There seems to be a myth that you have to have a big beautiful farmhouse, or barn, or acreage in order to homestead successfully. This is a complete myth! You can start homesteading wherever you are, at any time, on any size property (even an apartment). In this post, I'm sharing, or rather de-bunking, many homesteading myths you may think are true.
It may be surprising to you, but my husband, two kids and I homestead in a double-wide. Sure, a manufactured home sounds nicer, but truth be told, it's a double-wide!
When my husband and I first started homesteading 21 years ago, we were renting and had very little space. We homesteaded our first 17 years without even owning a tractor! We certainly learned what to do when homesteading got tough and saw first-hand how homesteading helped when in the midst of a crisis.
And now, all these years later, we raise all our own meat animals and we still don't even have a barn! A lack of outbuildings or structures is not a prohibiting factor for homesteading.
If you can believe it, we don't even have a garage. We use things like steel-framed canopies and shipping containers because they're practical and affordable. Living by the motto of only buying what we can pay for with cash means we're not getting in over our heads, or going into debt to create an idyllic farm. (We've also learned many ways that homesteading can make us money!)
Truth be told, anyone can homestead. So a bonus tip before we even get started, is that there is no perfect time to start homesteading, so just start now with what you have. Join this homesteading movement.
6 Commonly Believed Myths About Homesteading
There are certainly a lot of myths going around, or at least, homesteaders who may be saying there's one “right” way to do things. But over the years, we've come up with many hacks to “make it all work” and in the video below, I'm sharing them with you while de-bunking 6 commonly believed myths about homesteading!
Myth #1 – You have to have a big beautiful farmhouse in order to homestead.
This is completely untrue. You don't even need a cute tiny farmhouse! As I mentioned before, a double-wide will do just fine. For that matter, I know many people who get started on a homestead in a camper trailer or a motor home. We just do what we can do, right?
Myth #2 – You have to have barns or outbuildings in order to homestead.
False! We don't have a single barn on our homestead, yet we raise a year's worth of meat, including grass-fed beef cattle, free-range meat chickens, and heritage pigs without any issues.
As long as you're providing shelter from the elements and adequate space and food, these animals are quite resilient, even without a cozy barn.
Myth #3 – Homesteading must be your full-time job in order for it to work.
Nope! My husband and I both have full-time day jobs which, up until a few years ago, meant we both left the house for work. I now run my online business from home (most days), but it's still very much a full-time job.
Now, if you're scared or opposed to hard work, you may not want to come home from work only to have chores waiting for you on the homestead, but that's all part of making it work! If this doesn't sound appealing, maybe homesteading isn't your jam.
Myth #4 – You can't go on vacation if you have a homestead.
Wrong again! Though there are precautions and systems that will need to be set up ahead of time, having a homestead and gardening does not mean you can't leave your home to go on vacation. In this post, I debunk common garden myths that often lead to confusion.
2-3 day vacations are very easy to arrange. Anything longer than that is doable, but you'll want to make sure to have someone reliable that can either stay at your home or have a neighbor come and check on your livestock and garden every day or two.
Too many things can go wrong, even if you have enough food, water, shelter, etc. Having someone come check on your animals is best. Here are all my tips on how to take a vacation when you have a homestead.
Myth #5 – You can't raise livestock unless you have enough acreage.
This isn't true either. If you listened to my podcast about raising animals and growing a garden with minimal space, then you know there are options such as leasing land (or growing vertically) to make it all fit.
Myth #6 – There IS a perfect setup for homesteading!
Nope! We homesteaders love to share what works for us, but that's all it is, what works for us! If there are some tips and tricks we can help pass along that will also work for your situation, then that's the best of both worlds!
This is your journey, and your homestead, you don't need to be measuring it by some rod of perfection that's been set up by someone else!
More Homesteading Posts:
- The First Time Homesteader & Things I’d Do Differently
- What to do When Your Family Isn't on Board With Homesteading
- Homesteading + Making Money (How to do it All)
- Does Homesteading Really Save Money?
- Urban Homesteading – Tips for Small Space Sufficiency
- 14 Things You Must Do for Your Best Homesteading Year
- Homesteading for Beginners – 9 Transition Tips from City Life
- Tips for Homesteading Off-Grid
Hello Melissa! I live in western Wa. State as well, so love all the lessons you share, especially as they pertain to my locale too. My husband & I lived in a lovely home in Alaska until 11 years ago. We laughingly referred to it as Tara. We didn’t want to work ourselves into the ground for several more years just to pay off a house! So, we relocated to WA state & bought an older manufactured home that we are gradually fixing up. I love to garden, and he is perfectly happy putting up my little greenhouse and building raised beds. Honestly we feel this cozy home is more “us” than the big, ostentatious one was. Now health threats are encroaching, and I am so glad we didn’t spend the last 11 years working to pay off a house. Love your blog!
Thank you so much for sharing and yes on not spending all those years to pay off your home, smart cookie!
Hello to the rest of the homesteading community from the other side of the world (i.e. from New Zealand)! It’s lovely to hear encouragement about how you don’t have to have the perfect lifestyle block and the pretty cottage to homestead. We’ve always grown as many of our vegetables as we can, even when we were renting. I’ve found that landlords don’t mind people putting in vegetable gardens, as this means that (a) the tenants likely to stay long-term and (b) they are the sort of people who look after the property.
Even if all you can start with is baking your own bread from scratch, growing a few herbs or tomatoes in a pot, and doing a spot of foraging, it’s a start.
Debt free is the key. I could care less what I live in as long as it’s paid for, unlike some whose mortgage/insurance takes up half of what they make.
This place feels like…home ❤️
Blessings.
Melissa, I lived in a double wide on 2/ac in Texas and raised my three children going to the same school from 1-12 grades. They would not be who they are today with out all the memories and hard work. At that time I was not raising my own food but do now. We have since moved into a house in a subdivision with 1.6 acres and that is plenty for our garden and fruit trees. Our HOA does not allow livestock, 🙁 but my husband of 49 yrs is going to try and get permission for chickens. :). I grew up with God first, family second and church third. I admire you for what you do and wished I had found you years ago. I hope to see you in VA in October. So sad that some people put happiness in material things and then judge others by what they have. Please know I pray for your family often because I know life is not easy raising teenagers. Love your wisdom and honesty, which is soooo hard to find today. You are a blessed lady and loved by many.
I would like to say that a giving and sharing person like yourself has so many riches it can’t be measured. I like manufactured housing especially when they are affordable. I don’t want to spend my life paying off a house that measures up to others ideas of a nice house but what I can live with and be comfortable. People can be hurtful. I like our homestead. The wide open view. It’s the homestead that has taken us 35 years to get. You know you are lucky and have worked hard to have it at an younger age. Enjoy! and don’t let others dictate to you. You’re a glowing example of a faith filled person not only to your family but to all of us watching you. Thank You!
Hi Melissa: I have been watching your videos and reading your posts for about a year , very helpful information. I bought a pressure canner last year and used it once so far but plan on doing much more.
As for people with rude comments I think they are jealous of not having what you have and that is why they are so rude.
Thanks for your posts and pod casts. Keep up the good work.
Linda Riengeutte
Melissa, I personally don’t mind when people say stuff like that to us. I do feel sorry for them for not understanding what it really takes for a normal people like us to be able to grow our own food. I like the way you explain things and your encouragement. My wife and I started on a 1/4 acre lot and fed many less fortunate people in our area. Now we have a 5 acre farm and get made fun of, because obviously that can’t be true its not big enough to be a farm.. Then they stop by and are amazed that this little property puts out way more than many big farms without an ounce of fertilizer. Just imagine what you or I could have done if we were given 100 acres. Thank you for being you.
I can’t believe people can be so ??????(words fail). It’s comforting to know
there is a whole family of homesteaders out there that just want to help each other. I’m grateful you share so much with us.
Good on you for letting the rude comment roll off your back. We homestead in town right now and the neighbors don’t like our chickens and ducks or our gardens because they don’t look nice, but whatever. We are debt free and living like we want to. We would like to move out to our land, but we want to build with cash and right now that is not going to happen. I’m glad you are being honest with living in a manufactured home because most of the people on you tube with homesteading channels live in great houses and have lots of land or are living off grid in stick built cabins. That is a lofty goal for some of us still living in town, just trying to do a little more every year. Everyone needs to live their own path. Thanks for sharing yours.
Oh my goodness the nerve of some people. We live in a double wide on 1.5 acres. I have raised bed gardens and grow quite a lot. I work 50+ hour weeks and that’s about all I have time to take care of. We don’t have livestock (not because I don’t want any), we seem to do just fine. Don’t le the negative nellies get you down, I don’t think you are.
My response to the house commenter would have been “I guess he should have married better, someone who could buy HIM the house HE deserves.
We are very much a team at our house, the way it should be.
Carry on as you see fit!
Thank you for another wonderful post. And shame on anyone who would judge a person on the type of home they lived in. How about just being a good person….
Thank you for this article. It is very inspiring! I am currently in an apartment complex. I have talked to my landlord and she is open to me having some raised flowerbeds. But it will be open to everyone (which I get, but I don’t trust that other will use non gmo, non chemical ect – food/ fertilizer). So My mom and I are starting a garden together this year on her property. This means commuting to her place to help with the gardening and canning and such. I am a member of your canning course and I love it! Thank you again for always being encouraging and uplifting!
Totally brilliant.
I use to live in a single wide in a mobile home park and homesteaded there. We grew all of our veggies for the year and even shared with our neighbors.
We now live on five acres, still in a single wide, growing all our veggies for the year, raising 24 hens, 2 Roos and four goats.
The land was so over grown so having the goats have helped us clear it. We built a shelter for the goats to get out of the weather and we gutted our old 28’ camper and use that as our chicken coop and hay storage for the goats.
We love to repurpose things and make them work for us. I love to see how others homestead you glean ideas from to see if it will work for us.
I’m glad there is no “right” way to homestead.
Hi Melissa,
I’m so sorry you had to field such a rude comment. After all, it’s the family and love inside the home that really count and nothing else. A true home cannot be bought.
Thank you for sharing all your wonderful ideas with us. For inspiring and encouraging us “to get out there.” And for presenting homesteading in a joyful way. Keep it coming!!!
Absolutely agree with everything that’s said here. Start where you are with what you have.
Melissa,
I just absolutely love you and want to be your best friend! ? I have gleaned (and continue to) SOOOO much helpful information from you! You are my go to and like my very own encyclopedia set for all the things I’m doing and want to do. ? Thank you so much for being willing to share all of your insights for those of us who value them and are steadily learning. ???
Oy, I am so sick of everyone bashing everyone. It seems like the norm these days and is why I’ve gotten off of social media. And how it that working for us “Americans”?
I’m glad you were able to move beyond her hurtful comments, as I’m sure you also realized that it’s usual about something in them and not about you.
I personally think the only way we are going to create a better world is through building each other up. By appreciating each others processes – even if they aren’t how you think it should have been done or looked, encouraging each other, and lifting each other up through the good and the bad. Especially the sisters! I am incredibly grateful to have found you and forever thank you for all that you share. Having come from farming, moved away from it and am now circling back and hoping to homestead again soon. Everything you do, share and have gives me hope that we’ll be doing the same very soon.
And for those who feel the need to bash each other, I’m sure there are many groups out there that you would fit well in. But for now, step aside so the rest of us can lift, encourage and raise each other and the energy up to create something new and amazing because your old ways just don’t work anymore.
Amen! Melissa, your a beautiful woman with so much to share. I wouldn’t care if you lived in a shed, I’d still love to hear your insight on all things! Loves!
Amen! Why read your (so very helpful) words if someone thinks you’re not doing it “right”? Move on. So glad you’re thick skinned enough to ignore haters! Thanks for passing on all your hard work advice!