What? It’s not a typo – it’s exactly what it says. Simplify your Simplify. The recent mindset of focusing on the important and discarding the unnecessary has become increasingly appealing to many. So now that the initial love affair with this has somewhat settled, we have some food for thought for those that truly desire to continue to live more simply.
After you have done your first major declutter, your ensuing decluttering of the underlying layers, all your donation drop-offs, adapted your spending to suit your new mentality – why do you still at times feel that you still need to simplify?
This is not as rare as you may imagine. Even after the majority of our stuff (physical, mental, emotional etc) has been significantly reduced it is common to still have areas or categories that are too full.
A very helpful and efficient way of eliminating this is to take a look at the way you have chosen to simplify. True, it may be simpler than how you did it in the past but is it still too complicated to maintain? Let’s take the dreaded bugbear of paperwork as an example.
You have a huge pile of general paperwork staring at you, following you wherever you go in the room. Your first impulse may be to start separate piles for each company or type of paper which will then each need a separate folder and label. Are you tired yet? It’s a project.
Instead, it will be much more motivating and just as productive to do an initial sort. One box for keep and one for bin. That’s it. Put on a playlist or your favourite movie and do just that – each piece has only 2 options – discard or keep.
Once this has been done you will only have one pile that needs attention. Your mental powers will be focused and therefore simplified.
Now for the actual filing of the keep pile. Instead of a separate folder for each credit card company just put all credit card statements in the same file. Instead of a separate folder for each insurance policy just put all policies in the same file. You get the gist. This may not seem detailed enough for you in the beginning but it will get you through that disheartening mountain of paper and get it out of view and into a relatively organised state. Experiment with it. Nothing is set in stone. From there you can tweak it and maybe have some more details as you find they become necessary but always keep in mind the ease of maintenance required for each ‘simplified system’ you put in place.
This method can be applied to any kind of system in your home or office. Clothes, books, utensils, music etc. Play with it and remember the goal is to Simplify your Simplify so it actually does its job and makes your life easier.
After you have done your first major declutter, your ensuing decluttering of the underlying layers, all your donation drop-offs, adapted your spending to suit your new mentality – why do you still at times feel that you still need to simplify?
This is not as rare as you may imagine. Even after the majority of our stuff (physical, mental, emotional etc) has been significantly reduced it is common to still have areas or categories that are too full.
A very helpful and efficient way of eliminating this is to take a look at the way you have chosen to simplify. True, it may be simpler than how you did it in the past but is it still too complicated to maintain? Let’s take the dreaded bugbear of paperwork as an example.
You have a huge pile of general paperwork staring at you, following you wherever you go in the room. Your first impulse may be to start separate piles for each company or type of paper which will then each need a separate folder and label. Are you tired yet? It’s a project.
Instead, it will be much more motivating and just as productive to do an initial sort. One box for keep and one for bin. That’s it. Put on a playlist or your favourite movie and do just that – each piece has only 2 options – discard or keep.
Once this has been done you will only have one pile that needs attention. Your mental powers will be focused and therefore simplified.
Now for the actual filing of the keep pile. Instead of a separate folder for each credit card company just put all credit card statements in the same file. Instead of a separate folder for each insurance policy just put all policies in the same file. You get the gist. This may not seem detailed enough for you in the beginning but it will get you through that disheartening mountain of paper and get it out of view and into a relatively organised state. Experiment with it. Nothing is set in stone. From there you can tweak it and maybe have some more details as you find they become necessary but always keep in mind the ease of maintenance required for each ‘simplified system’ you put in place.
This method can be applied to any kind of system in your home or office. Clothes, books, utensils, music etc. Play with it and remember the goal is to Simplify your Simplify so it actually does its job and makes your life easier.
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