This winter homestead checklist will help you dive into your winter homestead to better plan for the spring homestead.
Winter on the homestead can be long. It’s that in-between time when you can’t grow anything and instead have to rely upon the foods you preserved back during harvest time. The days are often spent dreaming of spring and all that will come with its arrival.
But when spring comes, will you be ready? Homesteading is a continuous cycle of seasons and each year is a new chance to start again. Winter is a great time to make plans for spring and to really dive into evaluating what you should keep doing and what you may need to do differently next year.
I hope you can find this winter homestead checklist useful and helpful to keeping you organized with your homestead plans.
Table of Contents
- Printable Winter Homestead Checklist
- Weekly To-Do Winter Homestead Checklist
- Around the Home Winter Homestead Checklist
- Freezer Winter Homestead Checklist
- Prepping for Spring
- Pantry Winter Homestead Checklist
- For the Farm Homestead Checklist
- Save this Winter Homestead Checklist
Printable Winter Homestead Checklist
You can grab this free winter homestead checklist below!
Winter-Homestead-ChecklistDownload
Weekly To-Do Winter Homestead Checklist
There is much to do in the homesteading kitchen, even in the winter. Though you’re not actively preserving and canning during this time, there are still weekly tasks to remember like taking your meats out to thaw at the beginning of the week and doing your weekly baking of snacks for your family. I always appreciate a reminder to take out the meat at the beginning of the week because so often I find myself at 3:00 in the afternoon trying to get meat unthawed for that night’s dinner. Taking a bunch out at the beginning of the week is a much wiser idea!
And of course, there’s the winter baking too. I love winter baking- it’s such a cozy and productive way to spend a winter day while you’re indoors. We rarely buy snack foods, so baking our foods for the week is important! Some of my favorite things to bake for my family are breads- both yeast and sourdough, muffins, some naturally sweetened cookies, or other sweet treats for the family to enjoy.
When you spend more time in the house in the winter, there are of course going to be more things to do to clean up the house in the winter. On the to-do list you’ll find a reminder for your typical household chores that will help keep the house cleaned during this season.
Around the Home Winter Homestead Checklist
Winter is a great time to go through some of the clutter or to deep clean spaces that maybe get overlooked in the weekly cleaning routine. I don’t know about you, but I really feel good minimizing my belongings and simplifying our spaces. It clears my head mentally and helps me to feel like I’m not being overtaken by things!
On the to-do list around the home, you’ll find tasks that include decluttering spaces, deep cleaning rooms, cleaning out closets, and going through children’s clothes. Now is a great time to get some of these tasks done because you know it will be nearly impossible once the business of spring, summer, and fall come around!
Freezer Winter Homestead Checklist
Ah, the freezer. The place where so much of the summer and fall harvest has made its home. But hopefully not its forever home! Don’t let your hard work go to waste by letting your preserved food end in an icy freezer grave. No! Instead, take some time in the winter to go through your freezer inventory of meats, fruits, and vegetables and use that to help you make decisions. Decide what foods you may need to start eating more of or less of to make it through the winter. And, evaluate which crops may need to be increased or decreased come spring. Then, start making plans! Which leads me to the next topic on the checklist…
Prepping for Spring
Anyone who thinks gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year; for gardening begins in January with the dream.
Josephine Nuese
This quote is so true, isn’t it? Allow yourself some time to dream in the winter. If you are someone who likes to draw, like me, draw out your dream garden. Imagine all of the possibilities. You can reign in the ideas later, but for now- dream. Get it all out. Some day, little by little, you might be able to build that dream!
Other things to prep for spring will include checking in on your seed starting supplies. Use those inventories you took from the freezer to help you decide which seeds you’ll need more/less of. It will also be maple syrup season soon, so you’ll also want to start thinking about getting all of your maple syrup supplies prepped and ready for that upcoming season too. I have a post about getting ready for maple syrup season you might like to check out, too!
Pantry Winter Homestead Checklist
The pantry is another place that can offer some really helpful insight. Evaluating your pantry space to make sure it’s still working is a great place to start. If it’s not, take some time in the winter to restructure and make some changes.
You can also take some time to look at your inventory of canned fruits and vegetables as well as root crops. Again, decide if you need to grow more of something based on your current stockpile, if you need to reduce your crop because you grew more than you needed, or if you have just the right amount for your family.
For the Farm Homestead Checklist
For many homesteaders, the farm is a bit quieter in the winter. Generally, there aren’t babies being born. Many meat animals have been butchered and aren’t there to take care of. That makes it a good time for planning for when the upcoming busy season returns. Do you have your meat animals lined up to purchase? Now is a good time to contact farmers to reserve feeder pigs, calves, or chickens.
It’s also a good time for building your homestead community. So often in summertime is filled with hard work, and it really does leave little time for friendships- especially with other busy homesteaders. Take some time this winter to meet up with some other homesteaders and just chat with each other. Find out what has been working well on their homesteads and share what’s been working well (or hasn’t!) on yours. It’s always fun to get to talk with other like-minded people and get ideas from one another.
Save this Winter Homestead Checklist
Keep this post saved so you can return next winter!
What would you add to this list?
