Tag: diy
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How to Make a Double-Sided Draft Stop
As winter rolls in and temperatures drop, you don’t need to freeze in your own home to keep your heating bill from climbing. Drafts can be a major source of heat loss, even inside your home from unheated portions that are not in use. Here is a great instructional video with simple to follow instructions…
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Homemade Root Cellar
Freezing your food is a great way to preserve it. But if your freezer breaks, there’s no reason to take it to the dump. You can still use it to preserve your food by converting it to a mini-root-cellar. You will be able to store potatoes, carrots, onions, and other crops through winter and into…
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Dandelion Balm for Aches and Pains
Keeping your homestead in working order is bound to give you sore muscles, joint pain, and irritated skin from time to time. Luckily you probably have the cure outside in your lawn. Dandelions can be used in a balm to help treat soreness and skin irritation. All you need other than dandelions are some oil…
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How to Make a Fly Trap
Not only are flies annoying, but they are disgusting too. They can spread diseases just by landing on your food, without your even noticing. They can ruin the time you spend outside trying to relax, and they can sneak inside every time you open the door. And while raising animals and having a compost pile…
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Household Uses for Hydrogen Peroxide
Every knows that hydrogen peroxide can be used as an antiseptic to treat wounds, but hydrogen peroxide can be used for more than just wound care. Here is a brief list of other ways you can use this cheap, versatile, and safe product. Oral Care H202 (hydrogen peroxide) can be diluted with an equal…
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Why Baking Soda is Awesome
Two of the most constant themes in homesteading are resource conservation and improvisation. Having items that can be used in a variety of ways will help make both of these possible. One such item is baking soda. Baking soda can be used in virtually every aspect of homesteading life. It is cheap, natural, and safe. …
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How to Build a Fire Pit (Infographic)
Fire pits are great for summer or fall nights when you want to be outside but want or need some extra warmth. It’s a great thing to have on a homestead not just for outdoor evenings, however, but also for burning small bits of waste or even cooking (with the right set-up, but that’s another…
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Homemade Bird Feeders
During the fall and winter, as trees die and snow eventually covers the ground, many birds have a harder time finding their food than during the spring and summer months. But unlike their hibernating woodland counterparts, birds still look for sustenance in the coldest months! A very nice way to help them out a bit,…
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Super-Simple DIY Pest Repellent for the Garden
As you probably know, most commercially available pest-repellants are full of harmful chemicals that you wouldn’t want anywhere near your house, children, or pets, let alone near the garden that you’re growing your food in. Even if you don’t spray chemicals right on the leaves of your plants, spraying them around the perimeter, either to…
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Homemade Toothpaste
It’s really fun, wallet-friendly and healthy to make your own personal hygiene products at home. A great place to start is with homemade toothpaste! It’s really easy and cheap, and quite possibly much better for your teeth than conventional toothpaste. This recipe includes coconut oil, which is great for your teeth. The oil naturally attracts…
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Making Your Own Shampoo
Are you sick and tired of the high-priced shampoos that are on the market today? You want to be self-sufficient, but you still keep on buying those shampoos because you need to keep your hair clean. What if you could make your own shampoo? Think about the benefits that can provide. Benefits of Homemade Shampoo…
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How (and Why) to Render Tallow
Tallow used to be commonplace a few hundred years ago, before it was replaced with mass-produced cooking oils like canola, corn and soy. What it is is rendered animal fat, (it’s normally called tallow for beef fat and lard for pig fat, but the same principles apply for each) and it can be used in…
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4 Crafty Ways to Reuse Mason Jars
Mason jars. Are they not one of the best inventions of all time? Originally designed for canning, mason jars (or Bell, or Kerr, or other canning jars…wide-mouth canning jars are just all-around awesome) have so many uses. They’re sturdy, difficult to break, have a big capacity-well, a quart! Lately, the annals of Pinterest have shown…
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How to Get Started Knitting
It’s only the middle of August, but apparently snow is already accumulating above some US states-can you believe it? It’s already time to start thinking about getting out that winter gear. Or, if you want to learn a new skill-making it! Knitting is a wonderful skill to have, and it’s never too late to learn.…
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Crock Pot Sourdough Recipe
Sourdough bread is delicious, and nutritious! When made with a real sourdough culture, it breaks down the anti-nutrients in the wheat that are commonly attributed to gluten intolerance and allergy. There’s also no better-tasting sourdough than when it is made fresh at home. A very easy way to make sourdough is right in your crock…
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2 DIY Skincare Recipes for Any Homesteader
Did you know that you don’t need a ton of chemical-heavy, processed skincare products to look and feel younger and more vibrant? In fact, your homestead and garden could provide all you need to make more effective and healthier skincare products than any of the store-bought products you’ve used in the past. Lavender Body Lotion…
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4 Healthy DIY Alternatives to Soda
Soda is delicious, refreshing and, unfortunately, really, really bad for you. A single can of soda contains roughly ten tablespoons of sugar, not to mention extra high fructose corn syrup, or, if you’re opting for diet soda, harmful aspartame, which has been linked to cancer in rats and is even commonly recommended that pregnant women avoid for…
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DIY Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar is one of the most popular and useful natural health food items you can find. It’s incredibly versatile, and can be used internally for a plethora of maladies, as a cosmetic and topical remedy and also to preserve food and sanitize the home. But did you know you can make your own…
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Turn Your Garden Into A DIY Spa
Besides creating a surplus of food, and being used for medicinal and cleaning purposes, your garden has many other uses. One of those is allowing you to pamper yourself once in a while! After you’ve put in all that hard work, you can harvest a few ingredients out of your garden and use them to…
