Simplifying life. Or, What was my point again?

After a quick review of my last few posts, it dawned on me that I've strayed from the whole point of my blog. Sure, I've made updates on how I'm doing on some of my peripheral goals this year, but this blog is about my one word year. This blog is supposed to be about how I'm finding ways to simplify things in life.

So how am I simplifying my life? I think there are many areas of life that would benefit from some clean up but the easiest thing to tackle is the physical stuff. I've always had a weird obsession interest in organization, decluttering, storage solutions, and anything related.

Having said that, it's easy enough to be interested in having a less cluttered house and simplify life with fewer material possessions, but it's not that easy to put into place sometimes. I've amassed so much information about organizing the home and how to store things beautifully, but I've always been overwhelmed with the idea of doing anything about it.

Exhibit A: The junk room.

Last year, I thought I had figured out the answer to my troubles. I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. If you're not up to speed on this decluttering phenomena, then here's my explanation in a nutshell. You tackle your clutter in one big effort, in a methodical and systematic way by going after item-type, not by room, one item at a time, one type after the other. (I.e. Clothes, books, etc.) The simple criteria is you keep the item if it "sparks joy" in you. (I'm definitely not doing justice to Kondo's process so it's better you read up on it yourself.)

Unfortunately, I never implemented the "KonMari" method of tidying up. However, one thing that I've taken away from the book is the concept of items sparking joy. As I attempt to declutter my house one item at a time or one room at at time (totally against Kondo's concept!), I decide if the item gives me joy. It sounds easier than it is since you really have to decide if you're feeling joy or maybe something else (sentimentality? ambivalence?). I've managed to clean up a lot of things using this strategy though.

Another strategy that has helped me comes from my happiness guru, Gretchen Rubin. The first of her Twelve Personal Commandments is "Be Gretchen". Granted, this is her personal list and she's referring to herself, but the idea still resonates with me. I have to accept my likes and dislikes and know my limitations. I have to "Be Kim". That means I have to accept that I won't be a scrapbooker or make my own beaded jewelry. I've gotten rid of lots of things after I really made myself dig deep and decide if those items were contributing to me being authentic and genuine.

Our home is still a work in progress and I definitely still have trouble with getting rid of certain stuff, but in general, I've been decluttering away. I've cleared space on counter tops, I've donated or sold unwanted items, and I'm figuring out how to store the stuff we are keeping in more aesthetically pleasing containers. 

In the meantime, everything else goes into the junk room until I can deal with it.

My One Word for 2016

ETA 2/2/16: I did decide on one word. My theme this year is Simplify.

Well, I couldn't decide on one word... so I have two words for 2016.

Simplify. Connect.

The first word I immediately thought of for my theme was simplify. I've been on a clean and purge mission the last couple of months of 2015 and I wanted to continue that, but it goes beyond the physical act of simplifying our belongings. I wanted to simplify the things I do and find ways to make life easier. I want to work smarter, not harder. I want to keep things to the basics and fundamentals. It's too easy to take on more or to find complicated ways of going about things. Sometimes the best things in life are the simplest tasks and pleasures. I want that... no, I need that. Life is hard enough on us, why make it harder?

As soon as I thought of simplify, I quickly thought of the next word, connect. In this sense, I mean relationships. I knew that efforts to simplify other aspects of my life would potentially give me time to build up my connections. My main priority is to be better about keeping in touch with my family in Florida and to make face-to-face plans with my friends in Chicago or to plan calls or video chats with my long-distance friends. I want to connect with people, the ones who mean something to me. A secondary look at connecting is of course, technology. I can utilize technology to connect to the people I love, but also, this blogs is a form of connecting to the internet and to whoever is reading it. I want to keep the technology aspect of connecting to a reasonable level. I don't want it to consume my time and take away from other more important things, but I do appreciate that technology will assist me in realizing my two themes for 2016.

I'm not one for making resolutions, but I look forward to sharing how I achieve these themes in my everyday life.

#simplify2016
#connect2016

The Inspiration

I used to keep an online journal back in college and it was one of my most treasured "possessions" - something just for me. After I graduated and settled into the "real world", I still craved the therapy and expression that my journal afforded me, but I wanted something less informal and something more structured. I've played with blogging on and off for the past several years but never found a theme or unifying idea to base my blogs on. They were all reincarnations of my old online journal and never felt quite right, not quite what I wanted to achieve and maintain. I needed a focus. I needed a foundation. I needed inspiration.

Now I have it.

One of my newest addictions is listening to podcasts. The most recent one I've been listening to is "Happier" hosted by Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft. I love that this podcast offers real, achievable tips for living a happier life. One of the tips that resonated with me became the basis for this blog.

Pick a one-word theme for the year. The idea is very simple - pick a word that will describe the kind of life you want to live for the year.

I actually read about this tip a few years back - there was something about it in a magazine (of which the title I can't recall) that Gretchen Rubin wrote. At the time, a blog wasn't something I was considering as a personal project but nonetheless, I wanted to find a way to incorporate the one-word theme into my life.

I actually remember this more vividly than I should. It was the tail-end of 2013 and I decided that "happy" was going to be my theme for 2014. I wanted to make decisions and do things that would contribute to me being happy. For that particular point in my life, that meant I was going to cut back on commitments that gave me anxiety or displeasure and that I would spend more time with my husband.

2014 ended up being a banner year in our house. We were settling into our first purchased home, and we decided it was the right time to start our family. I got pregnant pretty much right away (possibly due to my new happy mindset??) and we welcomed a beautiful baby girl in October 2014.

Fast forward a year and I am now reconnecting to this happiness tip that made a difference in my life. It hit me that this was how I would create a focus for a blog. The best part to me is that every year, I can start fresh with a new word, and I don't have to feel bored or constrained to one idea indefinitely that might not matter to me in the future. This blog will also be a vehicle for me to record ways I follow other happiness tips and things in life in general, all of which will hopefully tie into my one-word theme.

Stay tuned for the next post when I reveal what my one word will be for 2016!