Off Grid Mindset

Pros and Cons of Living Off Grid

People often ask me what it’s like living off grid. My short answer for this question is;

“Living off grid is a simple life, but it’s not easy.”

This is just my way of pointing out, like most things, There are pros and cons to living off grid. Here is the bullet list.

Pros

  • A certainty of self sufficiency
  • A more earth friendly lifestyle
  • Independence from infrastructures outside your control
  • immersion in nature
  • Generally less expensive land
  • Healthier living
  • Lower stress
  • Satisfaction of being self reliant
  • Low monthly living cost

cons

  • Less conveniences offered by modern society
  • Building energy, water, and waste systems can be expensive
  • Maintenance of these systems can be costly and tedious
  • Acclimation to conservation can be difficult for some people
  • There is always work to be done
  • Building your off grid homestead seems to never be finished

Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. This means offgridmaker.com could earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you, on the things you purchase.

The above bullet list is a sample of general Pros and Cons. Everyone who goes off grid does it in there own way and will therefore have their own specific Pros and Cons.

For example: someone who purchases their solar system and pays to have it installed will have a high cost which is a Con. Their system will be fully functional relatively quickly which is a Pro.

Someone who builds their energy system themselves from scratch or from salvaged materials will have a very low cost which is a Pro, but it will take a relatively long time for it to be fully functional which is a Con.

Your specific Pros and Cons will differ from the Pros and Cons of other people.

Mindset

I have found understanding Mindset to be much more useful than understanding Pros and Cons. It’s very important to foster certain mindsets such as patience, planning, pragmatism, and stoicism. I wrote a more detailed article about these mindsets “The Most Important Mindsets For Living Off Grid” Click the graphic below to read it.

Essential mindsets for living off grid
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Questions to ask yourself;

Do I enjoy learning new skills?

The more reliant you are on your own skills, the less you will have to spend money and resources having other people do things for you.

Am I comfortable doing hard work on a daily basis?

There are always things to do on an off grid homestead. Things always need fixing, building or maintaining.

Do I have the skills necessary for growing food or hunting food and preserving it for winter?

Food production and preservation is an important part of self sufficiency.

Am I able to push through discomfort?

There will always be uncomfortable situations in an off grid life.

Am I able to plan ahead?

It is very important to be able to plan ahead logistically when building an off grid homestead.

Can I practice patience when things aren’t happening as quickly as I like?

Things always take longer than you think they will.

Do I have or can I gain basic first-aid skills?

Most injuries on the homestead are minor in nature and can be taken care of with basic first-aid skills

Can I dedicate a large portion of my time to food, energy and shelter?

To become completely self sufficient will require large amounts of time devoted to food, energy and shelter.

Do I handle emergency situations with a cool head?

Living on the edge of society means in emergency situations when time is critical you have to be able to calmly asses the situation and make confident decisions.

The more questions you can answer yes to, The more suitable you are to an off grid lifestyle. There are many resources for learning the skills that are useful in an off grid lifestyle. If you would like to read my article about useful skills to practice now click image below

Important skills to practice on the road to an off grid life
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If you would like to read the article “8 Things You Can Do To Prepare To Move Off Grid” Click the image below.

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Off Grid Mindset

4 Skills for Off-Grid Life

In order to thrive off-grid you will need a certain set of skills to allow you a basic level of self-sufficiency. These skill sets can be learned by anyone and the information needed to learn them is abundant. I’m not saying you can’t live off-grid without these skills, but I am saying a basic level of self-sufficiency makes this lifestyle much more enjoyable. This list isn’t meant to be the end all be all list. To know yourself and know what you’re capable of is more important than anything on this list. The point of this article is to get you chasing useful knowledge. 

Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. This means offgridmaker.com could earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you, on the things you purchase.

First aid 

Accidents happen to everyone. Some are minor and some are serious. But when we’re talking about living an off-grid lifestyle it will typically mean more physical activities. More doing things rather than having someone else do things for you means more possibilities for an accident to occur. It’s not very self-sufficient If you have to go to someone else every time you have an injury. Most injuries aren’t serious enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room if have a solid understanding of basic first aid. You can even start learning more advanced skills like trauma first aid. How far you want to go with this topic is up to you, but at least an EMT Basic Technician level knowledge would be the first step. You don’t have to pay for a course to learn this stuff. Buy an EMT B text book and study it. Of course, YouTube videos are a great resource. 

Building skills 

There is always something on the homestead that needs to be built. You’ll need a new hen house or a wood shed. You might want to expand your rabbitry and need some new rabbit hutches. The point is there’s always something to be built or repaired. You’ll be able to do most of this yourself if you have a basic knowledge of building.  

The thing about building that makes it simple is that it’s really broken down into some fairly simple tools that require some fairly simple skills. 

A Tape measure

There are ways to build things without an actual tape measure, but you will have to have a way of measuring things somehow. The tape measure makes this part of the building process quick, simple and precise. Reading a tape measure is really simple once you know how. Reading a tape measure is really just an exercise in fractions. For those of you who are a bit intimidated by fractions just focus on the halves(1/2), the quarters(1/4), the eigths(1/8) and the sixteenths(1/16) The fractions with these denominators are the only ones you’ll need to worry about.

A saw

Whether your using a hand saw, electric saw or a cordless saw the basics are the same. Learn to use sight guides for cutting a straight line. Practice and get a feel for what makes for a smooth cut and what makes the blade bind up. 

A hammer

Driving nails can be really tricky and it’s just a matter of practicing. Don’t expect to be good at it until you’ve driven hundreds if not thousands of nails. It’s ok if you miss the nail or bend the nail a few times. No one is going to care if that raised bed you built has some bent nails or hammer dings in it, but you will certainly be thankful for your hammering skills when you’re eating fresh veggies.  

In construction there is a specific tool for every specific job and having the right tool for the job is a real time saver. Over time as you build more and more things and your skills improve you’ll want to invest in more tools. Just know starting out a great number of things can be built with just a tape measure, a hammer and a saw. 

Gardening 

The art of growing food can come easily to some while others struggle, but it’s a skill like any other. You’ll get better at it the more you do it. Gardening is an area where there is way more information than you need. It’s a lot of fun researching all the different ways to grow food, but at some point, it’s going to come down to a few things. 

Will it grow here? 

All foods have their preferences about what kind of soil they like, what kind of temperatures they like, how much water they like, how much sun they like and so on. Find out from the locals who’ve had gardens for a long time what things grow well in your area. Start with just a few of the most common foods that grow well locally before you go all out. 

How much space is available? 

Spend some time planning out the layout of your growing space. I remember when I first started trying to grow veggies, I wanted to grow everything, but I hadn’t prepared a space large enough to do that. When you start growing food for the first time it’s easy to get a little overzealous. Be conservative in the beginning. It’s better to realize you could’ve grown a little bigger garden than to realize you planted more than you can handle. 

How much time do I have? 

Once a garden is up and going and things are growing (especially the weeds) the amount of time it takes to maintain control of the garden is quite substantial. Be careful not to over estimate how much time you’re going to be able to commit to the challenge. Many books have been written about how to grow food with less human intervention because growing food without effort on our part is the holy grail of food production. There are techniques out there that are better than others. Permaculture, when it comes to growing food with less effort is the best option I’ve come across. 

The important thing to remember is that growing food isn’t easy at first, but just keep trying and keep learning. The day will come when you realize you’re pretty good at providing food for you and yours. 

Food preservation 

There are many ways to preserve food and you don’t have to be skilled at all of them, but being able to put some food back when you have extra is a skill that puts you near the top of the list of off-griders who’ve become self-sufficient. Here are a few of the basic ways to preserve food. 

Canning 

Canning food is a very reliable way to preserve food, but there are some specific things to know in order to get it right. There will be an investment into equipment and supplies upfront. For a new pressure canner and the supplies to get started you should plan to spend $100 to $150 USD. 

Dehydrating 

Dehydrating food can be done with electric dehydrators or solar dehydrators. You can even build a dehydrator yourself so the cost to get started can be minimal. Learn the techniques for dehydrating correctly and start preserving food. 

Curing meat 

This process is a little more involved, but if you plan on raising your own meat or hunting then you definitely want to invest some time into learning about this skill. To be able to harvest a large animal like a wild hog then preserve a couple hundred pounds of meat is an excellent example of self-sufficiency. 

Root cellars 

This is one of the simplest ways to preserve food. It really only works with root vegetables, but it can preserve them all through the winter into the next growing season. Root cellars can be as simple as a trash can buried in the ground or as elaborate as a cement structure that doubles as a storm shelter. This definitely something to look into if you plan to grow a lot of vegetables. 

Lastly, I’d like to say reading about skills and watching videos and digesting as much information as you can is a good thing, but many times we forget to physically practice the skill.  

I’m reminded of when we first moved to the Ozarks. It was November, we were living in a tent and it was the wettest winter we’ve experienced here to date. As you can imagine we needed fire to help stay warm, to cook meals, to have coffee, but the wood was soaked. No fear, I had devoured a ton of information about starting a fire with wet wood before we moved. The problem, I soon learned, was that I hadn’t practiced that skill. I had a learning curve to overcome in the middle of the situation that required the skill. Eventually I figured it out and after lighting fires with wet wood all winter I can now do it in my sleep. 

So, don’t forget that there’s a big difference between having the knowledge to do something and actually knowing how to do it. 

As stated earlier this isn’t meant to be an authoritative list. I hope while you read this article it spurred an interest to start educating yourself and begin developing some useful skills. The development of skills really is the best thing you can do if you want to live off-grid.  

For making it all the way to the end of the article I’m going to give you a great little tidbit.

One of my favorite resources is the foxfire book collection. This collection of books includes an encyclopedic amount of appalachian folk knowledge. The collection includes 12 books in all. Each book is a huge resource alone. You can buy them used individually or you can by the set of the latest reprint. These books are packed with knowledge and well worth the purchase. Below is an Amazon link so you can check current pricing

Check out my Recommended Books page to see some more of the books I think are beneficial in the pursuit of an off-grid lifestyle https://offgridmaker.com/recommended-books/

Please leave a comment about this topic or any other for that matter. I read and respond to every comment and use them to improve the content on this site. Thank you 

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Essential mindsets for living off grid
Off Grid Mindset

The Most Important Mindsets for Living Off-grid

I’ve said many times to people who ask me about living off-grid; living off-grid is a very simple way to live, but it isn’t easy. In large part, this statement is a reflection of the mental difficulties of living off-grid. This article will address what I believe to be the 6 most important mindsets for living off-grid. Most people will say these mindsets are important for anyone anywhere and I would agree, but in an off-grid situation, the importance of these mindsets is magnified and can be the difference between success and failure. Keep in mind this is in no way an exhaustive list nor is it meant to be the authority on the subject.  

 Just do it 

So many times we get ourselves bogged down in detail and trying to make sure we do things perfectly. At least that’s what we tell ourselves. Not starting something until we have it planned out perfectly is really just a fear of failure. When I plan a project, like building a gasoline-powered battery charger, I start with a rough idea in my head about how I’m going to build it. Then, I’ll begin building it and the design will always change as I move through the process. Sometimes when I’m done building a project it doesn’t do what I wanted it to do as well as I thought it would. At that point, I decide to accept it as is, rebuild it or abandon it and move on. 

Don’t waste energy worrying about a project that might fail. Spend all that energy trying it. If it does fail, don’t waste time beating yourself up over it. Learn from it and fix it or move on to the next project. 

Self-reliance 

In the consumer based world we live in today it’s normal to purchase all the things and services we need or want. This is a dependence on a system that is effectively outside the control of the individual. Avoiding a lengthy philosophical discussion here I will simply say this mentality is very close to a form of voluntary slavery. In an off-grid lifestyle, it is important to have an attitude that if I don’t do it for myself it isn’t going to happen.  

This mindset will inevitably push a person to pursue knowledge of all kinds. You can’t be self-reliant if you don’t know how to do anything for yourself. The self-reliant person says “ I don’t know how to do this, I’m going to figure out how.” The skill of learning how to learn new skills to become more self-reliant is one of the most valuable off-grid skills. Check out this article I wrote about 4 off-grid skills to start developing. https://offgridmaker.com/2019/05/16/4-skills-for-off-grid-life/

Complete self-reliance is an ideal and unachievable in its purest sense, but the pursuit of it will show a person what they’re capable of doing. What a person is capable of is always more than what they think they’re capable of. So go out there and chase self-reliance and find out what you’re capable of. 

 Self-motivation 

The ability to motivate yourself to do something is more valuable than knowing how to do something. If you know how to fix the drip at the faucet, but you never find the motivation to do it then knowing how to fix it has become irrelevant.  

Being self-motivated falls into the same category as self-reliance, where it’s possible for a person to be self-motivated but not be self-reliant. It’s not possible for a person to be self-reliant and not be self-motivated. There are always chores to be done. The homestead always has repairs that need attention. There’s always another structure that needs to be built. The list goes on and on and the only person that’s going to get these things done is you. There isn’t even anyone who’s going to make you do them so you need to get yourself motivated to do the things that have to be done.  

Here’s a great Podcast about living off grid and the mindsets for success.

Perseverance 

Living off-grid will produce failures, especially in the beginning. These failures will range from small like leaving the clothes on the line and letting them get rained on, to big like wiring the charge controller incorrectly and blowing the circuits. The key is to learn from the mistakes and move on. Determination is key to being successful. A failure isn’t an indication that you can’t do it, it’s an opportunity to learn a better way to do it. 

I built 3 different iterations of a wood-fired water heater before I built one that works well and I still want to build another one to improve the design. My wife and I have been living off-grid since 2013 and I still lack proficiency in cleaning and butchering animals. And there are countless other examples of how I need to make improvements to our homestead and the systems that make it off-grid. 

This is all part of the off-grid life. Perseverance is just keep’n on keep’n on. One of my favorite sayings that I can’t remember where it came from is “It ain’t no step for a stepper!”. Be the kind of person that just keeps taking that next step there won’t be any step you can’t take.  

Patience 

Building an off-grid homestead is a journey. You don’t decide on Saturday to go off-grid and then on Monday you’re off-grid. It’s a process that takes planning, working, sacrificing, timing and a multitude of other activities. Things are going to go wrong sometimes even horribly wrong. There will be times that you feel like you’re never going to get there or you may even wonder what you’re even doing it for.  

These are the times when you have to relax and remember that this is a simplistic lifestyle and worrying and stressing over things is a complicated activity. Be patient. If you make your plan and work your plan it will all come together and all you have to do is be patient. Don’t give up, because where you’re trying to get to may be right around the corner.  

Is and Aught 

Finally, we have what is and what ought to be. We have no control over what is right now. We may be able to affect what might be in a moment, a little while, tomorrow, next year or who knows, but right now was determined by past events and choices. What ought to be is an ideal that we can strive to achieve, but it isn’t what is. And just like the ideal of perfection I would argue that it isn’t even attainable. When we accept that what is has already been determined and let go of the judgment related to what ought to be, we can be much happier. When we understand that what ought to be is forever in the future, we can focus on living presently. This allows us to more effectively gauge where we are in relation to where we want to be and to plan a path to that place. 

Conclusion

As I said earlier these are useful mindsets for life generally speaking, but for the off-grid lifestyle, I feel they are essential to your long-term success. So, here it is. 

  • Make a plan. Don’t waste energy on perfection. Just do it 
  • Rely on yourself to do it. 
  • Motivate yourself to do it. 
  • Don’t give up. 
  • Let patience show the fruits of your labor. 
  • What is, is. Don’t waste time on what ought to be. Work on changing what will be tomorrow.
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