Feeling overwhelmed? Time-poor? Drowning in clutter?
Here are 12 easy things you can do to simplify your life.
1. Don’t Bring In The Mail
Accumulating piles of mail can make you feel stressed.
Instead, make it a habit to open snail mail over your recycle bin.
Ditch everything – only take inside those items you need to:
- Action
- File
- Cancel.
2. Have A Ready-For-Donation Box
Keep a ready-for-donation box, basket, or bag somewhere handy and visible.
Any time you see something you don’t love or use – in it goes! Easy!!
It’s a great way to make regular decluttering a household habit.
3. Don’t Buy It
Less stuff around you means less clutter in your home, more time in your life.
Before you buy anything, ask yourself if you need it or love it.
If you don’t need or love it, just. don’t. buy. it.
4. Use Your Nice Stuff
If you have nice things, enjoy them!
With crockery and cutlery, you could forget ‘everyday’ versus ‘guest’.
Instead, have plenty of attractive, replaceable, dishwasher/microwave/family-safe tableware.
Too much saving for later adds to the clutter and overwhelm.
5. Streamline Your Social Networks
Limit your social media activities to just a few sites – unless social networking is your passion or business.
Focus on the two or three networks that matter most for business or friendship. (For me it’s Twitter, Facebook Page and Facebook Profile, and LinkedIn.)
Any more, and you’ll be spreading yourself thin and feeling unproductive.
6. Only Watch Good TV
To help ease feelings of stress and overwhelm, it helps to have good quality leisure time.
When it comes to TV, be clear about what’s on your What Not To Watch list. Only watch TV that meets your viewing policy – perhaps it makes you laugh, learn, or relax.
Buy, borrow, or rent your favorite programs on DVD. Never be at the mercy of whatever’s on the box.
7. Do A Bedtime Tidy
Starting your day surrounded by chaos and disorder is a recipe for stress and unhappiness.
Instead, make it part of your evening ritual to do a quick tidy before bed.
A little nightime organizing before you end the day will help you feel lighter and more positive the next morning.
8. Say No To Things That Matter Less
Graciously say No thank you to low-priority tasks.
To feel more confident saying no, take a little time to decide what your true priorities are.
Remind yourself that you can serve others best by focusing on those few key areas where you have most to give.
9. Downsize Your Closet
Only keep clothes, shoes, boots, and accessories that you love or that make you feel fabulous.
Clear your closet of everything else – even if expensive.
Let others enjoy the items you don’t.
10. Only Read The Best (To You)
Cancel subscriptions to papers and magazines unless they enhance your life.
Stop reading books you don’t enjoy or learn from.
Give the best material your attention. The rest simply takes up time, money, and living space.
11. Decide To Have Less Stuff
Too much stuff in your home and your life can leave you feeling heavy, unhappy, and overwhelmed.
The less stuff you have, the easier it is to get organized and stay organized.
Every extra item costs you in organizing time, space, and energy.
Make a choice to buy less, donate more – and feel instantly lighter!
12. Limit Your Hangers
Keep just enough hangers for your current closet of clothes.
Whenever you buy something new, you’ll have to donate something in order to free up a hanger. How’s that for ‘discipline‘!
It’s a great way to live within your home’s boundaries and avoid clutter creep.
More Ideas?
Do you use any of these ideas? What else do you do to simplify your life?
More ways to SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE.
Our Don’t Buy List:
If you can’t pay cash you don’t need it.
Do not purchase expired food.
Anything that doesn’t have value to you in some way do not purchase.
Don’t’ purchase unhealthy food = junk food.
Illegal drugs and alcohol = save your money for healthy necessary purchases.
The latest fad you don’t need it = fads come and go.
The latest fashions = you do not need to stay up with the Jones’.
Our Strategies for simplifying our lives:
We agree with throwing junk mail immediately. If there is an issue with your name and address tear up or shred then pitch this is due to identity theft.
*Have a Ready-For-Donation Basket: *Not in America *Due to Identity Theft and Bed Bugs.
Limit your hobbies to one or two.
What is the difference between an over saver and a hoarder?
Don’t let world events influence your actions i.e. end of the world, etc.
Live your life on your terms i.e. don’t let friends or relatives influence your life.
Don’t listen to unfounded rumors and don’t repeat them unless you can prove it’s true.
Have a solid founding in your own faith.
Only shop when you need a particular item.
Grocery shop on a full stomach to eliminate unwanted spending.
Only shop with cash. Credit Cards are for major emergencies only i.e. car, home, travel, medical.
In today’s society we believe that guest tableware is not used. We would use every day table ware. With large gatherings we would use paper products and throw away when usage is done.
When shopping use a money belt that you wear under your clothes, place the bulk of your money and credit cards. Have enough money accessible to purchase the item you need.
Great tips! Do some already and then will encorperate the rest. I have been clearing out my parents home of 60 years and now working on my own things. There has been stuff here from mutliply generations, WOW! It has forced me to create new ways of thinking about stuff. I have rethought my prioities. What worked for me in the past has changed as far as the kind of stuff I need or want. Dealing with emotional attachments with family keepsakes has been a journey. I am commited to living a lighter life and making sure my daughter doesn’t have to deal with my stuff someday like I have had to with my parents and grandparents, stuff.
As a genealogist, I shudder when I hear of families clearing elder relatives homes. Pictures, diaries, bibles, birth/death certificates, etc. that are gold mines for genealogist, end up in landfills to be lost forever. If you don’t want such historical material, the closest genealogy library, family history center or you might find a distant relative that would cherish the irreplaceable records you locate.
Regarding the opening of mail over the recycling bin; be certain to shred anything containing personal information which bi divers might used for identity theft.
Eu tenho tentado organizar minha vida dessa maneira and that has been very useful to improve my wellbeing. I swear I will keep trying during the new year which is coming.
It’s an ongoing challenge, Maria, but congrats on making the start. I think that’s the hardest part! I wish you all the best for a happy and *organized* new year. 🙂
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Great ARTICLE! Thanks for the helpful tips.
My pleasure – so glad they’re helpful! 🙂
thank you so much for this… I really need it. I’ve battled clutter for years. For me its like a diet. I loose the stuff and then slowly it creeps back in until wham it hits me in the face. I have three small kids (all under 7) and I find myself overwhemed with keeping the house clean. I’m sure if I simplified what we had there would be so much less to clean…
So glad it’s helpful to you, Malka. 🙂 I find decluttering is a bit like a diet – you lose the clutter/weight but it always comes back unless you change your habits, ie SIMPLIFY! You might find some of the ideas here helpful for avoiding that pesky clutter creep: http://www.getorganizedwizard.com/blog/2012/09/3-ways-to-declutter-and-organize-your-home/
ty Michele, you are right, hopefully I can change my mindset once and for all. I think my biggest problem is keeping motivated. After all once I get the house clean, it only lasts for a min before the kids or hubby start messing it up, and then there is dinner to be made, homework help, etc. and then all I want to do is go to bed and not look at another mess 🙂
I’ll try.
I’ll try.
Yoda says, “Do or do not. There is no try.” 🙂
That’s what I did in the last 11 months. Life’s lighter and happy …….
So true Iskandar – you really do feel lighter and happier when you simplify. 🙂
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like it! I will try to follow some of this rules, Thanks.
I hope they make your life feel simpler, Andrea. 🙂