It is a noble pursuit of many to become independent from the ties of modern conveniences. While some individuals seek to go completely off-grid, others realize that such utter dependence may not be practical while still residing within city limits. It is here that a reasonable compromise is made, and the following represent four services that should still be retained by such homeowners.
Local Garbage Collection Service
When living inside the limits of a city, it is important to consider how a resident’s ability to store trash will affect their own health as well as the neighbor’s health. As a general rule, most municipalities do not tolerate excessive trash accumulation—especially if it becomes an eyesore within the community. If a resident does not have the ability to haul their trash in regular intervals, then it would perhaps be best to continue using the services of a local garbage collections company.
Septic Tank Pumping Services
There are many cities that still have residents who use septic tanks instead of the city’s public sewage system. Unfortunately, a septic tank, while a more independent approach to managing human waste, must still be serviced from time to time. To this end, it is inevitable that anyone living inside a city on a septic system will need to call one of the septic tank pumping services when their tank needs servicing.
The Water Company
Hard as one might try, it would be difficult to function in the city without running water. Everyone needs to wash their hands, their clothes, their dishes and take a bath. So, unless a person has a stream, river, lake or pond in their back yard, then chances are they will have to continue using the services of the water company to meet all their freshwater needs.
Mobile Phone Service
Today many people have abandoned using a landline in their city home. Instead, they use smartphones to communicate with the people they want to stay in contact with. To make this possible, mobile phone companies spend a considerable amount of time and money erecting and maintaining telecommunications infrastructure in most cities. Consequently, it is considered an acceptable compromise to most people to continue to pay a phone bill each month to help support the maintenance and repair of telecommunications infrastructure, rather than going without any kind of phone service.
Since it is near impossible to go off-grid in the city, it is understandable why many residents still use some basic services from month to month. Some of these services are perhaps easier to avoid or do without than others, but living without certain services in the city would make it difficult to function. It is here that people seeking independence from many modern conveniences must come to accept that achieving total independence from the city is not always such a realistic goal.