LIVING UNENCUMBERED: WHAT “HOME” ACTUALLY MEANS
LIVING UNENCUMBERED: WHAT “HOME” ACTUALLY MEANS
Most people think a home is a building.
Four walls.
A fixed address.
A mortgage or a lease.
But a home is really something else.
A home is shelter, safety, rest, food, continuity — and a place where your nervous system can finally relax. Once you understand that, everything else becomes negotiable.
Living the Unencumbered way isn’t about rejecting society or opting out dramatically. It’s about reducing dependence while increasing choice. It’s about designing your life so you can meet your own needs first, then decide how and when you engage with the rest of the world.
Over time, this stops feeling like a strategy and starts feeling like a rhythm.
RETHINKING WHAT “HOME” IS
If you strip it down, there are many ways to have a home:
a van
a utility trailer
a small travel trailer
an RV
a long-term campsite
seasonal base camps
What matters isn’t the structure — it’s whether it supports your life.
A tent with a solid shelter system can feel more stable than a house that drains you financially, mentally, and emotionally. When your shelter, sleep, and food systems are reliable, you don’t feel temporary or exposed. You feel settled.
Home becomes something you can assemble deliberately, live in comfortably, and relocate when it makes sense. That flexibility changes how you relate to place — and to time.
CHOOSING LOCATIONS: PROSPERITY WITHOUT DEPENDENCE
When you live this way, location matters — but not in the way most people are taught to think about it.
You’re not choosing based on zip codes, resale value, or proximity to office buildings. You’re choosing based on what the land itself offers and how reliably it can support you.
The question shifts from “Where should I live?” to “Where can I live well without constant dependence?”
The priority order
Fishing
Hunting
Foraging / gathering
Fishing comes first because it’s the most consistent and accessible form of self-provisioning. In many regions, it’s available year-round or nearly so. It’s efficient, renewable, quiet, and doesn’t require large infrastructure once you understand the water.
Hunting matters, but it’s seasonal and regulated. It becomes something you plan around rather than rely on constantly. When it’s available, it’s powerful — but it can’t be the foundation everywhere, all the time.
Foraging adds resilience and connection to place, but it requires regional knowledge and care. Over time, you learn what grows where, what’s seasonal, and what to avoid. It becomes familiar rather than risky.
When evaluating a location, you’re really asking:
Can I feed myself here?
Can I do that without stress?
Can I rotate resources as seasons change?
That’s what prosperity looks like without dependence.
WHERE TO LIVE: REAL OPTIONS, NOT IDEALS
Living Unencumbered doesn’t mean one kind of place. It means understanding the full range of options and using them intentionally.
Some of the most common places this lifestyle works include:
Dispersed camping on BLM land or National Forest
Paid campsites at State Parks or National Parks
Private campgrounds like KOA or regional equivalents
Boondocking sites, free or low-cost, often near towns
Trailer and RV parks, short-term or seasonal
City or county park campgrounds, where permitted
Private land arrangements — farms, ranches, homesteads, hunting leases, or undeveloped acreage
Each option offers something different: isolation, water access, security, amenities, or proximity to town. The key is flexibility.
Most people living this way rotate between several of these over the course of a year instead of committing to one permanently.
WORKING LAND & INFORMAL ARRANGEMENTS
One of the most overlooked paths into this lifestyle is working relationships with people who already own land.
Farms, ranches, homesteads, hunting leases, and rural properties often need:
maintenance
caretaking
seasonal labor
repairs
general help
In exchange, they may offer:
space to park a trailer or van
permission to camp
water or limited hookups
a stable seasonal base
These arrangements rarely come from listings. They come from conversation, trust, and competence.
This isn’t about “free rent.”
It’s about mutual usefulness.
SEASONAL THINKING
Trying to live in one place year-round is one of the fastest ways to make this lifestyle miserable.
The Unencumbered approach is seasonal by design.
Colorado can be incredible — during the right months
Texas can work — especially near water — but summer may not be ideal
Higher elevations, coastal zones, deserts — all have windows where life feels easier
Moving with the seasons isn’t instability. It’s awareness.
You don’t win anything by enduring harsh conditions unnecessarily. You win by choosing environments that support you.
FIRE, WEATHER, AND REAL RISK
Weather isn’t background noise when you live this way — it’s part of your planning.
Fire seasons, flood zones, wind exposure, and extreme heat shape when you arrive, how long you stay, and when you leave. Knowing when to move is just as important as knowing where to go.
The goal isn’t toughness.
It’s sustainability.
THINKING OFF-GRID (BECAUSE YOU WILL BE)
If you live this way, even part-time, you have to assume utilities aren’t guaranteed.
That means planning for:
power
water
waste
heating and cooling
Power is usually the first hurdle.
Some people use all-in-one systems like Goal Zero, Bluetti, EcoFlow, or similar. Others build their own using batteries, charge controllers, and inverters. There’s no single right answer — only what fits your needs, skills, and tolerance for complexity.
The goal is independence without fragility.
Once power is handled, off-grid living becomes far less intimidating and far more comfortable.
STAYING CONNECTED TO SOCIETY — ON YOUR TERMS
Living Unencumbered doesn’t mean isolation.
It means controlled access.
You still need supplies, repairs, internet, and sometimes just people. The difference is that you engage intentionally. Towns become places you visit, not places that dictate your life.
You can resupply, fix vehicles, grab a meal, upload work, enjoy music or culture — then return to your own space.
SKILLS ARE YOUR REAL CURRENCY
When expenses are low, your relationship with work changes.
You don’t need a permanent job.
You need usable skills.
Most people are overwhelmed by tasks they don’t want to do or don’t know how to do. If you can fix, clean, build, organize, maintain, or care for land, you can earn money almost anywhere.
This kind of work is:
flexible
seasonal
task-based
low-bureaucracy
Capability replaces dependence.
CREATIVE AND DIGITAL WORK
Some people fish.
Some people build.
Some people create.
If your work is creative or digital — writing, photography, art, podcasting — you don’t need to live online.
You create offline, live your life, then connect when it’s time to upload, sell, or share. The internet becomes a tool, not a leash.
MOVEMENT, CACHES, AND STORAGE
One of the smartest adjustments people make is realizing they don’t need to move everything all the time.
Instead:
fishing gear stays near fishing locations
hunting gear stays near hunting locations
seasonal tools stay where they’re used
This might mean storage units, parked vehicles, gear caches, or trusted locations. The goal is efficiency.
You travel lighter.
You move with less friction.
You preserve energy.
TRANSPORTATION STRATEGY
You don’t need one perfect vehicle.
Often, flexibility beats ownership.
Some people stage older vehicles in different regions. Others rent vans or trucks when moving between locations. You can load your gear, take your time traveling, camp along the way, explore new places, and arrive when you’re ready.
Movement doesn’t have to be rushed.
Travel becomes part of living.
YOU’RE NOT LOCKED INTO THIS
This is one of the most important points.
Living Unencumbered isn’t a permanent commitment or a one-way door.
You can:
camp for months
rent an Airbnb for a week or a season
stay in a hotel when you want comfort
rent a houseboat and live on the water
do what most people call “vacation” — more often, and without pressure
These aren’t escapes from your life.
They are your life.
You’re not proving anything.
You’re choosing what works, when it works.
WHY THIS WAY OF LIVING WORKS
Because it’s lighter.
Fewer bills.
Fewer obligations.
Fewer artificial pressures.
In return, you gain time, presence, and control. You don’t need to escape society — you just stop being dependent on it.
And once you experience that shift, something becomes very clear:
This way of living isn’t harsher.
It’s often easier.
Calmer.
More enjoyable.
More human.
That’s what Unencumbered really means.