Making a switch to a minimalist lifestyle can really free up your time and money. It's lifted a huge weight of my shoulders since I made the decision. I've begun to declutter my office at work and my home.
BUT.....
If you are married with a family it can get complicated. What if you are the only one that immediately sees the benefits of the lifestyle change? What if you are not as attached to your possessions? What if your spouse and/or children just don't understand?
This can be a very touchy area. Becoming a minimalist usually goes against everything we think is the right way to live our lives in this consumerism driven society we live in here in Canada and the USA. We are bombarded by advertisements that tell us we need more, better, bigger, faster and on and on. Don't even get me started on trying to keep up with the Jonses!
I'm one who once I make up my mind to do something, I tend to jump head first into it and go for it. It may not work out but I'm not usually afraid to jump in and give it a try. A tendency my boss likes to remind me of a lot! My wife on the other hand does not really like change. Not dive in and go for it change like this anyway. She needs to think it over and understand it first.
When I first started in with becoming a minimalist, I didn't remember that. Much to my dismay. She was not into the idea at all and thought I was losing my mind. It caused quite a heated discussion in our house for sure. I was soon reminded that not everyone sees things the way I see them! So, I had to change my approach.
My new approach began with a huge apology. Then with a careful explanation that I was trying to shift our family from having to doing. Once I explained that I really wanted to do more with my family rather than just have all this stuff lying around, it began to make more sense to my wife.
I've taken a baby steps approach to the de-cluttering and given my wife the chance to adjust to my new philosophy and even to try to sell of some of our more useful items to recoup some of the cost. I decided to start slowly with the areas of our home that have a lot of extra items that are not being used or have not been used in a very long time. My closet for one, then the spare room in the basement that has become a drop point for stuff we don't know what to do with. Out grown kids clothes, toys, our old clothes that no longer fit in the closets, old paperwork. You get the idea.
At no point did I say to my wife that she must begin to de-clutter he belongings along with me. That would have been a bad idea. It's not a wise man who tells his wife what to do with her stuff. I simply told her I was going to de-clutter my closet and the spare bedroom. Once I began, she started to see that she had some stuff too that she would like to get rid of and decided to join me.
So, here are the steps that I have learned worked best for me.
Begin with yourself. You cannot force someone to de-clutter but if you lead by example, they will see how much happier you are with less and how much less stress there is by having all the extra stuff around. Eventually they may join with you and begin to de-clutter as well. I began with my closet space and my home office. Soon I will begin on the garage....that will be tough!
Talk about why. Sometimes people are resistant to change until they understand why you are trying to change. I explained to my wife that I wanted to focus on "doing" rather than "having". With less stuff in our home, we would spend less time and money cleaning and caring for our stuff and that would free up time and money for "doing".
Share your goals for the future. If you can come up with a common goal you will have much to focus on. Instead of seeing what you are losing by getting rid of a bunch of stuff, you can focus on what you will gain in the end. My wife and I want to take our kids and my parents to Mazatlan. That's a pricey plan. With selling off a lot of our stuff, we are getting closer to that goal faster. With not purchasing things for no good reason, we can save that money for the trip as well. I used to buy $20.00 worth of lottery tickets every week. Never winning anything was stressful. I decided that the $20.00 each week would add nicely to our trip fund. So, into the can it goes! A common goal will go a long way.
I have found several blog posts from fellow bloggers about this very thing and I've taken some notes and will be practicing some of the tips too. Here are a few of my favorite links that may really help you out.
Simplicity When Your Spouse Doesn’t Get It - from Becoming Minimalist
My Husband Doesn’t Understand Minimalism - from Loving Simple Living
When Your Spouse isn’t Simple - from Be More With Less
I wish you well in your de-cluttering efforts and with minimalism. Keep at it. It will come. It's not a race, it's a lifestyle.
Chris.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
De-cluttering Your Time
I've noticed that while I'm de-cluttering my home there is another de-cluttering going on. My time is starting to be de-cluttered as well. I'm not sure when it started but I just noticed it yesterday. I've started doing things in my day more deliberately.
Social Media
For example, I haven't been on Facebook for over a week. What a huge time drain that thing is. Honestly, I don't really care that you went to a great little cafe and had a bagel for breakfast this morning. Why do you think I need to know? Facebook can be a great tool for bringing people closer together. I have family that lives on the other side of the country and I can send them a message at anytime. This is a great thing but it gets to be a problem when people obsess about it. I've been guilty of it myself. Sitting staring at the screen waiting for a comment, any comment on a status update or a photo I just uploaded. To the point of not doing anything else!
I've removed all the social media apps from my smart phone. I'm not saying I'll never be going back onto social media sites just not as a time killer or for some validation from people whose opinion I probably don't really care all that much about anyway. I certainly don't need them on my phone. When I'm out, I want to be more present. Not "there but not there" if you know what I mean. We all see them. People sitting in the most amazing of spaces and just looking at their screens chatting with someone. Here's an idea, why not call that person up and invite them to share this moment in person. I bet you are chatting with someone who lives less than 30 minutes from you.
Television
This one is another huge black hole in your life. Don't get me wrong, I like TV but I watch it deliberately. I always have. I hate having the TV on as background noise. I much prefer music, audio books or maybe a podcast in this day and age. I see no point in listening to the jibber jabber on the TV when it's nothing I want to actually watch. Especially the commercials. Terrible.
If I'm going to watch the TV it's on my time when it's something I want to watch not just for company. I do watch pointless entertainment on TV. The Simpsons is a favorite of mine. So I'm not trying to talk down to those who like to watch. Just be aware of the effect it is having on you and your time. Hours go by in a blink and suddenly you feel the need to shop as well. LOL.
The best thing my wife and I invested in for television was a PVR. We record the shows we want to watch so we can watch them on our schedule and we can skip the commercials!
What do you find in you life that steals away your time and gives you nothing in return? How can you cut them back and regain some control over the time you have each day?
Chris.
Social Media
For example, I haven't been on Facebook for over a week. What a huge time drain that thing is. Honestly, I don't really care that you went to a great little cafe and had a bagel for breakfast this morning. Why do you think I need to know? Facebook can be a great tool for bringing people closer together. I have family that lives on the other side of the country and I can send them a message at anytime. This is a great thing but it gets to be a problem when people obsess about it. I've been guilty of it myself. Sitting staring at the screen waiting for a comment, any comment on a status update or a photo I just uploaded. To the point of not doing anything else!
I've removed all the social media apps from my smart phone. I'm not saying I'll never be going back onto social media sites just not as a time killer or for some validation from people whose opinion I probably don't really care all that much about anyway. I certainly don't need them on my phone. When I'm out, I want to be more present. Not "there but not there" if you know what I mean. We all see them. People sitting in the most amazing of spaces and just looking at their screens chatting with someone. Here's an idea, why not call that person up and invite them to share this moment in person. I bet you are chatting with someone who lives less than 30 minutes from you.
Television
This one is another huge black hole in your life. Don't get me wrong, I like TV but I watch it deliberately. I always have. I hate having the TV on as background noise. I much prefer music, audio books or maybe a podcast in this day and age. I see no point in listening to the jibber jabber on the TV when it's nothing I want to actually watch. Especially the commercials. Terrible.
If I'm going to watch the TV it's on my time when it's something I want to watch not just for company. I do watch pointless entertainment on TV. The Simpsons is a favorite of mine. So I'm not trying to talk down to those who like to watch. Just be aware of the effect it is having on you and your time. Hours go by in a blink and suddenly you feel the need to shop as well. LOL.
The best thing my wife and I invested in for television was a PVR. We record the shows we want to watch so we can watch them on our schedule and we can skip the commercials!
What do you find in you life that steals away your time and gives you nothing in return? How can you cut them back and regain some control over the time you have each day?
Chris.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Give It Time....It's A Process.
It takes time to de-clutter one's life. How long did it take you to accumulate all that stuff? If your anything like me and my wife, it was years and years. We still have boxes from our wedding 12 years ago! Just sitting there taking up room. So after all these years of building up how can you expect to de-clutter it all in a weekend.
Where is this coming from you ask? Well after spending hours on the weekend clearing stuff out, throwing away what was garbage and putting up for sale some of the items we thing are worth trying to sell off, I still see such a mess! In fact I made more of a mess trying to clean up that mess! I moved stuff out into the basement hallway, piled things up here and there and that storage room floor is a write off!
But, I see now that it's going to take time. Lots of time and I'm willing to spend that time to better organize and de-clutter my home and life. I looked around that room this morning after getting out of the shower and I was feeling bad that I didn't get it all straightened up at once but just a little while ago I realized that it's a process this de-cluttering.
It takes time.
Chris.
Where is this coming from you ask? Well after spending hours on the weekend clearing stuff out, throwing away what was garbage and putting up for sale some of the items we thing are worth trying to sell off, I still see such a mess! In fact I made more of a mess trying to clean up that mess! I moved stuff out into the basement hallway, piled things up here and there and that storage room floor is a write off!
But, I see now that it's going to take time. Lots of time and I'm willing to spend that time to better organize and de-clutter my home and life. I looked around that room this morning after getting out of the shower and I was feeling bad that I didn't get it all straightened up at once but just a little while ago I realized that it's a process this de-cluttering.
It takes time.
Chris.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Weekend De-Cluttering Progress
I made some great progress on the de-cluttering at home this weekend!
I pulled everything out of my closet in the bedroom. Everything. On to the bed it went and I looked at each piece of clothing with a very critical eye. My closet was packed. 9 linear feet of hanger space packed so tight that my shirts were always wrinkled from being squashed together all the time. I packed up 5 large black garbage bags of clothes that I have not worn in the last year or that I have no plans of wearing ever again. Let me say that number again.....5 large garbage bags!!! After the purge in the closet, I still have enough shirts to not have to laundry for at least a month. But these are my favorite shirts and I'm not one who believes that you only need 5 shirts in your closet. I brought the coats that I'm keeping up to my closet in the bedroom as well. I have no clothes in any closet other than my bedroom closet now. That's huge. I feel pretty good about that. My dresser is constantly being de-cluttered as underwear and socks get replaced and jeans and shorts last me for a very long time.
I also started on the spare bedroom/storage room in the basement. This room has always been a sore spot for me. It is the dumping ground for items we don't know what to do with. Clothes in bags that the kids have out grown, nick knacks that have been replaced and other general junk. I pulled all my books out, went through them and kept about 5% of them. I took the book case that they were in, put it in the family room and managed to eliminate 2 smaller book cases that had movies on them by moving the whole collection to this cabinet out in the open where it is seen and easy to get at. I have 2 more of these large book cases in the room that are getting a de-cluttering and a re-purposing as well. With the movies off one of them, I have room for all the school and craft supplies to go which will eliminate 3 paper boxes that float around the house all the time. I managed to condense a 4 drawer legal file cabinet down to a portable office file box! Talk about a lot of useless junk in that cabinet!
There is still a lot of work to go in this room but I will continue with it until it is complete before I move on to something else. My wife is convinced that I've lost my mind but she is going along with me as long as I don't get too carried away.
Speaking of my wife, she has decided to try to sell most of what I'm de-cluttering to recoup some money. What ever we make from this is going to be put away and go towards either our new deck or a trip to Mazatlan. Not sure which one yet. I'm really glad I was able to get through to her and show her that I'm just trying to simplify our lives and take some of the stress out of life. We also talked about not bringing anything new into the house that we don't need. She is on board with that.
Once spring gets here and the brain freezing cold snap we have been having this last few weeks stops, I am going to begin de-cluttering the garage and the shed in the yard. I have so many tools that I never use and I just don't need. They take up so much room and the garage is always a mess.
Here's to your de-cluttering success. I hope my example of de-cluttering my life will help to encourage you to do the same if you want. I feel really good about it and I'm hoping to have more with less in the future. It's a process but a worth while one.
Chris.
I pulled everything out of my closet in the bedroom. Everything. On to the bed it went and I looked at each piece of clothing with a very critical eye. My closet was packed. 9 linear feet of hanger space packed so tight that my shirts were always wrinkled from being squashed together all the time. I packed up 5 large black garbage bags of clothes that I have not worn in the last year or that I have no plans of wearing ever again. Let me say that number again.....5 large garbage bags!!! After the purge in the closet, I still have enough shirts to not have to laundry for at least a month. But these are my favorite shirts and I'm not one who believes that you only need 5 shirts in your closet. I brought the coats that I'm keeping up to my closet in the bedroom as well. I have no clothes in any closet other than my bedroom closet now. That's huge. I feel pretty good about that. My dresser is constantly being de-cluttered as underwear and socks get replaced and jeans and shorts last me for a very long time.
I also started on the spare bedroom/storage room in the basement. This room has always been a sore spot for me. It is the dumping ground for items we don't know what to do with. Clothes in bags that the kids have out grown, nick knacks that have been replaced and other general junk. I pulled all my books out, went through them and kept about 5% of them. I took the book case that they were in, put it in the family room and managed to eliminate 2 smaller book cases that had movies on them by moving the whole collection to this cabinet out in the open where it is seen and easy to get at. I have 2 more of these large book cases in the room that are getting a de-cluttering and a re-purposing as well. With the movies off one of them, I have room for all the school and craft supplies to go which will eliminate 3 paper boxes that float around the house all the time. I managed to condense a 4 drawer legal file cabinet down to a portable office file box! Talk about a lot of useless junk in that cabinet!
There is still a lot of work to go in this room but I will continue with it until it is complete before I move on to something else. My wife is convinced that I've lost my mind but she is going along with me as long as I don't get too carried away.
Speaking of my wife, she has decided to try to sell most of what I'm de-cluttering to recoup some money. What ever we make from this is going to be put away and go towards either our new deck or a trip to Mazatlan. Not sure which one yet. I'm really glad I was able to get through to her and show her that I'm just trying to simplify our lives and take some of the stress out of life. We also talked about not bringing anything new into the house that we don't need. She is on board with that.
Once spring gets here and the brain freezing cold snap we have been having this last few weeks stops, I am going to begin de-cluttering the garage and the shed in the yard. I have so many tools that I never use and I just don't need. They take up so much room and the garage is always a mess.
Here's to your de-cluttering success. I hope my example of de-cluttering my life will help to encourage you to do the same if you want. I feel really good about it and I'm hoping to have more with less in the future. It's a process but a worth while one.
Chris.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
No Right Or Wrong Way......
I don't believe there is a right or wrong way to begin to de-clutter ones life. I think for my home a gradual peeling away of the layers is going to work best. It's not just myself that needs to de-clutter, it's my wife and both kids as well. If it were just me, it would be fairly quick and painless. A great purge.
I have to be more sensitive to my families feelings and work more slowly towards this goal. I'll lead by example and start to purge my own clutter. I am far from innocent in the clutter problem here! I have years of books, sheet music, computer parts and clothes to go through. Don't even Ask about my tools!
Thursday evening I broached the subject with my wife, the wrong way! It lead to a rather heated discussion that did not end well. Friday evening, I appologized for my poor delivery of the message I was trying to convey and we had a good adult discussion about de-cluttering our home. It will begin this weekend with our closet and the spare room in the basement, or as I call it.......the disaster room!
This could be an eye opening weekend to just how much unessessary stuff we have.
Chris
I have to be more sensitive to my families feelings and work more slowly towards this goal. I'll lead by example and start to purge my own clutter. I am far from innocent in the clutter problem here! I have years of books, sheet music, computer parts and clothes to go through. Don't even Ask about my tools!
Thursday evening I broached the subject with my wife, the wrong way! It lead to a rather heated discussion that did not end well. Friday evening, I appologized for my poor delivery of the message I was trying to convey and we had a good adult discussion about de-cluttering our home. It will begin this weekend with our closet and the spare room in the basement, or as I call it.......the disaster room!
This could be an eye opening weekend to just how much unessessary stuff we have.
Chris
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Minimalism and Simple Living
I have discovered Minimalism. This means many different things to many different people. To me this means de-cluttering my life, cutting back on the "things" I own and getting down to what I need to live and be happy. It means living deliberately. Thinking twice or thrice before making a purchase and bringing another "thing" into my life. I want to live with "passions" not "possessions".
Does this mean that I plan to give away all my stuff and live in an empty home? No, not at all. It just means that I'm going to think long and hard about whether or not I really need that next purchase or is it just a passing fancy that will end up in a box at the back of a closet.
I began the process of de-cluttering my life at work yesterday. I managed to remove well over half of the "stuff" from my office. Things I never use and are not required to do my job. I have opened up so much space in my office and taken away that closed in feeling. Very liberating. I'm not finished in the office but I am so close.
My next de-cluttering project is going to be my home office. I'm a photographer as well and I have a lot of old stuff that I never use. Some that I have never used because it ended up not being what I wanted or what I thought it would be. My desk is full of DVDs and hard drives with back ups of my photos. I'm going to make an official back up and take that to my parents home for safe keeping. I'll pick it up every month or two to add to it from my main system. I think I can get rid of all those DVDs or at least not add to them anymore.
I'm very excited to finally have some direction in my life. A way to begin to focus on my passions. I can't wait to discover what they are! I have lived for so long not really knowing what I wanted to do or how I was going to do it.
Chris.
Does this mean that I plan to give away all my stuff and live in an empty home? No, not at all. It just means that I'm going to think long and hard about whether or not I really need that next purchase or is it just a passing fancy that will end up in a box at the back of a closet.
I began the process of de-cluttering my life at work yesterday. I managed to remove well over half of the "stuff" from my office. Things I never use and are not required to do my job. I have opened up so much space in my office and taken away that closed in feeling. Very liberating. I'm not finished in the office but I am so close.
My next de-cluttering project is going to be my home office. I'm a photographer as well and I have a lot of old stuff that I never use. Some that I have never used because it ended up not being what I wanted or what I thought it would be. My desk is full of DVDs and hard drives with back ups of my photos. I'm going to make an official back up and take that to my parents home for safe keeping. I'll pick it up every month or two to add to it from my main system. I think I can get rid of all those DVDs or at least not add to them anymore.
I'm very excited to finally have some direction in my life. A way to begin to focus on my passions. I can't wait to discover what they are! I have lived for so long not really knowing what I wanted to do or how I was going to do it.
Chris.
New Tagline
You may, or may not, have noticed that I've changed the tagline on my blog header.
It used to read:
"After struggling with my health and weight for most of my adult life I came across the Paleo diet and was amazed at how much better I felt and how much weight I lost while never feeling hungry or like something was missing. It was easy to fall off that wagon though with no support so I started this blog to try and be accountable to the world and myself. It doesn't matter if no one reads this at all but with it out there, the chance is there and I need to keep going just in case."
That was fine when that was the main focus of my early blog here. But, as the weeks have gone on, I've started looking deeply at my life and where I'm going...or not going for that matter. I decided that another weight loss blog just wasn't needed. So the new tag line evolved. Because, as it says, I find myself at an age where I need to refocus my life and start living deliberately.
I will get into more of that in future posts.
Chris.
It used to read:
"After struggling with my health and weight for most of my adult life I came across the Paleo diet and was amazed at how much better I felt and how much weight I lost while never feeling hungry or like something was missing. It was easy to fall off that wagon though with no support so I started this blog to try and be accountable to the world and myself. It doesn't matter if no one reads this at all but with it out there, the chance is there and I need to keep going just in case."
That was fine when that was the main focus of my early blog here. But, as the weeks have gone on, I've started looking deeply at my life and where I'm going...or not going for that matter. I decided that another weight loss blog just wasn't needed. So the new tag line evolved. Because, as it says, I find myself at an age where I need to refocus my life and start living deliberately.
I will get into more of that in future posts.
Chris.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Time To Declutter And Simplify.
I am in a slump. Almost a depression really. My life is complicated. Aren't all our lives complicated? We have bills to pay, gas to buy, cars to fix, mortgages to pay, sports for the kids, exercise for ourselves, health concerns.....on and on and on. It never seems to end.
Lately, I find myself getting tired of the rat race. I'm tired of trying to keep up with the "Jonses". Every time I turn around I'm bombarded with advertisements from all directions telling me I need this new thing or that shiny thing. It's constant and in all areas of my life. Take my passion of photography for instance. I'm constantly being made to feel like my camera gear is inadequate. I listen to a lot of podcasts about photography and so many photographers get hung up on gear that it becomes the focus of the process. I believe that the gear is secondary to the vision and creativeness of the artist. Sure it will help but the top of the line camera won't make a photo of a boring subject any more interesting.
It's everywhere. My fridge isn't good enough, my stove isn't hot enough. My truck isn't tough enough. Don't even get me started on what society thinks about how I raise my kids and what they need and want! That's a can of worms we shall not open here. Or ever on the internet for that matter!
I look around my house and I realize there is stuff everywhere. Literally everywhere. Clutter, clutter, clutter. I don't blame my wife, she's conditioned to this by society as well. I am starting to realize this though and I think that's the key. It's not just in the house either, my garage is insane. I have tools that I used once but I had to buy it not borrow it. Why? Why did I feel the need to own that tool instead of just borrowing one or using a simpler tool? Case in point, I have a compound mitre saw that I used for a week or so when I replaced the baseboards in our previous house. That was, hmmm, 10 years ago! I bet I've used it 3 or 4 times since then! But I had to buy it! I could have rented it for less and not had it sitting around since then.
I have been in this slump like I said for a couple of days now. I thought maybe it was just because work is very slow right now and I spend most of the day wishing I was doing something else but that's not it. Honestly, I just can't keep going with the consumerism. Spend, spend, spend. You need this, you need that, everything is made to be replaced. Why do we need it in the first place?
I bet most of us would be happier with having less and doing more. I think I would. Doing more to me means taking my kids to far off places so they can see what life is like there. Playing with them more than buying them something to play with. Going on a trip with my wife. Just us. We never had a proper honeymoon. We couldn't afford it. I want to live my life with passions not with possessions. I think it's time to make some changes. I need to declutter my life and start to live more simply.
Fine, there it is. I'm going to simplify. That said, what does that mean for me? Well that's the hard part. I'm going to start by not buying anything new for the month of February and see what that feels like. I'm also going to start attacking my current possessions and see what I can get rid of to start the decluttering.
That's a good start. My recognition of this problem will go a long way to helping me change my life and start moving forward again. I've rambled on enough for today. I'll keep you posted with how my simplification goes.
Chris.
Lately, I find myself getting tired of the rat race. I'm tired of trying to keep up with the "Jonses". Every time I turn around I'm bombarded with advertisements from all directions telling me I need this new thing or that shiny thing. It's constant and in all areas of my life. Take my passion of photography for instance. I'm constantly being made to feel like my camera gear is inadequate. I listen to a lot of podcasts about photography and so many photographers get hung up on gear that it becomes the focus of the process. I believe that the gear is secondary to the vision and creativeness of the artist. Sure it will help but the top of the line camera won't make a photo of a boring subject any more interesting.
It's everywhere. My fridge isn't good enough, my stove isn't hot enough. My truck isn't tough enough. Don't even get me started on what society thinks about how I raise my kids and what they need and want! That's a can of worms we shall not open here. Or ever on the internet for that matter!
I look around my house and I realize there is stuff everywhere. Literally everywhere. Clutter, clutter, clutter. I don't blame my wife, she's conditioned to this by society as well. I am starting to realize this though and I think that's the key. It's not just in the house either, my garage is insane. I have tools that I used once but I had to buy it not borrow it. Why? Why did I feel the need to own that tool instead of just borrowing one or using a simpler tool? Case in point, I have a compound mitre saw that I used for a week or so when I replaced the baseboards in our previous house. That was, hmmm, 10 years ago! I bet I've used it 3 or 4 times since then! But I had to buy it! I could have rented it for less and not had it sitting around since then.
I have been in this slump like I said for a couple of days now. I thought maybe it was just because work is very slow right now and I spend most of the day wishing I was doing something else but that's not it. Honestly, I just can't keep going with the consumerism. Spend, spend, spend. You need this, you need that, everything is made to be replaced. Why do we need it in the first place?
I bet most of us would be happier with having less and doing more. I think I would. Doing more to me means taking my kids to far off places so they can see what life is like there. Playing with them more than buying them something to play with. Going on a trip with my wife. Just us. We never had a proper honeymoon. We couldn't afford it. I want to live my life with passions not with possessions. I think it's time to make some changes. I need to declutter my life and start to live more simply.
Fine, there it is. I'm going to simplify. That said, what does that mean for me? Well that's the hard part. I'm going to start by not buying anything new for the month of February and see what that feels like. I'm also going to start attacking my current possessions and see what I can get rid of to start the decluttering.
That's a good start. My recognition of this problem will go a long way to helping me change my life and start moving forward again. I've rambled on enough for today. I'll keep you posted with how my simplification goes.
Chris.
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