Living with Less
Posted in The UN-digi | 10 Comments »
10 Comments »
A few years ago I flew to Florida to visit my grandmother. As I spent the weekend in her home, I was overwhelmed by a sense of peace that I felt. My spirit was calm, I could breath deeply, and I had a content smile on my face for what seemed like no reason. I don’t feel like that often and so I was curious as to the reason.
On the day I was leaving I was sitting in her living room looking around. I looked out the large window, glanced at her few pieces of tasteful furniture, and smiled when I looked at a few pieces of artwork I remembered from when I was a little girl. And then it hit me. I knew why I felt such a sense of peace.
My grandmother lived simply, but beautifully. As I quickly scanned the room, excited to find the source of peace, I was shocked to see that the sense of calm I felt was coming from all the things she didn’t have. There were no piles of clutter. There were no extra pieces of furniture. No TV was in sight. There were not books piled high or framed pictures hanging on every available piece of wall space. And I felt total peace.
Ever since that weekend I have been striving to live MORE with LESS. I am far, far from my goal and I am not very good at resisting the “more stuff” mentality, but I have made some improvements and I hope to make more. I am very aware of how clutter affects my spirit and my sense of calm. I know now that just because I like something doesn’t mean I need to buy it. I know that if I am not using it, I don’t need it. I know how to make due with what I have and I know how to throw away things I am not using. Our external environment affects our internal environment — when our outside world is in chaos, our inside world will be too. And I really, really, want to live at peace, both inside and out.
For this weeks The UN-digi I want to show you a few sites/articles I have found on living simply, dealing with the clutter, and on embracing frugality. I am hoping I can work harder to implement some of these things in my life so that I can spend my time enjoying relationships rather than things and spending time with those I love rather than spending it trying to manage (and pay for!) all the junk.
How about you?
100 Reasons to Get Rid of it
Small Notebook
HouseMade
How to Declutter
On Simplicity
One Bag Nation
Laurel Plum Online
72 Ways to Simplify Your Life
Fly Lady — Declutter in 15 minutes a day
The Story of Stuff
And, for us digi gals, THIS article dealing with digital clutter is worth a read. Or ten.
No matter how simply we live, I think most of us could take a quick look around and see all the the stuff we have that we don’t need. We can see the piles, the clutter, the excess. Do yourself a favor — start taking small steps to get rid of it and see how you feel. Pick one small project to tackle today. Choose one thing you could do differently that will help your family. Cut out one small luxury that is part of your normal spending routine but adds up over time. Do something small. Do something today.
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I’ve really enjoyed this article along with the several links you posted. I think I can use this information to my advantage!
Hi Janet! I check your blog first thing every morning and I really like it! You are a fantastic writer and pick really great things to feature for each day. I love the digi files and thought it was an amazing value at 5$. I look forward to seeing more of the bags snd also love the designer spotlights!
Thanks for the inspiration
This is too funny. I just posted somewhere on a message board and facebook that I have too much stuff on my hard drive: 123.5 GB worth of photos and 123.9 GB worth of digital stuff/layouts and asking for help. Thanks for always bringing articles that are soooo topical to me!
I definitely qualify as a digital packrat (as well as the traditional kind)….
Your topic is so true! I always feel stressed about how much I have to do and when I think back to when I didn’t have so much to do, I realize I didn’t have a computer (gasp!), high-speed internet, satellite tv, etc. And, physical stuff (things around the house) overwhelm me, too, and I am adamant about getting rid of all things unnessecary. Grandmas, having come from a time of few posessions & no modern comforts (indoor plumbing, electricity, etc.) are a perfect example of living simply!
I’m ridding our home of 7 things a day each day for the year as part of my effort towards simplifying our lives. Looking forward to being 2555 things lighter by the end of the year.:-)
What a great idea! We have gotten closer to that goal in our lives this year by getting rid of our sattelite dish. Of course we still have DVDs, internet and the Wii, but we have eliminated alot of commercialism and mindless tv watching in our home. It is so nice. Love your website too! Thanks
Great topic. I am a fan of FlyLady and this is a great reminder to decluter and simplify.
You listed some of my favorite sites and I am so tickled to be included among them! Thank you! You are so right about the affect our environments have on our peace of mind and our state of mind has on our spaces. I wrote a little about it today, too. Good luck with opening up your spaces and finding simplicity!
P.S. I have been playing around with digital scrap booking a little over the past couple of months and love it! It is quickly becoming one of my favorite crafting hobbies. I still fumble around a lot, but I love discovering ideas for all kinds of projects that it makes possible! You are definitely going to the top of my RSS list!
Thank you for the links, I’m sure I’ll learn something for I too am a digital pack rat!
My youngest started Kindy today so I spent the few hours I had doing exactly this. One room at a time will be tidied and de-cluttered. When the weather cools down its the sheds turn and all the boxes of stuff we have stored at my DH’s work.
A lot of work ahead but I’m getting there.