Everything I’ve Done to Find Land or a Home Over the Past 4 Years

Actively searched across dozens of platforms
Searched daily on:
Marktplaats, Facebook Marketplace, Kamernet, Pararius
TinyFindy, GoeieBuurt, GreenHome, Ecobasa
German and Belgian real estate websites (Immowelt, Immoscout, Kleinanzeigen, Immovlan, etc.)
Searched region-specific terms as well (for example: “garden for rent Limburg,” “rent land Eifel,” “camping at a farmer’s place Belgian Limburg”)
Emailed housing corporations, even outside my own region
Set alerts, used filters, saved searches
Posted hundreds of messages in Facebook groups
Groups focused on:
Camper living / nomadic living / minimalist living
Tiny houses / off-grid living / self-sufficient living
Living in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands
High sensitivity, neurodiversity, HSP
Every call for help carefully written and adapted to the specific audience
Often combined with personal photos, illustrations and extensive explanations
Repeatedly reached out personally
Contacted private individuals offering land or space, even when it did not seem like a perfect fit
Had open conversations and honestly explained our situation
Drove to locations, visited places, then either got rejected or had to reject them ourselves afterward
Responded to messages that later turned out to be misleading or dishonest
Professional and creative approach
Wrote multiple call-for-help texts in different languages (Dutch, English, German)
Had special images created that visually represented our situation and wishes
Started a Dutch Substack blog telling our full story
Built a website entirely in English
Created a visual map with suitable regions
Set up a Ko-fi and donation page as a last resort
Shared everything through social media, over and over again
Stories, carousels and longer posts on Instagram and Facebook
Personally asked people to share our story
Processed reactions, adjusted posts and reposted them
Put enormous amounts of energy into repeating and continuing
💬 What I mostly received in return (and had to endure)
Negative or ignorant reactions
People saying it was “not realistic”
People saying that “everyone has it difficult” or that “you just need to work harder”
Suggestions that we should “just go to therapy”
Comments dismissing high sensitivity as “attention-seeking”
Attacks on our childfree life, our lifestyle, or our requests for help
Painful silences
No responses to detailed calls for help that took hours to write
Interest suddenly disappearing once people heard more about our situation
People promising to share something or ask around, then never responding again
Being judged for our vulnerability
People using our story to make a point of their own (“see, this is why you can’t live without money”)
Others claiming we chose this life ourselves and therefore are not allowed to complain
Rejections purely based on the fact that we still live with a parent
Responses saying we “make everything too personal” or “show too much emotion”
⏳ What I have put into this
Time: thousands of hours searching, writing, posting and responding
Energy: during periods of overstimulation, migraines, grief and exhaustion
Money: travel costs, fuel, data subscriptions, design work, equipment, driving anxiety partly ignored and overcome
Vulnerability: showing myself honestly, with both pain and hope
Creativity: website blogs, Substack stories, Instagram visuals, storytelling
Perseverance: getting back up again and again, continuing even when it seemed to lead nowhere…

Login