Articles in Living well
This is part of our ongoing series called “Of course you can do it!”
No matter what your lifestyle goal, it probably doesn’t include being overweight or out of shape. This is a struggle very near and dear to me, and I was amazed and inspired on my last visit to mom’s to see how great she looked after a 60-pound weight loss. Mom has struggled with her weight all her adult life, and she …
Editor’s note: Today’s post is a reprint from last year. Yep, I still feel the same way about raising your standards for love and romance all year long.
You heard me. I’m taking it back. No cards, candy, dinner dates, or jewelry for me.
Think about it. Romance only ONE DAY of the year? At the same time everyone else is instructed to have romance (talk about supply and demand)?
We have never really celebrated Valentine’s Day, and …
Reality shows like The Biggest Loser, Intervention and Hoarders are popular for a reason. Seeing someone at the extremes of behavior makes us feel better about our own shortcomings.
My great-grandfather was a severe packrat. He would go to the local dump every day looking for treasures, and his house was covered up inside and outside with his finds. He never threw anything away and dressed like a homeless man when he had plenty of money …
A few nights ago we watched Into the Wild, the true story of Christopher MacCandless and his unconventional life and tragic end.
He’s quite a character, and early on in his adventure he burned his IDs and started calling himself Alexander Supertramp. The name seemed to fit far more than the one he was given, and it made me think.
Does a new lifestyle deserve a new name?
Like most people, I think of my life in …
You’ve heard the stories before:
A man doesn’t stop drinking until he loses everything.
A woman finally loses weight when she has a severe health crisis.
A near-death experience causes a person to start appreciating life.
I could go on, but you get the idea. Most people need a wakeup call to initiate change in their lives. What’s even more interesting is that we often need *repeated* calls to continue living our best lives.
Take the example of the woman …
No matter how much you love someone, spending 24 hours a day, 365 days a year together is going to have some ups and downs. As we get closer to our departure date, I’m thinking more about the relationship perks, strains, and changes that lie ahead. You may not be traveling around the world with your mate, but if you are working on any sort of project together – hell, even the just adjusting to …
The short answer is yes, of course you can live without a microwave. Lots of people in the Western world do, though they do seem to be in the minority. The long answer is a bit more complicated.
One of our goals this year was to make healthier choices in the food we put into our bodies. Because I work at home, I’ve relied a lot in the past on frozen entrees. A Lean Cuisine might …
Dan Kern has had enough. In fact, he thinks most of us have had enough, we just don’t realize it yet. Over the course of 31 days, Dan is going to eliminate all but 100 possessions from his life. Can he do it?
Dan’s story begins with Britney Spears. No, he wasn’t there with her when she famously shaved her head. But he understands what she was going through. He points to Mark Morford’s article about …
If I were talented enough to make a slick video about creating a life you love, this is what it would look like. Since I’m not, I’m handing over the blog today to my new Twitter friend @boxofcrayons (also known as Michael Bungay Stanier). Enjoy!
Thanks to Chris Brogan for the discovery.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen! You may remember me bragging back in the fall of 2008 that I had successfully given up caffeine after a lifetime addiction. In fact, you may recall that I was a bit of a trash talker about it. I gave Warren a hard time for sticking with his coffee (I may or may not have called it his “morning poison”), and I regularly tooted my own horn about successfully …
I have a confession to make: I have a love/hate relationship with resolutions and the new year. Most people I know (including me) come up with the same resolutions every year – lose weight, save more money, exercise – but we fall off the wagon before turning the page on January. Why does this happen? I think it has to do with not having a plan.
This year Warren and I were inspired by Chris Guillebeau …
This is the first post in a new feature I’m calling “Of course you can do it!” Each post will tell the story of someone who did something big and give few pearls of wisdom you can use to pursue your own goals. We’ve got stories from people who have lost 50+ pounds, ridden bicycles on 100-mile races less than a year after taking up the sport, gone back to college, saved a lot of …
Do you know how long you have to work to pay for your stuff? A picture is worth a thousand words (or, in this case, perhaps a thousand dollars).
Matt over at Steadfast Finances has made me see our possessions in a whole new light. He has used a Google Calendar to show how many days of work it takes to pay a mortgage, car payment, utilities, etc. Click here to see the photo.
If you do …
Do you cringe every time you open your cable bill? Yeah, we did, too. And in an effort to save even more money for our trip and gain back a little bit of the time we were losing to television, we gave up our cable last summer. We’ve now saved an additional $600 toward our trip, and we’ll keep saving at the rate of $100/month until we leave.
But that still leaves a hole in …
The project is simple: If you have ever set a goal and achieved it, no matter how small or large, I want to hear from you. This 5-minute survey will ask you a few questions about the process, allow you to identify yourself if you want to, and give you some room to add your own comments. The survey will only be open for 5 days, and at the end of that time I’ll start …
Have your Facebook friends been updating with “thanks” messages this month? I noticed the trend a few weeks ago, and about 20 of my friends were doing it. They even encouraged the rest of us:
Let’s see how many people can do this. Every day this month until Thanksgiving, post one thing you are Thankful for. The longer you stick with it, the harder it gets! If you choose to accept this challenge, repost this message …
Do you like famous quotes? I do, and it seems like every couple of weeks I find a new favorite, which I scribble on a pink index card and keep on my desk until a new one comes along. It takes me that long to really think about it, appreciate, and apply it to my life (with varying degrees of success).
In honor of Thanksgiving in the US this week, I want to share …
I double-dog dare you to break a mirror, walk under a ladder, cross paths with a black cat, and step on the cracks in the sidewalk today. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Yeah, I’m not quite ready to do all that either.
Most of us laugh at superstitions, but they are so ingrained in our everyday lives that we subconsciously follow them. In fact, you will have a hard time finding a building with a 13th floor since …
Have you ever been dying to know the answer to something but felt too embarrassed to ask?
We often do this in group learning environments because we don’t want to look dumb. But when it comes to gossiping with our friends, there seems to be no limit to the questions that can be thrown on the table.
Now that we’ve all become such good friends, I’d like to gossip a little bit with you. And I don’t …
This is part of a series called How We Saved Enough Money to Change Our Lives and How You Can, Too. Click here to get all the posts delivered directly to your email inbox or feed reader. You’ll want the inside scoop on how we saved $75,000 for the adventure of a lifetime!
Now that you’ve worked out how much your big dream will cost, where you are currently spending your money, decided which expenses are …
This is part of a series called How We Saved Enough Money to Change Our Lives and How You Can, Too. Click here to get all the posts delivered directly to your email inbox or feed reader. You’ll want the inside scoop on how we saved $75,000 for the adventure of a lifetime!
One woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure. And what’s right for me may not be right for you. But I think we …
Today I’m coming to you from my office closet with a confession about a purchase that was unwise, inappropriate, and way too expensive. You’ve probably done the same thing, too.
The point is to start thinking of those types of purchases, why you made them, and how you can exercise a little self-control in the future. After all, what you are saving for is more important than any purchase you make now in a moment of …
How much are you spending?
Can you tell me how much per year you spend on groceries or cable TV? Or how much money you charge each year on your credit cards?
If you don’t know, you are not alone.
What’s important to many of us is what we can have right now, not what we can have later on. So it makes sense that our spending habits function much the same way. We worry if we have …
This blog is all about living your best life and following your dreams. In order to be able to do that, you have to allow other people the same opportunity to live their best lives and accomplish goals. You can’t do that when they don’t have the same rights as you.
Referendum 71 was placed on the Washington ballot by a man who doesn’t even live in Washington State. He became outraged when our legislature passed …
You’d think someone who is willing to get rid of all her worldly belongings to travel the world would not be so focused on safety nets, but I am. Lately I’ve been thinking about the small ways the idea of a “backup plan” keeps us from reaching farther toward our goals and actually reaching them.
In other words, the potential pain of not having a safety net (or having a very small one) could make us …
It has been over 3 months since we pulled the plug on cable. How are we doing?
First, a Recap
You may recall my first post about television being a problem for us when we implemented TV-free Tuesdays at our house. That worked well for a very short time, and then we began backtracking by switching the date around to coincide with nights we already had plans out of the house (how convenient!). Then we just started …
How many times have you ever said that to yourself: A) every day, B) on a good day, or C) never?
This week I discovered a great little exercise to help you appreciate your strengths and use them to accomplish more every single day. Want to know what it is?
It is called the “I like who I am” game, and it was sent to me by Chris Haddad, a marketing and copywriting guru here in Seattle. …
Do you ever watch those “docu-dramas” on television about the incredibly obese, people with addictions, or terrible relationship issues? Sometimes seeing the extremes helps us feel better about our own issues (at least I’m not THAT bad!) and sometimes it spurs us to action (I don’t want to end up like THAT!).
If your issue is clutter, then you are probably aware of shows like Clean Sweep, Clean House, and Hoarders.
Today Oprah, the Queen of …
Do you look back on high school as the best time of your life? Probably not, but for many people it was the easiest time in their lives to make friends. Think about it: exposure to hundreds or thousands of students every day and organized social activities meant that it wasn’t hard to make friends if you put forth even the slightest bit of effort.
(I know, I know – not everyone was class president or …
So many blogs and news sources point out when things go wrong, and we’re always waiting for the next scandal, aren’t we?
One of my favorite newsletters is by Chris Brogan, and he has a regular column about Who’s Doing it Right. This just seems like a small way to balance things out, so I’m going to follow suit and post regular updates on Who’s Doing it Right.
Josh Hanagarne is the World’s Strongest Librarian. Josh is …
This is it! We are now one year exactly from our departure date to Ecuador, the first stop on the big trip. It is hard to believe that it is so close, and we still have so much to do.
At the end of each year I like to take an inventory of what has been accomplished and what I want more of in my life going forward. Since we are now on a one-year countdown …
It is a bit ironic when you think about it, but most of us need help to live simply. You’d think it would be easy, wouldn’t you?
For those of you who have struggled with this (and I count myself in that number), there is a now an easy resource to help you along your path.
The book is called The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life and it is written by Leo Babauta, the blogger behind …
It’s a provocative question, and one I’ve had directed at me for much of my adult life. And you know what? I’m not going to answer it for you today (mainly because the answer is both yes and no and because it doesn’t really matter). What I am going to do is talk about the paths that we all choose to take and why it is so important to appreciate personal choice.
First, let me direct …
So, how are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions? Yeah, me too. They started going south when the weather was still cold, and here we are at the end of summer already.
Do we just cross them off the list and say we’ll do better next year? Give up all together?
One thing I learned during the 3-day Novel Contest was that you can sustain even a very big effort if you put a boundary around …
Before you ask how you can get infected with the happiness bug, you should also know that unhappiness, obesity, and cigarette smoking are contagious as well.
In fact, it seems as if we never left high school. Who you hang out with matters, and the lifestyle they live will greatly impact yours (and vice versa). And it’s not only your close friends but the friends of those friends that matter. Your entire social network impacts your …
Have you heard of No Impact Man (Colin Beavan)? This is the guy who convinced his family to try living one year without making an negative environmental impact. This meant no electricity, no television, no trash, and no motorized transportation (including elevators and escalators). He wrote a blog and a book about the experience (subtitled “The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and …
I have wanted to write a novel since I was 8 years old. Quick math tells me that was 30 years ago. In the last 30 years, guess how many novels I have written?
If you guessed zero, you would be right. If you guessed higher than that, I thank you for your optimism about my work ethic and hate to disappoint you.
Ever since we decided to redesign our lives and take this trip around the …
Do you reserve your explorations for the 1-2 weeks per year you actually leave town? Consider changing that mindset to regularly see new things in your own backyard.
No, I’m not talking about an I’m-broke-so-I-can’t-go-anywhere staycation. I’m talking about cultivating the curious attitude from your travels into your daily life.
People will travel halfway around the world to see a culture that is likely living in an area of their own city.
Have you been to your …
Do you start dreading going back to work the minute you leave on vacation? Does the thought of all those emails and tasks piling up prevent you from enjoying your time off?
Most people do struggle with this, and many seek to resolve it by keeping up with email and work while on vacation. Hey, whatever works for you (but it doesn’t sound like much of a vacation).
We just got back from 72 hours of disconnected …
Okay, I get the irony here. I’m posting a video about us *not* watching television. But getting past that, you’ll see that we’ve made some good changes in the last 6 weeks:
Learning Spanish with lessons every night
More time to read
Increased exercise – mainly hiking and walking
More and better sleep at night
A busier social life
There are a few things we are worried about as we end summer and start moving into fall, which is the rainy …
Imagine there was a movie made about your life. Not the life you already have, but the life you have just started.
Well guess what? I just saw my movie!
Julie & Julia is the story of the blogger who spent a year cooking Julia Child’s recipes and writing about them in her blog. Along the way, she grew as a person, deepened her relationships, and even gained more confidence in herself. And she learned to cook!
Now, …
Are you feeling a little fenced in lately? Need to break free and establish a little more freedom to go after your big dreams (or even your small dreams, like a day without checking email)? Read on for a list of great articles and websites I’ve found recently on the subject of FREEDOM.
Leo at Zen Habits is ready to kill his email, and he shows you how to do it, too. And believe me, you …
This week I’ve been traveling in New Mexico visiting my family. I grew up here, though I haven’t lived here for several years. In the time that I’ve been gone, there has been an oil boom and bust (the main industry), the addition of a casino and a uranium enrichment plant, and more construction and beautification than this little town has seen in at least my lifetime.
You’d think I would fit right back in. And …
Today’s video post is courtesy of my friend Leslie (and because my new Flip camera has not arrived yet). The thing I love about this video is that they broke all the “rules” about what a wedding should be and celebrated in a way that made sense to them and their loved ones.
Isn’t that what life is all about? Remember, the only rules you have in creating your life are the ones you …
Editor’s Note: Today’s guest post comes from Bethany North, an avid exerciser who responded to my request for help on the topic of exercising with your mate.
I have to confess that I have definitely been on both sides of the coin from not wanting to exercise at all to being totally obsessed about exercise to finally integrating it into my lifestyle in a natural and balanced way. It is wonderful to be active on a …
The more I think about our big trip, the more I worry about my physical shape. Not in the self-esteem-challenged, superficial way I have for the last 38 years, but in the sense that I won’t be able to do everything we want if I don’t get in better condition.
Just carrying a backpack as we transition from one place to the next will be a physical burden, not to mention plans like hiking up the …
Last Friday we helped some friends clean out their garage. No, we don’t do this for fun, though I have to admit we had some. These friends had just consolidated a big chunk of their outside life into their personal garage, and they needed help getting their space back.
Enter the Craigslist Guru, also known as my husband Warren.
He has a very effective method you can use:
Assign one person as the picture taker/ad poster; everyone else …
A few of you have emailed me about putting the decluttering advice from earlier this year into an ebook, and last week I finally got around to finishing it. (See how productive I can be without cable?)
Those of you who have known me for years know that decluttering is a new skill for me. As a matter of fact, I was packrat and “shopping for the fun of it” kind of person until 2006. So …
Today is the day we celebrate our country’s independence. There will be fireworks, big meals, and parties all over the USA, and rightly so. Without the planning and action of our founding fathers, we would not have the freedoms we celebrate today.
Which brings me to today’s subject: Personal Independence Day.
We talk a lot about lifestyle design on this blog, creating the life you want out of a series of small, deliberate steps to get …
You may remember our TV-Free Tuesday post where we attempted to give it up one night per week to do more meaningful things, like learn Spanish and pursue hobbies.
Well, that didn’t work out so well. We began changing the dates of TV-free Tuesday to coincide with nights we already had plans out, so we weren’t really accomplishing anything. So we made the decision to go cold turkey (after the US Open, of course).
Since then I’ve …
This is the final installment in the Sex and Intimacy series. We covered more ground than I thought we would in fewer posts. (You all know I tend to be long-winded.) To read all the posts, click here.
Stay tuned for our continuing adventures in:
living without television
getting in shape for the trip
working on creative pursuits we can continue on the road
checking off our local “bucket list” of things to do before we go
decluttering and getting rid …
Editor’s Note: This is part 8 in a 10-part series on Sex and Intimacy. Click here to read from the beginning.
Come on, we’ve all done it. You have a great night of sex and can’t wait to tell your friends about it. Or the reverse – the sex is so bad you can’t wait to tell your friends about it!
Usually this happens when we are single and it is safe to tell the story, but …
Today is the Gay Pride parade and celebration in Seattle, and Mr. Betsy and I will be attending with some very good friends. I’m pretty sure my “opposite marriage” will remain secure as we celebrate life and love with good friends who currently don’t have the same rights as we do. Not even the right to name a little ole blog “Married with Luggage.”
But this isn’t a political post (much).
This post is about all the …
Editor’s Note: This is part 5 in a 10-part series on Sex and Intimacy. Click here to read from the beginning.
That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?
Believe it or not, I have the answer. The normal amount of sex in a relationship is (drum roll, please)…whatever works for you and your partner.
Seriously.
So stop stressing about whether you are doing it as much as “everyone else” or “what you used to.” The only opinion that matters in …
Editor’s Note: This is part 4 in a series on Sex and Intimacy. Click here to read from the beginning.
When we talked about the 5 Love Languages, we learned that everyone has a preferred method of receiving love: verbally, physically, gifts, quality time, or acts of service. But we didn’t find out how we could tell if our actions were working for our partner. Gary Chapman has more to tell:
The Math of Relationships
Whether you look …
Editor’s Note: This is part 3 of a series on Sex and Intimacy. Click here to read from the beginning.
Have you ever said “I know he loves me, he just has a lousy way of showing it?”
There is a bit of truth to that statement. When we show love to our partners in ways they don’t understand, it can cause friction.
“Why doesn’t she touch me like she did when we were dating?”
“He never helps …
Editor’s Note: This is part 2 of the series on Sex and Intimacy. Click here to start from the beginning.
When you met your mate, he or she was the perfect match for you. You laughed at each other’s jokes, couldn’t keep your hands off each other, and imagined a life of happily ever after.
Maybe you still have that, but I’m betting some of the shine has worn away from the hot and heavy early days. …
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series on sex and intimacy in your relationship.
Did that title get you revved up for a Monday morning, or did you just groan and wish we’d move on to something more relevant to your life, like decluttering?
Emotions run high in both directions when you talk about sex and intimacy in a relationship. There are those who have given up on intimacy because of work, kids, or apathy, …
My friends call them my “frog shoes” and people on the street stop me to ask about them. I call them the best investment in footwear I’ve ever made.
Let me explain. As part of my new health regimen I decided to amp up my exercise program. And by “amp up” I mean going from sitting at the computer all day to doing, well, just about anything else. While urging my body to move in ways …
You were intrigued by the title, weren’t you? I was too, when I first heard about it. Contrary to what you might think (purposeful constipation?), this actually has to do with washing your hair.
The no ‘poo method simply means “no shampoo.”
History of Shampoo
Before you gross out on me, give me a minute to explain. Believe it or not, we have only been using shampoo to clean our hair for the last 100 years. Before that, …
Do you feel a sense of dread when a friend or family member comes to visit?
Thoughts start racing through your head over where they will sleep, how you will get things organized in time, and hoping they will not judge you for being so cluttered. If you are any kind of packrat, the guest bedroom is usually the first place you start storing things.
I used to be that way, too.
This weekend my nephew came to …
Editor’s Note: This is the final post in a short series on vacations. Click here to read from the beginning.
It happens all the time: You plan the trip of your dreams, and somewhere along the way you fight with your travel partner and end up almost ruining the trip. To top it off, the fight was over something stupid, like forgetting to pack an item, or even worse, a fight over something completely out of …
Editor’s Note: This is the second post of a 3-part series on vacations. Click here to read from the beginning.
Do you ever feel completely unplugged from your phone, email, Facebook, or Twitter?
A few years ago, this post would have been about how to unplug from work, but these days we’ve plugged ourselves in so much socially that it is even harder to disconnect and decompress.
First of all, let me reassure you that I’m not a …
Editor’s Note: This is first in a series on vacations.
Most of us don’t think we get enough vacation. And most of us are right.
The average American gets two weeks of vacation a year, and if one week is typically spent visiting relatives that leaves just one week for a true getaway. Not much compensation for 245+ days of work, is it?
As part of your overall lifestyle design, you can start working on long-term plans to …
Can you believe the end of the month is already here? We’ve barely touched on the topic of money, it seems, so you can be sure we’ll be coming back to it soon.
Money Recap
Here are the most popular money posts from this month:
How to Set Up a Budget
How to Agree on a Budget
Money-Saving Tips from Readers
What You Want Now vs. What You Want Most
Your One-Page Financial Education
What’s New?
Next month launches our newsletter, 3 Things.
Why 3 …
We’ve been taking about lifestyle design for some time now, but I’m not sure I’ve ever told you the whole story of how Married with Luggage got started. Interested?
(Make yourself comfortable. You may want to take a bathroom break now and freshen up your beverage.)
Once Upon a Time
We married in 2004 in Maryland and moved almost immediately to the Boston suburbs for my husband’s new job. I was doing pretty well with my job, so …
Editor’s Note: Since the theme this month is Money, on Fridays we will be featuring a money-making or money-saving idea.
Today’s money-saving tip comes from my friend Karen Rosensweig, also known as The Incredible Chef.
Karen spends each day cooking a month’s worth of meals for clients who have food allergies, medical conditions, need to lose weight, or are just too busy to cook healthy, delicious meals. She also has classes to teach people how to do …
Editor’s Note: The current theme is Money.
“I used to think being frugal was spending as little money as possible” but that’s just being cheap. Now I know frugal is being wise with your purchases and spending money carefully to receive the most value.” ~ Rachel at Small Notebook
When it comes to changing spending habits to reach a lifestyle goal, many people make the mistake of becoming cheap instead of frugal. In fact, a lot of …
“Don’t give up what you want most for what you want right now.” ~ Lynn Mitchell
The hardest part about lifestyle design is keeping your eye on the bigger picture. Your friends won’t be changing along with you; they may not even agree with your lifestyle goals. So comparing yourself to them in terms of what they buy, where they live, and how they spend their time is pointless.
Easier said than done, right?
We are all social …
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Erica Adams of SmartyPig, the online savings company. Be sure to read to the end for your chance to win a $50 savings card.
In an ideal world, the need to constantly obsess over your finances would never happen. But the world we’re currently living in, especially from a financial perspective, is far from ideal. Money makes the world go ‘round. And in almost every corner of the …
The theme this month is Money.
You actually don’t need a page for this – you can actually sum it up in one sentence. Spend less money than you earn. But you may already be past that point with credit card bills, loans, and hard-to-break habits. Many people are.
No sweat.
Trent Hamm of The Simple Dollar has broken it down for you in a fun 1-page drawing followed by 48 pages of sound advice. Best of all, …
The theme this month is Money.
Budgets get a bad name. Most people associate them with being broke or having a spending problem. But budgets are really just coordinating your resources with your expenses. And if you want to design your own lifestyle, you have to get control of your money.
So, let’s do it!
How to Set Up a Budget
List all your net (take-home) income sources for the year and divide by 12 to get your monthly …
This month’s theme is Money.
When it comes to lifestyle design, money can make or break your plans. No, I’m not talking about the amount of money you have – you can usually live quite well on much less than you think.
What I’m talking about is your relationship with your money. Do you manage it and use it to steadily reach your goals? Or do you wonder why it is so hard to make it to …
You’ve accomplished a lot this month, from learning the basic decluttering styles all the way down to disposing of your old medicine.
Whether you made a huge impact on your space or simply needed to straighten up a drawer or two, give yourself a pat on the back.
Learning to let go of the junk serves two purposes:
It frees your space, both figuratively and literally, so you can create the life you want.
It teaches you that you …
The bathroom is where we rush to get ready in the mornings and the room we probably spend the least amount of time, yet it accumulates an awful lot of stuff: shampoo bottles, medicines, grooming products, cleaning supplies, towels, and appliances like hair dryers and electric razors. Most bathrooms even contain a mini library!
That’s a lot of stuff for one small room.
If you are starting to feel a little crowded in your bathroom, it is …
I’ve received several emails and phone calls from people who have cleaned up their closets, but it seems like many of you are too shy to submit a before picture! That’s okay – the main goal of the project is to clear out the clothes that respresent the old you, not the current you.
Because isn’t your current ‘you’ the best ‘you’ yet?
There has been a lot of great discussion over this topic, though most of …
Editor’s note: Don’t forget the closet challenge! The winner will receive a $50 Amex gift card. Contest details are here, and the deadline for submission is Monday at 5 p.m. Pacific.
Now that you’ve done an initial purge of your closet you can start fine-tuning the arrangement.
First, we’re going to sort the closet for easier use. You may think this idea is a little bit obsessive, but I promise it will make your life easier.
First sort …
We keep a lot of memories in our closets: the dress we wore when we were at that “perfect” size, those high heels that hurt our feet but we can’t get rid of them because they cost so much, and especially those jeans that we are determined to get back into.
In fact, most people only wear 20% of the clothes in their closets.
If you keep focusing on what you were in the past you …
Are you feeling less overwhelmed by your home office space? We’ve covered a lot of ground this week:
Gaining control of the paper that comes into your home
Clearing out old electronics and creating a permanent home for your favorite gadgets
Simplifying your computer filing system and gaining control of email
Creating a boundary between work and home
In addition, you’ve gotten resources to recycle, donate, or sell your unwanted items (my favorites are Earth911 and Gazelle).
Weekend Challenge: Follow through …
If you work from home even part-time, you know how hard it can be without the proper setup and boundaries.
Working at the kitchen table or in a corner of the bedroom or family room over time will cause you to stop thinking of those spaces as “home” and more like “work.” And who wants work to interfere with a great dinner, spending time with the family, or getting enough rest?
Potential Problems
Back and shoulder pain from …
Everyone’s computer or laptop looks about the same on the outside. After you turn it on, however, all that changes.
Quick Computer Clutter Quiz (say that 3 times fast!):
* How many emails are in your inbox?
* Do you have folders, or do you dump everything in My Documents?
* Do you have a system for naming files so you can easily find them?
* Do you have a backup system and use it regularly?
* Do you have a temporary folder for downloads you don’t need to keep?
Before we start decluttering the office, we have to address one big issue: Paper.
If you don’t solve this issue now, decluttering will only provide temporary relief. It is like going on a diet and then resuming your old eating habits as soon as the weight is gone. And we all know what happens after that.
So let’s think about your paper situation for a minute.
How do you feel about your kitchen now? We’ve made some good progress this week with only a minimal amount of time spent decluttering.
It doesn’t take long to make an impact.
Do you have a system for your refrigerator, or do you just put food wherever you can find an empty spot?
If you use the latter method, you probably see more food spoilage. In fact, you may have to occasionally go hunting through the fridge to find out “what is that smell?!”
Keeping your refrigerator decluttered is a fairly easy process once you develop a system.
Your Pantry: The place where cans of cream of mushroom soup and boxes of brown rice go to die a slow, lonely death. My pantry is really just a cabinet, and a messy one at that.
Even if you are an organized person, you may have way more food than you actually need, which means it will likely expire before you get to it.
Size doesn’t matter
When it comes to decluttering your kitchen, it is easy to focus on cleaning and stacking things neatly. But before you start stacking and scrubbing, first make sure you need all that stuff. Organized does not equal decluttered.
How Much is Enough?
Flat surfaces are dangerous for most of us. We see a counter and find something to put on it. School work, craft projects, folding laundry – just about everything but a regular meal happens at the dining room table.
Think about how you use the flat surfaces in your kitchen.
As we kick off this month of decluttering, we should first explore a few schools of thought on the simplification process.
One thing in, one thing out
Let’s face it: most of us have a problem with clutter.
Whether you have stacks of paper on your desk, an overflowing closet of clothes you don’t wear, or drawers that just hide things that never had a home to begin with, clutter is taking up valuable space in your life.
If living in a walkable neighborhood is important to you, Walk Score can help you find the perfect location.
Picture a walkable neighborhood. You lose weight each time you walk to the grocery store. You stumble home from last call without waiting for a cab. You spend less money on your car or you don’t own a car. When you shop, you support your local economy. You talk to your neighbors. ~ Walk Score
The site has …
Have you ever wondered how happy you are compared to other people? Or whether you can become happier or overcome emotional setbacks by learning new skills?
Happier.com may be the thing you’ve been looking for.
This site has information, self-assessments and exercises to help you become a happier person. Your free membership includes a profile that keeps track of your entries and scores so you can gauge your progress over time.
Below is a recap of my experience …
Don’t worry. It happens to all of us.
You get busy with work and family, and before you know it, you have done the exact same thing every week for months or even years.
Some people find comfort in keeping a routine, and there are times when it is extremely helpful (exercise, diet). But having a routine for everything in your life means nothing is left to chance, there is no room for discovery, and you never …
Okay, so you looked. What does that tell you about the power of negative commands?
Negative Commands Don’t Work
Recently I’ve become fascinated by this subject. For instance, when you tell a child “Stop running!” they immediately visualize running, which is why they don’t seem to listen (at least not right away). They are also unsure of what to do since they have not been given an alternative.
By saying “Walk slowly” instead, you give the child an …
How many days per week do you watch television? And how many times have you said you don’t have time for a new hobby, social engagement, reading a good book, home project, etc.?
We watch TV at least some portion of all 7 days of the week. We keep wondering why we aren’t making more progress on learning Spanish before our trip, or why we don’t have time to read as much as we like.
It is …
Editor’s Note: This is the fifth post in the 5 signs of a great life series. Click on the introductory post for links to all 5 signs at the end of the series.
“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”– Maya Angelou
You’re healthy, financially stable, surrounded by supportive people, and have goals for your life. What now?
Giving back, of course.
Not everyone has a healthy start in life, and …
In 1992 my mom gave me the book Life’s Little Instruction Book
Regardless of the adversities over the years – lost jobs, divorce, unanticipated moves, deaths of loved ones, etc – I have been able to refer back to this simple phrase as reassurance. By keeping a positive attitude towards each situation and realizing that any decision I made to get there was in the past allowed me to focus only on the possibilities of the future. The fact is, regret is really "I wish I had…" applied to any situation. The simple fact is that if I had made any different decisions in the past 37 years I would not be waking up next to the most amazing woman each day and planning this amazing adventure. How in the world could I regret all the small and large decisions that got me to this point and shaped me into the person I am today?
Instead, I am committed to starting sentences with "I am going to…" and then following through. Today, that means I am going to step out of the rat race and travel the world. One thing I can assure all of you is that I will not regret this decision either as it will take me to new highs, and some new lows but in the end I know I will be happy.
My international contacts are giving me a lot of feedback regarding Sarah Palin, the banking crisis, and
various other headlines. This all makes me wonder about our reception in other countries when they find out we are from the United States.
Sure, I’ve gotten flak from people before when traveling, but not heavy flak, and mostly out of concern for our shared future on the planet than anything else. But in all honesty, most of my travel before has been with other tourists in major places with plenty of English-speaking people. I wouldn’t say either one of us has had the "immersion" experience.
I’m not sure what to expect, especially if Obama does not win the presidential election.
In 1992 my mom gave me the book Life’s Little Instruction Book for Christmas. To this day, I remember one key phrase which I have followed since the day I read it “Live life with no regrets”. It is shocking how impactful this saying has been on my life, and now how much of a guide it is as we plan to embark on this adventure.
I just spent a few days in Vancouver, British Columbia at a conference. While there, I was exposed to non-American newspapers and viewpoints. It is amazing to see the different perspectives on American and global events from people outside of the US, and my ignorance of global affairs is embarrassing.
In order to make the most of our trip, we will have to start immersing ourselves in global news and opinions now. I’m adding the International Herald Tribune to my Bloglines account now, and would appreciate any suggestions for news outlets of a global nature.
Of course we will focus in on information for specific countries as we make plans to visit, but it would be great to have a more global view of news and events before we even leave our country.
More and more we are considering this trip as an opportunity to change many aspects of our life. I work for a large software company, have established a nice career for myself, and make a great salary. We are currently on track to retire by the time we both reach 57 based on the “retirement number” we worked out with our financial planner. By all accounts, we are on track to follow the typical American plan to a “T”.
But we stopped and asked ourselves why should we have to wait 20 years to see and do everything that is on our Wish List? Who is making us stay in the rat race and follow a traditional path? The answer, we found, was nothing.
And so we sit here with the biggest decision in our life in front of us and we could not be happier. How can we turn this trip into more than a year off, but into a new career/life? I will use the next few posts to explore this idea.
It all started with some friends and a margarita. Or three.
And the discussion turned to travel and how we couldn’t really plan on big trips until we were retired.
Or could we?
As late 30-somethings we have been focused on career and building security for over 15 years. We have had the luxury of some great travel, but never more than 10 days.
- What would it be like to travel for a year while we are in prime health?
- Could we interrupt our careers to do this?
- What happens to our regular life while we are gone?
The third margarita made us bold, and we decided while walking home that we would do it – celebrate our 40th birthdays during this year of travel. We would go everywhere, do everything!
The next morning, I wondered if our enthusiasm would hold up to the cold light of day. And you know what? It did. So join us as we take the next 2 years to save and plan for our dream trip around the world.
