Living in the country can be a magical place, but it can also be a little challenging at other times.
I thought it would be interesting to share my experience of living in a small country town (population around 350) so other people can get a glimpse of a possibly different lifestyle.
Pros
- Quiet and peaceful
You very rarely hear other people. I can remember as a child hardly hearing a car go along the main road. We have some cars and trucks now, but it’s not that noticeable. - Space and room to move
When you go outside the house, you can’t actually see the neighbours. There is green grass and trees. I spent a lot of time running around as a child making ‘mud pies’. - Nature is all around you
Kangaroos jump freely, birds fly over, possums hang out in the trees and kookaburras laugh. - Self sufficient (kind of)
We do not rely on a town water supply. Our water is drawn from a natural spring under the ground from a bore. We also store water in tanks. Sewage is stored large tanks. Our power supply is however from external suppliers. - Animals have room to play
Having a large number of cats, it can be a bit cramped if they are inside all the time. Having the space for them to be outside and explore is great. - Space for a garden…
So we do have a lot of flowers and have a position picked out for a vegetable garden, we just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Having a vegetable garden is another great way to be more self sufficient, it can also be known as a positive healing technique as well. - Fresh air without pollution
There are no factories, offices or large buildings. The air feels very pure.
Cons
- Travelling
If you need to see a doctor, visit a friend or go shopping you have to travel. It takes an hour each way by car to the nearest supermarket. If there is a medical emergency, this also becomes a big concern. - Bulk food shopping
To make your food last, you have to buy in bulk. We usually do one large shop that lasts for a month. It can be costly, usually around $400 – $600 AUD. You also can’t order home deliveries and take-out is a rarity. - Slow internet
I am lucky that I am able to pick up a wifi signal. However the fastest speeds I can get are around 4 – 6mbps. There is no ADSL or cable option. - When things go wrong
If you have a problem, such as a fuse burns out you have to call a technician, electrician or whatever in to fix it. They can very rarely do it that day and you have to pay for travel on top. - Scary animals
Australia has a lot of deadly animals, and one of the scary things about country life is snakes. We have brown snakes that can be deadly, so you always have to be cautious when outside in summer (I always worry about my cats with them as well). There is also no one you can call in to remove them, you just have to hope they will move along. - Fire
When we have an intense summer, there can be a lot of fire activity. Although we have not yet had a fire that directly threatened our home, it could happen. There is a lot of bushland, and on a bad season we can have several fires a day. We are lucky to have an awesome volunteer fire brigade though! - Garbage
We do not have anyone that takes our garbage away for us. We have to load it onto a trailer and take it about 5km to the small town ‘garbage tip’.
Even though there are a number of cons that would be a nice luxury to be without, I still love living in the country and would find it very hard to transition to living in a city or populated area.
Questions
- What kind of location do you live in? (city, town, country, isolated)
- What are some pros about where you live?
- What are some cons about where you live?
- Are you happy with where you live?
38 Responses
Every place has pros and cons, I guess :’D but the most important is that the pros are worth it!
I’ve lived in the Parisian suburb, in the same city and the same place all my life until now. I think that the city I live in is considered average here o: the biggest pro of living here is probably its proximity to Paris haha! Otherwise, it’s really like in any average city, really. Same with the cons, maybe not enough nature, even though the municipality makes effort concerning green spaces management and maintenance, also it can be quite noisy sometimes ! For the moment, I don’t think about moving out since my economic situation doesn’t allow me to and because I don’t need to but I can’t freeload at my parents’ forever either :’)
I wish I had a garden though! One of my dreams is to have my own veggie and fruit garden 😀
Having your own garden would be so cool. I want to try and do this at some point. 😀
I haven’t met anyone who lives in the country – it’s super cool that you do :3 I can imagine the pros and cons of living there, but tbh I’d focus on the pros because I love tranquility! <3
Questions
1.What kind of location do you live in? (city, town, country, isolated) I live in the city!
2.What are some pros about where you live? Really friendly, bubbly people who are always diverse and interesting. Also, shopping areas – I live where we have 3 big shopping areas and as a shopaholic, it's a great place 😉
3.What are some cons about where you live? Noisy sometimes especially at night, I live near the student area so 🙁
4.Are you happy with where you live? YES!
That is really great that you are happy where you live and that the people are nice! 😀
Wow, sounds like an interesting place to stay – minus the wifi signal, but then since you can still blog and update your twitter, that would be good enough, eh? haha~ hmmm, you make me thinking at 3am, just to answer your questions! hahha~
What kind of location do you live in? I work in a small city at the Southern part of Malaysia, in a state called Johore. It is not as huge as Kuala Lumpur but a busy one tho.
What are some pros about where you live? Even though it is a city, but you can still see lots of greeneries around.
What are some cons about where you live? The traffic. I really hate it, especially during the weekend, because people in the city will go back here as it is their hometown, and the traffic would be really bad -,-
Are you happy with where you live? I’ve been staying here for 4 years but I can’t call it home just yet. I just see it as my “working place” XD
I hope that you can find a place that you are really comfortable with later. Or maybe you will grow to love it, well except the traffic. >.>
I’ve always wanted to live in the country again. I used to live in a small port town, and I really liked it. It’s important to note the cons too though. Right now I live in the city. I like it too, being close to parks and transport. I miss the quiet though. 🙂
A port town would be really lovely. Sometimes I imagine that if I lived in the small community I do, but if it was not far from water it would be perfect. xD
I live in the outskirts of a small town, and I love it here. We’re close to woods and lovely areas for going for walks, we have the lake, but we’re still close enough to the town centre and there’s a supermarket in our area too. There’s shopping in town (there’s a bus or it’s a 30 mins walk) or in a shopping centre a little further away. It’s a nice and peaceful town. The bad thing is that I work in another town, and the travelling is a pain.
That sounds really lovely! It would be difficult with travel to another town though. 🙁
I am glad you like living in the country and am happy that you shared this post. I always (well, not always! That sounds creepy :P) sort of wondered or was curious about what you liked about being in the country. When I was a teenager I wanted to live in the country. My geography teacher said that because the air was so clean, people who grew up in the country had pink lungs compared to people in the city, because they breathed cleaner air. Apparently they found this out when they had to inspect the bodies of two people who had passed away.
I love visiting country towns for the nature, the peace and quiet, and the cleaner air. I get really excited when there is an event or something in country towns. For example, the chocolate festival in Hunter Valley, and the Steam Train festival in Thirlmere. Country towns have a really nice feel to them. 🙂 They feel cosy and homey, at least to someone like me who grew up in the city. I guess I didn’t fully grow up in the city area as I’m in the suburbs (suburbia! :)) so maybe that has helped me appreciate what country towns are like. And Nick is from an area that used to be quite like that before modern buildings and facilities were built (he was born in the Blue Mountains actually :)).
It’s a shame you have had to deal with annoying internet so much and some things can be a bit of an inconvenience but I’m glad you still love where you are. Sometimes the pros outweigh the cons and whatever makes us happy is what we choose to go with, and little inconveniences don’t matter.
What kind of location do you live in? (city, town, country, isolated)
The outskirts of the city, the suburbs, whatever people call them hehe.
What are some pros about where you live?
It’s quiet. 🙂 It’s not that busy unless we want to get to the local mall on a busy day or a weekend. Public transport is OK. It’s easy to get around. It also makes travelling kind of nice sometimes. I think I would hate it if everything was within walking distance. It would get boring.
What are some cons about where you live?
It’s so far from where the ‘action’ is. It takes some time to travel to events, and sometimes the ‘last train home’ is a completely annoying one that means you have to leave late-night stuff early, or you have to drive. My particular town has lots of criminals. LOL.
I also don’t really like Sydney because you can’t just walk around the town (it’s not a walkable city like others around the world), everything is shut at 5pm (I HATE THIS), etc.
Are you happy with where you live?
For the moment yes haha. I have not found anything better, though I have heard of better places. But I prefer to travel elsewhere to see what places are like before I feel like I am totally unhappy with where I am. Maybe I am just used to it. 😛
STALKER ahahah. I hope that you do find somewhere that you really like at some stage. 😀 I am sure that you love. I completely agree about trying somewhere out before you live there. I would want to visit a lot to see if I was comfortable. xD
Aaah, I love living out in the middle of nowhere, but you’re definitely right that it’s not always practical. I live in a city in the Netherlands right now so it’s always quite busy and crowded but I’d much rather trade in all those amenities to live in the mountains with nature all around. I’m not much of a social person anyway. 😛
If you’re not social, living in the country can be an added bonus. xD
I live in a village, which is fairly peaceful. Nothing like where you live though! I always feel like this place is a compromise for people who can’t decide whether they want to live in a town or the countryside. It feels like a village, the air is clean and there’s countryside surrounding us, but go a mile east and you hit a reasonably-sized town. Go another fifteen miles and you’re in the biggest city in the country (disclaimer: not a very big city by worldwide standards). We have a dual carriageway at the end of the village that links us to the city, but since it’s right at one end of the village it doesn’t make a huge difference to the place. It’s an old village and conservation rules mean that not much can change, so the main road looks near enough identical to how it did a century ago.
I think it’s pretty good here. We have public transport, supermarkets a ten minute drive away, and decent internet and other utilities, but it’s still quiet and the countryside is still right outside the door. We’re only a few miles from the coast as well. It’s a hilly area, and the way the village sits means that there’s no clue that you’re so close to civilisation, except from a couple of viewpoints. Just about everyone has a decent sized garden, and there are an awful lot of trees everywhere.
No kangaroos though. :p
That sounds like a really interesting place to live. The place that I live also has a heritage order, so a lot of it has not changed in 100 years.
I admit, I’m more of a city person than anything. I used to visit my grandmother in the Korean countryside as a kid. I love my grandmother, but country living was not my thing at all. It was just too quiet and boring for me, and I was surrounded by rice paddies. There were hardly anybody to play with, so it was a rather lonely, boring experience for me. Sure, the peace and quiet was nice, but I’d much rather live in a city! Sure, the city is crowded and polluted, but there’s always something to do, Internet is super fast, and it’s really convenient. But that’s just me 😀
I can definitely see the pros of living out in the country, and I’ve enjoyed seeing your photos of your life there. 😀
It’s really good that you like where you are living and that there are a lot of things that you can do. 😀
What kind of location do you live in?
Suburban city is the best name for it! I’m not in an actual city (like New York City, for example), but I’m really close to a city center and our suburban areas have a lot of city influences. The closest grocery store is only a 10 minute drive away!
What are some pros about where you live?
Easy access to everything that we need — medical, stores, shopping, etc. Nothing is overly far, and it’s easy to find what you need.
What are some cons about where you live?
It isn’t quiet, that’s for sure. Lots of cars and activity, and most neighborhood houses have small backyards so there isn’t always a TON of room. I’ve lived in the country/rural areas, and where I live is definitely the opposite.
Are you happy with where you live?
Definitely! I’m more of a city girl, I think. I don’t mind being in a rural area but I love the convenience of having everything close to where I am. There’s a lot of ease there. 😛
That’s great that you are happy where you live. 😀
I pride myself in being a city girl, I know for a fact I can’t survive anywhere else. From what you’ve said it’s mostly because I experience motion sickness because of the trees. I’m fine for long rides in California. I’m near Boston where the houses are close to each other so to not see any neighbors might scare me, too. I’m actually a real hermit with a crutch. It doesn’t help that I’ve lived on a main street half my life either – I need car noises, and lots of them. I’d be a mess where you are, but it still sounds nice.
That would be difficult with the motion sickness. I used to get it sometimes as a child, but grew out of it thankfully. It’s food that you have so familiar with where you live and are used to it!
I agree with you, living outside of the city is definitely worth giving up some of the luxuries that come with the city. If I lived in Australia, however, my opinion may be different. I don’t think I’d like the snake situation… haha. I guess when that’s all you know you’re sort of used to it, but I’d FREAK if I saw a snake!
What kind of location do you live in? (city, town, country, isolated)
I live in a city now but I grew up in smaller, sometimes isolated, towns.
What are some pros about where you live?
There’s a lot more things to do than when I lived in smaller places, more people to meet as well.
What are some cons about where you live?
More people, people always seem to be in a rush, more buildings and less nature.
Are you happy with where you live?
I hate cities. It’s convenient, sure, but I’m definitely more of a small town person. I like knowing everyone in the community, feeling safe, being surrounded by mountains and nature.
Oh, I still do freak out every time! When I see one: “omg is that real arrrrrh, run, scream, arrrh”.
I never knew that you live in the countryside! Seems very cool 😛
1. What kind of location do you live in? (city, town, country, isolated)
I live in a suburb city but is still relatively close to a city!
2. What are some pros about where you live?
It’s nice and quiet. It is also close-by.
3. What are some cons about where you live?
The transit times to get to downtown can take awhile. And there are many high-rises that are currently developed. Mhm, I would say that since I live near the railtrack and go to a mountain, I could be trapped on a mountain if there’s an emergency.
4.Are you happy with where you live?
Yep, I am generally happy with where I live. 😛
Eeek, that would be scary if you were trapped on a mountain! It’s good that you are happy with where you live though! 😀
Wow! The population is pretty low at where you live. Everyone must know each other then? I can imagine all sorts of benefits when it comes to nature and having plenty of space to do things. On the other hand, there are some sacrifices like having lesser of ~current technology~ (like regular trash collection or slow internet). However, I somehow see that the main point is to embrace nature.
I live in the city. A pro is that everything is close by even if it’s a 5~60 minute drive away. On the down side, people who live in LA tend to live 5 years less than the norm because of the pollution (millionssss of cars contributing to the bad air). I live in a decent neighborhood, but my neighbors are pretty bad. I somehow made a decision in wanting to live in a moderately upscale neighborhood where I don’t need to deal with these illegal substance shenanigans XD.
Most people do know everyone. There can be some pros and cons with that as well. xD
That would be hard if you had bad neighbours. 🙁
I also live in the country ^~^ actually, it sounds like we are living nearly the same! Your pros and cons list is literally verbatim to my life; in fact I have a load of garbage ready to go to the dump now! Thinking we’ll go tomorrow.. is your transfer station free? Ours is, and that’s another pro to living in the country 🙂
I love LOVE not having neighbors within earshot. We tried to live in town for a few months and failed miserably. We had complaints against us within a week. I guess my truck was too big hahaha
And honestly I prefer to shop online and have things go to my post office, it makes it exciting. Grocery shopping is a pain but I think that’s because I just hate to do it.
My daughter goes to school in town, which is about 15 miles, or 30 minutes, but it’s not that bad because the distance is normal.
Another pro is the bowl of stars you get to look at every night. And the walking outside in your underwear. Heck you can pee outside if you want to. I also hang dry all of our laundry, so that’s another pro because we save money there. It’s funny, too, because electricity is 2 times more expensive in the city.. so that’s pro what, 100? Hahaha
Having pets is a big pro, I love high drive dogs so it’s great to have the space. And I’m looking into getting chickens soon and starting a vegetable garden soon as well! We just moved here a couple months ago so we’re slowly moving all of our materials from our previous ranch. I’m talking soil, greenhouses, cages, all that good stuff. So we’ll save a ton of money on food, too. Thinking of transplanting some citrus trees, too.
All in all I love the country. We’re surrounded by fresh air, we have more liberties, and a few more responsibilities is a fine exchange to have those liberties.
I lucked out on the internet, our local provider has his tower hooked up on the mountain right behind us. YOU could probably make a butt load of money if you provided your town with Internet service! There’s articles about how to do it online and I think you have the intelligence to do so. Think about it- roughly 150 clients at maybe$50usd per month… that’s a nice chunk of change!
Holy moly this is long, sorry o~o
Xo✌
You just described things 1000% better than I did! 😀
On no Kya! I never knew you were suffering that much with the lack of Internet. I would have gone crazy but I know what you mean. Sometimes I travel to the English countryside and there’s not even any phone signal and then I go crazy! 😡
What kind of location do you live in? (city, town, country, isolated)
I live with my mum, in the city but away from central. I guess it’s semi-isolated.
What are some pros about where you live?
It’s a guarded area so no one can enter without having passing through the guards. In a country like this, you can get mugged or attacked, so we need the security if it can be afforded.
I guess since it’s a guarded area, it’s also quiet and I can walk out and feel safe around the neighbourhood.
What are some cons about where you live?
It’s in the city but if I wanted to go to the supermarket, it’s a minimum 1 hour drive out, and I can’t drive…there’s lots of traffic so have to wake up extra early if you want to get to work.
Are you happy with where you live?
You know where I live Kya, in terms of area, I’m OK but country-wise, a big no. 🙂
Things will get better though, we know it. 😀
I’m glad the pros outway the cons, otherwise it would have made me sad. I love the idea of country living, but I don’t drive so it would be fairly silly.
I like in suburbia and I hate it. I either all or nothing, isolated country or busy city. The middle ground feels so standard, paused, unprogressive (I’m generalising, it’s not all like that). But, pro is that I can get the bus anywhere and it’s frequent.
That would be really handy being able to catch a bus! Driving is an issue that I kind of fail at, when I need to do it. >.<
I didn’t know you lived in the country! Being in a place that’s quiet, surrounded by nature, and with fresh air sounds amazing. I think that’s why I like going to naturey and outdoorsy places for vacation. It’s sounds very peaceful and less stressful 🙂
It sounds like some of the cons are pretty inconvenient. I didn’t realize you have to deal with your trash yourself, and it makes me realize I take services like that for granted. I’m glad the pros outweigh the cons though!
I live in a suburban area, and I like that it’s pretty quiet and still near many stores and restaurants. I wish I was closer to more parks or greenbelt areas though!
If you lived in the city and had some parkland close by it would be really nice!
Oh wow, the country sounds like a magical movie setting. 🙂 Based on your description I’ve never been to an actual countryside. I’ve been to what is considered country in the USA east coast which is close to what you described, but they always surround a small town that has what you listed in cons readily available. Maybe there’s more room on the west coast! I think I’d like to visit the country for a month someday, while spending less time on the computer and more on the camera (so internet speed won’t be a concern!). I see you take a lot of beautiful photos in those sidebars. 🙂
I have a friend who lives near Newcastle, Australia and she has similar problems about snakes and fires. 🙁
I live in a megacity, and currently moved to the middle of it, aka Manhattan. The pros would be easy access to everything I need and there’s a lot going on! The con would probably be I don’t really get to relax. But I am quite happy with this lifestyle, much happier than how I used to live in the suburbs and trek out into the city every day. That was tiring.
It would probably be a bit of a shock to be in a place that was so isolated if you have never been. Although I am pretty lucky compared to some places that a hundreds of miles away from another person.