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amyable
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Just sticking my big foot in this thread...not because I have anything unique to say but because this has been an interest of mine for at least a year now! We have made progress, had that progress turned on it's ear with a new baby and other issues, and I'm now ready to start back fresh. Let's see if the baby is in agreement about how much time I can take on this project! 
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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Dawn
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I am following this thread with great interest, too.  I will be thinking on this subject over the next week, as I make up some new year plans and goals.
One thing that has me very excited re ~ focusing on simplicity ~ with a friend of mine, I am starting a book study in February, focusing on Mittenstrings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry. We proposed it to our homeschool support group and now have a great number of mothers interested in joining us.  I hope we have a fruitful and supportive study this winter and spring.
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Dawn, mum to 3 boys 
By Sun and Candlelight
The Nature Corner
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Rachel May
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Chari,
I did the same thing when Theresa started the decluttering thread a while back! Great minds... 
My biggest mistake was not writing my plan in my calendar at the beginning of each month. I use the Family Centered Press one with menu pages. I usually use the large side spots on each day to write our menu--breakfast and dinner--and save the menu pages for writing ideas for unit studies, or to take notes, or to write recipes, or to write meditations on threads here, or to make lists. That helps keep my brain in one location.
Now that we are revisiting this topic, I'm going to sit down and make a list of the high stress areas of my house and life so I have a planned attack towards simplifying. While we do fairly well at purging, I never set aside the funds we need to organize, so that is a part of my plan with a mind towards the Container Store's Elfa sale in Feb.
Cay, I thought Happy Are You Poor was fabulously convicting, but short on the "to do" lists that I need. My book on the Rule of St. Benedict is rather liberal too. What's up with that?
Great thread, MC!
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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Cheryl
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Chari wrote:
I just thought it may be a good idea for me to have a focus area for the month, instead of fretting over ALL that needs to be done, and then not doing anything.
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This is what my dh and I plan to do this year for decorating our house. For example, in January we will work on the girls room, which right now is really dd 5's room. We have valances and shelves to put up. We have wooden letters to paint and hang. We just haven't got around to doing it, because there are always more urgent things that come up. I am going to plan on working on one area a month.
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Cheryl
Wife to Bob ('97)
Mom to Matthew 13, Joseph 11, Sarah 10, Rachel 6, Hannah almost 4 and Mary 1
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Mary Chris
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So it all comes back to planning.... Well planning and follow through. I like the idea of taking one area a month and working on it, but I have only one month until Jim deploys and I need simple by then . Yesterday we got quite a bit done, the back of the van was full of stuff that we took to Goodwill. And we also had a big pile at the curb.
We spent some time in the Lego room and the garage and made good progress in both places.
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Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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Lorri
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Who is Mrs. Sharp and what is the name of her book?
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Lorri
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~Rachel~
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I believe it might well be Mrs. Sharp's Traditions by Sarah Ban Breathnachs.
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~Rachel~
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Lighting a Fire
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lapazfarm
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Originally I had thought of doing one focus area per month, since at the time I had 12 months until I moved. But like Mary Chris, I no longer have that luxury, but for most folks I think it is a good, reasonable structure to go with.
Ideally I would like most of my decluttering to happen much sooner, as we are putting the house up on the market in March. That gives me really only 2 months for a whole lot to happen. So I need to really rev it up a notch or two. I am thinking I need to have a weekly plan, choosing one area per week, with a specific day set aside for each thing.
So, for each room, this is the schedule:
Monday will be sort day. I sort and decide what goes in the trash and what is donatable and what is keepers. Donations go immediately into the trunk to take by the thrift shop.
Tues is purge day: on the way to Karate on tues I stop by the thrift shop and offload donatables. Tuesday is also trash day, so I need to have any throw-aways for the week out by then as well.
Wednesday is pack day. Things that are keepers but not needed immediately get boxed up for storage or shipping.
Thursday is clean day: Clean the room or area thoroughly. Make minor repairs as well.
Friday is organize day: Take what is left and make sense of it.
Saturday: shopping day. If I need containers or products to make my life easier, I get them on this day. This will give me time to think about my purchases before I buy. Always a good thing. I also will get groceries on this day. I'll make a list in the morning before I go.
Sunday: rest! And plan the next week!
So...what am I missing here?
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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amyable
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lapazfarm wrote:
So...what am I missing here? |
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Ummmm...what to do with the littles while you are doing all this? 
(looks like a great plan )
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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lapazfarm
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amyable wrote:
lapazfarm wrote:
So...what am I missing here? |
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Ummmm...what to do with the littles while you are doing all this?
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Ummm...duct tape them to the wall????
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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hsmom
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I love this thread. Maybe with support I will be able to follow through. I started de-cluttering earlier this month after the thread from Home Arts started by HeatherNY (I hope I got that right)on "Making Your Home a Haven". I've even been de-cluttering the incoming mail by calling catalog companies and stopping the onslaught of catalogs. One company told me that I should also be telling them to "not sell or rent" my name. I figure keeping the clutter from coming in to begin with would be a big help.
I like the idea of a written plan. It always seems that if I write it down it tends to get done!
Thanks ladies for all the great ideas. Valerie
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amyable
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lapazfarm wrote:
amyable wrote:
lapazfarm wrote:
So...what am I missing here? |
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Ummmm...what to do with the littles while you are doing all this?
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Ummm...duct tape them to the wall???? |
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LOL!! That was *exactly* what I was *going* to say you were missing, but I didn't want to offend you or anything!
Wishing I had gotten duct tape for Christmas over here... 
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Amy
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lapazfarm
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amyable wrote:
LOL!! That was *exactly* what I was *going* to say you were missing, but I didn't want to offend you or anything!
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Offend ME????LOL! Not a chance, Amy!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Theresa
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Wow ladies, there are some really good ideas and thoughts here.
Some of the goals in our family this year are:
1. focus more on others than ourselves. One of the things we are doing is implementing a Blessing Box.
2. To not make any extra purchases without dh's approval (books will be the biggie for me) 
I really liked what Waverly wrote
Waverley wrote:
| One thing our family will do again this year is what we call "values living." We try in everything we do - before we make a purchase, before we open our mouths, before we make plans - to ask ourselves "By making this choice, are we living our values?" |
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3. Get back to using my home management journal. I've re-vamped it and have it ready to go. I plan to post a walk through my journal sometime soon on my blog.
4. Meal planning - with our family following the Feingold Program we do the bulk of our cooking from scratch. Things can actually be more expensive this way than buying all the boxed and processed food items. I need to be more consistent in following our menu and grocery shopping list. I'm looking for other ways to save in this area as well.
5. To read through my Bible this year. I've come close for the last two years but I would like to make it through this year. 
These are just some of the things that we are putting before us to examine. I really like Sarah's idea here on the Making a Home thread too. There are alot of threads here that tie in nicely, that I am prayerfully pondering.
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Theresa
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MommyD
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So many great ideas here!! I really need to focus on menu planning, streamlining my shopping, getting our day started a little earlier and decluttering a bit more. DH and I are also planning on remodeling the office to make it more functional this year; lots to declutter in there.
I am TTC  ; maybe if I plan a year of Simplicity and declutter my maternity and baby clothes it will happen!!
Melissa
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Medieval Mama
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So many great ideas! I wish I had time today to sit and really read everything 
I have the hardest time in the clothing department. I'm an addicted thrift store shopper, but I've found that it's not at all thrifty when I buy things that really don't look good on me or don't pair well with the rest of my wardrobe.
A friend of mine (Hi, Karen!) recommended the book It's So You!, by Mary Sheehan Warren and endorsed by Wendy Shalitt (sp?), author of A Return To Modesty. It's about pairing down your wardrobe so that you can practically get dressed with your eyes closed and still look your best.
Basically you start by figuring out your body type, fashion personality, and color palette, then shrink your wardrobe down to eight essential items. Of course, you can have more--a special dress, etc.--but for everyday you stick with eight mix and matchables. It's great and has helped me thin my wardrobe considerably (which was busting at the seams this summer). She also has a chapter on accessorizing, and even sleepwear.
I've started using the principles in my children's wardrobes--like only buying clothes that coordinate--we pretty much all wear red, white, and blue, except I have a lot of black to hide the extra 30 pounds I'm carrying
Anyway, I think you'll find the book to be worth the $15.
I wish I had more time right now to comment on simplifying meal plans. I'll be watching anxiously to see what everyone else has to say!
God bless,
Robynn
Wife to John, and Mama to Rachel (16), John Michael (15), Caroline (13), Robert (12), Justin (9), Caeli (7), McGregor (5), and Marian (3 mos.)
Schamelot
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Angel
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Simplicity has been our goal for several years now, but progress has been slow. Mostly, I think, it's just that it has taken time for our perspective to evolve. So it's like my dh and I are traveling the road in stages.
One of our goals is simply to have less stuff. I realized this Christmas that the clutter had totally robbed the season of its joy for me... and wondered if I wasn't being a perfectionist. After all, kids are going to be kids -- they're going to argue sometimes, not every cookie baking experience is going to turn out well, and two year olds will be two year olds, no matter what the time of year. But what got me the most was that I *never actually put up many of our decorations because there was no place to put them*. We don't have many decorations -- we don't even have many ornaments -- but every single place I could have put one was stacked with stuff -- toys, books, cups, screwdrivers, mail -- you name it.
And then the *boxes* came. I love buying gifts, but I have been doing better (ahem) in that arena lately. These boxes were from my mil. We had been led to believe that she had only bought what the kids had asked for, which was not much. What we didn't know was that she had been buying for months, and *then* she bought what they asked for on top of all this other stuff.
Argh. I feel HORRIBLE for being so ungrateful, but this has been going on for years. This year my dh told his mother that we would be giving much of what she gave to the kids away because we don't have room for it. She said, "I don't blame you." He asked her to leave the gifts unwrapped so that we could see what the kids would truly enjoy and what they probably wouldn't play with. Six big cardboard boxes came in crammed full of wrapped gifts. So everything was opened and under the tree. When we finished putting everything out, my dh said, "You know, this isn't what I wanted for my kids. I wanted them to have a few, well-loved toys, not these piles of stuff."
So all the stuff gains we made in the past few months have been negated and I am trying hard not to feel demoralized.
(Gee, I'm also going on and on here, and I hope you will all forgive me. This has all just been sort of pent up for the past few weeks with nowhere to go... I have felt like the Grinch, although my kids seem thankfully not to have noticed and are ranking this Christmas among their favorites. That could be the result of the zillions of Playmobil guys who have invaded our house, though!!!)
While the stuff might seem the logical place to start, I think that first I have to work on my attitude and my planning. I tend to be perfectionistic, which is a bad combination for my below-average housekeeping and organizational skills (thankfully, those are improving with hard work -- but, boy, is it a lot of work!!!) So I need to simplify my attitude first. Instead of needing my ENTIRE life to fit perfectly into some sort of ideal which does not admit the needs and desires of other people, I need to focus first and foremost on the health and happiness of my family. If I keep "health and happiness" foremost in my mind, other priorities fall into place, and I can minimize less important tasks.
Well, there's more, but this has gone on long enough and it's time to make dinner. I'd like to post about this on my blog, but right now I think I had better start practicing what I preach!
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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Molly Smith
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I printed out Donna Marie's post on this thread (4th post down) and referred to it throughout the year. It's not the practical advice found on this thread, but it's the motivation I need to try to make the day-to-day stuff work. It's such a wonderful piece--I'm sure many of you will remember it.
I'm loving this thread!
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Cay Gibson
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Oh, yes, I do remember it. She posted that a year and a half ago and I'd forgotten how beautifully inspiring it was.
Elegant simplicity..it's a definite concern of our , isn't it.
Thanks for reviving Donna's lovely thoughts and words, Molly.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
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~Rachel~
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I have this belief that a lot of us who say we have bad housekeeping skills, are actually just too much of a perfectionist. You know, I learned this past year, to be 'good enough'. At the end of the day, if the house is tidy, it is good enough . Not spotless or perfect, but friendly, and the place my DH loves to come home to , and where he has time with the kids!
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~Rachel~
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: A Year of Simplicity
