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
Search Results for: eco-living/eco-bamboo/bamboo-rugs
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
Floating Homes
AMPHIBIOUS ARCHITECTURE, Floating Homes
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 weโre 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
Outdoor Patio Furniture
More people are choosing to spend their limited leisure time with Mother Nature, in the form of backyard living. Enjoying our backyards has long been part of sunny summer days and crisp autumn nights, but now, weโre extending more of our indoor living activities into the outdoors. Things like outdoor kitchens and bars, televisions, furniture
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
Sustainable Living
With the effects climate change growing more and more obviousโnow it’s actually shrinking the world’s reindeerโwe 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
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?ย 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
13 Savvy Small Bathroom Ideas
Whether you live in an apartment, a tiny house, or a Harry Potter closet, small bathrooms can be a challenge, especially when you’re living with roommates, a significant other, or little ones. Not only do you have to coordinate shower and bath times, but storing away all your toiletries can get tricky. So before you
30 Kitchen Shelves To Declutter Your Space
Your kitchen serves many purposes. It’s the place where you make your morning cup of coffee and pack the kids’ lunches. It’s also where you cook your famous macaroni, and above all, spend time with the ones that you love. There’s a reason that the party always ends up moving to the kitchen. There’s something
How to Make Beeswax Candles: 3 Methods to Try at Home
DIY beeswax candle making is a great way to add a festive flair to your home. Not only do beeswax candles provide a warm and inviting light, but their fresh fragrance is also appealing this time of year. Professional candlemakers spend years honing their craft and use specialized tools to make high-quality products. But that
Homestead Stories: Japanese Knotweed
โItโs so pretty.โ I heard the comment of a nearby, daily walker. โWhy is she pulling it?โ I wanted to stop what I was doing and explain, but I was making progress — well, sort of — and I didnโt want to lose momentum. It was a nasty job, pulling invasive weeds and this weed
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,
Planter Box Plans
Create a true gardenscape by moving your plants beyond the pot. Create your own planter boxes with these free online designs. I searched the internet to try and find a planter box to match just about any urban homestead and found some really great projects. Planter Box Plans for All Kinds of Homesteads Carpentry projects
Eco-Toys for Ages 6-10
Wooden Jumbo Cable Car Exploration Kit Once assembled and set up, this cable car can travel across a room, between two trees, up a hill, down into a valley, etc, etc! Load up the cable car with favorite dolls or toys (not included) and then let the journey begin as the car is pulled as
Off-Grid Living
Shipping Container Homes
Shipping container homes seem like a no-brainer. Approximately 30 million steel shipping containers are in existence, filled and floating, or standing empty in a port. 8 feet wide by 8.5 feet high, and either 20 or 40 feet long, the steel shipping container has been the globally standardized transportation module since 1956. Sending empty containers
25 Effortless Room Divider Ideas To Make Use Of Your Small Space
Whether youโre 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
Tiny House Interiors
Creativity is essential when planning and designing the interior of your tiny house. Trying to incorporate your kitchen, bedroom, living room and bathroom into an average of 200 sq. ft. is tricky. With the rise in people living tiny, there has been an increase in innovative designs that have come out to help incorporate all
Outdoor Coffee Tables
Not only are coffee tables one of the biggest focal points of any room, but theyโre a highly functional piece of furniture that should be chosen wisely. They serve countless functions; holding books, magazines, cups, glasses, dinner, and letโs be honest, sometimes laundry. Related Post: Rustic Coffee Tables There is no reason why we shouldnโt
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 doesnโt want to drain. What to do? You want something that will clear your plumbing problems
Kitchen Stools
To have a nice island or snack bar, you’ll need different seating than traditional dining areas, namely, kitchen stools. The stools you’ll want depends on your style, the size of the space, and the functionality required. Happily, you can now pick from an amazing array of stools. Letโs take a look at a few. Our
6 Reasons Why I Chose Clover as a Living Mulch
I mentioned in my post about building raised beds that I chose to add New Zealand white clover to the edges of the raised bed to act as a living mulch. First off, I should explain what a living mulch is, and how it differs from a cover crop: “In agriculture, a living mulch is a
Top 10 Reasons to Live in an Electricity-Free Home (PPB #27)
When I designed my cob house here at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage two years ago, I decided that I was going to live without electricity. I had no plans to buy a solar power system or a wind turbine. I was going to make the leap to live electricity-free in my home, in order to live
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
Old Trees
โDid you know thereโs an 800-year-old oak tree in Kent, England? Itโs called Majesty or the Fredville Oak.โ โAnd what about that sycamore tree near Hadrianโs Wall?โ I replied. โThat one’s only famous because it starred with Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,โ my friend countered. “Great movie,โ I sighed. โAnd so was
Living Walls (Green Walls)
Green walled buildings, green wall inspiration…
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
Planetsave Considers the Benefits of Living Off the Grid
We tend to think that living off the grid is always a good thing, but our sister site Planetsave wants us to think it through better. What do you think?
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
๐งฑ Natural Building
Modern day building utilizes man-made materials that can be harmful to the environment. Even natural materials, like wood, utilize fossil fuels in order to be milled into the final product. Everything from steel to plastic is used in modern building, and the resources needed to create those materials are not renewable. Alternatively, traditional building methods
Wattle Edging
Wattle edging has surrounded kitchen gardens since gardening began. Has seasonal pruning left you with numerous, long,ย flexible tree suckers and saplings? You will need to move fast, as those branches will become too stiff to weave soon after cutting. Drive stakes. Weave like a basket.ย The firmer you press the wattle down, the sturdier the fence
Insteading Giveaway – December 2019
Regardless of whether you had a large harvest of food from the garden this year, or simply found a lot of cucumbers on sale at the grocery store, preserving food is an excellent way to provide yourself with a little more self-sufficiency in the winter months. While canning and dehydrating are common methods of food
30 Gifts For Bakers
Baking helps make your house into a home and is a lovely way to show the people in your life that you care for them. And there is no better time than the holidays to start (or begin again) with baking traditions. But if your baking supplies could use a bit of an upgrade โ
Baker’s Racks
Once, cooks used them to cool down fresh pies. Now, baker’s racks help keep kitchens clutter-free. Between pots and pans, small appliances and dishware, your kitchen can get unorganized quickly. Whether your kitchen decor is rustic and farm-inspired or sleek and modern, consider adding a baker’s rack.ย Your kitchen supplies deserve to have their own home
35 Headboards To Tie Your Bedroom Together
When you’re decorating your bedroom, you may find yourself on the search for bed frames, dressers, armoirs, and bedside tables. But nothing will tie your space together quite like a headboard. Headboards are available in just about any style, so adding them into your current decor is simply the cherry on top! On the other
20 Outdoor Showers for Your Lake or Poolside Home
If you live near a river or lake, you know how frustrating it is when sand gets tracked into your house. It makes a mess, it’s dirty, and once it’s made its way into your home, there’s no turning back. It’s there for what feels like forever, and let’s not forget about all the dirty
๐ธ Ornamentals
Tropical Homesteading: How to Harvest Coconut for Fresh Water and Meat
Coconut palms are astoundingly useful to tropical or subtropical homesteaders. They provide everything from wood to medicine to nutritious, high-calorie food. Theyโre hardy, need minimal to no care, and produce (on average) anywhere from 50-200 coconuts per tree, per year. The icing on the cake? You can process the fruit to make oil, coconut milk,
Growing Cucumbers Using A Trellis
I love growing fresh cucumbers in my country garden and enjoy having plenty for salads and pickling. Most seasons, I have lots left over to share with friends and family or to sell at the market. Native to India, cucumbers are members of the cucurbit plant family, the same as gourds, squash, and pumpkin. They
Greenhouse Plans
A greenhouse is one of the most well-known garden structures. Providing shielding from extreme sun, wind, and rain โ greenhouses can significantly extend your growing season. These sunny buildings come in a variety of shapes and sizes too. Heated glass greenhouses can fight against snow and cold in severe climates. Plastic sheeting can help create
tentree Holiday Gift Guide
When you’re on the search for the perfect gift this holiday season, you may feel yourself completely overwhelmed and inundatedย 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
Modern Underground Homes
Modern Underground Homes
Live Fencing: What Is It and How to Implement It
A few years ago, I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal, West Africa with the specific task of implementing agroforestry practices. Before this position, I was only vaguely familiar with agroforestry, but since then, my eyes have been opened to it, and I see it quite a lot. Whether done unintentionally through home
Earthbag Homes
Earthbag Construction, Sandbag Buildings
8 Ways to Practice Homesteading While Living in a City
The (most recent) Back-to-the-Land Movement may have peaked in the 60s and 70s, but that doesnโt mean people havenโt had the desire for a more land-based way of life every decade before and since. Many armchair homesteaders find themselves tirelessly reading through the Storeyโs Guides to Livestock at their local library, browsing websites like Insteading
Kitchen Of The Future
“Energy-saving light bulbs will only take us so far. We need to push ourselves to rethink domestic appliances entirely, to rethink how homes consume energy, and how entire communities can pool resourcesโ says Clive van Heerden, Senior Director of Design-led Innovation at Philips Design. Philips believes the solution is likely to come from biological processes,
Sustainability 101: Wash Your Car Without Wasting Water
If you wash your car at home once a month, it can use up to 6,000 gallons of water a year. Here are 4 ways to keep your ride clean without the waste.