Archive for the ‘Green Living & Homes’ Category
The Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling
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Dan Chiras writes well and prolifically on many aspects of green homes. Staying warm and staying cool take a lot of our time, attention, and money. The more we can have a home that takes advantage of the sun, the better. This book is mainly for people planning to build or remodel. — Zana
Description
Passive solar heating and passive cooling—approaches known as natural conditioning—provide comfort throughout the year by reducing, or eliminating, the need for fossil fuel. Yet while heat from sunlight and ventilation from breezes is free for the taking, few modern architects or builders really understand the principles involved.
Now Dan Chiras, author of the popular book “The Natural House,” brings those principles up to date for a new generation of solar enthusiasts. Read the rest of this entry »
When the Power Goes Out
Has the power gone out at your place in the past year? Are you more or less prepared for being without electricity for a while? I’ve got five tips. With the power grid vulnerable to a variety of events, it’s a good idea to set things up so you can do okay if your power is out for a while.
We lived in Mexico for several years recently and we experienced a number of power outages. They usually lasted a few minutes or even a few hours, but occasionally they went for more than 24 hours. So here are my tips:
1. If there is any room to spare in your refrigerator, keep it full by having plastic containers or glass jars of water in it. We keep all the beer that’s in the house in our fridge — it looks like we are ready for a party, but it’s just how we do it. Read the rest of this entry »
Storage Ideas for Small Dwellings
This guest article is about organizing your storage in small studio apartments but as we live in a small house, I read it with interest for my own situation and found several useful tips. Simple living often means living in smaller spaces, to be more sustainable, have lower power bills, and to pay less rent or a smaller mortgage.
There is a real art to living in small homes and part of that is to be well organized. Here’s a good book on remodeling small spaces: Not So Big Remodeling: Tailoring Your Home for the Way You Really Live — Zana
Studio Living-Storage Ideas
A basic interior design concept for small studio apartments is to fit storage on the walls as far as possible in order to free floor space for general living. Wall systems ranging from pockets and adjustable shelves to peg-boards, brackets and butcher’s hooks can be fitted onto any available wall space using appropriate fixings. Vertical Wall-hung letter or magazine racks are practical and space-saving and can be fixed at any height, in any area of the room. For maximum interior design flexibility look for adjustable, wall-hung shelving units. The range of materials in which these systems are available in, or that can be fabricated from are almost limitless. Natural Maplewood to create that soft earth look or high-tech stainless steel or aluminium are just some of the choices to make your shelving decorative and practical at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »
Clean: The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing
Household cleansers rank high in the lists of toxic substances in most homes. That’s why I was so delighted to see that Clean: The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing, by Michael de Jong, has received dozens of five-star rankings at Amazon. People comment that they keep the book handy. I’ve added this to my Amazon wishlist and will report in again sometime in the future on how I adopt its many simple recipes for household cleaning. — Zana
Description
d and designed by legendary publishing visionary Joost Elffers—the force behind such bestsellers as Play With Your Food and The 48 Laws of Power—this wonderful guide will help get your house shipshape without hurting the environment or your health. Inspirational cleaning guru Michael de Jong writes with humor and a Zen-like spirit as he presents five safe, all-natural products that take care of just about anything:- Baking Soda,
- Borax,
- Lemon,
- Salt, and
- White Vinegar.
Save Water
There are many free and inexpensive ways to save water at home. The most important thing is to develop the habit of being water conscious. If you do that, you will notice ways that you can cut back on water usage. Here are some ideas for saving water inside your home.
Saving Water in the Bathroom
Keep a small bucket in the bathroom. When you start the water running for a shower, put the bucket underneath where the cold, clean water comes out. This water can be used for pets’ drinking water, for watering house plants, and for numerous uses out of doors. Read the rest of this entry »
Buying Green Isn’t Enough
Living a simple green life isn’t just about buying greener stuff. We need a major change of consciousness.
Now that many businesses have jumped on the green bandwagon, it is possible to get more ecological versions of food, clothing, vehicles, building materials, and other things. This is to the good. It’s also the case that a lot of the things being touted as green aren’t very. But leaving that point aside for now, the fact is that just buying green is nowhere near enough to keep our environment from being horribly polluted.
I’ve seen television shows where an existing house is made over to be more green, and this consists of things like replacing kitchen appliances and adding more insulation so the house requires less heat. I have never heard a moment of consideration about whether keeping the older refrigerator might be the more ecological choice. (The answer can be yes, in cases where it’s not a truly antique power hog. If you don’t use every square inch inside the fridge, put containers of water inside to help hold the cold by acting as thermal mass.) Read the rest of this entry »
