There is a growing trend among young families in the US towards a more self-reliable lifestyle and that lifestyle begins with the home.
There are quite a lot of things one can do in their home in order to make more reliant on its own resources – like growing your own vegetables in the garden, using scraps of food to make compost and even reusing the waste of the home for bathroom use.
What is self-reliance and is it easy to achieve
For a lot of people, life revolves around owning things, buying things, getting things – they become absorbed by the notion that physical possession is the key to solving your problems.
However, there is a quiet movement away from big cities and back into nature which aspires for a more clean lifestyle, one that is not without comforts, but is more focused on minimalism.
While this move from current life and location can be quite a shock to the system, there are some things that you can do in your current location that will make your life cleaner and better.
Something that we all have started doing is recycling – using some things from the waste you do not need, like the scraps of organic matter for the garden, will yield quite a lot of positives for the your self-reliance.
Solar energy
Something that people going off-grid do is rely on solar energy, they install panels according to their current needs and draw power from the sun rather than rely on the power grid of the country.
This can be achieved with a good consideration of location, altitiude and the consumption of power for the household.
This way, the people who seek a more close-to-nature-life not only remove toxic behaviours like being glued to the TV or monitor, but also reduce power usage. Even though this can be quite shocking at first, you will free a lot of your time for other, more important things like enjoying your family or being out in nature.
Solar energy can be applied to houses and even apartments, though in a much smaller scale – using it to power the air conditioning or small lights on the balcony, for example.
Using fewer resources
The idea behind a more self-reliant lifestyle is the usage of fewer resources, cutting down on the reliance of retail stores and reducing pollution and consumption of processed foods.
There is quite a lot of wisdom in the choice these families make and there is a lot that we can do to achieve something similar in our own homes.
