How to Live Simply

 
Do your material possessions enhance your lifestyle, or drain your energy?

You can design a clutter-free lifestyle that is inspired quality (rather than quantity).

One of the differences between your home, and the items that you store inside your home, is that the home itself can appreciate in value, while the possessions inside the home will generally depreciate. This is in an important distinction.

“…the key to how to live simply is found in learning to set healthy boundaries; you must learn how to say “no” politely, yet potently…”

Ultimately, simplicity is a state of mind:

• ◕ our secret beliefs about what success is impact our lives every day (even if we don’t realize it)

 

• ◕ chaos and clutter are often just a reflection of our own noisy thoughts

 

• ◕ when we train our brains to see and focus on solutions, our external environments become more serene

Designing Your Life to Be Free from Clutter

Everything that we own, requires time, energy, and resources to maintain.

Things like real estate, human relationships, education, and exercise are a much wiser investment. These are things that tend to appreciate in value.

 

Hidden Dangers of Owning Too Much Stuff

What we choose to possess in life weaves itself into the very fabric of our lifestyle. There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with having “things” in this world.

“…there is an energetic cost to excess”

I am noticing that more people are taking a design inventory of their lives. They’re reassessing all they posses, and giving thought to the relief of a “lighter load” that owning less things might afford. They want a new design for their lives.

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Getting Rid of Stuff

You can rid your life of clutter! The first step is to slow the tide of new items flowing into your home (because there’s no point in cleaning out your garage if you’re just going to fill it back up with new stuff). The second step is to gradually (don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do your entire home in one weekend!) look at the items within your home and your office and ask, “Does this enhance my energy?”

If a possession doesn’t enhance your energy, then it probably needs to be released. There are generally four ways to release it:

1. donate it
2. sell it
3. toss it
4. recycle it

After the age of 40, many people yearn for the return of a time when there were less possessions to keep up with, and less mental bandwidth required to try to remember all the items that they own! Downsizing, we call it in the real estate business.

I’ve had many clients who discussed with me their desire to move to a smaller, more easily manageable and size-appropriate space for their needs. Not all of them have wanted to do so to lessen their financial responsibilities. They also realize the possibility that there is an energetic cost to excess.

This is probably one of the reasons that my partner and I specialize in helping others find lifestyle properties. The whole definition of a “lifestyle property,” as I experience it, is that it adds a dimension of value to a home because it improves the owner’s quality of life, not diminishes it.

You could live in a studio apartment with a bike on your wall in a pedestrian-friendly historic downtown district. Or you could live in a large beachfront estate in Malibu with room for all of your grandkids to visit. These are obviously very different sizes and costs. Nevertheless, both of these are lifestyle properties because they add value. You can design your life to be about experiences, rather than materials. That’s what lifestyle properties emphasize.

If you love the Pacific Ocean, then living in a home directly on the beach is going to give you a daily joy that offsets the increased responsibility. If you hate to drive, then the pedestrian-friendly historic downtown is going to bring you bliss.

A Shocking Secret to Help You Live More Simply

Living simply is not just about shedding material possessions, it’s also about surrounding yourself with people who elevate your daily life and your overall energy level.

Look, people are basically good, but that doesn’t mean you need to make time for absolutely every person you meet. You can like someone, you can even love someone, yet still identify them as a person who ultimately drains your energy.

The key to how to live simply is found in learning to set healthy boundaries.

You must learn how to say “no” politely, yet potently. People who have less energy are often drawn to people who have more of it. Well-meaning people are going to want to make demands of — what they see as — your “surplus” energy. Be firm!

Just as you must make an effort to keep clutter from finding its way back into your home, you must also set aside room in your schedule for self-care and “me” time. You can even make a standing appointment in your calendar that says “do nothing” and not let anyone mess with it. In a very real way, it’s your most-important appointment.
 
What has been your experience in recent years — does your life seem simpler, or more harried?

Have you or your friends and family recently considered how your possessions might be impacting your daily quality of life in “unseen” ways?

Have you made, or are you considering making, changes to the design of your life that would alter how many belongings you possess?