Philosophy | Offbeat Home

This is Offbeat Home's archive of Philosophy posts.

Not everything on Offbeat Home centers around the physical. Sometimes being an Offbeat Homie is all about the mindset.

Most Recent Posts About Philosophy

We've been talking about single-use appliances a bit — mostly with disdain. Ange is here now with her own take on the utility of single-use appliances.

Shared by jbcurio, used under Creative Commons license.

I've found true love in the kitchen and its name is Sunbeam…and Breville, and Delonghi. Somewhere in the last 30 years of feminism, with the need to cook taken out of the equation, I've embraced gadgets. They're hidden everywhere — not just in the kitchen. The coffee machine sits next to the bed (Why get up to make coffee? You masochist!) the freezer is in the lounge to make room for the microwave, grill, wok, two crockpots, pizza stone, and 100 kinds of cutting things including a strange gadget for making crinkle cut vegetables and a knife just for chopping herbs.

My husband has given up eating toast because we lost the toaster under the Great Appliance Avalanche of 2010. He says we don't need any more gadgets but good business practise has taught us to identify the problem first before we try to solve it. The problem is: The kitchen is full of gadgets. So the obvious solution is: Get a bigger kitchen…

January always seems to be about making new starts. Quitting things, cutting down on things, doing more of other things…I, of course, thought I was above falling for the hype. I'm an Offbeat Homie, I don't need to buy your exercise video just because it's January! Obviously.

But, to be honest, 2012 looks like it's going to be a big year for me. My first PhD performance review, a life-changing research trip abroad to plan, several articles to finish up and get published, and the spectre of job applications looming somewhere in the late summer. Having mentally dismissed a lot of this stuff until "after Christmas," I wasn't surprised that New Year's was when I started to feel under a lot of pressure.

Our search began with houses the size of our friends', but ended abruptly when we decided babies were most likely not in our future. Then, we looked at town homes and condos, only to realize that sharing a wall again was not ideal. Then, we looked at smaller houses, all of which had something seriously wrong with them because they were much older, as no one seems to be building modest-sized houses anymore. Then, our realtor said to me, "Ashley, you're going to have to be the one to pick this house. You're the woman, and women are the ones that play house." Direct quote.

Buying a house and putting down roots turned me from a casual hippie into a MUST CHANGE ALL THE THINGS activist. Here's why.

Homies, we have a nice little community here. We brainstorm solutions to problems, share fantasies, debate, and educate. I want to take a second to be grateful for my online family, of which you are a large part. We can't share a meal this week and we probably won't be sending each other Winter Holiday Greetings, but I can still say, "Hi everybody. It's so nice to put this site together for you."

Here are some of the posts which have hosted some of the most enlightening conversations this year.

I moved to Isaan, the farmlands of Thailand, 4 months ago. Our home is safe. I am very thankful. However, a third of Thailand is underwater, over 300 people have died, & the waters are still rising.

So today, instead of fixating on sheets that aren't quite the right shade, I focus on having a dry place to sleep.

It's strange how, when you know you're going to be moving, you start to look around where you live and see things in a completely different way. Even before the For Sale sign has gone up outside and the first potential buyers have stepped in the door, it stops being quite so much of a home and starts turning back into a house.

As I was sweeping the first of the yellowed leaves from the cabin's porch, I was trying to line up all the ways that the homes I've created for myself in my adult life have been both a reflection of this space, and a reaction against it.