Simple Living with Kids: Practical Tips That Actually Work for Real Families

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Let me tell you what simple living with kids looked like in our house last Tuesday. One child was out back checking on the chickens in her muddy rain boots, the other was belly-down in the grass trying to catch a lizard with his bare hands, and I was inside washing the same cast iron skillet I’ve washed about ten thousand times while a loaf of sourdough cooled on the counter. No apps running. No errands scheduled. No activities to rush off to.

Was it quiet and idyllic? Kind of. Was someone also arguing with someone else over whose turn it was to collect eggs? Absolutely.

Here’s what I want you to know: simple living with kids is not aesthetic. It’s not a curated feed or a course you buy. It’s a series of small, intentional decisions you make over and over again — and a lot of letting go. If you’re looking for practical, real-life ways to actually simplify your family’s daily life, you’re in the right place.

Start With the Calendar, Not the Clutter

Everyone tells you to declutter first. And yes, stuff matters — we’ll get there. But in my experience, the thing that makes family life feel the most chaotic is an overscheduled calendar, not an overstuffed closet.

We protect our slow mornings fiercely. Our Charlotte Mason homeschool rhythm is built around a morning basket, outdoor time, and a handful of focused lessons — not a packed schedule that has us running from thing to thing before lunch. If you want to read more about how we’ve simplified our overall pace, I wrote about that in depth over here: How to Slow Down and Simplify Family Life (Without Feeling Like You’re Missing Out).

Practical tip: Look at your weekly calendar and find one recurring commitment that drains more than it gives. Just one. See what life feels like without it for a month.

Give Kids Less — and Watch Them Do More

This is the one people push back on the most, but it’s the one I believe in completely. When kids have fewer toys, fewer options, and fewer structured activities, they get creative. They get bored — which is actually where the good stuff happens.

Our kids spend huge chunks of their afternoons outside. They’ve built forts, studied ant hills, caught bugs in their bug collection kit, and spent a full hour one afternoon just watching our chickens sort out their pecking order drama. That’s science. That’s social studies. That’s the 1990s childhood I grew up having in Florida — where you went outside after breakfast and came in when the streetlights came on.

You don’t need a lot of gear for outdoor play, but a few things genuinely help: a solid bug catcher kit keeps them occupied for ages, and if you’ve got multiple kids who like to roam the yard or neighborhood, walkie talkies are genuinely one of the best things we ever bought.

Build Simple Rhythms Around Nature

One of the most grounding things we do as a family is keep consistent nature rhythms — things that repeat, that anchor the day or week, that connect us to what’s actually happening outside.

For us that looks like:

• Checking on the chickens every morning (non-negotiable — they will tell you if you forget)
• A nature walk at least twice a week, usually around our Pensacola neighborhood or a local preserve
• Weekly nature journaling with our nature journal and Faber-Castell watercolors
• Bird identification with our Sibley Birds guide — we have surprisingly fun arguments about whether something is a fish crow or an American crow

If you’re looking for ideas on how to bring nature journaling into your homeschool in a way that actually works for real kids, check out: Charlotte Mason Nature Study Journal Prompts by Season (For Real Kids Who’d Rather Be Outside).

Nature rhythms work because they’re free, they’re flexible, and they require no prep. You just go outside. That’s it.

Simplify the Stuff (Without the Overwhelm)

Okay, now we talk about clutter — but not in a “throw everything away and live in a white room” kind of way. Just in a “does this thing actually serve our family” kind of way.

For our homeschool, simple means choosing curriculum that’s gentle and effective without requiring me to be a project manager. We use All About Reading for our youngest and have loved how straightforward it is, and Math-U-See has been a game changer for the way my visual learner actually understands math instead of just memorizing it. The goal is always: does this make our days feel lighter, or heavier?

For the home side of things, we’ve slowly replaced complicated products with simpler ones — non-toxic cleaners from Grove Collaborative, beeswax wrap instead of plastic wrap, wool dryer balls instead of dryer sheets full of fragrance. None of these swaps happened overnight. We just made a new choice every time something ran out.

A Few Practical Home Swaps That Stuck

• Replace paper towel habit → bar mop towels or old cut-up t-shirts
• Swap plastic produce bags → reusable mesh bags
• Ditch chemical bug spray → Wondercide (especially important in Florida, y’all — the mosquitoes are a whole personality here)
• Toss the plastic water bottles → stainless steel water bottles the kids actually keep track of

Let the Kids Do Real Work

This might be the most underrated part of simple family living. Kids who do real work — actual contributing-to-the-household work — are calmer, more capable, and honestly more content than kids who are entertained all day.

Our kids help with the chickens, help in the garden, help with meal prep, help fold laundry. Not perfectly. Not without complaint sometimes. But they do it. And the chickens have been the single best teacher in this department. When you have animals that depend on you, there’s no negotiating. The coop needs to be cleaned, the water needs to be refilled, and the eggs need to be collected. Real responsibility. Every day.

If you’re thinking about adding backyard chickens to your simple living setup, Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens is the book I recommend to everyone, and the Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens is one my kids have both read cover to cover. You can also browse the best breeds for Florida’s heat if you’re figuring out where to start.

Stop Optimizing, Start Repeating

The secret ingredient in simple living that nobody talks about? Repetition. Not novelty.

We eat the same rotation of simple meals. We follow the same basic daily rhythm. We do the same Saturday morning chores before anyone gets to do anything fun. Predictability isn’t boring when you’re a kid — it’s safe. It’s grounding. It frees up mental energy for everyone because nobody’s wondering what comes next.

Simple living isn’t something you achieve and then maintain. It’s something you keep choosing, especially when the world keeps telling you to add more, do more, sign up for more. The answer is almost always: less.

If you’re at the beginning of simplifying your family’s life, I want you to hear this: you don’t have to do it all at once. Pick one thing. The calendar, the clutter, the curriculum, the chicken coop — whatever feels most urgent. Start there. Live with it for a while. Then pick the next thing.

Our life looks nothing like what I thought a homeschool family would look like five years ago. It’s messier, slower, louder, and so much better. The dirt under my kids’ fingernails and the egg carton on my counter and the nature journal sitting open on the table — that’s it. That’s the whole dream, right there.

📖 You Might Also Like:

• How to Slow Down and Simplify Family Life (Without Feeling Like You’re Missing Out)
• Charlotte Mason Nature Study Journal Prompts by Season (For Real Kids Who’d Rather Be Outside)
• Natural Chicken Coop Deodorizer and Cleaning Routine (What Actually Works for a Backyard Flock)

Frequently Asked Questions

What does simple living with kids actually look like day to day?

Simple living with kids looks like consistent daily rhythms, less scheduled activity and more free play, real chores that contribute to the household, and intentional choices about what comes into your home and onto your calendar. It’s not perfect — it’s just more deliberate.

How do I get started with simple living when my life already feels overwhelming?

Start with just one area — most people find the calendar is the highest-impact place to begin. Look for one recurring commitment that drains more than it gives, and remove it for a month. Once you feel that relief, you’ll have the motivation to simplify the next thing.

Is simple living compatible with homeschooling?

Absolutely — in fact, a Charlotte Mason or nature-based homeschool approach is one of the most naturally simple education styles there is. It prioritizes living books, outdoor time, and gentle daily rhythms over heavy curriculum loads and constant busyness.

How do I get my kids on board with a simpler, less screen-focused lifestyle?

Fill the space that screens occupied with things that are genuinely compelling — outdoor play, real tools like bug catchers or walkie talkies, animals to care for, and creative freedom. Kids don’t actually prefer screens to a rich, interesting outdoor life. They just default to screens when nothing else is available.

What are the best first steps toward a non-toxic simple home with kids?

The easiest way to start is by replacing things as they run out rather than overhauling everything at once. When your dish soap runs out, replace it with a non-toxic option. When dryer sheets run out, switch to wool dryer balls. Small, consistent swaps over time add up to a genuinely different home without the overwhelm.