Life Changes- Living with Less

Life Changes-Living with Less

With the end of the year quickly approaching and the dawn of a new year just around the corner we often look back at all of the things we have accomplished or sometimes not accomplished, we take inventory of our lives and how things are going and we remember the moments both good and bad.  We end the year with a celebration and toast the memories made and the new ones to come,  and is my own tradition the last few years I fall asleep on the couch just trying to stay up to see midnight because thanks to my good friend “Murphy” insomnia only works on nights that I really really need to sleep and not on nights when I’d like to enjoy a nice evening with my husband ( if you ask he will tell you I am not a nice person when I've been woken up after falling peacefully asleep on our very inviting sectional). The New Year brings about a fresh start, a time to make changes.  As the year has come to an end I am looking back on all of the changes in our life this year both good and not so good, I am reminiscing on the good times and thinking thoughtfully of what could have been done differently , and I’ve been thinking long and hard on the changes that I would like to make for my family this year.  I’m looking to change our lives for the better and to do that we are looking to live with less.  

Less clutter and chaos, as soon as I am home from our very fun extended family holiday celebrations I will be going through all of our families stuff starting with the toys and clothes which consume a large majority of the free space in our house and which cause me 90% of my headaches and fights, they also take up a large portion of the basement covering the floor and couch and the other change I am incorporating calls for our family to actually be able to use that space much more efficiently so we start in the dungeon and work up from there .  I will be going through and starting by removing anything that has not been used in 6 months and anything that no longer fits or flatters, that includes all of the “free” hand me downs and gifts that have been given to us, this is a hard one for me because I feel guilty getting rid of something that someone has given us but for my own sanity I am going to get over the guilt and downsize, downsize, downsize.   

Less junk food and take out,  this one is a no brainier it costs us money to eat out and the cost of feeding my family at the golden arches could buy us a really nice steak dinner and then some, it costs us a small fortune to feed our family of 6, and the junk food is only good for one thing adding a little extra junk to my trunk which seems to get a little more cluttered the older I get and also seems to be accompanied by extra baggage that gets stored elsewhere.  So no junk food helps keep the extra junk from the trunk.  

Less screen time and technology.  I am horrible at getting lost in the Bermuda triangle, I log on for a few minutes to check my facebook, then head on over to pinterest and maybe play a game or two of that candy crush that my 7 year old got me hooked on and before I know it those few minutes turn into an hour of time in which i could have actually been doing something productive.  So less screen time means I actually have more time to do things that I enjoy and yeah maybe I might even get some housework done, grumble grumble if I really have to….

So here we go on an adventure to live with less and hopefully gain better health, happiness and harmony. I will keep you updated along the way with posts and pictures so you can see just how much of a pack rat I am and just how much stuff one family of 6 has accumulated over the years. That’s me for today just trying to live life one puzzle piece at a time.

J.