If you've given off-grid or self-sustainable living any serious thought, you've probably considered whether or not it makes sense to build a home yourself. In the current economic climate, not a lot of people can afford buying a home, and the banks have not taken the COVID-19 crisis lightly, and getting a loan to buy a home has gotten significantly more difficult.

Luckily, The DIY Prepper is here to tell you that you can absolutely build your own home - even if you get anxious at the mere thought of assembling a piece of IKEA furniture.

There are so many extremely well-written and detailed step-by-step guides on how to build your own off-grid home available. Unfortunately, there's also an abundance of poorly written or even downright false information out there.

My own favorite example of the latter was a detailed guide I bought a few months back, teaching the reader how to build a shipping container bunker. And, mind you, I love repurposed shipping containers with a passion, but in this particular guide, it was very clear that the author had no idea what he was talking about, and if anyone actually followed the instructions, there's a high chance they would have died in their little bunker, as you need some serious fortification to prevent shipping container bunkers from caving in!

So instead, we're going to focus on the stuff that actually works, is safe, won't blow your budget, and that's written by real experts, and not just by internet marketeers hoping to cash in on would-be-preppers.

We''ll cover the best paid and free resources to learn how to build an off-grid home, by either repurposing shipping containers, building your own wooden cabin, or building your own tiny house from scratch. All methods require 0 previous construction experience.

A trend that has recently gotten a lot of traction, using shipping containers as a way to easily build your own DIY tiny house is a really neat idea. Just note that you should NOT be using these for basements without making sure that you're supporting the structural integrity of the container.

Furthermore, building a shipping container home is extremely cost-effective, and it's fairly easy to modify the container to create a more appealing contemporary look. I also really like the idea of doing my part to minimize the environmental impact my projects have, and using a shipping container is a very green alternative to buying all new building materials.

That being said, you're going to need a bit of guidance. Most of us won't be able to simply go out and buy and old shipping container, and just build it into a livable space.

So, how do you actually build it? There are a couple of e-books floating around that deals with how to build a shipping container home, but the quality of these really vary!

My top choice for a really well-written and detailed guide is this one. The bloke who wrote it sometimes runs promotions and sales, so make sure to check his site and grab a copy if there's a sale going on!

In his guide, this former contractor turned shipping container home expert guides you through pretty much every conceivable detail on how to build your own shipping container home. What makes me recommend this guide over others, is that is also focuses on safety - something that's often overlooked in a lot of the online guides on how to repurpose shipping containers.

There's info on how to reduce your costs, how to get a building permit (only for US-based builders, though), what to look for when acquiring the container, as well as designs, layout planning instructions and over a dozen 3D layout choices, and of course detailed and meticulous step-by-step guide on how to actually build the darn thing!

It's also filled with easy to follow pictures, illustrations, and diagrams, as well as plans for the electrical installations. I highly recommend it, and it even comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee, so there's really nothing to lose here. So if you think you might want to build your own shipping container home, get the full guide here.

If shipping containers aren't your thing, then you should consider building your home out of wood.

People tend to shy away from wood-working as it has a reputation for being very difficult. We've actually got an entire page dedicated to wood-working in general, right here. But essentially, now-a-days, anyone can learn woodworking, even if you have absolutely no experience.

So, how do you go from buying your first hammer to actually building something? Well, if you've already searched the web a bit, you've probably noticed that there aren't really any "How to build your own off-grid cabin" for dummies guides out there yet. That being said, there is an amazing resource here, which I recommend that you go have a look at. The story behind the build is also truly inspirational!

But, amazing as that entire site is, it doesn't really cater to the absolute beginner. Luckily, there's a guide that does. This golden nugget here, actually teaches you how to build a wooden shed even if you've never held a tool in your hands before. Now, you might think that you don't want to learn how to build a shed, you want to learn how to build a cabin, and I get you. But this shed-building guide here is without a doubt the best beginners guide to wood constructions in general, and is an absolute must-read before going all in, and actually start building your own cabin.

The guide features a whooping 12,000 different shed plans, and the detailed instructions provided makes building IKEA furniture seem hard in comparison. The guide regularly goes on sale, so make sure to check out the site for any current promotions, and grab it if it's on sale at the moment!

The author offers a 60-day full money-back guarantee, so there's not really anything to lose. The level of detail in his guide are absolutely amazing, and it really does enable an absolute novice with 0 woodworking experience to build their own shed, which can absolutely double as an off-grid cabin, as the sheds are built to code, and safety is a big priority in the guide.

When I first started getting an interest in DIY, I mistakenly trusted strangers on the internet a bit too much. It wasn't after I'd bought and read about a dozen different guides on DIY that it dawned on me that a lot of them weren't written by actual experts. So now-a-days, I only buy guides where there's a real author behind it. In the case of this guide, the author behind it is called Ryan Henderson, and he's a bit of a legend when it comes to teaching people about wood-working.

Before finding this guide, I actually bought another guide online (which shall remain nameless, I'm not huge on the whole cancel-culture thing), and followed it. I got the tools, the 2x4’s, and even began cutting to size. And even though I felt optimistic about it all, I didn't get far before it dawned on me that I had no idea what I was doing, and the author seemed to think that he didn't need to explicitly explain every single detail to me. But he was wrong. I gave up somewhere between page 32 - page 35, and actually felt really defeated.

But of course, now it makes sense, knowing that many of the plans sold online aren't even written by woodworkers. They are written by ghost-writers who have never touched a chisel or a piece of lumber in their life. So, such plans often have wrong instructions, are either too dumb down or too complicated.

And, I mean, if you are going to invest your money, energy, and time in building a anything by yourself, then you're going to need a detailed plan that actually has all the information you need to know, and not just a collection of "best-of" tips, what won't teach you anything at all!

So, if you're serious about learning the skills necessary to build your own off-grid cabin from scratch, I wholeheartedly recommend that you start right here.

Don’t like cabins or shipping containers, but still want to live off-grid? Don’t worry. In recent years, the tiny house movement has gone from being a small subculture, to becoming fairly mainstream. It’s always great seeing a small community expanding, as in the DIY-niche, that means that a lot more people are sharing their know-how online! And tiny houses are absolutely no exception.

The coolest thing about tiny houses, are that they’re (in the vast majority of cases) mobile, and built onto a trailer, meaning that you’ll be getting all the benefits of mobility, whilst enjoying all the nice things about living in an actual house.

Living in a tiny house might seem really daunting to the average citizen. We aren’t exactly brought up with the mindset that smaller is better. However, the vast majority of people in the tiny house movement actually report much better feelings of subjective well being after downsizing to a tiny house.

For me, the best choice for off-grid living is a tiny house. The cons are so few compared to all the pros, and especially the freedom both physically and financially is what convinced me to give it a go, and I don’t think I’ll go back to a “normal” house anytime soon. Getting the wife onboard in the first place was nowhere near as difficult as I had feared either. She actually got convinced when when I told her that we’d have a real bathroom, which was her main fear about the whole project!

This option will require quite a lot of decluttering your life first, though. For my wife and I, it was almost therapeutic to go through all out belongings, and really prioritize what we needed and what we didn’t. And I’ll tell you, that living through the Corona virus crisis in a tiny house alone was worth everything. You just won’t get the same peace of mind in any kind of global disasters, as you will in a mobile, self-sufficient, tiny house.

So, how the hell do you actually get a tiny house? Well, you could buy one. But that would defeat the purpose of being a DIY Prepper, wouldn’t it? So, instead, let’s learn how to build it ourselves.

There’s a few places online you can buy the plans for tiny houses, and some of them are actually of a high quality. Especially these plans are both beautiful and detailed. They are, however, a bit pricey, and actually require that you know at least some basics about construction first.

On the other hand, if you’re after a complete step-by-step guide, this is by far the best guide out there as of 2020. This guide takes you through everything you could ever need to know about building your own tiny house. We’ve actually reached out to the author of the guide, as we wanted to see if we could get some sort of deal for our readers. And lo, and behold, using this link will get you an automatic 10% off the total price - and the best part is that the offer can be used in conjunction with other promotions, meaning that even if there’s a sale on already, you’ll still get 10% off the sale price.

There is a tiny caveat, though, and that is that the information about code and regulations in the guide are only applicable to the US. In Europe, the legislation on tiny houses vary from country to country, and whilst I’d still recommend the guide for the practical step-by-step guide on how to build a tiny house, if you’re from Europe, you’ll need to do your own research on local legislation.

The guide comes with a 60-day money back guarantee, so you can try it out for 59 days, and if you’re not happy, you can actually get all your money back.

Well, with the home out of the way (or at least in progress), you're going to need water, food, and power. Click here for information on how to become self-sufficient for water and food, and here for power.