Habits That Change When You Homestead

Habits That Change When You
Homestead

Homesteading is first and foremost a mentality. It is an approach you meet life
with every.single.day. You seek to be more of a participant in what you eat, how
you live, and the impact your presence has on the Earth. You work to rely more on
yourself than others.Other than your eating habits that change when you make the
conscious decision to be more self sustainable (because at its heart, that is what
homesteading is!), you may be surprised at the other things that seemingly change
overnight. Changing into a clean pair of pants every single day, for example.
Before you turn your nose up too much, read on!

 Shop Less – When it comes to food staples, clothing, and the day-to-day
needs, homesteaders tend to shop less frequently. At least, it sure changed
for us! We buy wheat berries in bulk and grind our own flour. We buy 20
pound bags of rolled oats and package that to last. For the things we cannot
grow on our own, we buy it in bulk, on sale. For non food items, we still
shop far less. We stopped buying paper towels because we had a huge back
stock of kitchen towels. Eventually, everything comes down to practicality
and paper towels truly are a luxury item.

 Clothing Styles and Habits – The kinds of clothing we buy has drastically
changed. More denim, less rayon. Work boots instead of what ‘looks good.’
If I can’t tromp through mud at any given time, it likely has no place in my
closet. Everything has moved from fashion considerations to practical
applications. “Will this keep me warm? Will it last more than a year? Is it
machine washable (not on delicate, either)?” Looks are a distant second for
us now. Sure, we want to look good but more importantly, we want to be
warm and dry.

 Less Laundry – The average person would think you would end up with
even more laundry being a homesteader. Nope. When Laundry consists of
hand washing everything or hanging them on the line to dry or anything
other than your standard washing/drying system, you tend to wear things a
few days instead. Especially if you have to go to the laundromat (VERY
expensive here). Honestly, other than socks and undies, is that
shirt really dirty after one day? Unless you are cleaning out the chicken
coop, not likely. Jeans or even better, Carhart pants, can be worn 3 days
before being tossed into the hamper. Yeah, I can hear some people saying
“Ewwww!” Until you live the life, it is hard to understand why that would
be perfectly acceptable.

 Sleeping In – My husband and I are polar opposites when it comes to
morning time. He is up, chipper, talkative and ready to face the day! I, on
the other hand, have been known to growl, gnash teeth, and even snap at
people who get too close until after I have my shower and morning coffee.
At least half the cup. I also loved to sleep in. It is the greatest gift ever
given to mankind….well besides the perfect pillow.

 Say goodbye to all of that when you homestead. You need to be up to
open the greenhouse and cold frames before they get too hot. If there is
livestock involved, forget about it! You need to be up to feed and tend
them, milk the goats and clean the coop! Add in projects you want to get
completed plus harvest time and food preservation time….sleeping in is a
rare luxury.

 Using Money for Everything – There is a certain satisfaction to getting
what you want and need by way of bartering. Homesteaders tend to shy
away from using money as they get deeper and deeper into the lifestyle.
Many people see more value in a few pints of freshly canned blueberry
preserves than they do $15 for some scrap wood they had laying around. I
know, it sounds a little crazy but it is largely true!

 Having Elaborate Meals – We don’t go out to eat very often at all
anymore. It is hard to justify spending $100 on a dinner, no matter how
nice, when you could take that same money and buy enough to make 20
meals (or more). OR you use that $100 to build a place where you can
grow your own food that will last years! Not only that, when you start to
cook from scratch and eat it regularly, you can taste the chemicals in boxed
and canned foods.

 What you Consider Entertainment – Used to be I could spend literally 12-
16 hour stretches on the weekends playing online games. No joke. I would sit
here on my backside (which got bigger over the years from all the sitting lol)
every free moment I had and be plugged in to some game or another,
completely immersed. I had more interaction with people online than I did in

the ‘real world.’ Before that, watching TV or reading a book, maybe going for
walks was my entertainment. Even if I didn’t have the blog, it has pretty much
all changed.

 Homesteading changes you in really weird ways (though often funny).
Watching chickens, for example, is one of those things that just happens.
We don’t even have any (as I have said) but I will watch a friend’s
chicken cluck and scratch around the whole time I am there. Going
fishing to actually fill the freezer is work…but still
entertainment! Entertainment changes to family meals and game night
instead of dinner and a movie.

 Buying Everything New – Touched on lightly above, I don’t know any
homesteaders who rush out to buy whatever they need brand new. Sure,
there are certain items that you kind of need to buy new but those are pretty
rare. Instead, they either fix it, make it, or make do without it. You can never
really get ‘away’ from needing to have and use money but it is not the first
route most homesteaders take. In fact, it is usually the last when all other
options dry up.