Simple Living Lessons from the Little House

What does it mean to live a simple life?

This is the question that resonates with me when I collaborated with Review Wire Media on behalf of Netflix for a sponsored post to discuss the new Little House on the Prairie series.

Modern industry and technology have simplified and streamlined our lives in many positive ways. However, they’ve also created some complications both big and small.

Twenty years ago, we didn’t have texts and notifications distracting us all day. Packages weren’t showing up on our porches within hours. Ads weren’t competing for our attention from every computer screen and city street corner. At some point, many of us stopped living with the seasons. We started living by the clock and cell phone notifications.

Simple Living Lessons from the Little House

On my office bookshelf sits my box set of “Little House on the Prairie” books from my childhood. Like many a youth, I was enchanted with Laura Ingalls Wilder’s heartfelt depiction of her family’s journey from the big woods in Wisconsin to the open prairies of Kansas and beyond. For me now, it’s a reminder that seasons weren’t always merely dates on a calendar.

For the Ingalls family, life wasn’t as much about simplicity as it was about intentionality. The prairie wasn’t a destination they visited, nature was a daily companion. One of the themes that always stood out to me is that simple pleasures create a sense of abundance. What might appear to be ordinary moments, like Pa playing his fiddle, were truly special. The cornerstones of a daily family culture and memory building that no video games or AI programs can replace.

In our current era that’s flooded with distractions and a fast pace of living, is it even possible to live a simple life? Maybe not completely. But there are many ways in which we can embrace the simple living lessons from the Little House.

Find Joy in Ordinary Days

How many times have you heard your child say “I’m bored”? Honestly, I always wonder how people get truly bored at home. There’s always something to do! I think, often, the trouble is we build our lives around constant excitement not always appreciating that simplicity offers a more sustainable joy. The Ingalls family had very little. Yet, they celebrated the everyday joys like a family gathering around the dinner table and savoring peppermint candies at Christmas.

Often, it’s just in how we look at it. There’s so much abundance around us, it’s easy to take things for granted sometimes and to forget to carve out space for family time. Taking time to walk around the neighborhood together, making dinner together, sitting by a firepit and watching the fireflies light up the landscape. These are the simple moments worth our daily gratitude. Moments that bond a family and create long-lasting memories.

Each day there are simple celebrations. Don’t discount the mundane to alleviate your boredom. Crafting together, drinking a cup of tea on the porch, solving a puzzle, and playing outdoors are all boredom busters that enhance your quality of everyday life. If you’re having trouble detaching from tech, set a tech timer!

Each day, set aside a half hour to do something together that doesn’t involve the television, computer or cell phone. Embrace simple, fun, family activities. Even if you’re overloaded with chores, the dishes can wait a half hour! Once you commit to taking time out, up your time to an hour or a full day each week.

The more you find joy in the ordinary days, the fuller and richer life becomes.

Live With the Seasons

The Ingalls family didn’t fight the seasons; they worked with each one to ensure they thrived. They didn’t choose every hardship, but they did choose how they responded to it. In Spring, they planted, in Fall, they harvested, in Winter, they rested.

While many of us don’t sustain ourselves completely from our gardens or farms, we can still embrace the spirit of living with the seasons. Think of nature as your daily companion. There’s a lot to be said for noticing the birds as they migrate and settle. Rolling with the changes in weather. Admiring the foliage around us throughout each season.

Shopping the Farmer’s Market is a great way to embrace the Summer season. Participating in Fall festivals is delightful. Cozying up at home with a good book everyone takes turns reading is a lovely Winter tradition. And Spring brings so many opportunities for renewal including planting and freshening up our homes. You can also change up your meals around the seasons, using seasonal produce and goods to enjoy peak freshness. Or take up canning or dehydrating so that you can enjoy your favorites all year round.

Learn Practical Skills

Laura Ingalls Wilder gives us vivid descriptions of gardening, cooking from scratch, food preservation, sewing, carpentry and even animal care in her wonderful book series. Learning practical skills is key to the survival of the Ingalls family but it’s also empowering. In our modern times, every practical skill we learn offers more independence and resilience.

It’s great when you don’t have to always rely on someone else to provide the basics or advanced work. Also a lot cheaper to DIY!

If you’ve ever been in a storm when the power goes out, you likely already understand the power of knowing how to handle unexpected events by utilizing your practical skills. Those who have faced high cost home improvements may also now realize how much you can save by investing in your skill set to handle some of the work on your own.

Another advantage of embracing practical skills like sewing is having the ability to create decorative items for your home, for yourself, and for gifting. The excitement of receiving a thoughtful, handmade Christmas gift is priceless.

It’s never too late to learn something new. Many resources like 4H and extension office services in our counties offer classes. You can also enlist the aid of your relatives, neighbors, or friends who have skills like woodworking or crocheting to help teach you. There’s also an abundance of online videos and courses available. That’s one way technology is super helpful! You can learn just about anything easily.

Waste Less

A lesson I learned early on from the Ingalls family was to be a good steward. Even today, my bio always contains the words “earth steward” and my books are all written with this concept in mind. In frontier life, people had very little and nothing was thrown away without thought. Today we have an overwhelming abundance and it’s so easy to toss away items knowing they are readily available and easy to replace.

Living a simpler life urges us to reconsider our “disposable” notions. Being good stewards of what we already have can keep our lives less complicated and help protect our environment, along with our pocketbook! It is far less expensive to mend a favorite dress than to buy a new one (see “Learn Practical Skills above!)

Repurposing household items breaths fresh life into a room. For example, I recently had a few baskets from my farmer’s market booth that were no longer of use. They found new life in my pantry as snack baskets. This has transformed how we use the pantry and makes it a lot simpler for me to see when I’m out of items we use regularly. If you are not good as visualizing a new purpose for your old items, there are plenty of resources to help. You can simply type in “new uses for old couch pillows” into a search engine and you’ll find plenty of ideas.

Happiness isn’t always found in having new or having more. Gratitude can often grow stronger when life is simpler and you save money for special things like vacations in the process!

New Lessons from the Little House

When the series aired in the mid-seventies, our family enjoyed each episode straight through its 9 season run. Lovely to see the books come to life.

Now, there’s a fresh new way to enjoy this beloved tale with the highly anticipated Little House on the Prairie Netflix series. Premiering on July 9, 2026, this epic drama of survival is an adaptation of the iconic Little House books following the troubles and triumphs of the people who shaped the frontier.

I look forward to seeing what new simple living lessons we can learn or re-learn from the new series! Have you seen the previews yet? Looks very compelling. Check it out:

A Few Last Thoughts

You don’t have to churn your own butter, exist without your cell phone, or build a log cabin to embrace the wisdom of the Little House.

We can choose gratitude over abundance. Community over isolation. We can buy less and repurpose more. Opt for a slower pace over our constant busyness.

Our world may have changed dramatically since the time Laura Ingalls Wilder penned her stories, but the quiet lessons of the prairie still have the power to remind us what truly makes a rich life.