Most city dwellers had all their needs provided for them since birth. This creates unrealistic expectations of how hard or how easy it is to provide for oneself. They fall in love with the idea of living “off the grid,” charge-offs into the wilderness, and learn the hard way that they didn’t spend enough time planning effective alternate. This leads to failure at independence, and a demoralized return to the grid.

All the things that society does for you breaks down into 5 basic categories.

5 Basic Categories

Category 1: The Home

This is a one time set up of an installation which keeps you safe, secure, warm and fire proof. This is a one time set up cost. Often a home can be modified over time include renovations or extensions for more space, if functionality needs to be added.

Category 2: Furnishings

This includes common features of a home, such as chairs, tables, cabinets, bathroom fixtures etc. These are usually a one time cost and can be slowly accumulated as you need them. Unlike the house, they are easily replaceable and they’re more expressive of the people who live there.

Category 3: Utilities

This category considers how you’re going to get your fresh water, how you’re going to dispose of your waist, and how to generate and maintain an electrical power source. This is one of the most important considerations for long-term off the grid sustainability.

Category 4: Food Source

This category talks about what you’re going to eat. It’s one thing to pack supplies for camping trip, or even an extended trek into the wilderness, however it’s entirely another skill set to be able to live off the land in perpetuity. However there are some slick tricks out there using hydroponics and growing micro greens which will allow you to produce an abundance of exceptionally nutritious food.

Category 5: Benefits of Modern Society

Most of us imagine that “living off the grid” means a lifestyle of farming or being a survivalists. We might like the idea of being independent but don’t want to lose all the benefits we currently enjoy. Hello Internet… there are a myriad of hidden resources available online which can give you every benefit of living in a city no matter how far off grid your.

Further Break Down of Category 5

• Work: There are many different ways to earn money online. Working online means that you won’t need to waste time on daily commutes to work, and often you can pick your own hours for work allowing a more balanced lifestyle.
• Entertainment: Watching movies, listening to songs, finding new information to read… most of our current form of entertainment is consumed online… and that is available anywhere.
• Education: with streaming video, online documentation, and interactive activities. Home schooling is far more feature rich and entertaining than ever. If you are looking to develop specific skill sets, correspondence is becoming better and lower cost than most universities.
• Medicine: Today you can access expert medical advice and services when needed online. Emergency Care is still something that you need a city for, but it is surprising how many medical emergencies most people run to the hospital, can actually be treated in house.
• Relationships: Staying connected with people, making new friends. Yes face to face relationships are the best, however you can still maintain and make new friends online.

The last two, medicine and relationships, are needs that cannot be fulfilled with an Internet connection, not yet. There is a team in china working on a single person vehicle based on electrical drone technology. This would allow easy access to nearby towns or communities (without the need for roads). Years ago (2018) my father required surgery that was preformed by a completely robotic surgical system. It isn’t far fetched to consider these solutions will become widely available in the near future, bringing people closer together.

Category 5 is not “living off the grid” but it does address issues that make most people apprehensive about adopting a less dependant lifestyle. If we know we can reduce our housing costs, learn to grow our own food, create our own power AND at the same time know that we really aren’t giving up much that we aren’t already getting. More people will convert.