5 beginner homesteader mistakes to avoid

Homesteading is an amazing lifestyle, but there are some big mistakes that can really set you back, especially in your first few years.

These mistakes can cost you a lot of time and money, and sometimes even give you a few gray hairs from all the stress… (or a lot for that matter).

Over the past two years, my family and I have been working on transforming a raw piece of land into a productive, and hopefully, a future self-sufficient homestead.

Before this, we ran a successful no-dig market garden in France for five years, and before that, in our first years, we tried starting a homestead, that failed miserably.

During this time, I've made just about every mistake in the book, and I know firsthand how frustrating and costly they can be.

One of the challenges of starting out in homesteading is that mistakes aren't just minor setbacks.

They can literally mean losing months or even years of hard work.

I wish I had someone back then to tell me about these mistakes, so I could have saved myself years of trial and error and set up our homestead for success right from the start.

So, in this article, I'll explain the five biggest mistakes new homesteaders make, why they happen, and what you can do to avoid them.

And with that in mind, let’s get right into it.

Mistake 1: Starting without Clarity

In 2016, or 2017, after my partner, and I, came back from our overseas travel to a variety of countries, where we worked on many different types of farms, and we got introduced to Permaculture, we knew that we wanted to create a lifestyle closer to nature, where we could grow our own food, raise our children, and live a simple lifestyle.

So, when we got the opportunity to buy a small piece of land on the edge of a forest in a small town in France, we were super excited.

We had just learned about food forests, self-sufficiency, gardening, and raising animals, and all the great things this life could potentially offer.

So, in our excitement, we wanted to have it all.

Without truly knowing what we were getting into, we started implementing everything we had learned.

We planted a food forest, set up a vegetable garden, got a few chickens, and even built a small pond.

We were doing a bit of everything without a clear vision or a step-by-step plan.

As a result, as you can imagine, our efforts were all over the place.

We were stretched thin, trying to manage all these different projects, and it felt like we were constantly putting out fires instead of building the lifestyle we had in mind.

This lack of clarity cost us a lot of valuable time, energy, and resources.

Instead of creating a productive homestead, we ended up with a lot of half-finished projects and quite a bit of frustration.

After doing that for a while, we decided that we couldn’t continue on the same path, and it was time for us to turn things around.

And this is where a vision comes into place.

What I’ve come to learn is that before you dive into homesteading, or any project for that matter, you need to take the time to gain clarity on your goals.

You need to ask yourself what it is, that you’re truly trying to achieve.

Is it to grow your own food, live a simpler life, maybe raise some animals, or even a combination of all of them?

Once you truly know this, you can then create a detailed plan where you can prioritize your goals, and break them down into smaller, more manageable steps.

That’s exactly what we started doing after we decided to move on from our first failed attempt, which eventually led us to build out our market garden, and then later on, build a brand-new homestead here in Portugal.

Once we started to approach our projects with clarity, everything down the road became much easier.

Once we had developed a vision, we were now able to break this vision down into elements we needed to install to realize our vision, which we could then break down into individual steps, that allowed us to work step by step to realizing what we were trying to achieve.

It allowed us to see exactly where to put our efforts, what to invest in and not, and how to effectively manage our time and resources.

This clarity not only reduced our stress but also made our journey much more realistic, enjoyable, and productive, all at the same time.

But even with a clear vision, it’s easy to get carried away and try to do too much at once.

And this brings us to the next mistake most beginners make.

Mistake 2: Taking on Too Much at Once

Once you have a clear vision, or even if you start without one (like we did), it’s very tempting to dive into multiple projects simultaneously.

While enthusiasm and motivation are great and needed, spreading yourself too thin can quickly lead to burnout and unfinished projects.

Imagine you’re trying to set up a vegetable garden and a food forest, build a chicken coop, and install an irrigation system, all at the same time.

Each of these projects requires time, planning, and resources.

Unless you already have the skills to do all of this, and you’re great at time and resource management, by trying to do too many tasks, you have a very high risk of not completing any of them effectively.

This will result in overwhelming and frustrating yourself, as progress seems slow and all over the place.

The excitement you once had can quickly turn into the stress of managing too many responsibilities.

So, if you are a beginner just getting started on this journey, I highly recommend you focus on one project at a time.

Make sure to prioritize tasks based on your goals and current needs.

For example, you can start with a small vegetable garden before you build a chicken coop or start any other project.

Once you start to approach installing your homestead like this, and you complete one task before moving on to the next, you can make sure that the effort and resources you put into it, will deliver quality work.

This is what’s going to boost your confidence and will keep you motivated in the long run.

Taking on too much at once, also often leads to underestimating the time commitment required for each task.

And this is the next mistake many beginners overlook.

Mistake 3: Underestimating Time Commitment

Homesteading can be a time-intensive lifestyle.

Many new homesteaders underestimate the daily, weekly, and seasonal time commitments required to maintain a productive homestead.

Especially if, alongside building out a homestead, you work a full-time job, have a family to take care of, and occasionally want to have some time for hobbies or simply some downtime.

It’s easy to constantly feel behind on schedule.

We’ve all been there, planning a nice relaxing afternoon in the garden, but instead, you find yourself rushing to complete tasks.

This mistake can cause you to neglect important chores, which can affect the overall productivity of your homestead, and it can also start to affect your own sanity.

Over time, the stress of constantly trying to catch up will take away the joy of homesteading and will make it feel more like a burden than a rewarding lifestyle.

Now, fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Once again, it all comes down to clarity and planning.

Before you dive into the daily tasks, take a step back and create a realistic schedule that fits your life.

Start by listing out all the regular chores and seasonal projects you need to accomplish, and be honest about the time each task requires and how much time you can realistically dedicate each day and week.

Also, think about downsizing some of the projects in the beginning.

Instead of starting with a large garden, begin with a smaller, more manageable plot.

You can always expand later as you become more comfortable with the workload.

And if you find certain tasks overwhelming, consider outsourcing them, or getting someone to help you.

For example, you could hire help for building structures or setting up irrigation systems.

This allows you to focus on the tasks you enjoy or that are simply more manageable for you.

One thing we like to do on our homestead is automate as much as possible.

For example, we set up an automated timer to irrigate our gardens, which saves us literally hours each day, yet our plants get consistent watering without the daily hassle.

We also set up an automated door on our chicken coop, that opens and closes based on sunlight.

Although we still need to automate their watering and feeding, combining all of these smaller tasks can save you hours each day with appropriate and inexpensive technology.

Homesteading should improve your life, not take it over (which by the way, I’ve written an entire article about here).

Developing a clear and manageable schedule, and installing simple systems and automation, will help you stay organized so that essential tasks can be completed without you feeling overwhelmed.

Alongside time management, managing your financial resources wisely is equally, if not more important.

Many beginners make the mistake of overextending their financial resources, including ourselves in the beginning, which is the next mistake.

Mistake 4: Stretching Your Budget Too Thin

Starting a homestead can be extremely expensive, and definitely in the beginning when you’re just starting out, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and end up spending more money than you initially planned.

We made this mistake too.

This relates back to the first two mistakes of not having full clarity, and taking on too much at once.

In the beginning, you might feel the urge to have it all.

You buy tons of trees, and huge piles of compost, and when you’re going to the garden center, before you know it, your car is full with things that weren’t on your list.

Very quickly, you’ve blown through your budget, and the stress of financial pressure starts to overshadow the joy of building your homestead.

We’ve probably all been there: dreaming of a perfect homestead with all the bells and whistles.

But the reality is, this approach can quickly drain your budget.

Once that happens, you might find yourself cutting corners on essential items or pausing projects simply because funds have run dry.

This will slow you down and make it hard to keep the momentum going.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way, and just as with the previous mistakes, the key is to start small and prioritize your spending.

In the beginning, you really need to focus on the essentials first and build up gradually from there.

That’s why on our homestead right now, you don’t see us installing many new projects, other than maintaining what we have and installing a few smaller ones.

We now have our first small veggie garden and poultry system in place, which provides us with a lot of food.

We’ve done major earthworks and planted a huge amount of trees.

They take quite a bit of time to mature, but at least they’re in the ground and will provide us with an abundance of food in the future.

We’re completely self-sufficient in water and energy with the systems we’ve put in place.

And now that our basic needs are pretty much secured, our next step is to build a comfortable home, which is what we’re saving up for.

But believe me, I would love to expand our gardens, build another massive swale with food forests, and build another huge pond.

We’d love to have some goats and add an additional large water tank on the top of our property.

The reality is, if you don’t have the funds yet, you need to take it one step at a time, as hard or frustrating that may be.

The last thing you want is to spread your budget too thin and end up unable to finish any of your projects.

This will only lead to more frustration and stress, and it will make it difficult to see the progress you’re working so hard to achieve.

The 5 years of commercial farming we’ve done, really has helped us gain a much stronger financial understanding of how to approach all of these projects.

Most of it comes down to creating a simple financial plan.

If you want to avoid stretching your budget too thin, list out all the essential items and projects you need to get started, and prioritize them based on your immediate needs and long-term goals.

Once you’ve done that, simply stick to your budget and avoid impulse purchases that can quickly add up.

This approach will keep your finances in check and will actually allow you to enjoy the journey without unnecessary stress.

Combining all of these mistakes brings us to the last one.

Mistake 5: Starting without a Plan

Although we’ve briefly covered some of the parts of a plan in the previous mistakes, there’s a simple 4-phased process, that I’ve found to be extremely helpful for starting a homestead.

This is the exact method we used to first develop our market garden, and it’s also the approach we now take with developing this homestead.

Essentially, we can break down starting a homestead into four distinct phases.

Five if you also count the actual implementation itself.

Following this process will give you all the clarity and confidence you need to actually go for it and start your homestead.

The process is as follows.

In the first phase, which we briefly covered partly in the first mistake, we need to build the foundation.

The foundation is broken down into three distinct steps:

1. The first step is all about gaining clarity, where you write down your vision and get clear on what exactly it is you’re trying to achieve.

2. Once you have that in place, in the second step, you can now break that vision down into individual components you’ll need to install, to realize that vision (components are things like veggie gardens, food forests, buildings, and so on).

3. Once you’ve done that, in the third step, you need to do what I like to call a homestead readiness check.

Here you need to closely look at all the resources you have available.

This includes the amount of time you can realistically spend per week, your finances and your physical resources like land and vehicles.

Here we’ll also consider your connections or the people who could potentially help you with your homestead.

Lastly, we do a skill assessment.

This readiness check will provide you with all the information you need to see exactly where you stand on this journey.

This way, you can create a plan to fill any gaps or limitations that will ultimately allow you to reach your goals.

That’s phase 1.

Once you have this foundation in place, in phase 2, you need to get a better understanding of the land you’re working with.

(If you don’t own land yet, you’ll first have to get one, and then follow this process)

In this second phase, essentially, what you’re trying to do is get the best possible overview of all the strengths and limitations your land has.

In Permaculture, we call this a site analysis and assessment.

This is where you need to closely look at things like the climate, history of your land, the shape of the land, the orientation, potential threats or pollution, wildlife habits, and a ton of other things.

At this stage, our goal is to figure out the ins and outs of our land.

In this article, I go deeper into this.

This way, you can come up with a realistic design for your land, that takes into consideration what you’re trying to achieve, and base it on the opportunities and limitations of the land you’re working with.

Which is the third phase.

Now that you know what you want to achieve, and you’ve verified that your land can support your vision, you need to create a design for your homestead.

This is where you’re going to take all the elements you wish to install and follow a specific step-by-step approach, where you’re going to decide where to place each of them and design your landscape from large-scale patterns, all the way down to the finer details.

In this video I go a little bit deeper into this subject:

Once the design is in place, in the fourth phase, we need to create a step-by-step implementation plan.

In this phase, you’re going to take the design you’ve created and break it down into a realistic and doable implementation plan, based on how urgent or important the individual projects are to the functioning of your homestead.

Also, here we follow a very specific approach, where we take the most important elements first, and finish with the least important.

It’s much like building a house.

You wouldn’t start with the roof, before you’ve built the foundation.

The same goes for your homestead.

You don’t want to create a garden before you’ve installed a water system.

Or you don’t want to have chickens before you’ve installed a fence.

You get the point.

Then once you’ve developed this plan, in what’s essentially the fifth phase, you start to install the individual elements one step at a time.

This is how you take a complex project, like building a homestead, and break it down into a doable and realistic journey that is based on your vision, your unique land, and based on the amount of time, energy, and resources you have available.

And I go in-depth on this in Abundance by Design.

Without a plan like this, starting a homestead becomes extremely overwhelming and chaotic.

It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day tasks without making meaningful progress toward your long-term goals.

I hope that by addressing these common mistakes, you can shave years of trial and error off your journey and avoid wasting valuable time and resources.

Thank you for reading this article.

I hope it was helpful.

Till next time,

Moreno

Whenever you're ready, and if it's the right fit, here are 4 ways I can help you:

1. Join Abundance by Design: Abundance by Design teaches you exactly how to plan, design, and start your homestead in 2 weeks or less using Permaculture. Learn how to achieve a level of self-sufficiency that gives you peace of mind, along with a well-structured plan that lays out the 'do this, then that' to get your homestead up and running smoothly.

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