Move to a Small Farm While Working in The City
If you work in the city but want to live far away from the cramped but expensive rental units, large crowds of people, rush hour traffic and non-stop noise of the city life, you may want to consider moving to a small farm while maintaining your job in the city. Living on a farm outside of the city can save you rent money and relax your nerves. If you don't mind a commute for work, living in a rural area and making a living in the city may just be like having the best of both worlds. Make the transition by reading these tips for how to move to a small farm while working in the city.
Steps
- Find a farm location that is best suited to your needs.
- Spend weekends and time off work exploring the rural areas outside of your city. Stop off in country stores and diners and ask the local townspeople what the area is like, and where they know of farms for sale.
- Hire a real estate agent. This is a good idea if your job keeps you very busy and making the time for regular day trips into the country is not realistic for you.
- Decide what kind of small farm life you are interested in, and what you are willing and able to maintain. You may desire the experience of feeding animals at the crack of dawn and hand-picking your own corn, or you may just be looking for the kind of peace and quiet that only a rural setting can provide, minus the animal and garden care.
- Verify that your farm location is able to be equipped with Internet, and that you get good cellular reception at the farm. This will enable you to maintain ties with your city job.
- Consider the commute for work. If you are moving to a small farm to cut costs and/or to relieve some stress, then upping your gas costs and time spent in fender-to-fender traffic is counterproductive to your goals.
- Ask your boss about adjusting your hours in a way to help you avoid the morning and evening rush hour traffic. Moving your schedule back or forward by even 1 hour can save you 2 or more hours on your commute for work. Or, you may want to consider working longer days, and less of them.
- Try to settle on a farm that is just on the outskirts of the city and/or close to a major highway so that you can keep the drive time to a minimum.
- Find a farm that is close to a mass transportation line and take the bus to work.
- Find out if any of your coworkers also live in the area and ask if they'd be willing to carpool.
- Prepare your city life job for your move to the country.
- Make arrangements with your job to be able to telecommute part-time, if possible. That way, you can commute for work less and spend more time on the farm.
- Set up a home office at your home on the farm so that you can be productive without having to go into the city office as often.
- Plan ahead for your move. Take some time off work to get moved and settled in to your new life on the farm before you return to the hustle and bustle of city life.
