If I had to pick one word that reflects this season for us, this word will be: simplify!
In these past 2 years, we’ve been focused on simplifying all we can to make our life better, easier, with room to breath and enjoy life instead of just surviving it every day.
We have chosen to simplify our home, our homeschool curriculum, our daily routine, our meals… you name it.
As a family, simplifying our lives meant more time together. We were tired of working so much only to pay bills and crash every night feeling empty, exhausted, and sad for not spending more time together. We’re craving pursuing our calling and purpose to the fullness. We wanted to focus and spend our time on the things that really matter.
Don’t you also crave more meaning in your life?
A simple life gives us more time to pursue our God-given purpose and focus on the things that really matter.
Back in January this year, I decided to write a month-long 30 Days to Start Living a Life With Purpose, not knowing that God was going to use these posts to reveal a huge plan for our lives in this season.
We wrote down the vision, pull the sleeves up, and took action to start pursuing it right away!
As I wrote the posts, prayed, and discussed each topic with my husband, we discover that in order to find more meaning in this life we actually need much less than we have or think we need.
Our first step was to ditch our suburbia house and move into our brand new RV out in nature. Crazy, eh?
What an adjustment! But we cut our housing expenses in less than half and we have no regrets. We sold and/or gave away 90% of everything we had. And nope, we don’t miss the house or all stuff either.
Of course, you don’t have to move into an RV to simply and live the beyond blessed life we dreamed of.
Why Do You need to Simplify Your life?
Here is the definition of the word simplify:
“to make less complex or complicated; make plainer or easier”
Get it?
Girl, we have the power to make our lives less complicated and much easier!
I believe we are living in days where we are doing so much more than we were called to do. This whole hustle and multitasking thing is killing our joy, robbing our peace, and taking our family’s quality time away.
Our days are constantly feeling busy, exhausted, and entangled!
In fact, some of the related words to simplify are: facilitate, reduce, clarify, shorten, disentangle, order, and unscramble.
The reason you should want to simplify your life is so you can enjoy a life that feels peaceful, orderly, and joyful?
Here Are 4 Easy Ways to Simplify and Make Your Life Better Now.
1 – Stop Trying to Organize Your Mess And Get Rid of Your Clutter Instead!
Clutter in extra stuff you have been accumulating but are not using. If you are not using it, then it is not useful and it should go. Keep only what you love and use every day.
Be honest, go to your closet now and put all the clothes you wear all the time on one side and all the clothes you rarely wear on the other? Do the test! Try it also with your shoes, your books, your kitchen gadgets, your kids’ toys, etc… Let me know later your thoughts.
Less stuff makes everything so much more organized! Oh, and what a good feeling it brings when everything has its place.
Plus, I couldn’t believe the difference between how much time I spent cleaning, washing, folding, and putting away and how much time I spend now that we got rid of so much stuff!
2 – Do Less to Accomplish More.
By teaching my kids the habits of attention and perfect execution, I’ve learned so much! The more we have on our plate, the less we fully give each task the attention we should, and instead of doing it with excellence, we just do it and get it done to cross it off our to-do list. Can I get a witness?
The Do-Everything-Mom is exhausted, unhappy… she is burning out and not in fashion anymore.
You know what kind of mom our kids need instead?
The Fully-Present-Rested-Happy-Mom. Remember her?
Let’s just face it! None of us can do everything. We need priorities. This culture of multitasking and hustle is killing us and robbing our peace and joy. We must get out of our busy mom schedule and find margins to breathe in order to live a better life.
- Choose well what to put on your plate, dear friend.
- Aim to do 2-3 things well daily, instead of 10 that will make you feel like a failure
- Carefully consider what is really important in your agenda and what you should stop doing
- Learn to say “No!”, Even to yourself, Miss Addicted-To-Say-Yes-And-Add-A-Bit-More-To-Your-Plate
I want to encourage you to learn to create your ideal schedule, and I have a video teaching and a template for you.
3 – Start using the Beyond Blessed Life Planner
Have it all in one place! Organize your thoughts and appointments while reading and being inspired by The Word of God from cover to cover.
December last year, the Lord gave me a vision of what it meant to have a beyond blessed life and what I needed to prioritize in order to start breathing again, find more peace and joy, and accomplish more of the things that really matter.
That included:
- Putting God first
- Reading and meditating in God’s Word daily
- Pursuing our God-given goals monthly
- Setting attainable goals monthly and weekly
- Scheduling our days wisely always allowing margin to breathe
- Cultivating daily gratitude
- Strengthening our prayer life
- Praising God in every circumstance
- Taking better care of ourselves so we can live a healthy life
- Planning carefully our meals so we can eat healthily
Inspired by these 10 important things God has shown us we needed in order to live a beyond blessed life, I created the Beyond Blessed Life Planner.
Friend, He really wants us to live a blessed life. It’s time to simplify and prioritize things in your life so you can get rid of overwhelm.
Put God first, put things in the right place and order of importance, take better care of yourself as you simplify your life. You will see the difference it will make.
Grab your printable undated planner here for 40% off! This 390 pages Scripture-centered planner will make your life inspired, organized, and easier.
4 – Learn to Simplify Your Homeschool
Three years ago I was so overwhelmed and done with homeschooling. My kids hated it, they were overscheduled and overworked. I clearly had no idea of what I was doing. No guidance, no support, and no clear directions. I was shooting in all directions trying to hit a target I didn’t even know what.
We were doing way too much! Mostly necessarily. And the result was what I call homeschool misery. If you are feeling overwhelmed and in complete homeschool misery, try to simplify it!
I simplified our homeschool so much this past year! I cut down on curriculum and prioritize our learning time. And I am in love with our homeschool curriculum and family rhythm. We are so relaxed and learning so much together. Everyone is peaceful and happy now.
Here are a few tips to help you simplify your homeschool right away.
- Do the non-negotiable subjects daily: Bible, Language Arts, and Math. We also do memory work together every morning..
- If your Language Arts curriculum already includes copywork, don’t add another book just for handwriting!
- Use loop scheduling for spelling, vocabulary, writing, grammar, etc… pick one a day to work on for 30 minutes.
- Take turns doing subjects like Science, History, Social studies, and Geography. Here we do science Tuesdays and Thursday, while history/geography we do on Mondays and Wednesday, for example.
- Use a loop schedule for arts, music, poetry, hymns, nature studies, etc… pick one to work on for 30 minutes.
- Keep the lessons short.
- Outsource your homeschool! Yep, here we just started outsourcing Biology.
- Follow a daily routine that naturally weaves into your family natural rhythm of life.
These are just a few things that helped me simplify it. All the game-changer things I learned I teach other homeschool moms about it on my 5 Days to Your Best Homeschool Years. Honestly, not just game-changing but life-changing, as I also cover things like time management, learning styles, organization, identifying learning struggles, etc.
I’m on a mission to help other moms to get it right since the beginning or out of their homeschool misery too!
Read Also: 30 Super Easy Ways to Improve Your Homeschool
There you have, 4 ways to simplify your life and make it better.
When you simplify your life, you will find more time to pursue your God-given goals and life’s purpose.
Here Are Some Freebies To Make Your Life Easier
- Kids’ Weekly Homeschool & Routine Checklist Templates (teach your kids to be independent!)
- Free Mom’s Food/Focus Journal (this will make your life so much better!)
- Free Easy Meal Planner and Pantry Inventory (Plan your meals on 10 minutes/week only!)
- The Ultimate Homeschool Printable Collection (referral)
I hope this post will encourage, inspire, and give you some tools and action steps to improve your homeschool and life!
Grab more awesome freebies to help you simplify your life here!
Teach your kids independence and responsibility at easy!
Ana is the unhurried homeschool mom of 3, wife, health coach, social media and online marketing strategist, and blogger. She loves to encourage, inspire and empower moms to go from stressed to blessed by providing them with the tips, strategies, and resources they need to succeed. Ana is the founder of They Call Me Blessed and the creator of 5 Days to Your Best Homeschool Years, Grow Your Blog Partying in 30 Days, and the Beyond Blessed Life Planners. She leads a vibrant online community for moms on Facebook and you can connect with her at www.facebook.com/theycallmeblessedblog.
Decluttering is something I have been working on. Found a planner that I love to use and it helps big time.
I have a great time reading this post. Putting God first on everything will definitely help you to have a simple life.
I’ve gotten rid of many many of my things after moving in with my partner. It’s so refreshing.
Yes! I realized months ago that we just need to declutter and now I need to find the time to do that! We have so many toys that are going unplayed with and taking up valuable space! Great article, thanks for the tips!
Your tips are very realistic. I totally agree about stuff you don’t use. I am so irritated with clutter, I just want it all gone. I really believe that once you get rid of it you don’t miss it!
I agree. There is no point in keeping unused and unnecessary stuff.
Oh my goodness, I live by my planners. I can’t wait to put your freebies to use. Thank you!
I’ve always thought about simplifying our lives but I find it difficult to do so! I’m stuck at your 1st step here — it’s hard to get rid of the clutter.