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by Tsh on April 22, 2013 • 17 Comments Love Where You Live Your Home

When less is more

As you start this week, may you strive for less instead of more. May you crave the beauty of just one flower or one shell on the beach or one perfectly-placed photo. And when the noise gets loud, may you remember to close out all the tabs in your Internet browser to read only the one thing that’s meaningful to you in that moment. And may you find courage to turn your phone on silent.

And may these old words of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s ring timeless in your ears this week:

“One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few. One moon shell is more impressive than three. There is only one moon in the sky. One double-sunrise is an event; six are a succession, like a week of schooldays. …For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms. …A tree has significance if one sees it against the empty face of sky. A note in music gains significance from the silences on either side. A candle flowers in the space of night. Even small and casual things take on significance if they are washed in space.”

A good reminder as we tackle our piles in this week’s hot spot. May we be brave and let go of the things that simply take up space.

by Charlie Park on April 19, 2013 • 31 Comments Organizing Your Home

Avoid identity theft

Ready to be scared a little bit? The odds are very, very good that — at some point in time — a website you use has been hacked, and your e-mail and password from that site have been compromised.

Ready to set your mind at ease? It’s simple and easy to set up your online life so that you’re totally safe if that ever happens again (and to protect yourself now, in case one of your passwords is out in the wild).

I know that normally I talk about money stuff, but today I’m going to be talking about you, your online life, and how you can make sure the bad guys don’t get to access your bank accounts, your e-mail, your blog, or the other important parts of your identity on the internet.
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by Tsh on April 16, 2013 • 26 Comments Organizing Your Home

Project Simplify: that pesky closet

When we first bought the house almost a year ago, we weren’t sure whether to christen it Privet Drive or Narnia. It was a closet under the stairs that just screamed extra storage, and we knew right away that we wanted to turn it into a play space for the kids. Narnia ultimately won, simply because Narnia is mostly a happy place, and Privet Drive, well, isn’t.

Even though its shape resembles Harry’s first room, it’s like Narnia in that you have to push through coats to enter the world. The problem was that since we moved in last July, that world hasn’t been too magical. Crazytown mess, more like it.

So in this second week of Project Simplify 2013, I just knew I had to tackle our Narnia as this next hot spot: That Pesky Closet. We all have these places where things just seem to get thrown in—hey, if it doesn’t break or cause major damage to the other items within, why not just throw it in and close the door?

I’m not anti-junk drawer, believe me, but if we don’t eventually address these little areas in our home, the stress surmounts to panic. We’re scared to open the doors lest something unsavory jumps out. Or simply, we just can’t find the darned thing we’re looking for. A little attention, an afternoon devoted to the task, and you’ve got a cleaner, more organized storage space.

So here’s my before-and-after pics of my pesky closet, and at the end, you’ll have space to showcase yours.

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by Emily on April 10, 2013 • 34 Comments Love Where You Live Your Home

Simple home, simple life?

I read this article recently over on the New York Times blog: Living With Less. A Lot Less and it really got me thinking. How many of us can relate to what he experienced?

Not in an exact way – as we don’t all have multiple million dollar businesses to sell. But, we start out in our nice little home, then we start to make more money so we get a bigger home and we fill it with stuff, more stuff, and more stuff.

Then we realize we have all of this stuff we don’t need or want and instead of one boss at a job to pay for everything, we have two jobs – one that pays for everything, and another where our “boss” is the space we’ve chosen – all the room to fill, all the yard to take care of, all the house that needs our attention.

When my husband and I moved from our very roomy 2500 square foot Victorian in New York back in 2005 to a simple little 1500 square foot Florida home, we were forced to simplify. I thought, “This is amazing. We are so great at making our life so much easier – we have less stuff, we spend less money – we are awesome!”

Seven years later, I am not sure I feel the same way.
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by Tsh on April 9, 2013 • 54 Comments Organizing Your Home

Project Simplify: drawers & shelves

Week 1 of Project Simplify on Simple Mom: Drawers and Shelves

The following content may not be suitable for innocent eyes. Just kidding. But the photos I’m going to show you today will confirm for you that I am, indeed, a normal person. Writing a book about decluttering doesn’t mean I don’t have to all the livelong day. After all, I live with one man, and three children under eight. And a cat. And a hamster.

So this week is our official first week of Project Simplify 2013, and I hope this series truly a blessing to you and your home this month! It’s amazing what happens when we take care of those little gnats that fly around our home, slowly driving us to the breaking point.

And one of the biggest annoyances are shelves and drawers—you know, flat spaces that seem to collect everything. I love how one reader on Facebook described it: Flat Surface Syndrome. Yes. Exactly that.

So no more delaying… Here are my own before-and-after pics of drawers and shelves throughout my home.

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