'I just went from city living to being 6 hours from the nearest town. Here's what I've learned.'

Earlier this year my partner and I made a, well, kind of chaotic decision – we moved to remote outback Australia. When I say "remote", I mean remote. We live in a tiny community called Lajamanu that's six (!) hours from the nearest town, let alone a big city. 

That nearby town – in NT terms, six hours is like saying "nearby" – is Katherine, and even though it's a major Northern Territory hub, it's got one Woolworths, a small Kmart and a handful of other shops for groceries and household needs. 

So essentially, we went from big-city Sydney life where we could run down the road to grab some milk if we ran out, to a place where long-life milk is the standard.

It's honestly been a great (if, at times, frustrating) experience. I've learned to meal prep like I never have before. I can bulk shop better than a doomsday prepper. I never run out of anything because I know that to get my favourite moisturiser, it involves waiting three weeks for the postie to arrive. 

A lot of these skills will transfer really nicely back to city life when we eventually return to the Big Smoke. So I thought I'd share a bunch with you.

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Bulk is best.

This one is probably the most obvious, but I never used to shop in bulk. I was always buying my regular-use household items in big sizes, sure, but not in bulk.

When I say bulk, I mean clunky tubs of stuff you stash away, then use once a month to refill the smaller, cuter, everyday bottle. You won't find the bulk-buy versions of your favourites at the supermarket, but at the Big W in Darwin (nearest big city) I discovered that they sell a lot of brands in big sizes, like massive tubs of my washing liquid, so I'll go and buy two of those and that lasts me months!

I also buy my favourite beauty and household items in bulk whenever there's an online sale now. Shipping takes weeks in the Outback, so it also means I'm never without my moisturiser!

Image: Supplied.

My robot vacuum is like my child now.

It was love at first sight when I first bought my (very expensive) Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni robotic vacuum cleaner. It was a combined Christmas-Birthday present to myself, plus input from my parents AND my partner, and I regret nothing. 

However, it really became part of the family (I just feel like robotic vacuum cleaner owners understand this level of obsession) when we moved to the Outback. THE DUST. Oh my GOD, the dust. Every day I switch it on, and it zips around sweeping and mopping, doing a household job that now needs to be done daily without me having to lift a finger. I'd have lost my mind without it, I think.

Never. Waste. Anything.

So there is a local store in Lajamanu, but prices are STEEP. Like, a standard choccy bar for $15 steep. It's also impossible to know if they'll have what you need in stock - and you definitely don't get a choice of brand. 

If I suddenly need herbs for a soup or curry I'm craving? Bad luck. Chicken breasts? That'll be $30, or worse, they'll be out of stock.

Basically, if you live remote, you plan your meals and prepare for the worst. Everything that isn't eaten goes in the freezer and not just the old throw-it-in-some-Tupperware-and-into-the-freezer business. We'll freeze everything to last. I got this tip from a great Facebook group about remote living – buy a vacuum sealer. We went with the Russell Hobbs Seal Fresh, mainly because it was on sale on Amazon at the time. But it's been incredible – you just pop whatever you want to freeze into the seal pocket, and it'll suck all the air out of it, so it lasts longer in the freezer without going weird and icy.

We also put any leftovers in vacuum-sealed bags, too. If we have heaps of veggies about to go, we will make a big curry or casserole, and freeze it all up, portion-sized.

Stocking up isn't just about reducing waste, it's planning for the worst. Just before we arrived, the road into Lajamanu was flooded for weeks. It meant no delivery trucks could get to town, and no one could travel to Katherine, either. People really had to rely on what they had at home, or whatever the store had left.

Image: Supplied.

Hard water ruins stuff.

I never knew about hard water – water that's high in mineral content – until I moved to the Outback. In Sydney, water isn't soft (low in mineral content), but it's not too bad. The Outback? That water is hectic!

Our water is drinkable, but because I have eczema, it wreaked havoc on my skin. I was dry, flaky and itchy within a week of moving. I asked around town and everyone knew of similar stories. We were also told of kettles and cooking pots being destroyed by the minerals, which create this hard white crust.

The solution? Water filters. Water filters for everything from your tap in the kitchen to your shower. I bought them ALL.  We have a shower filter by a small Aussie brand called Well Verti, and attached a really great compact one by TAPP to the bathroom sink. In the kitchen, we have a Brita jug in the fridge and a water filter from Bunnings over the sink for filling pots and the coffee machine. 

It sounds excessive, but it's kept my skin from going haywire, and the taste is great! I would check if you live in a hard water area because I had no idea about how it can affect your life until I moved to the Outback.

Image: Supplied.

Being handy is a necessity.

Before moving to the Outback, I knew how to change a tyre. That was the extent of my handyman expertise. Since moving, I've had to learn on-the-go how to: unclog a toilet, remove and reattach a shower head from the wall, seal up gaps in roof spaces, and jumpstart a car. 

They're simple tasks, but they're ones I probably would have called a professional for in the past. The thing is, calling a professional in remote Australia means waiting up to a month for them to make it out your way, so you quickly learn how to sort out the small stuff yourself. 

Imagine the money I could have saved if I'd bothered to do this when I lived in Sydney! Which I suppose is the connecting link between most of my lessons. In a city, it's easy to access whatever you want, whenever you want it, so you spend unnecessarily simply because it's easy to. But it actually didn't make life easier. I never understood meal preppers and organised people before, because life's stressful! How did you have time to plan all this stuff? 

Image: Supplied.

But I get it now. Stopping the constant whirlwind for a second and doing a little forward planning pays off big-time, both financially and for stress levels. It's been a have-to-do living remotely, but I'll be bringing that same energy back to Sydney when I eventually return, for sure.

Feature Image: Supplied.