We don’t fit the traditional mold of homesteaders. We rent an apartment, live about 3 miles from the ‘city,’ and don’t have chickens or goats. Does that make us less than a ‘real’ homesteader? Absolutely not! Homesteading in our modern world doesn’t mean the same thing it did when people went West to build a life, being sustained by the land. That doesn’t mean I am not a ‘real’ homesteader, though.
Homesteading is first and foremost a mentality. It is an approach you meet life with every.single.day. You seek to be more of a participant in what you eat, how you live, and the impact your presence has on the Earth. You work to rely more on yourself than others.
Other than your eating habits that change when you make the conscious decision to be more self sustainable (because at its heart, that is what homesteading is!), you may be surprised at the other things that seemingly change overnight. Changing into a clean pair of pants every single day, for example. Before you turn your nose up too much, read on!
- Shop Less – When it comes to food staples, clothing, and the day-to-day needs, homesteaders tend to shop less frequently. At least, it sure changed for us! We buy wheat berries in bulk and grind our own flour. We buy 20 pound bags of rolled oats and package that to last. We buy meat only twice a year without worry about freezer burn, not to mention we actually save money since we buy during the big meat sales.
- For the things we cannot grow on our own, we buy it in bulk, on sale. For non food items, we still shop far less. We stopped buying paper towels because we had a huge back stock of kitchen towels. Eventually, everything comes down to practicality and paper towels truly are a luxury item.
- Clothing Styles and Habits – The kinds of clothing we buy has drastically changed. More denim, less rayon. Work boots instead of what ‘looks good.’ If I can’t tromp through mud at any given time, it likely has no place in my closet. Everything has moved from fashion considerations to practical applications. “Will this keep me warm? Will it last more than a year? Is it machine washable (not on delicate, either)?” Looks are a distant second for us now. Sure, we want to look good but more importantly, we want to be warm and dry.
- Less Laundry – The average person would think you would end up with even more laundry being a homesteader. Nope. When Laundry consists of hand washing everything or hanging them on the line to dry or anything other than your standard washing/drying system, you tend to wear things a few days instead. Especially if you have to go to the laundromat (VERY expensive here). Honestly, other than socks and undies, is that shirt really dirty after one day? Unless you are cleaning out the chicken coop, not likely.
- Jeans or even better, Carhart pants, can be worn 3 days before being tossed into the hamper. Yeah, I can hear some people saying “Ewwww!” Until you live the life, it is hard to understand why that would be perfectly acceptable.
- Sleeping In – My husband and I are polar opposites when it comes to morning time. He is up, chipper, talkative and ready to face the day! I, on the other hand, have been known to growl, gnash teeth, and even snap at people who get too close until after I have my shower and morning coffee. At least half the cup. I also loved to sleep in. It is the greatest gift ever given to mankind….well besides the perfect pillow.
- Say goodbye to all of that when you homestead. You need to be up to open the greenhouse and cold frames before they get too hot. If there is livestock involved, forget about it! You need to be up to feed and tend them, milk the goats and clean the coop! Add in projects you want to get completed plus harvest time and food preservation time….sleeping in is a rare luxury.
- Using Money for Everything – There is a certain satisfaction to getting what you want and need by way of bartering. Homesteaders tend to shy away from using money as they get deeper and deeper into the lifestyle. Many people see more value in a few pints of freshly canned blueberry preserves than they do $15 for some scrap wood they had laying around. I know, it sounds a little crazy but it is largely true!
- A prime example is the fact that we have no boat to go out and fish with. You can only get so much by casting from the rocks. Well, to help fill our cupboard, we bartered our skills to get what we needed and wanted! In exchange for smoking and jarring some fish, we were ‘paid’ in beautiful fillets of my favorite salmon variety (sockeye). They provided the jars, I provided the time and equipment. No money needed.
Having Elaborate Meals – We don’t go out to eat very often at all anymore. It is hard to justify spending $100 on a dinner, no matter how nice, when you could take that same money and buy enough to make 20 meals (or more). OR you use that $100 to build a place where you can grow your own food that will last years! Not only that, when you start to cook from scratch and eat it regularly, you can taste the chemicals in boxed and canned foods.
- The steak you used to love tastes bland compared to the venison or elk steak you had last week. The green beans they serve with your meal have a horrid texture and don’t really taste like the ones you harvested and jarred yourself. Your standards for food have gotten more simple, and yet somehow you are more of a food snob than you ever remember being. It’s a strange phenomenon.
- What you Consider Entertainment – Used to be I could spend literally 12-16 hour stretches on the weekends playing online games. No joke. I would sit here on my backside (which got bigger over the years from all the sitting lol) every free moment I had and be plugged in to some game or another, completely immersed. I had more interaction with people online than I did in the ‘real world.’ Before that, watching TV or reading a book, maybe going for walks was my entertainment. Even if I didn’t have the blog, it has pretty much all changed.
- Homesteading changes you in really weird ways (though often funny). Watching chickens, for example, is one of those things that just happens. We don’t even have any (as I have said) but I will watch a friend’s chicken cluck and scratch around the whole time I am there. Going fishing to actually fill the freezer is work…but still entertainment! Entertainment changes to family meals and game night instead of dinner and a movie.
- Buying Everything New – Touched on lightly above, I don’t know any homesteaders who rush out to buy whatever they need brand new. Sure, there are certain items that you kind of need to buy new but those are pretty rare. Instead, they either fix it, make it, or make do without it. You can never really get ‘away’ from needing to have and use money but it is not the first route most homesteaders take. In fact, it is usually the last when all other options dry up.
Though the list is generalized, most people who have consciously made a lifestyle change to that of a homesteader will agree on several of these points. What kind of habits have changed for you? Give us a comment below. We LOVE to hear from you and share perspective and ideas. 🙂
Thank you
You are very welcome!
Every on of these is so true!!! We are serious homesteaders and these all apply. You hit it on the head.
Thanks! Though we are no where near what you are, homesteading wise, there are some universal truths to the lifestyle haha! Thanks for the comment.
Absolutely true. We’ve just recently gotten chickens and now I have to be up at daybreak to let them out of their coop to make sure they get enough light to lay eggs especially since the days are getting shorter now. But I find that I don’t mind and get a lot more done on the mornings I have to go to work. All of these are so true though! Just traded some decorative gourds for a pie phmpkin! It’s a great lifestyle 🙂
You’re absolutely right about the laundry. I’ve always re-worn things if they’re clean/fresh enough but, ecology aside, having no water (or electricity) while we were building gave added meaning to “wash day”. We drove 100km/60mi to our daughter’s urban home to shower and launder once weekly and, of course, to fill jugs with drinking water. In fact, when facilities were still incomplete this autumn, and the sweaty season over, we simply peeled off the dirty layer of clothes and snuggled under the covers at night. When even then we were too cold, we moved into the city for the rest of the winter. I’m glad that, unlike many pioneers, we had that option.
HI Ma Kettle (LOVE the name!!) and thank you for the comment! When the hubby and I go on longer camping trips, we will bring along the solar shower but usually only shower once or twice during a week long trip and wear the same pair of jeans for several days in a row. I would dearly love to hear more about what you are building and pics would be a real treat!
Since starting to homesteading, I don’t buy beauty products at all. I rather like my natural self now. I use homemade soap for shower and shampoo, homemade deodorant and laundry soap. Coconut oil is my skin moisturizer of choice. I absolutely love the constant move into a more delf sufficient lifestyle. No chance of going back to the way I was before.
This is a great article. Since starting our homestead I realized how much more my children have learned, about life and business . You certainly do learn a lot along the way. Each year we try to have a goal to help be more self efficient . Once you eat your own eggs you’ll never go back. Thanks for the great article.
Thank you for the comment and sharing your story! Glad to have you here. 🙂
I’ve found that when I was working in an office, I was almost always a morning showerer. No real grime to wash off at the end of the day. But now I’m an afternoon/evening showerer, after the chores are done. No point in showering before getting sweaty, muddy, covered in pollen and grass clippings, or leaving ticks and chiggers crawling on you.
If you’re a grubber – like I am – then you do not mind being dirty, digging in filthy rotten, spidery, raccoon poop covered, rat and mouse infested, trash and junk hellholes for some discarded old piece of equipment that you can either get working again or re-purpose into something else. I am a Girl!
My parents were depression era children, and if there was ONE LESSON they taught us kids well – never throw anything away, re-purpose everything, make it yourself, work for it, barter, trade, pick trash cans and dumpsters.
We drive a car 25 -30+ years, then make it the second or third car when you pickup a new car that is 10 years old with 90K miles on it. I’ll be damned if I’m spending 60K on a new vehicle.
Everything in our house is a minimum of 30 years old, more often than not 50 or 60 years old. If it works, is still usable, can be cleaned up, repaired, re-upholstered, patched, wired together, welded, screwed or nailed – it’s good to go.
I have clothing I bought in the 1960’s that’s still perfectly wearable. Since I was never a fad follower, I bought rather simple and plain clothing. Like a red and black plaid wool outdoors/camping shirt! Still fits, still in good shape – so I wear it. I have a barn jacket that I found in a barn in the 1970’s. It’s not my size – is too big, but I wear it. It washed up well and the few stains it has are barely noticeable. My parents thinks it’s from the late 50’s. It is a deep blue denim with a flannel lining. It’s from SEARS.
I have perfectly good Vietnam Era Jungle Fatigues – with all the patches and rank still on them that I wore when I was in the Air Force, stationed in the Pacific. I wear them hunting and when I’m camping. Guys are amazed that I was ever in the Military and that they’re the original sets of Jungle Fatigues I was issued. So when children used to teach my kids that their mother wore combat boots – They were right – I did. Still got those too.
I don’t know if we’re considered Bohemians or if we’re Hippies that have found the Off Grid Lifestyle and Country way of life more to our liking than the city rat race. The more I see, and how the young are so into being trendy and with the in-crowds – and yet are totally clueless and helpless – I thank God I raised the way I was…
I wear an old leather Bomber Jacket when I go grocery shopping sometimes. I had a guy one day ask me about it. It sort of fits me but is over-sized by about three sizes too big. He wanted to know found it or where I bought it. It is an original WW2 – Korean War vintage jacket with 5th Air Force patches and Captain Bars. I told him that an Air Force Pilot gave it to me … he was my boyfriend … and he got it from his father… who was in the Air Force in the early 1950’s. I kept the jacket after the relationship ended. He offered me $1000 for it. I turned him down. IT’S MINE and I intend to keep wearing it until I die. I’m 67 years old. Like I said – my Parents taught us kids to keep everything – and to use it as long as possible. I’d say a 65 year old leather jacket is pushing it…
I love everything about this comment, I don’t even know where to start! Thank you for sharing and especially thank you for your service. You sound like a lady I would love to hang out with and listen to stories for hours. Thank you so much for the comment!
Is it too late for me? Homesteading. I’m just 64. On a smaller scale, I think so. For years been trying to simplify my life. Not fashion trendy, but like you I go for clothing that spans decades. No makeup, going back to gray hair…again. Natural soaps, moisturizers, etc. Make healthy breads, also gluten-free for xtra cash or bartering. Arthritis makes traditional gardening prohibitive, but pots & tubs are great alternative. Looking for a ‘nearly rural’ place to raise chickens. Take part in a joint venture to grow a cow & board a goat or dairy cow for milk & homemade cheeses. Light lamps & candles in evening instead of bulbs. Puts me in sleep mode too. Love to can foods, etc. (Cook from scratch). Older vehicle…no loan payments. No cable tv. WIFI for daily peek at headlines or to source a new item if needed. Otherwise flea markets, repurposing etc. Knitter & sewing.
I eat healthy on $150. -$200….the costs of which I’d like to further reduce. Does not include raising meat, feed, etc. I live in a city with a population of 114,000. I’m planning for the next year, at the end of which I’ll be 65…pensioned. And hopefully a truer homesteader by that time. I think it’s the perfect retirement plan. I’ve travelled enough in my life. Lived other places. I have five grandchildren & my three children & their mates. Family time…….These years left are for peaceful, joyful and mentally-uncomplicated, living. Unnecessary worries. I intend to promote the homestead life to my children & extended family, as well as your Newsletter. So informative. I’m a newbie here & find the letter so inspiring. BIG THANK YOU!!!
It is NEVER too late. Ever. Especially if it brings you joy and satisfaction (and I can easily tell it does). You are so welcome and I think there may be other articles you would enjoy. I encourage you to look around, particularly at the ‘For the Newbies’ category though some of it will be too new I think. Still, I hope it inspires, as I have been by you.
We have the same plans: working hard in our 40s so that in our 50s, we can be on the homestead (well, hopefully before we’re in our 50s) and living comfortably. Little complication, self sustaining as much as possible, etc. I will work a regular job if needed but also have this and a few other online things. We will have water catch systems, self contained septic, solar and wind to supplement the electric, and since we will be very rural, can easily get free firewood down the road (if not off our own property of course). My soul yearns for that life. I welcome the work it will require and even look forward to the challenges. Overcoming them will be incredibly satisfying.
We also plan on having chickens, honey bees, a couple turkeys, and maybe a pig or two. We can’t easily go cattle here but goats are a possibility. If we did goats, it would be one of the last ones to be added to the homestead. We have fruit trees planned….ahh I could go on forever so I will stop here. 😉
Thank you for the comment!
For us, our social network has changed immensely. We no longer crave nights out with the same crowd making small talk about other people, politics, or Making chit chat. We value our time because we have so little of it with all the work we do at home. When we socialize it’s because we truly value the people we are with and want it to be quality time.
We want to gain knowledge about things and learn new ways of doing things, adapting, or how to make what we are doing mean more or easier. We more often now give our social time to charity or to a cause that helps with self sufficiency. Not that we are sobs, but we have little in common with most people who are self absorbed or interested in things that now seem less important in the big picture.
Ohhh I can absolutely relate to all of that, BBlair! There is another set of articles I wrote where I dive more deeply into this same topic. Here is the link to the first one:
http://www.homesteaddreamer.com/2014/10/14/how-and-what-we-eat/
You will find links to the others. It’s a 5 part series and a bit long winded so you may want to make time for it, you busy homesteaders!! Keep living the dream and doing the stuff!! 🙂