Home + Garden

 · 4 min read

Making Wood Last with Fire, Not Paint: An Ancient Technique

One wouldn’t imagine using fire to preserve wood, but the ancient Japanese technique does just that. Shou Sugi Ban is an exterior siding method; it charrs the wood, cools it, cleans it, and finishes it with oil. Traditionally, they use Sugi wood (also called Japanese cedar).  Nowadays, Shou Sugi Ban is used as an environmentally-friendly […]

Sarah Biren

Sarah Biren

Founder of The Creative Palate

 · 4 min read

California company leases backyards for 99 years to build tiny homes and rent them at affordable rates to fight the housing crisis

OBY is a housing company that is attempting two of the biggest problems we are facing today: lack of affordable housing and climate change. Short for our backyard, the California-based company is renting people’s backyards for 99 years to build tiny homes. These homes are compact, eco-friendly living spaces that are addressing the state’s housing […]

Brittany Hambleton

Brittany Hambleton

The Hearty Soul Team

 · 3 min read

How To Set A Mousetrap

As wintertime approaches, all of the furry little friends outdoors will seek warmth. However, sometimes this means finding warm places inside people’s homes. For mice, this is the perfect time to find the best hiding spot with the best food. People tend to get worried about having unwanted guests during the holiday season. It’s a […]

Cody Medina

Cody Medina

Environmental Activist

 · 3 min read

How to Open Any Can of Food with a Spoon

Have you ever needed to open a can but couldn’t find the can opener anywhere? Or perhaps it broke the second you tried to use it. Either way, you have a can that needs to be open and nothing to open it with. That, however, is where you are wrong: You can open a can […]

Julie Hambleton

Julie Hambleton

The Hearty Soul Team

 · 3 min read

Japan Is Giving Away Abandoned Houses for Free, but there’s a Catch

Like many countries, Japan is facing a housing crisis. Unlike those countries, Japan’s is for the opposite reason: They have more homes than they have people. For this reason, they started giving away abandoned houses – but are they really free? Here’s what you should know. Why is Japan Giving Away Abandoned Houses Japan has […]

Julie Hambleton

Julie Hambleton

The Hearty Soul Team

 · 3 min read

Inside the skinny home that disappears into the tree canopy of a nature reserve

Architects can design structures that seem to be impossible. They are creatives while also being masters of math and sciences. Putting all that together has resulted in some out of this world creations.  Enter “the skinny home”, or more commonly known as the House of the Big Arch.  The tall house in South Africa’s Bushveld ecoregion […]

Sarah Biren

Sarah Biren

Founder of The Creative Palate

 · 3 min read

Say Goodbye to That Pesky Toilet Bowl Ring With This Hack

Let’s face it- very few people enjoy cleaning their bathrooms. When certain surfaces accumulate hard-to-remove stains, cleaning them becomes even more of a chore. This is particularly true of the toilet, which often eventually gets that pesky ring around the inside of the bowl. Luckily, there is an excellent hack for how to remove a […]

Brittany Hambleton

Brittany Hambleton

The Hearty Soul Team

 · 4 min read

4 Forgotten Ways That Were Used To Keep Food Cold Without Electricity

People didn’t always use to have refrigerators to keep their food from spoiling. A lot of the time, people had to rely on the finite sources that the land was able to provide. Forcing people to get creative on how they stored their food. Their imagination has brought convenience and survivability to a whole new […]

Cody Medina

Cody Medina

Environmental Activist

 · 4 min read

Man Turns Island Into Garden to Grow 7,000 pounds of Food for the Homeless

Providing sustenance for people in need is an ongoing debate, with no clear solution on the horizon. So one man decided to make a difference on his own. John Fallon turned a traffic island into a garden and farms thousands of pounds of produce. He then delivers it to homeless shelters in Massachusetts.  Turning a Traffic Island into […]

Sarah Biren

Sarah Biren

Founder of The Creative Palate

 · 5 min read

Black-Gabled Farmhouse Harvests its Own Electricity, Heat, and Water

Have you ever dreamed of owning your own off-grid, self-sustaining, decedent home? A place far away from society that has everything you need in order to be happy? Designing an off-grid farmhouse that’s able to sustain itself indefinitely is no easy task. However, the hard workers at Dwell have accomplished what might be considered a […]

Cody Medina

Cody Medina

Environmental Activist