If you’ve ever seen those peculiarly dressed folks going down the road in their horse and buggy throughout the northern stretches of the Eastern United States, you’ve seen the Amish. The Amish are traditionalist Christians known for their work ethic, adherence to simplicity and, for many of them, shunning of many modern ways of the world, including some things you and I recognize as part and parcel of society. Most famously this is automobiles, but for some of them it includes electricity and even modern fuels like propane!
Nonetheless (and in spite of some of the myths surrounding them), the Amish still get things done and lead full, fulfilling and happy lives. And simple ones! Many homesteaders yearn for a simpler, slower way of life, and if you’re one of them you need to check out this list of 30 ways that you can live just like the Amish do.
Get Up Early
The first item on our list would knock me right out of the race, and right out of Amish society! That famous work ethic that all Amish have means getting up early to get things done and maximize the day. This means getting up when the rooster crows at the latest, and often much earlier.
There’s something about getting up and getting after it before the sun is up that will prime you for success and make you appreciate getting to bed early that much more.
Work on the Important Stuff First
Have you ever sat down at your desk, pecked away on the keyboard and looked up 8 hours later with your to-do list still brimming with important items? Keeping busy doesn’t mean you are getting things done, and the Amish know that.
Whether it’s animals to be tended or crops to be brought in, they always focus on, and complete, the important tasks first.
Build and Maintain Community and Family Bonds
This is a constant criticism that the Amish level at modern society, and by golly they are right. The velocity of life today is simply breakneck. It’s easy to lose sight of the most important things, like creating and maintaining bonds of trust and fellowship with our family, neighbors, church congregation and friends.
It takes work, initiative and constant tending, but it’s one of the most important things in your life.
Embrace the Simple Things
Look around the room you are in at all the things you have. Whatever you covet, you are probably rich with stuff. Most of us are. The latest electronics, appliances, clothes, tools, cars or whatever.
The Amish now, and have always, deliberately gone against the grain when it comes to consumerism. A pleasant evening in a rocking chair watching the kids play is treasure enough for them.
Keep Your Home in Order
You’ll never walk into a dirty Amish home, or any other space, unless there is work actively going on inside. These folks are famously and fastidiously tidy, and you should be too.
This would be another failure point for me. I get so caught up in work and the things that I swear I have to do that I often fall behind on my household chores, inside and out. Stop wasting time and start taking care of your space.
Pass on Your Skills
More than anyone else in society today, the Amish depend on oral tradition for passing down vital skills. This is often a family affair but sometimes done between neighbors and friends as a kind of apprenticeship.
No matter who you are, I know there is something that you are good at, and you know someone, even if you don’t know who they are, that could benefit from your skills and would love to learn from you.
Make Horses Work for You
Those horse-drawn carriages the Amish are so famous for, called buggies, are only one way that they put horses to work for them. Instead of dropping big bucks on motorized farm equipment or lifting apparatus, if you have horses you should learn how to put them in service as beasts of burden.
They are a whole lot quieter, and frankly a lot more fun to work with anyway!
Work with Manual Tools
Another famous Amish trait, at least for most Amish affiliations, is their shunning of power tools, however they are powered. Instead they rely on all manner of classic hand tools, from hand drills and saws to treadles, hammers, axes and a whole lot more.
There is just something neat about manual tools, and they are a great workout.
Embrace Physical Labor
Quick. What’s the last physically exerting task you’ve been putting off? Procrastinating on?
Whatever it is, that’s got to stop. The Amish are never afraid to put in some sweat when it’s time to get things done, and neither should you be. Whatever the weather and whatever the task, they roll up their sleeves and get to it.
Keep Your Blades Sharp
Having the tools is one thing; taking care of them is another. One of the most important chores you’ve got is keeping the blades on all your different tools sharp. Axes, shovels, knives, shears, clippers, saws, whatever.
Grab your files, stones, hones and strops, a little bit of oil and keep those edges bright and hair-popping. Sharper blades help you work quicker but also safer.
Cut Grass with a Scythe
Speaking of blades, if you’re going to go Amish that means waving goodbye to your lawn mower, or at least your powered lawn mower. Have you ever cut your grass with a scythe? Believe it or not, these long, curved blades work awesome for the task.
A little bit of time and a little bit of effort is all it takes to get a professional-quality, level cut with absolutely no gas needed.
Light Your Way with Oil Lamps
If the Amish don’t use electricity and modern tools, how do they light their way at night? Candles, obviously, but if a safer and portable light source is desired they turn to oil lamps.
It’s the same sort of technology that your great-great-grandparents probably used, and with good purpose. Lamps are easy to use, easy to service and the perfect thing to keep around should the power and all other lights go out.
Heat Your Home and Cook with Wood
You’ll never find a single Amish home that lacks a wood stove. For many of them, wood is the primary, or even only, fuel they make use of on a daily basis. A good wood stove is more than capable of heating your home or workshop, and if properly equipped also makes a great cooktop.
Use Cast Iron for Cooking
On the subject of cooking, the Amish rely heavily on cast iron cookware. Skillets, baking sheets and, of course, dutch ovens.
The simple, almost elemental nature of cast iron cooking is perfectly suited for their simple lifestyle, and cast iron has been around and in use for many centuries now. It works just as well today as it did back then.
Milk a Cow by Hand
If you’ve never enjoyed fresh milk from your own cow, you don’t know what you’re missing. The vast majority of milk produced in America today passes through milking machines and other machinery, but the Amish don’t need or put up with all that.
They still milk their cows the way people always have: by hand. It’s definitely an art form, though, so you should learn how to do it if you’re going to keep cows of your own.
Churn Some Butter
Another quintessential Amish skill, or some would say pastime, is churning butter. Turning cream into butter is as simple as it gets, but simple doesn’t mean easy. It’s a whole lot of work and a whole lot of repetition, often shared between several members of the household.
Get yourself a butter churn and give it a go. I bet you won’t go back to the store-bought stuff.
Bake Some Bread
You just knew this was going to show up on this list. Baking is one of those things that every single household in history, pretty much, knew how to do, and today the opposite is true. Very little baking takes place unless people are heating up a freezer pizza!
That has to stop. Baking your own bread is very easy and the finished product far surpasses anything you’ll get at the grocery store.
Fork Out Your Stalls and Garden
Drive by any Amish homestead or farm and chances are good you’ll see someone moving around with a pitchfork in hand. They might be mucking out stalls, spreading hay or fertilizer or taking care of any number of other tasks with it.
A pitchfork can be a reliable tool around your homestead, too. The next time you’ve got work to do, reach for it instead of another tool.
Learn Carpentry
Amish-made goods, from furniture to homes, crafts to tools, are famous and rightly so for their quality woodworking and joinery. Many Amish grow up learning carpentry and are accomplished carpenters before they’d be old enough to graduate high school.
This once-ubiquitous skill has turned into a specialized trade today, and that’s a real shame.
Learn Blacksmithing
Many Amish aren’t totally opposed to buying simple metal hardware from the store, but many more will make their own nails, latches, hinges and more, and some families serve as dedicated blacksmiths to many others.
Blacksmithing is tons of fun and, for many men and some women, highly therapeutic. You need a lot less than you think to set up a simple but functional forge.
Learn to Sew and Mend Clothes
Another elementary skill that has grown ever more rare in modern society owing to our use-it-and-trash-it consumer culture. Sewing is vital for replacing buttons, mending tears, making modifications and even creating clothing out of, well, whole cloth!
More than most other skills on this list, sewing is one that you can learn yourself through practice and a good book or by watching videos online.
Grow Veggies
This is a no-brainer. The Amish eat simple, wholesome food and grow the vast majority of their vegetables themselves or get them from their fellows. I think everyone should eat food that they grow themselves, if only to get a little closer to where their food actually comes from!
Keep Chickens for Eggs
If you’ve never raised animals for food before, chickens are the best place to start. Many Amish keep huge flocks of them for their own eggs and for eggs to sell at market.
You don’t need to be intimidated. Chickens are very easy, and cheap, no pun intended, to both acquire and raise.
Raise Your Own Meat
Beef, pork, lamb: whatever kind of meat you prefer, if you want to do it the way the Amish do you’re going to have to raise, and slaughter, it yourself.
This is a very daunting task for some homesteaders, and not for everyone, but it’s great to know that you can do it.
Can Your Own Food
If you are running your garden and raising your animals right, chances are you’ll have a great surplus of food that you can’t eat before it spoils. Of course, if you’re honest and don’t have electricity, you don’t have a freezer, either…
Not to worry, because you can preserve food the old-fashioned way by canning, drying or other means. You should definitely learn how!
Be Frugal
One of the most fundamental Amish tenets is also the most difficult for us modern folks to practice.
Be frugal. That means you shouldn’t spend your money readily. Whenever you do spend money, try to stretch it as far as possible.
Buy Only What You Need
There are lots of things that are nice to have. Things that we think bring us joy and make our lives feel complete when we buy them. This is the single biggest symptom of modern consumer culture, and the joy we feel from buying things is always fleeting, ephemeral.
We can all stand to live more like the Amish when it comes to this.
Share When You Have Plenty
When times are going great for the Amish, be it a harvest, finances or anything else, they will share in times of plenty. I know I could do more in that regard, and you probably can too!
Life isn’t about accumulating the biggest hoard; it’s about sharing what you’ve got with other people.
Store Goods for the Lean Times
Conversely, times will not always be bountiful. Sometimes your pantry, and piggy bank, will be quite barren. You can hedge against this by saving ahead of time. You should always strive to put back resources for a rainy day, like the Amish do.
Have Faith
Last, and most important of all. The Amish are a profoundly religious, faithful people. Their relationship with God sustains and fortifies them, and fills them with a profound gratitude for even the smallest blessings. If, despite it all, you still feel like there’s a big missing piece in your life, it’s time for you to reconnect with your Creator.
Tim is a farm boy with vast experience on homesteads, and with survival and prepping. He lives a self-reliant lifestyle along with his aging mother in a quiet and very conservative little town in Ohio. He teaches folks about security, prepping and self-sufficiency not just through his witty writing, but also in person.
Find out more about Tim and the rest of the crew here.