Living Off-Grid
Imagine waking up the next morning without an alarm clock and the city noise. Imagine a life without the daily commutes, air pollution, and wondering what you’ll be wearing the next day.
Henry Thoreau spent two years roughing it out on the forests of Walden pond in Massachusetts. He realized that people end up working hard for things they don’t really need; things that nature can provide.
If you’re considering living off the grid, you may have thought of taking your life back from the complexities of modern society. Like Thoreau, you want a simplified life, even for a moment. You’ll see not only the benefits of living off-grid, but its challenges as well.
The following are advantages you may experience when you decide to live off the grid.
Decreased Anxiety and Stress
Expectations from society can be overwhelming and can lead to a more stressful life. When you extract yourself from the cycle of daily life, you’ll be saying goodbye to the overtime, commute, and buying things you won’t need. Without these things, expect a large drop in your stress and anxiety levels.
Better Relationships
Time away from the causes of stress present in everyday life can translate to quality bonding time with those you love. No one says on their deathbed that they wanted to spend more time working in the office. By living off-grid, you can reconnect with people close to you and enjoy the simple joys of being together.
Financial Control
Living a simpler life can be difficult when you’re used to spending so much. When you live off the grid, you’ll see that a simpler life indeed costs much less than a life in the city. The factors that once depleted your bank accounts, such as lifestyle maintenance and travel costs, are virtually nonexistent. Living within your means also means no interest rates and credit card debts.
Environmentally Aware
For the environmentally conscious, living away from the city means zero plastic bags and carbon emissions. Even though you won’t have access to electricity, a Sunpower solar panels dealer can set up panels in your off-grid home and provide you electricity straight from the sun. This means enjoying power cost-effectively.
Up For It?
Those are the benefits, now it’s time to ask yourself if you can prepare to live off-grid and handle the challenges it can pose:
Location and Shelter
Choosing an ideal location is important for off-grid living. You’ll have to consider the climate, land, and transportation requirements. A good way to prepare for this is to invest in a vehicle that can handle harsh terrain and transport your needs. Once that’s taken care of, you can opt to find a house or, if you’re determined to get the full frontier experience, build one yourself, considering the factors mentioned earlier.
Water and Energy
Energy options such as solar power and battery systems can work well depending on your location. For water, drilling water and water delivery services are options to consider.
Food
Depending on how far away you are from civilization, you may need to find other ways of finding food. You can always have it delivered to your doorstep, or go on occasional supply runs in town.
Survival
The most challenging aspect of living off-grid is learning to be self-reliant and learning how to survive. Living away from the city means learning to do everything, even the simplest task that you took for granted back in the city, all over again. Of course, escaping the stress of everyday life has to have a trade-off. For living off the grid, these are the advantages and challenges of living a simpler life. If you feel you’re not ready yet, try camping out for a while and see if it’s for you. Your ancestors above should be proud of you after learning the skills of survival and roughing it out, a skill that few people have today.
