What Are the Benefits of Hempcrete? The benefits are manifold. It is highly insulative, regulates
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Children’s Clothing Exchange
Did your children outgrow their clothes overnight? With growing kids, it is a fact that you will end up with clothes that still have some wear-ability after your kids not longer fit in them. You can give them to relatives if they live close by, but inevitably your kids will be the last girl or new baby and
Another Green Living Option: Hand Wash Your Clothes
… and easily trade cost and environmental impact, for time! “Do laundry”… what does that mean to most of us? It means carting a large pile of clothes in a bin or basket to one’s home washer and dryer, or if you’re one of the many unfortunate bunch like me, you cart it to a
tentree Holiday Gift Guide
When you’re on the search for the perfect gift this holiday season, you may feel yourself completely overwhelmed and inundated by the number of newspaper advertisements and holiday sales there are to choose from. If you’re anything like us here at Insteading, you’re keeping your eye out for a high-quality gift that your family and friends
3 Ways To Share or Trade Your Used Clothing
Here are three ways that you can use that unwanted clothing to save money, meet a need, or make a difference in your community!
10 Ways to Upcycle Old Clothes
We can upcycle just about any type of clothing as long as we’ve got a vision, a bit of imagination, and some crafting skills. Clothing is one of the simplest things to upcycle. Old jeans can be transformed into shorts, household items, and tote bags. T-shirts can be made into reusable produce bags, hanging planters,
12 DIY Lip Balm Recipes
If you love lip balm, you know the dread when you’re down to the last few uses. Make DIY lip balm with just a few simple ingredients to save on buying it new. Lip balm is essential for facial health and looking and feeling your best. Rather than purchase a ready-made lip balm, have a
Living Willow Hedges
You can call them willow hedges but maybe a more accurate term? “Fedges” = fence + hedge. Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix (Latin for willow), a grouping of 400-ish species of deciduous trees and shrubs. Willow are native to moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Almost all
Plastic Bottle Homes and Greenhouses
Plastic bottle houses, PET houses, recycled plastic home, plastic bottle building
Eco-Friendly Playgrounds
Parents know the benefits of installing playgrounds and playsets. Beyond being a fun activity that gets children outdoors, playground equipment is important for a child’s cognitive, emotional, physical, and interpersonal development. A day in the backyard or at the park does wonders for kids’ physical health, as well as improving their self-confidence and social skills,
Frugal Living: Everything You Need To Know
It’s no secret that modern living is a bit of a morass of consumerism, waste, and debt. In a world where the latest smartphone debuts less than a year after its previous iteration, where the Joneses are always one step ahead of you, and where mountains of plastic are clogging up waterways and oceans, the
Tiny House Living
As more people downsize and choose to “live small”, you have to ask: Why are tiny houses so popular? People are joining the tiny house movement for many reasons. The increase in environmental concerns, financial constraints, and the overall burden of having so much “stuff” are just a few reasons people downsize their homes. Why
Living Off-Grid: What It’s Actually Like
In our modern day, with cable TV shows banking off of the “weirdness” of living off the grid, the very phrase “Off-Grid” images of end-of-the-world preppers stocking up MREs and ammo, wild-haired hermits digging in the dirt for acorns and mushrooms, or maybe criminals attempting to elude capture. But if you visited our off-grid homestead,
Thrive Market Review
Editor’s Note: We’ve been hearing awesome things about Thrive Market, but before we plunked down the $59.95 membership fee, we needed to know: Is it better than other online and local organic food options? We decided on a two-part strategy: Our writer road-tested the service, which she wanted to try anyway. Meanwhile, we compared the
DECT Phone Safety
DECT Phone Safety, Dangers of DECT, low radiation dect phones
Unique Purses From Upcycled Material
Eco Pocketbooks
Earth-Sheltered Home: An Eco-Friendly, Passive Housing Alternative
Folks on the street may call them “hobbit houses” in reference to J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, but earth-sheltered homes have been around for far longer than 1937 when the novel was published. Though the practice of using a protective layer of earth to embrace your home exploded in popularity in the 1970s, it’s truly been around
Eco-Friendly Kitchen Sinks
Seekers of eco-friendly sinks, I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news first: Affordable, new kitchen sinks aren’t 100% eco-friendly. When choosing a sink you’ll be balancing different aspects of sustainability. We’ve tried to give you a starting point for all the buying choices you’ll have to make. Kitchen Sink Materials/Colors
Organic Mattress Guide
Many mattresses contain harsh fire-retardant chemicals and inexpensive synthetic fabrics. Are these mattresses safe for you to lie on for 8 hours every night? Only a few mattress companies sell 100% organic mattresses. Most mattress companies use a mix of natural and synthetic materials. An organic mattress doesn’t contain harsh chemicals—it meets fire safety standards
Eco Friendly Toys Ages 3-7
Eco Toys Ages 3-7
40 Smart Uses For Dryer Sheets In Your Home And Garden
When you put laundry in a dryer, static builds up on the clothes, sheets, and towels that bounce and tumble in the heat. Throwing in a dryer sheet can reduce static cling and leave your clothes smelling fresh. That said, dryer sheets have gained a bad reputation because they contain quaternary ammonium compounds that can
Try An Eco Friendly Christmas Tree
Upcycled, recycled, reused eco-friendly Christmas trees are a sustainable alternative to chopping down a living tree or buying a tree that’s been chopped down and shipped to you. Christmas tree farms are a classic example of monoculture, where a single crop is cultivated in a wide area. Row after row of similar trees does not make for a
Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products
Too many cleaning products contain chemicals that are extremely harmful to the environment and its inhabitants, including humans. Eco-friendly cleaning products are an easy alternative and solution! The ozone, water, air, land, and the entire ecosystem are all affected by the choices we make as humans, including what products we use. Today I am going
Quilting With Old Clothes
Ideas for your Old Clothes
Could You Make All Your Clothes For An Entire Year?
An artist from Vancouver challenged herself to just such a task, and discovered that sustainable clothing about more than just what you wear.
How to Buy an Eco-Friendly Dishwasher (In 2014)
While an eco-friendly dishwasher is already a bit of a redundancy, the model you choose & the way you run it can save even more energy & water.
Tiny House Builders
With so many individuals and companies building tiny houses, how are you supposed to know who to choose? Some tiny house builders can build and ship homes nationwide or send their design plans across the world. Other, smaller builders, focus on their region and work primarily with locals. Choosing a Tiny House Builder The thing
Eco-Friendly Homemade Ice Melt Solutions
If you reside in a region where the temperature drops below freezing, you know firsthand the dangers of ice accumulation. When the winter winds blow, temperatures drop, and the rain turns to sleet or snow; driveways, sidewalks, and steps become hazardous. Homemade ice melt solutions and anti-icing products help prevent snow and ice from bonding
Fruit Skin Sculptures
Craft Medium – Fruit and Fish Skin “Adorned”, (2006) by Jan Hopkins. Cantaloupe peels, orange peels, grapefruit peels, ostrich shell beads, Alaskan yellow cedar and waxed linen. 22” x 15” x 9” Photo credit: © Wendy McEahern Photography. “Oh Eleanor” teapot, (2012) by Jan Hopkins. Grapefruit peel, cantaloupe peel, ginkgo leaves, ostrich shell beads, cedar bark, and waxed
High Fat, High Protein Vegan Snacks
High fat is a term that often scares people away, I know. We’ve been told for decades that fat is bad for us, and because of ad campaigns and flawed science, there is a fundamental misunderstanding that leads us to believe fatty foods means fat on the body – but this is just not true.
Eco Friendly Tips To Redecorate Your Living Room
These eco-friendly redecorating tip for your living room will save you money and help the environment all at the same time. EPA reported in 2009 that 9.9 million tons of furniture were thrown in the landfills compared to only 2.2 million tons in 1960, that is an increase of 450%! If you compared the increase
Answering Some Questions About Off-Grid Living
YouTube comment sections are not always the friendliest of stomping grounds. If you reveal that you live off-grid, or worse, you try to teach others how to get started living off-grid, the critics crawl out of the woodwork. Rather than seeing that we’re offering free information to help others along their way, endless debates about
Getting Started With Self-Sufficient Living (And Why It IS Possible)
Self-sufficiency. What other term in the homesteading sphere carries such a weight of history, responsibility, and hope? Watch The Video Visions of lush, productive gardens, cozy wood stoves crackling with hand-split hardwood, provisions lining the pantry shelves, and healthy animals moving through the fields; all dance in our heads backed by the resounding questions: Is
Sustainable Living
With the effects climate change growing more and more obvious—now it’s actually shrinking the world’s reindeer—we all want to do more to live sustainably. Here’s how you can start to take action right at home. Meat-Free Kitchen The agriculture and food production industry has grown into a major environmental threat as a growing source of
tentree – 10 Trees Planted For Every Item Sold
Here at Insteading, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. Sustainability is the reason why we skip pesticides, collect rainwater, compost, choose solar and wind energy, and strive to live more self-sufficiently. Of course, we’re always on the search for brands that use sustainable materials and business practices. As for a company that
Perfluorinated Compounds
Perfluorinated Compounds
20 Energy Saving, Eco-Friendly DIY Clothesline Ideas
In today’s world, people are becoming ever more conscious of the ways their behavior impacts the planet. Everything we consider a modern convenience, from electricity right down to how we do our laundry, can hurt the environment. One way to reduce your carbon footprint is to build your own DIY clothesline. Of course, you can
🏡 Homestead Living
Homesteading is the foundation on which Insteading was built. The core values of homesteading are ones that we at Insteading like to promote to our readers and ones that we like to establish in our own lives Self-sufficiency, living off the land, and choosing eco-friendly alternatives are all things we encourage. Our Homestead Living content
Propane: The “Dirty Little Secret” of Living Off the Grid
Living off the grid sounds romantic…no more bills from dirty energy companies, self-sufficiency, green power, etc.; however, there is one “dirty little secret” found in most alternative energy homes. Without it, some off-gridders couldn’t cook, refrigerate, heat water, or dry clothes. That dirty little secret is propane. Propane is a “by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining,”. Due to
Flooring Ideas: 18 Eco-Friendly Options For Your Next Home Renovation
If you’re doing a home renovation or are in the market for some new flooring, you’re in luck. Right now, it appears that just about every type of flooring company has some exciting option you’re bound to love. Before choosing your flooring there are a few things to keep in mind. First, be sure that
Tiny House Transition: Downsizing
Downsizing is a difficult aspect of tiny house living. It’s often overlooked on social media platforms or in the press. Making the transition to a tiny house isn’t as simple as it seems, but If you downsize well, the transition will be much easier. What Is Downsizing? View this post on Instagram @tinyhousebasics remodel coming
Living Off The Grid
Living off the grid might seem like a dream come true for some of us. No longer tied to electricity or natural gas coming for a utility, we have greater choices for locations and saving money over the long-term. If you are someone who wants to set down roots away from the traffic and bustle
Off-Grid Living
25 Effortless Room Divider Ideas To Make Use Of Your Small Space
Whether you’re dealing with a huge open space or a make-shift living room in a tiny home, room dividers help to divvy up your home’s space. The easiest, cheapest way to divide your living area is to use a temporary fixture of some sort, but there are also lots of permanent ideas for those looking
How to Get Started With Spinning Wool and Plant Fibers
One of the greatest acts of self-reliance outside of gardening and preserving your own food, is becoming crafty to the point you can knit, crochet, and weave all that you need not buy from the store. When the chores are done for the day and you have made yourself comfortable on the homestead, it is
Tiny House Plans
When looking for blueprints and designs for building your tiny house, the search can be arduous and overwhelming. With all the options on the internet and in books it can be hard to know which ones are worth using. Look for tiny house plans that come with detailed instructions explaining how to construct the house,
Eco-Friendly DIY Drain Cleaners
Why is it a slow or clogged drain always seems to occur at the worst possible moment? You’re busy preparing a dinner party, company is soon to arrive, and now you find the water in the guest bathroom sink doesn’t want to drain. What to do? You want something that will clear your plumbing problems
25+ Sustainable Stocking Stuffers To Give This Holiday Season
It’s not always possible to buy that new greenhouse or build a rain garden as a holiday gift. At Insteading, we understand that garden gifts can easily run on the large and expensive side. We wouldn’t want to substitute our love of natural and sustainable products for a plastic and battery-operated gadget, though, so we’ve
A Guide To Organizing A Log Cabin
After moving to our mountain cabin, it took us over a year to find the best ways to organize it. We had to learn how to get creative with our space and think about storage in new ways. How you organize the space is key. If you do it well, you can maximize small corners,
Can I Compost Paper Plates?
Learn which paper plate types and sources are compostable. Correct preparation, and optimal composting conditions are crucial factors to produce the best compost quality from compostable paper plates!