Using the same software you might use at work and getting better at it, perhaps even exploring simpler distros like K3s, k0s, Minikube or whatever people use nowadays.

It made it trivial for me to deploy reproducible blocks that are also nicely integrated and automated on certain axes (DNS, LetsEncrypt, load balancer / reverse proxy, storage management, PostgreSQL databases with backups).

All of that with considerably easier to understand and debug mechanisms in my experience than doing it with old school configuration management or, even worse, manually.

You need to see Kubernetes as a wrapper of the init thread (systemd).

If you fought with cgroup to tame resource (memory, cpu) consumption you know.

You get also controlled rollout for free.

Likewise, it’s also a platform so you get installation receipts of third party software’s for free.

You install the Prometheus operator and, bam, you get declarative monitoring as code for free.

The ticket entry is not free but once you got it, it’s repeatable and durable.

I use most of this chart:

https://github.com/combostrap/kubee#list-of-kubee-charts

There is more but it asks a real blog.