Photo by massdistraction

Winter is nearly upon us, and some areas of Aus are already feeling the Winter chill. So it’s a good time to talk about saving money on heating in the home.

I admit that as I write this, I am sitting in a t-shirt and it’s about 24°C (ah…Queensland Winter – I like to gloat every time my mother calls and tells me it’s –1°C there). However, I’ve only lived here for 2 years, I grew up down south, where we could expect a bit of snow every Winter and saving money on the heating was important when we were growing up.

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Learning to DIY has never been easier. For everything from cooking to car maintenance, household DIY to how to cut a bob there are free or inexpensive resources for learning how to get the job done yourself.

Online Resources

Apart from searching the millions of websites and blogs for information on just about everything, there are a few websites dedicated to various DIY instruction.

• YouTube doesn’t just have popular videos. There is a wealth of DIY information on YouTube. For example, if you are interested in learning how to home brew beer, there are over 2,000 videos to guide you through the process. YouTube combines videos from the professional and the amateur.
• Expert Village is a great source of video tutorials, professionally produced and researched. They have over 120,000 videos on an extensive range of topics. The only downside to this website is the way they cut their videos up.
• Videojug describes itself as “the definitive online encyclopaedia of life.” They offer professionally produced “how to” and “Ask the Expert” type videos.
• 5 Minute Life Videopedia is another professionally produced instructional video website. Many of the videos are from “top tier” content publishers. Besides being able to view videos for free, this site is a video syndication service that will automatically embed relevant videos into your website. The videos are top quality, and it’s my favourite site at the moment.

Replace a faucet
• Sutree  is an aggregator of educational videos so you will be taken to one of the sites listed above when you click on a video.
• Wiki How is a collaborative how to manual. Not only can you contribute, you can edit one of the existing articles. There are currently over 55,000 articles in Wiki How.
• eHow offers over 500,000 articles and video instructions. The range of topics is comprehensive, but I find that the articles tend to be a little superficial.
• How Stuff Works offers technical information on just that, how stuff works, “from car engines to search engines, from cell phones to stem cells.”
• Instructables for instructions on how to do things, from the basics like baking a crème caramel to the weird and wacky like how to make a solar iPod charger.
• Trick life and Household Hacker for some more MacGyver style an outside the law style DIYs.

Offline Resources

• Friends, family and neighbours.
• The Library
• Bookstores
• Craft Guilds and Trade Organisations
• Specialty stores classes and workshops. For example, Bunnings stores runs free classes on a whole range of DIY projects around the home. Specialty stores like sewing stores also run classes.
• Community Colleges offer short courses on a whole range of topics. TAFE also offers short courses, and there are people in your local area who offer private tuition.

If you have any other DIY Resources, why not share them below.