.

Simple living won't just become your standard one day, when you happen to wake up and everything is suddenly infused with great clarity and meaning. The world, our work, people, media, everything around us conspires to add more clutter to our already filled lives. You have to take steps and make changes every day to move away from a cluttered and unfulfilling life toward a simple and meaningful one . The good part is that many changes you can make are very simple, but all will contribute toward your ultimate goal. Try implementing a few of these changes today, or take the next month and make one small change every day.
1. Throw something away. Yes. Into the garbage can. Out of the house. To the dumpster. Stuff is a big part of the complication in our lives, so give yourself permission to get rid of something you no longer need or want or find useful. It may be that old collection of VHS tapes that you know you'll never watch again, or a pair of shoes that is way too uncomfortable, or a pile of papers to read. Just get rid of it. It's taking up valuable space in your life and making you feel guilty about not getting to it.
2. Get up at the same time every morning. It doesn't have to be at some unnaturally early hour, just the same hour every day. You'll have to be super-consistent while you're establishing the habit, but once you do your body will automatically wake up at that time. Your mornings will be smoother and you won't have to go through that snooze-button struggle.
3. Clean out a drawer. Pick that drawer in the kitchen that you always spend five minutes rummaging through to find the garlic press, or the one in the bathroom that seems to eat your floss, or the one in your dresser that refuses to return socks. Dump the whole thing out, throw away or put away (in an appropriate place) anything that you don't use on a regular basis, then replace the items that should actually be in the drawer. Use a drawer organizer, or small boxes, or anything that will create boundaries for that stuff in there can't get free again.
4. Give away your old clothes. This doesn't have to be a big project. Grab a box or garbage bag, go to your closet, and quickly, without stopping to talk yourself out of it, toss in all the clothes you haven't worn in the last six months (unless they're seasonal and you store them in there). If you are storing out-of-season clothes in your closet, consider boxing them up and putting them out of sight until the appropriate season. A clean, roomy closet makes getting dressed a much more pleasant activity. Take your now-full bag or box to the car and drop it off at a charity next time you run errands.
5. Clean off your bedside table. You don't need so much stuff there, and it's only distracting when you're trying to relax and go to sleep. A lamp, one or two books (no more!), a paper and pen if you often get inspired at night, and one or two other necessities. I have to have my Burt's Bees Lip Balm handy. Put the rest of that accumulated stuff away: books go to the bookcase, lotions to the bathroom, jewelry to the jewelry box, papers to the filing cabinet or desk, etc. You might even find that you have room for a vase of flowers.
6. Cancel a magazine subscription. If you have two or more of the same magazine sitting around, waiting for you to find time to read them, maybe you should give yourself one less thing to do. If it's not important, it's not important. That's okay. Cancel the subscription, save yourself the money, and quit feeling like you have to read everything your mailbox brings.
7. Switch to online banking. If you haven't already, you can save lots of time (and money) by taking advantage of online banking. Almost all major banks offer it as a free service, and with online banking you can check your balance, make transfers, pay bills, set up scheduled payments, and use many other services quickly. If you're unfamiliar with the whole process, get a friend who is more internet-oriented to help you set it up and walk you through the basics.
8. Cancel your land line. If you have a cell phone, you really don't need a separate home-based telephone line. Increase your cellular coverage if needed and cancel your home phone. You'll have only one bill to pay, one number to remember, one voice mail system to keep up with, and you'll probably save money.
9. Say goodbye to Tupperware. Tupperware is the enemy of simplicity in the kitchen. It doesn't stack, it's impossible to keep all the lids and containers together, and you never have the right size handy. At least that's my Tupperware experience. So pull out all those random plastic pieces and send them to Goodwill so they can complicate someone else's life. Invest in a good stack of disposable containers (take-out boxes, disposable plastics, etc.), a couple of boxes of zip-top bags in different sizes, and some good-quality, glass containers with tight-fitting lids. Use the disposables for lunches, the bags for vegetables, fruits, and anything not liquid, and the glass containers for other leftovers.
10. Set up a phone charging station. Use a power strip if you need more than two outlets; plug in the phone chargers and snake the line up to a hook on the wall or some other handy spot nearby. Every night, you know where to put your phone, and every morning you'll know where to find it. It's even better if you can set a bowl or tray nearby to hold car keys, loose change, etc., and a hook on the wall for your purse.
11. Put a trash bucket in your car. It doesn't need to be big and ugly; in fact, you definitely want something small and unobtrusive. A basket or small crate or container of some kind. Line it with a plastic bag and put your trash in there. When it's full, tie up the bag and throw it all away.
12. Establish a morning routine. Morning routines work hand-in-hand with a standard wake-up time to create a daily beginning that is peaceful and enjoyable. Keep your morning routine as simple as you can so you can easily remember it, put try to include all the essential activities of the morning. Jot down the best order to do them and start doing them in that order every single morning until it's so routine you don't even think about it.
13. Eat the same thing for breakfast every day. If you need more variation, then pick two breakfast items and switch them out, or eat the same thing every day for a week and then switch to something different the next week. The idea is to have a plan and keep the breakfast meal simple. Oatmeal, cereal, a power bar, a fruit smoothie, a muffin and hot tea, whatever appeals to you. Get enough to last for at least a week and eat breakfast every day.
14. Take advantage of the dry cleaner. It's relatively inexpensive to get shirts and pants dry cleaned, so don't limit yourself just to silk items or suits. Anything that needs to be ironed is a good candidate. It will come back in perfectly pressed condition and all you have to do is wear it.
15. Cut down on your social networking sites. Do you really need more than one? All the social networking sites exist for the same purpose: social networking. So limit yourself to one site, delete your pages from the rest, and enjoy the networking there for a reasonable amount of time without constantly switching back and forth and talking to the same people on two or three different sites.
16. Use folders to sort your email. Use fairly broad categories that address the kind of email you deal with on a daily basis: Business, Personal, Subscriptions, etc. You might find it helpful to set up individual folders for the people you communicate with most through email.
17. Check email less frequently and respond immediately. Don't fall into the smoke-break email trap, in which you have to stop and check your email as often and obsessively as a smoker has to stop for a smoke. Determine a few times during the day when it's convenient for you to check, read, and respond to your emails. Maybe the beginning and end of the day? Right before lunch? Just limit it so you can deal with it all at once.
18. Shop online for gifts at the beginning of each month. This is such a great simplification concept that I'm surprised more people don't implement it. Pick one day a month and set aside an hour or so to shop online for all the gifts you will need to purchase in the next 30 days or so. Shop, order, pay, and have them shipped. No one minds getting gifts early. If you balk at sending things too early, then bookmark the site and set up a reminder on your calendar to buy and have the gift shipped a little closer to the occasion.
19. Clean out your freezer. Seriously, you don't even have a clue what might be hiding in there, do you? Throw out all the unidentifiable objects and the out-dated stuff, give the shelves a good scrub with disinfectant spray and a paper towel, then replace, in an orderly fashion, the food that is edible. Now you can actually use what's in your freezer.
20. Pay your bills when you get your paycheck. If you've set up online banking, this process is so simple it's... well... simple. Pay all the bills that will come due before your next paycheck. There, you're done, you know how much money you have left over after bills, and you don't have to worry about it again until your next paycheck.
21. Establish a cleaning routine. If you have a good cleaning routine and follow it consistently, you can keep your house clean in about twenty minutes a day, four or five days a week. As with your morning routine, make a list of things that need to be done on a regular basis - daily or weekly - and follow that routine consistently until it has become second nature. The more consistent you are, the faster you will be at those cleaning tasks.
22. Set up a basic work schedule. See my article on How to Set Up a Schedule for more on this.
23. Get a great haircut. Seriously, a great haircut simplifies your life whether you are male or female, have long or short or curly or straight hair. It's worth the money to get a style that works with your hair type, is easy to maintain, and doesn't require a lot of hair products to get you looking decent.
24. Learn to ignore distractions. This is a difficult skill to master, but well worth it. Basically, you need to embrace the idea that the world does not depend on your reaction. You can ignore the arguing couple at the next table, or the annoying music from the car down the street, or the endless forwards your co-worker sends, or any other unnecessary, meaningless distraction. You cannot eliminate distractions, but you can choose to give them no place in your life.
25. Ignore your phone. When you're knee-deep in a project that requires your total concentration, it's simply idiotic to stop what you're doing just to jump across the room, grab your phone, and answer it breathlessly only to find that the caller just needed to find out what time the meeting starts tomorrow or what you want for dinner. I'm not suggesting that you ignore your friends and family members, but that you give yourself permission to focus on what you're doing while you're doing it. You have voice mail. Use it.
26. Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Not only will you feel better and have more energy when you eat more fresh, raw fruits and vegetables, but you won't have to stop and "fix a snack" when you get hungry. Fruits and vegetables are the perfect snack food. They provide quick energy without giving you a sugar rush. They clean up easily, they're portable, and they taste great.
27. Buy household staples in bulk. If you have space to store bulk items, then buy any household staple you replace weekly in a bigger supply and save yourself the trouble. Items like toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, and many pantry food staples are available in bulk quantities that usually save you a significant amount of money. You do need a place to store these things, however, so don't just run out and buy a bunch of stuff unless you know where you're going to put it.
28. Say no to stupid requests. Seriously, it's okay to quit babysitting the perfectly capable adults who surround you at home or at work. Don't be rude, but do be firm. They'll probably be a little shocked if they are used to having you jump and run every time they ask for something, but they'll get used to it and they'll learn how to take care of those things without your help.
29. Write everything down. Writing lists and notes keeps your brain from feeling like it has to remember all those items. I use a simple notebook for everything from writing daily journal entries to article ideas to a master to-do list for house projects. I grab it when I go out the door and have it for reference if I need it, or if I think of something else to add.
30. Take a walk. Sometimes what we all need is a reminder that the world is big and we are small. Get outside for ten or twenty minutes, breathe, admire the trees and the grass and the sky and the clouds, feel the rain or the sun, let your muscles stretch and relax.