What Dishwashers, Blenders, and Washing Machines Have to do with Homesteading
Dawg… I can’t believe I’m even having to explain this in 2025.
You know, just regular homestead housekeeping stuff. I figured people would comment about their favourite cleaning hacks or maybe ask which oils work best.
I’m sorry, what now?
Since when did having basic modern appliances become some kind of homesteading scandal? Are we really doing this? Because if we are, buckle up, because I have thoughts.
I am a modern-homesteader, not a historical reenactor.
Let me make this crystal clear: I am a modern homesteader living in the year 2025, not some historical reenactor trying to cosplay as Laura Ingalls Wilder for your entertainment.
My goal here is to blend traditional skills and self-sufficiency with the reality of modern life.
I love the Little House books as much as the next person—they’re classics for a reason.
Am I complaining? NO WAY!
Before anyone starts with the “but homesteading is supposed to be simple” nonsense, let me be clear: I absolutely love this life. I chose it. I work my ass off for it every single day, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
But I’m also not going to stand here and pretend that running a working homestead while raising kids and managing an online business is some kind of minimalist fairy tale.
The workload I have from my garden, barn chores, milk cow, food preservation, from-scratch cooking, and everything else is intense especially compared to the lifestyle of someone who can just hit up Whole Foods for organic everything and call it a day.
My day starts at 5 AM with animal chores and doesn’t end until everything is fed, milked, collected, processed, cleaned, and put away. That’s on top of the regular human stuff like keeping the house functional, managing finances, and raising kids who hopefully won’t end up as helpless as most of their generation.
If I decided to reject all modern conveniences just for the sake of being “authentic,” I’d spend my entire day washing dishes by hand and stirring soap with a wooden spoon. And sure, if complete authenticity is your goal, you should probably toss your computer and smartphone too—those are definitely modern inventions.
The reality is that modern appliances don’t make me less committed to this lifestyle. They make it sustainable.
If you ever swing by my homestead, you are likely to find me:
Here’s what a typical day actually looks like on our homestead, complete with all the modern conveniences that apparently make me a fraud:
– Running cloth diapers through my washing machine while hanging them outside to dry, because I’m not about to hand-wash diapers when modern washing machines use the same amount of energy as hand washing but get clothes significantly cleaner
– Using my slow cooker to render lard because low, consistent heat for 8 hours beats standing over a stove babysitting fat all day
– Operating our tractor instead of digging post holes by hand because this isn’t a punishment, it’s a lifestyle choice
– Grinding home-butchered meat with an electric grinder because I value my time and my sanity
I have zero shame about mixing modern convenience with traditional knowledge. In my opinion, that’s the entire point of modern homesteading.
My washing machine? I’ll be the first person to celebrate your dedication. And I absolutely admire people who live completely off-grid—that takes serious commitment and skills that I’m still developing.
But for now, I’m perfectly content in my mixed-up world of traditional knowledge and modern efficiency. I’m not apologizing for having a dishwasher any more than I’m apologizing for having indoor plumbing or electricity.
You know what else?
The difference is that now we have better tools. And I’m going to use them.
If that disappoints some people, that’s their problem to work through.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go load another batch of canning jars into my dishwasher. Because proper sterilization matters, and my dishwasher does it better and more efficiently than I ever could by hand.
This is modern homesteading. Deal with it.