There are hundreds of small steps anyone can take to become more self sufficient. More popular, easy to do self sufficient living tips include:

• Growing a garden and eating more produce you have personally harvested.
• Planting fruit trees for a personal orchard.
• Building a compost bin to recycle household waste to use as mulch and fertilizer for the garden, flowerbeds, and lawn.
• Recycling leaves and grass clippings as mulch or part of compost.
• Saving seeds from the previous year’s harvest to grow next year’s garden.
• Building a rain barrel to collect rainwater for lawn and garden irrigation.
• Installing solar panels with batteries to provide abundant household energy.
• Adding skylights and large, energy efficient windows to take advantage of natural light.
• Choosing a solar water heater or solar oven to replace inefficient appliances.
• Learning basic appliance, car, and home repairs and maintenance to save time and money to keep items in good repair for a longer time period.
• Using a clothesline instead of a gas or electric dryer.
• Recycling paper products for reuse at home as scrap paper, homemade paper, packaging materials, pet bedding, and more.
• Choosing reusable grocery bags instead of disposable ones, and reusing store bags as trash bags.
• Growing indoor herbs for fresh recipe seasoning.
• Opting for reusable cloth diapers that can be handed down to multiple children.
• Learning to repair and sew new clothing and linens.
• Learning basic culinary preservation skills such as canning or making fruit preserves to support a larger harvest.
• Choosing to walk or bike to work or on errands instead of using a motorized vehicle.
• Choosing a low flow toilet or composting toilet to conserve water.
• Choose energy efficient light bulbs and appliances to minimize the need for electricity.
• Using a manual push lawn mower instead of electric or gas powered models.
• Buying products locally to minimize the resources necessary to bring them to market and to support others interested in self sufficiency.
• Starting your own business to become economically self sufficient instead of relying on an employer.
• Developing natural beauty without depending on cosmetics, hair dye, and other products.
• Choosing self sufficient recreation such as camping, hiking, or other low impact activities that do not require extensive travel or elaborate assistance to enjoy.