simple saturday.
In the last quarter of 2013, we got rid of half of what we owned, moved to a smaller house, and are focusing on simplicity. Each Saturday, I will document some of the ongoing changes we are making to simplify, step off the consumerism wheel, and open more space for experiences rather than things.
Some of the questions we are asking include:
What am we buying on a regular basis that we don’t need to buy or can make at home more inexpensively?
How can we reduce the numbers of chemicals we are bringing into our home?
What small changes can we make that will have a positive impact on the environment?
What is the difference between want and need and how has that been distorted by American consumerism?
Eating
Why I’m starting my mornings with warm water and lemon.Cleaning
Better ways to clean pillows.
We have moved to an area with hard water and need to change some of our cleaning processes as a result (open to suggestions from others who deal with hard water!). I’ll be trying this recipe for dishwasher soap this weekend.
I am continuing my new-found love of white vinegar as a great household cleaner. Some of these very simple household cleaning recipes are on my list to create this week.
Money
I have always regarded money as the root of all evil. There, I said it. If I made money, I gave it away. Now I am beginning to see it as freedom. Finally. And I can still give it away if I like, but from an informed place. Having eliminated our big mortgage, we are getting our financial lives in better order, understanding more fully what we are spending and on what, recognizing our desire to create opportunities for experiences for our children and for us as a family (Emma’s travel to study abroad, for example), and prioritizing what we need rather than what we want.
Some of that involves a spending freeze until we can clarify what is, and what we want.
Rather than avoid my online banking statements and live in a life of relative unknowing, I am checking the account balances in the morning and in the evening and entering transaction on my awesome new budgeting tool, “You Need A Budget.” YNAB is seriously rocking my world. This has changed everything, including de-emotionalizing money.
That’s a start! What suggestions do you have? Leave a comment below so we can all learn from one another.
Love,
(Painting by Brett Humphries, close-up of a larger painting)
