Green Your Home AND Save Money

Here are five ways you can green your home and save a few dollars all at the same time, including shopping secondhand, cleaning with vinegar and... sharing!

Probably the number one obstacle stopping us earthlings from embracing a more sustainable lifestyle is the belief it will cost more. Because sometimes it really does cost more. Organic food is usually more expensive. Locally made clothing is usually more expensive. Handmade home decor is usually more expensive. One can make the argument that the benefits of such items make the extra cost worth it, but even a tree-hugger like me knows that’s not always a realistic response.

But do you know what is realistic? The fact that you can green your home AND save money. I mean, what’s not to love? Here are five ways you can up the eco-friendliness of your home and save a few dollars – all at the same time.

Outdoor Home Staging Tips + Our House in the Trees Update

When it comes to selling, your outdoor spaces need to be just as beautiful as your indoor spaces. Here are a few home staging tips focusing on the yard.

Whoa guys. The possibility of us building Our House in the Trees next year is actually pretty high. Like already picked out our appliances high. Not that there isn’t a chance it won’t work out because, hello, construction be crazy. But I am allowing myself to feel slightly excited. Not that I’ll end up brokenhearted if it doesn’t happen. I love our current house and staying here another year or two certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world. But we have been planning to build and move to the land for six years now. We’ve kind of reached the “if we’re going to do this, then let’s do it already” point.

Which is why Devin and I are preparing our current home for sale even though we likely won’t list for another six months or so. Because we’re the kind of people that like to be ready. Although I’m thinking selling the home you’ve lived in for ten years and building a new house is somewhat akin to having a new baby. You’re never quite ready and when it happens you are both filled with extreme joy and deep, deep terror. But maybe that’s just me being melodramatic.

Eco-Friendly Lighting and Accessories

Nowadays, you can find eco-friendly lighting fixtures that are made of recycled materials, as well cool accessories like LED Edison bulbs.

Lighting is one of my favourite aspects of home design and decor. Even before I had a home to decorate, I would always end up in the lighting aisle every time I went to a big box store. Like a bug to a flame – or to a wrought-iron chandelier, the lights just called to me.

I’ve also always been really sensitive to lighting levels and associate certain lights with certain tasks only. I’m constantly going around the house at night turning specific lights on and off depending on what I’m doing and how I’m feeling and have even found myself adjusting lights while in the homes of others because it’s too bright/not bright enough/a certain light is really getting under my skin. (As an aside, I recently found out that being ultra sensitive to light is a characteristic of a highly sensitive person – which is actually a thing and I very much am one.)

5 Quotes About Sustainability

Five sustainability quotes superimposed over images of mountains, forests and a child hugging a very large tree. Cheesy? Perhaps. True? Hell yes.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find those inspirational quotes strategically placed over a picture of a mountain or forest pretty damn cheesy. Am I a cynic? Why yes. Yes I am. But you know what else I am? I’m a dreamer and an optimist. Especially when it comes to saving our planet. Which is why I wanted to share five sustainability quotes superimposed over images of mountains, forests and a child hugging a very large tree. Cheesy? Perhaps. True? Hell yes.

5 Healthy Homemade Salad Dressings

Healthy homemade salad dressing takes a bit of extra work, but the benefits are so worth it. Here are five of my favourites!

Once upon a time I ate “healthy.” This is what people do when they mean well and count calories and eat things labelled “low fat.” But a few years ago I turned into the “read every ingredient on the label and then painstakingly research it” kind of person and let me tell you, it was terrifying. On salad dressing labels alone: calcium sodium EDTA, high fructose corn syrup, modified food starch. If you’ve ever made a simple homemade salad dressing, you know that all you really need is balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil… which is exactly how you make one of my recipes!

Summer Land Tour

A little girl running on a country road with the words "land tour." Click to visit post.

I’ve been wanting to take you all on a tour of our land for quite awhile now. You can read all about how it came to be ours in my post The Story of Our Land. I think the pictures in that post give a good idea of what the land is all about. And I hope my writing paints a vivid word picture. I do tend to get kind of poetic when espousing on things I’m passionate about.

But if a picture is worth a thousand words (and as a writer, I’m not sure I always buy that line), then how many pictures is a video worth? I suppose it depends on the content and the quality of the video, but I think this one captures the true – and largely untamed – beauty of our land.

I hope you enjoy watching my land tour as much as I enjoyed making it!

Eco-Friendly Building Material Magnesium Oxide Board

Magnesium oxide board is an eco-friendly drywall alternative made with naturally-occurring materials using an environmentally friendly process.

Aside from Of Houses and Trees, I also write content for a few other architecturally-minded blogs. One subject I’ve written quite a bit about lately is the building material magnesium oxide board (MgO board). If you’ve never heard of it, it’s essentially an eco-friendly drywall alternative. And, of course, as soon as I see the phrase “eco-friendly alternative” I get all giddy and start geeking out. It looks like we’re going to build our Real Life Home next spring. (Fingers crossed!) And I absolutely want to use as many green materials as possible. Not only are environmentally friendly materials good for the planet, but they’re also good for you and your family as they tend to release little to no VOCs (volatile organic compounds) into your home nor other narsty chemicals. (Did you know synthetic drywall contains formaldehyde? Yuck.)

How to Keep Your House (Mostly) Clean with Kids

Have children? Find it impossible to keep your house clean? Me too! But I have figured out how to keep my home "mostly clean." Here are my cleaning tips!

One of my personal mottos is “a clean home equals a clean mind.” I probably ripped that off from some cult leader or something, but if I did – man that’s one persuasive cult leader. Because I cannot function properly when my house is a mess.

Before I had my daughters, I prided myself on a spick and span home. A place where you could confidently eat off the floors. Now that I have children, I pride myself on a clean home even more. Because, dudes, it can be really hard to keep your home clean with kids.

Not that I’m remotely saying individuals without children don’t have busy lives that leave little room for cleaning. But the difference is when you don’t have kids and you clean your home – it tends to stay clean. Sometimes for an ENTIRE DAY.

These Baked Chickpeas are So Good You’ll Forget They Came From a Can

A blue bowl with a floral pattern filled with baked chickpeas.

I have a confession to make. Up until a few years ago, I HATED chickpeas. (Also known as garbanzo beans, which was the name by which I knew them during my decades long boycott.) I remember my mom used to buy a five bean salad from the grocery store deli that included chickpeas and I couldn’t even choke it down. I’ve written before about how I’ve since conditioned myself to love legumes. And out of this super nutritious food category chickpeas are at the top of my list. Can we just talk about how versatile they are for a second?

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