How to Simplify your Life...

I think most of us talk about finding the balance in life. I come from the belief of there is no balance, just living life on lifes terms and therefore feeling balanced. There is no magical way to balance work, life, love, family, friendship, volunteering, housework etc. as we will always have a feeling of guilt in one or two areas of our lives since we are doing too much. We can look at simplifying our lives to make it less hectic. Here are some tips on how to do this;

1.  Cut down on the amount of paper coming into your house/life; reduce subscriptions, paper bills (set up automatic payments online), flyers and other adverts.

2.  Go through your mail once a week. Make a specific time to go through it, pay any bills and file any papers that need to be filed. This will stop you from piling papers all over and will allow you to finish the task at hand, not trying to go through mail daily and multitasking, ike most of us do.

3.  Start donating more things as opposed to buying more things. Have a donation box somewhere in your house, the garage, front closet or in your bedroom closet. Make it a habit to add things to this box daily. Do you have multiples of a certain item? Do you have 3 items that technically do the same thing? donate 2 of them. Once your box is full bring it to your local shelter or Salvation Army.

 

4.  Take a look at your schedule, how many commitments do you have? Can you reduce them? Is there a committee you belong to that is not what you thought the group was going to be about? Start to say no to new commitments until you finalize other deadlines. The groups that you are committed to be sure you are passionate about them still, if not move on your time can be used elsewhere as you are most likely resentful at having to attend and are not producing your best work.

5.  Make time for you, some quiet time, no electronics. Either reading, meditating, doing yoga or breathing exercises. The main pint is to decompress and slow down.

6.  Take on a weekend decluttering project; your attic, garage or basement. Going through everything and donating and tossing items you no longer use. Ask yourself: Do I use this? Does this make me happy? When will I use this? Do I need this? If you can answer yes find a home for the item.

7.  Use up all that is in your freezer and pantry before you buy more groceries. This will cut down on your time of shopping that week, use up what may be going bad, Keep things in perspective; we do not need to store so much food we will not go hungry. This is a time where hoarding canned goods and toilet paper is rewarded. Most items go on sale every 6 - 8 weeks so we do not need a years worth of items when they go on sale. If you buy what you need when you need it you will actually end up spending less, since you won't be buying up 2 - 6 of one item on sale, and will not have a cluttered home.

I hope these tips have helped you to start new rituals in your day to day living. Simlplify what you have to do so it does not become such a lage task at hand. Share your tips to help others and to motivate change!!