My Top Five Homesteading Lessons

Over the past few years of our homesteading journey, I have learned many lessons and skills. If I could narrow it all down, here’s my top five homesteading lessons.

I’ve pinned many ideas on various boards on Pinterest– all wonderful ideas, but I’m afraid I’m starting to overwhelm my husband. Ha. I’ve also tried to tackle too many of them at once.

Homesteading is a big job and I’m a go big or go home kind of gal. But taking on too many things often leads to burn out or becoming overwhelmed. I’m a busy mama already, I don’t need anything which will lead to chaos.

Soo, today I’m sharing a few of my lessons learned since leaving the city life, which I knew and loved, for something even more rewarding.

This country life is not for the weak or faint of heart. I’ve had to grow many skills in a short amount of time and to adapt to a lot of random situations.

Luckily for me, my husband spent his life building on many of the skills necessary for homestead life, so he’s my handy go-to guy.

Here are my key take-a-ways and lessons learned over the last few years.

Be Resilient and Adaptable

This is by far my biggest piece of advice for anyone who is looking to trade in their life and take on the challenges of homesteading.

There may be times when your best laid plans are quickly thrown to the curb and you’ve needed to adapt to a crazy situation. Or something came up at the last minute.

Resilience and being able to move on or try again are incredibly important skills to master. We have needed to continuously switch gears with our plans.

Predators, for example, are a constant battle and just when we think we have our chickens safe and secure, a possum is discovered eating one of our hens in the corner of the coop (and I have yet to figure out the point of entry!).

We’ve already given up on free ranging our chickens, but it can still be challenging and super heartbreaking!

Remaining tough and adapting to these types of situations is so incredibly important!

Take Breaks & Relax

Oh, boy. This one is tough for many of us. But its truly important for our health and well-being. Take regular scheduled breaks, occasional vacations, or whatever you need to do to keep your mental health and overall well-being in check.

I know, this is a challenge in itself!

Who will watch the animals or farm when we’re away? I usually try to keep our trips short and simple. Either a quick day trip or short weekend away will usually recharge our batteries and allow us to stay refreshed.

Here are a few other ideas if you can’t sneak away from the homestead.

Don’t Take on Too Much 

As I’ve mentioned above, this is a huge fault of mine. I like to think that I can do it all. But the truth is, most of us can’t.

So, I’ve had to learn to scale way back and go smaller on certain tasks or projects until I get the hang of a certain skill.

My first year on our homestead, I bought a ton of organic garden seeds and attempted to take on a huge garden plot.

Then I became pregnant.

The morning sickness was no joke and by the time I recovered from that, the swollen feet, body aches, and pains set in.

Needless to say, the garden plans got ditched and I focused on smaller projects. Now that I’ve started getting more successful at gardening and my children are getting older, I add a little more to our garden plot each year.

Take Partners and Network

I wish that I knew the importance of this in the beginning of our journey. It hasn’t been until recently that I’ve learned the value in great partners.

I have met some truly amazing people through social media and while networking. Which has not only led to new friendships, its also taught me may different homesteading skills. I have truly enjoyed seeing how various people homestead and learning what makes them successful!

Set Goals & Stay Organized

Staying organized is the only way that I avoid chaos in this life as a wife and home with a homestead. I learned a little while back that setting goals, staying organized, and moving towards minimalism are what helps me to stay focused.

Another point that I’d like to share here…

Be open to updating and changing your goals throughout the year. Its ok to change your original goals as needed when your path switches course.

There’s many other important lessons learned while homesteading, but these are my top five. These are the most valuable lessons I’ve learned…so far. Share with us, what are your top lessons learned while homesteading?