Afternoon lovelies! I hope everyone's Tuesday is going great! Ours is good over here. Getting things checked off that old to do list! Today I want to talk a little bit about simplifying my life.
As students and new parents Coach and I had to get organized and simplify as a matter of survival while we were in school. My fabulous in-laws gave me this fantastic calendar for my birthday a year or two ago and it was life changing. We were so insanely busy that every day one of us would drop him off one morning, and another would pick him up, and then the next day would be totally different. Using that calendar to schedule both of our days down to the hour was perfect for us.
We did not have to buy a single piece of clothing for the first year of his life because of many gifts of clothing and an extremely generous family friend who gave us ALL of her two sons' clothing. Because of this we splurged and purchased 2 car seats and bases so we never had to think about who had the carseat.
Meal planning was also huge for me. I did not do crock pot meals because I really adore cooking and that was my way of relaxing and winding down at the end of an intense day of school and internships. I did, however, make quick meals during the week, and fun more involved ones on the weekends. But planning my meals and shopping once made life so much easier.
Having a cleaning schedule also helped a ton. I did not want to spend a ton of time cleaning every day, but wanted a clean house. That was probably the thing that got let go the most- but I did the best I could. Coach and I split the chores pretty much down the middle, and where I did cleaning of the whole house, he did the laundry and dishes (daily). It worked out for both of us. I came up with a basic 30 minute plan for every day so the house would get cleaned entirely by the end of the week. Now I have found a little more in-depth one off apartment therapy now that our house is, ehem, twice the size of our tiny city apartment.
Being a military family, a major way of simplifying our lives is by keeping the "stuff" and "clutter" to the minimum. We constantly got rid of stuff for a good 2 years (we are talking a bag of stuff every week). We really pared down to what we needed and things that served our lives and house. Before we moved, we got rid of even more. I got rid of ALL of the clothes I don't wear- which means about half of them. We don't have unnecesary kitchen appliances or gadgets either. We have items that do double duty, and items that are very high quality that will last forever. We buy kindle books or get books from the library so we don't have to move around tons and tons of books. Everything in our house has a place.
I use Emily's simplified planner binder as a household notebook keeping all of our important documents at hand, and have all of our really important documents in a safe that we can grab easily. Her series on simplifying has inspired me to simplify even more so that I can focus on what she says: "what matters most".
I also use Lara's powersheets to keep my goals at hand so that I have no excuses to reach them. Coach and I were both college athletes and have continued with the goal-oriented mind set we picked up from being athletes. We want Henry to believe that he can do anything that he sets his mind to.
Now that I am about to start a job I want to simplify things even more- so I totally organized my closet and picked out any items of work clothing that needed to be cleaned or tailored. I am picking up silver polish to make sure all of my accessories are looking bright and shiny, and I am finishing up some projects around the house.
I want to give this way of cooking a whirl to see if it buys us more family time at the end of the day. As I've said before, family time is THE most important thing to us, as we know that our time is not ours being a military family- so if I can maximize that- then I want to do so. Sitting down as a family and eating healthfully is super important to us AND it does not have to take hours to do. I will let you know how that goes!
What do you all do to simplify your life? I'd love to hear your ideas!
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