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Like to get off the beaten path? 

That may be your first mistake.  Millions of people, wearying of commutes and cubicles and hectic schedules, dream of getting away from it all.  Visions of “the simple life” swim in their heads:  a rustic dwelling in the woods, a large vegetable garden, children merrily at play, birds and crickets chirping. 

The trouble is, millions of people have this hankering at the same time.  When millions flock to the hinterlands in search of peace and serenity, guess what happens?   We call the result. . . suburbia.  Suburbia used to consist in a modest ring of halcyon hamlets just outside the city limits.  Now it stretches coast to coast, and fills the countryside with dull roar of automobiles and the sight of strip malls, big box stores, and housing tracts.  Thanks to Wal-Mart and rural factories, even small towns have become suburbanized, their once-vital centers dissolving into a general, undifferentiated "escape-scape" sprawling to the horizons.

So much for getting away from it all.  In fact, our ongoing mass exodus pushes serenity ever further out of reach, only scattering the vital functions of life.  If the notion of “simplicity” includes wholeness and cohesion, most people are pursuing it in precisely the wrong direction.  To get off the beaten path, beat the less-traveled path back toward the city.  Simplicity is, well, simpler there because city life concentrates so many vital functions.  Aristotle called man the “political animal,” but for him, the "polis" meant the city.  Most cities also contain within their boundaries bucolic parks.  So you can have “country in the city” but not city in the country!

Where everything is close together, life indeed is simpler.  You can walk or bike for provisions instead of driving.  You and your loved ones enjoy a wider circle of social contacts in a smaller radius.  Time otherwise spent in thin and relatively unrewarding experiences, like driving a car or sitting at a computer, can be devoted to thicker and more fulfilling ones. 

Best of all, thanks to the mass evacuation from decaying urban neighborhoods, affordable fixer-uppers are on hand.  This opens the door to life with minimal debt and viable options outside the 9-to-5 merry-go-round--that is, the life of the householder.  

Here's the hard part:

The art of householding—the intelligent management of many vital tasks under one roof—takes different skill- and mind-sets than a conventional career.  Over the long haul its rewards will more than compensate—versatility, creativity, physical fitness, collaboration of family and friends, access to amenities not available in the country, and a slower, fuller pace oozing with leisure—all at a fraction of the costs (monetary, environmental, temporal, physiological) associated with the alternatives.  And all because householding gathers and integrates vital functions now scattered to the four winds.

But that’s in the long run. In the short run, there’s a learning curve:   Instead of focusing on one skill or speciality, householding juggles many--like the waiter balancing a tray of dishes while walking through a restaurant.  Transitioning into a life of balance and circumspection calls for mental and physical recalibration, a complex and all-absorbing process.  That’s where this website can help.  It’s all about balancing the many in one: the how, why, what, where, and who of householding.