Simple ways to simplify your life

Occasionally I find myself looking around and feeling overwhelmed by stuff! Do you ever feel this way? There are times that i'm cleaning house and think to myself how QUICK this would take if we had less stuff. And I am already TRYING to live on less. I want a simple life. I am ok with a simple life. But some things tend to make me crazy!

PLASTIC BAGS. This weekend I finally went through and did some purging. I was tired of these plastic bags attacking me when I opened the cabinet. This is nuts. No one needs THIS many plastic sacks.

My SPAM folder. I have no clue how I get so much spam. Fortunately it all goes to SPAM but I get this tight feeling in my chest when I see that I have 219 messages in my spam box. SO, I took the time to go through and click "unsubscribe" at the bottom of EACH email. I have no clue why I am unsubscribing to something I never subscribed to, but at last it seemed true... and I took the time to handle that. 

PAPER. I have no clue how there are ANY trees left in the world because I feel like they are ALL in my house. Between my school and Ava's school, and bills and junk mail... it seems that paper is everywhere! I am working on getting THAT organized. 

My stock pile room. Somehow I have lost the organization that I once had in that room. I would go to the store and buy something and then come home and see I already had it. That makes me nuts. I tended to that.

These are just some recent examples but we ALL have things in our lives that would be much more simpler if they were tended to. Here are a few ways to simplify your life:

1. clean out your car every night! I am so guilty of NOT doing this. And then every morning I sigh and try to find the bottom of the clutter so I can grab the ONE notebook I need for class. By spending 3 minutes after getting home and cleaning out your car this can make your mornings seem SIMPLER. And isn't this something we would ALL enjoy?

2. Clean out your inbox. If you have read it and don't need it... delete it. Or move it to a folder. Don't keep your email a mess. Because when you DO need that ONE email, it will be easier to find and will cut our stress.

3. Dump the plastic. Keeping more than 10 bags is probably overkill. Dump them. Recycle them. Do something besides keeping them piling up in your house!

4. Put stuff in the SAME spot. This has eliminated stresses for me. I NOW put my keys and sunglasses in the same spot every day. This has saved many a mornings running around like crazy searching for keys.

5. If you don't use it-dump it! Pretty simple.

6. (Some will call this overkill but...) Keep a list of what you HAVE in your closet. Make one. Try it. This will eliminate shopping when you need nothing and this will make mornings easier. When you see a list of what you have it just HELPS.

7. See #6 and do this for anything and everything. 

8. Do the laundry RIGHT after the dryer dings. Don't let it pile up. This will only cause stress and LOTS of work at once. 

9. Plan meals. Plan your day. Plan plan PLAN! Doing this doesn't mean you can't change the plan. It does not mean that you aren't fun or spontaneous (Even though some people will think this). It just keeps you organized and therefore simplifies things. 

Sure wish I had a #10 but at the moment I do not. :)

What do you do to simplify your life? What should we add to this list? 

comment or email me at cararoxanne02@aol.com