9+ Smart Ways to Start Apartment Homesteading Today [Self-Sufficient Urban Living]

We’re sharing the best ways to start apartment homesteading so you can become more self-sufficient in nearly any city or state. Because maybe you feel stuck in an urban zone and wish you lived closer to nature – or you want more privacy and an organic lifestyle.

Either way, you’re not alone. Globally, city life is quite prevalent.

About two-thirds of the world’s population lives in urban areas. And about half of Earth’s residents live on just one percent of its land mass.

I think that’s insane!

But it’s true.

Apartment homesteading while growing plants.

So, until you can drop out of the urban rat race and move permanently to the country, there are still plenty of ways you can start apartment homesteading right away!

Becoming an apartment homesteader is a rapidly expanding international movement. More and more people are implementing ways of becoming more self-sufficient in their urban homes.

People recognize that controlling, or partially controlling, their food supplies is imperative for long-term health and wellness. Plus, it’s also a big money saver – something important to everyone.

So, please join me as we learn simple but genius ways to start apartment homesteading TODAY.

I have a feeling this is going to be loads of fun!

Today’s Homesteading Mindset

Smart Ways to Start Apartment Homesteading Today [Self-Sufficient Urban Living]

Whether you live in an efficient apartment in New York City or on 1,000 acres of land in Bolivia, homesteading is a philosophy, not a location.

Homesteading is a way of life, a system of living more simply to achieve optimal levels of self-reliance while gelling as harmoniously as possible with nature.

Sure, there are numerous things you can do to start your apartment homesteading journey, and we will get into it shortly.

However, your homesteading practice all begins in your mind.

So, if you choose to be a homesteader right now? Then that’s what you are!

Congrats!

Now, let’s take a quick look at some of the little-known benefits of your new, more sustainable, thriftier, healthier, and more contented lifestyle.

Here’s our idea of apartment homesteading! It’s living in self-sufficient harmony while making the most of your indoor space. An increasingly natural and sustainable lifestyle is something you can attain no matter where you live – whether in an apartment, condo, or small cabin in the woods. You don’t need backyard chickens, a bustling food forest, or a massive acreage. You can always start small. All you need is a tiny mindset shift that can help make a monumental transformation in your life. And we’re honored to help you make the first step in your journey. Here’s how!

Benefits of Apartment Homesteading

studio apartment with bright green plants growing in pots

Apartment homesteading is all about increasing the simplicity of your lifestyle, improving your health, decreasing your stress, and redefining your core living principles. Expanded well-being and extra money are good!

As a homesteader, you will likely experience various noticeable benefits, including:

Developing a deeper connection with nature
Rediscovering your sense of what wealth means
Learning how much of anything is actually enough
Decreasing the toxicity in your body and enhancing your physical condition

Let’s dive in and explore each of these advantages deeper.

Developing a Richer Connection With Nature

Even if your family has lived in the city for 15 generations, it hasn’t always been that way. When humans emerged through evolution on this planet, there were no cities. We all originated in nature.

Apartment homesteading can help you to get back in touch with your primal self, allowing you to rediscover the core beauty of simplicity, safety, and not being hungry or thirsty.

One 3-foot window sill planter growing bean sprouts and micro-greens can add a potent element of nature to everything in your apartment.

Especially in the middle of a concrete jungle where you may not have seen a fruit tree growing for years, clean air, pure water, edible and ornamental plants, sunshine, and a fresh attitude are priceless!

How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round | Kim Roman

Rediscovering Your Sense of What Wealth Truly Means

Self-sufficiency is a core homesteading concept. Be it in an apartment or the deep wilderness. All types of homesteaders often choose to:

Use medicinal plants instead of running to the doctor every week
Significantly cut back on mass-consumed goods
Grow, preserve, and store their foods
Work from home as much as possible
Produce some of their energy
Use Earth-friendlier products

Initiating these and other similar sustainable acts in your life will make you see how much most people value everything only in monetary terms. But is that really where value lives?

Learning How Much of Anything Is Actually Enough

homemade salsa made from tomatoes peppers and onions resting in jars

Apartment homesteading in 2024 has much to do with basing life differently than the masses do. Where so many seem to believe that more is better and that they should get as much of everything as they possibly can, homesteaders do not.

How much materialistic accumulation is enough? How much growth is desirable? How much precious energy should you dedicate to non-sustainable actions and goals?

The apartment homesteading mentality will help you more clearly see what’s worth your time, money, and energy – and what’s not. Some people call that wisdom.

Part of apartment homesteading is becoming more self-reliant and less wasteful. It means you must never waste food like leftover vegetable scraps! Whenever we have leftover peppers, tomatoes, and onions, we try different homemade salsa recipes we find online, so we can store them long-term. We also studied the art and science of canning so that we don’t make any greenhorn mistakes when preserving food. (Canning is surprisingly tricky! It’s also a priceless skill for all apartment homesteaders. And worth studying!)

Decreasing the Toxicity In Your Body and Improving Overall Health

So many people suffer daily from a lack of sunshine, exercise, proper hydration, attentive breathing, and nutritious foods that contain natural antioxidants.

Plus, every person alive is affected, every day, by numerous poisons, like:

Smog
Processed foods
Environmental toxins
Noxious cleaning supplies
Prescription medications
Black market medications
Impure domestic water supply

As an apartment homesteader, you’ll be more mindful of the toxins you come into contact with or ingest into your body. Your self-sufficient mindset will focus more on connecting with nature, eating food that empowers you, and seeing through the unnecessary things you don’t need.

5 Smart Ways to Become an Apartment Homesteader Starting NOW

OK! We are ready to learn about five things you can do to begin the process of becoming an apartment homesteader right now. Yeah us!

Let’s not waste any time.

Let’s go!

Develop Your Cooking Skills

family cooking fresh chopped veggies and food in their kitchen

It’s easy to grab some fast food in the city. Or go and sit down at a nice restaurant. However, fast processed food is unhealthy for your cells, and the restaurant is probably hard on your wallet.

The solution is easy. Start experimenting with cooking! It allows you to control your ingredients and portion sizes. Plus, it saves you a lot of money. A definite Win-Win!

I have enjoyed cooking most of my life. And I look forward to preparing home-cooked, nutritious meals for my family almost every night. And we love making fresh homemade pizza!

My current endeavor is baking fresh loaves of bread. I’ve been working on that for about two years now. And I’m getting pretty good. It’s a lot of fun! And I can make a loaf of healthy gluten-free bread for less than a buck!

When you cook your foods at home, you can focus on healthy ingredients like organic produce and herbs. We also love other naturally organic, unprocessed food sources. Also, you significantly cut back on food waste, which is always a plus.

We make bread, sour kraut, pickled eggs, cheese, yogurt – and my fave, BEER! There are simple recipes for all these and more.

You can also control the kitchen staples many homesteaders use excessively – like white sugar, salt, and flour. Plus, you can add vitality-enhancing spices – like turmeric, ginger, garlic, black pepper, and cayenne.

Delicious!

I could go on and on about the importance and thriftiness of cooking your food. It’s one of the most critical components of my lifestyle, and it just makes so much sense in every way possible.

Suburban homesteading is more straightforward than many of our friends believe. It’s a self-reliant mentality that starts at home – with your family! And you can start today – you don’t need anybody’s permission. Challenge your loved ones to put their phones and tablets down and enjoy a home-cooked meal with you. We bet the food will taste much better when you minimize all distractions. And contrary to popular belief, eating healthy on a budget is within reach – especially if you live in an urban area with loads of fresh produce markets.

Read More – 18 Best Homesteading Books for Beginners!

Preserve Food In Your Apartment Building

You can preserve the foods you grow and buy in bulk when on sale by canning, dehydrating, or freezing them. Let’s take a quick look at how each type of food preservation might fit into your apartment homesteading lifestyle.

Canning

Canning is one of the most effective traditional methods for storing food. You only need some proper jars, self-sealing lids, and a large pot for boiling water, and you’re in there. In just a bit of closet space, you can store away dozens of jars filled with homemade pickles, marinara, beans, corn, applesauce, jelly, and so much more! You can even cook meats and store them for years!

Dehydrating

Slowly removing moisture from fruits, vegetables, herbs, and meats in a food dehydrator allows you to store them away for years. You can reconstitute them when you want. Or munch them dry. Delightful! You can purchase a new food dehydrator for less than $50. Or you can spend more on a larger, feature-loaded unit. Either will allow you to progress on your apartment homesteading journey.

Freezing

Nothing beats an old-fashioned chest freezer for storing foods safely for a long time. I like to freeze all types of foods in BPA-free freezer storage bags. I put the food in, zip the opening closed almost all the way, put a straw in the bag, suck out all the air, and then zip it shut super-fast while extracting the straw. Homemade shrink wrapper! It works like a charm and keeps the food from developing ice crystals.

The New Prepper's Survival Bible: 13 Books In 1 | Joseph D. Connelly

Start an Apartment Garden for Fresh Food

lettuce and tomato plants growing in garden bed on apartment balcony

Container gardening is a valuable skill. Don’t you love it when you spot a balcony with vibrant plants growing in the middle of a drab concrete city? I surely do. Ornamental plants and vegetable gardens add exciting energy to any view!

There are loads of plants that grow very well in planters and pots. Use your window sills, floor space, deck, balcony, and any available space to grow fresh herbs and plants for eating and ambiance. I love my herb garden as much as my fresh vegetables!

Also, explore the modern options for hydroponic gardening. Various manufacturers cater to the apartment homesteading niche because of its recent popularity.

You’re sure to find the perfect products for cultivating food stockpiles in your apartment, no matter how small it is. Apartment gardening or starting a balcony garden improves health, reduces stress, and saves money. No farm machinery is needed!

Want a sustainable urban lifestyle? Add more plants to your living space! Container gardening is the perfect skillset for apartment homesteaders. You can grow vibrant and oxygen-producing plants in pots – without needing a luxuriant outdoor garden. You can also grow food! (Our favorite option is probably growing tomatoes in pots.) We also think herbs, celery, pineapples, peppers, and kale are excellent pot and container candidates. All you need is a humble outdoor space like a balcony, stoop, deck, porch, and sunlight. If not – you can always supplement sunlight with artificial indoor lighting. (Some lovely greenery like cacti, basil, ferns, and spider plants also grow indoors without fuss.)

Head to the Country for Fresh Meats and More

three fresh and juicy steaks from the local butcher

Make it a point to get out of the city occasionally. Take a trip to the country and visit some farmer’s markets. Buy some fresh produce. Stock up on good deals, then take them home and dehydrate, can, or freeze them.

Also, research nearby community gardens and see about getting involved. Glyphosphate-free veggies, fruits, and herbs are vital for maintaining health and vitality.

And while you’re backwoods cruising, keep your eyes peeled for country-sized deals on chickens and meat rabbits, eggs, milk, cheese, nut butter, olive oil, honey, cherry tomatoes, maple syrup, jams and jellies, and other farm-fresh goodies. I don’t know about you, but food from the farm always tastes so much better to me.

Delectable!

What’s a healthy way to start apartment homesteading from scratch? Take control of your diet – and cut out all the processed junk! Unsure where to begin? Try growing organic potted tomatoes, herbs, and green onions on your balcony. Or, visit your local organic butcher to see what prime cuts they have on special this week. Sure. Cooking fresh meals takes more work. But it’s healthier, far more delicious, and an excellent hobby for aspiring apartment homesteaders worldwide. (And don’t let food prices stop you from eating healthy. Here are some helpful tips for eating healthy on a budget.)

Other Ways to Simplify Life as an Urban Homesteader

While procuring, preparing, preserving, and storing food is one of the wisest apartment homesteading ideas, there are loads of other aspects of homesteading you can engage in to deepen the experience, like:

Use essential oils to make natural cleaning products like dish soap, laundry soap, cleaning supplies, & beauty products
Save your organic food scraps (like coffee grounds) and start an apartment-sized composting bin
Use a clothesline to dry your clothing instead of an electric or gas dryer to save on utility bills
Ride a bike to work or the store instead of driving or taking the bus
Spend more time meditating and less time plugged into the world
Install a mini solar panel system to keep small items charged
Witness how other people live wastefully and unhealthily
Maintain a mindset of repurposing homestead gear and household items when possible
Research and join an online homesteading community
Use distilled water for drinking and cooking
Utilize a tap water purifier
Don’t be afraid of the natural sunshine!

Also, it’s vital as a homesteader to take responsibility for your health, even if you live in a limited space. You don’t need a big plot of land. Your urban setting is just fine!

Make today the day you begin that exercise program you’ve been neglecting! Start drinking more clean water, meditating, enjoying more natural light, and maybe even initiating intermittent fasting into your daily schedule. Don’t allow living in a city apartment to stop you!

We encourage all homesteaders to drink more water – and less sugary, processed drinks. But one hurdle apartment homesteaders face is the lack of fresh, natural drinking water! Unfortunately, we’ve encountered too many stories of lead contamination in US public water. We’ve also read several recent reports of nasty forever chemicals in US drinking water. To make things worse – PBS also wrote that even if your water has a passing grade – that doesn’t mean it’s safe! We’re trying to help by sharing an excellent guide teaching six cheap and free ways to dechlorinate tap water. Our article also shares a few tap water filtering tips perfect for apartment and urban homesteaders. (We can’t end America’s drinking water crisis by ourselves. But we hope our humble guide helps new or aspiring apartment homesteaders who need clean water.)

Closing Thoughts About Becoming an Apartment Homesteader In 2024

For billions of people worldwide, the typical city dweller’s daily life includes waking up, rushing off to work, eating out at least a couple of times a day, rushing to get back home, turning on the television, and watching the world implode, eating some more food, sleeping, and getting up to repeat the process.

Becoming an apartment homesteader changes a lot of that. Sure. You may still have to go back and forth to work, but you don’t have to do it as everybody else does. You can recognize your unique homesteading dreams wherever you live.

Lessen your carbon footprint by bike riding back and forth to work instead of taking the city bus. Take your homemade healthy food for the day with you instead of paying several times a day for unhealthy food that will eventually make you sick.

When you come home, engage in activities like tending your garden, exercising, and enjoying a delicious water-rich meal. Enjoy nature and an outdoor life instead of flopping down on the couch, watching the nonstop insanity on television, and munching on potato chips with soda pop.

Maybe, someday, the trend will be for the masses to return to old-fashioned homesteads, rural living, and a natural lifestyle. But for now, that’s not the case. However, living in the city doesn’t force you to think inside a box. You can develop any homesteading skills you choose as long as they’re ethical and moral.

Urban homesteading is pretty awesome! So, begin today to forge a new, more sustainable, in-touch-with-nature, healthy, and happy lifestyle. It’s simple and fast to start by making changes, like planting seeds in the dirt. Start small. That’s always an excellent beginning!