The kitchen is the heartbeat of the home, but too often our kitchen counters can be messy and cluttered which can lead to us feeling stressed and overwhelmed. A clean kitchen is a happy and productive place to be! I shared last week about how I had completely cleared off my kitchen counters last summer, and the big difference that it made in my life. And if you follow me on Instagram you probably noticed that I spent most of a recent Friday sharing my process of clearing off my … [Read more...]
5 Ways Clearing Off My Kitchen Counters Changed My Life
Around this time last year, I completely cleared off my counters. As in, I removed everything from my counters except for soap by the sink and a small aloe plant. It was AMAZING. One night when my hubs and I were taking a walk after dinner, I told him that I thought completely clearing off the counters had changed my life. He chuckled and told me I was being a little dramatic. But I was serious. It really did change a lot of things about my life that were causing me stress and making me … [Read more...]
Want to Live More Intentionally? You Need to Simplify Your Life!
This post is part of the Blue Bike Blog Tour, which I’m thrilled to be part of. To learn more and join us, head here. In that moment, watching snow flurries fall against a redbrick backdrop out of a coffee-shop window in downtown Bend, I realized that unless our family made more intentional, proactive choices, instead of just constantly talking about wishing things weren’t so busy, we would go on forever wanting a different life. -Tsh Oxenrieder, Notes from a Blue Bike In the … [Read more...]
Tame the Toy Chaos: Setting Up a Toy Library
*Emily's note: Elizabeth and her family have been on a journey to simplify and minimize their stuff around their home for the past few years and back in September, she shared with us her plan for taking your home from Madness to Managable in just one weekend. In that post she mentioned her family's toy library, and we received a lot of comments and questions asking more about how to set one up, so she's sharing her family's toy library system with us today, perfect for getting control … [Read more...]
How to Have a Meaningful and Simple Christmas
By Elizabeth of RunningFamily.net, Contributing Writer Since we have given away over half of our household items (190 bags to charity), we have gained a whole new perspective on our consumer culture. Basically, it stinks. Yes, we need stuff to live as human beings, but truly over-abundance has become the curse of our post-modern world. Then comes Christmas. How do we celebrate Christmas without giving into the consumer culture when we have children who want presents? And what … [Read more...]
Creative, Eco-Friendly Gift Wrap Options {Green in 365: Christmas}
This is Day 321 of the Green in 365 series! By Hilary Kimes Bernstein of Accidentally Green Christmas is only 5 weeks away, so you’ll be wrapping gifts before you know it! Now’s an excellent time – if you have a spare moment – to start thinking about greener ways to wrap gifts. Since there’s no hurry yet, you can start looking through your house now for some creative ways to recycle and reuse materials for holiday gift wrapping. The fantastic news about gift giving … [Read more...]
How to Read Ebooks on Your Phone, Tablet or Computer (No e-reader needed!)
When I first started reading digital books, or ebooks, I was unsure if I would ever prefer ebooks over traditional books. It did take a little while to get used to reading this way, but now that I've been reading books on my Kindle, iPhone, and computer for several years now, I can enthusiastically say that I love it!! One of my favorite things about ebooks is that I can have so much information and so many options for reading, all at my fingertips! I like a little choice and variety in my … [Read more...]
Madness to Manageable: How to have a Better House by Monday {Green in 365}
This is Day 272 of the Green in 365 series! By Elizabeth Phillips of runningfamily.net, Contributing Writer *Emily's note: I'm thankful that my cousin Elizabeth is joining us as a contributing writer. She and her family have been on a journey toward simplifying and minimizing and getting rid of all the stuff in their home that they didn't truly need. I know from your comments, both on this post and on Facebook, that many of you are interested in this for your families too, and I hope … [Read more...]
Top 10 Reasons Why Our Family Wants to Live with Less Stuff
This is Day 200 of the Green in 365 series! Woo-hoo! Less Stuff! Better Life! That is the mantra of the simple living and minimalist community that seems to be growing in popularity around the web and blogosphere. And our family believes it, we just don't live it very well. My husband and I have been lamenting lately about how much stuff we have accumulated over the past 4 years of living in this house. We got rid of around half of our stuff when moving out of our old … [Read more...]
Simple + Birthday = Green {Green in 365: Celebrations}
This is Day 183 of the Green in 365 series! By Renee from Joyful Mom As a kid I loved my birthday! A cake and ice cream! A simple celebration of my birth. I am continuing that simple celebration with my kids as well. For their birthday they get to: pick out the cake, pick out dinner, and pick out a fun family activity to do. My husband has also starting taking the kids out to breakfast on the weekend nearest their birthday - he came up with that sweet idea and the … [Read more...]
