With rising inflation and rampant social unrest, many Americans are considering how to start living an off-grid lifestyle. For those who don’t know, an off-grid lifestyle means that your home doesn’t use public utilities such as the electric grid, gas lines, or running water. Instead, you will live off the land you own and typically grow your own food to sustain yourself.
Some of the reasons people might want to live off-grid include being self-reliant, increased privacy, and saving money. Regardless of your reasons, here are some helpful tips for beginning an off-grid lifestyle.
Pick the Best Location Possible
As with anything related to real estate, the most important thing is “location, location, location.” When you’re going off-grid, you want to make sure that the weather is tame, the soil is fertile, and you can handle any of the nearby wildlife.
If you live in an area that experiences droughts, you won’t be able to collect rain, so you will have to drive to a store to grab water. Although you can go off-grid anywhere, you may want to move to a more suitable area for this lifestyle.
Learn How To Grow Your Own Food
One of the main reasons people want to live off-grid is to quit their 9-to-5 jobs and live off the land. If this is the case for you, then you must learn how to grow your food so that you can support yourself.
As far as vegetables go, those will be the easiest crops to grow. But you should know about dwarf fruit trees as well because they can grow delicious fruit such as apples without taking up as much space in your garden. In addition, you might want to consider tending to livestock if you want to enjoy eggs, meat, and dairy. Otherwise, you might want to live near a body of water so you can go fishing once in a while.
Use Multiple Sources of Power
Going off-grid means that you will have to sacrifice some of the conveniences that come with an urban lifestyle. However, you can still use electricity in a limited capacity. You just have to get more creative with how you use it.
You will want to use multiple sources of power in your off-grid home, such as wind, solar, and hydropower, in case one of your power supplies fails. As a backup, you can use a generator that runs on gasoline, but you would need to drive to the store to replenish it after you use it. Nonetheless, solar power is generally a reliable power source, and issues related to reliability are one of the more common misconceptions about switching to solar energy.
Overall, switching to an off-grid lifestyle is a dream for many, but you must first learn how to do it properly. Now that you know a few tips for beginning an off-grid lifestyle, you can start living a life of wanderlust without a hitch.