Voluntary Simplicity

Making the mind shift to live more simply is the first step. To help you make this life change, start by clearing out your "stuff".

Stuff can be physical, the knick-knacks you have around the house, the piles of papers, the junk mail that is never ending, the boxes and bags that you shove things into and put into a locked room when company is coming.

Stuff can be financial. Living beyond your means and worrying about debt. When you live a financially simple life you gain back control of your life. You are back in charge.

Stuff can also be mental. Overwhelming feelings of obligation to people you don't really care about. People you can't say no to, or perhaps you can't because you don't think you should. Keeping dates and lists in your head, schedules to keep, simple stuff that can bog down your thinking where you end up forgetting and then feeling bad about that too. How important is all this stuff really?

Many of these things are time wasters and I highly recommend taking a look at Stephen Covey's Seven Steps for Highly Effective People. In this book Covey illustrates a great tool where you categorize the levels of importance and urgency various tasks have. This is one extremely simple tool that everyone should use. It will lighten your load and help you realize what is truly important in your life. You will then have more time and energy to spend on those you love, and on yourself.

It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.
-- Henry Ward Beecher

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"Our life is frittered away by detail."

"Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail."

"Simplify, simplify."

- Henry David Thoreau

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The best things in life aren't things.
-- Art Buchwald
When you walk in your front door do you instantly feel relaxed?

Do you feel cluttered at home?

Do you have so much stuff that you can't find things when you need them?

Do you love what you have?

Even if your home is spotless and perfectly organized, you may still feel as if you don't have any room to breathe. Every corner is filled, every draw is full. There is no room for anything more. You are at full capacity.

Our living space should be comfortable and not overwhelming. Our homes should not be storage areas, our homes should be environments that bring us comfort.

Extreme measures aren't necessary. While some may prefer to be able to pack everything they own in a suitcase, it's not everyone's idea of simplicity. Living simply should not be deprivation. Living simply should make you feel as if you have more when you have less. Surround yourself with the things that you love and need. Let the rest go.

What is important to you may not be important to someone else, so make your own path, use your own needs as a guide to simplifying your home.

Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.
-- Elise Boulding

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
-- Robert Brault

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Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
-- Confucius

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