If you are new to homesteading, you may be feeling a little bit overwhelmed. You may be struggling to know where to start. Don’t worry; everyone started somewhere. There are many ways to homestead. The opportunities are endless as are the projects and homesteading skills you will learn. Sometimes you just need a few quick homesteading tips to get you going.
Don’t let homesteading become a burden when you are getting started. Taking the time to learn new skills will benefit you in the long run. Don’t rush the process, eventually, everything will fall into place. With that in mind, read on to discover some great easy homesteading tips for beginners.
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Easy Homesteading Tips
The following homesteading tips will save you time, money, or both. They are suggestions to help make your transition into homesteading much easier.
Concoct your own cleaners
A lot of people assume that homesteading merely refers to freeing yourself from the supermarket’s food aisles, but this is not the case in the current day and age. Everyday products are a part of homesteading, and DIY cleaners are a good representation of this. Use ingredients like hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and vinegar to create your own cleaning products.
By mixing natural ingredients to make cleaners for your home you will do a number of things. You will be saving yourself money, first of all. Secondly, the environment will thank you since you will no longer be releasing harmful pollutants into the air. And third, your health won’t be at risk by breathing in harmful fumes. Above all, your house will be just as clean, if not cleaner, than with store bought chemicals.
Look for other DIY projects you can engage in
There are many articles online providing people with homesteading projects they can give a try themselves, from creating your own luxury pillows to making food storage shelves. Have a look and choose something you like. Take it one step at a time.
Many homesteaders save money on paper towels by making “unpaper” towels at home. These are a great way to again save money. They also mean less waste at the landfill and homesteaders are all about saving the planet. Another project you can do yourself is to make a candler to check the fertility of eggs on your homestead.
There are countless DIY projects you can do yourself.
Size it right
If you try to do everything at once, it is easy to fail in your quest to a self-sufficient lifestyle. Most people state that it takes them years to gradually transition into the urban homesteading lifestyle they seek. You need to be cautious of doing too much too soon, as you can set yourself up for failure. After all, these things take time.
Rather than diving right in and growing your own produce straight away, you should start small by adding compost each season and paying attention to your soil’s level of quality. If you want to raise backyard chickens for meat or eggs, start with a few until you see if you like it and if it is affordable for you before you run out and buy 40 chickens.
Be flexible
This leads on from the previous point: don’t be so hard on yourself. If you do not reach your goals as quickly as you thought, be gentle. You may need to sit down and reflect on your plan – make some changes, for example, adapt your timelines or set some new goals. The road to gaining self-sufficiency is a learning curve; so make sure you embrace it.
Homesteading doesn’t happen overnight. It takes careful planning. Think about what you want out of life and how that ties into your homesteading journey. Write a life plan. Knowing what you want to accomplish is the half the battle to attaining it.
Embrace the time you will need to devote to homesteading
Another thing you will need to embrace is the amount of time you are going to need to devote. Homesteading is a labor of love. If you resent the time spent on chopping wood, canning food, and tending animals, this is not the lifestyle for you. You need to love it and enjoy it for what it is. It should be a passion to you.
Homesteading is not easy. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to build a homestead, especially from scratch. You may have to work when other people are off for the weekend. Sometimes it means no days off, long nights, and no time for a vacation. Are you ready for that?
Embrace simplicity
Last but not least, it’s important to embrace simplicity. Consider the luxuries you have in your life and whether you actually need them. Think about how much money you wish to put towards them. Homesteading is all about using your time to provide for your needs directly, rather than trading your time for money.
Living a simple life may mean downsizing your material things. It is making the space for what is needed and removing the clutter that can cause stress and anxiety. Allow yourself the room to breathe, more open space, and less clutter.
If you follow the homesteading tips that have been provided, you should find it a lot easier to transition into a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Once you start making a number of changes, it will have a snowball effect, and you will find that other changes will come to you more naturally.
Enjoy your new homesteading experience. Take things one day at a time and enjoy what you are doing. Do you have some homesteading tips you can share with my readers? Please enter them in the comments below.
At 30, I, too, am interested in homesteading and growing food on a small farm. As a starter, these tips will surely help me!
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