This post is all about the first two (2) things you need to do to simplify your life…and they have nothing to do with decluttering.

I know, I know!

You are anxious to follow along, ditch your stuff, and create a more minimalist life for yourself. You’re going to have to trust me.

I’ve done this.

I’ve had time to reflect on this.

I’m pretty sure that if I knew then what I know now my decade-long journey to minimalism and financial freedom could have been much shorter.

That’s what I want for you. The shortcut!

My Story

My journey to minimalism was very accidental. At the age of 39 I found myself separating from my High School Sweetheart after 20 years together – more than half my life!

I had two little girls (aged 9 and 10) and was suddenly solely reliant on my own paycheck.

Anyone who has been through the break-down of a marriage knows it is very stressful.

My decision to simplify my life was one-part practicality, and one-part survival instinct.

On the practical side of things I was starting over and I just didn’t have much stuff, nor did have much money to add to my stuff.

On the survival side, I just couldn’t cope with anything more than what was happening in that moment. I needed things in my life to be a s simple as possible.

I truly hope your decision to simplify your life isn’t motivated in the same way mine was, but for better or worse (pun intended), I was certainly very motivated!

Although looking back I feel like I took the long-road, not even a decade later I had simplified my life, eliminated my debt (and there was a lot of it!), and found true contentment.

Living a simple life has led to less stress, no debt, more happiness, more time in nature, more adventures, and more job contentment.

It took me 10 years. Your timeline can be much shorter because I’m giving you the heads up on where to start, and where to go next.

What Areas Of Life Will You Simplify?

Before we get started with the first two things that will jumpstart living a simple life I want to talk a little about the areas of life you are trying to simplify.

Any area of life can be simplified.

Generally speaking we want to simplify all areas of our lives. However, it is useful to focus on one area or perhaps a few at a time.

Your Stuff

When we think of simplification we often think of the household in general and our stuff specifically.

And why wouldn’t we? We spend a lot of time at home.

Of course we want it to be a happy, calm, simple space to be in.

The reality is there is generally a lot of chaos happening there.

A messy kitchen, dirty dishes, piles of stuff to be put away on any (every?) flat surface including the floor. A heaping laundry pile. Children and pets running amuck. Groceries to be put away into an already crammed refrigerator. Sound familiar?

Our society is based on consumerism.

We have too much stuff and we know it.

• Clothes.
• Kitchen gadgets.
• Sporting equipment.
• Toiletries.
• Food.
• Books.
• Toys.

One of the first places to make changes is your stuff. But it’s not the first place!

Your Work

Apart from being at home, most of us spend the majority of our time at work.

People often don’t think about their work as a part of their life that can be simplified.

We view ourselves as “stuck” in our careers, whether we like them or not.

Jobs can come with a lot of complications. Poor schedules, long commutes, toxic environments, crazy clients, insane deadlines, too much workload, not enough supports, poor project management, crappy software, constantly changing processes, and the list goes on!

Even if we like what we do there is room for simplification around work. Different hours, less commute, a company more aligned with your values, an improved office set-up, ditching unnecessary tasks.

We won’t be getting into it in this post, but I promise we will in later ones.

Start thinking about the fact that the place where you spend most of your daylight hours, work, can be simplified and become a place you look forward to going every day.

Commitments

How’s your calendar looking?

Lots of space to rest, relax, and restore? Probably not.

For some odd reason when people ask us how things are we like to say “busy”.

Just like we fill up our homes with stuff, we fill up our downtime with commitments.

We plan:

• BBQ’s
• Vacations
• Shopping trips
• Volunteering
• Play-dates for the kiddos
• Softball league
• Family dinners
• Oil changes
• Spa appointments
• Massages
• Doctor and dentist visits
• Drinks after work
• Home improvement projects
• Concerts
• Movies
• Trip to the library, zoos or art galleries
• A day at the beach
• Weekends at the cottage

The list could go on forever.

There is nothing wrong with doing any of these things. Many of them aren’t even optional, they must be done.

The problem is with doing ALL the things.

If you have an overly-committed life where will you find the time to focus on things that really matter to you most…like simplifying your life?

Your Money

Most people feel like their finances are in a mess; at least to some extent.

• It’s hard to keep track of paying bills.
• There are a lot of recurring subscriptions showing up on their credit card statement every month.
• They have debt they want to pay off.
• They have to finance big-ticket items like new cars or children’s educations.
• They run out of money before they run out of month.
• They aren’t saving for retirement (or anything else).
• They don’t have an emergency fund.
• They can’t seem to get the credit card balance paid off.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Unless you are debt free with growing savings it is hard not to feel some financial stress.

Simplifying your finances can eliminate all these issues.

Your Relationships

By this I mean friends, family and romantic interests.

This one seems harsh, but a lot of us have people in our lives that do not add to our well being.

Friends might be too negative or attract a lot of drama.

Maybe we just don’t see eye to eye or get along very well with certain family members.

Perhaps your and your love interest don’t bring out the best in one another.

That’s okay.

It doesn’t mean they aren’t good people, they just aren’t a good fit into your life right now.

Sorting through relationships so that you can focus on spending time with people who make you feel energized, that you share interests with, and that you enjoy being around is part of simplifying your life.

Any Area Of Life!

There are so many other things you can simplify.

Interests, wardrobe, diet, habits, cleaning, shopping, laundry, or meal prep.

Any area of life where you spend a significant amount of time, money, or energy is up for grabs when thinking about areas of your life to simplify.

The First Step

It doesn’t matter which area of life you are planning to work on first, this is the first move you make.

Cancel your TV subscription.

Seriously.

I have already talked about this in this post: Lifehack to Downgrade Your Life Fast (NO TV)

If you don’t want to take the time to go read it, the Coles notes version is this: stop spending your time (and money) on TV and focus on simplifying your life instead.

In order to make change in your life (and simplifying it is a BIG change if you are living like most people today) you need to have space, time, and energy to focus on change.

If you keep your life filled up with mindless distractions, you will never have the capacity to focus on what’s important to you.

I hear your monkey mind. It says:

• This is a crazy idea.
• TV is my favorite way to relax.
• I’m halfway through a season of “insert title here.”
• I just won’t watch so much.
• I never watch it anyway, I don’t need to cancel it.
• How will I entertain my kiddos?
• You can’t tell me what to do!

Is the idea of going without TV making you anxious?

All we are trying to do here is find you some breathing space so that you can make change (for the better) in your life.

If you watch 2 hours of tv a day (not uncommon), that’s 1 full month a year that you could be focused on something else – like how to simplify your life.  

Quitting TV is like giving yourself a month long vacation’s worth of time to play with!!

I picked tv because as a first step because:

1. 1. Almost everyone has this available to them
   2. No tv had a huge impact on my journey to simplify my life in the beginning

TV is such a mindless distraction. It is like an addiction. Once it is turned on it is hard to turn it off.

It’s not your fault. TV marketing designs it this way.

Cliff-hanger endings, the ability to binge watch an entire season, tantalizing previews of the next program that is coming on, the build-ups in the commercials.

You’re hardly to blame!

That’s why eliminating it completely is so much better than telling yourself you won’t watch.

Full disclosure: I never had a grand plan to quit TV and change my life!

When my marriage ended and I moved out I simply didn’t have a TV.

I figured I would replace it eventually, but then a funny thing happened. Nobody missed it. Not me and not the kiddos.

We all had more time to focus on other things. Things that were more fulfilling, intriguing, and interesting than watching TV.

I was recently single and easily overwhelmed.

One of the things I found had become most overwhelming as my marriage ended was keeping my house clean.

I somehow found the Flylady who had simple principles to keep you house clean. (I just checked and her site is still there! Here’s the link: FlyLady.net: Your personal online coach to help you gain control of your house and home.)

Instead of watching TV I’d check out her website or newsletter and try her tactics of shining your sink, decluttering for 15 minutes, and cleaning by zones.

Very innocently I had begun to simplify my life.

One thing led to another (as things often do on the internet) and soon I was exploring minimalism, tiny homes, the F.I.R.E. movement, frugal living, and more. Somethings interested me and I would try them out. Others didn’t and I forgot about them.

All of these things were stepping stones to the simplified life I have now. I learned about and tested these things in the evenings, afterwork. Time I usually would have been parked in front of the TV.

If you are serious about making changes in your life, you need to think very seriously about quitting TV.

The Second Step

The second step is a booster.

One of the things that slowed me down greatly on my journey to a simple life was that I almost always took things one step at a time. If I had known, I could have been doing multiple things at the same time to get me there faster.

But of course, we don’t know what we don’t know.

I eventually muddled through it all. It just took longer!

In hindsight, one of the first things I would have done is dive into my finances sooner.

Quite frankly, it seemed like a tough area to tackle and didn’t really know where to begin.

Where to start when it comes to finances?

Like many newly SAD (Separated and Divorced) people I had a lot of debt and some complications with assets.

Things like an existing mortgage on the house of the marriage, a lien on said house so selling it was greatly complicated, a new mortgage on the new place, a car that wasn’t in my name, zero savings for retirement, no emergency fund, maxed out credit cards, and I was suddenly down to a one income household.

The usual for SAD people. What are you going to do?

I had carefully planned my post-divorce budget. What else would you expect? I am an accountant after all.

Once I realized that I wasn’t going to get TV I had about $100 to spare.

What to do with it?

Turn A Crisis Into An Inconvenience

One of my favorite quotes is a tweet made by Dave Ramsey “An emergency fund turns a crisis into an inconvenience. Once I got an Emergency Fund, I quit having emergencies.”

I started an emergency fund.

At first I was motivated by fear. I had no savings and no further access to credit. If anything went wrong in any area of my life I wasn’t sure what I would do.

After the first few months I felt a little better.

If something not too major happened I could cover it – things like needing to call a tow truck.

A few months later I figured I could replace a major appliance if anything broke down.

I added my tax return to the savings account and felt like I could probably afford to pay a mechanic if anything happened to my vehicle.

It almost became a game. Every month I would think up what new emergency I could cover with my savings.

Every month I felt a little bit better about my financial situation.

Knowing the money was there gave me the confidence, flexibility, and freedom to improve other areas of life.

Eventually, I made decisions about what to do with that money.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Your second step to simplify your life is your first step to financial freedom; take the money you are saving from canceling TV and to squirrel it away.

Set up your bank account to automatically transfer this amount to a savings account on your payday.

You are used to spending the money anyway, so you won’t even know that it is gone from your budget.

You don’t need to worry about how to spend it for now. That decision will be a little different for everyone.

Until you have more than 3 months worth of living expenses saved you don’t even have to think about it.

Just set up the automatic savings and forget about it (or like I did, think about all the ways this money could save your bacon!).

Cheers to never having an emergency again!

If you already have an emergency fund, you are ahead of the game! If you have any debt, you can redirect it there. If you have both an emergency fund and no debt, you have already simplified your finances and can totally ignore this whole section (and pat yourself on the back)!

The Simple Summary

Although our stuff seems like the easy hit when you start to simplify your life, if you want to make fast progress start with these two things instead.

1. 1. Cancel your TV to free up time, money, and energy so that you have the breathing space you will need to simplify your life. A final word on this, you can always get it back later if you choose to, but this one thing will change your life in more ways than you will ever expect. I doubt you’ll go back.
   2. Start an emergency fund. Sure this one can wait, but money matters take time. Why not get started asap? Your future self will thank you.