The 4 C's

I think about this idea of less a lot, mostly when I'm in the shower, because, let's be honest, that's when all the good thinking happens.

I've determined that I can narrow my ideas down to four categories:
clutter, clean, change, and continue (side note, I kind of messed up the alliteration with the change category...oh well).

Clutter. When I start thinking about less, I start thinking about my things. Recently, I've realized that in order to accomplish my goals, I need to start from a clean slate. I've cluttered my life so much with excess stuff that I just cannot move forward without a good cleanse. I'm also planning to streamline my time commitments to unbusy myself. After some decluttering, I think I will be ready to move onto some of my other ideas.

Clean. Two things come to mind when I think about clean- clean eating and environmentally clean. I envision working on this idea of clean in the summer when I have the time and energy to make some changes. I've been doing some research on super foods, clean eating, slow food, and buying local. Although I'd like to think we eat healthy as a family, I know that there is room for vast improvement.

The second part of clean is working to be more environmentally friendly. As a science teacher, I spend the first third of the school year yapping about climate change, pollution, and wastefulness. I want to set an example and do what we can to help the environment. My ideas are, starting to compost, build a rain barrel, grow food, and buy local, conserve energy, and look into alternative energy resources (geothermal and solar power).

Change. I'm most nervous about this category. I need to change the way we go about things as a family, and this change will directly affect other people. Saying, "no," to friends and family will be hard, and I anticipate some pushback and questions. I'm planning to change the way we do gift giving and receiving for birthdays and Christmas- I know this will cause friction. We are going to scale back on our materialism and strive for relationship building experiences. I know some of my family will think we are "crazy" or weird, and they may not appreciate what we are doing, but we have to stay positive and persist through.

Continue. The concept of continue is simple, the actually continuing, though, will be difficult. Living the life of less will have to be creating new habits, one at a time. Trying to do too much too fast will result in chaos and, ultimately, failure of my goals.

On becoming unbusy...

Sometimes, at the end of the day, I plop into bed and wonder, "What did I do today?" I stalked Facebook, I ran errands, I picked up the bathroom, I drove my son to swimming, I went to and from work, I did this and that and this and that...but what did I accomplish?

Honestly, days that are busy are some of my most productive days in terms of my to-do list, but they are the least productive in terms of quality of life.

Did I really listen to my husband when he told me about his day at work?
Did I spend uninterrupted time with each of my children?
Did I take time for myself?
Did I call my friend to check in?

What relationships did I strengthen today? What impact did I make on this world?

I don't know if it's reasonable to say that each and every day will be impactful, but I know after a few weeks of the cycle of life I start to become bare, empty, and out of fuel.

I need to recharge, reconnect, and rejuvenate. 

Being busy prevents me from doing this.

I wish I could say what I want to say about being unbusy in my own words, but Joshua Becker from Becoming Minimalist already said it for me. His thoughts are profound and challenging.

Read them here.

Three of his points really hit home with me.

1. Realize that busy is a choice.

My take away: I will be purposeful in my choices of activities for both myself and my family. I will attempt to fill my time with things that enrich my life and the lives of others around me. I will learn to say, "no," and not overcommit myself or my family. 

2. Stop the glorification of busy

My take away: Busy is the new fine. It seems that we are in a constant, unspoken competition of who is busiest. I refuse to win this competition. I refuse to burn out my children before the age of 5 with activities each night of the week. I refuse to have my relationship with my husband suffer because we do not have time for each other. 

3. Appreciate and schedule rest

Yes. Rest is important. Time for myself is important. I need to schedule alone time and restful family time. Some of my best moments with my family have been on Saturday mornings in our PJs with no place to go and nothing to do. We play games, have tickle fights, and laugh together. 

Friends, becoming unbusy is hard. It is going to be a conscious choice of blocking of calendar days and saying, "no," but it is doable. Schedule rest. Schedule times to build relationships. Schedule times for yourself.

Allow things that add joy, love, and clarity to clog up your calendar, rather that running to and fro with no particular purpose.

Is is safe to assume that there will still be days where we feel that we've accomplished a lot and nothing at the same time? Yes, I believe so. However, if we keep this idea of being unbusy in the front of our mind, we will hopefully remember to take time and enjoy the fullness, rather than the barrenness, of this world! 

No time!

It's the end of the quarter at school- report cards, grading, and late nights have been my life for the past week.

I have so many "less" ideas floating around in my head and I desperately want to get them on paper, but work, family, and sleep call my name, so instead of a long post I will leave you with this:

I've been reading the book, Notes from a Blue Bike:  The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World by Tsh Oxenreider who is also the author of the blog The Art of Simple. This book has been such an easy read with great and inspirational ideas. I know that my family cannot ever live as simply and intentionally as  the Oxenreiders, but I aspire to purposefully try some of her ideas.

If you have a chance, head over to Amazon and purchase the book here, the Kindle version is only $0.99!!


Until my next idea...

And then, this book is about giving ourselves permission to creatively change the little things in our lives so that our path is better aligned with our values and passions, and so the majority of our days are spent living contentedly. Yes, this is how I am made to uniquely live. -Tsh Oxenreider

The life of less

“The life of less, one bent on simplicity, and not needing or wanting anything other than what God has deemed good for you turns out to be all you could ever need or want.” ― Hayley DiMarco

I came across this quote during one of my early internet searchings of less, and it hit home and really conveyed what I want to achieve this year.

The life of less.

I love that phrase.

The life of less is about getting back to the basics and back to our core. It's about finding our purposes, gifts, strengths, and weaknesses. In living the life of less we become free.

We are free of our unneeded possessions, thoughts, and activities. We are free of the unhealthy choices and attitudes that clog our lives. We are free from the pollution that our world and culture demand we intake. We are free from the excess noise of life!

In that freedom we find silence, strength, and clarity.

Silence, strength, and clarity that will allow us to see and do what God has deemed good for us.

That, my friends, is all that we need.

Our Love Affair With Stuff

Once my grandma said to me, "You have too much stuff."

It was a comment made in passing without a lot of fanfare, but after I thought about my stuff for a long while.

What is all this?

When my husband and I first were married, we lived in a 1300 square foot, two bedroom townhouse that was bursting from the seams. We had a 10 x 10 storage locker filled from edge to edge and floor to ceiling. A few years back we moved in to a 3000+ sq.ft. house and recently added a 14 x 14 addition.

I say this not to brag about my ostentatious living conditions, but because I still do not have enough space to store everything. My three car garage holds one car and a bunch of stuff; my 1000+ square foot basement is a glorified storage closet.

Friends, we have a problem.

We are having a love affair with our STUFF.

We hold onto our things with a fiery passion waiting to use them, to show them, all the while taking comfort that they are there.

But, is it really comforting? I would venture to say, "No."

So then, why?

Why do we keep it? Why do we buy more? Why are we so in LOVE with our things?

Life has provided us with a culture of security through more.

More money, bigger houses, more things, more activities, more friends, more this more that.
More. More.

MORE.

Needless to say, less is a novel concept.

I've been wrestling with this idea of less for a while, not because of what I want; I know what I want. I want to clean up less, I want to spend less time distracted, I want to lessen my impact on the environment. That is what I want.

But, what will others think of me?

What will others think when I purge my purse collection? When I don't buy brand name items in order to save money? When my children get one or two gifts at Christmas? When my relatives get homemade gifts or gifts of time? When I ask for no gifts at all? When my TV isn't bigger than theirs? When I'm take a break from Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, texting, and my phone? When I donate or sell perfectly good things? When my children don't participate in multiple activities? When we learn to say no instead of yes?

What will they think of...ME?

Am I able to be secure in the fact that others need to see me for myself and not defined by my things, my time, my money, my experiences? Can they just see who I am? Can I be who I am with less?

What will others think of me when all I can offer is my time, my affection, my listening ears, my authenticity, and my undivided presence?

Is there enough of me to be significant with less?





My post was inspired by reading this.

Clutter: Kitchen

Tonight I took 15 minutes to declutter parts of my kitchen. I ended up with a large box labeled "sell or donate" containing cups, random dishes, hot pads, straws, and children's dishes(!). 

It felt good. 

Goals

My goals for this Life of Less 

• Less stress
• Less clutter
• Less negativity
• Less distractions
• Less waste
• Less junk food
• Less fake/flake
• Less spending & debt

If I work on these things I hope to achieve the following

• More time
• More health
• More authenticity
• More freedom
• More space
• More exploring
• More presence
• More peace
• More love
• More happiness

This post is inspired by a blog that I'm currently reading:

Mnmlist

http://mnmlist.com/have/

In the beginning...

Less.


My word for 2015.



A few years back, I noticed that people were no longer making New Year's resolutions, and instead, picking a word- a mantra, if you will, for their year. This makes sense to me. I am not a goal oriented person. I am terrible with following through. A word to live by? I can do that.

Over the past two years, I've quietly chosen words and meditated on them throughout the year. First word: self. Second word: generous.

Now: less.

Why?

Well, maybe it's because I have trouble completing tasks, maybe it's because I feel overwhelmed, maybe it's because I don't focus on the important...I'm not sure. I do know that when this word entered my mind it made sense.

Less.

What does this look like? At this moment, it's an evolving idea. It grows and grows and then I remember...

Less.

Tone it down. Focus on each day. And the result?

Well, hopefully it will be

More.