Simple Life Together

Let's Talk Money, & An Interview with Bonnie Dewkett, The Joyful Organizer Whether we like it or not, many things in life boil down to relationships.  We all have a relationships with money and we all have relationships with the "stuff" in our lives. Again, just like many other things in life, our relationships can be positive or negative experiences. But often it just depends on how we frame them. So, let's take a look at our relationship with money and our relationship with "stuff". To help us look at money, we're going to discuss a recent article by Seth Godin, one of our favorite bloggers. To help us look at the things we surround ourselves with in life, we'll talk to Bonnie Dewkett, Certified Professional Organizer from The Joy of Organizing podcast. Read more... Combined Topic: Let's Talk Money With Seth Godin     In this episode, we talk about an article by Seth Godin.  If you haven’t heard of Seth Godin, he’s written fourteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. And every single one has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. Candidly, his blog post is typically the first thing in my Inbox in the morning. Seth is also a fellow Buffalo boy, like me. So, Seth recently wrote a post titled Thinking About Money. He said, "Many marketers work overtime to confuse us about money. They take advantage of our misunderstanding of the time value of money, of our aversion to reading the fine print, of our childish need for instant gratification and most of all, our conflicted emotional connection to money. Confusing customers about money can be quite profitable if that's the sort of work you're willing to do" He makes a few interesting observations about money that we thought was interesting and so we picked a few of them and discussed our thoughts: The amount of money you have has nothing to do with whether or not you're a good person. Being good with money is a little like being good with cards. People who are good at playing cards aren't better or worse than anyone else, they're just better at playing crazy eights. Money spent on one thing is still the same as money spent on something else. A $500 needless fee on a million-dollar mortgage closing is just as much money as a $500 tip at McDonalds. If you borrow money to make money, you've done something magical. On the other hand, if you go into debt to pay your bills or buy something you want but don't need, you've done something stupid. Stupid and short-sighted and ultimately life-changing for the worse. To go along with #3: getting out of debt as fast as you possibly can is the smartest thing you can do with your money. If you need proof to confirm this, ask anyone with money to show you the math. Hint: credit card companies make more profit than just about any other companies in the world. There's no difference (in terms of the money you have) between spending money and not earning money, no difference between not-spending money and getting a raise (actually, because of taxes, you're even better off not-spending). If you've got cable TV and a cell phone, you're spending $4,000 a year. $6,000 before taxes. If money is an emotional issue for you, you've just put your finger on a big part of the problem. No one who is good at building houses has an emotional problem with hammers. Place your emotional problems where they belong, and focus on seeing money as a tool. Like many important, professional endeavors, money has its own vocabulary. It won't take you long to learn what opportunity cost, investment, debt, leverage, basis points and sunk costs mean, but it'll be worth your time.

An SLT Update, & the Value of Simple w/Joel Zaslofsky Well, we're a little over 6 months into this "whole blog/podcast thing" and we figured it was time for an update. Actually, we're probably way overdue for an update! There are some things upcoming that you may be interested in and we'll also be taking a little bit of a break as we head into our summertime family working vacation. But the highlight of this week's episode is an interview with a good friend of ours, and fellow simplicity aficionado, Joel Zaslofsky of the Value of Simplicity blog and the amazing Smart and Simple Matters podcast! Simple Life Together Update:     We wanted to let you know some things that are going on with us and the show: Photo organization: We’ve talked about this in the past and it’s probably one of the most requested topics we get. We’re still researching and asking the pro’s for some tips, so you can look forward to that in the next couple of months. Dan will be doing an Evernote tutorial, too, at some point. He's been waiting for the dust to settle and now is ready to start working on it.  If you have any special requests regarding Evernote, drop Dan a note at Dan@SimpleLifeTogether.com. Finally, we’ll be on the road a bit for the next month or so...we’ll be in Portland for Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit for the 3rd year in a row and then we have some mixed business & fun time with family throughout July and early August. We typically release shows every Thursday but for July we'll have shows on the 4th and 18th and then pick back up in August! Interview with Joel Zaslofsky of the Value of Simple We had an amazing interview with Joel Zaslofsky...creator of the awesome Smart and Simple Matters podcast and the Value of Simple blog. He’s incredibly open about his journey from a six-figure corporate job to carving out a niche online, while shaping his simple lifestyle. He offers tons of tips and free resources on his website to help you "liberate your time, money and talent."  We were thrilled to be his guests on Episode 15 of the Smart and Simple Matters show back in January and we’ve been dying to have Joel on our show. Well, we finally made that happen and it was fantastic!  You don't want to miss this interview!  Here are some of the questions and things we talked about: - So Joel, who are you and how do you make people's lives simpler? - So, you talk about your “Personal Renaissance.” Can you describe what that is, what it’s been like for you, and how it has led to a simpler/more focused life? - Can you tell us a little about the backstory of “liberate your time, money and talent” as it relates to you, your clients and your people who follow your work? - Tell us about your love for spreadsheets and some ways you use them to simplify your life. - How would you define curating, what do you curate personally, and how do you think others could benefit from curating? - Batman has his Batcave, the Super Friends had the Hall of Justice, and you have the Refuge of Simplicity! Can you share what goes on there? - Can you give us any tips about “keeping it simple” with a family? - For a lot of people, the whole “investment thing” is complicated. You address simplifying that in your online course “Start Investing with $100.” Can you share a little about that? - So Joel, what have we left out that is “must know” info for our listeners? What have you got going on these days? Thing Segment Dan’s Thing: Our upcoming trip to WDS Vanessa's Thing: Passing her BCPO Exam and all the support she got from friends, family, colleagues....and even YOU...our listeners!!! Links from our Interview with Joel: Research: How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers (this is the ...

It's All About the Choices We Make! It's true. There's no getting around it. Generally speaking, the way we end up is all about the choice we make in life. Now certainly there are some cases where, as the bumper sticker says, "Things Occur", but for the most part the course we choose to take along life's path lead to conclusions that we help form. So what are some of the choices we make in life that have major impact on our path toward simplicity? Well, there are a lot of them, and most of them are well within your control. Read more... Dan's and Vanessa's Combined Topic: It's All About the Choices We Make Most things in life boil down to the choices we make. Grant it, there are many things in life that we can’t control, but most things are the result of choices. So...disclaimer up front...we’re talking mostly about adults here. Sure, kids have choices too, but as Vanessa and I were discussing this topic she reminded me that when it comes to things like education and opportunities, some kids don’t have the support systems as others. What’s normal for one child may be completely foreign or unavailable to another. I think she nailed that so we’ll keep our discuss limited to adults. Heck even adults have constraints on some of their choices, but like I said “most things boil down to choice”...not all. So, disclaimer done...this is more about introspection and choice we make ourselves as individuals, not judging others’ choices...let’s move on.  But just because we choose something, doesn’t mean we get to choose the effects or the ramifications of that choice, too. Our choices have natural and sometimes inevitable effects. Some choices are causation for things down the road and not just correlation. When we choose to buy things beyond our means using credit, the consequences are merely delayed. But we will face them down the road. We borrow from our tomorrow. For some reason we believe in the future we’ll have more time, more money, more resources...but that’s not always (or usually) the case. Poor credit choices today are literally writing checks that our future self has to cash...or face the ramifications for. I have to ask myself, “Does stuff make me THAT happy that I’m going to bet money I don’t even have yet on it?” I don’t think so! The Choices We Make That Effect Our Path Toward Simplicity What we do for a living: This is often the result of a series of choices we make, not a single decision. A brain surgeon doesn’t just choose to be a brain surgeon one day. It’s a series of choices that likely began in high school or before. When our parents told us we can “be anything we set our mind to” that didn’t mean we could decide it and then it would happen. We had to make lots of decisions along the way. Sorry, but the “Law of Attraction” only goes so far. It takes the right choices, and working hard to support those choices and enable follow-on choices. Like when you play billiards or pool, the best players plan their shots to set themselves up for the next shot. Where we choose to live: Now, we’ve mentioned that dream home we had been planning but thankfully we decided to change that choice. We saw ourselves working just to support what we thought would be our dream. The more we contemplated it the more we realized the home would own us and not the other way around! Here’s a portion of a comment we received recently from Dayis on Episode 29 that reinforced that for us: "Becoming a slave to your dream home – how I wish you were speaking to me a year ago! We moved into our “dream home” last summer and it has become a nightmare…so hard to keep up with its needs, which is now the focus instead of the desert beauty that surrounds us. Hard to find time to just sit and enjoy the views. After your podcast,

Simplicity Resources & Learning Styles in Organizing Wow! There is so much information out there to simplify our lives that some times it can get pretty complicated!!! Isn't it great to have a resource you can go to to find most of what you need on a subject in one location. That's when a site move from being just entertaining to become a real resource. Same goes for books, or any other type of information for that matter. We have lots of other great links on our Recommendations tab at the top of the site, but we wanted to highlight a few here. Which resource work best for you are often dictated by your learning style. Each of us is unique in the way we prefer to learn. When it comes to organizing, the same thing applies. Which type of learning style works best for you? Read more? Dan's Topic: Simplicity Resources So a couple of episodes ago we talked about the start of our journey toward simplicity so I thought I’d share some resources that influenced me as I started the journey, and still do. Like most things, when someone asks you "how you know something" or where you learned it, often times the first thing that comes to mind is “Well, I dunno...I just learned it.” Which is typically true! We each have our own unique path that we travel and you do just pick things up along the way. So it can be hard to say definitely where along the path you picked up a skill, a tidbit of knowledge or, harder yet, philosophy. The other problem I had while putting together this list is that many of these won’t seem like “simplicity” resources at all. Matter of fact, lots of them are straight out business resources. But our business is a big part of our lives and has influenced ability to simplify our lives immensely so I couldn’t just leave those resources, or that part of the story, out. Things don’t happen in a vacuum...they’re intertwined, with lots of cause and effect going on, with actions and reactions. I also need to preface this: For all my adult life my day to day existence was focused on doing my duty; to leading learning and doing things you’d expect from a career military guy. I was starting a transition. There’s a saying from Benjamin Franklin that goes- "Most men die at 25... we just don't bury them until they are 70”. I never wanted that to apply to me. Luckily, I was able to shape my service to where I could always be where the action was...doing things others didn’t want to do. I loved it! But as I prepped for my transition, I knew I wanted to do things on my terms. So that’s how I framed things...that was my lens. So, consider that as I go through the list. So what I’ll do is, for each resource, I’ll give a good portion of the 5W&H...the Who-What-When-Where-Why-How that I talked about way back in Episode 10 when I revealed some Secret (But Simple) Military Communication Techniques I’m going to focus on Books, Blogs, and Podcasts that influenced me in the beginning. The first one I’ll cover is... Who: Tim Ferriss’s What: 4HWW When: I first read in 2008 Where: Amazon Link to 4HWW Why: This was the first book that really opened up the whole idea of not following a “deferred retirement” lifestyle. A main premise of the book focuses on numerous “mini-retirements” throughout your life versus waiting for the deferred retirement plan followed by most. In the book, Tim guides you through developing what he calls a “muse” or a side business that supports the lifestyle you want to live. Now, I talked quite a bit about deferred retirement in Episode 29 and in our About Us video so I won’t go too deep into that here, but I took that and adapted that a bit. Essentially for us it’s a little different. We always have my retirement pension from the military to back us up, but that has allowed us to develop our lifestyle businesses around what we truly love to do versus ha...

You've Got Plenty of Time, and Where Do I Start? You can't buy time. Some may want you to think you can, but you can't. Time is most likely the most democratized asset we have. As we live our lives, it doesn’t matter who rich or how poor you are, we all get the same amount: 24 hrs in a day 168 hours in a week, 365 days a year...and so on. It doesn’t matter if you’re the wealthiest person in the world, none of your wealth can buy you one more minute of time. So how do you get on track to really making the most of the time you have? Knowing where to start sure helps! Well, it's time to take charge! Read more... Dan's Topic: You've Got Plenty of Time So again, you can't buy time. Sure, there are ways to pay others to do things you don’t want to do, and we all do that. We buy our vegetables already picked, our meats butchered, and some foods prepared. And that does allow us time to do other things, but that time is filled with something else. And that’s where I’d like to focus today...how we choose to structure that time. We certainly structure how we spend our money, but often leave how we structure our time to chance. So, today I’d like to share some of my own definitions about time and how I’m trying to be a bit more careful with how I spend and structure my time in case you were considering that yourself. So, I’ll put a few things out there for you to think about if you’re looking at being a bit more mindful of your time as you simplify, as well. So, since we can't really buy "more" time, we should certainly allocate how we spend the time we do have. And as we go through this I'm going to define some terms that I set up for myself as a framework. Now these are my definitions so they're not set in stone. You can certainly opt to define them more stringently or more loosely or however you want. It's your time, your world, right? So, I’ll go through my definitions first, and then we’ll break things down just a bit, OK? The first term is HABIT:  I think of habits as simple tasks that have become almost completely automatic. Do you really think about how you brush your teeth in the morning or in the evening? Probably not...you just do it automatically. But there was a time when you did have to think about it, right? Remember when your Mom or Dad first let you brush your own teeth? Or those little red pills that highlighted plaque? We got those from the hygienist at school Measured your effectiveness at the task Quickly became automatic Well, lot’s of things we do, we do out of habit. And we’ll get back to habit’s and all these definitions in a little bit. The next term is ROUTINE: Like a habit, a routine is also automatic, but often a system of many habits. If brushing your teeth is a habit, the things you do to “get ready for life” life in the morning is probably a routine. A typical morning hygiene might consist of: Showering Brushing and flossing teeth Doing your hair Putting on makeup When I was in the military, at the unit level when we were in the field, we also had “routines”, such as “Routines in Defense” where it was scheduled when weapons were cleaned, camouflage was replaced, communications were checked, etc. OK, the next one I want to cover is RITUAL:  Mindful act or actions that have an overarching benefit. I think of a ritual as much like a routine, but something you’re much more mindful and appreciative of, and where you derive some benefit or satisfaction by doing it. In my opinion, the ritual is the sweet spot...it’s something that needs to be done that you enjoy and are better for doing.  My goal is to see what routines I can convert into rituals.

Honestly, we had other plans for this week’s show, but we got a bit sidetracked. Here’s how:  We finally got around to doing our “About Us” video for the website! When we first started the show 6 months ago, we put in a placeholder that said something like “we’ll be doing a About Us video soon.”  Well,“soon” apparently is relative! If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. We had a “found” day this week as we were supposed to close on selling our land but the closing date fell through...now we’re scheduled for tomorrow.  So, we figured, let’s do our About Us video! And as we worked through what we wanted to talk about, the whole back story of how we got to this point came flowing out. Our Combined Topic: Beginning Our Simple Journey Now, we’ve talked about some of this in some of the really early episodes of the show, but we thought it was time to cover the whole back story. We thought maybe some of you would find it interesting to know how we got here and maybe some of you would see your story as a lot like ours, in some ways. Besides, as much fun as we have with the show, we want it to be more than just “The Tech Guy and Organizer Show.” That stuff is great and has its place, but there’s more to living a simple life in the modern world than that. And there’s more to us, too. So we figured, let’s tell our story. The “Lead Up” So, this is how it goes: We’re a retired military family That included lots of moving, our schedules dictated to us by the mission, etc That said, we wouldn't change our lives in the military for anything! We both have experience in the corporate world We were living the typical American consumer-driven lifestyle.  You know....that typical “deferred retirement” lifestyle where you work until you’re 65+ then hopefully are still healthy enough to enjoy retirement. You work 5 days or more straight to pay for your 2 days off...dreading Mondays so much you get the Sundays night blues. Note: Learn more about "deferred retirement" and planning your lifestyle from Tim Ferris's fantastic book The 4 Hour Work Week Started our lifestyle businesses:  Vanessa is a Professional Organizer, Dan does business development for select clients.  Still, we were on that deferred retirement track. But in the meantime, we subconsciously had been downsizing and simplifying our lives based on life events...like getting married...having another child....going to a single income household by choice so I could stay home with the baby...moving twice...etc. Beginnings of Change: But even though we were making some positive changes... We were still following the deferred retirement rules. We had dreams for our big Dream Home We even bought the perfect lot to build it on overlooking a state natural area! It was going to be big and beautiful! And it was going to have all the latest stuff...we were going to do our part to help boost the down economy! But in the backs of our minds the wheels were already turning. It’s Out There! And it all changed one day on a trip to Portland last year for a conference. As we were on final approach into PDX flying right over the river by the airport, I leaned over to Vanessa and said...."I'm not sure what we'll take back from the conference this year, but I know this... I really, really want to simplify our lives." And there it was....verbalized...out in the open....and we were both on board! From that point on we really started to question and evaluate our life to...

The Cost of Clutter and Managing Your Passwords with 1Password Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks!               Google Drive Tutorial Yay!  The Google Drive Tutorial is now available for purchase! This tutorial is just over an hour long and focuses on all the fundamentals of how to use Google Drive for creating, sharing, and storing  documents using Google's free, full-fledged office suite. This tutorial will be available at the discounted price of just $7.99 until 30 June 2013, when it will increase to $9.99. Either way, it's a bargain! In this introduction, you'll learn how to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and even forms and surveys! So, don't wait to pay full price! You can have immediate access to Dan's 1 hour+  windshield tour of Google Drive right now! Simply click here or go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/GoogleDrive. Plus, if you're not completely satisfied I'll give you your money back. So, no clutter and no risk...simple! Vanessa's Topic: The Cost of Clutter In preparation for my Certification at the end of June, I’ve been doing a little bit of reading, studying and freshening up on my professional organizing skills. Well, during my studying I came across some articles and books that talked about the cost of clutter. I’ve talked quite a bit about clutter in previous episodes and I’ve mentioned here and there some of the costs of clutter, but I thought I’d bring all those thoughts and some additional ideas about the cost of clutter together in one discussion. Now, as a reminder let me define what clutter is:  Clutter is anything we don’t need, want or use that takes our time, energy or space and destroys our serentity (Clutter’s Anonymous definition). With that definition and with the various things I’ve read, I think there are 4 Main Areas Where Clutter Costs us: It can cost us in regards to Money It can cost us Time It can cost us our Health And it can cost us our Sanity Let me explain a little more... In regards to Money: 10% of American households rent storage units which can cost between $600-1000/year. 23% of Americans are late paying their bills because they lose the statements or just plain forget to pay their bills altogether. And of course, late payments result in late fees. Even worse, repetitive late payments can even cost you your credit score! (Which by the way can cost you time as it may now take longer for you to pay off your debts)....oooh...clutter can be a vicious cycle! Let’s talk about food: You know what happens to us when we don’t have a plan for our weekly dinners? We end up going out to eat right?! Which cost 2-3 times more than if we ate at home! Food can also cost you at the grocery store when you don’t know what you have at home because your pantry is a mess and you end up buying duplicate food items or throwing things away because they’re expired! That’s one of my peeves at home....I do not like to waste food! Ok...so this also happens with other things in the home like office supplies, cleaning supplies, toiletries, light bulbs, batteries etc. When your home is cluttered and you don’t have homes for these things, it often results in them being misplaced....and increases chance of duplicates being purchased....because you can’t find them! At work, clutter has the potential of costing you a promotion because clutter can result in disorganization, missed documents, missed deadlines, and so on. Now, let’s not forget about digital clutter: Having to buy more memory for your computers, or more storage space on the cloud...or what about apps that you purchased and never use?

Organizing Important Family Documents and an Intro to Google Drive Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Vanessa Topic: Organizing Important Family Documents I read somewhere, that “family and home office filing systems are a lot like snowflakes...each one is unique and different.”  And it’s so true! With that in mind...I’m going to share some basic concepts and things to think about when it comes to preparing your documents so that you are prepared and less stressed if and when an emergency or major life event occurs. So, why organize and be prepared? If there were a major life event or emergency...let’s say a fire, flood or tornado...would you be able to grab your important files and paper within a moment’s notice?  Well, there’s one good reason to get organized. 70% of Americans die each year without a will (Forbes.com 3/30/12).  So that means...someone will be appointed by the state to handle all matters of your estate...possibly including guardianship of your children. And it could end up being someone you would never want to handle your estate or care for your kids!  So that’s another pretty darn good reason. It’ll save you time searching for documents in the event of an emergency or major life event.  It’ll also save your family member’s time in the event of a death in the family. It’ll spare unwanted or additional emotional stress and frustration. It’ll save money on funeral homes, services and other last wishes if those things are planned and prepared for in advance. Cut down the chances of missing out on survivor benefits and decrease chance of financial hardships of surviving family members. What constitutes important family/life documents: Identification papers: birth certificates, social security cards, citizenship, passports, etc. Family documents: marriage certificates, divorce decrees, adoption papers and custody or guardianship papers, death certificates Deeds and titles: vehicles, homes and other property Military records: DDForm 214 Wills Living wills Last wishes Cemetery plot registration Power of Attorneys: general, medical, durable, etc. Trusts Safe deposit records Investments Retirement and pension plans (IRA, military and other death/survivor benefits) Insurance documents: life, property, casualty, homeowner’s, auto, health and disability (VA disability letters) Business papers: incorporation, DBAs, partner contracts and agreements Bank accounts Loans and debts Note: You don’t need to have all the monthly statements for all of the financial documents I mentioned.  You just need the basics of what accounts you have and what are the terms of the benefits or of the loan/payoffs, etc. Some food for thought and clarification on your important documents: A will is the single most important legal document you will ever sign.  Dying without a will can incur unnecessary taxes, expenses and hardships on your heirs. It’s highly recommended that you update your will in the event of marriage, divorce, or birth or a death of a family member as the beneficiaries may change.  Review it periodically to make sure it is current and up to date. If you move, make sure your will is valid in your current state of residence.

Spring Cleaning Your Home, Life & Tech Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Vanessa Topic: Spring Cleaning Your Home and Life Spring cleaning is all about de-cluttering, deep cleaning, and prepping for the summer!   ceiling and floor vents ceiling fans and baseboards gutters washing the windows and window sills clearing out and wiping down the inside of drawers de-funkifying the inside of your oven and degreasing the stove vents sweeping and moping under appliances, couches, beds, etc. decalcifying your water fixtures Spring cleaning can also include other things like: switching out seasonal clothing and home decor  testing fire alarms and replacing batteries Fire alarms checking fire extinguishers for their expiration date service your lawn and gardening equipment How to prep lawn equipment for Spring service your vehicle and stock up on vehicle emergency supplies before a summer road trip. get your  AC unit serviced too I also like to include a little  planning and prepping for summer and fall: Sign your kids up for summer camps Summer Fun Activities for the Kiddos Plan out your trips and vacations (Vacation Travel Preparation)...you can use Travel Checklists to keep you organized. Enroll your kids for school; get their records, immunizations and physical taken care of now! Or at least have it on your radar. Back to School Tips Sounds like a lot of stuff right? Your Spring Cleaning List is manageable if you keep these things in mind: You don’t have to do it all at once! You can do a little bit at a time everyday First: Identifying ALL TASKS you need or would like to do in priority order Second: Assign a reasonable amount of time to complete each task And finally....make a date and don’t break it!!!  That means schedule it on your calendar.   Remember...A TO DO item is actionless unless you attach a date to it! Book your priority tasks first.  Save big tasks for days that you have more time to dedicate to them.  Smaller/easier tasks can be listed on a daily basis. Now, if your list is still looking too long then consider spreading your tasks out throughout the year instead of just at springtime! And don’t forget about delegating tasks to family or other members of the household... Or even hire someone else to do it for you!   Sometimes it’s worth outsourcing help!!!! I mentioned getting others involved...but what if others in the family aren’t “into it”? Well, here are some tips to help get Spring Cleaning “buy in” from others: Communication is key. Explain why certain tasks are important to get done and that you really need their help. Start with a small task.  Then move to a team oriented task.  Keep it fair too...everyone should be involved not just the oldest child. Give them ample notice of a cleaning project...don’t just drop it on them at the last minute! When all else fails bribe them or threaten them!  That’s what I do!  Just kidding.  Let’s talk about some popular spring cleaning projects around the home (Note: I'm just going to mention the more unique tasks)

"Someday" Isn't On The Calendar & An Interview With Kerry Reifel of The Simple Year Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Dan and Vanessa's Topic: "Someday" Isn't On The Calendar As we traditionally do when we have a guest interview on the show, the two of us will do a joint topic.  We've hit our 25th episode, and so we thought we'd reflect back on where we started and throw some ideas out to our listeners about where we might be headed with Simple Life Together.  Here are the things we reflected on and discussed: Made the decision to simplify our lives and for us that meant somewhere between consumerism and minimalism...not exactly sure how to define it other than “simple”, but now we know it’s not consumerism, not minimalism, not raising our own chickens and sewing our own clothes. Nothing wrong with that...just we’re not at that level! We looked for a community but couldn't find one! Dan wanted to start a podcast for years and said he’d do it "someday." Well, no matter how many times he looked on the calendar, he never found “someday” there. We decided that maybe the community we were looking for was looking for us, too. So, Dan floated the idea to Vanessa for a sanity check and she was all for it...and Simple Life Together was born. Dan brought some tech simplicity and military techniques to the mix while Van brought the organizer background to the mix. We’ve been amazed at the number of people who felt just like we did and joined us! Not that episode 25 is some magical number, but we’re having some pretty strong feelings about the show and the future of the show. We think a lot of people listen to the show and take some positive steps in their lives...not because of anything we say or do, but just because they know they’re not alone in the fight. We’re thinking of some logical next steps and we really need some help and advice from all of you on where we go from here: Considering a community site for more interaction, videos, tutorials, forums to share experiences, arranged by topic, etc. We’re also considering doing products for the community, too. Dan has already been asked numerous times to do a video screencast to go along with his Evernote Simplified Parts 1 & 2. It will be an investment on our part if we do it. If there is enough interest in the community, Dan may stop doing client work or seriously draw down on it to support the community In the end, it’s not about what we want, it’s about what you want! If you just want the podcast and that’s it, that’s fine, but if there is an interest on a full community then we’re considering that too. Dan create a survey that we ask you to please take 1 minute to click some boxes so we can gauge the level of interest. No commitment on your part or our part...yet...but we wanted to ask you what you’d like to see. So, please go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/survey to take a 1 minute survey to share your thoughts with us.  We won’t make any decisions about the community’s future without your input. Heck you ARE the community!  So please, share your thoughts with us. It’s just 4 Questions, 4 clicks and and one block to share anything else that’s on your mind.  We really need your help on this one! Thanks so much and we look forward to your input, thoughts and ideas as we go forward with SimpleLifeTogether.com! Guest Interview: Kerry Reifel Of The Simple Year We were so lucky to have Kerry Reifel here on the show! Kerry is a middle class, working mother of two young girls and wife to an active duty military officer.  One year ago on April 24th 2012,

Simplicity Can Be Complicated & Tackling Piles of Files with Smiles Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Dan's Topic: Sometimes Simplicity Can Be Pretty Complicated One of the major topics people talk to us about is how it seems that a good portion of society has given up or lost their way when it comes to choices they make and and even seems like they’ve given up on taking responsibility for shaping their lives. On last week's show I mentioned Stephen Covey's classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey addresses at the beginning of his book that responsibility is our "ability to respond." When it comes to living out our decision to pursue a more simple life, we exercise our ability to respond in the choices we make. Choices on what to let into our lives, and choices on what to let go of. In doing that, we exercise that responsibility at many levels..first in our choice to live simply and then with each decision we make to support that choice. Simplicity is a completely personal choice. No one, including us, has all the right answers on how to make your life simple. Like most things in life that are truly important, there is no: magic pill definitive blueprint roadmap or treasure map to find the simple life that perfectly suits you. The answer can only be found by truly contemplating your desires, formulating your life plan and tweaking it along the way as you get wiser. Matter of fact, listening to gurus and experts will often run contrary to your goals because it limits your ability to respond…to be response-able. Responsibility is a like a muscle, if you don't exercise it, it will atrophy over time and you won't be able to use it. That is the path a huge part of society has chosen to follow these days and their decision muscles become more and more atrophied every single day.  So how did this happen? Well, I’ve thought a lot about it and wanted to share some things with you. So, as you've heard me mention before, many sources tell us that the average adult is exposed to as many as 5000 advertisements per day. Now, I think this number might be a little high, but who knows. I've done some research on it and to me there's definitely a ballpark figure range from 1800 to 5000. Still, the crux of the matter is that we're inundated with advertisements, and heck, traditional media for that matter, that are designed at their best to influence our decisions, and at worst, to replace our decision making process all together! Advertising tells us what we’re supposed to drive, what we’re supossed to look like, wear, live, what medicines we need to take if we want to be 70 and hold hands with our significant other as we sit in separate bathtubs after a long day’s motorcycle ride. If you're new to simplifying your life, I just want to reinforce the decision you've made to give this a shot. I wanted to start out by just going over what decision making was like back in the day and what it's like now. I'm not going to get into what's better and what's not…just sort of present some realities and how our options have changed. Like "stuff" in our lives, more options isn't always better. So let's compare some available options of a few things between an era we'll call "back in the day" to now: First off, television. Back in the day we had about 3-4 TV channels to choose from. If you’re like me and lived near Canada, maybe you were able to pull in 2 more, and maybe your town had a VHF channel to watch reruns of shows that were off the Big 3 here in the States of ABC, CBS, and NBC. If you lived outside the States,

Simplicity "Traps" and There's an App for That! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Vanessa Topic: There's an App for That! I often get asked about how I stay so organized...a natural question I suppose since I am a professional organizer and all.  Well one of the things that keeps me organized is using technology via my iPhone and iPad. As a matter of fact, I affectionately call my iPhone my “Mini Command Center.”  It’s got everything I need (or think I need) right at my fingertips.  Like Dan has discussed in the past, our iPhones have replaced so many other physical gadgets...a camera, a vehicle GPS system, a Garmin wrist watch, an iPod/MP3 player, and a calculator just to name a few things. I thought I would discuss some of my favorite apps.  My main purpose it to get you to think about apps that may help you too. You may not pick the ones I discuss and use, but hopefully when you're wondering if there's a better way to track or do something you'll say, ”Well, I bet there’s an app for that” and then go I searching for one.   Let me first talk about apps that Dan and I both use. Now, he’s already mentioned them back in Episode 21 when he talked about Menu Bar apps on his desktop but I figured I would share with you how I use them on my iphone and ipad. 1 Password:  This is a password management program that does more than store all of your passwords.  You can also store other important information like ID card numbers, membership numbers and credit cards.  It’s also very helpful when you need access to a variety of other important information...like a family member’s social security number, a student id number, bank account and routing information, business EINs, etc.  We even have our bike locks combinations in there! Evernote App:  Yes...I am a fan too.  Maybe not as big of a fan as Dan being that he’s done two back to back Episodes on Evernote in Episode 17 and Episode 18.  On my phone, I use evernote to capture pictures, notes, emails, etc. It’s especially handy at meeting and conferences.  Speaking of conferences...I save all pertinent information (notes) regarding my conferences in a notebook where I can quickly reference it....like flight information, emails, itineraries, conference programs, e-handouts, slide presentations, contacts, etc. Dropbox App:  I’ve been using this one more and more.  Especially since Dan downloads our episode recordings for us to listen to before posting on iTunes. We share our dropbox account and so we also store things like our eBooks, etc. Google App:  I pretty much do everything in Google....GMail, Google Plus, Google Calendar, YouTube, Google Drive, Picasa, and Google Reader (although that’s going away soon..boo).  I’m a huge fan of one-stop shopping and so this app allows me to access all of those programs instead of cluttering up my iPhone screens with separate apps for each of them. Other apps that I use and love: Biz Expense Tracker: Actually I used to love this one but have been having issues lately. It tracks my mileage, expenses, and time.  Although I was totally in love with this app...we’ve been having issues with syncing and sharing. So...we’re still using it but we’re keeping all of our receipts until we figure out a better app or get better confidence in it. Pandora: Music app where you pick a favorite song or artists and they build channels with similar music around it.  I use it when workout...we also listen to it in the office. Only bummer is the commercials but honestly...they’re so short that I don’t find them a nuisance at all. I’m sure there are other music apps out there but I picked this one and ha...

Life's Spam Filter and Simplicity For A Lifetime Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Before we get to the topics...we wanted to let you know that we had a terrific Skype visit with Mohamed Tohami of Midway Simplicity not too long ago and he posted it up on his website, MidwaySimplicity.com. Of course we have links to Tohami’s site in the Simple Living Blogs section of our Recommendations page  here on the website. You can also go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/midway and that will take you right to our Skype video. We had such a good time talking with Tohami and if you like to see us in video action, check it out! Heads up though...Vanessa’s face is cut off in the video. It rendered full screen during the interview but for some reason Skype software cut her off on the final render! Dan's Topic: Life's Spam Filter Alright so you know I love my Gmail, and I have all of my email accounts setup come into my Gmail account. I’ve had my Gmail account since it first came out in ‘by invitation only’ Beta back in 2004... and it’s done nothing but get better and better, and more powerful. One of the best things about Gmail is its incredibly efficient spam filter. It’s very seldom that I get spam in my inbox because long before I check it, my spam filter has already done what it does best...keep all the junk that I don’t need to deal with out of my inbox so I can focus my attention on the emails that are truly important to me, including the ones that you send (which we love to get, by the way). Occasionally, I do go back and check my spam folder just to see if something got filtered out that shouldn’t have been. I’ve only had this happen a few times and I can tell you that in none of the cases was this catastrophic. It might have been a minor inconvenience to me, or more importantly, to the sender. But it never really caused any issues that couldn’t easily be resolved. I also go back and check my spam folder from time to time...not regularly...just once in awhile, out of curiosity. It’s interesting to see the junk that goes in there! As of today....I have 3,576 junk emails in my Gmail spam folder. That’s from less than 30 days ago. Apparently I’m missing out on all sorts of opportunities! Loans, inheritance from afar, opportunities to help the Nigerian Finance Minister with that country’s accounts...countless pharmaceuticals to make some of my body parts bigger and others smaller, and apparently I’m pretty irresistible to foreign women from lots of different countries (but especially Russian women) and the ideal candidate for instant credit! And adding up just the totals on the first 2 pages I have almost $450 dollars of unclaimed Wal-Mart gift cards. I have so many offers for Lasik surgery that I’m starting to think they’re from listeners of last week’s show who heard me tell my story about petting ODC’s tail, aka the watering can. Suffice it to say, I really appreciate all the hard work my Gmail spam folders do for me. It’s just something that is too easy to take for granted but really saves me a lot of time and effort. Well, you might be thinking this topic is about Gmail or tech. But the reality is, as I checked my spam folder the other day, something hit me. As I scrolled down...and saw the thousands and thousands of  things that I didn’t have to deal with anymore because my filters did it for me, I realized that SIMPLICITY is the spam folder for my life! Simplicity helps us deal with the physical manifestations of the spam emails we all get. If we let it, it helps us immediately discern what’s important and what’s not...what’s in line with our life plan and what’s not...what’s congruent with our faith, our morals, goals, aspirations, dreams and relationships. Just as spam filters protect us from following links that lead to trouble such as scams, malware, viruses, deception...

Some things just make life easier. When it comes to working on your Mac or PC, menu bar apps and browser extensions are like little superpowers that give you lots of additional capabilities. We'll share some of our favorite with you to make your computing experience a little simpler. Speaking of superpowers, being organized can be a superpower in it's own right! Vanessa shares some tips on how you can help others get organized. it can be a little tricky, so this is some good stuff! Read more... Dan's Topic: Menu Bar Apps & Browser Extensions I thought I’d cover just few tools in my toolkit for working on my Mac and in the Chrome Browser. Even though many of the Apps are Mac specific, the Chrome extensions I’ll tell you about work across the Chrome Browser platform. Apps that I operate in my Mac’s Menu Bar: Text Expander Text Expander is a Mac only app, but there are other programs for PC that function similarly. Just Google “Text Expander for PC” and you’ll find some. Check out the reviews for these as I don’t have any experience with any text expander programs for PC. Automatically expands text using little short codes or “snippets.” From a single line signature to paragraphs or a full page of text, just make a little snippet and you’ll save tons of time as you type! Use it for signature blocks, code, email addresses (D.D), web addresses (for instance our SLT.C our HSLT.C snippets)...you name it! I even use it for common spelling mistakes that I make! For some reason, every time I type podcast it comes out podca-t-s! So, I made a snippet that automatically corrects that with Text Expander! Available through this link in the Mac App Store for Mac at $34.99, and through this link in the App Store for iPhone and iPad at $4.99 Dropbox It’s available for Mac and PC. Adds another folder on your computer that acts as a virtual drive. Use to supplement a good backup plan by storing docs there. More about that in Episode 3. Load it on your PC, Mac, smartphones, tablets, etc, and have everything synchronized on every device. If you change/edit a document in Dropbox while working on your laptop, it will automatically update everywhere else. If you're on someone else's device, you can log in to your Dropbox account on the web and access your information. My service of choice for synchronization of other programs, too. I use it to sync the Text Expander account, our BizExpenseTracker app and our 1Password account. You can even share documents or folders with others so they can have access, too.  Done seamlessly...on the Cloud. Free and they give you 2Gb to start out with.  You can sign up at SimpleLifeTogether.com/Dropbox. Evernote  Brand new to the Evernote arsenal is the new Quick Note function. Quick Note feature lets you create a note at any time, no matter what you’re doing on your computer, by clicking the elephant in the menu bar at the top of your screen or using the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-N. To create the quickest Evernote notes ever, simply pop open Quick Note and start typing. Once you’re done with your thought, click Save to Evernote or Command-Return, then continue doing what you were doing. If you don’t save to Evernote, then your content will stay in the Quick Note window waiting for you to add more stuff. Create audio notes and screenshots by clicking on the relevant icons in the Helper. Just mouse over the icons in Quick Note and you’ll see text that explains each icon’s function. You can also add images or attachments by simply dragging them onto the elephant icon in the menu bar.

Organizing Your Clothes Closet & Mentoring Our Younger Selves Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Vanessa Topic: Organizing Your Clothes Closet Since we started the Edit and Forget Challenge, there are a couple of things that I’ve noticed: A lot of folks love the idea of editing, but they’re having a tough time convincing their significant others to jump on board. So the biggest piece of advice we give them is to listen to Episode 11 With Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist, where he shares some tips on how to work with your loved ones.  Basically he recommends to start with your own stuff first. I also noticed most folks start with editing their clothes. I guess it just seems like a natural place to start because most of us have our own clothes that we don’t share with anyone else.  I also think folks start in their closets because you can make a significant impact visually...letting go of 20 pieces of clothing frees up a lot more space than 20 pieces of paper or 20 paper clips. Well one of the side effects to all this editing that we've encouraged, is that I've gotten a few questions about what to with the clothes that are left behind and how to organize these newly freed-up closets! I’ve already talked about how to organize any space back in Episode 12 As a quick recap, I use a four step process: N...A...P...O  - Determine your Needs - Assess your space - Edit your space - Organize your space For the folks out there who have already edited...I recommend going back to the previous two steps:  Decide if your NEEDS have changed....and Re-ASSESS your space to decide how you’ll now utilize it. If you haven’t edited yet, then you may want to listen to Episode 12  to learn about my 4 step process before you start organizing your closet. Or go simplelifetogether.com/organizeanything to get access to my Organizing Series of blog posts. Ech closet is different and each person has different needs for utilizing their closet.  Here are some TIPS on how to organize your clothes closet: Sort your clothes: - By FUNCTION: work clothes, dress clothes, casual, seasonal - By TYPE: t-shirts, polos, long sleeve, sweaters, pants, skirts, dresses, jackets - By COLOR  use the colors of the rainbow as a guide when sorting your colors ROYGBIV...red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet (with white in front and black at the end) - Or a COMBINATION.  For example, I sort by type and color within each type (sleeveless shirts from white to black)  Dedicate space for each person.  After you edit and have a better idea of how many clothes you have left, you can better establish the space required for each person.  Don’t get too hung up on hangers!  I prefer to use the same type of hanger to keep a streamlined look in the closet.  For example...I don’t like plastic tubular hangers with my non-slip felt ones.  But my felt hangers aren’t the easiest to use especially on cotton crew neck tee-shirt.  So here are some tips with hangers:  - If you want a streamlined look but need to use different hangers...try using the felt hangers along with the clear plastic hangers like you get from a department store.  Both usually have a silver metal hook, which is mostly what you see as you look across the clothing rod. - For heavy jackets and coats...use wood or thick, wide plastic hangers specifically made for sport coats, and blazers etc. - To save space and/or prevent your clothes from sliding around,