Anna Hess - Trailersteading: How to Find, Buy, Retrofit, and Live Large in a Mobile Home

Our trailer is slowly but surely becoming an integral part of our permaculture homestead.

When I originally put fingers to keyboard to begin writing the first edition of Trailersteading over two years ago, I have to admit that the idea began as a bit of a joke. Nearly every homesteader I saw profiled in magazines, books, and blogs was either living in an artisanal housestraw bale, cob, log, etc.or was saving and planning in order to build the same. And here I was enjoying my time in a single-wide trailer that had more years on it than I did and that my husband had found free for the hauling. The contrast made me laugh...and also made me want to tell the world about my own adventure.

Still, when the time came to self-publish the ebook (because what respectable publisher would even consider such a title?), my hand hovered over the mouse pad with trepidation. Could I handle the inevitable outcry from readers who had bought into the American dream of home ownership and felt threatened by my countercultural housing choices? I fully expected reviews like this one, which appeared on Amazon not long after the first edition's publication:

What I didn't expect was the hundreds of five-star reviews from homesteaders who were itching for a less expensive and time-consuming alternative to the traditional path of home ownership. Readers called the book "new and exciting," "a groundbreaking literary effort," and "very informative," and several mentioned that Trailersteading had inspired them to retire early by embracing life within an old mobile home. The ebook was snapped up by thousands of readers within its first months of life, I began to see the term "trailersteading" bandied about on the internet outside the context of my book, and, to my surprise, a publisher thought perhaps a paper version of the title made sense after all.

So why begin this second edition by reprinting such a scathing review? As I mulled over the concept of trailersteading, I realized that the largest impediment standing between many of us and true freedom is concern about what our friends and family will think of our life choices. Will your mother-in-law be scandalized when you downgrade from a mortgaged McMansion to join the ranks of the permaculture trailer trash? Will you stop being invited to all the right parties when you show up with mud on your boots and callouses on your fingertips? The review above should help you prepare for the worst, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if far more of your peers are intrigued by your lifestyle choices than condemn them. In the end, you'll likely discover, as we did, that most people are too busy with the minutiae of their own lives to care what you do or where you live.

So the decision really comes down to what works for your own family. And there, the scales tip strongly toward trailersteading. By choosing to homestead in a trailer, you can net more time to share with loved ones, more energy to spend on hobbies and passions you enjoy, and more money to save for retirement. You can reach your goals faster, and you may find, as we have, that every year of your trailersteading adventure is better than the last. So come join the ranks of homesteaders who have chosen to embrace voluntary simplicity in a mobile home, and you too can rake in the rewards of this off-beat lifestyle.

Our trailer in fall 2012.

"You should write about your biggest successes andfailures as ahomesteader," my father suggested during a recent phone call. At the time, myhusband Mark and I had spent the last six years learning to grow our ownfood and to make a living without a boss, but I had to smile because Iknew the item at the top of my success list was also at the top of myfather's failure list. Rather than building a beautiful housethatcould grace the pages of MotherEarth News , Mark and I opted to lower our housing costs tonearly $0 by living in a free mobile home.

Theaverage American family spends 20% of their income on housing, with themedian price tag for rent or mortgage being over $16,000 peryear. And many homesteaders-to-be go so far into debt building orbuying their home that they're forced to put off their self-sufficiencygoals until after retirement. Even folks who opt to build a "tinyhouse" (more on this term in the next chapter) generally spend years oftheir time on the project and end upwith an albatross of a mortgage slung around their necks.

Minimizing your housing expenses canbe a way of paying off debt or saving for a large purchase. Photo credit: Adrian Eckberg.

But there are cheaper housing options. Afriend wanted to pay offhis credit card debt, so he moved out of his apartment and lived in hiscar for a few months. My brother resided in a convertedchicken coop for years. And a visitor to my childhood farm simplypitched atent in each new location that he passed through.