Self-sufficient living is becoming more critical than ever for people today. Chances are you’ve seen people slowly transitioning to this lifestyle without even realizing it. Why is it becoming so popular?
Reducing your impact on the earth, being capable of doing more on your own, and finding fulfillment along the way helps people to live happier and healthier lives.
Does improving your self-sufficiency sound appealing? Then, continue reading to learn ten ways you can slowly transition to a more self-sufficient lifestyle with ease.
1. Try Growing Your Own Food
One great way to become more self-sufficient is to grow your own food. If you have even a small yard area and live in a place where certain fruits and vegetables will grow well, try it out!
Not having to take a car to the store and purchase fresh food that’s traveled a long way to making it to you helps the environment and will most likely save you money in the long run. Plus, it often tastes better coming from your own garden!
2. Be Sure To Recycle
Many people no longer take the time to recycle. If you recycle your plastic, glass, paper, and metal products whenever possible, you will be preventing countless items from ending up in landfills.
If recycling certain items isn’t possible, try finding unique ways to reuse them! Many common things can be repurposed and prevent you from spending more money.
3. Start A Compost Bin
This is one of the self-sufficient living tips that can benefit you in multiple ways. First off, composting saves more things from heading to a landfill. Second, having a compost bin provides you with free fertilizer to use in your garden!
4. Review Your Energy Usage
In many areas, energy usage is at an all-time high. This can be costing you more money than you realize and creating a more significant impact on the environment than you think.
Consider taking an honest look at your energy usage and seeing if there are things you can do to lower it. For example, turning off lights when you leave the room, keeping the house at a lower temperature to limit furnace usage, etc.
To take this one step further, you could look into investing in solar panels. This will provide your home with energy and potentially create extra power to let your town make use of. Again, this helps the environment and your wallet.
Click here to learn more about solar panel installation and see if it’s right for you.
5. Shop Second Hand
Do you often find yourself needing or wanting new clothes? This is only natural as styles change and growth occurs.
Consider shopping second-hand instead of heading to your nearest big box store and shelling out cash for new clothes, which are often expensive. This helps keep clothes out of landfills, saves you money, and lengthens the life-cycle of the clothing.
6. Avoid Using Paper Products
While paper plates, napkins, paper towels, and other paper products are convenient, they aren’t great for the environment.
Instead of reaching for these items, make the switch to regular plates. And, consider using washable rags or towels instead of paper. They often clean up spills better than paper does.
7. Learn To Mend Clothing
Along with shopping second-hand, learning how to mend your clothing when things wear down is crucial. So many pieces of clothing end up in the trash when small tears, holes, etc.
These minor issues are easy to fix if you take the time to learn how to do them. This extends the life of your clothing and helps you hold onto your favorite sweaters for just a little while longer.
8. Get Your Own Animals
Starting an entire farm is a lot of work and impossible in some places. But, owning even a couple of animals can provide you and your family with the food you would otherwise have to drive to the store for.
Getting one cow and a few chickens could provide you with eggs and milk, which can then be used for many different things.
Another benefit to this is knowing the animals you’re getting products from are well taken care of.
9. Go Back To Line Drying
Whether you opt for solar panels or not, line drying your clothes instead of using a dryer will save you a lot of energy usage. The dryer is one of the appliances in your home that uses the most amount of energy.
It’s also known to ruin your clothes faster. Plus, they can require a significant investment only to break down in a few years. You can avoid all of this hassle by line drying your clothing instead!
10. Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies
It’s no secret that cleaning supplies are often harmful to the environment and your home. They can break down materials quicker and put toxic chemicals into the air you breathe.
Instead of purchasing products like this, think about making your own using all-natural ingredients.
Self-Sufficient Living Is For Everyone
Self-sufficient living is something everyone can strive for. The benefits far outweigh any learning curves or initial investments that might be necessary.
This article walked you through 10 ways you can introduce self-sufficiency into your home, but there are countless other ways to do so. Start by trying even one thing on this list, and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to move on to more and more!
If you enjoyed reading this article and would like to read more pieces about improving your lifestyle, please check out the rest of our site for more!
