5 Minimalist Jobs For Moms | I do all 5
I became a minimalist eight years ago and one thing that I didn’t want to give up was earning money. I wanted to work since I was a little girl. I remember going into the counselor’s office at my school and asking how soon I could get a workers permit they told me it was 15 1/2 and the moment I turned 15 1/2 I walked in there, got a workers permit and started looking for a job. I became a host shortly thereafter and absolutely loved it. I remember buying my first meal and then buying my first outfit. Because my family couldn’t afford much of anything I never had extras, so working was a way that I could have control of my own means of having more. I developed a Career and had kids and was the breadwinner of our home. All the while going to school and learning how to be a mom and juggle all of it. Being outside of the home and working Means that I would come home to messes and nanny bills that would absorb a lot of our pay. Eventually, I lost my dad and found myself at home with my two little kids and pregnant with my third. Life with my dad had gone way too fast and although it wasn’t perfect, I really did feel that traveling and being together were the best memories of my childhood. So, His death brought light to My life and A new set of ideals. It didn’t happen right away, but we would go on to give away 90% of our belongings, move into a little apartment and start a journey Into a more minimalist lifestyle.
I didn’t know that giving up belongings with later help me adopt A desire to be outside more, or maybe the ability to be outside more and being outside more reconnected me with bare feet, creek, jumping, pine sense, sniffing, and for bathing. I have never felt so grounded before than after I left this mountainous area that was near our home. I found myself wanting to go back again, again, and again. My dad, all those years ago by taking us fishing, had planted seeds in my senses, That would later allow me to plant seeds in relationship with my kids, but outside.
This Reconnection back to myself and to planet earth lead me to my worm farm. My daughter and I had picked up a book and inside the book it talked about waste and kitchen waste is a Main contributor to a green house gas called methane. When I found out that my family could actually do something about this by composting. I got really curious so, we moved and had a little backyard now and I started saving my waste in a bucket I was doing it all wrong and likely creating more greenhouse gases in my own backyard. After talking to a mom friend at the library and her mentioning that her dad was a worm farmer and use red wiggler worms, I called my husband on the phone and ask him to pick up some red wiggler worms from our local tractor supply. That was the start of my very own worm farm. I wasn’t good at worm farming, but I was good at feeding My children and the result of feeding my children often and all day, because we are homeschoolers means that we have a lot of kitchen scraps. FromBanana peels there is always something to throw in my worm bin, so, the worms were happy and they mask produced and I am a farmer of six very large worm bins and we are growing. If you ask me, which of the five jobs I do I’m most passionate about. I will say worm farming, because it’s taught me so much about how a little bit goes a long way. I had a desire to make a little change and I had no idea it would lead me to the coolest wild gardens, ability to experiment, nature, study, and entrepreneurial endeavor in our very own backyard. Bungalow.
In order for a job to qualify as a ‘minimalist’ job, in my opinion, has these key components;
It has to align with my values & ideals. Examples; education, being as present and off my phone as I can, being together, etc.
It has to stack into my daily rhythms. Examples; Waking up early, feeding kids, & homeschooling,
It has to be something I can involve my family in. Example, hands-on learning.
It has to be something I can do from home — at least while I have littles at home.
It can’t require a ton of equipment. We live in a tiny home and have 5 kids and try to live a ‘minimalist lifestyle’, so if we don’t already have it or we don’t have space for it — it’s a no.
#1. I’m a worm farmer.
Although this does take a bit of our backyard up, we also have a garden so it kinda just fits right into our garden area, but also aligns with our desire to be outside We made over $500 in one weekend, at the beginning of Spring selling our castings. I could easily sell Worms and find a market for that, but we’ve decided to stick the worm castings, since we have a lot of kitchen waste.
#2. I’m an online ESL teacher.
I made more than $12,000 my first full year of teaching. I made this only teaching a couple of hours per day, because I got incentives. I love this job because it gets me up early in the morning, I can teach from my RV, which allows me to have a workspace and not wake up my kiddos, because we live in a tiny house.
This is by far one of my favorite jobs and one that I won’t ever give up because it’s easy money, gets me up early and it cures my desire to connect with cultures around the world. I actually teach online for two companies. One you need a degree for which is VIP kid and the other is an adult English learning platform called Cambly this one you don’t need a degree for I connected with so many amazing people and I’m really grateful that I stumbled upon this career when I did. It allowed us to pay off a car! If you’re interested in either of these two companies, I’ll leave both of my affiliate links in the description below.
#3. We are screen printers.
We got an order of over 250 t-shirts from a private homeschool co-op and quit our t-shirt business nearly 4 years ago.
There’s no denying that with a baby and a toddler I can’t do this all on my own, so my husband does actually print our T-shirts and I marked them across my social media channels.
My husband really enjoyed this, so we started back up recently and my kids are now selling the shirts and getting their own entrepreneurial experience at our local farmers market.
The way that this T-shirt business fits into our lifestyle perfectly is because we all need clothes. I was about to invest in T-shirts for my kids for Summer, and when this idea of printing T-shirts came up, it was a no-brainer. We can invest the money instead into buying T-shirts in bulk, them wearing them to market them as well as me wearing them and sharing them across my YouTube channels.
Also, my miss are gaining life experience.
#4. I am an affiliate marketer.
I haven’t made a ton of money doing this, but if I can recommend a good product, why not?
#5. I am a sourdough teacher.
Although I think sourdough is the true teacher, I have enjoyed providing opportunities around my town for people to start their own journeys in sourdough. I Created an online Facebook group for everybody that has my sourdough starter to connect and one of my past students recently posted that sourdough has changed her life. I couldn’t agree more sourdough Life-changing and I feel blessed that I’ve gained my own experience and can share that experience with others. I scheduled to sourdough classes online and marketed to my local communities and Nearly 30 people showed up to my first class. I had two classes scheduled, and both of them did really well. I didn’t know. know where it was going to lead or if I were ever going to teach anymore, but shortly afterwards I got a call from a local greenhouse and was asked to do 2 more classes!!!
I honestly didn’t love doing the classes, but I love sourdough, I value education and the classes were so fun! So, I asked myself — what about these classes didn’t I like. And it was the stress I felt from having to leave my toddler and baby. Even though she had slept while I was gone, even though I was only gone for a couple of hours, it still felt like I needed to be at home, so I ended up having an online class and lo and behold. Four people showed up and paid. That’s not a ton of money, but it’s more money than I had before. Plus I had a ton of bread to bake for my family after the class because it was a demonstration of how to bake sourdough. It was an hour long, online class, and I taught it in my kitchen.
My kids hung out in what we call ‘the clubhouse’ and right after the one hour class I cuddled my day for the rest of the evening.
