Consumer Sovereignty and the Apocalypse-proof Dream

Dreaming tiny dreams has become a favorite pastime in the past five or 10 years.  The “tiny house movement” is gaining greater traction as ever more people choose to downsize for economic or ecological reasons. A small house, usually being defined as one offering less than 400 sq ft of space, offers a stimulating challenge about living … Read more

The Small Footprint Kitchen

This is the Ecooking unit that Italian manufacturer Clei showed in Milan at the 2014 Salone del Mobile furniture fair. The Ecooking kitchen’s moving parts rotate around a central pivot that also serves as the exhaust pipe for the sink and dishwasher — and as the conduit for the plumbing and electricity. The tower can … Read more

The Wind Belt Blows Turbines Away!

The Windbelt is a small-scale wind turbine that can generate 40 milliwatts in 10-mph winds and only costs a couple of dollars. Working in Haiti, Shawn Frayne, a 28-year-old inventor based in Mountain View, California, saw the need for small-scale wind power to juice LED lamps and radios in the homes of the poor. Conventional … Read more

DIY Seed Starting Kits

Learn how to make biodegradable seed starting kits out of newspaper. Consider the Source  Consider the First Source! In the beginning was the Word, and the Word choreographed an assembly of amino acids into an exquisite array of specific proteins. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole … Read more

A $200 Dome Home

It’s a tiny geodesic dome built for a grand total of two hundred bucks by Jeffery the builder at Aprovecho, ” a regional resource for researching, demonstrating, and educating the techniques and strategies of sustainable living” that will be a story on its own. “To begin the project I constructed a nine-foot, ten sided deck … Read more

The Murphy Bed

For years, one of the best ways to achieve the open-plan bedroom has been to install a Murphy bed—a hinged bed that folds vertically into a wall closet when not in use. Various legends have it that in the early 20th century, William Lawrence Murphy applied for a patent on the device, which he devised … Read more

As Tiny Houses Go, Try Whimsical.

Move over C.S. Lewis. You’ve got competition now J.R.R Tolkien. This tiny home studio is one truly inspirational abode for the aspirational writer. Heck, even I could churn out readable stuff from a home like this! The builder describes it as a Whimsical Day Use Shop, Potting Shed or Hideout. But, they must have never … Read more

Tiny Home – Japanese Style

A teacher built a tiny house in the forest. Brian Schulz recently completed his forest house in the Oregon Woods. He built the home himself, and the design and concept of it were inspired by the traditional Japanese Minka homes, which are built using local materials and steeply sloped roofs to create affordable, open structures. … Read more

Beehive in a Jar

Have the rows of organic honey jars at the farmers market got you thinking about starting your own backyard beehive? If you live in a suburban area, you may think that starting a beehive cannot be done. However a common suburban backyard can be a perfect place for beehives if done correctly and you do … Read more