Simplifying Your Home

This is a landing page to help you get started with decluttering and minimalism in your home to SIMPLIFY YOUR HOME!

I think we are all craving it: Simplicity.

I hear more and more women talking about it, pinning it, sharing their ideas on it over coffee.

We want simplicity because we want less stress, more time, less cleaning, less work, more fun, less debt, more of all that we love.  There are lots of ways to simplify: capsule wardrobes, meal plans, technology timeouts, house decluttering, homemade yogurt, marriage challenges…. All intentional efforts to bring all our attention and resources to things that bring us joy and the people that we love.

Books recommended here may include referral links to Amazon. If you click through and take action I will be compensated at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I love or feel would benefit your simple, on purpose life. 

I started my journey about four years ago. I had just read a book called the Joy of Less and thought minimalism was my new mantra. It has lead me to declutter my entire home and really evaluate my approach to living all together. It has inspired me to live my life ON PURPOSE

I think it’s inspiring, all this ‘purposeful’ living. It is so much more than how we manage and organize our physical possessions. When we purposefully strip away all the distractions (things of little use or joy), in the name of simplicity, we are left face to face an intimate view of each relationship. Relationships to our bodies, our spouses, our hearts, our homes, our things, our time, our kids, our money. Both the process of removing the excess and being left without the distractions begs thoughtfulness on all our relationships in terms what we avoid, neglect, nourish, hide, flaunt, attend to, ignore, use, adorn, and so on.

I’ve come to see that this isn’t an overnight thing. Especially if you want to be thoughtful about how you declutter and move stuff out of your home. Also, you’ve probably spent at least a decade building up this life, it can’t be dismantled and organized in a week.

So take your time and keep at it!

practical minimalism for families

 

GETTING STARTED WITH SIMPLIFYING YOUR HOME

How to prepare your mindset for decluttering your home

This isn’t a checklist or challenge, it is some real talk to your brain and heart on getting started

How I Started Decluttering My Family Home (+ tips and insights) 

Many people ask me how I started, so here it is. Also, some takeaways that will help you declutter your home

Til We Have Just Enough Stuff

Asking yourself about the home you grew up in, thinking of the way you have you accumulated as an adult, deciding that you want to live with

‘ENOUGH’

What Pinterest Doesn’t Tell You About Home Organization

A good mindset to start out with is how decluttering will help you with your approach to home organization

The Burden of Things

Having clutter in our home can have a genuine burden on our space, our wallets and our emotional well-being

The Habit of Consumption

Moving from the mindset of ‘consuming’ to the mindset of ‘creating and doing’

Great decluttering books that I have loved:

The Joy of Less by Francine Jay

Seven by Jen Hatmaker

A Minimalist Home by Joshua Becker

 

MINIMALISM MINDSETS THAT HELP YOU SIMPLIFY YOUR HOME

How a Minimalist Thinks

We can approach decluttering with ‘is it useful, beautiful or sentimental?’ but that falls flat of some deeper mindsets that most minimalists have

Real Reasons You Can’t Finish Decluttering 

As you get further into decluttering you face some hard decisions. Knowing why you are making these decisions to keep or let go will help you with this process

Is Your Home a Suitcase?

We can view our homes as a storage space, or a suitcase. Which parts of your home are storage when they should be suitcase?

I Decluttered My Home For A Year, Here is What I Learned

I watched truckloads of my possessions leave my home, I spent a year feeling defeated, the inspired and so on. This is what I can reflect on from the past year of being a dedicated declutterer.

Hygge vs Minimalism

There is a lot of talk about HYGGE on the internets (and I do totally dig it!) here is how it stacks up to minimalism, IMO 

(Other hygge posts: 30 Ways to Hygge When It Is Cold Outside and Three Mindsets to Bring Hygge Into Your Everyday Life

Six Types of Minimalists – I’ve come to see that there are many reasons to become and approaches to being a minimalist.

‘What If I Need this One Day?’ – this question is a hurdle for a lot of us when it comes to decluttering. We could question our need for the item, or we could shift this mindset and ask a different question. 

 

STAYING MOTIVATED WITH DECLUTTERING YOUR HOME

Identity Clutter

This is the clutter of things we keep because maybe we were those things, or want to be those things or think we ‘ought to be’ those things. Here is how they hold us back from truly knowing ourselves and growing – and they keep us stuck in a scarcity mindset instead of letting go to embrace abundance. 

Quotes for Minimalist Motivation 

I find that motivation is what keeps my home decluttered. Here are some of my fave quotes that inspire me in minimalism

When You Feel Like You Suck at Minimalism, Remember This

At some point, our decluttering process and the expectations we had about minimalism will clash. We will lose steam and lose sight for the what minimalism is really about

Six Things I Didn’t Know About Garage Sales

I had a garage sale of all my decluttered items, it didn’t go super well. Here are some things I learned on how to make it worth your time

Minimalism is Not an End-Goal, It Is a Tool

Wait? what? That’s right! Declutter away but know that your end-goal will become so much bigger than a decluttered home. The ACTION of decluttering leads to so much more

Don’t Let Minimalism Ruin Your Marriage

If your spouse isn’t into it, here are some practical tips on how to ease into minimalism without blowing up your marriage

7 Eye-Opening Lessons I Learned from 200 Days of Buying Nothing New

A great guest post from Assya Barrett on her experience limiting her spending for almost a year

Why Minimalism Works at Changing Your Life

Minimalism doesn’t just give you a clearer living space, it is part of personal development in learning who you are and showing up better as that person. 

READER STORY: Making Space For The Life That Matters.

I have the pleasure of hearing many of the reader’s stories about how decluttering has changed their lives. I asked this reader if I could share her story on the blog

How Minimalism Has Changed My Motherhood, Marriage, Homemaking and Life

I was asked to share how life looks different for us before and after minimalism. Here are 16 ways it looks different for me in terms of motherhood, marriage, homemaking and my life. 

 

DECLUTTERING OUR HOME

RECENTLY DECLUTTERED SERIES

Over the years I have shared ‘recently decluttered’ in the Simple Saturdays email. Now I am compiling all the past ones to share in one space. You can read all the Recently Decluttered posts right here

DOCUMENTING THE JOURNEY

Umm..I Thought You Were Purging Your Home

When I wanted to show you amazing before and afters but it just isn’t happening yet

Basement Shame

An update on progress in the basement

Renovations with Kids

As we have converted the basement into a play space, we had to undergo renos with kids underfoot

Our ‘Minimalist Family’ Home Update (a year later)

They aren’t groundbreaking before and afters, but they are our real life and we are proud of the hard work we put into it

Five Common Mistakes Moms Make When Organizing their Homes

We went through a lot of work to declutter, but when it came time to organize and store things I found that we made some mistakes that made STAYING organized very difficult.

 

CREATING A SIMPLIFIED PLAYROOM

The Before and After

From decluttering to renos to building a playroom with a DIY fort in it

 

OUR KITCHEN OVER THE YEARS

I’m a Minimalist With a Full Kitchen, and Why I’m OK With That

As time went on, I began to see that our kitchen wouldn’t ever be ‘minimalist’ by current terms. This is why I’m all good with that!

Kitchen reno before and afters (split-level home kitchen to mid-century modern inspired kitchen)

Our most recent kitchen update, and an unpacking of what I have learned about decluttering the kitchen and learning to love my space over the years 

 

KIDS’ TOYS AND SPACES

What Happened When I Took Away Half of My Kids’ Toys

An accidental toy purge led me to some really big insights into toys

Practical Advice for Purging Kid’s Toys

How we have approached decluttering toys with the kids

A Birthday Bedroom Makeover

For my daughter’s birthday, we redid her room with supplies we had on hand. We have since replaced the bed with a smaller one and built her a desk for the following birthday

Why We Declutter Our Kid’s Toys Without Them

We declutter with our kids and sometimes without them. Both are worth exploring. 

CREATING A SIMPLER WARDROBE

What Is A Capsule Wardrobe and How to Start One

Purging the closet can be so emotionally freeing, as well as freeing up your personal space too!

Tips for the Simple Closet

How to sort through your closet and keep the things that are right for you

Six Unexpected Ways That Having Fewer Clothes Has Made My Life Easier

How could fewer clothes make your life easier? I was skeptical, but it is true

Five Ways We Justify Needless Shopping

Clothes shopping has been a weakness for me in the past. Here are some ways I’m getting a little real about why I buy clothes

Decluttering the Underwear Drawer

It’s pretty much free therapy

Style for the Reluctant Mom

This is a series all about learning your own style to help you create a simple wardrobe. Also see the #moms30for30 for the challenge of wearing 30 items of clothes for 30 days!

 

 
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