Lives get chaotic, when they don’t get maintained. For each person, thing, body, activity you have in your life it needs to be maintained.

I like to start my day with a daily quiet time to maintain my spiritual life and center.

I usually have a morning smoothie for a burst of health right away. Before I drink my smoothie, I wash the blender because I know how hard it is to clean if it’s not washed immediately.

I get dressed from clothes I have laid out the night before. A load of laundry goes in most mornings so I don’t have to spend all day on laundry.

To maintain my body with exercise, I have a standing walking appointment with a friend, take a class or two a week depending on the time of year and make sure I have DVDs for when I don’t want to leave the house. At the beginning of the week I write down my proposed exercise plan, but allow myself to change depending on what my body is saying.  I slacked off this wet and gloomy spring, so now I check in with some friends online to keep me accountable.

When I come home, I get everything out of the car and put it all away. Keys and purse get put away in their spots otherwise I have to search for them because I threw them someplace.

If I menu plan, I already know what is for dinner and can cook when my husband gets home from work. If not, we end up having pizza or sandwiches too often.

My daughter needs new pants so we go to the store. When we get home, the tags are cut off and the clothes are brought to the basement. Then pants that no longer fit get put in a goodwill bag.

My husband makes sure he does maintenance on the cars before something major goes wrong. And does the yard work weekly to keep things looking nice.

All this takes less time than getting sick, locating things before work, or repairing a car whose oil didn’t get changed. If you are finding you don’t have time to maintain what you have, it may be time to let go of some things or projects or activities. Or maybe, you can add in some helpful habits to make things easier to maintain like the ones above.

I know my life goes smoother when I remember the maintenance. Yours can, too.

Pretend you are out in the wetlands with Brea and I. You are delighting in what you see. Stop… Look at… Wow… Relax into wonder.

Photos by Brea Dargis

Welcome to this week’s issue of Weekly Simplicity Tips.

This week was wet. Tree branches broke off in the storm and fell into our yard and onto our shed.

Yoga at the beach along the shore of Lake Michigan was completely in the mist.

Photos by Beth Dargis

As reminder – the Simple Self Care class starts next Monday

1. When we don’t notice the good in the now, we always want more. This week enjoy your food, notice the beauty around you, the love of other people, the prosperity and good things you already have.
2. Raise someone’s spirits with your communication this week.
3. In what area of your life can you slow down?
4. Be selective with what priorities you define as urgent.
5. What have you been focusing on lately? Has it been helpful or do you need to change focus?
6. You probably have a backlog of tasks in your head that you haven’t put on paper yet. Add them to your master to do list (the list where all your to dos are located by category as opposed to today’s to do list.)
7. Block out time for your major project this week.

Simple Self Care Class

Starts June 24th

Are you too busy to take care of yourself?

• Do you feel drained of energy?
• Do you wish you could make time for yourself?
• Do you feel it’s unnecessary to take care of yourself?
• Do you spend most of your time doing things you have to do rather than want to do?
• Are you less joyful than you used to be?
• Are you out of shape and not as healthy as you wish?

I want to get you out of martyr mode with simple ways to take care of yourself without tons of time.

For the first time I am teaching my coaching program and workbook as a class for more support as you make these important changes.

https://www.mysimplerlife.com/simple-self-care-class

(First appearing in Meditate Like A Girl)

Many of us have a longing to spend more time with our souls and in our spiritual life. But we feel too busy to heed the call. Simplifying your life is imperative to getting that time with your soul.

Simplifying is completely individual. What is extremely important to one person may not even get glanced at by another.

This is where our inner wisdom comes in. Listening to that small voice, your intuition, your inner guidance system.

How many times have you had a twinge that said, “Don’t do this,” before saying yes to a project, a duty, or an event?  Half way through all you want to do is quit because you know this isn’t right.

Practically, how would you allow your inner wisdom to guide you in simplifying your life?

Before saying yes to anything, see if you can answer later. This gives you time to check in with your body. What twinges or feelings are you getting about this request? Pray and ask for guidance. What is your intuition saying? When you think about saying yes does it make you feel freer and expansive? Or does it make you tighten up?

When you look at your daily to do list, what does your body do? Do you feel a little nauseous or do you feel excited? What can you add that will make your list more fulfilling? What can you delete or delegate that you know is not the best use of your time?

This is where women tend to stop trusting themselves. "If I start listening to myself, all I am going to want to do is read novels and lay on the beach."

But, we know we have more to offer than a suntan. That inner light wants let out. We feel we are made to connect, help and take care of ourselves and those we love.

Or perhaps your inner wisdom is saying you do need to go to the beach for a little bit and read, before radiating your life.

What if we followed where our heart led in our leisure time? A live concert could draw us instead of the TV. A cause could energize us more than a facebook game. What would you actually want to do with this time instead of going into the default of passive entertainment?

Following your inner wisdom works for stopping you from bringing home clutter. Ask yourself if you really need it, want it, connect to it, and have space for it. No longer will you browse and throw things in the cart without checking in with your intuition.

Intuition can guide you with what you have at home. Which clothes in your closet do you connect with and which make you feel in your stomach they were mistakes? Which accessories light you up and which feel far from who you are now? Get a sense of how many shoes are enough and which craft projects you need to give away.

The pause is where you will be able to hear this inner wisdom. Not rushing from one thing to another without stopping.

Get in the habit of checking in with yourself often.  Ask, “What do I feel?” “What do I need?” and “What is the next right thing to do?”

Now follow.

(First appearing in Meditate Like A Girl)

We’ve always done lots of hiking as a family here in beautiful West Michigan. Every time out we see something fascinating.  I love that nature gives us moments to pause. Moments to celebrate.

Most days I walked at the wetlands I would find the heron fishing. I would watch it and sometimes it would watch back. I felt loved. I felt connected. I knew despite all that happened, God cared for me. He sent a reminder of that love in the form of a Great Blue Heron.

When life is simplified, that doesn’t mean everything is simple. Nor does it mean you never do anything complicated.

Simplicity is a base so you have more time, more space and more energy to do what you were meant to do. It means space for caring for an elderly family member who needs you. It means not doing some projects so you can focus on the one that really lights your fire.  It means having time when life happens and kids get sick or cars break down or the basement floods.

I may have a small closet of clothes, but bookshelves in every room. I may have a cheap cell phone plan and not the latest phone, but I love my Birchbox that comes every month.

Setting limits on what you buy isn’t deprivation. It is making room for what you love. Just as limiting time spent on certain activities isn’t being a spoilsport, but making sure you have the energy for what you need in your life.

Where do you need to set limits?

How is your base of simplicity? What areas can you shore it up?

Welcome to this week’s issue of Weekly Simplicity Tips.

This is what we saw on our nature walk this week (including some tadpoles):

Photos by Brea Dargis

1. Where in your work process can you be more efficient?
2. Be extremely clear and precise in phone messages for less phone tag and leave your phone number twice.
3. Take a look at the amount of alone time you are getting. Does that need tweaking?
4. When you make requests or decline invitations, do so in a loving tone.
5. Breathe in gratitude, exhale gratitude.
6. Remember most fear is a figment of our imagination.
7. All change is small change – the smallest changes can put you on the road to a simpler life.

Simple Self Care Class

Starts June 24th

Are you too busy to take care of yourself?

• Do you feel drained of energy?
• Do you wish you could make time for yourself?
• Do you feel it’s unnecessary to take care of yourself?
• Do you spend most of your time doing things you have to do rather than want to do?
• Are you less joyful than you used to be?
• Are you out of shape and not as healthy as you wish?

I want to get you out of martyr mode with simple ways to take care of yourself without tons of time.

For the first time I am teaching my coaching program and workbook as a class for more support as you make these important changes.

https://www.mysimplerlife.com/simple-self-care-class

Sometimes the kids or the spouse or the boss don’t tell you things until the last minute. They may not mean to. But often they just forget. One of my favorite questions to counter this is:

Is there anything I need to know for… (today, tomorrow, this week, this month, this project)?

When I pick my daughter up from someplace I usually ask if there is anything I need to know for tomorrow, so I know if she has last minute plans that require me to drive or her to bike.

At the beginning of the week, I find out what is on the schedule for the various people in my life so I can plan.

If you have a boss that waits until the last second, ask about projects coming up or what you need to know about the upcoming week. This gets them thinking ahead more often.

You can also use this question on yourself at the beginning of the week so you are thinking ahead.

Let me know how this works for you.

I got an email from someone going a little crazy trying to downsize from a home to an apartment.

“Help”, she said.

Downsizing can be an overwhelming project.

The first thing to do it release the past. Whether the downsize is your choice or not, it’s important to process and let go of the past. And ideas of how you thought things were going to be. Journal, cry, grieve.

Now look to the benefits of downsizing and how this could be a great thing.

– less stuff to take care of
– more time
– less maintenance
– more money
– more freedom

Next, look at your new place. Plan out what you want in what area. Papers/work, relaxing, food prep, music. You clear out stuff that isn’t useful.

See your home as flowing. What impedes the flow of your home? You want to be able to make your daily routine easy without getting annoyed at things in the way.

Places that are important to let go:
– decorative collections. Keep a few, photograph the rest and let go
– clothes – it’s clutter if it doesn’t fit in the closet. So only keep the amount of clothes that fit nicely in the closet (and pack up the out of season clothes to go under the bed)
– books – you can get most books from the library. If you are in an apartment you are going to want to limit books to one bookshelf.
– shoes – only keep the ones you need and use. Special occasion, once in awhile shoes are not used enough for the space they occupy.
– dishes – only keep what you can store in your cabinets, same with kitchen gadgets

You are editing your space so it works well for you and nurtures you.

Tackle small areas at a time and stay in that area until complete. One drawer. One cabinet. One pile.

Questions to ask as you let go.
– have you used it in the past year?
– what are your current needs?
– what do you no longer need at your new place? Like gardening tools or snow shovel.
– is this about my present life or about my past? Limit the past so you have room for your present.

If you have trouble letting go, invite a friend or family member to help. Often we’ll get attached to something and someone else can say, “Why do you want to keep that?” When you try to explain, you realize you don’t need or even want to keep it. You can also email a friend with your progress every day to keep you accountable and motivated.

Wishing you well on your new life and home.

Want some help decluttering? Join the Declutter Group.