We are 5 weeks into our Simple Life Series, and I'm so excited about this week's project! I don't know about you, but I've tried several different systems for simplifying, and each one leaves me either overwhelmed from the enormity of tasks or bored because the system just doesn't work for me. Creating a simple life shouldn't be difficult, time-consuming or overwhelming. Instead, I believe the process should create momentum and satisfaction. It doesn't work for me to go room by room, piling all of my stuff in one place and sorting through it meticulously. Not only is this method a bit overwhelming, but it also makes progress difficult to measure. I don't like clutter, so creating a huge pile of clutter to sift through creates more anxiety and frustration. I prefer the way of Continue Reading
5 Simple Life Habits to Inspire a More Than Enough Mindset
I've known since a very young age that I don't like clutter, and I don't need a lot of things to make me happy. If you step into my life, you'll find I'm not a huge collector of anything, and even the teapots my mother passed down to me are nestled in a storage container instead of on display. Clutter, whether in small spaces or large doesn't make me feel comfortable or cozy. And although I'm far from a minimalist, I definitely thrive in open, calm spaces. As a child, I remember visiting my grandparent's home where every inch of the kitchen table was occupied with knickknacks, the cupboards overflowed with a mishmash of plates and cups, and each surface seemed to have more than enough items vying for a place of significance. I'm sure much of the clutter I remember had sentimental Continue Reading
3 Empowering Steps to Creating a Simple Life
Creating a simple life isn’t supposed to be overwhelming. It isn’t supposed to happen overnight, and it won’t look the same for everyone. Small changes with the greatest impact are the best way to start. Where you begin your simple life plan will be different from mine, which is why we're going to focus this week on exactly what we want our simple life to look like and what small steps we can take to make it a reality that lasts. As we become increasingly confident in our small steps and see progress, we will be less likely to return to the same place we began. And with each small step, we will find ourselves closer and closer to where we want to be. A good way to take determine what we want our simple life to look like is to identify the area of our greatest source of Continue Reading
9 Clean Slate Ideas for a Simpler Life
I don't clean for a living, but it's probably the one statement I'll be remembered for when I leave my job. "Clean your cache." I've repeated it over and over in my line of work to students, to colleagues and even to myself. Cleaning the cache is like giving your computer a clean slate to think and process. Cleaning out all the browser traffic is a regular maintenance procedure I swear by when it comes to keeping computers running smoothly and efficiently. Yet, more times than not, when the simple fix is given, I receive an expression of disbelief and confusion. And I know the statements that will follow. Surely it can't be that easy. Surely that's not the issue. Surely it's more complicated than that. But after taking them through the process, without fail, most Continue Reading