Maximum Gratitude, Minimal Stuff

If you're reading this blog, there's a pretty good chance your home is stuffed with stuff.  Why else would you be interested in decluttering?  And with Christmas only 10 days away, you're probably going to add even more things to what you already own. Even if you've already decluttered quite a bit, you want to learn how to stay uncluttered, as well as how to unstuff your schedule and streamline your budget. I'm in the same situation, so I started thinking about how I can keep my home clutter-free, save money, plus save all the time, energy, and decision-making that goes into buying new stuff. I already have enough. So here in the middle of the annual Holiday Shopping Season, I'm going to challenge us to quit shopping, at least for a while.  How many of the following items can you go without buying for the next several months, or maybe all of next year?  Come on, be honest – don't you already have enough of these things?  I know I do. Mugs and glassware (act...

It's true that our choices shape our lives.  Choose to gamble, drink excessively, use drugs, or sleep around, and you'll have to live with the consequences – physical, financial, emotional, and more.  Choose to eat donuts instead of oatmeal for breakfast, apple pie instead of apples, and French fries instead of a plain baked potato, and those choices are going to add up too.  Choose to binge watch, get hooked on video games, or scroll endlessly, and you'll have to deal with the results. All of that is true, which makes daily choices important.  You can't just live as if today is your last day – at least, not if it makes you decide to behave however you want, buy whatever you want, or take whatever silly chances you want.  YOLO ("you only live once") is not a good reason to be selfish or make horrible choices. But it's also true that it's never too late to make new choices.  Unless you're on your deathbed, it's not too late to change.  You don...

Minimalism is not about deprivation.  Owning less doesn't mean owning nothing.  Minimalism is about removing the non-essential so you have more time, space, energy, attention, and money for what is most important to you. And while that end result looks different for everyone (and may even be different for each person at different times in their life), there are some things about the process of getting there that are the same for all of us. How we make it difficult It's funny.  Whenever I talk to someone about what I write about, I often get a similar response:  "I could never do that."  "I wouldn't want to live without ______."  "I wouldn't want to limit myself." However, some people are interested in knowing more.  They want to learn how to approach a more minimalist lifestyle.  But they have questions too:   "My spouse wouldn't want to do that.  What can I do with his/her stuff?"   "What about my family heirlooms?"...

Remember when you had to plan to watch TV?  When Thursdays at 8:00 meant something specific, and you arranged your schedule so you could watch your favorite show?  If you had to miss it, you waited for reruns and dodged spoilers for months. Maybe you talked about the show afterwards, either with family members or coworkers on coffee break the next morning.  Almost everyone watched the same popular shows, and the collective interest and speculation about plot twists created cohesion.  Popular culture wasn't splintered into thousands of pieces, and you didn't find yourself bingeing alone like an addict. What we lose when we reject boredom If you're old enough to know what I'm talking about, then you're old enough to remember something else – boredom.  Honest-to-goodness, nothing-to-do boredom.  No phones, no content, no ready-to-go distractions.  Just you. This wasn't fun, but it forced something.  It forced you to rely on yourself – your thoughts,...

Calmness, for some, might be an inborn personality trait, but it can also be a demeanor you learn.  Certain habits can help maintain your equilibrium even when life is bustling. Scandinavians in general seem to be good at this.  The Danes practice hygge (pronounced hoo-gah), and it can protect your energy and add comfort to every day.  Try these six behaviors to boost your mood and bring balance to your activities. 6 actions for peace and simplicity 1.  Manage your light. If you live where winter is long and gray (like it was when I lived in Denver, Colorado), you can't just wait for sunshine and warm weather in order to feel human.  You have to treat light like medicine. You know how inviting a warmly-lit café can look on a dark afternoon?  You can create this attractive look at home.  Add dimmer switches to overhead lights, and use a mix of lamps to create pools of light, especially at eye level.  Keep curtains and shutters open as long as you ...

Tomorrow is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day in the U.S. and other countries around the world.  In 2025, more shopping is expected to happen online than in stores, but for many people, Black Friday shopping is still a traditional, social experience.  Even though retailers now offer Black Friday sales throughout the month of November and beyond, over 76 million Americans visited stores in person on the day after Thanksgiving last year, and a similar number are expected to brave the crowds and the lines this year too. Of course, the marketers that design Black Friday events and promotions are hoping to convince us that our lives (or our holiday gift recipients) will be happier and better if we give them our money in exchange for their products.  They don't just sell products – they sell feelings, aspirations, and solutions to problems we don't even know we have. "Expect more, pay less."  "Save money, live better."  "Because you're worth it....