Advice | Offbeat Home

This is Offbeat Home's archive of Advice posts.

We're aren't BORN knowing how to keep offbeat house. Questions and guidance live in our "Advice" posts.

Most Recent Posts About Advice

Assembly Line Dance © by jurvetson, used under Creative Commons license.

What with recent events in the news about Foxconn, the Chinese company that produces gadgets for Apple, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and others, I've started to sit down and wonder if I really want to be purchasing products that were made by people living and working in poor conditions.

Going without technology isn't an option for me, as I'm a full-time college student whose teachers submit all their homework online…But how can I make a protest of these crimes against humanity when it seems like everywhere I turn, another product I use is/was made in a similar situation? -Lolly

Golly, I wish I had an answer for you. For us. It seems like the options are:

Turn our heads and ignore the implications of our tech addiction.
Be conscientious objectors. Buy no tech (because…aside from a company making TVs in Arizona, I can't find a manufacturer working in technology and working in the US.)
Continue reading »

I called my husband and told him, "Oh shit, we bought a house." He said, "Okay, we need to sit down tonight and make a list…" A list of what? He owned a house well before I met him so he's gone through this before; but we've been together seven years now, which means that house was long long ago and what to prepare for was a distant memory.

What I need is a checklist — and I don't mean things like get an inspection and such because that's been done. We've got a house that we need to prepare to move in to, so what do we need to do? I mean, I get the change of address to the USPS and the utilities, pack, get a rental truck for the small stuff and price movers for the furniture but what else is there?

My boyfriend and I are looking to buy a new mattress in a couple of months and we wondered if there were any environmentally-friendly options.

I suppose a follow-up question is if there is anything we should know about disposing the old one! Since your website has inspired us to make more conscious decisions about our lifestyles I was hoping you would be able to offer some input.

I'm an anthropologist. I have collected a bunch of ridiculous souvenirs that, at the time, seemed like a good idea to lug back home. Some of my challenges include a Masai spear and a delicately beaded belt.

THANK YOU GUYS for your help on my question about rooting out plastics in my home. I'm going to sit down this weekend and use your advice to come up with some strategies to reduce the plastics I buy in food packaging.

Today Dootsie has a question. If you follow along with comments on Offbeat Home's posts, you've probably run into her. AND NOW WE GET TO SEE YOUR FACE, DOOTSIE!

Hey Homies! What do you think about turning some of our advice posts into VIDEO advice posts? We'll still run text-only posts — so don't worry if you're camera-shy or don't have the tech — but I think it'll be fun for us to see members of the community once in a while. Here, let's try it!

We love the quirks about this home but are having trouble setting up a transitional space between the living room area and the kitchen.

It's supposed to be a formal dining room but meh. We want to turn it into a sitting room/extra living space but aren't sure how. We have an extra love seat in there so far and it just kind of looks awkward, like it needs something else.

How do we turn our pesky formal dining room into a bonus hangout space?

I try to do daily cleaning until I get behind and overwhelmed. Then he will take a weekend and do a massive cleaning. We both end up feeling like the other one never does any cleaning. How can we find a better compromise?