Welcome! I am so excited you are here and hope what I have to share adds some value to your life. I am passionate about choosing simplicity, reducing overwhelm and acting with intention. Hence the name! Minimalism, simplicity and awareness and acting with intentionality have changed my life. I want to share these incredible strategies and ideas with you in hopes they will become as meaningful to you as they are for me.
My name is Sarah. I’m a mom to a 2.5 year old and married to my wonderful husband Kevin. I’m a teacher by day, enthusiastic crafter/DIYer and intrinsically frugal (but more on that later). This process to simplicity and minimalism has been a journey, one that has taken me a few years to really internalize. But I can say now not buying something, or for me, not bringing something home because it was free or cheap, and loving that feeling of less over more is really engrained. Because now, before something is bought or comes home, there is a thought process. I think of the resources it requires; time, money, space in our home and energy and decide if it adds enough value. Most of the time, the answer is no.
a work in progress
I had a great reminder of this last week. I’m driving home from work and pass this incredible framed photograph. It’s oversized and lovely and free! The free part really gets me because I tend to think, easy to get rid of if I change my mind. So as I’m putting it in the trunk, the top of the frame comes off. No biggie, I can fix that, and in it goes. But as I’m driving home I’m thinking through the time it will take to repair, the wall space it’ll take up and then the time to hang and get the hangers, etc, etc and decide nope!
So I put it on my curb when I get home and dust my hands of it. Well then the next evening my husband says “Did you put a giant framed picture of a yak on our curb? Because if you did, it fell over and smashed.” Two things here; it’s in the realm of possibility to him that yes, I put a giant framed photo of a yak at our curb, and two, oh my god the mess to clean it up (in the dark because daylight savings)! So for me, lesson learned. I didn’t even bring it inside but it was like the universe reminding me, you don’t actually want extra stuff, remember? And if any of you have a toddler and work full time, you know that the 30 minutes I spent cleaning broken glass was a third or more of my free time that day!
choosing simplicity
One thing I hope that is clear from my story, is that we are all always working on it. There is no point in life where you can say “ah well I fixed that!”, you will in fact have moments that test your choices again and again. What will get easier is saying no or bouncing back from these setbacks. The more you carve out those neural pathways, the more you become more of the person who – buys less, exercises or saves money – you fill in the blank whatever it is. The important part is adopting your choice as part of your identity. When you see yourself as the type of person who… then you are much more likely to continue with the behaviour.
Something I believe is having awareness about your thoughts, actions and feelings has a positive impact on your life. Noticing, becoming aware why and adjusting are powerful tools. Here are five questions to help you become more aware and then act with intention to reduce overwhelm and bring some simplicity to daily life. Use these questions as a guide as you move through a day or even better choose a question a day over five days. Pay attention to where you find tension, the things you really don’t like or cause you stress and write it down. Once you identify those things you can begin to simplify them, use strategies to help or eliminate.
1. What overwhelms me?
Notice the points the day where you feel overwhelmed. Is it physical clutter? Your schedule? Is it because of your own actions or someone else’s?
Can you problem solve with the other person? What can you simplify or put in place to save you time?
- Grocery delivery
- Organize things the night before i.e pack lunches, lay out clothes
- Do Project 333
- Set aside time each week to plan meals all at once
- Break up cleaning into daily chunks, i.e Mondays = bathroom
2. What is taking longer than necessary?
Notice tasks or times of day where things aren’t going smoothly. Is making dinner seeming endless? Does it take forever to get out the door in the morning? Are you using your free time efficiently (when you want it to be efficient)?
What can little things can you put in place to make things easier?
- Buy pre-cut or frozen fruit & vegetables
- Simplify meals i.e sheet pan dinners
- Subscribe and save programs, automate what you buy frequently i.e. diapers
- Take time each week to create a plan for what you want to do
3. Time vs. Money
As you move through your day, notice the things that are taking a lot of your time. There are a lot of conveniences you can pay for that will free up your time, if you are able. Not all of them cost very much, for instance, grocery delivery is between $8-12 for us but saves us time and the struggle of taking a toddler to the grocery store. The simplicity of this luxury wins every time. Some other ideas are:
- Cleaning service, this might be a splurge but even just hiring someone to clean your bathroom.
- Extra childcare, a few extra hours a week so you can get some things done quickly.
- A car or taxis. Now this may be a given for many but we just bought a car (we live in a city) and it saves loads of time.
- Buy less. Pay attention to how much time you spend online shopping and evaluate if it’s worth it! Everything you bring home requires time and energy and space.
4. What can I stop?
What are you doing that you can stop? One way I find my perfectionism shows up a lot is in completing tasks. But many of those tasks are unnecessary. For example, I felt like my daughter needed a few pairs of warm socks because the ones we had seemed to be getting a tad small. This led to me collectively spending a couple hours looking for warm toddler socks online, I went down several rabbit holes. Sustainable toddler socks, well those were pricey. Cheap toddler socks but they weren’t cozy, etc. You can imagine and then I looked at her wearing her socks and thought, you know these are probably fine. I really like to check all the boxes, get all the things done but sometimes it’s great to let go and make do. For me, simplicity and perfectionism rarely go hand in hand.
Alternatively don’t baulk at spending a bit more on the item if you come across it and it’s convenient. Like if you are out and about doing another errand and pass a rack of cozy toddler socks but they are $10 more than you wanted to spend, evaluate the 2 hours of rabbit hole google time to getting the socks right in that moment. It may be worth saving the money but it may not, this is all about awareness and being intentional. Inviting more simplicity into your life means you get to spend time on the things that matter rather than buying socks.
5. What can I let go of?
So this is the part where we talk about getting rid of some of your stuff. Physical clutter plays a role in your overwhelm. Shuffling things off of surfaces, spending time organizing, buying containers for stuff and cleaning all of it. Just have less stuff, it saves a lot of time and energy. I know it’s hard to let go but I bet there are a lot of things in your space that aren’t hard to let go of.
- Takeout menus – it’s all online
- Extra pens, you can buy more if you run out very cheaply
- Children’s artwork. I know this is a hot button topic but take a picture and throw it away because there is lots more where it came from. If it’s a truly special piece, by all means keep it but be honest with yourself. My daughter made 10 paintings last week!
- Old toiletries you haven’t used in the past 6 months to a year, again easy to replace if you really NEED it (which you probably don’t)
- Struggling house plants, unless reviving house plants is your hobby, let ’em go!
- Extra bedding, how many sets do you really need? Two.
- Unused kitchen utensils
- Extra twist ties and elastics, keep some not all
- Worn socks
- Coupons you’ll never use
- Things collecting dust in your pantry ie. old box of panko
- DVDs!!
- Old stuff in your freezer
This list is just to get you started, even if you just choose one. It feels really good, it’s easier to find stuff you actually use and it will reduce your stress. There is all kinds of science coming out now about the negative impacts of clutter. I used to spend ages organizing and I realized it didn’t work, I actually needed less stuff. Now it feels so much easier to tidy up everyday and I don’t feel like I have endless organizing tasks hanging over my head all the time. I really wish the same for you. You can throw things away, it’s okay.
