Designing the life you were meant to live is not only possible, it's is something you can take control of yourself and MAKE it happen. A great place to start is by making the commitment to simplify your life. As I said in the last episode, simplifying your life is one of the most impactful things you can do. As we bring Simple Life Together to a close, we wanted to offer a little update on where our simplicity journey has taken us over the last three years. This is Part 2 of that update. Do yourself a favor and listen to Episode 78 first ;) This is what will most likely be our final update episode, so if this is your first time listening in, I'd suggest you go back to around Episode 65: Strategic Simple Living to make sure this episode and Episode 78: Still Simplifying After All These Years Part 1 make sense. Of course if you want in on ALL the goodness, just start at Episode 1! It'll be worth it, guaranteed! Thank you all so much for listening in! It has been a great ride and I'm sure we've learned much more from you than you learned from us. Please...go out there enjoy your... Simple Life Together! Comprehensive list of past SLT Episodes

Simple Life Together

SLT079: Part 2 of Still Simplifying After All These Years

Simplifying your life is one of the most impactful things you can do to ensure you're living the lifestyle you've designed for yourself. The life you were meant to live. In this episode of Simple Life Together, we offer a little update on where our simplicity journey has taken us over the last three years. And...it has been amazing! This is an update episode, so if this is your first time listening in, I'd suggest you go back to around Episode 65: Strategic Simple Living to make sure this episode and Episode 79: Still Simplifying After All These Years Part 2 make sense. Of course if you want in on ALL the goodness, just start at Episode 1! It'll be worth it, guaranteed! Comprehensive list of past SLT Episodes

SLT078: Still Simplifying After All These Years Part 1

It's been a while since our last episode and many of you said you wanted an update. So, we posted on the Simple Life Together Facebook page and the Edit & Forget It Facebook Group and asked for your questions. Since we're in the thick of the Holiday season, many of you had holiday simplicity related questions. Others were looking for lifestyle answers for their questions, and many just wanted to know what we've been up to. Well...we sat down for over an hour last night and just kinda "freestyled" it. Read More... Topic: Simple Answers to Listener Questions Update on Vanessa's S.I.M.P.L.E. Organizing System Course Vanessa launched her S.I.M.P.L.E. Organizing System course to a small list of people and it went really well! That said, we're not really happy with how the course is currently hosted on an external site. The content is proven and system works, but we’re just not happy with any platforms we’ve tried. They’re too expensive and seem clunky. So we’re considering just making the course an “in your Inbox” course, so people don’t have to log into an outside website, remember another log in, hope the site isn’t slow, etc. People are comfortable in their Inbox. They go there every day. And it would lower the cost of the course dramatically. So I’m working hard on that, to bring Vanessa’s amazing system to more people in a simpler way. If you want to be in the loop with Vanessa’s course, the S.I.M.P.L.E. Organizing System, you can sign up for updates at GetOrganizedSOS.com and you'll be the first to know when things are ready to go! Listener Questions Simplifying The Holidays - Tips on storing your Christmas decorations and paraphernalia...for next year - Giving experiences instead of things - How to keep the holidays simple - How to be present...NOT perfect...for the holidays - Tips on simplifying cleanup after the meal - Creative non-material gift giving ideas - Favorite holiday traditions - What to tell people when they ask what gifts you'd like - Favorite podcasts, audio books, blogs, simple living role models you find inspiring, iPhone apps as gifts New Year's Goals, Resolutions - Setting  goals and resolutions for the New Year or any time - How to stop procrastinating - Simplicity when no one is watching or listening What We've Been Up To - Expectations vs. Reality as we transition - Updates on our move, status of the house build, etc - How Sunshine, our son, and his mom are dealing with our move - Our teardrop camper, favorite trips this year, planned trips for next year - New business ventures/challenges for moving Vanessa’s organizing business - When we're getting our nationally syndicated talk show on HGTV and/or Oprah (we loved this question!) - Changes/updates to our exercising routines or smoothie making/juicing Question: So, we answered your questions...how about you answer one for us? What are your plans for the New Year? How do you plan on incorporating more simplicity into your life? We’d love to know! Announcements: Feedback: We've had lots of great comments on iTunes...thank you so much! The show went a little longer than we expected, so we'll be sure to read the comments on the next episode. Shownotes: You can download a PDF of our show prep, too. Resources and Links: You can help support SimpleLifeTogether.com by using our Amazon Affiliate Link for any purchases you must make. Thanks! The Pursuit of Perfect by Tal Ben-Shahar Comprehensive list of past SLT Episodes Photo Credit 

SLT077: Simple Answers to Listener Questions

There are so many reasons to simplify. But one very lucrative reason to simplify is to increase the sale price of your home and set the stage for a quick sale. So, let's talk a little about simplifying to sell your home. To do that, we’re going to share some of our experiences with doing exactly that over the last couple of months, so if you’re selling your home...or know someone else who is...or if you’re simply looking for a fresh start in your current home, maybe we can shed some light on things that worked for us. Read More... Topic:  4 Key Points To Keep In Mind When Simplifying To Sell Your Home Topic We recently had a fantastic sales experience when selling our home in preparation to move to East Aurora, NY. Our home went up for sale the evening of the 15th of May...and before our realtor was even able to put a sign up in the yard, it sold on the morning of 16May! The first 3 couples that looked at the home all put in solid offers. The first 2 for $10k over asking price! We accepted both and had a back-up offer throughout the entire closing period (yeah)! In the end, it sold for about $35K more than we had originally even hoped for! Background So as we mentioned in the last episode, we’re moving from the suburbs of San Antonio, Texas to the little village of East Aurora, NY, home of America’s simplicity movement back in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Well, back in December of 2014, I was doing some backwards planning and realized that in order to build our new home on schedule, the right thing to do was sell our house in San Antonio in the Spring of 2015. So, we planned on listing at the start of the real estate season...1 May. But in the mean time, all through Jan, Feb, March and April, I had been working out all the curriculum, scripts, testing the right platform, etc, for Vanessa’s soon to be released training product, Get Organized SOS, which is an intensive online course that teaches her proven system to organize any space. All this while prepping our house for sale. Vanessa and I planned to work on things in the background during this busy time, and launch a beta or test program in the late summer. But while meeting with my marketing coach in April, he challenged me to launch the beta NOW. I insisted that now wasn’t the time... Vanessa was actually in the middle of attending her week long annual professional organizers conference... Plus we were prepping a house, listing a house, selling a house, packing to move and moving into a new place over the course of the next 6 weeks. And, while Vanessa and I had all the material ready, we had exactly NO videos done! Plus, some of the video conferencing platforms were new to us. We needed more prep time! No...now was not the time to launch! But as any good coach does, he gently nudged me (actually, it felt more like my old paratrooper days as he kicked my butt out the jump door of the plane)! I called Vanessa and she said “Let’s go for it!!” No guts, no glory, right? So we launched the beta, shot the videos, and...it was awesome! But, man, it was hectic!!! The beta lasted all of May, and all the while we were prepping our home and the World Shedquarters for sale. Our home went up for sale, sold...done! Trouble was, now we had to find a place to live. So Here’s How It All Went Down... There were 4 key simplicity points that led to that great sale experience, our ability to to juggle a "crazy busy" schedule and still stay sane. And candidly, you could glean something from each one of these points even if you’re not simplifying to sell your home, but just looking for a fresh start or some positive change in your life. So here goes! Key Point #1: Make sure your desires are in line with your life plan, your goals are in line with your desires, and your actions are in line with your goals. Way back in Episode 32, we talked about how the choices we make impact everything in our lives. If you’ve been listening to the show for a while,

SLT076: Simplifying to Sell Your Home

Back in Episode 65, we talked about Strategic Simple Living and shared a few great tools you can use to plan your simple living strategy. Specifically, we used the 4 Direction Ideation Tool of Looking Outward/Inward/Backward/Forward as lenses for developing your strategy. We shared how we used this tool when downsizing for trying to find the perfect area for us to live. But when we came to a decision point, we used a different framework for evaluating our final choice...and actually choosing where we're moving to. So, armed with all we learned from the 4 Direction Ideation Tool process, we did our final analysis through the lenses of the 4 major areas of our life: Home, Work, Community, and Self.  And yep, we're moving! We don't have a hard and fast timeline yet, but we actually put our money where our collective mouth is and bought a lot to build on! Read More... Topic:  4 Critical Areas You Need to Consider When Downsizing Background So there are 4 critical areas you need to consider when downsizing, moving, simplifying, or making any other major change in life if you want to achieve and maintain some kind of congruence. They are Home, Work, Community, and Self. I borrowed and tweaked some definitions for these from a course I took through Wharton taught by Stew Friedman. But the true key is that you need to define these areas for yourself. What works for you might be completely different from what works for us and that’s fine. Again, the goal is to achieve some congruity between these areas and create what Dr Friedman calls “4 Way Wins.” A 4 Way Win is an activity that has a positive impact on each of the four major areas of your life. Again, those are Home, Work, Community, and Self. Example Continuing on with our example of looking for the ideal place for us to live, you can listen in to the episode and hear how we looked at those 4 critical life areas and how they impacted our downsizing efforts and our simplicity journey. So the big announcement for us is that we're moving to East Aurora, New York. Yeah...we know...we're the family that is actually moving TO the Buffalo, NY area! But we know exactly what we're getting into! I'm from Buffalo and it'll be great to get back there after 31 years away, and living all over the world. And the little village of East Aurora embodies so much of what we're looking for in a small town community. If you listen back to Episode 65 you'll be amazed at what we said we were looking for, and what East Aurora has to offer. All except "mild winters," that is! "Anyhoos" (as Vanessa would say), here's a quick video of some of the history of East Aurora and it's influence on simplicity. You'll see right off why we're attracted to it! If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Four Areas So we've mentioned these four major life areas. Let’s address these one at a time. If you listen in to the show, you'll see how we used each of these to evaluate where we’re going to call home. The first area is Home. The home, or family, can include the people (or animals) you live with, your family of origin (parents, siblings, and others), or your family of creation (spouse, partner, significant other, children, and others). We include our physical home too. For us, we want that to be an outgrowth of our relationship with those close to us, and serve as a setting for interaction with them. The second area is Work. Now, this could be different for everyone. For most people, this is your job... what you do for a living or, if you're between jobs, what you're aiming to do next. If you're in school, then consider school as part of your work domain. You can include here the wide array of things you do as part of your career. Then we have Community. Community can mean friends, neighbors, social groups, religious institutions, charitable activities, political committees, membership in nonprofit organizations,

SLT075: 4 Critical Areas You Need to Consider When Downsizing

When it comes to simple living, we can all use a few more tips to help us along. We’re going to share 3 more simple living habits you can start using right now for a better today and tomorrow. One of our most popular shows was Episode 55, 7 Habits for Highly Effective Simplicity. We passed along what we feel are the top 7 habits you can develop to bring some serious simplicity into your life. That show was shared thousands of times...over 2300 times on our Pinterest page alone! Well, today we’re going to share 3 more. So let’s jump right in!  Read More... Note: Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  3 Simple Living Habits You Can Use Right Now Habit 1: When searching for a solution, start with yourself first. Chances are, just like Dorothy with the ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz, you had the power all along. Tap into resources you already have. Shop in your own closet, pantry, etc… When you work to solve your own problems, you are exercising your innovation muscles! Too often we ask someone else for an answer. At least Google it before you ask. By looking outside yourself, automatically you established a need...a need that didn’t exist. That makes you a consumer instead of a producer and plays right into the hands of the marketing messages we’re subjected to 3-5000 times a day. Habit 2: Often, establishing a simplicity habit involves establishing a framework that helps you deal with things in a predictable manner. Try experimenting with different frameworks to see what works for you! Here are 3 we use: The W-I-N Framework: One I’ve been using more and more lately is the WIN framework. WIN stands for “What’s Important Now” and Vanessa first heard about it in Greg McKeown's excellent book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. The Eisenhauer Matrix Framework: You’ve probably seen this one before, but just imagine a simple foursquare matrix. The vertical axis plots importance and the horizontal axis plots urgency. So if you picture the four squares, the top/left square is Box 1, Urgent & Important box. The top right is Box 2, Less Urgent & Important. Box 3 on the bottom/left is Less Important & Urgent. And finally, Box 4, Less Important & Less urgent, is on the bottom/right. The folks over at Eisenhauer.me did a great little video: Isn’t that the truth! “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” The S.I.M.P.L.E. Method of Organizing Framework: Another framework is Vanessa's S.I.M.P.L.E. Method© of organizing which she breaks down in great detail in her book Super Mom vs Supermom: Simplicity Tips for Busy Moms Here’s an outline: Strategize: • What are your needs? • How do you want your space to look, feel, and function like? Identify: • What’s working? • What’s not working? • What are your limitations of the space? • Draw or take pictures of the space. • Take measurements. Make Piles: • Clear your space one area at a time. • Work from left to right and top to bottom. • Sort into general categories…like with like. • Don’t edit yet! Make the piles first to see what and how much you have. Pare Down and Edit: • After you make piles then tackle one pile at a time…one item at a time. • Decide: Do I USE it? Do I LOVE it? Do I NEED it? • If yes…KEEP it! • If no…LET it GO! • When you’re done editing, remove unwanted and unneeded items immediately! Let's Organize: • Assign zones. • Keep like items with like items. • Put it where you use it. • Put frequently used items within arms reach. • Make sure things are easy to get to…think accessibility; open bins, simple systems, etc. • Don’t compromise safety for organization. • Use containers and containers within containers. • Label, label, label! Evaluate and Maintain: • Establish routines. • Develop habits.

SLT074: 3 Simple Living Habits You Can Use Right Now

Okay, folks. We had intended this episode to be more of a “finality”. It was supposed to be more of a "farewell" episode and post. But the truth is, we’re having trouble with this because Simple Life Together is such a big part of our life. If it sounds like we’re waffling a bit, that’s because...well, we are! So I guess you could say that we're simplifying Simple Life Together. We should just jump right into the dirty work and break it all down for you...  Read More... Note: Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  Simplifying Simple Life Together It Hasn’t Been an Easy Decision to Simplify Simple Life Together! On the last episode and up until we went to SimpleREV in Minneapolis we intended for this episode to be our last for quite a while. Here's why: What started off as us documenting our journey to simplify our lives, turned into something more...something better than we expected! We unexpectedly built an amazing community of supporters and like-minded people in 154 countries. We’ve gotten and continue to receive such heart felt support from that community...especially when we shared some of our toughest challenges. We’ve also made some amazing friends along the way. We were blessed with opportunities to speak about our life and our podcast at different conferences and on different podcasts. We’ve been blessed with the opportunity to meet many of the people who inspired us both personally and professionally on our journey. Folks like Leo Babauta, Joshua Becker, Patrick Rohne, Mohammed Tohami, The Minimalists, Joel Zaslofsky, Dan Miller...just to name a few. Some of them have become good friends. Even better...we’ve gotten to meet some of our loyal listeners and supporters...how cool is that? And, we’ve helped others in the community who are just starting out and making a real impact; folks like Dave & Sheryl Balthrop, Chris & Sarah Wehkamp, JF and Cheryl Moreau, Lara Blair, and others. We were blown away by the amount of positive feedback about the show and how we influenced others to simplify their lives too. Feedback that brought us to tears. We never thought we could impact people the way that we did...and be impacted by them, as well. The podcast helped us to really focus on what was important to us...and solidified our passion for simplicity and to live more deliberate and meaningful lives But Producing the Show Isn’t All Sunshine Although we love sharing and teaching others, over time, the success of our podcast led to the feeling of obligation of having to produce awesome content ALL the time. And let’s face it...our lives just aren’t THAT interesting that we have some type of major topic to talk about for 40 minutes each week. Still, we started realizing that the show was shifting from documenting our journey to “having” to produce good educational content each and every week, then every two weeks. Some of which took a lot of time to either research or compile coherent thoughts. And we started to feel the pressures of the podcast from: Coming up with content Arranging our week to fit in research, recording and editing Dealing with tension between the two of us...running out of content, waiting until the last minute to produce, the time obligation, defining roles and expectations, mistaken assumptions of who should do what, etc. We get along really well and, for the most part, what you hear on the show is what you get with us. But every once in a while, working together on the show stretched things a little bit. Not too often, but definitely more so when we started feeling like we HAD to do a show as opposed to the times when we just couldn’t wait to share something. Hopefully, those tougher times were transparent on your end and you weren’t any the wiser. They weren’t often, but hey,

SLT073: Simplifying Simple Life Together

Vanessa was getting ready to throw away a magazine (because of course, she practices the "one in one out rule") and the headline on the cover was: The Balanced Life! She told me that she paused for a moment and thought, "Do I have balance?" We hear so much about it, but how do we define work life balance? What does it really mean? Can we really achieve a balanced life? And so we got to talking about balance for a while, and thought we’d explore that a little more…. (Read more...) Note: Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  How Do You Define Work Life Balance? It seems like the whole "balance thing" has become a buzz word. We hear about balance all the time in magazines, on television, supposed experts, life coaches, etc. Terms like work life balance, balanced diet, and even balanced budget are pretty pervasive.  But what does balance really mean in your life? We think "balanced" is different for everyone and there’s no one prescribed balanced lifestyle that works for everyone. Nor is there one way to define work life balance in a way that's universal. So, we took a look at it from our own experience. For us, work life balance includes myriad topics we've discussed on previous shows, such as: The right size home The right amount of time spent on work Valuing experiences vs things Freedom from stuff...in exchange for more free time to do what we love Healthier living and relationships Working as part of a team, focused on a larger goal...at work and/or in the community Essentially, we define work life balance as living a fulfilling life...that will include ups and downs but overall full of happiness, joy, etc. As we talked about what this balance meant to us, there were some pretty specific things that were NOT included in our definition of work life balance, too. Here are some: We don’t think it means being on permanent vacation It’s not about striving to eliminate all challenges in  our life...that’s part of life! Sure, balance is easier when you don’t have challenges, but that’s not real life! It’s not about eliminating everything...just all the "junk" So what gets in our way of achieving a good balance? For us, historically it's been things like: Putting an overemphasis on work related tasks when it interferes in other areas of our lives Over obligating ourselves monetarily through too much spending Over obligating ourselves by accepting too many commitments that sap our time Consumerism always makes you feel like you’re missing something, and if you have this item, take this pill, look this way, then your life will be complete Overindulging in one way or another, such as with: Food Drink Technology Speaking of technology, that deserves a deeper look. What’s the problem with technology? It’s invading every realm of our personal space, that's what! It's even encroaching on the most intimate of spaces and events: The bathroom The shower The bedroom Family meals When we overindulge in technology, it distracts our attention and focus, and affects our ability to communicate and deal. For the younger generation of teens, it's even impacted the way they communicate. Many rely on electronic communication versus face to face communication. In some, this has hindered their ability to deal with confrontation. Technology, when abused, hinders our ability to be present...to pause, and be in the moment; to be alone in our thoughts to contemplate.  Ironically most people say they want to "give it up", but never do. How We Strive To Create Balance So here are some ways we try to maintain to ensure we stay true to how we define work life balance. We: Review our goals Reward ourselves when we achieve our goals or reach milestones

SLT072: How Do You Define Work Life Balance?

Never underestimate the power of habit. In mid-April of 2014, I decided that I needed to make some positive changes to my morning ritual. I've talked about my morning ritual a few times on the Simple Life Together podcast, and we discussed the power of habit, routines and rituals back in Episode 30 and also in one of our most popular episodes, The 7 Habits for Highly Effective Simplicity in Episode 55. But recently I read a book on habits (well, actually I listened to the audio version) by Charles Duhigg, titled The Power of Habit. But let me back up just a bit and talk about my positive changes to how I spend my early morning. Following a visit to the doctor and the results of some medical testing, I decided that I need to get more active. Of course, my wife Vanessa had been encouraging me to do this for years...but you know how sometimes when the "advice" comes from a spouse or other close family member you occasionally ignore it? Well, yeah...that. Moving on... Note: The school year starts soon! Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  The Power of Habit I had always intended to start walking, but I never seemed to be able to fit it into my day. But as I've explained in the past my morning ritual consisted of me waking up about 2 hours earlier than the rest of the family, making a delicious cup of coffee with my Aeropress, and sitting down for some "me" time behind my Macbook Pro. I knew that had to change and I intended to not only establish a new walking habit, but to eventually turn that into a ritual as well. Vanessa and I have defined "ritual" as a mindful act or actions that have an overarching benefit. Think of a ritual as the sweet spot; something that probably needs to be done, that you actually enjoy doing. So as I started off to develop my new habit of walking, The Power of Habit was playing in my earbuds on Day One. As I listened and walked, Mr Duhigg explained what he calls his Habit Loop which consists of Cue, Routine, and Reward. He also highlights what he calls "Keystone Habits;" small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that carry over into other aspects of their lives. Duhigg contends that Keystone Habits have a ripple effect into other parts of your life, creating positive change unexpectedly. He used examples of exercise and eating together as a family as Keystone Habits, and I'd use our family time around the fire while camping (that "fire circle" I've mentioned before) as a prime example, too. Well, thats exactly what I was hoping to develop with my walk, a firm Keystone Habit. So I started off deliberately to ensure I did all I could do to make this work. Knowing there are many ways to interrupt developing a new habit, here are a few things I did to help ensure success: I prepared the night before by setting out my walking shorts, shirt, my RHA noise canceling aluminum ear buds, and Vibram Five Fingers. Yes, I wear (and LOVE) those funky toe shoes! I set my alarm to ensure I walk at the same time every day. When the alarm goes off in the morning, I turn it off, and say to myself "Get up, get out!" Some days are just tough and it's easy to make excuses. But I know that once I'm out there on my walk I feel better. So I say every morning...Get up, get out! So once I'm up I go make my coffee. My ritual includes my beloved Aeropress and Cafe Bustelo Espresso. Armed with my coffee and my iPhone loaded with an audiobook or good supply of podcasts, I head out for between 1-1.5 hours and cover 4+ miles each and every day. And I LOVE it! Sure enough, this walking habit has matured from a simple habit, to a routine, and is now a ritual that I enjoy. It has also become what Mr. Duhigg would refer to as a Keystone Habit, as well, spreading other goodness into various areas of my li...

SLT071: The Power of Habit

We’ve mentioned in previous shows...sometimes simple isn’t easy. Consistent, voluntary simplicity can be even harder. Matter of fact, it can be an awful lot of work to make simple easy, but in the end we’re opting to live simply intentionally...in as many areas of our life as we can. And that’s going to take a little exploration and effort. After our presentation at the NAPO 2014 Conference in Phoenix, we met a certified professional organizer, Miriam Ortiz y Pino, who turned out to have a little more in common with us than being an organizer like Vanessa.  She’s been practicing voluntary simplicity for a long time now and after talking with her we thought it would  be great to have her on the show to share her thoughts on what voluntary simplicity means to her, and also tap into some of her tips and advice to those who want to simplify their lives too. Note: The school year starts soon! Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  Voluntary Simplicity with Miriam Ortiz Y Pino Interview Miriam Ortiz y Pino  is a Certified Professional Organizer, Simplicity Expert & Coach, Entrepreneur, Writer, Blogger and Creator of The Streamlined System. For over 15 years Miriam has worked with entrepreneurs and other busy and creative people to eliminate the distractions, simplify systems and create routines so they can get it all done practically effortlessly.  The More than Organized Blog was recognized as one of the top 5 Simplicity Blogs in the world and she has contributed to several books. You can check out her website,http://www.morethanorganized.net, for free articles, resources, and to sign up for her FREE "One Minute Mail (& email) Solution Kit. 1. Tells us a little more about what you do and how you make lives simpler. 2. Everyone enjoys a little backstory...can you share with us a little bit about your life before becoming a professional organizer (in other words...were you always organized or did you have to learn to become more organized, etc)? 3. Living a life of simplicity is different for everyone, can you share with us what simplicity means to you and how you embrace it in your own life? 4. In your experience, what are the most common areas people request your help for getting organized and adopting simplicity?  Why do you think they struggle? 5. Getting and staying organized and embracing a life of simplicity is more than just buying organizing products, watching “how to” videos, reading books or even hiring a professional organizer.  Can you share with our listeners your advice on what it takes to embrace a simpler and more organized life...and make it stick? 6. You offer more tips and advice on your blog and website. Can you tell us little more about your workshops, products and services? I know we have a lot of DIYers out there... 7. Is there anything else you’d like to share? 8. What is the best way for our listeners to learn more about you? Question: So, what does voluntary simplicity mean to you? How are you practicing voluntary simplicity in your life? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. We’d love to know! Be sure to leave a comment below. Qs & Comments: Announcements: Would You Like To Share Your Simple Life Story? We'd love to interview you for the show! Have you started your own simple living journey and learned some lessons that may help fellow Simple Life Together listeners? If you'd like to share your story then drop us an email at Dan@SimpleLifeTogether.com or Vanessa@SimpleLifeTogether.com SimpleREV Tickets: Early Bird tickets are now available for SimpleREV! Only 50 tickets will be offered at the Early Bird pricing so make sure you lock yours in today. SimpleRev is being held on Oct 3-4, 2014, in beautiful downtown Minneapolis on the University of St Thomas campus.

SLT070: Voluntary Simplicity with Miriam Ortiz y Pino

The number one reason we love simplicity is that it gives us flexibility to live our lives the way we want. Sure, it takes some real effort to get to the point where we could drop what we were doing and take a 30-day vacation, but once you get to the point where you can shape your life to do the things you want to do, and live they way you want to live, you'll love simplicity too. It is so worth the effort and probably how you'd like to live your life too. During our recent trip, we covered over 6600 miles with our tiny teardrop camper in tow. But thankfully, we didn't drag along a lot of complexity with us as we traveled. But simplicity doesn't just "happen." Some deliberate decisions and actions ensured we could enjoy our experiences together as a family without some of the misfortunes of the Griswolds! Note: The school year starts soon! Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  Why We Love Simplicity We absolutely love the freedom to spend our time (for the most part) the way we want to. That's why we love simplicity. All the things we have done to simplify our lives over the past couple of years is really starting to pay off. So when the time came for our summer vacation, all the dividends of our efforts manifested themselves throughout every facet of our trip. Now, we always like to leave you with some solid take-aways for every blog post or podcast episode we do. So, the take-away for you isn’t us talking about our trip...I mean, who cares about that other than us, right? But rather, the things we experienced tie directly in with almost everything we talk about on Simple Life Together. No doubt you take what we talk about and adapt it for yourself, right? Well, that’s exactly what you’ll do with this info, too. And if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll even save you some time or effort by helping you avoid some of the mistakes we’ve made. So here are a few key points from the show: How we made time to take a vacation, chose to align our work w/our Freedom Pillar, and then juggling clients to free up vacation time. Why we went where we did and a little about each stop, including: Florida Nashville: Mastermind group and dinner with a fellow CPO, her garden, small town, etc... Other stops in the Blue Ridge area Why one of our ‘hopeful’ spots to live in ended up being a "no-go" for us Meeting some full-time RVers Stopped for an over-nighter in Shenandoah NP. Look out for lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). Well, just bears, actually. A visit to Luray Caverns Why we went to Hershey, PA (duh...chocolate!) Lake Placid in the Adirondacks The Buffalo, NY area and Sprague Brook Park Highlights from the trip: Meeting George & Sheila Spending time with family (basically, for all the same reasons we talked about in Episode 35) Kevin & Evette’s amazing eggs! Exploring Buffalo Visiting Elvis' Graceland We wonder what it would be like to live that lifestyle sometimes, but I’d bet Elvis would have traded with us on a few occasions. Thanks to Big Jim Sykes of Sirius/XM Elvis Radio at Graceland for letting me explore and get a photo op in the studio setup Small space living in our teardrop, and our son in his Hennessy Hammock Enjoying simple foods and not eating too much ‘junk’ on the road More 'Wins' and Lessons Learned Again, we LOVE our Merino wool clothing choices and our techniques of packing light! You can't beat the good ol' fashioned fun of sitting around a campfire! In essence, we really enjoyed slacklining, fishing, time with family For another take on spending time with family, check out the new blog by Chris & Sarah Wehkamp of ParentsWho.com There's a big difference between "living the dream" and just "buying the dream"!

SLT069: Head Over Heels In Love With Simplicity

We've been sharing our story about simple living here since the tail end of 2012. But we know we're not alone when it comes to simple living! We put the call out in our last episode for more volunteers to share their story here on Simple Life Together. Well...you answered the call and and today we have our second Profile in Simplicity guest who is going to share how she's simplified her life, too! But before we tell you any more about our special guest, we want to give you a little reminder/background about this segment. Read more... Background for Simplicity Profiles: We're looking at doing Simplicity Profiles every month or so. We’ll start the show with our featured guest and talk with them about simple living, how they embraced simplicity, what they've learned along the way, etc. We think the talks will last anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes. Sometimes longer, sometimes not. Then we'll do the announcements, sometimes a Thing segment, and sometimes the Qs & Comments segment. We think it’s great to highlight your stories, and for you to be able to share: Your triumphs Your challenges Your struggles Things you’ve learned along the way Each of us has our own story when it comes to simplifying, simplicity and simple living. Sharing what you’ve learned, what you’d do differently, advice you’d share, and even mistakes you’ve made on your journey, helps us all grow individually and as a community. We’re all in this together, so we’d all love to hear from YOU. When we started Simple Life Together, we kind of felt alone on our journey. We really wondered who would want to listen in and weren’t sure whether or not what we had to say mattered to anyone but us. Well, you’ve changed that for us, and we want to change that for you, too. We’ve been incredibly inspired by stories from the Edit & Forget It Facebook page, emails we’ve received, voicemails...you name it. YOUR story is unique...and if you’re willing to share it, it can serve to inspire others to follow your path. We’ve found out first-hand that something we mention in passing on the show can have a positive impact on someone on the other side of the world...and make their life a little better. Your story can do that too! The world is waiting, and we want to share our platform so you can share your story just like we have. Simplicity Profile: Liz Neighbors is joining us to share a bit about her simplicity journey. Liz and her husband Griff split their time between Connecticut and spending the summers in Cape Cod with friends. Liz worked in retail for years but stayed home to raise her kids for the past 18 years. In that time, Liz has blogged, ran an eBay business, and started getting that “it’s all too much feeling” lately like so many of us. She’s been a Simple Life Together and Edit & Forget It Challenge supporter right from the start. And get this...Liz started a mission of no shopping back in November of 2013 and is 7 months into her journey! Tell us how you got started on your simple living journey...and maybe paint a picture of what your life was like before you started simplifying your life. What was the catalyst? Everyone struggles in some way when it comes to simplifying or editing, or making major life changes. What has been the biggest challenge(s) for you along the way? And do you still struggle with any? What does your life look like now that you've been on your simplifying journey? Can you share with us some things you've learned along the way or things that you may have learned from others on the Edit and Forget It FB page? Tell us how people can find you Question: So, how have you been simplifying your life!  We’d love to know. Be sure to leave a comment below. Thing Segment: Vanessa: Aereo….watch tv online. It's a nice alternative to cable and allows us to watch more local channels on our laptop or on our big screen television via Air Play. It was especially nice to watch the NBA playoffs and finals where the San A...

SLT068: Simple Living with Liz Neighbors

Way back in Episode 47, Simplify Your Wardrobe, we explored our relationship with the clothes that we wear and asked ourselves some questions such as: So what things shape your current wardrobe? What does your wardrobe look like now? What would your ideal wardrobe look like? and What are some of your favorite pieces and why? We also introduced that we were going to give a microcourse called Dress With Less a try, cutting our wardrobes down to 33 pieces each for 3 months. Well, it's been over 6 months and 20  Simple Life Together episodes since then and while we've mentioned quite a bit about our progress along the way, we thought we owed you a good, solid wrap up. So this is it!  Read more... Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  Simplify Your Wardrobe Redux When your goal is to simplify your wardrobe, you don’t expect to learn a whole lot of lessons about your attachment to “stuff." But that’s just what happened with us. Over 6 months ago, Vanessa packed up most of her clothes and put them up in the attic. And then just a few days ago, we sat down and started talking about the process and what we've learned along the way. As we talked, I said, "You know what? This is good stuff. We really ought to be recording this!" So we moved on out to our World Shedquarters, sat behind the mics and just had a candid conversation. Vanessa even shared a few journal entries she did early on in the challenge. Here's a sample: Day 2: Well I woke up and and the first thing I did, even before going to the restroom was check out my wardrobe. Yup...still pretty empty...nothing really changed. So I cried again. I was grumpy all day...frustrated with the challenge...even more frustrated with my emotions. But miraculously as the day went on, I started to settle into the idea of living with less. It’s not like this was life or death….it’s a simple challenge….and one I don’t have to commit to if I don’t want to. So that seemed to brighten my spirits a little. And with that….I revisited my closet, made some final edits and settled into the fact that this was just a challenge...only a 3 month challenge.  So, have a listen and consider this episode a inside look at our own personal triumphs and struggles. It was just Vanessa and me having a little one on one talk, but we thought you’d appreciate being a fly on the wall. If you decide that you want to simplify your wardrobe a bit, too, we'd love to hear some of your lessons learned. Question: So, what are some things you’ve learned along the way as you try to simplify your wardrobe? How did you handle your struggles? Did you have support along the way? Was 33 the right number of things for you, or was it more or less? We’d love to know! Be sure to leave a comment below. Qs and Comments, iTunes Reviews Thanks to mcevjael who wrote: "Great content...every episode. 5 Stars. It's obvious how much prep work goes into each episode. Thanks for the valuable content and the easy listening."  Announcements: Would You Like To Share Your Simple Life Story? We'd love to interview you for the show! Have you started your own simple living journey and learned some lessons that may help fellow Simple Life Together listeners? If you'd like to share your story then drop us an email at Dan@SimpleLifeTogether.com or Vanessa@SimpleLifeTogether.com SimpleRev Tickets: Early Bird tickets are now available for SimpleRev! Only 50 tickets will be offered at the Early Bird pricing so make sure you lock yours in today. SimpleRev is being held on Oct 3-4, 2014, in beautiful downtown Minneapolis on the University of St Thomas campus. To get your tickets at the lowest price that will ever be offered, just go to SimpleRev.com/tickets. I’ll also put a link in the shownote to the SimpleRev podcast in iTunes, as well. Or just search iTunes for SimpleRev, all one word.

SLT067: Simplify Your Wardrobe Redux

Abe Lincoln said, "The best way to predict your future is to create it." When living simply, taking action now can help you shape the life you want to live. Back in Episode 38, we talked about the concept of preparation meets opportunity. You may recall a few lines from that show that went like this: “When you’re working on that Life Plan, or your dreams and goals, prepare for those opportunities you want to come along. I’m a firm believer that you can determine your own destiny if you make your own future. Shape it yourself. You’ll have obstacles along the way for sure, but you’ll also find encouragement and inspiration, too.” We want to give you a little bit of context for our journey by connecting some dots. Our goal is that it may help you form you own dots to connect later on. So, If you’ve been listening in or reading our blog posts for a while and are familiar with many of our back episodes and posts, now you’ll see exactly why we picked some of the subjects that we did. If you’re new to Simple Life Together (and we have more and more joining us each week...yay!) then this will be a great “jumping on” point for where we are and how we got here! So, the “What’s In It For You” is this...taking deliberate small steps forward from the ideation we talked about on the last show, will help you shape your own journey to live simply. "The best way to predict your future is to create it” is a great way to think about it. So thanks, Mr Lincoln, for that fine quote and the title of today’s episode.  Read more... Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  The Best Way To Predict Your Future Is To Create It Like we said earlier, you’ll see how a lot of our past episodes relate to the things we are doing in the “initiate movement” step of the TLPs, to move towards our simple life goals. In no particular order, here are some of the things we’ve done, are still doing, or getting ready to do, to move us forward: The Edit & Forget It Challenge We introduced The Edit & Forget It Challenge back in Episode 9. The Edit & Forget It Challenge has fulfilled a lot of objectives for us. Here are a few: It helped us loosen our grip on “stuff”...physically, emotionally, and intellectually. By intellectually I mean that buying became a lazy, default “easy button” that overrode the acts of contemplation (considering whether or not we really needed something), innovation (what else could I use, how can I get access to that?), patience (do I need it now?), and appreciation (caring for what you have now so it can serve you long term). E & F helped us develop new habits toward spending. (why did I ever buy this?) It taught us to be more deliberate about what we buy or allow into our lives (things, circumstances, commitments and events). And, it influenced us to physically downsize our stuff so we can achieve the goal of living in a smaller home, customized to our lifestyle now and long-term. Edit & Forget It Continues to Challenge Us We recently did a another full frontal assault on our garage and it felt fantastic! It helped us reach a few key objectives that we had as our goal. Namely, we: Identified our biggest pain points with the garage and finally solved them Eliminated duplicates, triplicates and quadruplicates of hand tools. This allowed me to find what I needed so much more quickly Eliminated some “space stealers” without sacrificing storage capability. This opened up a LOT of floorspace that was formerly taken up by yard tools, etc that encroached on the main area of the garage. We still have more to go in the garage! Not that we have so much “stuff”, but when you’re fine tuning,  getting to exactly where you really want to be it takes time. I still have some files out there that we need to go through with a fine-toothed comb. The Upside of Downsizing In Episode 42, The Upside of Downsizing,

SLT066: Predict Your Future

When it comes to making long-term plans for our lives, we all go through a "dream stage"...where we just kind of day dream about what our life might be like. Seriously, we’ve all, at some point in our life, thought about what it would be like to win the lottery or be super rich...and you kind of lose yourself in the dream. While I’m sure there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it's really more productive to do some systematic ideation. By dreaming systematically, you'll likely improve your chances for success. For us, this is strategic simplicity. By going through a process of systematic ideation, you may come up with more questions than answers initially. But in the end, you'll probably be a lot closer to what you want and be able to formulate a real plan of action. Yes, truly strategic simple living!   Read more... Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  Strategic Simple Living Ok, so what is “systematic ideation” and how can you use it? Well, I’m sure there’s lots of different ways to systematically come up with ideas. I’m a bit of a tinkerer...kind of a MacGyver type and enjoy product design. I even recently had a company put one of my ideas into production and they’re getting ready to release it. But years ago, I read a book (I can’t for the life of me remember or find the title) that sparked my interest in systematic ideation. But today we’re going to share one ideation tool with you that you might be able to use on your simplicity journey. We adapted this from a post we saw on Governing.com that had absolutely nothing to do with strategic simple living. Still, the tool was intriguing, so we adapted it for our use. The 4 Direction Ideation Tool So here you go: A good way to be more systematic about your ideation is by looking in all four "directions". By that we mean, Outward, Inward, Backward and Forward. It’ll help if we give an example, so we’ll show you how we used this tool in our search for the “perfect” town or place for us to live. Of course, you can use it for any ideation exercise you wish! So first we have Look Outward: We’re going to look at the local, regional, and national possibilities. We could even look internationally if we wanted. Next we have Look Inward: What do we really want? What are our "must haves", and what are the "deal breakers?" Vanessa will break this down a bit in a minute and share some things we consider. Look Backward: Doing a candid review of what has and hasn't worked in the past. What did we like about it, what did we dislike. Finally, we have Look Forward: What do we want it to look like, feel like, be like? Our Search for the Perfect Place to Live Back in Episode 49, Live the Life of Your Dreams, we talked about our “Freedoms From” and our "Freedoms To." One of those freedoms to was “Freedom To Choose Where & How We Live.” So, again, just to give you an example of using the tool on our quest for strategic simple living, let's look at our search for the “ideal” place for us to live. So, before we start the 4 directions, here are some qualities we know our dream location will have: A quality grocery store within walking distance Close to downtown shops; coffee shops, bookstores, diners, local shops, etc...oh and free wi-fi is always nice... We’d like to live near water. Not ocean...preferably a creek or river...or even a lake Small acreage to maintain; ¼ - 1 acre max! Good schools...or good home-school co-ops if needed We’d prefer an empty lot to build to our exact liking No size restrictions on home...for us that means small, not big No Home Owner's Association (HOA) would be ideal If HOA...hopefully open to green/sustainable building techniques or upgrades Reasonable tax rates...Military retirement not taxed...state taxes Local farmers markets Outdoor activities easily accessible...fishing, camping, hiking,

SLT065: Strategic Simple Living

Leading a Simple Life in the Modern World