The finished product is the most significant benefit of doing DIY in your home, but there are other pros you may have yet to consider. Here are six of them.

1. DIY Improves Problem-Solving

When you were young, you probably had a set of building blocks or a Lego kit you’d use to create structures you dreamed up. And, when the envisioned creation didn’t entirely support itself, what did you do? You solved the problem with a different setup.

DIY — in the toy sense, anyway — is one of the best ways to help children improve their problem-solving skills. But the same remains true for grownups who partake in at-home projects.

You’re sure to reach at least one obstacle as you attempt to create or build something new. And this ability to coolly solve problems will translate well into all aspects of your life where problems pop up from time to time.

2. You’ll Feel More Creative

It can be hard to stoke creativity — business leaders try and do it for the sake of their employees’ output all the time. Research has shown some environments can stoke right-brain activity. It turns out positive emotions aren’t the only ones that should be present when trying to make someone feel more creative. When good and bad feelings combine, more creativity comes out. A strange or unexpected environment can do the same.

With this in mind, it’s easy to see how DIY, too, can help make participants more innovative than before. Helming an at-home project can be both frustrating and rewarding, thus creating the emotional ambivalence that stokes creativity.

Plus, DIY-ing a task will always present you with unexpected obstacles and speedbumps, as previously mentioned — you’ll probably have to think outside the box to overcome them, which will boost your overall creativity, too.

3. It Can Become a Hobby — Which Has Its Benefits, Too

Once you start DIY-ing, you might find yourself taking to it like a duck to water. Your one-off weekend task could turn into a roster of things you want to do. It turns out merely having a hobby will make your life better.

Google knows the value of such side projects. They enacted their well-known 20 percent rule, which allows employees to spend 20 percent of their time at work pursuing a hobby or special interest, rather than doing their actual job.

The result? The workforce became more productive, more creative and more engaged, even though they spent a portion of their time off-topic. Other studies have shown colleagues with hobbies became more collaborative and helpful, too.

Your side hobbies and projects can give you the same benefits. Finding something that challenges and interests you will keep your brain working even when you’re not. So, when you return to the office on Monday, you’ll be recharged and ready to be productive, thanks to your weekend DIY hobby.

4. Your Time-Management Skills Will Improve

What’s your to-do list looking like for the weekend? If you’re DIY-ing on Saturday and Sunday, you’ll have to figure out how to fit your project in with the rest of the things you have to get done over the weekend.

Plus, you’ll want to get some relaxation in, too — you’ll have to pencil that in along with your checklist of things you want to accomplish.

As weekends go by and you’re devoting more and more time to DIY projects, you’ll find your time management skills improve — they have to if you expect to get everything done in the span of a few days. And, if you need a little help at the beginning, you can download time-management apps to guide you through both work and personal projects.

5. DIY Keeps You on Your Feet

Chances are, you spend at least 40 hours a week working, which means you’re sedentary most of the time. A seated lifestyle has a slew of adverse side effects. For one thing, it can affect your brain function — one UCLA study found an inactive way of life can cause the medial temporal lobe to thin, which affects a person’s ability to hold onto and access their memories.

On top of that, remaining sedentary increases your risk of obesity, high blood pressure, stroke, osteoporosis, depression, anxiety and more. But getting up and moving on the weekends can help negate the negative side effects sitting down all day can cause. So, keep a robust to-do list, finish it yourself and let your body reap the benefits.

6. Stress Levels Decrease

A 2017 Gallup poll revealed nearly 80 percent of Americans “feel stress sometimes or frequently during their day.” Odds are good you, too, probably feel overwhelmed by your day’s happenings in some way.

But a hobby can significantly decrease the stress you feel. A 2015 study aimed to uncover the real value of leisure activities, since the previously purported benefits did little to examine what happens within hobbyists.

The researchers found hobbies helped participants decrease stress. They had more positive moods than negative ones while partaking in their chosen side project. Plus, their heart rates slowed, another sign stress had fizzled. Although your DIY project will likely cause moments of frustration, you’re sure to feel better and de-stressed once you’ve checked the task off your list.

Get Started

Now that you know the benefits you’ll experience by DIY-ing, it’s time to choose the first project you’ll tackle. Every handy hobbyist will have a different task in mind — but the top projects of 2019 could inspire your first to-do. Painting the walls, replacing flooring, repairing a leaky sink, hanging artwork… all of these count as DIYs, and they’re all simple enough for first-timers. Plus, they’ll make a huge difference in the look and feel of your home, another benefit of picking up a new hobby.

But, most importantly, you’ll feel so much better for having a hobby that allows you to think creatively, solve problems and de-stress — the benefits of DIY are so worth the hard work you put in.

The post 6 Side Benefits of Doing DIY Projects in Your Home appeared first on Green Building Insider.

About 35 percent of American households grow their own food at home or participate in a community garden. One of the most significant problems these gardeners face is an inability to grow vegetables year-round. In areas where the winters are cold, it’s nearly impossible to produce anything outside during the coldest months.

One solution is building a greenhouse so you have a mix of starter plants for when growing season arrives and a warm, moist environment for year-round plant growing.

A DIY (do it yourself) greenhouse saves money and creates a greenhouse in the place and for the purposes you want. Take the following steps to build a DIY greenhouse:

1. Choose a Location

First, choose a location for your greenhouse. The greenhouse needs to have full sunlight but also be close enough to your home to run a power cord to it.

The area should also have good drainage. You don’t want mold in your greenhouse or mud surrounding the entry.

2. Decide on the Type of Greenhouse

You have several options for your greenhouse — four seasons, unheated and cold frames. A four-seasons greenhouse allows for a warm, moist environment over winter where you can grow tomatoes and greens.

An unheated greenhouse may keep things just warm enough to produce some winter crops, such as lettuce. A cold-frame works best to get an early start on the growing season and keep the frost off your plants.

For your design, you can choose a dome structure, a triangular frame or a standard building with a peaked roofover. Choose the style that fits best with your house and the space you have available.

3. Find Plans or Draw Them

Once you choose the type of DIY greenhouse you want, either find free plans online or draw up your plans. A cold frame can be as simple as two old window frames with the glass intact placed together in a teepee.

You can also sketch out a plan for your greenhouse on graph paper. Keep in mind the location you chose and how much space you have to work with.

You’ll also need to think through how large of a greenhouse you want. If you’re only growing a few plants for two people, you don’t need as much as if you’re growing vegetables for a family of 10.

4. Gather Materials

Buying a greenhouse package is expensive. However, you likely have items you can use lying around or can gather some reclaimed items fairly cheaply. Check out local salvage yards for old windows, for example. You can also use heavy duty plastic instead of glass to save money. While it isn’t as durable, and you’ll need to replace it occasionally, upfront it’s a much cheaper solution than a glass greenhouse.

Tell everyone you know about your project and ask if they have old windows or scrap lumber they’d like to donate. Check sites such as local Facebook classifieds and Craigslist for discounted materials.

People sometimes have material left over and sell it for a fraction of the cost of buying new. Save money any way you can on materials for the least expensive greenhouse possible.

5. Build the Frame

Measure and build the sides of your greenhouse according to the plan you’ve chosen. If you select a dome structure, you’ll work with rebar and hoops instead, but for a more traditional square or rectangle building, you’ll need to build the sides.

Once you have the sides constructed, raise them into their permanent location and secure them together. For a more permanent structure, you may want to lay concrete footers to secure the frame. Add the door and roof beams.

6. Add Plastic or Glass

Next, stretch the plastic from top to bottom, securing it at crucial points along the way. How you accomplish this varies by the plan you’ve chosen. If you’re building a dome structure, you’ll start from one side on the bottom, stretch a long roll of plastic up and over the dome and secure it on the other side’s base.

You will need ingenuity and a little building knowledge to create your own DIY plan. If you aren’t sure how to put a basic structure together, study YouTube videos or ask for help from someone with construction experience.

7. Choose Your Interior Layout

Once the greenhouse is up and sealed with plastic or glass, go ahead and start on the interior.

You can put shelves or raised beds down either side, create a U-shape or add another row down the center if you have space. Look at the layout you have and draw out some ideas. Make sure you allow enough room to reach all your plants efficiently.

8. Choose Your Floor

Think about what you’d like the interior of your greenhouse to look like. Do you want rows on the outside and a row down the center? The ground adds some moisture to your greenhouse, so you won’t want to cover every inch of it.

Some people add pea gravel or stones both for easier walking through the greenhouse and for additional heat during the colder months as the rocks can hold heat.

If you did a U-shaped layout, you might leave earth under the shelves or raised beds and place stone in the walking areas.

9. Add Heat

If you want your greenhouse to be a true four seasons greenhouse, during the coldest weather, run an extension cord and add a space heater to your greenhouse to keep your plants toasty.

Set the heater on the ground so the heat rises to the top of the greenhouse and it maintains a steadier temperature.

Get Started Today

A greenhouse you build on your own doesn’t have to be as complicated as the ones commercial growers use. You don’t necessarily need pulley systems and complicated glass panels.

Building a simpler, DIY greenhouse can save you money while still enabling you to growing your own vegetables all year round.

The post Building a Greenhouse for Any Time of Year appeared first on Green Building Insider.

For a lot of people, this concept is closely tied to ideas such as switching to solar-powered energy or installing a gray-water system. But contrary to popular belief, going green does not have to entail taking up major, costly projects. There are small things each and every one of us can do around the house that can significantly improve our quality of life while saving us a lot of money along the way.

Here are some simple ideas to get you started:

Become Water-Wise

Water is one of the resources that is wasted on a regular basis through different habits. Whether it is washing the dishes, clothes, or showering and bathing, we tend to be unaware of how much water we use. At the same time, we forget that not everyone has access to clean, safe water soures.

One of the first steps we can take towards living a more sustainable lifestyle – and saving money on utility bills – is to try to raise awareness about water consumption, both our own and our family’s. Once we’re mindful of what we’re doing, it becomes easier to remember not to let the water run unnecessarily during any kind of washing up.

The next thing you can do is get practical and check all your faucets and shower heads. They can be leaky, broken, or simply older models use more water than modern, more efficient designs. In either case, it’s a great idea to replace them.

This is a pretty simple DIY project that will not cost you a lot. Many types of low water-usage or energy-efficient shower heads and faucets are available on the market at very affordable prices. They will decrease your water usage, and if you have many of them around the house, the difference on your monthly bill will be significant.

Switch to Green Lighting

Changing your lighting is another simple change you can introduce into your household. Replacing your old light bulbs with new, energy-efficient ones will save you both energy and money.

CFL and LED incandescent lamps last much longer than the regular, old ones – up to 5 years. They are more expensive, but when you take into consideration that one can last for years and will waste significantly less energy, it really comes out cheaper in the end. Of course, you still need to remember not to leave the lights on when you leave the house!

Seal All the Air Leaks

Air leaks around the house present another source of energy waste and increased utility bills. Luckily, it is a problem that can be easily solved by caulking and weather stripping.

Try to locate the leaks by checking all of your doors and windows – there will usually be a small draft there. Then, add weather stripping to your doors, or replace the old ones, and caulk or put foam on all of the other leaks.

Unplug Your Appliances When Not In Use

Many of the appliances around the house consume energy, even when they are turned off. They don’t use a lot, but it adds up when you consider how many of them you have. It’s a good idea to unplug your televisions, computers, stereos, and even your phone chargers when they are not in use.

If you don’t have the time to always unplug everything, then another solution is to get a power strip. It is a small, affordable control device that cuts power to all of those devices.

One appliance you could consider unplugging for longer periods of time is your tumble dryer. Dryers use a lot of energy. And there are free, natural alternatives for drying your clothes. Simply put a clothesline outside in your backyard or on the balcony, and use it whenever you can – especially during spring and summer when the temperatures are higher.

Program Your Thermostat for Energy Efficiency

Setting your thermostat to optimal temperature is a great way to save energy on heating and cooling. If you want to maximize your energy savings, the ideal temperature during the winter would be 68 degrees, and during summer 78 degrees. Even if you’re not used to those temperatures, don’t worry, your body will adapt quickly and your indoors will be nice and comfortable!

Another thing you could do is get a programmable thermostat. You can set it to automatically adjust the optimal temperature according to the season and the time of the day, as well as to turn the heating off when there’s no one home and turn it back on just before you arrive.

Water heating requires a lot of energy as well. We usually leave it on all the time, but that is not really necessary. Even if you turn it down a bit, you can save energy and money on your utility bills. 10 degrees lower than your usual setting, or somewhere between the ‘low’ and ‘medium’ mark is usually more than sufficient.

Save Money and the Environment

Living green does not have to be complicated or expensive. Just the opposite. With only a little effort you can make a big step towards reducing your living costs and taking care of the environment at the same time.

Do some research, get informed on the benefits of green, sustainable homes and don’t be afraid to make that first step. You definitely won’t regret it.

The post Saving Money with DIY Green Living Projects appeared first on Green Building Insider.