Most Vikings, like most people of the time, were farmers. They grew grains and vegetables. They raised animals such as pigs, sheep, goats, cows, and chickens. The animals fed them in the winter when the crops were used up. They preserved meat to make it last longer after a hunting trip by smoking it and drying it.

Their homes were long boxes with slanting roofs. They were made of wood. They could first dig out the ground and build up from there so that a bottom portion of the house was underground. This would keep it warmer since they were living in such a cold climate. Most houses were just one room. Bigger homes might have extra rooms or a storage room. In a town, they would line a crowded street.

There were no bathrooms in a Viking home. They went to the bathroom in something like a latrine, a hole dug in the ground behind a fence of some sort. They washed in buckets of water or a stream.

Their clothes were made from animal skin and wool from sheep, as well as linen cloth. Women wore dresses covered with an apron. Men wore tunics and pants.

A woman’s daily chores would include collecting wood for fire, weaving, and baking bread.