About

By
Maybe you've heard this old parable:


Imagine the most important things in life are five or six smooth stones.  A glass jar represents YOU, the potential impact and value of your life.  Fit the stones into the jar, and pour some gravel into the gaps.  The capacity of the jar is finite, but with the large stones placed first, there's room for many small additional items.


If you reverse the process, and fill the jar with gravel, it's impossible to fit the larger, valuable stones.  You can't force them in, no matter how hard you push.


Many of us are in that situation.  Our lives are full of trivia – shopping and chores, junk food and junk mail, debt and dissatisfaction.  Or our career stone is so large that nothing else fits except stress and loneliness.


We really do value family, friends, health, spirituality, kindness, and world peace.  But our jars are crammed with junk, and we sacrifice time, talent, and energy to insignificant things.  We keep pushing, but that just causes burnout.


The good news is that we can dump out our jars and get priorities right this time.  We can let minimalism be our guide.


Minimalism helps us choose our essentials and spend our time and energy where it matters.  We add just enough gravel to help support those precious stones, not crowd them out.  We leave a bit of empty space for future ideas and experiences, margin that allows us to flex and improve.


Minimalism frees us to live our best life.


I'm Karen Trefzger, and I started this website to write about the contentment and purpose I've found through minimalism.  I'm a writer, singer, and teacher; a wife, mother, and grandmother.  I love reading, learning, and solving hard crosswords in pen.  My favorite place is Sonoma County, California, with its ocean, redwoods, vineyards, and historic towns.


I also struggle with food addictions and obesity, and my family and I continue to experience the challenges of having a transgender child.  While these issues don't define this blog, they have a huge impact on my life.  Sometimes I'll share thoughts about diet and health, or relationships and faith.


Maximum Gratitude Minimal Stuff means:  Take joy in what's important to you, and realize how blessed you are.  Live with less clutter, busyness, and stress so you have room for all the best things in life.




Subscribe
Please subscribe to receive Maximum Gratitude Minimal Stuff via email.  If you open the sidebar on the left (click the three horizontal lines), you'll see a subscription form at the top.  Or use the pop-up subscription form when it appears as you're reading.  


I usually post once or twice a week.  Your privacy is very important to me, and I will never share your contact information.




Look around

If this is your first visit, welcome!  You can find inspiration and ideas for decluttering, choosing simplicity, and improving your health, relationships, finances, and outlook on life.  Start with these pages dedicated to specific topics:













Visit or contact me

If you enjoy my blog, please visit my Amazon Author page and find details about my books.


You can also contact me via email.  My address is karen@maximumgratitudeminimalstuff.com.







Comments

  1. Tulsa GardenerSeptember 16, 2020 at 2:03 AM

    I need serious help finding and receiving your blog! I’ve never followed a blog or blogger!!
    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Karen TrefzgerSeptember 16, 2020 at 12:17 PM

      Hello Tulsa Gardener! Thank you so much for reading. To subscribe, scroll up to the top of the sidebar (on the right side of this page, where you see "Trending Posts," "Labels," pictures of my book covers, etc. See the box where it says "Follow by Email"? Simply enter your email address and click "Submit." A pop-up box will ask you to verify that you are a real person (you click a button). Then you will get a confirmation email in your inbox. Simply reply to that and you're all set! You will then get my blog delivered to your email inbox. I usually post on Mondays and Fridays. Best wishes!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Best Way to Clear Clutter (Plus 12 Steps to a Successful Spending Freeze)

By
Image
A friend asked me to help her clear her clutter, and as I walked into her house I thought of that statistic which says that the average American home contains 300,000 items . That number seems impossible, but this house made me a believer. There are a lot of ways to begin decluttering, but the tower of delivery boxes and shopping bags in my friend's entryway gave me a clue about what might be most important for her. Maybe it's the most important step for you too. The essential first step You aren't going to succeed at decluttering unless you take a hard look at your consumption habits.  That's because decluttering is as much about what comes in as what goes out. The best way to clear clutter is to reduce what you bring in . Decluttering takes commitment and discipline, and a good way to begin developing both of those qualities is with a spending fast .  You need to stop buying everything except necessities:  food, gas, personal care items, and things you need for clea
Read more

Downsize Now: Why You Should Start Death Cleaning Today

By
Image
Okay, you've tidied, and you've organized, and you have a lot of cute bins, and you even fold your socks and underwear differently. But you want to declutter for good. You want a solution to over-accumulation that lasts. Enter the Swedish art of death cleaning, or as they call it, döstädning . (Basically just pronounce everything, like you do with my last name.) Contrary to your first impression, death cleaning isn't dark or morbid. It's a very practical way of tidying like there's no tomorrow, because someday there won't be . Now, I hope you and I are going to live for many more years. And I'm certain that we're going to buy more stuff. But we have better things to do than box things up and shuffle them around, sort, clean, and spend way too much time organizing our sock drawers. We aren't infinite. Death cleaning is a mindset that helps you realize that you don't have forever to get your life in order. And if you don't do it – well, have yo
Read more

6 Easy (and Possibly Surprising) Ways to Keep Your Home Clutter-Free

By
Image
There's a reason you decluttered, and it's not so you could let clutter take over again. Maintenance is every bit as important as decluttering in the first place. I'm not an extreme minimalist, but my husband and I live very comfortably in our 800-square-foot apartment, with three young grandsons who visit and play there regularly and even stay overnight sometimes. We own art and books and have hobbies and toys, but it's all very manageable. It's easy to clean, and it's comfortable and welcoming when we come home or if we relax around the house for an evening or the weekend. If you long to create your own minimalist home, it's important to realize that living with less requires a shift in mindset. If you don't change the way you think and feel about possessions, you won't stay clutter-free for long. Meanwhile, here are maintenance tips I've found helpful, with some that might surprise you. Related article: How to Think Like a Minimalist   6 maint
Read more

20 Things You Probably Own Too Many Of (and what to do with them)

By
Image
Do I really need a dozen towels?  Does my husband need 19 tee shirts?  Does your house need seven clocks, your kitchen eight spatulas, or your tool box three hammers? We need multiples of some things, but at a certain point "a few" becomes "too many."  Things accumulate, and we veer into clutter territory .  Clutter steals our time and attention, and makes our home environment seem out of control.  Check your home for these items, and see how many you can declutter this week. 1.  Sheets Unless you have babies or potty-training children, you probably don't need more than two sets of sheets per bed.  I actually have one high quality set per bed, and save time and space by simply putting them back on after wash day. Donate old sheets to animal shelters, DIY a kids' play tent , sew up some drawstring bags for craft kits or gift bags, or cut the sheets up for cleaning cloths. 2.  Towels It's not necessary to use a new towel after every bath or shower.  When y
Read more

Jammed Up: How to Declutter When You're Stuck

By
Image
Many of us live in homes that hold far too much. We find it hard to declutter unless something forces us into it. As long as we have the room to stockpile extra belongings, we do, until our drawers, counters, closets, basements, garages, spare rooms, and rented storage spaces are full. And then, one day, something makes us realize that we feel crowded out of our own home. Maybe we get tired of moving piles so we can sit, use a table, or prepare a meal. Maybe we get tired of looking for stuff we need among things that we don't. Maybe we just feel stressed, anxious, and frustrated for reasons we can't explain. So we decide to declutter. Now I know I've written this or something like it in the past:  Keep what you use and love, and let the rest go. But if decluttering was that simple, why would there be whole books and websites dedicated to it? And why would we keep reading and hoping for inspiration and the determination to finally get clutter-free? What is clutter? Clutter i
Read more