Our family is extremely close to our goal of living off the grid, becoming nearly self-sufficient, and living the life we have dreamed of! It hasn’t come easy, but it also hasn’t taken our whole life to achieve each milestone along the way.
Self-sufficient living empowers you. It gives you the tools to have control over your life and avoid relying on big pharma, big tech, and big government policies. Who doesn’t want that?
If you want to go on a similar journey as us, ask yourself these questions: Do I garden? Do I know how to cook my own food and preserve it? What are my main sources of water, meat, and clothing? Could I forage for food and create natural remedies?
Becoming more self-sufficient is all about taking little baby steps that bring you closer to your goals, step-by-step. Our family hasn’t reached our final destination yet, but we have accomplished more than we ever thought possible in just one year!
And you can take steps to be more self-sufficient in one year as well. Here are some ideas to help you get started…
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Start A Garden
The first thing you can do this year is to start a garden! No matter where you are in life, what your living situation looks like, and how much space you have, you can start growing something somewhere.
We live in a tiny house, so I understand the inconvenience of living in a studio apartment or temporary housing situation where there may be no gardening space available outside, and there just isn’t a lot of space inside. In that situation, start with a vertical planter like this one on the corner of a room or plant an herb garden above your kitchen sink.
If you do have gardening space available to you outside, start with researching a gardening method that makes sense for your climate and area. These gardening books have helped me so much in establishing and creating my own garden.
By growing your own food you begin to take your health and diet into your own hands, and it is a major step in becoming more self-sufficient this year!
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Start Composting
One of the first things we did as a family when we decided to take steps towards self-sufficiency was starting our own compost pile! It’s extremely easy because you regularly have resources to start composting on hand.
Did you eat eggs for breakfast? How about a banana? Throw those eggshells and that banana peel into your compost pile! Compost can be as simple or intricate as you make it, so I would encourage you to just start with the little steps of throwing your kitchen waste into the pile to start forming the habit.
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Get Backyard Chickens
One of the easiest animals* to start raising, and one that nearly anyone can do with a bit of yard space (and the ability to based on local laws for where you live) is backyard chickens!
We started out with chickens as one of our first steps to homesteading and becoming more self-sufficient in one year, and we loved it! Check out these blog posts on how to get started with raising chickens in your backyard (and why it is so wonderful to do so!):
7 Chicken Books You Need To Read To Start Your Own Backyard Flock
7 Chicken Books You Need To Read To Start Your Own Backyard Flock
11 Fun Things To Consider When Introducing A Rooster To Your Chickens
2 Easy Animals Every Homesteader Should Own For Self-Sufficiency
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Get Meat Rabbits
The other homesteading animal we started to raise at the beginning of our journey was meat rabbits! This is another animal nearly anyone can raise with a garage and/or some yard space. Here are some blog posts all about how we raise meat rabbits for our own source of meat!
7 Meat Rabbit Books You Need To Read To Start Your Rabbitry
How To Buy Meat Rabbit Breeders That Are Healthy And Productive
How Much Does It Really Cost To Raise Your Own Meat Rabbits?
6 Super Simple Ways To Make Money From Your Meat Rabbits Today
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Learn To Fish And Hunt
Another way to rely on the grocery store less and become more self-sufficient in one year is to learn how to fish and hunt. My husband is an experienced fisherman and somewhat new to hunting.
Each time he brings home a new catch we get almost free food! Sure, it’s a time investment and you have to pay for the equipment and government passes and tags, but we aren’t paying for those animals feed each month! Plus, the fresh taste is incredibly worth it.
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Learn To Tan A Hide
Another thing my husband has recently done is learn how to tan a hide! He’s experimenting with both the deer and rabbit hides that we have and has lots of plans to make several different items from them.
There are so many wonderful tutorials online to help you learn this process, and it’s much more simple than I expected! Plus, then nothing goes to waste.
Related Post: The 5 Best Farming And Homesteading Entrepreneur Books To Succeed
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Learn To Sew
Clothing is something that we often forget about when it comes to being self-sufficient. It’s important to know how to fix holes, seams, and tears in your clothing.
And while making your own clothing is not really a practical option, as it costs much more to make it at home than go to the store (especially the thrift store!), it is still a necessary skill towards being more self-sufficient in one year.
Start with purchasing a sewing machine, some fabric, and these items, and just start experimenting!
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Learn To Make Food From Scratch
The day I learned that I could make my own mayonnaise at home it was like a lightbulb went off. I didn’t know it was such a simple recipe with basic ingredients, and that I didn’t need to rely on the grocery store for it!
I started to look into everything else I could make at home and I realized that so many items in the grocery store are only there for convenience sake. If I put in a little time and effort I could make so much more food myself at home and save money too!
Plus making food from scratch really isn’t as hard and scary as it seems. I suggest starting with baking your own bread, in fact, sourdough bread is a great place to start. Then try your hand at different recipes and purchase a cookbook from this list!
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Learn How To Store The Harvest
If you are gardening, raising your own meat, and growing your own herbs, you’ll want to learn how to preserve them! There are lots of different preservation methods to choose from: dehydrating, canning, freeze-drying, freezing, fermenting, drying, etc.
While I’ve only dabbled in a few of these, I can’t wait to try out more and more techniques this next year. I suggest starting with fermenting. Make some pickled eggs or sauerkraut! Then see what else in the preserving world interests you.
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Get A Clothes Line
I love to line dry my family’s clothing in the summer. Everything just feels so much more fresh and clean when I put it away. I especially love it when I am cloth diapering as the sun will naturally bleach out the stains.
A clothesline is a cheap and easy way to avoid using extra, unnecessary electricity and become more self-sufficient in one year!
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Ditch Modern Conveniences Like TV
We don’t have a television in our tiny house currently and we love it! We still watch television or movies on our laptops once in a while and stay up to date on the news through informative YouTube channels. However, we don’t rely on it.
Evaluate your life and see if there is a modern convenience that you rely heavily upon. This means that if it were taken away, you wouldn’t quite know what to do. For me, that’s my smartphone, especially maps and weather.
Becoming more self-sufficient means learning old-fashioned skills that can help us in times when these modern conveniences have failed us or disappeared.
Related Post: The 7 Best Books On Raising Turkeys For Meat In Your Backyard
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Collect Rain Water
An easy way to become less dependent on city systems is to have your own water source. For us, that’s our own pond, and well. But, we have also set up systems to collect rainwater in the past.
It’s an easy way to use a renewable resource and be more self-sufficient! It can be as simple as putting a large drum or bucket under your gutters and finding a purification method that works for you.
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Switch To Natural Cleaning Products
If you’ve been around my blog or social channels before then you know that I love Young Living for their natural cleaning and household products! They incorporate essential oils into their products, which are a wonderful alternative to harsh chemicals.
However, you can also find other recipes online to make your own natural cleaning products, sometimes as simple as a vinegar and water solution! Don’t rely on the grocery store for your household products. Start looking up alternatives to be more self-sufficient in one year!
Related Post: How To Easily Incorporate Essential Oils Into Your Life
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Forage For Food
Did you know that there are so many plants and species in your area that grow wild? You can forage on the side of roads, in public access areas, or your own property for these edible plants and berries. On our own 80-acres, we have wild blueberries, cherry trees, apple trees, herbs, and mushrooms!
Start by finding a local expert or reading a book about the area that you live in. Safety comes first when you begin foraging and you don’t want to eat something toxic. Education should always be your first priority before you begin foraging.
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Build And Move Into A Tiny House!
This may not be a step for you on your journey (it certainly doesn’t have to be!) but I couldn’t leave it out as it was the major reason we were able to become more self-sufficient in one year.
We purchased 80-acres, built our tiny house, sold our suburban house, and moved out to the country! But, you can read more about that journey in these homesteading updates.
Consider ways that you can acquire land, downsize your home, get out of debt, and start taking control of your life! For everyone, that will look a little bit different.
Related Post: The Top 10 Most Enlightening Books On How To Homestead
Our Future Self-Sufficiency Goals
In the upcoming years, we hope to have our land completely paid off and invest in a solar panel system so we can eliminate our electricity bill for good!
Self-sufficiency looks different for everyone and it’s important that you sit down and define your goals along with the actionable steps you are going to take to reach them.
It’s important to note that no one can be completely self-sufficient, and no one should be! We were created to live in a community, to love our neighbors and help each other, and to share the abundance of resources that we have been given. Our goal in becoming more self-sufficient is not to be alone in the middle of nowhere away from everyone but to simply have more control of our life.
Leave a comment below and let me know what becoming more self-sufficient in one year means to you!
Kelsey at GoodPointGrandma
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So much great information here, Kelsey! Love this!
Thank you Sierra!