Category Archive

Life

We launched as Offbeat Home in 2011, but it has become clear that the site is about much more. In 2013, we relaunched as Offbeat Home & Life, with an expanded focus on Relationships, Budget & Career, Travel, and Style. This is the category for the non-home/rest of life stuff!

Battle of the blands: making the most of boring spaces

There are elaborate romanticized dreams about how young and creative people live — but very few of us are in gorgeous abandoned industrial spaces. We can’t all afford the luxuries of gentrified quirky spaces, and most of us have to make the most of what we’ve got.

It’s Earth Day! Read 12 ways to make your home greener for the next year

It’s Earth Day! Right, we all totally remembered and planned to do something! YAY, environment!
Great! Learn how to tune up your bike — and 11 other ways to green up this spring.

10 tips on moving to a new country and being happy there

You know how most of the time people write tip lists it’s like nine things that are so obvious anyone could write the list, and then one maybe-useful idea? Katie’s list of ways to ease international moves is not that type of list. It’s like years of experience compacted down for the newbie.

How do you bring an art culture to a community with none?

I’m popping my head up after seven years beginning my nursing career, only to discover my neighborhood is lacking. How do you add culture to a community?

How offbeat occupants can challenge their conservative neighbors’ assumptions

Oh, you think I’m going to be rude and obnoxious? Well, I’ll show you by being the most disarmingly polite, well-spoken weirdo you’ve ever fucking met! Take THAT, complain-y neighbor!

Embracing my inner mooch: learning to love living with my boyfriend’s parents

I’m starting to appreciate the full range of benefits of co-habitating with my boyfriend’s family, a lifestyle formerly known to me as “mooching.” Admittedly, I originally was eager to partake in the no-rent, frequent-free-meals, high-quality-shower type of benefits. These selfish reasons are certainly the temptation of every low-life mooch. I felt less guilty, however, after I read Little House on a Small Planet.

Breakfast club: the brunch potluck that will transform your concept of parties

Here’s why you should start having your parties in the morning, even if you’re a nightlife denizen.

Coping with changes in my aging mothering body

When I searched on the internet, my suspicion was confirmed — age and childbirth are the leading causes of varicose veins in women. They don’t affect your health, are painful for some, and of course, don’t look very pretty.