Want to Start Homesteading? Here's How to Start! (2024)

Have you been yearning to start homesteading, but struggle with knowing how to get started? This simple guide to beginning your homestead will leave you with hands-on, easy-to-start ideas so that you can start your own homesteading journey today.

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Homesteading was a relatively foreign concept to me for a long time. I knew what I was feeling- a deep desire to live closer to the land, much like the pioneers and the Amish of today’s modern world. What I didn’t know was how to get there. I prayed and searched and wished that living a simple life in today’s modern world was possible, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. And then I started to find people who were actually doing it.

When I first heard about the modern homesteader movement, I was so intrigued. There really were people out there starting a homestead from scratch, living a simpler life connected back to nature. These people were raising their own meat, growing their own vegetables, and cooking from scratch. I knew this homesteading lifestyle is what I wanted to do too.

And so, we started a homestead of our own, and we learned a lot about what starting a homestead successfully looks like. I hope this article will help you on your own homesteading journey as you set forth to start a homestead of your own.

Table of Contents

• What is Homesteading?
• How are Homesteading and Farming Different?
• Step One: Get Your Mindset Ready to Start Homesteading
  • Tom, Sarah, and Neesa are a homesteading family in New Zealand.
  • All The Time In the World
  • Simple Living Alaska
  • Homestead Living
  • Farmhouse on Boone
• Step Two: Grow Your Own
• Step 3: Go Outside in Nature
• Step 4: Learn a New Skill
• Step 5: Simplify Your Life to Prepare to Start Homesteading
• Step Six: Set Goals for Yourself as a Homesteader
• Words of Encouragement as You Begin Your Own Homesteading Journey
• Are you ready to start a homestead of your own?
• More Homesteading Posts to Enjoy:

What is Homesteading?

Historically speaking, homesteading refers to the Homestead Act of 1862, in which families were given opportunities to get essentially free land if they were able to improve it.

Modern homesteading focuses on the same types of values, but there’s no free land involved. Instead, homesteaders focus on farming the land that they have to provide the food for their families. The focus for homesteaders is to provide as much food as they can from the land that they live on. This might include owning a family milk cow to provide for the family’s dairy needs, growing a large garden to harvest from in summer and preserve food for winter, and raising animals for other products like meat and eggs.

How are Homesteading and Farming Different?

There are a few ways in which farms differ from homesteads. Primarily, farmers generally are farming in order to make a living. They are growing or harvesting a product that is sold, and that is the main purpose for growing or harvesting it. In contrast, homesteaders are very much home-driven. Their goals are to provide for their families over selling their products. Of course, selling extra off of the homestead is always encouraged and exciting, but it’s not the primary focus of why they grow what they do.

Another way in which they are different is with what they each grow. A farmer usually will specialize in one thing and center all of his/her attention on that. You might see a beef farmer, a dairy farmer, or a vegetable farmer. A homesteader, to compare, grows a variety of foods and animals to provide for their family rather than just specializing in one specialty alone.

Does it sound like homesteading is a good fit for you? Let’s dive into how you can start a homestead of your own.

Step One: Get Your Mindset Ready to Start Homesteading

There are a ton of really great resources out there to help inspire you towards starting a homestead lifestyle. I have always been very drawn to simple living and traditions of old, but realizing that there are other people out there who are living my dream for real inspired me to finally take the leap of faith and recognize that I could do it too, even in today’s time period. These are some of the videos and bloggers that I have found incredibly helpful and inspirational on my own homestead journey because they’ve shown me that homesteading today, in our our modern world, is an actual possibility:

Tom, Sarah, and Neesa are a homesteading family in New Zealand.

This was one of the first videos I watched that really spoke to my soul. The husband is a licensed physician, the wife a professional artist. Both held successful careers and were living the typical lifestyle that the world tells us to live. Yet, they continued to yearn for something different, and they took the jump to leave their mainstream jobs, and follow their dreams.

All The Time In the World

This one was a game changer. I thought about this film for a long time after I’d watched it. It really puts into perspective the realities and nature of life against what we are told is important in the world.

From the film’s description: In search of a new perspective, a family of five leave the comforts of home to live remotely, off-grid, in the Yukon wilderness during the long northern winter and amidst the surprises that the rawness of nature provide. The parents leave their jobs and take their three children, ages 10, 8, and 4 to spend nine months living and being home-schooled in a small cabin with no road access, no electricity, no running water, and no internet, no TV, no phone, and, most importantly, no clocks or watches.

You can watch this really amazing film here.

Simple Living Alaska

Eric and Arielle Illia are common household names here in our family. This young couple documents their life in Alaska as they work to be as self-sufficient as possible.

Homestead Living

This family of 9 navigating their life off-grid in the Ozarks is inspirational. Their simple lifestyle and humble attitude is sure to inspire you to live simply and wholly.

Farmhouse on Boone

The writer behind Farmhouse on Boone, Lisa, is an excellent teacher of many homesteading skills, including great tips for meals, sewing skills, and how to keep old-fashioned living alive. Lisa is also the teacher who has taught me about blogging. You can sign up for her class (so you can learn to blog if that’s something that interests you!) here.

You can find her website here.

Step Two: Grow Your Own

When you’re are ready to start homesteading, you’ll want to do it all. Remember, you don’t have to grow EVERYTHING right now, but just start growing something. You don’t have to grow everything all at once. As I continue to work towards self-sufficiency as much as possible, I add new crops each year. In the beginning I grew what I knew: cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers. Each year as I get more comfortable with what I’m doing, I add something new to try. It’s definitely a learning game, but without trying, you’ll never learn at all!

And, you don’t need a lot of space to start growing your own vegetables. There are lots of varieties of plants that do very well in containers, such as tomatoes, peppers, and even potatoes! Pole beans can be a nice addition to a small garden as they grow up, and cucumbers can do the same. Be creative in how you use your space; you will be surprised to see how much food you can grow in a small area.

If you’re new, some great veggies to start growing that are relatively easy are peas, green beans, tomatoes, and squashes.

Step 3: Go Outside in Nature

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

Frank Lloyd Wright

We are designed to be outside, as a part of an intricate system and community all within our natural world. Too often, we separate ourselves from where we belong, and find ourselves at a loss. Yet, we cannot be part of this community if we don’t know where it is that we belong. Observe what’s around you. Hear the songs of the birds. Smell the scents of the Earth. Notice the beauty all around you, and really take the time to soak it in. Recognize who you are in this beautifully created system, grasp it, and never let it go.

Strategy: If you find your mind wandering to places they shouldn’t be while you’re attempting to reconnect your relationship with nature, you’re not alone. Sometimes journaling can be a helpful strategy to encourage mindfulness of the situation. Write down your observations using your senses and note how they make you feel. Read through these observations and note any patterns.

Step 4: Learn a New Skill

There are so many skills that our ancestors knew that have been lost because of a lack of necessity for them any longer. But what’s hard for me is the dependence on other people that fact causes. I am dependent on someone else to grow my food, preserve my food, to give me my food. Without them, I starve. I am dependent on someone else to sew my clothes. I am dependent on someone else to heat my home, to provide light for my home.

That constant dependence doesn’t sit well with me. When the pandemic hit, many people started to recognize how little they are able to provide for themselves and how much we depend on others for our own basic needs. In a world that’s collapsing, money cannot always buy you what you need. In a world of desperation, you need to know how to take care of yourself.

These are some great skills to learn on your journey towards self-sufficiency such as how to:
●Safely preserve your food through fermentation and processing
●Differentiate wild edibles in your area
● Cook from scratch using only natural ingredients that are in
season
●Sew
●Clean and harvest an animal

Step 5: Simplify Your Life to Prepare to Start Homesteading

One of the biggest things stops people from wanting to start homesteading is the message that the world sends us regarding things that we “need”. We’re told that we need to have expensive clothes, a fancy home, a nice car. We’re told that happiness can be found in objects and things rather than in people and relationships. It’s not true. Greed is a monster that never stops. The more you feed it, the more it wants.

Start to recognize how little you actually need to be happy. For example, recognize how much you have that you don’t use, and stop to think about how many hours you worked to pay for those items. Simplifying your belongings can also simplify
your life.

Some tips to try:

• Remove everything and anything that doesn’t bring you joy. If you have it just to have it, chances are you probably aren’t using it enough.
• Before purchasing something new, think about the time it takes to earn the money to buy it. Then, try to figure out a way to repurpose something you already have at home for the item you think you need. A little creativity can go a long way.
• When it comes time to purchase something, evaluate how it will affect relationships. Will it help build them or will it take away from them?

I’ve written an in-depth post, Six Easy Steps to Living a Simple Life, that you can check out if you’d like to dive deeper into this!

Step Six: Set Goals for Yourself as a Homesteader

When you’re first trying to wrap your mind around how to start homesteading, sit down and allow yourself to dream. What are some of the huge life goals and dreams you have for your homestead? Do you hope to have laying hens? A family milk cow? What will your garden look like? Write them down on a list.

Then, go on and dream of all of the skills you’d love to be able to learn. Do you want to learn to milk a cow? Harvest maple syrup? Sew your own clothes? How about learn to preserve by canning? Whatever it is you want to learn, write it all down. Nothing is out of the question right now!

Next, after all of your dreaming is done, it’s time to prioritize. Looking at everything you want to learn and do is really overwhelming and might even be discouraging. Prioritizing everything into steps is a huge way to make your homesteading dreams become homesteading possibilities.

To do this, take your list of dreams and place them into categories of:

• This Year’s Goals
• Next Year’s Goals
• Within the Next 5 Years
• Within the Next 10 Years
• Long-Term Future Goals

Then, it’s time to start actually doing it! Hold yourself accountable by sharing on social media the goals you have for the year or starting your own personal homesteading journal/scrapbook in which you document your journey and how far you’re coming on your homesteading journey. You’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come when you look back years later.

Words of Encouragement as You Begin Your Own Homesteading Journey

Wherever you are on your homesteading journey, don’t be discouraged. Every step that you are taking as you start a homestead is a step of progress in the right direction. Even the smallest actions can make a difference in your life.

So today, be excited. Be ready. Be open to the calling you’re feeling inside, and know that there are others like you out here in this world.

You can do this!

Are you ready to start a homestead of your own?

More Homesteading Posts to Enjoy:

• Modern Day Homesteaders: Who are they?
• Our Homestead Journey: The Diary Series
• Homesteading Quotes: What it’s really like to live on a homestead
• How to Become a Homesteader: How these families started their own modern day homesteads
• Even more here at Simple Homestead Life