The average persons life has become very complicated. Read on for some guidelines to simplifying your lifestyle. Clutter is a part of life. Virtually everyone wishes to declutter some aspect of his life ranging from cleaning out the desk or cupboard to making changes to the work or home life. However, decluttering only works if steps to ensure that the clutter does not reappear accompany it. In this article The Simple Life Collect Everything in One Place Choose what is Important Eliminate the Remaining Items Organise the Essential Items Apply the Same Principle to Your LifeThe Simple Life There are plenty of guides and books to help you in your quest for a simpler lifestyle. The irony is that the books themselves are likely to be extremely complicated. Yet, there is an easy way to go about simplifying your life. This method consists of four major steps. It can be applied to your entire lifestyle or just one aspect of it. For example, say you want to tackle your junk drawer. This is the drawer where you push things in when you are in a hurry or you do not know what to do with the item. Collect Everything in One Place The first step is to gather up everything in one place. In the case of your drawer, empty all its contents on the floor and make a pile of the items. Make sure that nothing remains in the drawer, especially pins, clips, and pieces of paper. Choose what is Important Select things you like, use on a regular basis, and are important to you. Go through the entire contents and pick only what is essential. If you find something that you are not sure about, leave it. It is probably not important enough. Be as selective as possible. The objective here is to greatly minimise the amount of items you require. Eliminate the Remaining Items This is the hardest part to accomplish because of our natural desire to hang on to things. Do not think of keeping something because you never know when you might need it again. This is how the clutter accumulates in the first place. This does not mean you throw everything out. If you have old CDs, you could always give them away to a friend. Put whatever you are throwing out into a large bag and put it out along with the trash. Once you get rid of something, do not go back to take a second look at it. Organise the Essential Items After eliminating the unimportant things, you will be left with a small pile of important items. Clean the drawer by wiping it to remove all traces of dust. Then, arrange the remaining items in it neatly. Make sure to keep some space between items. It makes the drawer appear neater. In addition, you now know exactly where each item is kept. Thus, you have successfully simplified a drawer that was highly cluttered. Apply the Same Principle to Your Life The above steps use the example of a cluttered drawer but you can apply these steps to every aspect of your life. Even if you are a stay-at-home mother, you probably have to deal with many things. These include activities like hobbies, clubs, sports, childrens classes, etc. in addition to housework. To simplify life at home, pick out the activities that you really enjoy and see if you can get rid of the rest. For example, if one of them involves picking up and dropping your children to their painting class, find out if any of the other children in your neighbourhood attend the same class. Then see if you can work out a carpool schedule among the parents. This will save you time since you will not have to pick up your children after every class. Examine all your other activities. Are you doing them because you like them, or is it just to keep up with your peers? Choose a few activities you really enjoy and get rid of the rest. It is not impossible to make your life simpler. What it requires is a firm commitment and a belief in your capabilities.
The average person's life has become very complicated. Read on for some guidelines to simplifying your lifestyle. Clutter is a part of life. Virtually everyone wishes to declutter some aspect of his life ranging from cleaning out the desk or
cupboard to making changes to the work or home life. However, decluttering only works if steps to ensure that the clutter does not reappear accompany it.
The Simple Life
There are plenty of guides and books to help you in your quest for a simpler lifestyle. The irony is that the books themselves are likely to be extremely complicated. Yet, there is an easy way to go about simplifying your life. This method consists of four major steps. It can be applied to your entire lifestyle or just one aspect of it. For example, say you want to tackle your junk drawer. This is the drawer where you push things in when you are in a hurry or you do not know what to do with the item.
Collect Everything in One Place
The first step is to gather up everything in one place. In the case of your drawer, empty all its contents on the floor and make a pile of the items. Make sure that nothing remains in the drawer, especially pins, clips, and pieces of paper.
Choose what is Important
Select things you like, use on a regular basis, and are important to you. Go through the entire contents and pick only what is essential. If you find something that you are not sure about, leave it. It is probably not important enough. Be as selective as possible. The objective here is to greatly minimise the amount of items you require.
Eliminate the Remaining Items
This is the hardest part to accomplish because of our natural desire to hang on to things. Do not think of keeping something because you never know when you might need it again. This is how the clutter accumulates in the first place. This does not mean you throw everything out. If you have old CDs, you could always give them away to a friend. Put whatever you are throwing out into a large bag and put it out along with the trash. Once you get rid of something, do not go back to take a second look at it.
Organise the Essential Items
After eliminating the unimportant things, you will be left with a small pile of important items. Clean the drawer by wiping it to remove all traces of dust. Then, arrange the remaining items in it neatly. Make sure to keep some space between items. It makes the drawer appear neater. In addition, you now know exactly where each item is kept. Thus, you have successfully simplified a drawer that was highly cluttered.
Apply the Same Principle to Your Life
The above steps use the example of a cluttered drawer but you can apply these steps to every aspect of your life. Even if you are a stay-at-home mother, you probably have to deal with many things. These include activities like
hobbies, clubs, sports, children's classes, etc. in addition to housework.
To simplify life at home, pick out the activities that you really enjoy and see if you can get rid of the rest. For example, if one of them involves picking up and dropping your children to their painting class, find out if any of the other children in your neighbourhood attend the same class. Then see if you can work out a carpool schedule among the parents. This will save you time since you will not have to pick up your children after every class.
Examine all your other activities. Are you doing them because you like them, or is it just to keep up with your peers? Choose a few activities you really enjoy and get rid of the rest.
It is not impossible to make your life simpler. What it requires is a firm commitment and a belief in your capabilities.
