Joshua Becker's Blog, page 92

How To Decipher If It’s Time To Let Something Go

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Dan Erickson of Hip Diggs.

I grew up poor. My family had little money. My dad was the pastor of a small-town church and my mom was a stay-home mom. We didn’t go hungry, but we didn’t have an abundance either. I remember wearing hand-me-downs and relying on the government food bank.

 Later, as a young adult, I worked in fast food and retail. I lived in trailers and studio apartments. I walked and rode a bike as my primary modes of transportation. Although my life wasn’t bad, I thought I was missing something. There had to be more.

 So at the age of 30, I went back to school and earned a few degrees. I started making more money. I started buying more stuff. Life was good. A 2000-square-foot house and three cars in the driveway was living proof. Or so I thought.

But sometimes the dream is an illusion. The more stuff I bought, the more tied down I became.

With more purchases comes more responsibility. A big house, three cars, and expensive furnishings come with a price and that price is more than money. It includes your time, your energy, even your heart and soul.

Surprisingly, the bigger my paycheck, the deeper my debt became. The deeper the debt, the more time I spent working. That meant less time for my loved ones, my friends, and my hobbies. After years of upward mobility, I began to realize accumulation wasn’t the answer either.

I found myself beginning to long for simplicity. But also rejecting the notion of extremes.

On one hand, we have the unintentional consumer. Those pursuing happiness in the conspicuous consumption offered to them by their upward mobility. They rarely, if ever, question their buying habits. They desire bigger houses, faster cars, fancier furnishings, and all the comforts, luxuries, and entertainment that money can buy.

They love to tell you about their latest conquests in the material world. They live to impress through their stuff. They’re willing to work harder to get more. Often times, at the expense of their time and relationships.

On the other hand, you have complete austerity. Sometimes, in an effort to discover happiness, we overdue minimalism. We disregard simple comforts. Or we view possessions or riches as inherently evil. This way of life may be less common in our consumer-based society. But I can tell you from personal experience, it is also not the fast train to happiness.

Minimalism, at its best, is about finding what’s best for you. It’s about asking before you buy, asking before you give away, choosing to dedicate your time and money to the things that matter most, and eliminating the distraction of clutter.

To better decipher if it’s time to let something go, here are five questions:

How long has the thing gone unused? When it comes to material stuff, we tend to hold onto things after they’ve served their purpose. Most generally, if something hasn’t been used in six months, it will probably never be needed again. There are some exceptions for seasonal items, but this question is a good place to start.

Does the item create stress? It might not be possible to eliminate all stress from our lives, but letting go of certain things can greatly reduce your stress levels. If you keep banging your shin on the coffee table, let it go. If the thought of cleaning out your basement causes anxiety, it probably means you should.

Would your life be simpler without it? Everything we own costs money and takes up time or space. Life is infinitely simpler with less. So be honest with yourself and you might find that you’d be better off by letting go of things that hinder your finances, space, or time.

Are you holding onto something just because you think you should? Often we keep sentimental items because we think we have to. Or we stay in unhealthy relationships because we don’t want to hurt the other person. There are times we need to put ourselves first.

Could someone else use it more than you? I go through my belongings several times a year. When I find things I no longer need, I consider others who might need the item. If I know someone personally, I’ll ask them. Otherwise, I donate my stuff to a local charity. This helps you to declutter and you help others at the same time.

The easiest way to let things go is to understand that nothing we own makes us who we are. Be critical of how much you really need. In that balance, you’ll remain more at peace with your decisions in the long run.

***

Dan Erickson blogs at Hip Diggs as an advocate of minimalism, small living, and self-sufficiency. You can also find him on Facebook.

What To Do When Decluttering Makes You Feel Miserable

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Yuko Henden of Clutterless.

Decluttering seems to be all the rage. On the news, in social media, and during casual conversation, we hear more and more about people downsizing, KonMari-ing, and simplifying their lives.

The idea is a good one. So you decide to get on the bandwagon.

You borrow a couple of how-to-declutter books from the local library and scan through them, then buy a package of heavy-duty garbage bags and start attacking your clutter on Saturday at 9:00 am.

By the afternoon, you have garbage bags, donation bags, and even pieces of furniture lined up by your front entrance ready to leave the house for good.

You’re exhausted, but in a good way. You feel lighter and uplifted.

…

Fast-forward several months into the future. The afterglow of decluttering has faded. You still maintain that getting rid of the clutter was an excellent idea, but can’t cite a reason other than, “My right pinky toe is injury-free since I got rid of that ugly coffee table.”

Maybe you are even beginning to feel a bit uneasy living in a home with empty spaces. You feel a bit empty inside as well.

Your thoughts may be followed with even more questions, “What’s wrong with me? I thought this was going to feel only wonderful. Why do I feel this way? Was getting rid of my clutter a bad idea?”

Take heart. You are not alone. The decluttering process can be difficult at times. Let’s consider the reasons why:

Change is Unsettling

We like the familiar, and changes often produce stress. You have not moved, but your clutter-free home is a new environment. You will feel uneasy until you adjust to it.

Don’t give in to the urge to buy new things to make your place cozy. Any non-essential items you buy right now are likely to end up as tomorrow’s clutter. If you want to stop the vicious circle of decluttering, fight the urge to shop.

The Guilt

As you decluttered, did you feel a bit of guilt letting some of the stuff go? I sure felt it when I hauled a bag full of clothes that my mother sent me, which I didn’t feel like wearing, to the closest consignment store.

High-quality accessories, expensive tools, gifts from your loved ones—it’s sad to let go of things that you have some attachment to. It’s also not pleasant to think about how much they all cost.

Dusty textbooks and study material you never used—did you hear a voice inside your head say, “I’m so disappointed in you,” as you tossed them on the donations pile? Was that your voice, or your parent’s?

It’s inevitable to feel some degree of guilt when you declutter. When you do, remember that you cannot change the past, but you can learn from it.

After awhile the guilt will begin to fade. Until it does, use it as motivation to remind you when a change in your environment was so important.

Feeling exposed

You felt great when you slipped into the pair of five-inch, black stilettos. But they wrecked your back and knees, so you wisely got rid of them.

But now, perhaps, you don’t know how to feel confident and sexy without them. You feel so incomplete. You don’t feel good about yourself.

Fight the urge to go out and buy physical products that were substituting for your self-confidence.

Things can’t heal you and they can’t soothe you in the long run. Get to the root of the issue. Find confidence in who you are and happiness where you are. That contentment is longer-lasting… and leads to much lower credit card payments.

Decluttering didn’t solve your problems

Some people are reporting incredibly positive outcomes from decluttering, such as losing weight and finding their true calling (actually, that was me). Certainly you hoped it would change your life too.

But that epiphany never came, and now you feel duped.

Hang in there. I can’t tell you how or how fast, but the change will come if don’t give in to a yo-yo diet style of decluttering—i.e., endlessly alternating between purging and shopping.

It takes some time, but you will begin to realize that your clutter was acting as a security blanket. And without it, you may feel uncomfortable… and when you are uncomfortable, you will start questioning.

Questioning takes time, but it is good. Focused self-reflection leads to new ideas, self-discoveries, and changes in attitudes and perspectives. It won’t happen overnight. But remain hopeful and stay positive.

Decluttering physical clutter is the first step towards a simpler life, and it’s often a gateway to a further personal transformation. Ultimately, decluttering is about knowing yourself better so you can make the most of your life.

After all, the first step to getting what you want is having the courage to get rid of what you don’t.

These changes take time and effort.

Please remember that you started decluttering to improve your life. Remember to enjoy the results of your hard labor, such as easier cleaning and organizing, reduced maintenance, more space to do whatever your heart desires, and more time for fun.

Eventually, you’ll learn to love your clutter-free space and all the rewards that come with it.

***

Yuko Henden blogs at Clutterless where she helps people tidy up your workspace and work processes so they can focus on the most important things in life.

A Guide to Let Go of Your Perfectly Good Things

Note: This is a guest post from Zoë Kim of The Minimalist Plate.

Finding our lives under everything we own is more than clearing away just junk. Often it requires removing good quality things. Expensive things. Useful things. Admired things. Fancy things. It means letting go of perfectly good stuff in order to pursue something more meaningful.

I began de-owning my excess six years ago. My husband deployed frequently and we had two children under five. I was spending more time doing something with our stuff than doing something with my family.

With my husband half-way across the world, the kids and I had to pack up to move again. It was our third move in six years, but this one was just down the street. How difficult could that be?

Well, the process of personally packing, unpacking, and organizing all of our stuff drained the joy right out of me—for two months. I wanted to take my kids to the beach, play at the park, and listen to their laughter. But I was exhausted, and stressed. Busy taking care of all our stuff.

It was in that stress, exhaustion, and desire to live better that I had an ‘ah-ha’ moment. I began to see the real cost of our stuff— and it was way overpriced!

I started peeling away the layers of excess. And I was on a roll—until I hit that layer of perfectly good things! Valuable things that people spent much time and life to purchase. I felt wasteful and sick at the thought of giving it away. This was good stuff— wasn’t it? Maybe so. But I was learning, “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” —Henry Thoreau

It is possible to break through the layer of perfectly good things. Through the process, I learned these practical steps:

1. Accept the mistake. Often, we will see many mistakes as we start to purge all the ‘good stuff.’ Acknowledge it was a mistake so you can move on. Keeping something that does not add value to your life keeps you stuck holding on to the mistake.

2. Shift your perspective. As I journey further into minimalism, I realized there is far more joy in giving things away than can ever be found in owning more.

3. Designate a spot. In the beginning, I would walk through my house and see things I thought I wanted to donate but they stayed put until I set up a spot to start putting it all. Set up a box, closet or room to place your donation items. Remove them from your house often.

4. Community. Share your excess with your community. Donate books to schools and libraries. Donate clothing and other household goods to local foster care organizations, shelters, and your local food pantry.

5. Experiment. Experimentation by elimination has helped me shed the layers of good stuff quicker. I simplified my beauty and bath routine by removing 60-80% of my products. Much to my surprise, many things I kept had no real value to my day.

6. Keep your eye on your why. In times of discouragement, make a choice to focus on why you are giving perfectly good things away. Remember, you’re giving up the good for the best.

7. Ask yourself better questions.

Does it serve its purpose—to serve my purpose?

We’re often not consciously thinking about our motives when we keep things, but everything has a cost. How much are you willing to sacrifice your passion and purpose for possessions? Some of our things serve a purpose. The important things give our lives meaning and joy. The useless ones just drain our time.

Can this be useful to someone else?

When we hold on to good things we do not need, we keep them from being helpful to others. I used to think it would be wasteful just to give things away that were barely used or not used at all—especially if they weren’t cheap. But then I thought, what if I just own my mistake in buying this thing by giving it away.

Would I leave this as someone else’s’ responsibility?

With my spouse deployed in harm’s way, I was expected to plan. I filled out the spouse deployment form—pages filled with detailed questions and answers should my husband be killed. Experiences like these gave me more prudence. What will the state of my stuff look like when I’m no longer here? Do I enjoy this enough to leave if for someone to take care of—because it will be my family taking care of it someday?

How do you want to live your life?

Own too much, and you’ll live a life owned by your stuff. Say yes when you should say no and you’ll live a life organized by others. Keep more than you need, and you’ll give less to those in need.

The journey to minimalism might look like it’s about going through and purging your possessions. But it’s much more about going through your heart. “The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.” Marie Kondo

I’ve often wondered if I would have journeyed into minimalism had we not experienced the active duty military life. If we hadn’t moved so often and been stretched in stress, would I have kept it all put-away—like organized hoarding happily?

Nonetheless, I’m grateful for the experiences which brought me to the path to living more intentionally with a lot less.

***

Zoë Kim blogs at The Minimalist Plate where she inspires others to live an intentional life by owning less, creating new habits, and cultivating opportunities to give. And be sure to check out her on Facebook.

 

Inspiring Simplicity. Weekend Reads.

Never underestimate the importance of removing stuff you don’t need.

Encouragement is important in all areas of life, but especially when trying to live a life different than those around us.

Encouragement provides us with motivation to persevere. It invites us to dream dreams of significance for our lives. And it begs us to work diligently with optimism and promise.

Overcoming the pull of consumerism is a difficult challenge regardless of our stage in life. Simplicity requires encouragement. To that end, I hope you will find motivation in these articles below.

Each post was intentionality chosen to inspire simplicity in your life. For maximum effect, find a quiet moment this weekend and enjoy them with a fresh cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

7 Reasons Moms Need Minimalism | Motherly by Allie Casazza. “I could go on and on about how minimalism has impacted my motherhood, but instead I’m gonna break it down into a few main points.”

A Feng Shui Expert’s Recipe For Painless Decluttering | Mind Body Green by Marianne Gordon. Reducing the amount of stuff I owned was the secret to an easier life.

Generation X More Addicted to Social Media Than Millennials, Report Finds | The New York Times by Jonah Engel Bromwich. Adults 35 to 49 were found to spend an average of 6 hours 58 minutes a week on social media networks, compared with 6 hours 19 minutes for the younger group.

Why are we so attached to our things? | TED Talks by Christian Jarrett. (4:34). After witnessing the “violent rage” shown by babies whenever deprived of an item they considered their own, Jean Piaget observed something profound about human nature: Our sense of ownership emerges incredibly early.

 

A Guide to Recognizing More Moments That Matter

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Erica Layne of Let Why Lead.

We sat in a circle, criss-cross applesauce, with our knees touching, making a pen out of our bodies—a pen that contained two of the fluffiest, most silky-smooth bunnies you’ve ever seen.

The kids and I stroked their fur until the one named Lily (a boy bunny who was clearly named by the little girls who own him) hopped over our legs and made a break for the rose bushes, his favorite hiding place.

It was a chilly but sunny afternoon, a break in back-to-back storms, and it happened to be one of those rare but invaluable instances where I paused and thought—

THIS. In thirty years, I may not remember the details of our Disney trip or what toys the kids received at Christmas, but I might just remember THIS.

Laughing with my kids in the grass, snapping photos of their smiles, trying not to get pricked by the rose thorns when it was time to round up the rabbits.

What We Miss

Simple living is about clearing the excess (the stuff, the obligations, the self-imposed expectations) so we have room to notice and settle into the moments that make up our lives. But sometimes, even with the excess in check, we still manage to miss the moments that give our lives real color and purpose.

I mean, sure, we experience the moments, but too often we pass through them as if life is on fast forward. Because of this, we derive only a fraction of the joy that we could have experienced had we just moved a little slower—had we just recognized the moment in the first place.

Why?

We miss them for a dozen reasons. Maybe we’re preoccupied with planning for better moments, like the time I sat at my laptop booking an epic weekend campout for the family while my daughter tried to show me her newly mastered somersault three times before she finally caught my attention. (The irony, right?)

Maybe we’re busy chasing the ideal life we have in our heads. A career that is both respectable and fulfilling, a capsule wardrobe that lets you look put-together in less than five minutes, children who turn their homework in on time. (Getting everything right takes a lot of brainpower.)

Or maybe we just never trained ourselves to look for the moments in the first place.

How Can I Change?

1. Accept how little control you have over the moments you’ll really remember and cherish.

It’s not necessarily the Caribbean vacation; it might be as simple as playing with the neighbors’ bunnies on the front lawn. For me, accepting this helps me stay more in the present, instead of always looking toward the future for the next best thing.

2. Open your eyes to beauty.

I believe beauty is a gateway to a more satisfying life. Being attuned to beauty in your physical environment, whether it’s a flowering tree or a well-designed room or the subtle pinks of a sunset, opens you up to other kinds of beauty—the pride of a hard day’s work, the joy of an open day on your calendar, the feeling of a small hand in yours.

The moments feel twice as golden when you’re awake to beauty.

3. Embrace play.

The pressures of adulthood tend to take the playfulness out of us, but if you want to recognize the moments of your life, a sense of humor and playful attitude toward life will take you far.

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” Roald Dahl

4. Develop a solid, consistent “noticing practice.”

Think: a gratitude practice, but more specific. At the end of each day, can you take even one minute to mentally run back over your day and bring into focus a few small, easy-to-miss moments that meant something to you?

The smile you heard in your mom’s voice when you called to ask if you could stop by. The dampness at your son’s hairline and the redness of his cheeks when he came in from playing outside. The sound of your spouse pulling in the trash bins so you didn’t have to.

Jot them down in a journal, put a voice to them when you pray, or post a photo on Instagram. Do it regularly and this will becoming your noticing practice.

5. Protect yourself from burnout.

I can distinctly remember a time when I took care of everyone at the expense of taking care of myself. I thought my stage of life demanded it. I was working from home, tending to small children, and running the household while my husband clocked what felt like a million hours at the office. Where would I fit in time for me? It wasn’t happening.

Eventually I learned that taking care of myself was as much a way of thinking as it was a way of living. And I learned that operating on empty completely blinded me to the beauty around me.

We’re meant to live from a place of fulness.

6. Keep a handle on excess.

Commitments to keep, expectations to uphold, belongings to manage… Unless they’re in line with your values, they’re distracting you from what’s happening right in front of your eyes. Living an edited life takes continual effort and recalibration (because no two seasons are the same), but it’s worth it when it means living your with your heart and eyes wide open.

7. Change your story; dwell in the positive.

Even more than anything above, I think it’s often the script in our heads that keeps us from settling down into the present. If you’re discontent with where you are or if you’re down on yourself for who you are, how will you ever cut through that to see the good? Especially on a consistent basis.

Watch the thoughts that are running through your head, acknowledge them, and begin to craft a new script.

Here’s to fewer distractions, less self-doubt, and more awareness of the moments that make you think, THIS.

***

Erica Layne writes at Let Why Lead about the freeing power of living by your WHY. Join the community by subscribing to her newsletter or following on Facebook.

Minimal Privilege

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Patrick of PatrickRhone.com. I’ve been begging Patrick to write something for Becoming Minimalist for years. I’m grateful that he finally did.

$18,685.00

I’ll never forget that dollar number. The year was 2003. I had gotten laid off from my job at a software company when they decided to close the local office. I was on vacation when it happened. There was no warning.

On the way home, driving back, I got a call from the President of the company. He gave me the news. Said it was effective immediately but I’d receive some severance. He said it was a hard decision and he wished me the best. I was a full time single dad to two boys. I had a home, a minivan, and all of the normal costs of supporting a family of three.

Still, I had a plan. Before the layoff, to make ends meet, I had been doing some technology consulting on the side. I had a handful of clients and enjoyed helping them a lot. They seemed to appreciate me and were recommending me to others. It had long been a dream of mine to build my own business, work for myself, and do consulting full time. So, when I found my paycheck job gone literally overnight, I took it as a sign.

I had the severance—about six weeks pay—and a little bit of savings. I gave myself a deadline to see if I could chase that dream. I marked it on the calendar. I had exactly one year to stick it out and give it a shot—to see if I could build something that could feed my sons and I and keep a roof over our head. Only after that year, giving it all I had, would I then try to find another job.

That dollar number above is the gross total of what I made. Not the net. Not after taxes. That was it. Between August 2003 and August 2004 that was my gross income for a family of three.

That’s how I became a minimalist.

It wasn’t a choice. It wasn’t a grand statement on our consumerist culture and not wanting to run forever on the capitalist hamster wheel. I didn’t have credit cards because my credit was ruined by financial misdoings during my marriage. I didn’t want them either, but not for lofty reasons. Mainly because I was now very wary of them.

It wasn’t my love of simplicity and rejection of the tyranny of choice. I was broke and hungry and scared out of my wits that the heat would get turned off, our home taken away, the car repossessed, and I’d lose my sons because I couldn’t take care of them.

To be honest, I’m still not quite sure how we survived without any of that happening. That year is still very much a blur. I’m sure I blocked a lot of it out.

I know there were many days I only had one meal in order to make sure my sons had three. They got free breakfast and lunch at school, so I only had to worry about having enough money for dinner. I know there were times when friends would invite us over for dinner, without saying they knew how bad I was struggling to make ends meet. I became a ninja at cherry-picking sales at the grocery store and coupon cutting. I learned that, if you call phone and electricity companies before your bill is overdue, and explain your situation, they are more likely and able to work with you to figure something out than if you do so after it’s due. I can’t explain how the mortgage got paid. It did, somehow. Magic, perhaps.

We made it through. Exactly one day after my one year deadline I had two job offers immediately. Both for very good money. One with better benefits. I took that one.

Even though I then had a steady job and more than enough money to go back to business as usual, I had learned during that hard year how to live on very little. It had taught me a valuable lesson—the difference between want and need. And, while I now could afford to eat three meals a day like my sons, while we were no longer living in poverty, I had no desire or reason to spend money on anything we didn’t need or that didn’t add true value to our lives. That same ethos remains with me today.

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, I think we who consider ourselves minimalists, or those of us who are striving to be, need to be mindful of how we talk about it. We need to keep in mind that the very fact that you have the power to *choose* and decide what is enough for you and live with less, means you are in a position of privilege.

To many of us, choosing to “live simply” is to others living in poverty and they may not have a choice. We should be mindful of this when we talk about it to others because, many times, we come off sounding like elitist jerks.

Look, I get it. You’re happy about how a choice to live with less has made your life less stressful. You’re proud of the money you’ve saved or how you live debt free. You’ve made a life where you’re sure everything you own has value and the life you live is full of meaning and you want to share that with as many people as you can. You’re excited. It’s OK. You have reason to be. I’m simply trying to say there should be a level of understanding of what a privilege it is to be able to have such a life when we talk about it.

The desire should be to help others consider such choices, if they have the ability, for themselves and to have compassion for those without. We should live our lives in such a way that strives to provide others with the same opportunity to enjoy such privilege.

***

Patrick Rhone writes on the blog Patrick Rhone. I should also mention that he has been highly influential in my personal pursuit of minimalism and I have referred to his fabulous book, Enough, on countless occasions.

Confessions of a Digital Hoarder

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Angela Horn of Mostly Mindful.

In 2008 I convinced my wife, Sporty, that we should sell 90% of our belongings. I gave a TEDx talk called: The less you own, the more you have. And I brag about how little we now own every chance I get. If there was a secret club for minimalists, I’d probably join it.

But recently I realized—or rather, finally admitted to myself—that while my outer world may accurately reflect my ‘less is more’ lifestyle, my online life paints a somewhat more cluttered picture.

The Weight of Clutter

Anyone who has ever spent time decluttering will attest to the light feeling that arrives almost immediately after cleaning out the garage, hall closet, kids’ toy room, or whatever. There’s a sense of freedom that comes from getting rid of the junk and tidying up. It’s like you can breathe again.

What a lot of people don’t realize, however, is that all clutter weighs on you—even if it’s not taking up physical space. If your email inbox is a mess, it’s going to take up residence in the back of your mind until you do something about it.

The Many Forms of Digital Clutter

At least with physical stuff you have tangible reference points. You can no longer park your car in the garage, you risk life and limb every time you open the hall closet or you’re continually tripping over your kids’ toys. Digital clutter however, is both sneaky and insidious. The evidence is hidden on your laptop and various other devices, so nobody but you is privy to the mess.

In my first ever office job, we used floppy disks to store our work. Each disk had a sum total of 1.2 megabytes of space available. Our hard drives were also pathetically small, so we had no choice but to be discerning about what we saved. The advent of the Cloud means storage space is now infinite.

From your email inbox and photos to bookmarked websites, eBooks and newsletters, the extent to which you’re able to hoard in virtual space is scary.

Right, now that I’ve outed myself as a digital hoarder (and given away my age), let’s look at the different kinds of online clutter and what we can do to lighten the virtual load. (I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing I’m not the only one with this problem?)

Emails.

Emails are the new paper trail; they’re the evidence we need to prove we contacted that client, placed that order or deleted that account. But somehow we’ve lost the ability to discern what’s important and what’s not. It’s almost easier to just keep everything. You know, just in case.

The other morning, I received this email from a friend I haven’t seen in a long time.

Subject: Cleaning up the inbox.

The note was short and to the point: “I am doing an inbox clean up and wanted to check if this was still your address?”

Wow, I thought, how clever to do that at the beginning of the year. Then I glanced down and saw that she’d replied to an email I’d sent her in September of 2014! (She was working her way through 8000+ emails, I kid you not!)

I’m in no position to judge though. I still have emails from a client I haven’t worked with in more than two years. They’re all neatly filed in properly labeled folders, so of course I felt justified to just leave them there.

Note to self: Organizing is not the same as decluttering!

Action: Empty ‘trash’, delete all ‘sent items’ older than six months and get rid of all of those, umm, ‘organized’ emails.

Subscriptions (newsletters, RSS feeds, etc.)

I have an annoying habit of subscribing to every vaguely interesting blog I come across. Either they’re offering some cool freebie or I want to see what sort of content they share with their subscribers. But then the emails arrive and I ignore them.

I signed up for Feedly because I wanted a central place to read the latest posts of all the blogs I follow. But the problem with Feedly (or any other RSS feed) is that if you ignore it, it’ll quickly turn into the virtual equivalent of that deadly hall closet.

Action: Unsubscribe from any newsletter you ignore for more than two days. Schedule a reminder to log in at least once a week to see what’s going on in the blogosphere. Assess what you’re reading and what you’re not, and make the necessary changes. Make a point of not following more than five blogs at a time. Quality over quantity.

Downloadables (eBooks, PDFS, photos, misc. Files, etc.)

I haven’t looked at the gazillion photographs I have stored in Dropbox in years. A lot of people would argue that photos are important, a link to the past if you will. If you’re someone who actually looks at the photos you’ve taken, then it makes sense to keep them. That’s not me.

I love reading. I’m a grabby piglet when it comes to books. I still take books out at the library, but the majority of my reading happens online. There’s a problem with having instant access to millions of books though. Right now I have 151 books on my Kindle and I’ve read only 80 of them.

I also have a bunch of writing-related Word docs as well as PDFs and eBooks (remember the newsletters I signed up for?) on Google Drive and DropBox. Again, just in case.

Action: Delete all old photos. Read all unread books on your Kindle before you buy more. Read all PDFs, eBooks, etc. by the end of the month and then delete the lot. Sort writing documents into a system that makes sense. Delete anything old or half-baked.

Bookmarking (Save for later services)

I used to bookmark the old school way, but then I discovered Pocket. I added the Chrome extension, downloaded the app to my phone and immediately set about saving absolutely everything. Over the holidays I spent a couple of hours categorising the 100+ articles I’d pocketed. Seriously?

Action: Commit to reading any new articles saved within a week. Do a blanket clean out once a week so you can begin the new week with a clean slate (or in this case, an empty pocket).

Cloud Storage.

Cloud storage is one area where Sporty beats me at hoarding.

(It’s not just me!)

She has two Dropbox accounts and two Google Drive accounts (one for business and one personal). She also has an iCloud account, two project management tools that give her the option to store files and finally, she has finance software that she uses to store invoices.

Granted, a lot of these are for work, but still. I see plenty of room here for amalgamation and simplification. Or maybe I’m just deflecting?

Action: Declutter my own digital space before pointing a finger at someone else’s.

There are plenty of opportunities out there for creating digital clutter. I’ve included the ones that I’m guilty of, but I’m sure there are plenty of others that I haven’t thought of. What about you, how cluttered is your digital life? What can you do to streamline your cyberspace?

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Angela lives in Cape Town. She enjoys spending her time drinking coffee and writing about her urban hippie adventures on Mostly Mindful.

Inspiring Simplicity. Weekend Reads.

Fill your life with stories to tell, not stuff to show.

The simplicity/minimalism movement is a beautiful community. And I enjoy any opportunity to promote writing that encourages people to live more by owning less.

So fix yourself a nice warm cup of coffee or tea. Find a quiet moment this weekend. And enjoy some encouraging words to inspire more simplicity in your life today.

10 Things I Have Learned Through Decluttering My Life | Medium by Jil Shi. Decluttering my life is proving to be one of the most challenging, rewarding, interesting periods of my life and it’s not over.

My ‘Buy Nothing Year’: How One Woman Saved £22,000 | The Telegraph by Michelle McGagh. Is this an example you can find inspiration in?

The Mistakes Professional Organizers Always Notice (that you don’t) | The Age by Gabrielle Savoie. Do you think you’re making organizational mistakes that are keeping you from truly getting your clutter under control? These tips will help.

Why There’s Never Enough Time | Raptitude by David Cain. We are covetous creatures, and grasping at too many things leaves us feeling stressed and inadequate, and constantly wondering whether we’re on the best path.

The Life Changing Magic of Decluttering in a Post-Apocalyptic World | The New Yorker by Tom Gauld. I’m just glad somebody is finally talking about this.

8 Simple Strategies For When You’re Struggling to Declutter

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Claire Wilde of Want Less.

Embracing simplicity: the idea just sounds so good, doesn’t it? Can’t you just feel those tense shoulders loosening at the thought?

So many people feel overwhelmed, overworked, and overloaded, often living in homes which are overfilled… yearning for a simpler way to live.

A couple of years ago, I too was crying out for simplicity in my life, my bank balance, my schedule, my mind, and most definitely my home. I had somehow accrued a lot of consumer debt through a spending habit which never brought me happiness.

Becoming Minimalist and a handful of other sites inspired me to make some big changes, which in the end, came easier than I had thought.

First, I stopped buying things I didn’t need. It was a transformation. The stream of gadgets and trinkets coming into my life dried up. Sure enough, my thirst for new toys soon dried up along with it.

This in turn allowed me to simplify my money. I began spending less than I made. Whereas once I was drowning in debt, now I am surfacing. Soon I’ll be breathing again.

Then, once I had asked myself how I could be a more responsible consumer, I started asking myself how else I might be a better and happier person. Where I had been prone to envy, too often comparing myself with others, my focus gradually began to shift. Of course, I’m not magically immune from jealousy now, but at least I recognize it when it does rear its ugly head.

Simplicity has also allowed me to rethink and readjust the way I spend my time. Much of this has been easy, like selling all my computer games and rediscovering the simple pleasure of curling up with a book.

But there’s no doubt about it, I have found one aspect of simplifying very, very hard: drastically reducing the number of possessions I already own.

I have gone from having far too many things, to having a few too many things. This alone has taken more than two years, and I have to confess to feeling frustrated at times with my slow progress.

It was easy at first: gathering up a box of unwanted belongings gave me a thrill each and every time. But then, out of nowhere, I hit a wall. And I’ve been struggling to push through it ever since.

I’ve removed a third of my belongings. But I still own neglected nineties CDs and reference books I never use. I think I have not one, but two dead laptops haunting me. And I definitely have a lava lamp with no bulb, in a box somewhere.

I recently decided to start over, and now after a period of reflection and inspiration, I’m fired up and ready once again to dig deeper, go further, do better.

If you want to declutter your home but have ever felt frustration or disappointment with a lack of progress, know that you are not alone and it’s okay. While some people feel able to jettison all their stuff overnight, others will take their time.

Here are eight ideas for when you’re struggling to declutter:

1. Take things one step at a time.

If you are struggling with overwhelm, concentrate on one room, one piece of storage, or even one shelf at a time—especially if the job as a whole seems insurmountable. Your speed doesn’t matter, a step forward is still a step forward.

2. Find your people.

Online support can be a huge help, but there is nothing like meeting up face-to-face with other people who are pursuing simplicity. Depending on your immediate surroundings, this may or may not be easy to do. But the more you share your story of the change you are trying to make, the more people you will find drawn to it.

3. Take before-and-after photos.

Often times, being able to see the progress you have already made is helpful —especially if we start to feel frustrated during the process.

4. Do half-a-job (at least for now).

So you still have, let’s say, a vintage teddy bear collection and you’re afraid to say goodbye to it completely. Could you let go of half of them? This strategy can be particularly helpful for some of those hard-to-remove items (books, sentimental collections, souvenirs, hobby stuff).

5. Inject some fun into the process.

There are loads of decluttering games you can play. I came up with one called the five-in-five challenge: can you find five items you don’t want in just five minutes? You could even challenge your whole household to compete against each other. Or check out some of these ideas.

6. Quarantine your belongings.

Try boxing up items you fear you might need one day, and hide them away for a set period of time before letting them go. If there’s anything in there you truly do need, you’ll realize before you’ve given it away.

7. Work out your weak-points.

What have you found easy to declutter, and what have you found hard? Why is that? Perhaps you worry you’d later regret saying goodbye to sentimental trinkets or just-in-case items? Maybe giving away expensive toys is a painful reminder of what little value they gave you? Perhaps your conscience stops you from tossing items you can’t recycle? Whatever the hurdle is, there will be a way around it. It may take more time and self-reflection than other areas in your home, but don’t fear the process—it’s always beneficial in the long-run.

8. Practice self-compassion.

Don’t beat yourself up if you’re not seeing instant results. You might take a while to get to where you need to be. That’s okay. If you’re bringing less into your home than you are sending out, you’re decluttering. You’re heading to the same destination, you’re just taking a little longer to get there.

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Claire Wilde writes on the blog Want Less about ditching stuff, beating debt, and getting a life. She also curates the fabulous website Simplicity Voices which you should totally check out.

Invite Delight

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Evelyn Rennich of Smallish Blog.

How much delight do you experience in life? Do you feel real, soul-quivering delight on a daily basis? If the answer is “no,” it is possible that your delight is buried under stress and stuff.

After a busy time of year, we are tired of comparing Instagram lives, tired of working our tails off only to see someone do the job better, tired of the more-more-more rat race. The rat race is really a gerbil-wheel trap of consumption (a joyless void). Chasing after things or a bigger house or a promotion often leaves us feeling tired, angry, sad, lonely, and ultimately delight-less.

On the other hand, living intentionally—minimally, simply, slowly—can increase white space in your life. This white space provides opportunity for delight to bloom.

Consider delight for a moment. It means “to please greatly, to take great pleasure in, to revel, to captivate.” Don’t we all want to be able to say we take great pleasure in life? That we are capable of reveling in even the smallest of blessings?

Regardless of your external circumstance, it is possible to cultivate appreciating pleasure in your everyday life.

Here are four ways you can take specific action to invite delight:

1. More Slow.

It’s difficult to take great pleasure in anything when you’re constantly on the move or even mentally switching gears. Rushing from one thing to another might feel important but it only serves to increase stress. Find ways to slow down.

Create “stops” throughout the day, even if they are as small as drinking a cup of water and staring out a window for three minutes. Allow yourself moments to merely breathe. Say a prayer. Center. Enjoy sunlight on your face. Slow. Build in beautiful white space which allows the mind to fully process. Everyday delight can be a habit as you slow down and appreciate life on a detail level.

2. More Simple.

“Simple” here means to have your life priorities in line. Life can be wildly complex and yet remain glaringly simple if your priorities are set and you stick to them. Set your priorities for your own convictions, and you might be amazed at how straightforward decisions become. Life priorities come in all shapes and sizes: Serve God. Love people. Respect boundaries. Stay healthy. Commit to exercise. Parent with grace. Enjoy work.

Whatever is most important to making your soul come alive. Once you create a net of priorities it becomes a sieve through which to filter opportunities.  Screen incoming commitments or opportunities through your priority net and say “no” to things which don’t clearly support goals which are close to your heart. As you gain momentum in investing in your life priorities, room for delight will emerge.

3. More Gratitude.

Giving thanks isn’t just for November. Recent studies unequivocally link happiness with gratitude.

It turns out that counting your blessings truly changes your outlook. I’ve seen the power of thankfulness in my own life. When I am intentional about giving thanks for every good thing, however seemingly inconsequential, my joy flourishes and I see goodness all around me. This habit is most helpful on the hard days, when joy seems difficult to uncover. Being grateful on purpose is one of the most powerful ways to see delight surface in life.

4. Less Stuff.

Ability to delight often gets buried in excess stuff. When we open a closet full of things, instead of feeing thankful that we have what we need, we feel stressed because we see a need to organize. How tragic! Owning fewer material items actually makes it easier to be thankful for what we have. When we have less stuff, we somehow appreciate the stuff we do have more.

Owning less stuff causes us to be intentional about what we bring into our homes. Consequently, we have more room in our homes. It seems backwards but it’s true: less stuff definitely equals the ability for more delight in life.

We all crave more delight in our lives. Breathtaking pleasure in the ordinary is possible, but it is easily abandoned as our lives speed up, priorities get out of whack and piles of stuff accumulate. Invite more delight this year. Intentionally slow down. Evaluate your priorities and make sure your commitments reflect your goals. Be thankful on purpose. Get rid of a whole lot of stuff and discover how easy it is to be grateful for less.

After taking a few steps toward less, you’ll find you might be smiling.

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Evelyn Rennich writes about her attempts to live modestly, frugally, and green at Smallish Blog. You can also find her on Facebook.