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Embrace Farm Life in the City With an Urban Homestead

Homesteading celebrates the art of self-sufficiency through growing your own food and living close to the land. While traditional homesteaders often manage larger rural properties, urban homesteading brings these sustainable practices to city life, blending home food production with modern conveniences. At its heart, homesteading teaches people to work with nature rather than against it.

Whether you’re tending a backyard garden or maintaining a city balcony filled with edible plants, homesteading empowers you to reduce your environmental impact while fostering a deeper connection to the natural world. If you’re curious about starting your own urban homesteading journey, we’ve put together some practical steps to begin.

Homemade Everything

Image Credit: Shutterstock.

The first thing to embrace to become an urban homesteader is the mindset of making everything at home. Being in an urban environment and not having direct access to land (or a garage, for that matter) can make this difficult.

For the right aesthetic, you need to transform your home into a hub with enough space to make everything you need — from food to furniture and beyond. Designate a room or the corner of one to be your homesteader workshop.

Herb Patches

Saucepans hanging over sink against potted plants on window sill in domestic kitchen.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Growing your herbs in a condo or apartment may be intimidating, but it’s not impossible. You can have herb patches on your patio, or you can even grow them on your windowsill.

Herbs grow easily from seeds and are sturdy, so don’t be afraid to grow them indoors. Moreover, your place will immediately scream “urban homesteader” when visitors encounter your lush, green window.

Patio Gardens

Urban balcony garden with chard, kangkung and other easy to grow vegetables.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

If you have a patio, instead of using it to grow grass, which looks good but doesn’t feed you, use it as part of your homesteading. Plant a garden, focusing on your favorite vegetables, and reduce dependence on the grocery store.

Even without a patio, you can still use hydroponic gardening to grow tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. However, having a patio garden signals that you’re successfully following the urban homesteading aesthetic.

Reusing Coffee Containers

An image showing a biodegradable coffee cup lying on wet compost, with plants lying around it. The cup has '100% biodegradable' and 'eco-friendly paper' written on the label.
Image Credit: Meanwell Packaging – CCA 2.0/WikiCommons.

Even if you don’t have a patio or backyard, you can still grow herbs and vegetables inside your apartment. Reuse coffee containers to plant them and place them around the house.

Pay attention to what each plant needs. Some need direct sun exposure, while others love the shade. By giving them what they need, you’ll have a green, beautiful home achieved sustainably. It will be pleasing to the eye and serve as a food source.

Macrame Hanging Planters

Six handmade cotton macrame plant hangers are hanging from a wood branch. The macrame have pots and plants inside them. There are decorations and shelves on the side with an egg chair and a table.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

If you enjoy working with your hands, macrame is a great vintage hobby for urban homesteaders. Besides looking beautiful, macrame hanging planters let you maximize space if you live in a tiny apartment and still want to grow your own plants.

Because growing food is central to urban homesteading, you should make it the core of your efforts to become sustainable and live close to what you consume.

Chicken Coops

Multiple chickens in a coop.
Image Credit: Karl Thomas Moore – CCA SA 4.0/WikiCommons.

Chicken coops are not for you unless you have some land — like a backyard — to work with, and if your city will allow you to have them. Be sure to check with them first! However, if you can fit them in your outdoor space, they are great for keeping chickens and having access to fresh eggs daily.

You can buy chicken coops, but we encourage you to make your own. Urban homesteading is about making do with what you already have and repurposing things.

Garden Trellises and Lattices

A pale pink climbing rose against a red brick wall in Boreham village, Essex, England.
Image Credit: Acabashi – CCA SA 4.0/WikiCommons.

Likewise, you can build trellises and lattices in your garden or patio to grow delicious crawling plants like beans and peas. Trellises help the plants grow and support them when they bear fruit while using otherwise potentially wasted space.

Besides, they look beautiful and give your home a feeling of being surrounded by nature — one of the main purposes of the urban homesteading aesthetic.

DIY Furniture

Young woman painting drawer. Cat lying nearby. Furniture repair. Do it yourself. Handmade.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

When you live on a farm, you don’t have ready access to IKEA any more than you do a grocery store. So, how do you buy furniture? You don’t. You make your own.

Urban homesteading aims to replicate homemade furnishings by using DIY projects. Woodworking is a great skill and marries well into homesteading. Moreover, sitting at a table you made will make you enjoy your meal more.

Upcycling Candle Jars

Aromatic candles in jars hanging in interior. DIY candles in glass jars hanging on linen jute. Candle jar upcycle.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Homesteading is all about upcycling. Candle jars look beautiful and are useful around the house. You can grow plants in them, use them for compost, or turn them into beautiful vases for your flowering vegetables.

Whatever you do, repurpose them with function in mind over decor. For example, you could use them as drinking glasses. It’s what you’d do if you lived on your farm, far away from the city.

DIY Cleaning Products

Vinegar and baking soda, lemon, natural sponge, toothbrush and towels on the kitchen sink. Natural and eco-friendly cleaning products.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Being self-sufficient means reducing your dependence on modern conveniences as much as possible. That includes avoiding store-bought cleaning products. They’re often unsustainable and stand the opposite of natural products.

You can make natural and safe cleaners for every part of your home with simple kitchen ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, salt, and lemons.

A Hummingbird Feeder in the Window

A small hummingbird flying up to a bright red feeder.
Image Credit: Public Domain/WikiCommons.

So far, we’ve looked at parts of the urban homesteading aesthetic that have to do with being practical. However, being kind to nature is an important tenet of this practice.

You can do it by helping outdoor critters thrive. They are part of nature and help produce the food you depend on. You can place a hummingbird feeder in your window even if you live high up in a building with no patio or backyard to have a bird feeder in.

Canning Food

The process of canning fruit. Fruit puree, canning, jarring.
Image Credit: Public Domain/WikiCommons.

You’ll start seeing a surplus once you’ve grown your food for a while. That’s when canning comes into play. Urban homesteading involves reducing or eliminating waste, and canning tomatoes, fruit, and other vegetables is one way to eliminate waste.

Canning food is a safe way to preserve it once you learn how to do it properly. Do your research and enjoy the fruits of your labor regardless of the season.

Repurpose Furniture

Biracial mother and adult daughter are painting furniture outside at home for an upcycling project. Mother has short black hair, daughter has curly brown hair, unaltered.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Urban homesteading can be quite stylish when you repurpose old items and turn them into beautiful vegetable planters. Using old drawers instead of throwing them away will help your porch (or living room) come to life with beautiful green plants and flowers.

If you have enough planters, you can use old drawers to keep your gardening tools handy. After all, homesteading means being proud of the work you do every day. Tools should be front and center in your home, not hidden away.

Zero Food Waste

A pile of dried apricots.
Image Credit: Andrey Butko – CCA SA 3.0/WikiCommons.

We’ve already looked at canning to reduce food waste, so what do we mean by zero food waste? Freezing, repurposing leftovers, and dehydrating food are ways to waste even less.

To follow urban homesteading, you can also start a food cooperative, working closely with your neighbors to keep everyone stocked with healthy food. This is exactly what you’d do on a farm.

Composting

compost bin
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Composting is tied to achieving zero food waste, but it’s more than a way to prevent waste. When you compost scraps, you ensure that your vegetables will receive the proper nutrition to grow healthy in the future.

It’s easy to compost in an apartment setting, and no, you don’t need worms. Besides, if you do it right, there won’t be any offending smell.

Root Cellars

Photo of a root cellar door partially covered by snow, taken in Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, on 27 February, 2024.
Image Credit: HeritageNL – CCA SA 4.0/WikiCommons.

Root cellars are a great way to practice urban homesteading. They offer space for your canned foods, prevent potatoes from spoiling or sprouting over the winter months, and keep your apples crisp for longer.

Not everyone has the luxury of a root cellar within an urban area, but if you do, make sure to put it to good use. It’s an integral part of becoming self-sufficient. For an effective root cellar, you need five key components: Ventilation, humidity, darkness, storage bins, and shelter made of earth.

Harvest Aprons

A farmer woman in a cotton apron tears cucumbers in a greenhouse into a wicker basket. The concept of harvesting. Summer and autumn on the farm are filled with organic themes. Close-up.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Living the urban homesteading aesthetic means you don’t just live like a farmer; you also look the part. This means you get to sew useful, practical garments like harvest aprons to make your life easier when tending to your garden.

You can use many tutorials to teach yourself helpful skills, such as sewing and making clothes, so you’ll look the part quickly.

Making Your Own Kitchen Staples

Homemade bread/baguette on parchment paper.
Image Credit: Pierre Pericard – CCA SA 3.0/WikiCommons.

Having a sustainable food source also includes making your staples in the kitchen. We’re referring here to bread, dairy, broth, nut butter, and almond milk (if you’re lactose intolerant).

Urban homesteading reduces your dependence on others, especially for staples. Becoming self-reliant about your food is central to it and helps you maintain independence.

Herbal Remedies

Glass jars of dry lavender and calendula flowers. Jars of dry medicinal herbs for making herbal tea, bunch of dry lavender on table. Alternative medicine.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

If you grow herbs, it goes without saying you should try herbal remedies for minor ailments and to improve your health. Plants like cilantro, peppermint, and thyme are delicious in your soups or tea.

Nevertheless, they also have properties that can help you better digest food or soothe your throat when you have a cold. Researching herbal remedies improves your plant knowledge and homesteading know-how.

Ditch Single-Use Items

Close Up Of Woman Wrapping Sandwich In Reusable Environmentally Friendly Beeswax Wrap.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Single-use items like plastic wrap and water bottles have no place here. Your goal is to reduce waste, remember? To do that and save money, you can replace these single-use items with reusable items like straws, beeswax food wraps, and bamboo utensils.

These items help you get closer to nature and reduce plastic waste, which is a good goal even outside urban homesteading.

Foraging

Picking Blackberries
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Foraging is a great way to discover new food. First, though, you must find out if it’s legal where you live. Once you establish legality, you can research which wild edible plants grow locally.

Armed with that knowledge, you can add delicious wild plants to your dishes, from mushrooms to dandelions and wild violets. If you live along the coast, learn about sourcing scallops and other tasty seafood.

Recycled Candles

Flat lay of tools for reusing old candles leftovers and making melting a new one: various ingredients on table: candle wicks, glass jar, old candles wax, aroma oil.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

When candles burn out, there’s always some wax left in the container. Instead of discarding it with the rest of the candle, you can reuse it. Pour boiling water into the container and remove the hardened wax when it cools.

Mix it with other wax bits you’ve salvaged from candles to melt it and prevent it from going to waste. We recommend only doing this for unscented candles, as combining different scents will surely give you a headache. If you have an unfinished scented candle, melt down the wax and carefully pour it into a mold to use in a wax warmer to experience the smell over and over again.

DIY Household Crafts and Decor

A woman cutting her wedding dress to repurpose it.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Once you’re well on the way to your urban homesteading journey, you may decide to add some practical decor to your home. Learning useful household crafts allows you to upcycle items that would take up space in your drawers or armoires.

Take your wedding dress, for instance. You probably only wore it once, and it’s now gathering dust in your closet. Why not turn it into a beautiful woven hanging wall decor for your living room?

From-Scratch Beauty Products

Assorted natural skincare and body care products, candles, etc.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Finally, making your beauty products aligns with the urban homesteading approach. It comes with a bit of a learning curve, but it’s worth it in the end.

Making your lotions, deodorants, shampoos, and even makeup will save you money and teach you to become self-reliant. You’ll also be healthier when you control the ingredients you use on your skin and body.

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