When I first heard about a living simply lifestyle, and minimalist ideas, my first thought was that it was a great idea. Who wouldn't want a more simple life? Why would people want a more stressful, cluttered, accidental life if they could choose to live intentionally? Then I started to declutter, a little bit, and then it hit me - if I really want to do this, it's going to be a huge change! Do I really want to take on decluttering everything? Or am I maybe just looking for some time savers so the house looks straightened up more often? I had to really figure out if I could do this. When you begin the process, there are some easy baby steps to take, many of which I've mentioned over the past 45 days on here, but as you get on the right track something else happens. You begin to see everything around you through a different lens. Your perspective on things change. The "stuff" you wanted so badly you just had to buy it, suddenly becomes just stuff. Now the lifestyle change seems like monumental projects and doesn't seem to be SIMPLE living at all. You can give up and pretend you never were interested in living a more simple life, but deep down you'll always know you could have had one instead of the treadmill filling you with anxiety every day. Begin with very simple baby steps to make progress, simplify your life, save you some time - but you have to be intentional about doing them. Here's a few ideas to get you started on a neater home, simpler life, less stress, less drama, and a better quality of life:
1. Make your bed in the morning. It changes how the room looks and feels when it's made up.
2. When you get undressed, put the clothes in the hamper, laundry basket, or drawer/hangar if that's appropriate. (like you changed your mind about what to wear)
3. Make a list daily or weekly or monthly with 10 things for which you're grateful.
4. Put things away after you use them instead of leaving them on tables, shelves, the floor, and other flat surfaces.
5. Take 15 minutes before bed to put away any last minute things, throw out trash left out, etc. This way you can wake up with a cleaner house.
6. Set aside a time, like an appointment, to go through your mail every day so it never piles up and becomes a large stack of anxiety. Maybe set up bill paying to be done once a week on a schedule.
7. Do something to get moving for 10 minutes every day. This could be a brief walk, a short workout, a few minutes on a piece of exercise equipment, stretching, yoga, dancing to the radio, whatever you're willing to do for a few minutes that's better than not moving.
8. Plan your grocery shopping according to the flyers (or check your local store's website, usually on a Wednesday is when most sales start). Buy the meats, fruits, vegetables, and dairy that's on sale instead of paying full price for items that aren't on sale. You'll save a LOT of money doing that.
9. Take a half hour after the grocery shopping is done and plan meals around what you purchased. It saves you time because you don't have to think about what to make for dinner each night and you shouldn't have to run out and get ingredients at the last minute because you planned it based on what you already had on hand.
10. Plan on taking 1/2 hour once a week, maybe on a Sunday, and prep your fruits, veggies, meats, and snacks for the week. Chop your veggies, slice your fruit, portion out your meats (for example, a single person can divide out 4-4oz portions from a 1-lb pkg of ground beef for 4 meals). During the week, tossing together a bowl of rice, pasta or quinoa, a few veggies, and quickly frying up a few cubes or thin slices of chicken will only take a few minutes. Grabbing a baggie full of portioned out berries, nuts, cubed cheese, etc. will save you time during the week.
11. Shut the television off earlier and get some sleep! A good night's rest will feel better than ANY show on tv.
12. Toss out your hair/beauty products you haven't used in months and probably never will. Now when you look for a specific product, you won't have to sort through so many things to find it.
13. When you cook, can you make a double batch and either freeze the leftovers or re-purpose them for the next night's meal? This works great with things like chicken breast. Put them in a crock pot while you're at work, slice a few and freeze them, shred a few for tonight's dinner (like chicken burritos or soft tacos), then if there's any left over, cube it and refrigerate it to top tomorrow's lunch salad.
14. Turn off your cell phone when you're with someone, during dinner, when you're taking a few minutes to meditate or relax (or exercise). Give yourself that 10-15 minutes free from distractions, demands, and drama others want to put on you.
15. When you're in the store, and you want to buy on impulse, you can either leave your credit cards at home to make buying impossible, or agree to wait until you've thought about it for 24-48 hours. Many times after a day or two the appeal the item had has worn off - especially if you've already decluttered your space.
So you see, there are small projects, small daily habits, time-saving steps you can start immediately to live a more simple life. Feel free to add to this list anything else that will help your life go more smoothly, be more intentional, move in the direction that brings you closer to your values. Baby steps. That's all it takes. Which ones will you take this week?
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