Where Have You Simplified Your Life?

Good for you! It feels great to get everything neat and tidy.

I, too, am hoping to refresh and simplify my wardrobe before the end of the summer. I'm also considering using my desktop computer as nothing more than a "workstation" while converting my laptop to be the media / internet / chat machine.

I'll have to add more as I think of them.

Good stuff, dude. I've made major progress in how tidy and organized I keep my living spaces. I used to hang on to things too long but now I can confidently cut out the fluff as I go along. Woot.

-I just recently attempted to simplify my wardrobe. The results were 15 less shirts, 5 less pants, and 4 less shorts. It was a great success, and has made picking out clothes to wear each morning so much easier.

-Simplified my RSS Feeds: Went through my RSS Feeds, taking out the ones I really don't enjoy too much.

-I downloaded a specific freeware program for uninstalling computer programs efficiently, Zsoft Uninstaller, and un-installed a hefty amount. It has resulted in a faster computer and a much more efficinet way to browse through my files/start menu, resulting in more efficient usage.

-In the middle of organizing the rest of my room.

-Going to start my podcasts de-cluttering soon as well.

Three major changes:
1. Inbox zero
2. one inbox for collected papers and actions (GTDers unite!)
3. everything is straightened up around here before I go to bed each night

I recently had a huge wardrobe clearout.

Out went:

Everything that doesn't fit and never will again (too small or too big! I've lost a load of weight in the last few years, then put a little bit back on and settled down at a point I can't seem to move from either up or down!) Even if you wait for stuff to fit, by the time it does it's either so far out of fashion, or you hate the sight of it so much that you just chuck it and go shopping anyway!

Stuff that fits but doesn't suit me, wrong colour, wrong cut, etc (keeping all of Trinny and Susannah's rules in mind!)

Stuff that I found I would keep trying to put on, but look in the mirror and say "nope, it's not quite right!" and put away again. I had a few of those, stuff that's been worn fifty times, but only for two minutes at a time! :roll:

So it all went to the local charity shop. It's hard when it's good stuff, good quality, and still in near perfect condition, but at least someone gets to wear it rather than it staying in a box under my bed. I did a little bit of shopping to fill in some gaps and now have a nice simple capsule wardrobe. It's key to try to work around a colour theme so that you can easily grab things quickly and know they will work together. There's still enough variety to please the girly part of me too!

Um, I've not tackled the shoe mountain though. :oops: I'm not a crazy shoe fiend, but I do seem to have rather a lot just now and they need a cull.

Kudo's to you!!

Declutter is it for me! - I'm an old pack rat! okay not so much anymore! I just use the golden rule unless somethings coming out can't bring in new!
i spend 15 minutes a day going through my old stuff!
I still have a lot to go through my real CD's some are for the pc and have data on them but guess what only 3% are marked! lol i'm kicking my self now! but at least i get to see what is on the disk and I bet you i mark it this time! if i don't toss it!

but when i know i dont have time to do something i go into my rooms and grab a trash bag and do surface cleaning just look for trash and stuff that isn't in place and i'm always amazed at how much i get done in just a few minutes!

The biggest thing I've done to simplify my life was to stop shopping. It always seemed for me that the more "stuff" I acquired the more complicated my life became. I don't go to malls, electronic stores, garage sales, or any place else except the natural food store to buy my groceries. When I need a pair of jeans or something, I go in and buy them and then i leave.

It's amazing too, because now that I am only in a mall once or twice a year, I realize how much I dislike their energy. I always just want to get outta there as fast as possible.!

off the top of my head
i don't bring paper into the house, i no longer buy books, everything is from the library or borrowed from friends (i do give them as gifts- a book is my usual gift)
my printer is disconnected
i moved from a 2 family house with attic and garage in the suburbs and gave away most of my to live in a studio in manhattan
now my backyard is central park and my gardeners/landscapers are paid by the city.
i have not regretted a fraction of a second
there's always more to do but accumulating stuff and getting rid of it is ongoing

I'm just starting out, there is too much "turbulence" in my mind at the moment to completely focus on simplifying my life, hopefully things will change in 2008.

I'm working on the books. I'm a bibliophile of the worst type...and I confirmed that today. I've consolidated all the books I own that I haven't read and have vowed to get through them in the next 1000 days. That's 142 books, I'm sad to say. I'm not allowed to buy another book until I do! (unless required for the class I'm taking).

But I've been getting rid of a lot of the books I have read via www. bookcrossing.com. I LOVE bookhopping!

Rebecca

A simple philosophy I try to live by: If I haven't used an item for one year, give it to someone who will.

I like Hakado's philosophy.

I try to live a very simple life at home and I love it. I don't feel like I'm depriving myself. In fact, I feel like I have more of what I really want in life right now: time and savings.

I'm about to start selling my books on eBay, and the ones that do not have value are going to the library for donation. I have a few I'm going to hold on to but 90% are going away.

I have recently gone through my boxes of stuff and got rid of anything I don't ever use. I'm not sure why I even kept some of the things anyway. I've never been a pack rat but even I held onto some pointless items.

I organized all of my paperwork and have one small file drawer that I use. I keep all my receipts and important documents in there. Nice and simple.

Everything I own can easily fit into a 5' x 8' trailer, with the exception of big items like my bed, washing machine and dryer. I don't own a television since I would only use one to watch DVDs and I do that on my laptop.

In conclusion, I agree with the Peace Pilgrim when she says:

Then there is the third relinquishment, and that is the relinquishment of all attachments. Material things must be put into their proper place. They are there for use. It's all right to use them; that's what they're there for. But when they've outlived their usefulness, be ready to relinquish them and perhaps pass them on to someone who does need them. Anything that you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions. We are not free.

http://www.peacepilgrim.net/steps1.htm

I think simplicity starts with not buying an item that will not be used often. I've disposed 3 garbage bags of items for my "100 things challenge" and during that I've discovered that most of the items that I've bought over the years were not a necessity for me, they only satisfied me for a couple of days that's all!

Therefore now I'm not buying any new clothes, new gadgets etc. If I need one I buy it used and sell it after using it, or if possible borrow it from one of my friends.

I started batching tasks together, as Tim Ferris recommends in his book the 4 hour work week. In the short time I've been doing it (only a few weeks), it's made me much more productive where I've applied it.

I started with my blogging, where I write a weeks worth of posts in a single shot, then let wordpress space out the postings. I'm going to start preparing most of my meals in advance, and batching my sales copywriting tasks together too.

I'm trying to keep it simple now... Mostly in my clothes and things I own. Of ocurse it's hard for me to choose sometimes. So I'm just keeping my books and cds, also I had gifted of sold some of my school materials, since I don't really use them.

Aiming to move out after finishing the University and then I will try to keep everything to the esential, but that would be somewhere around December of the next year.

I threw out (sold) all my dvds, cds, books (except some non-fiction stuff).
I have everything digital now. And I get my fictional books from the library.
This is on my desk right now : laptop,screen,pen,blackberry,notepad.

I'm not buying stuff anymore, the last thing I bought was my blackberry. And I bought that to get rid of the mp3player, notebook, small camera in my pockets.

I threw out (sold) all my dvds, cds, books (except some non-fiction stuff).
I have everything digital now. And I get my fictional books from the library.
This is on my desk right now : laptop,screen,pen,blackberry,notepad.

I'm not buying stuff anymore, the last thing I bought was my blackberry. And I bought that to get rid of the mp3player, notebook, small camera in my pockets.

-"Maikelv"

This sounds like what I'm striving towards. I'd like to have my entire media collection (DVD's, music, etc.) be entirely digital. However, the thing that most worries me is backup. If my external HD dies, I'm SOL (especially if I sold my hard copies). I'm thinking about investing in another external HD that I'll keep disconnected and in a safe place as a backup to my external HD in use.

It sounds like a nice plan spurlis, you could also try online back ups... I'm not really familiar with those but I have heard some nice they work pretty well... :)

I've looked into online backups only briefly. I'm not too ecstatic about paying a monthly fee for my backups...I think I can swallow a one-time hit (an external HD) better than a constant leeching of a subscription service. I'm going to look into it more though.