Last Updated on July 29, 2022 by Michelle

If you’re wondering how to start homesteading when you don’t even own land yet, have I got some tips for you!

This isn’t your typical article on this topic that will tell you to research land in various states and then give advice on saving money to buy said land.

Because I’m a firm believer that you can’t be a successful homesteader without the right outlook, and gaining that perspective, in my opinion, is the biggest first step. So here we go…

6 Tips to Start Homesteading (before you even own land)

My hope is that these 6 tips will help you and your family prepare for owning a homestead, no matter where you live or what you’re doing today.

1. Slow down & take time to define what’s really important.

For our family, this time of year, one very tangible way to do this is sugarmaking. Tapping a few trees and boiling down sap into syrup is a great excuse to slow down, collectively, and spend family time creating something delicious.

“While sugar making has provided delicious pancake breakfasts and helped our family consume less refined sugar, if you asked me what it is about making maple syrup that has transformed my life? That’s easy. Sugar making helps me define the important things.” (Sweet Maple, p. 3)

Sugaring assures me that I’ll not only catch glimpses of winter beauty and listen to my own thoughts, rising and lowering with my breath, but also enjoy the glory of the wood fire even more when I return to it.

It assures me that for 6 glorious weeks at the end of every winter I will be reminded how precious the sweet stuff of life is. How it’s not something we’re entitled to. It’s not something we’re handed without effort. But it’s hard and wonderful, simultaneously. That’s not something our modern society understands. But sugaring makes it clear.

No, Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy, but it’s definitely worth it.

(If you agree, you want to follow along on my podcast, Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy.)

2. Get outside & put away devices.

If you want to one day run a successful homestead, you’ll need to be outside, a lot. Which is great for your overall fitness and vitamin D levels, but not so great for improving your instagram scrolling. You just can’t get the things done that need your attention if you’re wasting hours a day looking at your phone for entertainment and fulfillment.

The more you learn to get outside for a walk, or a bike ride, or rollerblading at a park, the more you–and your kids– will remember that not checking your phone every 10 minutes feels very good.

3. Start enjoying real food, now.

No matter where you live or how limited your resources are, you can find a starting place to introduce your family to real food. Source raw milk & fresh eggs if you’re able. Or start making your bread and your butter, or taco seasoning, pickles, or peanut butter instead of buying them.

You’ll be shocked at how easy it is to make some of these items that you never even knew didn’t have to come prepackaged from the grocery store. Even better, you’ll love the convenience of making it exactly the way your family likes it, in bulk, so you can always have it handy.

I keep many of my homemade pantry items that we use often, in handy mason jars, right where I need them… and trust me that is true convenience food.

This journey towards real food is a lifetime one, so you might as well take little steps every season until you’re able to plunge deeper.

Why is this truly helpful and worth the extra effort? I dive deep into that idea in this episode of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast:

4. Do hard things.

Your children are watching your resilience and bravery in the face of a hard task today. And they’re learning. They’ll need to be able to do the hard things one day if you own a homestead… wrestle with the bobcat attack that took the chickens and figure out how to make the coop safer. Deal with the sad reality that a baby rabbit died in the night and determine if it was something that could be avoided with the next liter. Raise animals knowing all along they are for the family’s food.

If life is too easy and sugar-coated for them today, we aren’t doing our kids any favors when it’s time for them to do the hard things tomorrow.

5. Take on big projects and see them through.

It seems like an oxymoron that accomplishing big projects with family helps us notice the simple, defining moments in life. But it’s been very true in my experience.

As I explained in my book:

“I’ve often wondered if we need the solitude and labor of an undertaking like sugaring now more than ever. Previous generations had so many things that required them to work hard—really hard—for simple joys. A brief look around my living room gives testament to this fact. My grandmother’s wooden butter mold sits on my hearth. She would fill it with hand-churned butter for her children to spread on her homemade bread. Bill’s grandmother’s braided wool rug still cushions our feet more than eighty years after she cut each strip of wool by hand. I think about the quiet, reflective time all that churning and braiding required and realize I’m missing out.

Life is too short not to notice some simple, defining moments every day, and some of them should be delicious. I wrote Sweet Maple in hopes of bringing the joys of maple into homes across America, to assure people that it’s okay that simple joys require hard work, and to bring the warm sweetness of an all-natural, super-food syrup into kitchens everywhere.” (p. 9)

But of course you don’t have to make syrup to accomplish this. Any project you can do together, as a family, can help you all notice the small, important things.

Gaining this perspective on life will truly get you in the right mindset for one day owning and working the land on a family farm.

6. Start learning skills that will help you monetize your future homestead.

One of the first things I realized about this thing called “homesteading” is that it’s not cheap. Folks always think of them as “free eggs” if you raise your own chickens, but no one takes into account the costs of preparing a coop and buying the chicken food, which can be pretty pricey in the long winter months here in New England, when there’s no where for the chickens to free range and forage like they do from spring through fall.

Read more about what you should know before you get chickens here.

Thankfully there are many ways to earn money from your homestead, but most of these endeavors will have a much higher success rate if you can build an online presence of some sort.

If you have the time and resources to do so, now is a great time to learn to build a website or grow a social media platform. If you’re not homesteading yet, build your online presence around what you’re learning now, to prepare for your future homestead.

This article explains how I earn an income with blogging, and my second season of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast (the first episode is below) will give you lots of back scene insight & insiders tips. Go here to follow along on your favorite podcast player.

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig & show me what you’re doing today to prepare for tomorrow’s homestead @souly.rested.

 

Other articles you’ll enjoy:

The Hardest Thing About Homesteading

13 Ways Homesteaders Make Money

Overcoming the Many Challenges of Homesteading

A Homestead Checklist for Every Season

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