I have a strong feeling that things are going to get a little more chaotic around here….in our house, with the country, and even with the climate. I just ended a job that I had for 8 years to pursue my business full time, which is a huge change for me! It’s like I’ve been planning and hoping for more time for my business ventures for years, and now that it’s finally here, I don’t know what I should do first. I have so many ideas! And there’s so much uncertainty, with many of my small business friends closing their doors recently. It’s a mess of hope and anxiety and change that I didn’t quite bargain for.
Are you experiencing some chaos in your life too? If so, you are in the right place. The heart and soul of this lifestyle blog is “simplicity.” The last thing we need is more complications, more work to do, and more perfectionism.
Our family is planning on moving this year, and we don’t know exactly where or when. This affects my business. It’s a lot to think about and it’s overwhelming. So what do I do? I meal prep. I dehydrate fruit. I clean and organize. I keep things moving forward, in small and simple ways. What else is a girl to do?
Over the next 6 months, I plan to declutter my life. We have a bigger place now, a huge garage, and an attic packed with old art supplies. We filled this place up over the past 7 years, and it’s hard to clean and manage. The mess stresses me out. We have many rescue pets that certainly add to it! Can you relate? We will be empty nesters soon, and we plan to downgrade. So my big goal this year: simplify everything! For the last few weeks I’ve made a list of a few small places in the houses to start declutterring. One cabinet and closet at a time. You don’t realize just how many unmatched Tupperware lids you acquire over 7 years until you finally go through that large cabinet in the corner of your kitchen that you’ve been scared of for years.
In the spirit of eating more healthy and less processed this year, I’ve also been spending my Sunday evenings meal prepping. It seems like it’s good chunk of my weekend, but it will save me time and energy having my meals ready all week. It also helps with portion control when you use portioned meal prep containers. I try to have a healthy plant based diet, but when I run out of my food and there’s a pantry full of everyone else’s, I tend to make up the difference with random snacks that completely ruin my diet. (That half empty bag of chocolate chips gets hit pretty hard). I’ve meal prepped quite a lot over the years, but this time it’s ALL prepped. Snacks, protein shakes, entrees- portioned out and ready to go. It’s actually been so comforting to not have to come up with recipes during the week or try to figure out a healthy snack that’s actually in my diet that I can make quickly. One less thing on my plate- so to speak.
It’s not much, just a few small changes, and it seems to require a little extra time that I don’t really have, but it’s great for my stress and mental health. Of course, I could spend less time scrolling or binging Netflix dramas, and actually have the time I need…but that’s for another week and another blog post. I don’t know about you, but I never have enough time to work out, take care of the teenager and pets, write my book, run my business, water my massive plant collection, clean the house, etc etc. The last thing I need is MORE to do. So, I’m on the road to purge, declutter, simplify, and minimize. It gives my brain a simple yet satisfying task that takes me away from doom scrolling on Zillow, pacing around in my studio, or just sitting on the couch blankly staring at the mess and chaos around me. When I’m overwhelmed with the giant task of moving an entire household, or figuring out my business, or finances…I’m going to just keep it small. Pick one easy task and focus on that. And move myself forward, one day, and one little step at a time.
Your homework this week:
Find a simple project to focus on. For example- I’m going through our Tupperware cabinet and throwing away one million lids. Stay off social media if you need to, to stay focused. Make a simple healthy dish for the week. (Check out our Facebook page Broke Betty- the Modern Martha Stewart for some of my fav recipes). Together, we will find a healthy balance in the chaos.
From one tired a$$ woman to another,
Jewels Bright