It is funny to be how some people believe that homesteading requires you to buy a farm, move to the mountains of Tennessee and live off the grid. While that is one form of homesteading, and sounds pretty awesome to me, this is not what homesteading looks like for many people. In fact, there are so many motivating factors and reasons to start homesteading, they really are different for each person.
The awesome thing about homesteading is that you can incorporate practices of homesteading to whatever degree you want to. Homesteading is not all or nothing. You can live a busy life and still take time to start living a more simple life.
What Homesteading Looks Like to Us
We consider homesteading to refer to a lifestyle where we incorporate time honored practices and skills into our daily lives in an effort to marry simple living with modern advances. We are not planning on going all in and moving to a remote ranch with no electricity. Instead, we are working to be self-sufficient in several areas of our lives.
For one, we are working to garden and preserve our own vegetables. We have been growing vegetable gardens for a few years now and will hopefully increase our output to producing the majority of our own vegetables. We would eat fresh and preserve the rest for use throughout the year.
Another area is learning self-sufficient skills so that we can do many of the jobs that we would otherwise pay someone else to do.
A common misperception of homesteading is that you need a large farm, tons of land, and plenty of free time to homestead. This is completely not true!
There is a growing movement of people embracing urban homesteading, which means homesteading in apartments or with very small amount of land.
It is amazing what you can do and grow on a 1/10 acre lot!
Don’t get me wrong, there are many aspects of homesteading that are not easy and are time consuming but this doesn’t not mean that a busy mom who works full time can’t start homesteading.
With a little planning and organizing, you can start homesteading easily.
Why would you want to homestead?
The reasons are actually endless, there are SO many awesome benefits to homesteading and learning the skills that go with it. Read on for more reasons to start homesteading today!
1) Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs
Obviously, being able to walk outside and pick your own vegetables is a huge benefit to homesteading. Gardening can be hard work but it is probably easier than you think.
Growing your vegetables not only brings healty eating practices to your family but knowing where your vegetables are grown and how they were grown is so important for awareness and health.
Knowing what chemicals were used on them is important. Also growing your own vegetables is extremely satisfying.
Imagine growing your own tomatoes, being able to enjoy them during the summer while they are fresh and then preserving them to use in sauces or dishes through out the year. Being able to feed your family by growing your own food means you will always be able to provide for them because you have this skill and knowledge.
2) Teaches your Kids Important Values
Homesteading has SO many benefits for children. This is the main reason we decided to start homesteading. We have two small boys and it is our goal and responsibility to make sure that we mold them into confident, responsible, and knowledgeable humans. For us, we really believe this can be done through homesteading.
Homesteading teaching kids so many values and life lessons. I have a hard time thinking of any other project or lifestyle that will help shape all of these interpersonal skills like homesteading can.
The awareness of where your food comes from and how it is processed also encourages gratitude. Being able to work on a project with such a satisfying outcome as feeding your family helps build confidence and resourcefulness.
One of my previous articles discussed some awesome reasons to garden with your children, the benefits really are endless: insert article link: 17 Essential Reasons to Teach your Children How to Garden
3) Make your Own Home and Personal Products
Eliminating harsh chemicals and replacing them will all-natural, simple ingredients by making your own products is surprisingly simple!
By making your own home products you can not only save a lot of money but you also know exactly what you are making and using in your home.
You can make all-natural alternatives to cleaning products, cosmetics, personal care, pest control, weed killer, laundry detergents, anything you buy at the store!
When I used to clean, I use to want to use harsh chemicals. Really get in there and make sure the bathroom is scrubbed and super clean. However, since transitioning to more homemade products, I am finding that they are just as good and effective!
4) Save Money and Live Frugally
Saving money is also a large motivator for us. While the cost to homestead is initially more than we expected, we needed to do some work to our yard and property, in the end the ability to produce our own food should save us a good amount of money each year.
Making your own products is also a great way to save money. While the initial cost of purchasing raw ingredients will be a little expense, the amount of cleaners and products you can make with it far outweighs the initial investment.
Living simply also encourages a frugal mindset that will transfer to all areas of your household operations. Reusing, repurposing, and creating your own products will save you money and will encourage a lifestyle of being frugal and thoughtful of how your family spends money.
5) Learn Time-Honored Skills
I have always, since I was really little, loved learning about how life was in pioneer times. I went to a Living History Camp at a local farm museum several years and I absolutely adored it.
We learned to make butter, candles, they had all of the old outbuildings so we learned about preserving food and taking care of animals. It was just awesome.
While this simpler way of life (if you can even call it that)it is not by any means easier, to me it always had a certain romance and appeal to it.
I am excited to take time to learn how to do these time-honored tasks, not only for fun, but also for self-reliance. My family will be prepared and will know how to live in the event that we can no longer buy our food or consumer goods from the store. Essentially, we will never starve or not be able to take care of ourselves. That reality is absolutely what we are chasing.
It is important that we do not let these traditional ways of living life fall by the wasteside. They absolutely have a place in our modern society.
We are striving to incorporate them when necessary to find a balance to living a happier, and more simple life.
6) Build a Strong Family Unit
One of my dreams for my family is for them to be a strong family unit. I believe that one way to do that is to have all members of the family contribute to a higher goal, which in our case is taking care of and providing for our family.
Everyone will have their responsibilities and duties but we will be working to as a team to make it all come together. We are just in the beginning stages of this, but our boys are young. If we enforce these values and encourage these behaviors, we can raise them to be responsible, hard working, and respectful human beings.
The positive reasons for homesteading really are endless.
By taking own a homesteading lifestyle, we are introducing a certain level of extra work and effort that may seem unecessary to some in today’s world.
For us, it isn’t necessarily about giving up modern technologies and advances but embracing traditional, proven methods to providing your family with thier necessesities. The ability to be self-sufficient and take care of your family extends beyond bringing home money to pay for these necesitties.
It really comes down to self-reliance and passing these skills down to our children to ensure they are well-rounded, grateful, thirsty for knowledge, and confident to do all of these things for thier family.
From impacting your family dynamic, your health, your finances, your outlook on life, we have faith that homesteading will bring our dreams to life.
Welcome to Wingin’ it on the Homestead! My name is Stephanie Leaf. I am a wife to a can-fix-anything husband, mother of two boys under 3, future expert gardener, lover of anything old and dusty, and inspiring homesteader. My family and I are new to this journey and loving every minute of it. Please join me in embracing a simpler life!