Written By Breanna Schau
Have you been daydreaming about the day you can buy that 20-acre farm, get the milk cow, start that huge garden, and finally start homesteading? I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to wait until you have a bunch of land and room for a cow and all of the animals. You can start right where you’re at, whether you live in an apartment in the city or a subdivision I’m going to share with you 10 ways you can start homesteading today!
If you want to get a jump start on learning the skills you need to homestead on a 1/4 of an acre or more then check out the book “The Self-Sufficient Backyard” by Ron and Johanna Melchiore. This book will teach you many skills you need to be self-sufficient and there is a lot of information you can use no matter where you live.
Let’s get into the 10 ways you can start homesteading today!
1. Start a Vegetable Garden
Starting a vegetable garden is one of the best skills for homesteading and becoming more self-sufficient. Wouldn’t it feel great to not have to rely on the grocery store as much and have fresh produce at your fingertips?
When planning your vegetable garden think about what types of vegetables you and your family like the most. So often when people first start gardening (myself included!) they get wrapped up in the excitement and start planting vegetables they won’t even eat. So sit down and think of at least 10 vegetables you and your family eat regularly.
Once you have your list think about the space you have. If you live in an apartment you might have to do container gardening out on a patio or you could invest in some grow lights and start growing vegetables in the house! Who needs houseplants anyway? If you do have a backyard but don’t want to till up your yard or there are rules against it then raised bed gardening is a great option.
If you want to get serious and dive into organic gardening I would take the Local Harvest Organic Gardening Course. In this course, you will learn the essentials of organic, no-till vegetable and herb gardening. It is intended for beginner and advanced home gardeners looking to gain food security either in your yard or through container gardening.
2. Learn How To Preserve Food
Whether you are preserving food from your garden or buying in bulk from the grocery store learning how to preserve food is a valuable skill to have. There are a few different methods of preserving food you can experiment with. I would pick whichever method feels easiest to you and start with that.
Here are some of the different ways you can preserve food:
Canning
Freezing
Dehydrating
Freeze drying
Drying
Fermenting
Pickling
Smoking
If you are going to get into canning I highly recommend the “Blue Ball Guide to Preserving” book. It is great for beginners, has many great recipes to follow, and has all of the guidelines on how to can safely.
For freeze-drying the Harvest Right Freeze dryer is a great way to get started preserving your food.
Try putting a little bit of food away at a time and you would be surprised how much it all adds up!
3. Cook From Scratch
I’m not here to tell you that you should immediately start cooking everything you eat from scratch especially if you are used to relying on prepackaged food and takeout. That would be way too daunting of a task. Trust me, I have been there but learning how to cook from scratch is a great skill to have.
The best way to start cooking from scratch is to replace one food at a time or one meal at a time. For example, if you normally make a side dish of rice from a box then try using a homemade recipe with your seasonings. Replace the foods that you feel would be the easiest to replace. Then work your way up to making things like your own bread or pasta noodles.
Just remember you don’t have to be perfect. I still like to use prepacked foods and the occasional frozen chicken nuggets from time to time. Sometimes you are in a busy season of life and it’s okay to not be able to do it all. The great thing about cooking from scratch is you know exactly what you are eating and you have control over what you are putting into your food. In the long run, it will save you money and your health. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature!
4. Learn Basic DIY Skills
If you want to homestead then learning basic DIY skills is very important. There are so many scenarios when you have a homestead or even just own a home that learning how to do things yourself really comes in handy and saves you sooo much money.
Now, I’ll admit I do fall short in this area (thanks to my amazing husband who is the king of DIY). I would definitely like to improve! If you are starting from scratch with DIY skills then you’ll need to get some tools. I like this tool kit. Youtube is your best friend! If you want a book to reference with a lot of great homesteading skills then check out “The Self-Sufficient Backyard.” In this book, you’ll find 75+ DIY projects plus you learn skills from rainwater collection systems to building a greenhouse, starting a medicinal herb garden to knowing how to save seeds.
Like with most new skills start small and with a project that would be the easiest for you to accomplish. After you gain confidence with your new DIY skills then work your way up to more complicated projects. We’ve got this!
5. Start Composting
Composting is an easy homestead skill that you can start right away. Have a banana peel you need to throw away? Well instead of throwing it in the trash you’ll throw it into your compost container! Instead of throwing your fruit and veggie scraps into the garbage, you’ll save them to use for amazing compost.
So, what is compost exactly? The short answer is it’s organic solid wastes (such as food scraps, leaves, and paper) that decompose into very nutritious fertilizer that can then be used to grow new plants. How cool is that!?
The basic way to compost is to:
Save your “greens” which would be veggie scraps from your kitchen, human and pet hair, coffee grounds, tea bags, and lawn and garden trimmings. I like to use this container for my veggie scraps and coffee grounds! Or you can use any container with a closed lid such as a Tupperware container or a big mason jar with a lid.
Save your “browns” These include dried leaves and flowers, sawdust, straw, wood chips, newspaper, cardboard, paper towels, and egg shells.
You’ll layer your brown and your greens in either an open bin system or a closed bed system and turn it until you’ve made compost
Now, that is a very simple explanation of composting. In the Local Harvest Organic Gardening Course, they go into depth about composting and how to get started as a beginner!
6. Try To Eliminate Toxins In and Around Your Home
This might not seem like a skill you would need for homesteading but it is important to try to eliminate toxins in and around your home because when living a homestead lifestyle you will naturally start to live healthier so why wouldn’t you want to start switching out some of the toxic products in your home if you are going to put in the work to grow and raise your food? It can be very easy to go down rabbit holes and get overwhelmed by all the products in your home that need to be switched. But like with everything else you need to take it one step at a time.
Here are some great places to get started living a more eco-friendly life:
Make homemade bug sprays and weed killers for your garden
Make your cleaning products with vinegar or switch them out for better alternatives
Switch your nonstick pots and pans to stainless steel or cast iron
Switch your plastic cooking utensils to stainless steel or bamboo
Start using a diffuser with essential oils instead of candles
Switch out your skincare and makeup for cleaner alternatives
Just remember you do not need to switch every single product in your house all at once! Switch one thing at a time and soon enough you’ll be living in a much healthier home.
7. Set up a Rain Water Harvesting System
A great way to be a little more self-sufficient and not have to rely as much on your city’s water system is to start harvesting rainwater. Before I go any further I will say that you should check to see if your state has any restrictions on harvesting rainwater. Unfortunately, some do!
Most of the time rainwater is collected with a rain barrel. There are only a million different ideas out on the internet on how to make one. A simple idea is to use a garbage can as a rain barrel. It is easy and simple to make.
If you want a more in-depth explanation of how to make a cheap rainwater collection system then check out “The Self-Sufficient Backyard”. In the book, they explain how they irrigate with gallons of rainwater with inexpensive water tanks.
Collecting rainwater is a great way to save water and be more self-sufficient!
8. Learn to Sew
Even if you don’t enjoy sewing (like me!) learning the basic skills of patching clothes or sewing on a button can really help you on your journey to homesteading and becoming more self-sufficient. Not to mention it will help you save money and help the planet if you’re not always throwing out your old clothes!
The best place to learn would be YouTube. Once you get started you might discover it is a skill that you really enjoy and can be turned into a hobby or side hustle. You might be sewing your clothes and quilting before you know it! Even if you aren’t you’ll feel very accomplished knowing that you can at least sew on the button that fell off your shirt.
9. Raise Chickens and Bees (Or Learn How To)
I know this one is not for everyone depending on where you live. You might not have the space of be allowed to raise chickens or bees where you live. Do some research and see if it is possible where you live. Some cities and neighborhoods allow you to have chickens (usually without the rooster because of the noise they make, and no you don’t need a rooster for chickens to lay eggs!).
Chickens and bees are great to get started raising because they take up little space and produce very valuable and delicious food. Who doesn’t love fresh eggs and honey!?
If you can’t raise chickens or bees right now that’s okay. Start doing your research because there is a lot to learn. “The Self-Sufficient Backyard” has great information about raising chickens and bees. It teaches you an easy way to modify traditional beehives so that you have handy access to the beehives in jars! They also teach cost-effective ways to raise chickens for both meat and eggs.
Whether you can start raising chickens and bees now or not learning how to is a huge step on your way to a homesteading lifestyle.
10. Connect With The Homesteading Community
The best way to learn more about homesteading is to connect with like-minded people! Everyone has different strengths and skills so it would be very beneficial to join a homesteading community to learn from each other. Ideally, it would be great to find a local group of people who are living a homesteading lifestyle like you are. Swapping sourdough starter and eggs would be the dream right!?
I know finding that type of community in real life is difficult to do. Thankfully there is a plethora of homesteading communities online. I would start by joining homesteading Facebook groups and following homesteading blogs like this one! Building a network of like-minded individuals can provide valuable insights and support.
If you want to dive into learning more valuable homesteading skills then you need to read “The Self-Sufficient Backyard”. This book is packed with so much information. I also recommend taking the Local Harvest Organic Gardening Course. This course will take the guesswork out of gardening and save you so much time and headache since you won’t be scouring the internet and books for all of the information you need to know about gardening.
No matter where you live these are some of the skills you can learn to get started homesteading. Once you do get the land you want you’ll be way ahead of the game and be able to explore even more skills with homesteading. There is so much to learn!
Breanna Schau
