Find out how you can become self-sufficient. Learn to provide for your own needs, and what skills are needed for a self-reliant life.
One of the biggest goals of most modern homesteaders is to become self-sufficient. According to Merriam-Webster, self-sufficiency is the ability to maintain oneself without outside aid : capability of providing for one’s own needs.
With all that’s going on in our world right now, more and more people are wishing they were more self-sufficient, and trying to figure out how to become so. Becoming more self-sufficient is a laudable goal, but is it realistic?
Definitely!
So how does a person become self-reliant?
The first, most important thing is understanding that self-sufficiency isn’t a goal that is attained overnight. It is a conglomeration of many skills, and will likely take some time to gain.
What skills are needed to become self-sufficient?
- Gardening
- Composting
- Cooking from scratch
- Canning and preserving
- Learning to keep a well stocked pantry
- Raising animals, including basic veterinarian care and butchering
- Basic first-aid and herbal remedies
- Fiber arts (knitting/crocheting and sewing)
- Carpentry
- Bee keeping
- Soap making
- Alternative heating methods
- And more
There are so many skills that go into becoming self-sufficient. They can’t all be mastered today, or even this year, so pick one and really dig into it until you’ve become proficient.
If you attempt to become self-sufficient in all areas all at once, you’re setting yourself up for failure, so don’t do that. Choose one, and learn the ins and outs of it, then move on to another.
When learning new skills, you’re going to get dirty, and you’re going to have failures, but the sense of accomplishment when you master a skill makes it all worth it!
What skill is most important in becoming self-sufficient?
The most important skill to becoming self-reliant is the next one. And after you’ve mastered that, the next one and the next one.
That might sound like a cop-out answer, but it’s true. There is no most important skill to learn as a homesteader. The most important thing is that you are continually learning, continually reading, continually reaching out to others for mentorship.
Many people start out with learning to cook from scratch and bake bread (here’s an easy bread recipe), maintain a well stocked pantry, or garden. However, that doesn’t have to be your starting point. As you read through the list, if there was something that stood out to you, something that piqued your interest, start there. If your heart is in it, it will be easier to learn.
Chances of you becoming completely self-sufficient are slim, but that doesn’t need to be disappointing. Even Pa in Little House on the Prairie had to go to town occasionally to get sugar, salt, flour and nails (among other items). But even if you can’t be 100% self-sufficient, you can be more self-reliant tomorrow than you are today, and even more so with each passing day.
By learning more and more skills, and becoming more and more self-reliant, we can lessen our reliance on grocery stores, as well as lowering our cost of living.
So which skills have you mastered? And which one are you working on right now? Are there other skills you would add to this list? Drop me a comment below– I read every single one, and love hearing from you!
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