Simple Life Together

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 Topic:  Farnoosh Shares The Skinny on Healthy Smoothies 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. Before we get into the book, let’s start with simplicity. You’ve really adopted simplicity into your life over the last couple of years and had a terrific guest post on Joshua Becker’s Becoming Minimalist blog that we’ll link to in the show notes. Share some thoughts on how your life has changed with your focus on simpler living. When we talk about juicing, one of the first questions we're asked is what's the difference between juices and healthy smoothies, or juicing and blending. How would you answer that? Which do you recommend, juicing or smoothies? So Farnoosh, what would you list as some of the benefits of integrating healthy smoothies into your lifestyle? How do you recommend people get started with healthy smoothies? Be honest...what is your favorite smoothie? Tell us about the process of making healthy smoothies, and share some tips on how you've simplified your smoothie making? Major Takeaway: 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! Question: 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. Qs and Comments, iTunes Reviews 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!  Announcements: The SLT Facebook Page: We have a Simple Life Together Facebook page and forum. Yeah...some of you are saying "FINALLY!" Now, admittedly, we’re not the biggest fans of Facebook, but it seems to be where most people are. We’ve had the private Edit and Forget It page on Facebook for over a year and it’s become a wealth of information and and a great resource for everyone there. We’re hoping the open Facebook page for Simple Life Together will grow to be the same. We’ve installed a forum app there too so we can categorize things by topic. That should help a lot!

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 Topic:  Five Steps to Simple Living We're just going to offer 5 ways to help you simplify your life...at your own pace. Okay, first… Take an objective look at where you are. Once you look at where you are now, you can figure out where you want to be and start working in that direction. Number two...start with one area of your life. 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... Simple living will become addictive! 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. Focusing on our finances was another area that we wanted to simplify. So we focused on selling (editing) our land which set us up to tackle other financial goals we had, and buy our teardrop trailer outright. Our Edit and Forget Challenge became a lifestyle and not just a one time event! The same thing can happen in other areas of your life, too, like health and fitness. Sometimes we try to do everything but quickly get burned out. The best thing to do is to keep it simple and work on one thing at a time. Here's an example: For us, the idea of doing a 60 day juice fast sounded great, but it just wasn’t realistic for us. Instead we chose to make it part of our weekly diet plan...slowly incorporating it at least 3-4 times/week. By doing that...it has become a regular part of our life...something we've been able to sustain for over two years. And we became addicted to how good it made us feel which led us to look into other way to improve or expand our healthy eating goals. Juicing led to eating more raw foods… and eating smaller portions...and now smoothies. Matter of fact, we’ll have Farnoosh Brock back again on the next show to talk about that! You see, when you start small or with one thing at a time, it’s much easier to implement it, sustain it, and spread to other areas of your life. So have a rough plan...a punch list, if you will,

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! Topic: Stop the Accumulation of Clutter 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? Ways to Stop Clutter from Finding Its Way Into Your Life 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: Perceived Need Phase Acquire Phase Utilization Phase Replacement Phase Edit Phase and the... Refine Phase 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": They’ll use simplicity and minimalism against you:  Ex: Target had a commercial about minimalism with their clothing….yeah right! Ex: After saying Vanessa didn't use or need a lot of product because she takes a minimal approach to makeup, she was told at a makeup counter that the manufacturer was "all about minimalism" too. They tout their products will make life “easier” but usually they just cause more clutter.  "If Necessity is the mother of invention, Convenience is the mother of the unitasker!" They use "sale" terms are used over and over again but their real intent is to make you buy. Such as: "It’s FREE!!!" Well, nothing is ever FREE.  Advertisers will tempt you with quantity over quality by using “Buy one get one free” or “Buy 5 for the price of 4” strategies for example. Seriously? You only need 1 tub of yogurt. Can you really go through that much before it spoils? Just sayin'. Or... Buy one get one free but...“just pay shipping and handling”...which usually ends up being outrageous!

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. Topic: Simple Living With Kids 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. The “Stuff” Cycle: 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: All the things advertisements tell you you need All the things you ‘think’ you need All the things everyone else ‘thinks’ you need and don’t hesitate to tell you Acquire Phase: Purchase, gift, rent or borrow Utilization Phase: You figure out what you really need and use Replacement Phase You fill those needs with things that actually work Edit Phase: You take action to get the things you don’t need, don’t use, and don’t work out of your life Refine Phase: Continuously evaluate, acquire, replace or upgrade as necessary, edit as required. Simplicity Issues at Different Stages of Our Kids’ Lives Babies: Just making sure they are cared for requires so much (or we think it does) Amount of stuff required at home...but babies grow up so fast that it's impossible to use every toy or clothing item  Amount of stuff required on the road Time and attention required Toddlers: First steps of independence Just trying to stay ahead or just keep up parents feel they need to buy every learning gadget or tool so they are ahead when they start kindergarten Kids: Starting to understand commercials and get a taste for consumerism and wanting more Brand name toys Brand name clothes Even exposure to peer pressure Teens: Consumerism: clothing, gadgets, food More time commitments with extracurricular activity, work, etc. As parents now it's crunch time to teach them the life skills to be successful adults. Adults: Are you responsible or do you hang on to your grown kids' "stuff" as they start their adult life? Do they feel "entitled" to things beyond their income? What's your comfort level or threshold for monetary support? Ways to Keep Simple Living With Kids, Simple!

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... First, A Big Announcement! 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). So here are some of our goals we had in mind with the book: This one is “mom” focused but has great info for everyone. So, even if you’re not a mom, we’d love for you to have a look! We wanted to keep it short but packed with info! Minimal fluff.  Most people aren’t inclined to read a 300 page simplicity book! Like we said, it’s the first in our series of "Simple Life Guides for Less Than a Latte”, so it’s priced at $4.99 for now...until the price of lattes goes up! We think that’s a great deal and hopefully others will too!  Of course, we’re giving you complete access to the draft on the FB page for the next 3 days, but if you’d like to purchase the book on Amazon when it's available, that would be especially great! We ask that you do us a big favor and please review the book on Amazon.com, too. Amazon rankings are directly tied to reviews and downloads. So, the more purchases and the more reviews, the more exposure the book gets, and the more likely people are to find it! Again, 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. Most people who read it won’t be current listeners or readers so the book has lots and lots of links to our shows and Vanessa’s videos. Therefore, most of the info will be new to them. So, all told there’s about 96 pages of written content, with access to around 50 hours of audio podcasts, and a bunch of topical videos related to the written content. Of course we hope for glowing reviews, but be honest. If you see any glaring mistakes, please opt to let us know personally by email, versus an Amazon review. You can reach us by email.  We have plans for more Simple Life Guides, and you can read more about that in the book! 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 now that you’ve been working on building some margin in your life, maybe it’s a good time to start thinking about how you can make the most of your margin to make your life fuller. Not fuller with with stuff, but fuller with satisfaction. We named our teardrop "The Guidon". Maybe we should have named her "Margin"? Once in a while when the topic of our simpler lifestyle comes up, someone will ask, “Well what are you going to do to fill all your extra time?” It’s a valid question, I guess, but one we can easily answer.  Read more... Topic: What "Make the Most of Your Margin" Means for Us So how would you answer how you planned to fill your "extra" time"? Actually, anyone could make an endless list of things to fill their “spare time”. But I think what separates us from our former selves (our pre-simplification selves), and what makes those of us on this simplicity journey a bit different, is that we would likely answer it very similarly. We’d say, “Well, first of all, I don’t feel the need to fill my margin, but if I choose to use some of it, it will be doing things that are important to me. Things that help fulfill my Life Plan.” First, let’s review what we mean by margin: This is how we define it: We define margin as “uncommitted time and space in your life.” Margin is what gives you options. Margin is what allows you to be spontaneous. Margin is what makes you feel more free. Just as there is a place for work and commitment in our life, there must also be a place for margin. Margin on a page helps us appreciate the written word, the content and the context. But if those written words went from one side edge to the other, and from the very top of the page to the very bottom, the written words wouldn’t nearly as enjoyable. Those margins give us a place to make a little note; to record a thought or a question. The margin helps keep the written words, the message, in focus. I know we’ve all been working on building more margin in our lives. Here are some things we've done to achieve more margin: Decluttered Reduced voluntary commitments Streamlined our processes and systems Setting up routines for all the must-do items Making room for the want-to-do items But, there comes a time when we’re faced with the fact that what we’ve let into our lives has stolen our margin from us. Here are some ways margin slips away from us... When you answer “Yes” to be on that committee you really would rather not be a part of When you say “Yes” to that dinner party invitation even though you really don’t want to go When you’re guilted into being a chaperone for the field trip…you just gave away some of your margin.  But when we decide we’ve had enough, we can vow to take that margin back. That is the first step. What follows is a stream of questions that all seem to start with “How?” How can I get my time back? How can I have more options? How can I stop feeling like I’m juggling chainsaws?” Making the Most of Your Margin Here are some key things you can do to make sure you do what you can to make sure you make the most of your margin: Be careful how you fill it (Parkinson’s Law corollary) Parkinson’s Law states: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Corollaries include: Storage requirements will increase to meet storage capacity Data expands to fill the space available for storage Well, we're pretty sure that applies to margin, as well! Make sure you choose things that are congruent with your Life Plan

Maintaining simplicity is an important step in making sure your simplicity efforts don't go by the wayside. We’ve said all along that simplifying your life isn’t a one time deal...it’s a lifestyle. And as with any lifestyle or major focus area in your life, you have to nurture it and care for it, otherwise your efforts will be in vain. So why is maintaining simplicity so important?  Well, just like a car or the air conditioning unit in your home, if you do regular maintenance and tune ups on them, the less likely you are to be in a situation where you’re facing catastrophic failure...or a colossal bill to repair it!  Read more... Topic: The Maintenance Side of Simplicity The same goes for simplifying your life. Paying attention to and doing regular simplicity checkups will go a long way in ensuring your efforts to simplify your life will last a lifetime. Background: Interestingly enough, the background for this episode was Vanessa's early dandelion pulling session at 7:30 AM on a cold (41 degree) morning last week. You'll just have to listen to get the full story! Maintaining Simplicity  So, we all know what maintenance is...actions, routines or systems you put in place in order to keep things functioning smoothly in your life. Maintenance is like getting a tune up. You might even consider maintenance like getting and an extended warranty, only instead paying a fee up front to cover when systems fall apart, you are paying in terms of your time and effort to hopefully keep the systems running smoothly. And the reality is, if you’re consistent with your maintenance efforts, it really won’t cost you that much time or effort. So let's cover a few major life areas where maintaining simplicity are important. Maintaining Simplicity in Organization. As a Certified Professional Organizer®, Vanessa deals with maintenance all the time. It's the final step in the organizing cycle. Well, it’s not really a final step because the organizing process is cyclical. After editing and organizing a space, she uses several tools and systems to help keep the space organized. Now, for some of her clients, maintenance means having an organizer (her) come back and reorganize a space…and that can work too. Outsourcing your maintenance can be a great tool too! Maintaining Simplicity with Systems: Maintenance can be tools or habits. For example: Setting up a desktop action file to manage your daily mail is a tool to help maintain the influx of papers. Checking the Action File on a daily basis and clearing it out on a weekly basis is a habit and routine. Practicing the one-in-one out rule for your clothes, toys or any other item you bring into your life is another tool or habit to help maintain the balance in your home. There’s a great ( and free) book and audiobook you should check out that fits right in here. It’s called “Work the System” by Sam Carpenter and you can find it at WorkTheSystem.com. Sam’s systems mindset fits right in with what we’re saying here and every time we talk about systematizing things when you simplify your life.  Maintaining Simplicity with Routines: Your routines are a key part in maintaining your simple lifestyle...they kind of go hand in hand. These immediately come to mind: Your morning routine...this helps you maintain a smooth start to every day School routines...they ensure your family stays in a rhythm and consistent with completing and turning in homework assignments, projects,etc...with little stress. Workout and fitness routines are another example…obviously maintaining a routine will help keep your fitness and health in check. And on the job, office routines are important...setting up routines to make sure you stay on task can help counter procrastination and stress as ...

We've been sharing our story about simple living here since the tail end of 2012. But when it comes to simple living, we know we're not alone! So, in this episode of the show we have our very first Simplicity Profile! We've mentioned a few times that there would be a few changes coming in 2014 for the show and here on the website, too. So, last week we introduced the Qs & Comments segment where we answer questions you send in. And today we have our first guest on talking about how she's simplified her life, too! But before we tell you any more about our special guest, we want to give you a little background on this new segment. Read more... Background for Simplicity Profiles: We're looking at doing Simplicity Profiles about once a month. 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 15 to 25 minutes. Sometimes longer, sometimes not. Then we'll do the announcements, sometimes a Thing segment, and sometimes the Qs & Comments segment. We told you there would be a few changes coming along, didn’t we? We think it’s great to highlight your stories, and for you to be able to share: Your triumphs Your challenges Your struggles Things you’ve learned along the way 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. Simplicity Profile: Tania Ginoza is an Assistant Financial Controller who lives in Hawaii. She is also a freelance writer and blogger who shares her passion for design, a creative life and living well on her website MauiShopGirl.com. When not crunching numbers or writing, she can be found walking the beach during sunset hoping to spot a whale or two! Tell us how you got started on your simple living journey...and maybe paint a picture of what your life was like before you started simplifying your life. What was the catalyst? Everyone struggles in some way when it comes to simplifying or editing, or making major life changes. What has been the biggest challenge(s) for you along the way? And do you still struggle with any? What does your life look like now that you've been on your simplifying journey? Can you share with us some things you've learned along the way or things that you may have learned from others on the Edit and Forget It FB page? What advice would you give someone who is "on the fence" about where to start simplifying in their own life? Tell us how people can find you (mauishopgirl.com)  Question: So, how have you been simplifying your life!  We’d love to know.

Whether we’re hard-wired for it, or it’s learned behavior, we all fall victim to the comparison trap from time to time. Whether it’s houses, cars, paychecks, toys (I’m not just talking about kids’ toys here, I’m talking grown up toys like boats, motorcycles, gourmet kitchens, tech gadgets, you name it)...from time to time we find ourselves comparing what we have against what others have. And it’s not just when you have less, but we tend to compare just as much when we have more than others too. Read more... Topic: Beware of the Comparison Trap How does comparison typically make us feel? Does it make us jealous, like we’ve been slighted? Are we envious, like we deserve something too? Or maybe we feel proud and superior because we have more or better quality things? Often we fall into a comparison trap that leaves us feeling anything but good. Maybe what we should strive for (when it comes to “stuff,” any way) is to try and stop comparing altogether. That’s not to say that there’s no place for comparison. When used as a tool to discern, and when used objectively, comparison can certainly be a good thing. Take for instance: Determining who is the right fit for a job or position at a company or on a team. Comparison is ok when strictly used to determine a person’s skills and qualifications to perform a job or fill a position. Judging the quality of products or services that we invest in. Things such as comparing prices, materials used in a product, where we’ll get the best value for an education or the experience level and ratings of a service provider...those are most definitely legitimate reasons to compare. These may actually be considered healthy reasons to compare. But we begin to fall into the comparison trap when we begin to use it to determine our value and self worth, or even worse, the value and worth of others. When we compare ourselves to others it leads to nothing but discontentment and unhappiness. And here’s why: The comparison trap is one of the negative side effects of the hyper-consumer society. It tantalizes our subconscious with the false notion that our success is based on being rich, famous and having more, more, more. That “gotta have more” mentality automatically puts us in the race of “trying to keep up with the Joneses.” But where does that really lead us? Do we ever achieve enough? There will ALWAYS...I repeat ALWAYS be folks with more stuff. We typically turn to this set of questions regarding things and happiness: If you’re not happy with the stuff you have now, would you be happier with twice as much? How about 10 times as much? Chances are, you’d be happier with half… The problem with the comparison trap is that it always leads to envy, jealousy, and sometimes resentment. I know I’ve often been guilty of this in the past...and even sometimes today. Back in Episode 6 we spoke with our friend Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist. Joshua notes notes in his new book, Clutterfree With Kids, that “Comparisons are always unfair. We typically compare the worst we know of ourselves with the best we presume of others." But, bringing it back to “stuff”, sometimes we aren’t much better than we were when we were kids, comparing what kind of tennis shoes we had or what kind of jeans we have. As we get older, the comparison trap just manifests itself differently if we don’t put it in check; what kind of car, boat, suit, purse, house, shoes, etc. What kind of job, what’s your title, benefits, perks…what your kids have, where they go to school… I’ve even seen adults one upping each other over what their adult kids do, drive, live...just perpetuating the cycle. The bad news is it’ll always be there. But the AWESOME news is, for us, it ends when we say it ends. But we can’t end it for anyone else, they’ll always compare.

If you've ever ready Steve Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (one of our all time favorite books), then you know that by doing just seven things, you can be well on your way to becoming more effective at what you do. Now, if you're ready to simplify your life a bit and really need a jumpstart, there are 7 habits you can develop to bring some serious simplicity into your life. Now, there are tons of things you can do to simplify, but we wanted to hit what we think are the top 7 things that have worked for us, and we want share them with you! So let’s get started! Read more... Topic: 7 Habits You Can Develop to Simplify Your Life We want you to be able to take just these 7 habits...seven things you can start doing today, to have a better tomorrow, a better year, and a much better chance of achieving the lifestyle that you want for yourself and your family. So here goes... Habit 1: Begin with the End in Mind This one comes straight from our military planning background and also Stephen Covey’s 2nd habit in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People We call it “Desired End State” which we developed through our Life Plan process Establish Priorities...we call them our Pillars (F⁵) Once we have Priorities, we can begin working toward our goals Vanessa really hit on working toward your goals pretty hard back in the “Tips for Successful Resolutions” in Episode 008 Keep you actions aligned with your goals and priorities to stay on target:  The target is your desired endstate, or the end in mind My rear sight is my priority or my pillar But the front sight is what I need to have in focus. When you fire a weapon, you have to keep four fundamentals in mind: sight picture(SP), sight alignment(SA), breath control and trigger squeeze. Let’s focus on just SA and SP Sight Alignment is Front & Rear Sights Rear sight = Priority Front Sight = Goal Sight picture is Front/Rear Sights and Target Target = End State Front & Rear sights aligned with each other Front & Rear sights aligned with your target For instance, we may have an end state in mind, and we may have a priority, but if the actions we take aren’t aligned as we pursue our goals, we’ll never hit the target. It’s the same thing I talked before about back in Episode 32...it’s All About the Choices We Make Habit 2: Strive to Simplify versus Organize. Our take is: Clutter is the disease, organizing steps are the cure, but simplicity is prevention! Yeah, organizing is...well...kind of reactive. We saw this when we gave our presentation at Organize and Energize a little over a week ago...and how different our message was from the different organizers who presented. Much of the talk was about how to “maximize your space” to fit more in your cabinets and closets...which is all great stuff, too...but focused more about “editing your space” to give yourself some room and margin. Now, Vanessa will be the first to tell you that organizing is still very near and dear to her heart, and is a wonderful tool to help maintain simplicity in your life.But, it’s very eye-opening when you clarify the difference between the two. Vanessa advocates decluttering and simplifying your life first then organizing what’s left. And, she's starting to think of herself more and more as a “Simplifier” than a “professional organizer”....hmmmm. Habit 3: Embrace the idea of “less is more.” Sounds so cliche, but the more you simplify, the more this is reinforced. One of our earliest episodes….

Setting limits isn't as popular in our advertising culture as buzz phrases like "No Limits". When we think of “limits”, it’s typically in a negative sense. So, when setting limits on ourselves, like when we go on a bad diet, or a too tight budget, or worse, when someone or something puts limits on us, we think of it as a bad thing. But setting limits is actually a really good thing! Limits are a fantastic tool to help simplify your life and actually help you appreciate the things that are most important to you. Learning to accept, use, and embrace limits can help make a whole lot of sense of the hyper-consumer society we all live in. No limits? No way! So let’s get started! Read more... Topic: Setting Limits So I first thought about the framework of setting limits being a truly positive thing while I was watching a Tony Robbins training video. In it, he mentioned that sometimes limits were good, and the example he used was a glass. If you’re thirsty, you pour yourself a glass of water. The glass limits or contains the water so you can drink it. Without the glass to limit the water’s flow, the water would pour right through your hand. Well, sometimes the weirdest stuff will get me thinking. And, true to form, Tony’s comment got me thinking about the positivity of limits that help us on our simplicity journey. So here are a few examples from our family: Stuff We Have "No limits" certainly doesn't work when it comes to your clutter! We've been working on setting limits on how much “stuff” we have in our house, and getting rid of excess (things we don’t Need, Love or Use) to make margin in our life. That’s why the Edit & Forget It Challenge was so important to us last year and helped us get rid of over 3000 things, and why we’re doing it again this year!  This sets us up for the much, much smaller home of our dreams someday, too. So the point is, by limiting the stuff we have, our actions are congruent with our goals Stuff We Buy We're also setting limits to control what we allow into our lives. Of course we have to buy things, but we don’t need to buy everything we’re “told” we need... What We Expose Ourselves To This is hard to do with all the advertisements we’re exposed to on a daily basis. There certainly seems to be no limits to that! We did a presentation together recently and shared some insight into just how much, we are exposed to consumer advertisements using Real Simple Magazine as an example (that magazine that’s supposed to make your life simple, right?): In a 236 page issue: 111 pages were dedicated solely to FULL page ads (that’s nearly half of the magazine)! 125 pages had some form of content on them Of these, 50 pages had ¼-½ page ads (with an additional 85 “hidden” ads) Leaving only 75 pages dedicated to “ad-free” content! So that's 250 ads total in just one magazine! AND...you had to sift through 10 full page ads before you even got to the Table of Contents! Our Family Time So here’s another one--even when it comes to our Life Plan pillar of "Family," we knew we wanted more family time together, and camping was our choice for family entertainment and adventure: We were looking seriously at a huge Class A motorhomes with all the comforts of home (more actually). But we came to our senses and limited ourselves. And, our little teardrop trailer won out. Thank goodness! The teardrop has everything we need (and more), but limits how much we can take. That said, it opens up where we can actually travel to as it’s much more cost...

On our journey toward a more simple life in the modern world, one point that keeps hitting home is that less is more. We like to say, fewer things, fuller life. Last year, we started the Edit & Forget It Challenge to eliminate 2013 things from our lives and hundreds of you joined us. Well, we're going to keep it going this year, too! Now, we know 2014 fewer things is a lofty goal and certainly won’t be for everyone. But remember, it’s never about the numbers, it’s about your relationship with stuff. The real focus is to eliminate anything that you really don’t need any longer and to reach a point where you have truly what you need...what you love...and what you use. You’re trying to build some margin in your life and the Edit & Forget It Challenge will help you do that! So, if you’re considering doing the Challenge...if you're ready for fewer things cluttering up the margin in your life...we thought we’d share some of the experiences we had as we eliminated over 3000 things from our lives last year. Plus, we’ll tell you how you can sign up too (it's FREE!), and and we’ll go over the “rules” (think of those rules in air quotes because you can shape them a bit to fit your needs). So let’s get started! Read more... Topic: The Edit & Forget It Challenge Our Experiences from 2013 Starting Out: As we embarked on this challenge I was chomping at the bit! Editing clutter has become second nature to me. Not just because of the work I do as an organizer, but because I make a regular habit of letting go of clutter in our home. I’ve also come to appreciate the concept of “less is more” and so I’ve been ready to let go of a lot more things for awhile. We started off easy by editing our own clothes first. We’ve mentioned before that starting the Edit and Forget It Challenge by editing your own clothes is a really good place to start simply because, for most of us, we don’t share our clothes so its usually easier to make decisions on them. What’s interesting, is we started the challenge knowing we really didn’t have much clutter in our home to begin with, but I knew once we got to the garage it would be a different story.  The cool thing about the garage project was that Dan...well...he let me take over. He decided “hey...she does this for a living...I need to let her lead the way.” That was cool and it worked out well. But there were a few other reasons why it worked out well other than me leading the charge: We set a date...actually we set aside an entire weekend just in case we couldn’t finish in a day. We shared the same goal. We both wanted less stuff overall… and to make room for our car (or future teardrop camper) to fit in. We worked as a team. The beautiful thing about working together is not only do you have additional manpower...but you’ve got someone to help guide or keep you in check. Like asking tough questions to really get you to think about if you should keep an item or not. Or knowing when to take a break when the other is tired or struggling to make decisions. So, we were able to meet and exceed our Edit and Forget It goal once we edited the garage. And it felt AMAZING!!! You know how cool it is to set a goal and then achieve or surpass it...it’s AWESOME! And that’s what you are going to experience. But there are a lot of other things you’ll experience along the way which I’m going to go over with you in a moment. But first let me break down what our actual stats were for you: Our Results: We edited 2920 things (a little more because I lost count and forgot to record a few things...plus we didn’t count all of our garage items). Of those 2920 edited items: over 2300 were donated or given away Over 130 were recycled

If you’re like most people you probably have intentions to make some serious changes and make this your best year ever, right? Well, we want to help make 2014 YOUR year to simplify! And even if you’re not listening to this at the beginning of the year, or heck, it might not even be 2014 anymore when some of you listen to this, the fundamentals are timeless and perpetual. So, if you’ve fallen short of your goals in the past, like probably all of us have at some point, we have 5 steps to help you build a more solid plan, and hopefully set you on the road to success. So let’s get started! Read more... 5 Simple Steps to Make It Your Best Year Ever Step 1: Take some time to do a review of the past year. Figure out what’s working for you and what’s not. As you list out what's not working, are there any “repeat offenders”? You know, things you swore you'd stop doing but somehow find yourself still doing them? Yeah? Us too!  Keep track of these bad habits that keep working their way back in. You can find more about this in Episode 37. Step 2: Make a conscious effort to prioritize, then change or eliminate THINGS that clutter your life...and establish new goals. Get help if you need it! Maybe it takes an outside set of eyes or ears to help you see things better. Maybe some coaching or mentoring could get you on path quicker than just doing things yourself. Use S-M-A-R-T goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-focused, Time-bound). Instead of saying "This is going to be my best year ever! I'm going to be healthier this year!", make sure you incorporate SMART goals. Here's an examples for each part of a SMART goal:   Specific =Juice daily, eat more raw foods (½ small meals are raw fruits, veggies and nuts), cut down on sugar and processed foods (keep count of number of grams/day), cut down on alcohol (only 1 glass of wine per day) Measurable = If losing weight maybe a goal of losing 2 lbs/month; or for your health, maybe measure your blood levels for cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.; body fat percentage vs. weight, etc. Attainable = Can you actually do this? Audacious goals are great...but they have to be realistic for you. Results-focused = Lose X amount of weight, make X amount more money, save X amount of money, give away X number of items...etc.  Time-bound = Daily, weekly, monthly or annual goal Some positive reinforcement sure helps! Partner up with someone or make your intentions public. Sometimes an accountability buddy or expectations from someone else is just what we need to give us that added positive peer pressure to stay on target. Track your progress...it really helps! For us, the Edit & Forget It Challenge is a great example. It really felt pretty amazing to see the numbers add up and watch our numbers goal get closer and closer. Even though it wasn’t truly about the numbers for us, tracking our progress gave us a quantitative gauge that we were on the right track. Plus, it was a SMART goal; it was a specific goal of editing 2013 items, it was measurable since it was a quantitative amount, attainable in that it wasn’t an unreasonable goal, results oriented in that we not only could see the results in terms of space we cleared up, but mentally we felt a weight lifted; and time-bound in that we had weekly, monthly and an overall annual goal. Step 3: Take control of your time.  If you really want to make this your best year ever, you need to:  Define your responsibilities, joys and dreams. Align your commitments with your responsibilities, joys and dreams!  To the extent possible, change or eliminate commitments that don’t align with your responsibilities,

We always call what we’re on a “journey” because we always seem to be learning new things, paring down to less and less, and finding ourselves in new circumstances along the way. But in the beginning, it sure helps to have a little bit of a roadmap. We’ve never been the types to tell you “this is what you need to do” or claimed to be “The Expert” in any particular area. Your journey is up to you. But, it sure is nice to have a general idea in mind, isn’t it? So, we wanted this show to serve as a sort of a Simplicity Quick Start Guide for your journey. You know how when you're working on a puzzle you check the cover of the box from time to time to see if you're on track? Well, that's what we hope you do with the episodes listed here. Check them and gauge your progress once in a while. Read more... Simplicity Quick Start Guide So we broke our Simplicity Quick Start Guide down into 5 categories and listed some of our most popular topics in each. This way, you can go back and listen to those shows you may have missed, or re-listen to them based upon your simplicity goals. So here are the 5 categories we used: Starting Out...The Decision to Simplify Simplifying Everyday Life Organizing What You Have Designing Your Lifestyle Your Digital Life, Simplified Part 1: Starting Out...The Decision to Simplify Beginning Our Simple Journey Edit & Forget It Challenge Becoming Minimalist First Steps on the Road to Simplicity How Typical is Your Home? Part 2: Simplifying Everyday Life: How Clutter Effects Your Life Power of Saying No Simplicity for a Lifetime It’s All About the Choices We Make Your House is on Fire! What 5 Things Would You Save? How Routines Can Simplify Your Life Things to Eliminate in the Coming Year Part 3: Organizing What You Have: The Benefits of Organizing and Having Less How To Organize Any Space Organizing Your Clothes Closet Helping Others Edit & Organize Why We Can’t Let Go of Our Clutter How to Organize Your Photos Organizing Important Document Part 4: Designing Your Lifestyle: Creating Your Morning Routine Difference Between Being Frugal and Being Cheap Juicing with Farnoosh Brock Life’s Spam Filter Busy is the new “I’m fine” Live the Life of Your Dreams Part 5: Your Digital Life, Simplified: Sun Tzu and the Art of Inbox Warfare Gateway Gadgets Living Without a Printer: Evernote Simplified, Part 1 and Part 2 Menu Bar Apps & Browser Extensions Going Paperless Managing passwords with 1Password Backing Up Your Digital Information Takeaway: So, there you have it! A great Simplicity Quick Start Guide and the perfect resource to help you get a head start on simplifying your life in the coming year. Why wait for the New Year to make a resolution? Start now and get ahead of the pack. Question: So, are you going to get a jump on the New Year and start simplifying now? What are some of your favorite episodes? What did we miss that would make our Simplicity Quick Start Guide more complete? THING Segment: Dan’s Thing: Road time! Sleeping in the truck & teardrop, Hudson Bay Point blanket, Thoreau’s Walden (Librivox.org for..free) , seeds, lemon water and the occasional Tabasco Slim Jim! Had a great 2558 mile road trip so far! Made new friends, visited family, saw old friends (some after 25 years). Enjoyed seeing more of this beautiful country. Vanessa’s Thing: Free kid's Kindle Books from Amazon.com!

It's our 50th episode and we wanted to pass on our Top 20 simplicity websites, and also  our favorites for minimalism, lifestyle and more! You know, we have so many resources available to us these days that sometimes it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, as the saying goes. It’s nice to have one source that you can go to in whatever interest category you have. So, we wanted to put together an episode and talk about some of our favorite websites and blogs that helped us on our journey, and still do...our Top 20 websites! Main Topic: We’ve talked about many of these before and even had some of the authors on the show, but we want this show to be a tribute to them and a resource for you. We decided to break them down into 4 different categories to simplify things (go figure...that's what we do here): Minimalism, Simplicity, Lifestyle, and  Lifehacking/Productivity/Tech...and we threw in a couple of bonus blogs too! So here they are, our Top 20 simplicity websites: Minimalism: Becoming Minimalist: Joshua Becker (listen to our interview with Joshua on Episode 11) Zen Habits: Leo Babauta The Minimalists: Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus Simplicity: Midway Simplicity: Mohamed Tohami (Tohami interviewed us! You can see it here) Value of Simple: Joel Zaslofsky (we talk with Joel in Episode 33) Be More With Less: Courtney Carver learn more about Dress With Less) Simple Life Reboot: Sheryl and Dave Balthrop Slow Your Home: Brooke McAlary Unclutterer: Erin Doland and staff iHeart Organizing: Jen Jones Lifestyle: The Simple Year: Kerry Reifel and now Kandice Bridges (listen to our interview with Kerry in Episode 25) Prolific Living: Farnoosh Brock (hear our conversation with Farnoosh in Episode 19) Tiny House: Alex Pino Rowdy Kittens: Tammy Strobel Apartment Therapy: They did a story about our office, aka the World Shedquarters) 48 Days: Dan Miller Lifehacking/Productivity/Tech: DocumentSnap: Brooks Duncan (Brooks talked about going digital in Episode 6) 4 Hour Work Week: Tim Ferriss Lifehacker: Staff Lifehacker had Vanessa on TWICE for the ASK An Expert series. Check out Part 1 and Part 2) Digitwirl: Carley Knobloch and staff Bonus Sites: (Tech) MichaelHyatt.com Mike Hyatt and team Real Simple: Staff On the Green Road: Cece Reinhardt + Brenda Daugherty Takeaway: So, there you have, the Top 20 simplicity websites and blogs that have helped shape our journey so far and that we still look to for information, inspiration and motivation. Question: So what are some of your favorite websites and how do you follow them? Do you subscribe to email lists, RSS feeds, etc? How often do you share content from your favorite websites, blogs or podcasts with a friend? Maybe it’s time to spread the love, huh? ----------------------------- THING Segment: Dan’s Thing: Community...especially the Simple Life Together and Edit and Forget It Facebook communities.  We learn so much and appreciate how everyone supports one another in their pursuits to simplify. Vanessa’s “THING”: Dymo LabelWriter.  This label maker has made life so much easier for Vanessa, especially when it comes to labeling file folders! It's fast, easy to use and very versatile with its many different sizes of labels. Announcements: We still have a couple slots open for Washington DC area meetup. We'd love to have you come join us for some great conversation, pay as you go snacks and drinks, and the chance to connect with others who are looking to lead a simple life in the modern world.