Simplify ~ One A Day Challenge Day 4

If you have been following the One A Day Challenge, you are half way done for the week. 

Today let's take a look at our bathrooms.  Choose at least ONE ITEM from the bathroom to get rid of, maybe a bottle of lotion you have had for a long time and do not use. 

The bathroom has many different areas so just pick ONE AREA for today if you are doing the optional challenge.

The medicine cabinet, if it is old or expired by more that a year, get rid of it.

Cosmetics if it is open and over a year old get rid of it, did you know that cosmetics harbor bacteria and you can get an infection from old cosmetics.

The linen closet, if it is torn or stained get rid of it.  Figure out how many towels you need and stick to that number.

What about that pretty hand towel that you NEVER put out to be used, get rid of it.

Open bottles of lotion or bath gel that you do not use, get rid of it.

Old hair products that you do not use, if they are old you are not using them, get rid of them.

Duplicates of anything, hair brushes, hair dryers, etc... you only need one get rid of the extra.

Weeding things out of our lives and homes can be very overwhelming.  I was talking to a friend last night and she was overwhelmed by the big picture.  If we look at the picture as a whole it is overwhelming but when we take it one pixel at a time it isn't so bad.

Keep it simple, one step, one pixel, one item at a time and before you know it the canvas of your life will indeed be more simple.  You will find that you have more time, energy and money freed up to do with as you wish.

Go ahead and take the step towards simplicity now, you will be happy you did.

Simplify~One A Day Challenge Day 3

For the One A Day Challenge today let's take a look at our clothing.

The Fall and Winter seasons are coming to an end so this is a great time to evaluate what we can get out of our closets and drawers.

If you have not worn it at all this Fall or Winter and it is not a special occasion dress or suit, please note I said A dress or A suit, then get rid of it. 

If you always pass it up in the closet, get rid of it.

If it is faded, torn, or stained get rid of it.

If it does not fit right no matter how hopeful you are that it will fit next year..... get rid of it.

If that color or style really does not look good on you get rid of it.

If it makes you look fat then for sure get rid of it!

For todays challenge you can pick the AREA of all clothing as your ONE, or you can pick ONE CATAGORY of clothing.  Feel free to choose from, swimming suits, jeans, sweaters, under garments, shirts, dress clothes, work out clothes, pajamas, hang up clothes etc... or pick one drawer, maybe one shelf.

If you do not have time for a whole category today no worries, just be sure to pick ONE ITEM and send it out of your house.

Keep it simple, there is no need to overwhelm yourself, each step matters so go ahead and take the step now.

Simplify~ One A Day Challenge Day 2

ONE A DAY CHALLENGE, the purpose of this challenge is to get started on cleaning out our homes.  In order to live simply we must rid our selves of the useless things in our lives that take up our time and space. 

Day one the challenge was to remove one item, any item, from your house.  Donate it, toss it, burn it, it does not matter but get it out. 

I decided to go ahead and blog the challenge so if you don't have the time to join us now you can refer back to the blog and take the challenge at a later date.  This brings us to today, Day 2.


ONE A DAY CHALLENGE~ Day2~ if you don't have time for today's optional challenge, no worries just make sure you remove ONE item from your home. 

Challenge yourself today to go through one small AREA of your house. A kitchen drawer, one closet shelf, your purse, your car etc.... 

 Keep it small, keep it simple, be real with yourself when weeding out. Remember some weeds have beautiful flowers but they actually chock out the healthy plants. Don't keep it based on the fairy tail that you might really use it someday. You know how you operate. Stick to the truth.  Get rid of it!

I decided to tackle my "kitchen gadget" drawer today. 

As you can see we were overflowing.  This made it very difficult to retrieve items that we needed.

 

I love to cook, love it.  So this drawer was very difficult for me to sort through as I can rationalize EVERY single item in there.  I had to be brutal with myself.

Step one was to pull everything out of the drawer so I could see what was actually in there.

  We have been back from Singapore for four months now so everything I have used in the last four months stayed.  I also kept the cake decorating stuff as I do use it a couple of times a year. 

I did end up throwing out a few items.  A couple of things were put back into their proper spot in my kitchen and then I had a give away pile.

I know, it is not a huge pile and honestly I will have to go through this drawer again but I did make some progress today.  Evey step we take to weed out and simplify is a gift to ourselves and our families.

Here is the after, it is still a little chaotic looking but this drawer is the only place I have to put this stuff and hey, you can SEE the bottom of the drawer so that's progress.

Go ahead, pick an area of you house and clean it out, this drawer took me 20 minutes but only because I agonized over the flower producing weeds in there before I pulled them out.  I'm sure someone else could clean this drawer in ten minutes.

Just remember, step by step, keep it simple.

Simply Clean It Out

It's not so simple for me to just clean out a room!  I find that I have emotional attachment to my "stuff".  I also have the "what if I need it someday" syndrome.  Along with the emotional attachment, and "what if I need it" , if you throw some memories in there it becomes a disastrously hard process for me to go through the room and get rid of stuff.

Today we tackled our laundry/ storage room.  We really had no choice as it was getting to where we could not move down there.  I am putting pictures in this blog so please don't judge me, but this is how a room that is ignored can easily become.  Over crowded with way too much stuff.  Our laundry room was screaming out for help as you can see, I have only one view of the room, why, because I could not get to the other corner to take a picture, sad I know.

Everything was everywhere.  My shelves were full so things started to spill over onto the floor creating obstacles.  The room was starting to become non-functional.

It took my husband and I a little over one hour to clean out this room.  We started by cleaning off the ironing board so we could use it as a table to see what we had as we pulled things off the shelves.  I put like things together to make our decision making easier.

I found that I had 12, yes, 12 flower vases!  Yikes!  We paired that down to a very manageable five, still too many maybe but five is better that 12 and as I have said before this is a process. 

After one hour of work this is our room now.

The ironing board is up against the wall ready to be used but not out to be used as a table.  Any flat surface is a danger for me as I tend to set something there with good intentions of addressing it later and the later never comes.  Also, notice there is a shelf that is mostly empty and the floor is clear.

Here is the corner we could not get a picture of before:

Nice and clean and organized now.

We pulled out all of this stuff to go to Good Will and or the dump.

This only took us one hour to do but in reality this room has been eating away at me for months now.  Once I got started and I had someone else down there to talk through some decisions it wasn't so bad, and now it is done. 

Take a step today to clean something out, it is a relief when you are finished.

Remember, keep it simple.

Simple VS Minimal

 As I continue to study simple living, minimizing, living with less stuff to create more time and peace in our lives, I am finding that I have a war going on in my soul.

For some, living simple means to only have what you need to live, for others it means living with less.  As I watch you tube videos on this subject of minimalist I find that it really looks different for each person.  Everyone has a personal journey and the end destination is not the same for any of us.

Personally I like to be prepared.  I tend to buy in bulk, a 1/4 of an organic grass fed cow, or 50 lbs of non GMO organic flour, oats, rice, lentils for example.  Is it simple?  Well, it saves me a ton of money and I have the peace of knowing that I have healthy organic food for my family on hand.

So here is the filter for myself that I am putting into place to help me decide if bulk buying will simplify my life or complicate my life.

Do we use it on a regular basis?

Do we save money and time by buying in bulk?

Do I have ROOM to store it and a storage system in place that will allow us to use it?

I must fight the urge to buy things simply because it is a good deal.  This kind of mindset leads to chaos in my home as I find we end up wasting the said bought items and we clutter up our house.

 It is not simple to buy a side of beef if there is no room in the freezer for it, that is obvious.  This principle holds true to all things we bring into our house, just as I would not buy the beef if I have no freezer space, I must not buy the toilet paper if I have no shelf space.

I do not think my family will ever be minimalists in the sense of living on next to nothing, it just is not in our personalities but learning to live as simply as possible thus minimizing our possessions and our purchases is something we will continually strive for. 

How Much Time?

My Minimalist thought for today.  

Its about what we value in life. Material possessions and the pursuit of  things take up our time.  

We can always go on line to see how much money we have but no one knows how much time they have left.  

We must use our time to invest in those things that matter, family, friends, community, these are the things that make us who we are, these are the things that matter.

The pursuit of material things to the extent at which our relationships suffer.... Meaningless, meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Simple Workout

This can so easily be the truth, as Americans we know full well that exercise is good for us.  Our society is set up to help us achieve this discipline in our lives.  Many work places have full blown gyms, employee health incentive programs, or both.  There are 24/7 fitness clubs popping up in our towns. Entire stores devoted to workout clothes and equipment.  We do not have to look hard or far to find opportunity to spend our money on working out. 

If you have not or do not currently own a piece of workout equipment that is collecting dust, I am sure you know of someone who does.  There are tons of books, DVDs, clothes,etc.... devoted to helping you workout.  It is a fierce competition for your time and your money.

If I am going to continue to simplify I need to understand how I operate in the realm of the the workout world.  I could waste a lot of time, money and space on an endeavor that is not going to serve me well if I dive in without understanding who I am first.

I have tried running, bought the shoes ($$$$)  they still look new.  Then I thought I would walk, bought different shoes ($$$) they still look new.  When we first got married we bought a Nordic Track, it is still in our basement, collecting dust.  I have had workout tapes, leg warmers, cute  stretchy clothes, club memberships.  All of these things were purchased with the best of intentions but in the end it was a waste of good resources.

When we lived in Singapore we had a full gym at our condo complex it was a two minute underground walk, I used it maybe 10 times in two years.  So what is the issue?

For me the issue is certain types of exercise do not connect with me.  I did finally join a Yoga studio and knew right off that I could indeed do this kind of workout.  There is something to be said about trying different things, you will not know what you like until you try it.  If you can try it without a big investment then do it.  Many health clubs offer a free trial for a friend, just use the things you already have on hand and try it out.

To keep it simple start off slow with your investment.  For yoga all one really needs is knowledge, a towel and some loose fitting clothes.  You can even do it in your pajamas, no one will know.  Think about your sport of interest, what is the minimum needed, do that first.

After some time if you are still doing your workout then figure out what is the one thing that would help to to improve this workout and invest in that.  If you are still doing it then go ahead and slowly invest in the sport making sure that the equipment you purchase fits your budget, space and time in your life.

Purge all of those workout items in your home that are lying around doing you no good.  Donate them to a second hand store someone will be thrilled to get it.

Keeping it simple means evaluating, nothing is done on a whim when it comes to purchasing items. 

Keep in mind how many sets of workout clothes you really need, this involves knowing how often you will participate in the sport and how often you do your laundry.

Do not buy new items until the ones you have are fully worn out, then rid yourself of the worn out item and invest in the best replacement.

When we limit ourselves to what we truly need, and will use, we save money, time, energy and space making our life simple and more enjoyable.

Whatever your sport, walking, biking, running, yoga, working at the gym, know yourself and only invest in those things that will allow you to improve yourself.

Remember:  Keep it simple.