I grew up I a household where there was
always something to do. My mother made sure that at every given point, you are
upstanding doing something whether it’s cleaning dishes, folding clothes, going
to the shop to buy bread for breakfast or sweeping the compound. I totally
hated this. I wanted more rest time. When I grew up, cooking became one of the
tasks that I had to add into my daily life. It felt overwhelming at times and
one day I thought to myself, there must be a simpler way of doing things.
I went on YouTube and literally searched “How
to simplify your life”! That’s when I came across different vloggers giving advice
on how they do it. One “Simplifying your life vlog” led to “Minimalism” then “organisation”
then to a “Zen lifestyle.” That’s when I realized, these ideologies are
connected somehow; they all encourage on simplifying your home.
I previously have heard and met people who get anxious by just being at home. This anxiety is caused by a number of factors which sometimes includes environmental; some of which we may not be in a position to change.
“To simplify your life, you must simplify your surrounding, your home and even your lifestyle.” Simplifying your home is not difficult, it requires intention and consistency. One needs to accept that certain things do not work anymore and must discarded. There are certain ways you can simplify your home.
1. The Living room
The living room is where most of us spend
our day when at home especially on weekends. It is mostly the first place you
enter when you get into a house and also where one hosts friends and family
when they visit. Based on your passion, you may or may not have a TV in the
living room. Certain people supplement this with a bookshelf with great
collections. Some of great hacks I use:
1. a. Minimize
colour.
·Too much pop of colour causes visual clutter and
confusion. Minimal colour does not mean tone down the colours, it means having
little variation in the bright colours. Use of neutrals as the base colour and accenting
with the pop always works wonders. Black, white and grey will most certainly
work with any other colour you may want to use as your accent
2. b. Less is more
· Reduce the number of items in the room. Have one
large rug as opposed to many small rugs, Have 1 or 2 pieces of seats as opposed
to many armchairs together. This also applies to art. Have all your books in
one bookshelf. If it fills, discard before adding new.
3. c. Space collectibles cabinet
· For those who love to collect, have one cabinet
for this purpose. Collect items that can fit here and when storing, space the
items out. Too many items close to each other end up looking cluttered.
Bedrooms are rooms that easily collect
clutter. This maybe because they are hidden and rarely do we allow people in.
Growing up, bedrooms were also places where we kept things that you need hidden
like cleaning equipment, extra shopping etc. The bedroom being a place of rest should have
an environment that fits its intended purpose. My advice to keep the bedroom simplified:
1. a. Have
Lockable cabinets
· Have a set of bedside tables and a dresser to
keep all belongings away. Chargers, notebooks, perfumes, jewellery etc. should
be stored within drawers or cabinets. If you do not have a walk-in closet, have
a lockable wardrobe to put away all your clothes.
2. b. Have 2 pillows only
· A lot of you will not agree with me on this but
one of my current simplifying hack is to have 2 pillows on the bed only. Multiple
cushions make it difficult to keep the bedroom organised especially when we go
to bed.
3. c. Have wall mounted art
· Lots of people like to have small frames here
and there with pictures or small sculpture that have been collected over the
years. Well, the bedroom is not the best place to display this. Mount all art,
mirrors or word cut-outs on the wall to keep surfaces clear and easy to clean.
3. The Kitchen
This by far is one of the most difficult
places to keep simplified. I have been struggling with this for a while now
especially after moving to my new house where all my cabinets are open. This is
due to all the different types of items that I have to store that come in all
manner of shapes and sizes. Hacks that I’m currently using:
1. a. Have
sections
· Divide your cabinets into sections and
independently organise these sections. In my cabinets for example, I have a
section for cups. In this section, I organise my cups according to type. Most
of my cups are a usable size and therefore I don’t have too large mugs that I probably
would rarely use.
2.
b. Beware of
the numbers
· Lot of us love collecting crockery or cutlery.
One way I keep my kitchen simplified is to check the number of items I have.
For example, I have 3 wine glasses, 3 tall glasses and 12 short glasses. I use
the short glasses for pretty much everything i.e. smoothies, juice, shakes,
water etc. I choose not to have a variety of wine glasses, beer mugs, cognac glasses etc. to keep my collection simplified
3. c. 2 week grocery
· Groceries are something we sometimes have too
much of. I do not like to go to the market and therefore I shop for groceries
that can last me two weeks. How I manage to maintain fewer items is by listing
vegetables I intend to use within the two weeks and shopping for those only.
Other than my fridge vegetable section, I only have one 3 tiered rack for my
vegetables.
A simple home makes a Zen home.
I have been following Simple Happy Zen on YouTube for a while now. In
her videos, she concentrates on creating Zen in her everyday life. One way she
does this is by living a simple minimal life. Minimalism simplifies life. With
less stuff, one has less to take care of and less to worry about and eventually
simplifying life in some way. In her video Simplify your home in 4 steps, she broadly
talks about the effect of clutter. Watch
and be inspired.
What are some of the ways you simplify your life?
Get in touch with me and let me know:
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