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.

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

This issue is a day late because I was celebrating my 21st wedding anniversary. We had some beautiful time outside. And when it got cooler, we went indoors to see Star Trek.

We also saw a Parasailer on Lake Michigan. Spectacular to watch!

Photos by Beth Dargis

Also it’s time for some summer planning (or winter planning in the other hemishere. You can find my summer planning worksheet here.

And my guest post on Seasonal Scavenger Hunts

1. Ask yourself, What’s next?" instead of passively getting stuck in email or facebook.
2. Notice how many fears and worries you have this week & how many did not come true.
3. What can you be grateful about for a difficult circumstance?
4. What is one way you can be kind to yourself this week?
5. What is one way you can be kind to another person this week?
6. What negative story about yourself or someone else can you let go of?
7. Finish a book you have been wanting to for awhile.

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

According to a recent study, Smartphone users check their phones every 6.5 minutes. That astounded me.

It means most phone users, not just a few annoying people, are checking their phones as they talk with people, as they eat, as they do most activities.

That means most  aren’t concentrating on something longer than 6.5 minutes before they need to relieve their boredom by checking their phone.

If that is the average, how much are the power users checking their phones?

Should we be concerned if we can’t go through a meal or a conversation plugging back into our technology?

After reading those stats, I am going to be more aware of how much I am checking my phone. How about you?

A reader asked what to do with old family photos. It can be a big project, so make sure you break it down into little steps. Still procrastinating? Break it down into tinier steps.

The first thing is to bring them to family members who might know who they are if they are not labeled.

If you want to create an album, gather the pictures together and decide how you want to organize them. By date? By location? By who is in the photos? By theme? This is probably the longest part, so only do a few minutes at  a time if it overwhelms you. Wear cotton gloves to protect the photos.

Ones that you don’t want for the album you can still put in photo safe boxes (archival quality, acid-free). Not in a shoebox which doesn’t keep them from decay. If you have pictures in those old sticky type albums TLC says to keep them there. Trying to get them out can tear them.

Remember, you don’t need to keep them all. See if family members want some. You can even throw out the bad ones.

Don’t store your albums in damp places like the basement or the garage. Store negatives in a safe. According to the Library of Congress, photos should be stored at 68°F and 30-40% relative humidity

If you scan your pictures (or pay someone to have them scanned) you can create faster albums through places like Shutterfly. You should scan at least a few, in case of fire, to preserve your family history. And you can put them online on a family website, put to DVD as a slide show, put in a digital picture frame. Make sure the scanner is dust free. And scan at least 300dpi.

Other ideas (scan them first):

Turn them into an ornament

Put them under glass on a coffee table or on dresser

Put them in old windows

Put them on pillows

in Mason Jar

Get photos copied on a t-shirt, mug, calendar or mouse pad.

What do you do with your photos?