Wisconsin Homesteader

Homesteading While Working Full Time: Can it be done?

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Is homesteading while working full time a real possibility? Will you be able to be successful at both your job and homesteading? In this post, we’ll talk about the realities of homesteading while working full time and discussing whether or not it can be done.

homesteading while working a full time job

We had dreamed of living on a homestead for a really long time. We hoped that it would become a reality for us, but the reality of our situation was that we both needed to be working full time in order to meet our family’s needs. This led us to start wondering: Is homesteading while working full time possible?

We’ve been living a homestead-like lifestyle for 3 years, and in all of those years, both my husband and I have had full time jobs. Today, our homestead grows our meat, provides our dairy, gives us eggs, and produces vegetables and fruit for the entire year.

Homesteading while working full time is possible! Raising animals, growing food, and getting the work done on a homestead all can be done while working a full time job.

If you’re considering starting a homestead, but want to keep your day job, these are some things that you’ll want to know and consider.

Daily Work: What to Expect

Before you start homesteading while working your full time job, it can be helpful to know what kinds of daily chores you’re going to have to deal with. Raising animals and growing a garden all take work and time, as does processing and preparing the food that you’ve grown. Know that you’ll need to have time to dedicate to these important tasks on your homestead.

At our homestead, we have chores that need to be done morning and night during all seasons of the year. Some seasons of the year provide new and different chores, obstacles, and tasks that need to be taken care of. In the late summer, expect to spend late nights canning and preserving. In winter, be ready for taking extra time as you work in the dark and need to break ice to get animals water. But even as the seasons change, the basics are always the same: Feed the animals, clean the pens, water everything.

Chores will take you around 20-60 minutes morning and night depending on the animals you have and the types of chores that you need to do. For us on our homestead, our daily chores include feeding and watering our cows and chickens, milking if it’s a milk day, cleaning pens, and gathering eggs. These chores are things that have to be done every single day, morning and night. You will need to carve out time in your day before you start your full time job and after you get home from your full time job to get your daily chores done.

Recognize Your Limitations

Homesteading while working full time will come with limitations, and it’s really important that you recognize those before you start. Understand that you won’t be able to get everything done on the homestead because you simply just won’t have time.

Make a list of all of your homestead dreams. What would you do if you could do anything on your homestead? What does that ideal homestead look like? Then, pick and choose one or two things to add each year. You won’t be able to devote your whole day to creating and building up that perfect homestead, but you will have weekends, mornings, and evenings. If it’s a priority in your life, you’ll make time to make these things happen in the free time off of work that you do have. Just know, you won’t be able to have everything you want right away. You’ll need to be patient, recognize your limitations, and accept the reality of your situation for what it is. Doing that early will prevent a lot of heartache and disappointment later down the road.

Be Prepared for Disappointment

Speaking of disappointment…Be ready for it. This isn’t meant to discourage you from homesteading while working a full time job. Instead, it’s meant to prepare your heart and mind for what is inevitable.

If you have a homesteader’s heart and desire to live off the land sustainably, you’ll probably find yourself filled with disappointment at some point at what you haven’t gotten done yet. Perhaps you’re hoping to add chickens, but haven’t been able to find the time to build a coop. Or maybe you’re dreaming of a milk cow, but are limited by your schedule for milking. When reality doesn’t match the image you have in your head, it can be frustrating and definitely disappointing. But though disappointment is an unpleasant, it is a normal part of dreaming.

Disappointment will happen. It doesn’t mean you should give up. It means you might need to recognize your limitations more or adjust your goals. And if you can’t deal with the disappointment, then you might need to take more drastic measures to change the situation. Like the saying goes, “Accept the things you cannot change or change the things you can’t accept.”

Ideal Jobs for Homesteading

There are some jobs that suit the homesteading life better than others. Obviously, the best and most ideal job for homesteading would be to make homesteading your job. If you’re able to create and produce products from your homestead, such as dairy, soaps, garden produce, eggs, animals, etc., then you’ve really succeeded at creating a sustainable homestead life. That is a huge and amazing accomplishment!

For others of us, homesteading as a job might not be the case. There are certain jobs that help ease the burden of homesteading while working full time.

Jobs that have these elements make nice fits for homesteaders:

  • Flexibility: Look for jobs that offer flexible schedules or set-your-own hours. This will give you more daylight hours to spend working on homestead-related activities, and you can dedicate your nights to working on your full time job requirements.
  • Experience: Can you find a job to work that will give you experience for your own homestead? Working on another farm can be a hugely beneficial learning experience that helps justify the time away from your own homestead. If you’re away working, at least you’re learning skills you’ll be able to use back at your own homestead, too.
  • Work from Home: Working from home can be a great job for homesteaders. It gives homesteaders a chance to sneak away at lunch and break times to check on the animals, work on home projects, or even just get done household chores (like throwing in a load of laundry) so that time doesn’t have to be spent on those things during the free time you do have.

Final Verdict

Can homesteading while working full time be done? The final verdict: Yes! Homesteading while working full time will require sacrifice of your time, a true dedication to the homesteading lifestyle, and will force you to face head on what it is you really value in this life. If you truly value and are committed to growing your own food, raising your own animals, and living a more sustainable life, then homesteading while working full time is absolutely a possibility for you.

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