Easy Tips on How to Start a Homestead

You can homestead in a small space

You can start a small homestead now, in your small space (townhome, apartment, or rental) and in your spare time. How do I know this? Because it's exactly what I'm doing in a small space and in my spare time.

The good news is that you don't need hundreds of acres to start cultivating a homestead mentality because many homesteading skills actually don't require land at all.

I'm a homestead dreamer, building my farm dream in a townhouse in the city between my 9 to 5 job, an hour or two on weeknights, and a bit more on the weekends.

As someone who was in her waiting room, it's on my heart to share how I'm finding true contentment, even while my homestead dream is a few years away. It's so important to have joy on the journey to your dream.

Realize what you do have

Last week, my pastor talked about how the majority of our lives is a process of saying goodbye within the context of a series on contentment. We're either knowingly or unknowingly saying goodbye to the things we wish we could have had longer, if not forever.

Our health gradually or unexpectedly changes for the worse. Our children and pets grow older in the blink of an eye. Friends and family pass, and a dynamic at work or in a relationship shifts or ends unexpectedly.

Hold fast to your homestead dream, farm girl, and while you wait, don't wish away your days or fail to appreciate the beauty of what you have.

Now, just because you don't have land, chickens, or a full-fledged farmhouse, think instead, dear friend, of what you have now, at this very moment, that may not be with you in the future.

Build the spirit of your home first

God's given you an original storyline; how it will unfold is as much about your journey as it is about the destination.

While I see my future homestead having a root cellar, a large gas stove, a fireplace, a proper porch, and a few other things, that's just it. Those are things. It's mostly physical infrastructure and livestock that I just don't have access to now. But what doesn't have to wait is the spirit of my home, and that's what I'm building now.

There is a confidence you will build in being faithful with taking daily action towards your dream, and that's what you see me doing here, sharing some of the small projects that give my home that homestead vibe and are helping me, well, become a farm girl.

You know, I don't think it's a coincidence that much of the work you do as a farmer is preparing. You can spend years amending the soil on an area of land to get the conditions right to grow, and so it is with your journey to your dream. Removing weeds is routine work, and so it is with mental self-doubt.

Be diligent about removing anything that's not growth and will hold you back.

Increase self-reliance

No matter the size of your current homestead, you can take steps towards sustainability and increasing self-reliance. Your goal is knowing that you'll scale over time, whether it be a few weeks, months, or even years.

I'm certainly not where I want to be, but I wouldn't trade the habits I've built around fermenting, preserving small space gardening, and the overall industrious and useful skills I've learned for anything.

Canning not only soothes my soul and sanity but allows me to support a local family business that grows in abundance, which I can't just yet. You know, this makes me feel like I'm already living the good life.

Progress, not perfection

I seek progress, not perfection. I celebrate wins and lessons. It's not that I've arrived. It's what I'm becoming. You're becoming. Together, we're becoming farm girls.

Dear friend, keep building your dream on paper, in your mind, in your small space, and in your spare time. I'll see you in my kitchen or garden soon.

How to start a homestead

What have you learned in your search for how to start a homestead? Are you close to realizing your dream?

Share your ideas and tips in the comments below.