Have you ever wished that you could live a more simple life? Here are some great tips that will help you to begin to remove some of the distractions and issues from your life and create a simple and more focused life for you and your family. Whether you just want to be more focused on your family life, or maybe you want an organized and clutter free home, or perhaps you want a financially simpler life to pay off debt, these tips are a great place to begin your journey to living a simpler stress free life.
Easy Things You Can Do To Live A More Simple Life
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1. Remove social media distractions. Sometimes the one thing you really need to do in order to have a simpler life is to just remove the distractions. Social media is a huge time sucker (as I’m sure most people are aware). There are tons of ways you can remove them from your life to help.
#1. You can use extensions on your web browser that block social media for time periods you want to focus on other things. #2. Try limiting yourself to just one SM. Set alarms for using it only a few minutes a day. #3. You can also turn off notifications so you’re not tempted to see what’s happening. Drastic measures include deactivating accounts temporarily, but this can be useful if you really need a strict refocus on life and family.
2. Declutter Your Home. The less you own the less you have to spend time taking care of things. Some people like to start the decluttering process with something small like a kitchen drawer and others like to do a whole room at once. Use whatever method doesn’t overwhelm you. Also consider how much time you have to devote to this process. Don’t stress yourself out by deciding to declutter the whole kitchen with only an hour to do it! That’s how you wind up with a bigger mess than when you started!
During the decluttering process look at everything and decide if it’s something you really love or use all the time. If you don’t love it or haven’t used it in quite some time then you can either donate, sell, or trash the item if it’s not in good condition. Use the one in one out method after you have decluttered your home to keep it that way.
Two very popular books to read on this subject is the The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing and Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
3. Keep a gratitude journal. There have been quite a few studies that have shown that practicing gratitude helps with your overall feeling of well being. It also helps you hone in on what is important in your life and what is just fluff. You start to appreciate what you already have and that helps to keep consumerism at bay. I’m a huge fan of Sarah Ban Breathnach (Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy) and love her gratitude journal – The Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude
4. Don’t over-schedule yourself and just learn to say no. One of the biggest things people do to complicate their lives is to take on too much. An obligation cluttered life is an exhausting one! That means saying no to requests for help, dinner parties, babysitting or more from friends, family and acquaintances. If you truly want a simpler life, think long and hard about what you want to do, and say yes to only the important things. Don’t feel bad about saying no thank you.
5. Know where your money goes. Having a way to track your expenses is important because being over budget creates anxiety, discontent and just general chaos! You might find Enough by John C. Bogle (founder of Vanguard Mutual Funds) an interesting read on the subject of enough.
These are all great starting points for anyone who wants to focus on living a more simple stress free life.
Remember that simplicity like frugality isn’t about living a little dreary deprived life in a home with 2 pieces of furniture. It’s about making choices that allow you to live the life that makes you happy!
Some simple living resources to check out:
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You may also be interested in: How Simple Living Can Make Your Life Better
I spent much of 2016 decluttering. I’m not finished, but getting closer. I’m at the point now of parting with once meaningful pieces that we really don’t use. I just took a bunch of objects to the donation center this week that I struggled with giving away last year, but now that it’s 2017, I feel so much better to have less.