What is homesteading? I looked in my husband's old Webster unabridged dictionary and was surprised to find that it lacks this word! It defines homestead as "a dwelling with its land and buildings, occupied by the owner as a home and exempted by a homestead law from seizure or sale for debt," or, "any dwelling with its land and buildings." The definition for the verb to homestead is "to settle on a property."
The modern definition of homesteading arises from back in
the 1800s, perhaps even earlier, when pioneers in the United States traveled to
unsettled land in order to settle it. Back then, residential use of electricity
was uncommon, and there were no agricultural conglomerates to produce food or
large, multi-purpose factories to manufacture clothing, furniture, and other
essentials. So the settlers had to be self-sufficient, growing their own food,
making their own clothing, etc.
So today, while the word "homesteading" can
technically refer to a person in the city becoming an owner of a small lot with
a house, it almost always refers to a lifestyle of becoming as self-sufficient
as possible. Within this self-sufficiency, homesteaders endeavor to transform
their home and property from liabilities to assets as much as possible. I'll
get into that in a bit. Bottom line: homesteading is a return to a simpler life
of less consumption.
But remember, the early settlers had community
Usually when you come across the topic of homesteading
online, the concept of self-sufficiency is tossed about like a hot potato.
"The sh*t is going to hit the fan! You must become self-sufficient!"
What these people miss is the fact that the early settlers
of the United States did not live independently from one another, as the term
"self-sufficient" implies. Rather, they lived as human beings are
supposed to live - interdependently.
If somebody's barn burned down, for example, the community would gather
together and build them a new barn. When a woman had a baby, other women in the
community would make themselves available to help her for the first few weeks.
So if when you think about homesteading, don't think about a
life led in isolation. Think, instead, about a community where the members
share their skills and knowledge as needed.
The benefits of homesteading
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| High raised beds with summer crops in June. |
I need to say this right up front: contrary to the popular
belief of the self-sufficient/prepper community, not everyone needs to be a
homesteader. Not everyone is called to that lifestyle – at least, not to the
extent of the maxims the "gurus" want to hold people to: "you
must produce at least 20% or your own food," "you must be off the
energy grid," etc.
If at this moment in your life you have to work at a job,
and you come home exhausted at the end of the day and barely have the energy to
spare to stop at the grocery store on your way home, let alone try to garden,
there's no need to feel guilty or bad about that. In fact, in a future post
I'll be writing about the myths of homesteading where I'll help wannabe
homesteaders in that nine-to-five situation to get rid of their guilt.
All that said, there are definite benefits to the
homesteading lifestyle.
Benefit #1: A healthier planet.
When you choose to life a simpler life, a life that steps
away from consumerism and unnecessary waste, you automatically reduce
pollution.
Benefit #2: A healthier you.
Whether you're making a meal from scratch, planting out
tomatoes, or cutting down weeds to make compost tea, the homesteading lifestyle
gets you moving more than the mainstream convenience-based lifestyle. I don't
have to tell you that getting more exercise reduces your risk of developing
many kinds of diseases.
In addition, food that you grow yourself is more nutritious –
and less toxic – than food you buy from a supermarket. Yes, that includes
produce in health food stores. Just like with exercise, we could all use more
nutrients, and when we are nutrient-sufficient, we are healthier.
Benefit #3: Less stress.
This might go under the "healthier you" category,
but it's so important I want to give it its own heading.
Also, I'm going to push vegan homesteading here, because the
more animals you have on a homestead, the more stress you're going to have.
Plain and simple. Animals require a lot of maintenance and extra expense.
Be that as it may, in general, a person who homesteads is
going to be more frugal. Living frugally equates to the ability to save more money,
which leads to less financial stress.
Many skills that have become attached to the homesteading
lifestyle – such as gardening, sewing, and making crafts – are relaxing. The
more you can relax, obviously, the less stress you're going to experience.
Benefit #4: Save money.
I alluded to that above. It's almost a given that if you
make choices that enhance Planet Earth's health as well as your health, you're
going to end up saving money.
If you choose to do with what you have, and repair and
repurpose items as much as you can, you're going to save money.
There are more benefits to homesteading, but those are the
major ones.
And now you may be hanging your head, tears dripping down
your cheeks because alas, you can't possibly homestead because of where you
live.
Chin up! And keep reading. Because you can homestead no
matter what kind of dwelling you call home.
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| Red malabar spinach climbing up a post in a suburban backyard. |
Where can a person homestead?
If you ask the average person on the street where the
homesteading lifestyle happens, they are likely to answer, "Out in the
country," or "In rural communities."
But go back to how I defined homesteading above. It's a
choice to become more self-sufficient, to turn home and property into
productive investments. Given that definition, a person can homestead with any
kind of dwelling. Sure, some dwellings are limited in the extent of
self-sufficiency you can develop. But any attempt to live a simpler life comes
under the umbrella of homesteading.
Apartment homesteading
If you live in an apartment, do you utilize ways to save
water? Do you work on cutting back on your electricity usage? Are you learning
to reduce your consumption and be happy with what you have right now?
If so, you can consider yourself an apartment homesteader!
What about growing food? You can produce a non-stop crop of
lettuce with a metal shelf and inexpensive blue-and-red LED grow lights. Inthis video-post I explain how. Note that we own five acres in the country, yet I
grow our lettuce indoors. The reason is that where we live, it gets so warm so fast
in the spring, and so cold so fast in the fall, it's hard to grow lettuce that
either isn't bitter, or doesn't need some kind of protection.
So, some tenets of apartment homesteading work well for us
country bumpkins, too!
You can grow sprouts in jars or on trays in your kitchen. Do
you have a balcony? There are all sorts of videos and blog posts online
explaining how to make the most of your tiny outdoor space in order to grow
food crops.
In some apartment buildings in some cities, residents are
allowed to have rooftop gardens, growing in containers or raised beds on top of
the building.
Yes, you can
homestead in an apartment!
Urban homesteading
The phrase "urban homesteading" – or, suburban
homesteading, if you will – typically refers
to houses on city lots in which the owners endeavor to reduce their carbon
footprint and work toward more self-sufficiency. If you own a house, you own
some yard space, so you can grow a lot more food than the apartment
homesteader.
You can grow much more than you think, if you plan your
garden out right. When we lived in a suburb, we had what is commonly known as a
"postage stamp-sized" backyard. We had way less than a fourth of an acre, even combined with the front
yard. Yet, it was enough space to keep us in fresh vegetables almost all year
(we lived in north Texas, so we could grow greens for most of the winter).
We also made moves to reduce our electricity and water
usage, and we didn't try to "keep up with Joneses." Though I don't
think we had any neighbors by that name.
If you rent a house and your landperson won't give you
permission to dig up the yard to build gardens, you can container garden.
Some urban homesteaders, if their city allows, keep backyard
chickens for eggs, or rabbits for meat. Although, as a vegan, I'm not going to
encourage either. ;)
Rural homesteading
Ah, space, space, and more space! When you live in the
country, you can have a huge garden and a variety of fruit-producing trees and
bushes. If you're not vegan, there is, of course, much more space for keeping
animals. In many states once you get outside city limits, codes go bye-bye so
that you can get as extreme in your lifestyle as you want, building a tiny
cabin for your home, using a composting toilet, collecting rainwater into
tanks, and building a solar panel array to collect electricity.
No matter where you live, you can choose to live a simpler
life and produce at least a small fraction of your own food. And thus, you will
be homesteading.
So now you understand the where's and why's of the
lifestyle. The big question is, what does it look like? How does a person live
out the lifestyle of a homesteader?
How to homestead
From what I wrote about above, you could infer a lot about
the how-to's of homesteading. While I'm not going to go into any kind of depth
about beekeeping or growing a tomato from seed to harvest in this post, I do
want to give you the ten-thousand foot view about the lifestyle.
Being a homesteader is about:
#1. Having a frugal mindset.
You endeavor to live as simply as you can in order to both
save money and avoid unnecessary purchases that will eventually contribute to
the landfills. It means you own many fewer machines of convenience, such as
dishwashers and food processors, than the average person. It means that you
don't buy anything on impulse. It means that you're good with purchasing from
thrift and consignment stores, and from yard sales, whenever possible.
It means you ask for discounts, use coupons, and stock up
when there's a sale. It means you aim not to own anything that doesn't either
have significance and/or use.
This frugal attitude is the root of all the other
homesteading how-to's.
#2. Doing it yourself whenever possible.
You make your own meals. If you eat bread, you bake your own
bread to go with those meals. You grow as much of your own food as you can. You
learn how to make basic repairs around the property and do them yourself rather
than hiring out the jobs. You might sew your own clothes, or create your own
household accessories.
And of course, the more things you do yourself, the more
frugally you live.
#3. Respecting the planet's resources.
No one enters the homesteading lifestyle thinking, "You
know, I'm going to do this so I can use as much energy as possible and waste
all the water that I dare!" Rather, they set up their home so that it will
use less energy. They figure out ways to conserve water usage, and collect and
use rainwater.
Homesteaders try to work with nature, rather than against
it. This includes endeavoring to use as few synthetic chemicals as possible,
both for household use and outside, so as to reduce their "pollution
footprint."
Along with that, they recycle, reuse and repurposes
materials whenever possible. Instead of mindlessly collecting piles and piles
of plastic shopping bags from the grocery store, they bring their own canvas
bags to tote their wares – or reuse plastic shopping bags from other visits.
#4. Transforming the home from a liability to an asset.
This facet of homesteading actually ties into the others
above, but it's important enough to earn its own mention.
Most homes – including house and property – are liabilities
to their owners rather than assets. Even if the owners have paid off the
mortgages, the houses and land consume much more than they give back in the way
of money, energy, and other resources.
When we lived in our suburban Dallas home, there wasn't a
single front yard in the neighborhood that was xeriscaped. Know why? It wasn't allowed! The city property standards
required residents to have grass on
at least half their front yards!
And the bushes and trees? Purely ornamental. Despite the
thousands of gallons of water poured at the trees' bases every summer, few
produced fruit or nuts. Most people paid a landscaping service to cut their
grass and trim their hedges once every two weeks.
The houses weren't well-insulated and so were energy hogs.
Many – like ours – had a twenty-foot ceiling in the living room. Can you say,
"heat sink"? Can you say, "a 50% higher electric bill in the
winter"?
When homesteading, on the other hand, people take measures
to turn their homes into assets. They use the roof of their houses to collect
water. If they have a new house built, they make sure it's energy-efficient.
They only build (or buy) as much house as they need.
And, of course, as much of the property as possible is used
for food production. Often, sections of land are set aside for other kinds of
production, like using the woods to grow trees for firewood. Or creating a
flower garden in order to sell bouquets.
The homesteading how-to's come down to living more simply,
and living more frugally. And you can take steps in those directions no matter
where you live, no matter your career.
You can be like my family and take things to extreme, using
coolers instead of a refrigerator, having no running water inside the house,
and washing laundry by hand. But homesteading doesn't require extremes.
It simply requires the attitude of simplicity.
Happy homesteading.
