My entire life I have dreamed of more. Not more as in “more stuff” or “more money,” but more to life. I don’t know about you, but I get seriously worn out by amount of technology, political correctness and other “requirements” that we are “required” to do on a daily basis. I’ve dreamt of simple and basic…of just living life for what it was meant to be rather than what we’re told it should be. For us, that means starting and living on our own homestead and it is a dream that we are actively working on pursuing. When we talk about our plans with our friends and family, we are often asked why. “Homesteading will be hard work,” they say. We know that but we also crave the simplicity that comes with that hard work and want to become a homesteading family. It is that question that brings us to this post. If you’ve been thinking about homesteading with your family, have been wondering how to homestead but can’t decide, these 9 reasons to homestead might just help you make your decision.
Now I do want to make something clear. There are a lot of different reasons that people will homestead and each one of them will be different from yours. Learning how to homestead isn’t easy and if you do make the decision to do so, you absolutely will fail the first year or two. With that said though, if you build your homesteading family on the knowledge that you will fail and learn together, you’ll be fine. For us, our homestead dreams have to do with our desire for simplicity but our desire to be prepared for whatever may come as well.
How to Homestead – 9 Reasons To Become a Homesteading Family
If you’ve read my book or my bio, you’ll know that I personally have quite the checkered past. I’ve never been one to hide that, even in my posts. I tell my story in the hopes that it will help someone else. It is because of that past and because my daughter and I went without so much during those years, that I practice a bit of emergency preparation these days. The little bit of prepping that we do also plays into our dreams of having a homestead. Chances are good that the reasons you are considering becoming a homesteading family are different than mine…then again? They may not be.
You want to learn how to homestead because you crave a simple life –
Living simply doesn’t always mean selling every thing that you own and having nothing. For some, it can mean getting back to the things that are important in life like being able to spend more time with your family and growing what you eat. For others it can mean creating a list of things you can stop buying and make homemade. For another group, it may be not being bothered by technology or too many other people. No matter what your reasons for living a simple life are though, homesteading can provide it for you.
You want to become a homesteading family because you want to be prepared –
Being prepared doesn’t have to mean wearing a tinfoil hat and yelling about the government. What it can mean is building an emergency fund in case you lose your job, having a few extra blankets in storage for cold weather and so on. Teaching your family to be a homesteading family though is a great way to be prepared for anything. When you have the ability to grow your own food, to store your own water, and hunt your own land, you have the ability to take care of your family if something bad were to happen. For those that are concerned about those emergencies, becoming a homestead family may just be the right answer. In addition, most homesteading families also make sure that they have plenty of room to store things like water storage barrels or their favorite freeze dried foods just in case.
You want to homestead to be self-sufficient –
If you’re the type of person who really just doesn’t like relying on anyone for anything, starting to homestead might just be what you need. Like I said above, when you homestead, you have the ability to grow, fish or hunt for your food to provide for yourself. Raising livestock can also meet a lot of your other needs such as wool. For those that want to live the self-sufficient lifestyle, homesteading is often the answer. If you or your family have the desire to be self-sufficient, it may just be the answer for you.
You want to become a homesteading family to save money –
Yes, becoming a homestead family is hard, but it can also be incredibly rewarding in more than one area and saving money is one of them. When you’re growing and gathering your own food, you don’t really need to worry about how to save money on groceries. Not to mention that living a more active lifestyle, eating less processed foods and being away from stress will also save you money on your health. There are other ways that homesteading can help you save money as well. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that homesteading is cheap to get started. To do it “right,” you will spend a good money to get started.
You want to learn how to homestead to be off-grid –
Living off grid isn’t always for tinfoil hat wearing survivalist either (and no, I’m not making fun of them…I have one. It’s pink and purple with polka dots. I put it on firmly sometimes). When you’re learning how to homestead, you have the ability to set yourself up to be completely off-grid. With solar power, gardening, hunting and fresh water sources, homesteaders who decide to go this route can easily keep themselves disconnected.
You want to homestead to be healthier –
As I said above, having a homestead will generally make you healthier. Not only will you live a more active lifestyle, but you’ll be eating better and generally dealing with less stress. Those three items combined will make you more healthier. We live in a society that is extremely reliant on processed foods, grocery stores (which are reliant on trucks and their drivers) and other services on a day to day basis. We’re tied to our phones, computers and other devices daily. All of those things, added with the stress of daily life, processed foods that are full of chemicals and more, make us a an unhealthy group of people. Since that all either doesn’t happen or is greatly lessened in homesteading families, you end up being much healthier than you currently are.
You want to homestead to be live a greener life –
I’ve talked about how my family and I started a journey on living a greener life before. We removed all chemicals from our home (or rather as many as we could), we have stopped buying over 60 items now and make them ourselves, we added flaxseed to our diet, and we even treat my diabetes naturally. Once that was all in place, we started looking for ways to upcycle literally everything in our home so that we were putting out less waste. Now, almost two years later we have found ways to upcycle towels, ways to upcycle sheets, ways to upcycle milk jugs and yes, even ways to upcycle clean cat litter. I even talked about new ways to use WD40 the other day. For us, it isn’t about saving the planet. It’s about saving as much money as possible since green living usually equals frugal living. If you’re wanting to live a greener life, starting to homestead is a great way to do that. You’ll waste more, you’ll put out less money and waste and best of all? You’ll literally be living green and relying on mother nature.
You want to learn how to homestead to teach your children –
My daughter is 11 and do you know what her biggest concern about meeting with other homeschooled kids was when we first removed her from public school? That she wouldn’t fit in because all she knew of other kids was twerking tweens who worse clothing that made me (at 34) blush from the public school bathroom. Needless to say? I want my daughter to learn better and I’m positive the same thing can be said about what you want for your children. When you’re figuring out how to homestead and deciding if it is right for you and your family, take what you want your children to be learning into account. If you’re fine with them learning what other kids will teach them and not learning how to really take care of themselves, becoming a homestead family may not be best for you. If, however, you would rather them learn how to take care of themselves, how to prepare good, quality food and how to be financial stable in world that is filled with debt, becoming a homesteading may just be the answer for you.
You want to become a homesteading family to help others –
For a lot of homesteading families, helping their neighbors is just a part of daily life. If, having the ability to help your neighbors is important to you, you may want to consider becoming a homesteading. Homesteading tends to offer a pretty tight community of people (at least in my experience) and that community is something you can draw from when you’re learning how to homestead. In return, you will be able to help your neighbors with work they need done, food and other supplies during tight times and more.
So what do you say? Is homesteading for you and your family or no? If you’re still on the fence, one of my favorite homesteading books might be able to help. It outlines a lot of the skills that running a homestead requires. It’s called “The Ultimate Self-Sufficiency Handbook” and is available for purchase on Amazon.
