Maximum Gratitude, Minimal Stuff

Companies like The Container Store and California Closets exist to help us corral all of our stuff, streamline our spaces, and make life simpler and prettier.  It's easy to look at their websites or check out organizing solutions at the local Home Depot and come to the conclusion that this is the way to get life under control.  Those specially-designed shelves, bins, and labels will create homes for every belonging, magically bringing order and peace. But organizing is a temporary solution.  We can organize everything beautifully, shut the door on our thousands of possessions, and wind up needing to reorganize again tomorrow.  After all, those perfect arrangements need to be maintained, and when you add more (as most of us do), you'll have to fit it in somehow. Organizing is a Band-Aid, when what we need is surgery. Minimizing is the solution that lasts.  Instead of giving up your space, your time, and your attention (not to mention your money) to excess possess...

I'm a night owl, always have been.  I learned to function on five hours of sleep because I had to.  I couldn't fall asleep before midnight or 1:00 a.m., yet I had to be present for the worlds of school, work, and motherhood, which began early in the day. My natural bent, however, is to stay up all night, go to bed between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m., and wake up just before 6:00 p.m., feeling refreshed and energized.  I should have been an ICU nurse, like my sister. I love early mornings, and they are a lovely feature of life whether you're a lark rising like the majority of the human race, or whether you've been up all night and are ready for a stretch and a reset. The perfect morning routine will set you up for success during the rest of the day, and it's especially important to establish good habits if you're an owl trying to survive in a lark's world.  No one wants to feel fuzzy or sluggish.  No one wants to feel that they're running behind and trying to ca...

Clutter builds up while we're not paying attention.  Eventually we can't deny that we've accumulated too many extras, and then we have to take the time to clean up, find homes for things, and donate or toss. "How did I let it get this bad again?" we wonder, and that's what this post will answer.  Let's talk about clutter sources that home organizers say are the biggest culprits, so that we can pay better attention and stop the mess before it starts. 6 clutter culprits 1.  New purchases Wait, those Amazon or Chewy boxes just came through the door.  How can they be clutter already? Unless the purchase is replacing something that outlived its usefulness, the new item doesn't have a home yet.  It's just adding to the stuff that already fills your space. Online shopping has become so easy that we often make impulsive purchases.  These unneeded items get shuffled from place to place until they're finally shoved into a drawer or the back of a closet. ...

I hope you found my last post , "Ease Into Minimalism with this 7-Item Checklist," a helpful and inspirational roadmap for a better, simpler life.  That's what I intended it to be.  But this blog is called Maximum Gratitude Minimal Stuff for a reason.  If you want a richer life , and if you want to be able to make the most of minimalism, you need one more ingredient.  Gratitude. A lot of people talk about gratitude, many people pay lip service to its value, but until it becomes our default mindset, we won't know its power to make life more joyful and fulfilling. I believe that we find what we look for.  If we read all the bad news, we'll feel bad.  If we focus on the drivers who are speeding, weaving, and cutting others off in traffic, we'll fail to see the vast majority of people who are driving safely.  If we stare at the rude person in the store or restaurant, we won't be able to see the many pleasant patrons. The good news is that if we look for t...

COMING IN SEPTEMBER!  My new book, The Wealthy Minimalist .*  The e-book edition is available for pre-order now, at a discounted price. *  This blog is supported by you, dear reader.  If you purchase through my links, I may earn a small commission. We all want to have time to relax and enjoy life, but work, laundry, cleaning, and cooking still have to get done.  I'm really thankful for my dishwasher and in-house laundry room, but there are some elements of modern life that promise more ease and don't deliver it .  So how can we tell the difference?  What are some things that are really stealing our time and/or money, and what are some practices than can actually save them?  4 things that don't simplify life 1.  Your phone We all know this.  We know our phones are time sucks, yet we don't put them down. When I was a kid, if someone needed to contact my parents, they called our land line.  Usually, someone was home and would answer, a...

Guess what?  "Grandma hobbies" are growing in popularity, and they might even help you lose weight! These cozy hobbies include things like knitting, crochet , embroidery, baking, and gardening.  You could also add "Grandpa hobbies" such as jigsaw puzzles, whittling , and leatherwork. (I'm not trying to be sexist, but I know plenty of men wouldn't try embroidery, and a lot of women wouldn't consider whittling.  Whatever.) Even if you don't become a master of any hobby, scientists say there are a lot of benefits gained by pursuing them.  "When people immerse themselves in a hobby, they often find an escape from daily pressures, creating a space where they can unwind and recharge," says Patricia S. Dixon, a licensed clinical psychologist from Florida. Of course, many hands-on hobbies allow you to create useful and beautiful items for yourself, for your home, or for gifts.  That's why many of us craft jewelry or make candles.  With the simp...

If anything needs decluttering, it might be our minds.  After all, errands, projects, 24-hour news, plans, worries, and more add to the stress and chaos in our brains.  Many of us experience constantly churning thoughts that steal attention from our people and our purpose, and interfere with sleep and peace. How do you declutter a mind?  I used to think my mind was like a filing cabinet, and I could locate an idea and pull it out at will.  But thoughts are much more complicated and messy than that.  They're not orderly or sequential.  You can't just sort through them and then shut the drawer on them.  The brain is more complex and confusing than that.  It contains knowledge and memories, not all of them good.  It contains trivia and trauma, and many layers of consciousness. Fortunately, there are several actions and practices that can make things a bit calmer and simpler.  We've talked about many of them before, but here I've gathered sm...