Simple Life Together

The number one reason we love simplicity is that it gives us flexibility to live our lives the way we want. Sure, it takes some real effort to get to the point where we could drop what we were doing and take a 30-day vacation, but once you get to the point where you can shape your life to do the things you want to do, and live they way you want to live, you’ll love simplicity too. It is so worth the effort and probably how you’d like to live your life too.

During our recent trip, we covered over 6600 miles with our tiny teardrop camper in tow. But thankfully, we didn’t drag along a lot of complexity with us as we traveled. But simplicity doesn’t just “happen.” Some deliberate decisions and actions ensured we could enjoy our experiences together as a family without some of the misfortunes of the Griswolds!

Note: The school year starts soon! Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little “less” in her life. It’s less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort!

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We absolutely love the freedom to spend our time (for the most part) the way we want to. That’s why we love simplicity. All the things we have done to simplify our lives over the past couple of years is really starting to pay off. So when the time came for our summer vacation, all the dividends of our efforts manifested themselves throughout every facet of our trip. Now, we always like to leave you with some solid take-aways for every blog post or podcast episode we do. So, the take-away for you isn’t us talking about our trip…I mean, who cares about that other than us, right? But rather, the things we experienced tie directly in with almost everything we talk about on Simple Life Together. No doubt you take what we talk about and adapt it for yourself, right? Well, that’s exactly what you’ll do with this info, too. And if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll even save you some time or effort by helping you avoid some of the mistakes we’ve made.

So here are a few key points from the show:

So, what are some ways you’ve invested in simplifying your life? How are those dividends paying off for you? We’d love to know!

Be sure to leave a comment below.

Dan: Nearly 30 days off of social media! It was awesome!

Vanessa: Being told by Sunshine, “Mommy…now’s not the time to be on your phone.”

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

 Photo Credit: Yours Truly

We’ve been sharing our story about simple living here since the tail end of 2012. But we know we’re not alone when it comes to simple living! We put the call out in our last episode for more volunteers to share their story here on Simple Life Together. Well…you answered the call and and today we have our second Profile in Simplicity guest who is going to share how she’s simplified her life, too!

We’re looking at doing Simplicity Profiles every month or so. We’ll start the show with our featured guest and talk with them about simple living, how they embraced simplicity, what they’ve learned along the way, etc. We think the talks will last anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes. Sometimes longer, sometimes not. Then we’ll do the announcements, sometimes a Thing segment, and sometimes the Qs & Comments segment. We think it’s great to highlight your stories, and for you to be able to share:

Each of us has our own story when it comes to simplifying, simplicity and simple living. Sharing what you’ve learned, what you’d do differently, advice you’d share, and even mistakes you’ve made on your journey, helps us all grow individually and as a community. We’re all in this together, so we’d all love to hear from YOU. When we started Simple Life Together, we kind of felt alone on our journey. We really wondered who would want to listen in and weren’t sure whether or not what we had to say mattered to anyone but us. Well, you’ve changed that for us, and we want to change that for you, too. We’ve been incredibly inspired by stories from the Edit & Forget It Facebook page, emails we’ve received, voicemails…you name it. YOUR story is unique...and if you’re willing to share it, it can serve to inspire others to follow your path. We’ve found out first-hand that something we mention in passing on the show can have a positive impact on someone on the other side of the world…and make their life a little better. Your story can do that too! The world is waiting, and we want to share our platform so you can share your story just like we have.

Liz Neighbors is joining us to share a bit about her simplicity journey. Liz and her husband Griff split their time between Connecticut and spending the summers in Cape Cod with friends. Liz worked in retail for years but stayed home to raise her kids for the past 18 years. In that time, Liz has blogged, ran an eBay business, and started getting that “it’s all too much feeling” lately like so many of us. She’s been a Simple Life Together and Edit & Forget It Challenge supporter right from the start. And get this…Liz started a mission of no shopping back in November of 2013 and is 7 months into her journey!

So, how have you been simplifying your life!  We’d love to know. Be sure to leave a comment below.

Vanessa: Aereo….watch tv online. It’s a nice alternative to cable and allows us to watch more local channels on our laptop or on our big screen television via Air Play. It was especially nice to watch the NBA playoffs and finals where the San Antonio Spurs whipped the tails off of the Miami Heat!!!! Dan: Ariana Huffington’s book, Thrive. The book is very much in line with how we want to live our lives…deliberately, on purpose, and taking care of that which is most important in our lives.

Way back in Episode 47, Simplify Your Wardrobe, we explored our relationship with the clothes that we wear and asked ourselves some questions such as: So what things shape your current wardrobe? What does your wardrobe look like now? What would your ideal wardrobe look like? and What are some of your favorite pieces and why? We also introduced that we were going to give a microcourse called Dress With Less a try, cutting our wardrobes down to 33 pieces each for 3 months.

Well, it’s been over 6 months and 20  Simple Life Together episodes since then and while we’ve mentioned quite a bit about our progress along the way, we thought we owed you a good, solid wrap up. So this is it!  Read more…

Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too!

Buy Supermom vs Supermom

When your goal is to simplify your wardrobe, you don’t expect to learn a whole lot of lessons about your attachment to “stuff.” But that’s just what happened with us. Over 6 months ago, Vanessa packed up most of her clothes and put them up in the attic. And then just a few days ago, we sat down and started talking about the process and what we’ve learned along the way. As we talked, I said, “You know what? This is good stuff. We really ought to be recording this!” So we moved on out to our World Shedquarters, sat behind the mics and just had a candid conversation. Vanessa even shared a few journal entries she did early on in the challenge. Here’s a sample:

Day 2: Well I woke up and and the first thing I did, even before going to the restroom was check out my wardrobe. Yup…still pretty empty…nothing really changed. So I cried again. I was grumpy all day…frustrated with the challenge…even more frustrated with my emotions.

But miraculously as the day went on, I started to settle into the idea of living with less. It’s not like this was life or death….it’s a simple challenge….and one I don’t have to commit to if I don’t want to. So that seemed to brighten my spirits a little. And with that….I revisited my closet, made some final edits and settled into the fact that this was just a challenge…only a 3 month challenge.

 So, have a listen and consider this episode a inside look at our own personal triumphs and struggles. It was just Vanessa and me having a little one on one talk, but we thought you’d appreciate being a fly on the wall. If you decide that you want to simplify your wardrobe a bit, too, we’d love to hear some of your lessons learned.

So, what are some things you’ve learned along the way as you try to simplify your wardrobe? How did you handle your struggles? Did you have support along the way? Was 33 the right number of things for you, or was it more or less? We’d love to know!

Be sure to leave a comment below.

Thanks to mcevjael who wrote: “Great content…every episode. 5 Stars. It’s obvious how much prep work goes into each episode. Thanks for the valuable content and the easy listening.”

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

 Photo Credit: Yours Truly (adapted from Wikimedia)

Abe Lincoln said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” When living simply, taking action now can help you shape the life you want to live. Back in Episode 38, we talked about the concept of preparation meets opportunity. You may recall a few lines from that show that went like this:

“When you’re working on that Life Plan, or your dreams and goals, prepare for those opportunities you want to come along. I’m a firm believer that you can determine your own destiny if you make your own future. Shape it yourself. You’ll have obstacles along the way for sure, but you’ll also find encouragement and inspiration, too.”

We want to give you a little bit of context for our journey by connecting some dots. Our goal is that it may help you form you own dots to connect later on. So, If you’ve been listening in or reading our blog posts for a while and are familiar with many of our back episodes and posts, now you’ll see exactly why we picked some of the subjects that we did. If you’re new to Simple Life Together (and we have more and more joining us each week…yay!) then this will be a great “jumping on” point for where we are and how we got here! So, the “What’s In It For You” is this...taking deliberate small steps forward from the ideation we talked about on the last show, will help you shape your own journey to live simply. “The best way to predict your future is to create it” is a great way to think about it. So thanks, Mr Lincoln, for that fine quote and the title of today’s episode.  Read more…

Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too!

Buy Supermom vs Supermom

Like we said earlier, you’ll see how a lot of our past episodes relate to the things we are doing in the “initiate movement” step of the TLPs, to move towards our simple life goals. In no particular order, here are some of the things we’ve done, are still doing, or getting ready to do, to move us forward:

We introduced The Edit & Forget It Challenge back in Episode 9. The Edit & Forget It Challenge has fulfilled a lot of objectives for us. Here are a few:

We recently did a another full frontal assault on our garage and it felt fantastic! It helped us reach a few key objectives that we had as our goal. Namely, we:

We still have more to go in the garage! Not that we have so much “stuff”, but when you’re fine tuning,  getting to exactly where you really want to be it takes time. I still have some files out there that we need to go through with a fine-toothed comb.

In Episode 42, The Upside of Downsizing, we took a look at some of the benefits of downsizing:

But we’ll tell you this…watch out for some unexpected positive side effects, too! Downsizing has a funny way of simplifying your life overall. When you simplify, you’re more focused of your life goals, more deliberate with your purchases, and more in-tune with what’s important to you like family, relationships, your health and on and on…

Other concepts we explored back in Episode 38, Preparation Meets Opportunity, and Episode 54, Setting Limits to Simplify Your Life, have worked and are continuing to work for us:

We also limited ourselves to a smaller camper for our travels. Traveling is one of the primary reasons for us wanting to live simpler lives. Living small would allow us the opportunity to travel more. Originally we thought the answer to our traveling dreams was to get a big Class A motorhome. But after further contemplation we realized it would be more restrictive (in regards to cost, time to maintain it, and places we could actually visit). The RV would have required us to find a place to store it, pay lots more in fuel costs, and even restricted the kinds of campsites and parks we could go to. It was way more than what we wanted and needed.

Instead, we decided our teardrop camper was a better fit for us. Although, by design it limits us to what and how much we take, it gives us way more freedom in regards to our time, money and places we can travel to and visit.

An added benefit to our tiny camper is that it has really given us a taste of living small which is our end goal. We mentioned that we actually camped for 3 weeks in a 50 square foot loaner teardrop camper last summer and it was fabulous! We learned how to plan simple meals, how to pack even lighter for the trip and how to create simple routines just as we would in our normal home…they were just a little different and on a smaller scale. We honestly didn’t miss all the luxuries our 1800 square foot home had to offer. Matter of fact, the only thing Vanessa missed was having her own bathroom…but that’s it. We didn’t miss having our laundry room (we just made weekly trips to the laundromat which was awesome because we could do a bunch of loads at once!). We didn’t even miss our big kitchen, or our backyard or home office shedquarters because the views out camping were way better than our backyard. Not having a home office actually helped us curb our digital addiction! So basically, the camper solidified the idea that we can live small and still be happy.

And the same thing goes for our Jeep. We knew eventually we wanted a 4 wheel drive that would be beneficial on our travels and in different climates. So we ended up getting one (a little sooner than we planned but hey…preparation and opportunity helped us out here. Even on short notice!). The Jeep is small, but because of it’s restrictions in storage space, we are much more deliberate about what we bring on trips. Actually, that makes things so much easier when it comes time to pack up and go!

So, all of these things things are just examples of how we used the tools of Strategic Simplicity and what we call “systematic ideation” to move us forward in our journey of living simpler in different areas of our lives. From ideation to initiation, you can see how systematically looking at things in your life, can really help you move forward…no matter what your goals or dreams are.

Now, the next phase for us will be the “Conduct Reconnaissance” phase! We’ll be doing some recon this summer on our trips out east and west…and probably for the next couple of years as we explore and hone down the places we’d like to live. We developed some criteria of the ideal place for us (which we discussed in detail in Episode 65) and now we’re executing part of the plan by visiting places before we move on the the final troop leading procedures steps, “Complete The Plan” and “Issue The Final Plan”…which of course is moving to a place we’ll call home. From there on out, it’s “Supervise and Refine” for us!

We’re far from the “destination” of our simplicity journey…but it feels great to be on the path. So the major takeaway here is this: You don’t “find” your path to living simply. You make it. You predict your future by making it happen! Our path certainly won’t be yours, but we can share some tools, some experiences, and some support to one another along the way to forge our own path. And it all starts with some ideation, determination, and some deliberate actions to not only make dreams a reality, but make your journey a whole lot of fun, too. As Mr Lincoln said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” Start creating the future you want, today.

So, what are some things you’re doing to predict your future by creating it? Are you downsizing? Prepping for a new career? Starting a side gig business? What are some things holding you back from getting started? We’d love to know.

 Be sure to leave a comment below.

We had some terrific iTunes reviews! Thanks to:

TClongLPC, Prankstr45, and Sherry from SherryLCarver.com!

And some great website comments, too! Thanks to:

Don Hamilton, Tania of MauiShopGirl.com, and Jenny Thompson, Sara Grafton from Stamp Across the Miles, Hope Griffin from HopeNGriffin.com, Sheryl Balthrop from SimpleLifeReboot.com and Toni Scott from TannerAssociates.com.

So yeah…Episode 65 was a pretty popular episode so check it out if you haven’t already. Thank you all so much for taking the time to write in!

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

 Photo Credit: Yours Truly (adapted from Wikimedia)

When it comes to making long-term plans for our lives, we all go through a “dream stage”…where we just kind of day dream about what our life might be like. Seriously, we’ve all, at some point in our life, thought about what it would be like to win the lottery or be super rich…and you kind of lose yourself in the dream. While I’m sure there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it’s really more productive to do some systematic ideation. By dreaming systematically, you’ll likely improve your chances for success. For us, this is strategic simplicity.

Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too!

Buy Supermom vs Supermom

Ok, so what is “systematic ideation” and how can you use it? Well, I’m sure there’s lots of different ways to systematically come up with ideas. I’m a bit of a tinkerer…kind of a MacGyver type and enjoy product design. I even recently had a company put one of my ideas into production and they’re getting ready to release it. But years ago, I read a book (I can’t for the life of me remember or find the title) that sparked my interest in systematic ideation.

But today we’re going to share one ideation tool with you that you might be able to use on your simplicity journey. We adapted this from a post we saw on Governing.com that had absolutely nothing to do with strategic simple living. Still, the tool was intriguing, so we adapted it for our use.

So here you go: A good way to be more systematic about your ideation is by looking in all four “directions”. By that we mean, Outward, Inward, Backward and Forward. It’ll help if we give an example, so we’ll show you how we used this tool in our search for the “perfect” town or place for us to live. Of course, you can use it for any ideation exercise you wish!

Back in Episode 49, Live the Life of Your Dreams, we talked about our “Freedoms From” and our “Freedoms To.” One of those freedoms to was “Freedom To Choose Where & How We Live.” So, again, just to give you an example of using the tool on our quest for strategic simple living, let’s look at our search for the “ideal” place for us to live.

So, before we start the 4 directions, here are some qualities we know our dream location will have:

So Looking Outward:

Looking Inward:

Looking Backward:

Looking Forward:

So the major takeaway here is this: By all means, DREAM. Dream Big! But when it comes to getting serious about strategic simple living, be systematic about your ideation. Look Outward, Look Inward, Look Backward, and then look Forward.

By going through this process of ideation, you may come up with more questions than answers initially. But in the end, you’ll probably be a lot closer to what you want and be able to formulate a real plan of action.

So, what is one of your long-term simplicity or other life goals where you could use this ideation process? Is it your home, your career, a business opportunity, a passion, or even a relationship? We’d love to know.

 Be sure to leave a comment below.

Vanessa: I just turned 40 years old and feel great!

Dan:  Recently we had to do some document faxing. We usually bug Dan’s ex and send faxes from her office, but this time I just used the HelloFax extension for the Chrome browser. HelloFax makes it easy to sign documents and send faxes online. You’ll never need to print, sign and scan documents again! You can get 50 free fax pages each month, for 6 months! If you want to check out Hello Fax just go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/hellofax.

We just wanted to say thanks to Genevieve Parker Hill for including us in her post, 9 Websites To Help You Live Simply. She lists some fantastic simplicity blogs and we’re honored to make the cut!

And also to Sheryl and Dave Balthrop for mentioning us in their post The 7 Phases of Your Heroic Journey to Margin and Simplicity.

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

 Photo Credit: Marina del Castell

We hinted in Episode 63 that we’ve been enjoying more and more healthy smoothies. About two and a half years ago we did a 12-day juice fast. Since then, we’ve slowly incorporated juicing into our lifestyle at least 3-4 times/week. By doing that…juicing became a regular part of our life.  We became addicted to how good it made us feel which led us to look into other ways to improve or expand our healthy eating goals. Juicing led to eating more raw foods, eating smaller portions…and now smoothies!

So, who better to talk about smoothies, than our friend and someone who’s become our own personal… “healthy liquids expert,” Farnoosh Brock, the author of The Healthy Smoothie Bible!  Read more…

Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too!

Buy Supermom vs Supermom

We asked Farnoosh a bit about simplicity and a lot about healthy smoothies and her new book. So, we’ll share the questions we asked her with you here, but to get all the goodness you’ll just have to listen in to the show this time.

So the major takeaway here is this: Adding healthy smoothies to your lifestyle is a simple way to increase the intake of fruits, vegetables, certain superfoods, and even supplements into your life. While we’re big juicing fans, sometimes prep and cleanup from making healthy smoothies is a LOT easier. Give it a try! You can get your own copy of Farnoosh’s Healthy Smoothie Bible today!

So, you know we’re enjoying more smoothies! And if you didn’t see it, Vanessa did a post this past week about dehydrated snacks that we like to make, such as fruits and jerky. Be sure to check that out, too.

But how about you? Have you adopted any new healthy changes or simple foods lately? Do you have any tips or advice you’re willing to share? We’d love to hear it.

Be sure to leave a comment below.

And we got a nice voicemail from Connor Trueman  from Journey To Simple and also Liz Neighbors on our Speakpipe app on the website. Thank you both so much for phoning in!

Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too!

Buy Supermom vs Supermom

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

 Photo Credit: Farnoosh Brock

When it comes to simple living, or making any changes in life, there always seems to be plenty of experts around telling you what you should do, and how you should do it. Looking to get in shape? You can find an endless supply of “experts”…many of which will directly contradict each other…that are ready with their magic formula to help you. All you have to do is buy their equipment, take their magic pill, or follow their magic advice.

But what it all boils down to in the real world is developing a simple plan that is right for YOU, and then kicking things into gear! When it comes to simple living or simplifying certain areas of your life, there are some things that have worked for us and that you can use to start making strides in areas of your life that you want to simplify.   Read more…

Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too!

Buy Supermom vs Supermom

We’re just going to offer 5 ways to help you simplify your life…at your own pace.

Once you look at where you are now, you can figure out where you want to be and start working in that direction.

Simple living has so many different facets. But what’s one area you want to fix? Is it your physical clutter, time commitments and obligations, finances, your professional life, personal life, health? What do you want to focus on? Pick one thing first, then edit what isn’t working and try to streamline ways to keep it simple…and keep it going. Here’s an example: a major area of frustration for me was our kitchen counter that became “The Clutter Zone”. The first thing we did was get rid of the junk, then Dan came up with the idea of making some cubbies in the columns next to where the clutter was collecting…and it worked great! That one change had such a huge impact on our physical space that it led to more and more opportunities to simplify. And that’s what we’re talking about for our third point…

And once you start that one area, you’ll likely find you’re ready to expand your efforts and carry that momentum into simplifying other areas of your life. So as we just mentioned regarding those cubbies…that worked so well that the idea spread to other areas of the home to control and contain our clutter.

You’ll know what pace is right for you and when it’s time to stretch a bit or ease up. Find people, books, podcasts or blogs that help guide and support. But don’t fall for the “gurus or experts” who pretend to have some secret formula or easy solution. They sound great, but they don’t know you. You know you. Follow what feels right to you. And as we mentioned before, be prepared for some friendly “critiquing” along the way from others who just don’t get it…YET. We talk about that pretty in-depth in Episodes 13 about escaping cubicle life and in Episode 55, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Simplicity.

So for a quick recap, we had 1- Take an objective look at where you are, 2- Start With One Area of Your Life, 3- Know That Simple Living Will Become Addictive, and 4- Go At Your Own Pace.

Get started and tweak things as you go! Try personal simplicity challenges, like our Edit & Forget It Challenge, Project 333, and others. Measure your progress against your own yardstick and try to stick to your objectives. Of course, it always helps to have a very well developed plan, but to paraphrase von Moltke, “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” So, armed with your motivation to simplify and your rough plan from Step 2, get started and be prepared to tweak things along the way. That way you can always stay on the offensive and have the agility to change course when you need to, but still work toward your objective. There are lots of sayings in the military that follow this advice, such as “improvise, adapt and overcome,” and “Flexibility is the key to Airpower.”  So, as you take action, remember it’s better to follow your overall objectives than it is to follow a rigid plan. So there you go…5 Steps to Simple Living at Your Own Pace.

So the major takeaway here is this: Remember, no matter what area of your life you’re trying to improve, there is help out there. But don’t fall for the “gurus or experts” who pretend to have some secret formula. They don’t know you like You know you. Follow what feels right to you. Figure out where you are now, where you want to be, make a plan, take action and tweak along the way. That’s it. If that sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it’s about the same thing as the OODA loop we talked about WAY BACK in Episode 16, Making Decisions Like a Fighter Pilot.

So, have you ever found yourself frustrated with the advice of so called gurus or experts? Or do you take advice with a grain of salt and adapt a little here and there to fit your needs? Do you have any tips or advice on ways you’ve been able to reach your simplicity goals and stay on track? We’d love to know.

 Be sure to leave a comment below.

Dan just reviewed a terrific Evernote guide titled “How to Automate Evernote, Save Boat Loads of Time And Make Your Life Easier“. It’s a 76-page ebook on how to automate Evernote with some cool programs he’s talked about before such as If This Than That, Gmail, and others. Kosio, the author, sent Dan a copy and it has some pretty interesting tactics that’ll save you lots of time. You can find it at SimpleLifeTogether.com/automate. It goes great with Brett Kelly’s “Evernote Essentials“, another terrific book to help you make the most of Evernote. You can get that at SimpleLifeTogether.com/essentials.

And we got a nice voicemail from Genevieve Parker Hill from PackingLust.com on our Speakpipe app on the website.

Candabar: The best simple living podcast out there!!! If you are looking for a way to cut down and live a more simple and meaningful life, look no further! This podcast is perfect for that and it has really helped me. Don’t bother with any other simple living podcast!!!

Mopjunkie: The two of you are a great inspiration. I found you recently on James Kinson’s Cash Car Convert. I’m in!!! I had to come to the realization that I had too much stuff! We’ve already started the reduction phase and also just signed up for your edit and forget it. The two of you are entertaining yet informative! I listen during my 30 minute commute and your segments are just the right size, begin in the morning and finish in the afternoon. Look forward to the drive, yet know I will soon be caught up soon as I listen to a different session each day. Love your shedquarters!!! And keep up the good work!

James Sandercock (Canada): Real life, real hosts, real help. Vanessa and Dan bring well focused, good humoured, and encouraging words of advice into my home each time I listen (and re-listen) to their podcast. They are not syrupy sweet silver lining know it alls. Instead they are sweetly helpful, dig for the silver, know some…and share some type people. They follow a great structure with a lot of fun and loving banter between the two of them. I have subscribed and look forward to each episode. Sincerely, a mum in the toy filled trenches with four manic munchkins!

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

 Photo Credit: Yours Truly

We all have clutter in our lives. Naturally, one of the first steps on the road to simplicity is to challenge what and how much you consume. The basic idea here is that, the more you consume…meaning buy, acquire, receive, etc…the more complicated your life can be, and the more clutter you have, too! The less you consume the simpler it will be.

So as important as editing is…and that’s an ongoing process…understand that just as important on the road to simplicity is your ability to slow your accumulation of stuff.  Read more…

Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too!

But stopping the accumulation of “stuff”(aka clutter) is not as easy as flipping a switch. You’ve got to change your mindset, establish boundaries like we talked about back in Episode 54, and exercise a great amount of self-restraint.

The reality is, most of us have been on autopilot when it comes buying and accumulating things. To consume is human. But consuming is easy…too easy as a matter of fact; which makes slowing the accumulation a little more challenging. But who doesn’t like a healthy challenge?

Awareness

The first step in slowing the accumulation is becoming aware of your own buying habits and also being aware of how marketers and advertisers work.

The Stuff Cycle: On the last show, Dan introduced the Stuff Cycle as this seemingly natural 6-Phase cycle of why and how we consume stuff.

You can go back and listen to that in Episode 61, but remember the 6 phases are the:

Let’s focus mostly on the Perceived Need phase and how that influences the Acquire phase. There are a few things you can make yourself aware of that influence how you perceive unmet needs or desires which effect how you act in the Acquire phase.

Marketing Strategies: Being aware of how Marketers and advertisers try to convince you that your life will be so much better if you get their product. Now…a lot of times they’re right. We definitely like some products we buy because they have made our life simpler….or added value to our lives. But more often than not, products just add clutter.

Here are just a few strategies marketers will use to get you to buy “stuff”:

Now that you know, how do you stop the flow in the Perceived Need phase before you act in the Acquire phase?  Here are some techniques we use and you can too!

Change your mindset. If you want simplicity, you need to focus on your needs and priorities. LESS really is MORE! Practice it…and embrace it.

Ask yourself the following questions before you buy:

Create Boundaries for yourself:

Consider borrowing or outsourcing:

Stem the Flow of Junk Mail Advertisements:

Go back and re-listen or re-read Episode 24. Specifically, we give you some great tips to stop the mail flow, cut down on ads, and opt out of things you just don’t want to receive. It’s a great, proactive way to stop accumulation…stop it before it even gets to you!

So the major takeaway here is this: Yes, slowing your accumulation can be challenging when it comes to simplifying your life, but by being more aware, mindful and deliberate about what you consume, after a little practice it won’t be s0 difficult. Sure you may splurge here and there (like we talked about back in Episode 60 , What’s Your Simplicity Splurge?), but hopefully you won’t feel as guilt-ridden because that “splurge” was a deliberate one and not one based on impulse or weakness.

So, how do you slow the accumulation of stuff into your life? What tips or techniques do you use that could help the rest of us as we try to combat the temptation of consumerism? We’d love to know.

 Be sure to leave a comment below.

Dan:  Taking my Dad and nephew driving around the Texas Hill Country. Once again, experiences win out over stuff!

MicheleStiches wrote and said…

Dan and Vanessa,

As a mom of 7 kids (5 of them now moved out) I could comment on this topic till the cows come home! I’ll try to stick to just a few things. Let me preface by saying that with 7 kids, and limited income, some of our family ways have been out of necessity, but know that much of this can work for many or few!

We tried to limit toys. We found that the creative-play toys (like blocks) were likely to last longer than toys that only did one thing. Also, we tried to get toys that could easily be added to, for example, Thomas the Tank Engine wooden train set or Legos…enabling them to build bigger, and more complicated set-ups but not adding to the sense of clutter.

We also limited organized extra-curricular activities. Each kid got to choose one sport or music lesson they could do. This taught them that you can’t do it ALL. You have to decide what you really love and what is truly fulfilling. It also taught them that what they do as an individual affects the whole family, and sometimes the good of the many outweighs the good of the one.

A wise woman once told me to never do for your children what they can do for themselves…i.e. teach the kids to clean their own messes, pick up their own toys, do their own laundry. This is one thing that worked really well for us. My kids even had assigned days for laundry to prevent arguing over the washing machine. Not only were they responsible for their own stuff, but we had chore charts and everyone helped with the shared spaces of the home. They washed dishes, dusted, swept, vacuumed, scrubbed bathrooms, etc. And I confess, we never paid our kids for these jobs. We wanted them to learn that it was part of being in the family. Mommy doesn’t get paid to cook dinner. Daddy doesn’t get paid to mow the lawn. We do it because we all work together to keep our home running smoothly.

Our kids have all worked outside the home. They learn that spending money equals giving up a piece of your life for whatever you are buying. It is amazing to watch a young person at a store who “NEEDS” something, change their mind after you tell them, “Sure, you may get that if you want to spend YOUR money on it!”

Another thing that we do in our family is start at an early age educating our kids about responsibility and unrealistic expectations. We have a saying:

“With adult privileges comes adult responsibilities.”

For example, my kids know from a very young age that if they ever want a car, THEY will have to pay for the car (and the gas, and the insurance, and the maintenance.) Granted, there has been a time or two when we have helped them out a bit, but they do not EXPECT this from us. We do it as an act of grace and love…a gift. We actually have one teenage son who got rid of an older car he had been gifted by a grandmother! After a year of ownership, he realized he was sacrificing a large chunk of his life working just to put gas in the machine and pay for the constant repairs. He decided having a car was not worth it!

We also teach our children that when they decide to leave the nest, they are on their own financially. I know this may seem harsh to some readers, but we explain to them that if they want to be an adult and make their own decisions and not have to report to us, then they get ALL the responsibility (rent, utilities, food) that comes with that privilege. This is only fair. It is responsibility that often grounds people and keeps us from behaving foolishly.

Finally, sign up for the Edit & Forget It Challenge! If you’re already on our Edit & Forget It Challenge email list, that’s great. If not, you can sign up here.

You can download a PDF  of our show prep, too.

 Photo Credit: FreddieBrown

The number one question we are asked, is about simple living with kids: “Is it possible to simplify your life with kids?” Of course it is! Now we know not everyone has kids, but even if you don’t you probably have nephews or nieces, or friends with kids. So, the good news is that even if you don’t have kids yourself, you’ll probably be able to apply a lot of this to other relationships in your life.

Well first off, simple living with kids doesn’t have to be an oxymoron. Like simplifying the rest of your life, simple living with kids will take some planning, work, and positive change, but it will be well worth it. Read more…

Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom will be free on Amazon all day Friday, 21 March 2014 from midnight PST to midnight PST.

Well worth it, yes…but notice I didn’t say “well worth it in the end.” That’s because there really isn’t an end when it comes to simplicity…that’s why we call it a journey.

Before we get into the different stages of our kids’ lives and how that effects simplicity, there’s something that needs to be addressed first. I call it the “Stuff Cycle”…for lack of a better term. If you don’t realize you operate in a stuff cycle before you have kids, you will as soon as you’re expecting. Here’s how it goes:

Perceived Need Phase:

Acquire Phase:

Utilization Phase:

Replacement Phase

Edit Phase:

Refine Phase:

Babies:

Toddlers:

Kids:

Teens:

Adults:

Yes, kids provide their own unique spin on simplicity, but just like us it has a lot to do with how you establish norms in your home, how you manage expectations, the example you set, the boundaries you establish, and how effective you are at using the Laws of Learning (Vanessa covered the laws in Episode 13 in the segment called First Steps on the Road to Simplicity). Just like simplifying the rest of your life, simple living with kids will take lots of planning, work, and positive change. But it will be well worth it for you and serve them well in their life too.

So, how do you simplify life with your kids? What tips or techniques do you use that could help the rest of us? We’d love to know.

 Be sure to leave a comment below.

Vanessa: Attending the Minimalists meetup, and seeing our friend,  SLT listener and Edit & Forget It member Robin. My main takeaway from Ryan and Joshua was that minimalism looks different for all of us. I also like their take on what they allow or edit in their lives; basically they don’t keep anything that doesn’t add value to their lives (kind of like our “use it, need it, love it” questions we ask when deciding what to edit from our lives).

Dan: The new Add-Ons function in Google Docs. Provides additional functionality right inside Google Documents and Spreadsheets. In your Drive menu bar you’ll notice a new menu option title Add-ons. Click Get Add-ons and explore…you can do mail merge, Avery labels, bibliographies, etc…FREE. For more on Google Docs, check out out our tutorial.

Kerry emailed us his story…

Dan and Vanessa,

I couldn’t decide whether to write and tell you how much I appreciate your podcast or to share a little bit of my cluttered story… so I will do both.

I am an Air Force officer, having served for 13 years so far. While I haven’t moved around as much as you did in your careers, moving forced me to take stock of what I owned and what owned me. I grew up with a lot. My dad was a successful doctor and business owner. When I say we had a lot, that might be understating. Christmas morning was like walking into a Toys R Us. While I certainly appreciated the fact that I was lucky, I never took it for granted and shared a lot with my big family that didn’t have as much.

It wasn’t until I joined the Air Force and got married that I began to considered how “stuff” made me feel. I realized that I had hoarding tendencies (from my mother) and a desire to simplify (probably from my dad). From the perspective of having moved away, I realized that my Mom was a hoarder with means. That is, she could afford to keep everything. We had multiple vacation homes and each one had a basement or attic packed full. In addition, she had three 20×40′ storage units, all neatly organized but full! My parents divorced around the time I finished college and joined the AF and my mom continued to spend, collect and store. As a few examples, we had every Dept 56 Christmas Village, Halloween Village, Snow Baby, etc ever made. She also framed EVERYTHING! And you don’t throw away framed things so she now has, in storage, somewhere between 500 and 1000 framed prints.

The longer I was away from home, the more uncomfortable I was going home. While everything in my mother’s home is nice and clean, it’s everywhere. I realized she had a problem when I went home for my sister’s funeral and actually couldn’t set a drink down because every horizontal surface is covered. In the past few years, she has spent and collected herself into near bankruptcy and I still can’t get through to her. But… I started my own journey of self-reflection and consideration. I began to realize that it felt good to divest myself of clutter. I am no where near where I hope to end up, but my awareness of “stuff” has been amazing. I was always a person who collected “just because”. I had 39 bottles of Marylin Merlot wines because people kept buying them and I didn’t know what to do with them. I had every knick knack from childhood stuffed into boxes all over. Most of this stuff (and lots more) is gone. But what I really wanted to do is share with others is that the family aspect can be really hard. My mom and lots of other family members attach so much meaning to stuff that it comes between relationships often. When she visits me and my family, she will load my kids up with toys from the Goodwill. I have asked her not to do this and specifically told her that it makes me stressed and unhappy. But the message isn’t received. When she finds out that I get rid of a lot of the things she buys she is upset. In my mind that means stuff is affecting our relationship.

As for my life, I am inspired by what you guys do and say. I connected with Dan’s story for a few reasons. I am very techie and a mac guy to boot. I am also into home improvement and woodworking. While you guys have your teardrop, I grew up flying hot air balloons (fourth generation pilot). So I own a balloon and that certainly comes with a lot of stuff. But I do my best to keep things simple. I drive a pickup because the balloon fits in the back, but that means I don’t have to own a separate vehicle. Ballooning is my passion and I really enjoy doing it with my family. But if it ever started detracting from life, I would give it up.

So, I have a long way to go, but I am enjoying it. My wife is naturally not a clutterer, but she isn’t sold yet on my journey. I choose to share the important lessons that make my life better. Maybe they will sink in. I learned a long time ago that I can’t force her to do anything she isn’t ready for. Thanks for what you do. I believe it works.

– Kerry

Finally, sign up for the Edit & Forget It Challenge! If you’re already on our Edit & Forget It Challenge email list, that’s great. If not, you can sign up here.

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

 Photo Credit: Theo B

So we talk all the time about scaling back, editing, etc. But there’s probably one thing or another that you’ve decided would be your simplicity splurge. That something that you’re just not going to scrimp on.

Well, that’s perfectly fine. We all seem to have that little something that we’re just not willing to give up. For some it’s photos, for others, it’s coffee paraphernalia. Almost all of us have our little simplicity foil…that thing or things that seem to go against our efforts to simplify. Read more…

Okay, we’re sharing some big news on this show…our first book, Super Mom vs Supermom: Simplicity Tips for Busy Moms, A Simple Life Guide to Getting Organized, Finding Margin, and Embracing Simplicity for Moms is done! Well, done enough! We’ll be updating the cover any day now, but it will be live in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com hopefully on Saturday, 8 March 2014.

So, we’re posting the final draft, minus the cover art, on the Edit & Forget It Challenge Facebook page for the next 3 days, so you can have a look or download the DRAFT pdf free there.

If you’re not a member of E & F you can always sign up for free at SimpleLifeTogether.com/edit. You’ll receive an email with directions on how to join the Facebook page.

We ask that you do us a big favor and review the book on Amazon.com (we’ll post the link to the book on the Facebook Edit & Forget It Challenge page, and here on the website, as soon as the book is “live” on Amazon).

OK, so this is our first book and book launch. We KNOW we’re going to make some mistakes along the way with it but we’d really, really appreciate all your help.

Finally, anything you can do to help make the book a success would be awesome and so, so appreciated! We wouldn’t have the confidence to even do this without your support! So, as soon as you have it, please feel free to share the Amazon link with your Facebook friends, tweet it out, or gift the book to a mom you know could use it.

So we thought we’d share some of our splurges with you, and maybe talk about some of the feelings that can rise up around that little splurge. Some people feel like it’s a weakness, others feel like it’s a reward.

Marino cool clothes (pricey, but I only need a few and I absolutely won’t go back to cotton)

– Icebreaker Merino Wool

– Ibex Merino Wool

Do you find yourself struggling with having a simplicity splurge despite all your simplifying and editing?

Are you feeling guilt about your simplicity splurge? If so, you may want to analyze your priorities. Is your splurge interfering them? If so:

If your splurge isn’t interfering with your goals, maybe it’s:

So the major takeaway here is this: Most likely, you’re splurge is okay, and well deserved. Take a good look. Is your splurge, your little foil to your life of simplicity causing you guilt or getting in the way of your priorities? If not, then drop the self imposed guilt trip. If it IS getting in the way, think about why your behavior hasn’t changed and set up a plan to get back on track.

So, what’s your simplicity splurge? Is it a healthy one and and more like a little reward for all your efforts, or is it undermining your priorities? We’d love to know. We’d love to know.

 Be sure to leave a comment below.

Karen left us a nice voicemail of the website: Audio

Erik left us a nice comment on the website. Here’s just some of what he said:  “Hi guys.   I was so happy to discover your podcasts and to find a community of folks who have similar outlook.  My partner of 27 years and I have decided to downsize and simplify.  …We are super excited about our life changes and your podcasts and WEB site are providing us valuable resources and affirmation that we are not alone in our pursuit of a simpler life. Thanks again!”

Finally, sign up for the Edit & Forget It Challenge! If you’re already on our Edit & Forget It Challenge email list, that’s great. If not, you can sign up here.

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

 Photo Credit: chuckanastasia