Some Favorite “slow life” and other simple life YouTube Channels I like

I have a few YouTube Channels I watch fairly regularly and each of them either focuses on simple moments in life or on leading a “slow living” life as they call it. What that means is that they take their time and enjoy life, even choosing to cut out social media or the news, or other outside noise that might steal their simple joys. Most of the time anyhow.

I thought I would share a few of those channels with you today. Ironically, many of them updated either yesterday or today, which is exciting. Many of these only update once or twice a month, which is nice because I can keep up with their videos.

First up is The Cottage Fairy. She focuses on life in her little home in the middle of some state that is gorgeous and looks like a fairy tale. She works at a small bookshop in her town, is an artist, and is recently married (though I don’t think she’s ever shown her husband). She owns rabbits, picks flowers, walks through enchanted forests, and sometimes talks about her time being homeschooled and how it shaped the quiet life she tries to live now. She speaks in a soft, breathy voice (like many of the young, simple life bloggers) and her videos feature soft, calming music in the background. They are perfect for days I need to decompress from life.

Forgotten Way Farms is a channel I’ve mentioned on here before. The channel showcases a small farm in — some state — I can’t remember where. The host, AbbieJo, mainly focuses on filming what she’s been cooking, thrift shop visits, and other “simple living” topics. She’s big on homesteading and stocking your shelves with homemade food that you can go to later when money is tight or food is scarce. Sometimes she shares what books she is reading and they are usually books about farming, gardening, flowers, or cooking in the old days.

This week she shared a video of them renovating her kitchen and pantry area. They purchased a doublewide that they have been slowly renovating over the last year or so.

Just A Few Acres Farm is a cattle and chicken farm located in the Ithaca, N.Y. area which is close to where I used to live. The farmer, Pete, puts out videos about what he’s doing on the farm, farm events he visits (he is an International Tractor farmer and loves to vlog about them), the farmer’s market he visits (which I have visited a couple of times in the past and enjoyed), and other various farming related topics. His videos are pretty laid-back and just interesting to watch. He is very chill and cheerful and just really seems to enjoy what he does. Watching him cheers me up because even when things aren’t going well, he’s still pretty happy about life in general.

Roots and Refuge is a bit about slowing living but is more about homesteading and Jess and her husband Micah aren’t always living slow. They are planning to open a homesteading store, host a podcast, and have a lot going on in their lives, but the main message of their channel is to cultivate your own food and store as much of the food as you can. Their other message is to love God and the earth he gave us.

I have mentioned Darling Desi before on here (like I have mentioned a couple of the others) but will mention her again. I do like her channel even though she sometimes reads books I have no interest in and even though her perky demeanor over some really silly stuff sometimes makes me want to roll my eyes.

You know – like how I want to roll my eyes at myself sometimes because I get excited over some really silly stuff too. Ha! Anyhow, Desi talks all things “cottage core” which are books and aesthetics that – well, cottage core is . . . Hold on. Let me consult Google. Okay. I’m back. Wikipedia says: Cottagecore is an internet aesthetic popularised by adolescents and young adults celebrating an idealized rural life.”

So it is a fake outlook of rural life and I’m all for that. A fake outlook on life is how I survive. Sigh. Sad, but true(ish).

The definition continues: “Originally based on a rural English and European life, it was developed throughout the 2010s and was first named cottagecore on Tumblr in 2018. The aesthetic centres on traditional rural clothing, interior design, and crafts such as drawing, baking, and pottery, and is related to similar aesthetic movements such as grandmacore, farmcore, goblincore, and fairycore.”

Desi takes the viewer on frolics in fields and walks through bookshops, while her husband records her antics. I’d say poor guy, but she has a lot of followers and viewers and I am guessing they make some good money from it.

One thing I remind myself about a couple of these channels is that while they may seem like they have idelic lives, they really are simply showing the highlights of their life not to be fake but because they are providing a place for the viewer to escape to – a bit of a quiet corner of the internet that can serve as a mental refuge.

Are there some YouTube channels that you follow and enjoy? Let me know in the comments!