Essential Simplicity

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Grocery Shopping Savings...
2008-02-23 23:20:00
The concept of using online friends and blogs to pass along saving tips and such is a fairly new thing to me....but I've had fun in the learning of it!! This will be an ongoing topic as I share what I am learning in the whole "shopping game"!! I decided to investigate into ways to save some money for two different reasons...we had less $$ to work with in our budget after my long-term temp job came to an end...and it would be another way to simplify our lives if we could make the smaller budget work.The first thing that I did was to sign up for The Grocery Game. This is a pretty cool site that you can sign up for that teaches you how to use coupons to your best advantage at your area grocery stores...as well as stores such as CVS and Walgreens. I have only been a member on there for four weeks...and they say that you really need to do it for 12 weeks before you really start to see real savings results. A four-week trial for all your area stores is just one dollar...so it'...
More About: Shopping , Savings

Bathroom drawers and cabinets...oh MY!!
2008-02-18 23:47:00
Today...since I'm insane...I tackled the bathroom cabinets and drawers...thinking "Ahh, shouldn't be TOO hard"...WRONG!! I am SOOO tired, and you don't even wanna see the odds and ends still on the countertop to deal with...I've still got a good 20 minutes of work...just to get the bathroom back to looking like it did this morning...when all the junk was hiding behind closed doors!!In any case though...I DID get it done. Sorting thru all the vitamins and meds and tossing the old stuff, deciding what toiletries to pass on to others (hey, the unopened ones will make nice little gifts!!), and trashing/giving away some other stuff. Granted, the pics are a little more bare than the shelves will usually be...seeing as there are at least 3 towels that need to be put in the one cabinet...and that we are almost out of toilet paper!! All in all though...it DOES look a whole lot better. Even though I'm tired...I am happy!! One more area organized and simplified!!
More About: Bathroom

The REST of the closet!!
2008-02-17 20:08:00
So, it's no secret my dh is more of a clothes-horse than I am. After all, he's lived in the metroplex for 8 years...and before that lived in one town in West Texas for the majority of his life...so he's never had to ruthlessly weed out clothes like missionaries have to!! (In fact, it was only a couple months before our wedding in late 2006 that I got him to finally give away his WHITE jeans that he hadn't worn in years)!! Yesterday, it was a rather yucky day outside and the poor man was feeling a bit under the weather. He was sweet enough though to lay on the bed as I hauled clothes out in segments and as I held each thing up he would tell me to keep, keep for now, or get rid of. He actually parted with 16 pairs of pants, 3 pairs of shorts, and 51 shirts!! (Of course, he still has twice that much that he is keeping...but it is a start)!! Check out the before/after pics...and the pile of stuff he is saying sayonara to!!Oh, yeah...and if you really look close...the hangers are org...
More About: Rest , Closet

Kitchen Stuff
2008-02-15 17:43:00
So, today my goal is to at least start on the kitchen...I'm tackling the pantry first (though I did pull the few food items that were on top shelves in the laundry room down to deal with as well). I took a pic before I started and will take one when I'm done so progress can be seen. Seriously, I read on a blog the other day where the lady challenged people to not go grocery shopping for as long as possible. She said something about people having WAY too much food in their pantries that never see the light of day. So...part of my goal in going thru all this is to make a master list on the computer of all staples that I have on hand...and use that to plan meals for the next little bit. My mom got me an awesome cookbook for Christmas (one that I'd been wanting for a while). Make A Mix has recipes to make up all kinds of mixes...stuff comparable to Bisquik and the like...but since you are making it up yourself, you can adjust ingredients to account for allergies and food sensitivitie...
More About: Kitchen , Stuff

Some Simplicity At Home...
2008-02-13 16:33:00
Another step that I took toward simplicity is to go thru my closet. Granted, having been a missionary (particularly one who sent over a crate and came back with suitcases)...I didn't have a HUGE amount of clothes. However, since moving back to the States, I have gained some weight and went up a size. I do plan on working on that as another goal toward simplicity, but will probably never have quite the same proportions again as I did in my 20's!! So...some of the stuff that didn't fit (and hadn't for over a year) had to go!!I was pretty ruthless in my sorting. There were some things that went into my "keep for now" list and I do have a decent amount in my "keepers" list (particularly when you think of the amount of clothes that the majority of people in the world own per person). But I did manage to weed out several pairs of shoes (leaving me still with 10 pairs of keepers and 4 pairs of keep-for-nows...including slippers and flips)...as well as several purses and quite the pile ...
More About: Home , Simplicity

First Steps of 2008 Toward Simplicity...
2008-02-11 16:14:00
So...since I made the decision to embrace simplicity in my life in mid-January, I have done a few things toward simplifying my life. One of the first steps I made toward simplifying my life is still a work-in-progress. This is the simplifying of my online life. I completely closed out my accounts on Myspace, Yahoo 360, Tickle, Friendster, and Flixster. I was going to cancel my Hi5 account, but am leaving it open for now, as it is one of the only ways to keep in touch with so many of my Romanian friends. I also have been ruthlessly pruning out old email on my Hotmail and Yahoo accounts in anticipation of moving all email just to my Gmail accounts (which then funnel into my Outlook). Not done on the email pruning yet, but I'm making progess!!I also moved my old Yahoo 360 blog posts over to my Blogger account and have started copying my Xanga posts over to there as well. I won't be leaving Xanga for a good bit yet, but am going to be posting simultaneously for a while. With Blogger I...
More About: Simplicity , Steps , 2008

What is Essential Simplicity?
2008-02-09 16:00:00
The dictionary defines essential as absolutely necessary or indispensable. Simplicity has more definitions but the one I like the most is freedom from complexity.I am not one to come out and condemn someone for having a lot of things and/or a lot of stuff going on in their lives…that is their decision. I just know that the more things you own and the more stuff you’ve got going on…the more complicated life can get. For myself personally, I choose not to embrace complexity…I choose to embrace simplicity. To me, simplicity IS essential…hence the name for this blog.My goal in having this blog is to help keep myself accountable for the goals I’ve set to simplify my life and to help encourage others who have decided to follow this lifestyle themselves. Not everything I do will be the right step for another, so feel free to pick and choose from the ideas presented here…and maybe you will find other ideas that help you that you may want to pass along here as well.The things I...
More About: Essential