Simplicity does not = laziness

When we think about simplicity we imagine sitting on the couch with our feet up and watch marathon's of Bridezilla, Keeping up with the Kardashians, or The Biggest Loser. While I suppose you could make the time to do this, this is not what it is all about. To be honest with you, I have never even seen any of these shows. Just last week I saw what Justin Beiber looked like. You see, all these lifestyles are as far away from simplicity as you can get. They advocate for expensive weddings, beauty, money and notoriety as the norm. The bigger the better, the richer the better. I have never seen the Biggest Loser, but, i would imagine it would be a great show to watch, it advocates health and exercise, two very important aspects of life.


We are headed into winter and there is much to do. A thorough cleaning of the house from top to bottom, the bi annual unclutter that needs to be done and organizing closets. We need to get gas for the snow blower put plastic on our windows and make sure the house is as energy efficient as possible.

A thorough cleaning is not as hard as you would imagine. Most people I know have "stuff" from wall to wall in their homes. Before they clean, they have to move most things in the room. Since we believe less is better, we don't have this problem. For example, our dining room, we have a kitchen table, a footstool and a cupboard with the kids toys in it, and an antique telephone table that our phone is on. The only things in the room are things that have a functional use.

Unclutter - this is the hardest. I really owe Flylady.com for this. There was a time when i was so disorganized, I had no place to turn in my house. I would literally stand in a room and just not know where to start. It was so discouraging. I almost gave up before I ran into this site. It gave me hope I could do it, and you know, I did. This continues to be a hard part of life for me. I just keep plugging away at it. It helps that I make sure I bring nothing into my house that i don't need. I also spend 20 minutes a day organizing part of whatever room I am working on at the time.

Organizing closets. This used to be a hard time too. I avoided it at all costs. Which means, it rarely got done. I had to simplify. In the end, I rotate the coats for the weather outside. Each person in my family have 2-3 coats per person. In the closet I keep two coats for each family member. Two pairs of boots and a pair of shoes. Hats, scarves and mittens are all kept in a box on the shelf in the closet. Out of season coats go in an extra closet that has shelves for easy organizing.