Comments on Vegan Flower: Simplifying Our Life- The Plan

Jenny- I have that same problem with a certain fam...

2011-12-25T09:13:48.961-06:00

Jenny- I have that same problem with a certain family member giving us stuff all of the time. If I saw no, they give me a guilt trip. It makes things hard! Like yours, they equal that with love. Hopefully we can both reach our goals!

Definitely a theme in my brain right now. My nesti...

2011-12-24T22:01:25.211-06:00

Definitely a theme in my brain right now. My nesting instincts have kicked in this pregnancy for sure, and I've taken many loads to Goodwill and sold some things on ebay. I have a really hard time with relatives giving us "stuff." I try to tell them we don't want anymore stuff, but it's how they equate showing love. I hope you are able to achieve the simplified peace you are searching for; I hope I do, too!

SV- lol, to each their own! :)

2011-12-24T08:30:47.502-06:00

SV- lol, to each their own! :)

You lost me at 'deep clean'. Not my bag. G...

2011-12-23T19:32:40.615-06:00

You lost me at 'deep clean'. Not my bag. Gonna have to stay cluttered and complicated for the time being...

Sage- that would be extremely hectic! I'm gla...

2011-12-22T16:46:06.918-06:00

Sage- that would be extremely hectic! I'm glad we don't have a time frame to get this done in. It'll be much, much easier to do it little by little as we feel up to it. I'll definitely be taking some before & after pics. :)

I'm really looking forward to reading more abo...

2011-12-22T16:23:11.222-06:00

I'm really looking forward to reading more about your simple life plan. Please take some before and after pictures!

We had to simplify our lives last summer when we moved into a place 1/4 the size of our old home. We didn't have much time, so we had to question the usefulness of everything we owned. It was hectic! Your plan seems very sensible.

Claire- I do a similar thing with my clothe...

2011-12-21T19:05:35.711-06:00

Claire- I do a similar thing with my clothes and I've found that I only wear a small percentage of them. It's helped a lot! We have some extra totes around, so I might be using them for the kitchen stuff. That's a good idea!

bitt- So far I haven't regretted getting rid of anything, and we've really gotten rid of a lot of stuff over the last few years. I forgot about Freecycle! I'll have to keep that in mind.

vava- Decluttering and simplifying can go so far in giving one peace of mind. I feel much better doing it. I'll be looking forward to hearing about what you'll be doing!

foodfeud- You are lucky to have a smaller living space. I love our home, but miss our old house at the same time. It'll probably be a long time before we move again, but when we do it'll be nice not to have to go through everything as much!

Stacy- I used to collect a lot of things, too, but now I can honestly say that I don't have any physical collections (digital stuff is another story, though!).

Michelle- Remodeling is a great time to go through things. We remodeled the entire inside of our last house and it really helped us to reduce stuff. It was nice!

CraftyEarthMama- Yes, I totally agree! I can't believe how much lighter I feel already. It'll only get better, too! :)

I really like your plan! What a wonderful way to l...

2011-12-21T18:34:04.999-06:00

I really like your plan! What a wonderful way to live.
I find when I declutter and get down to what I really need and want instead of having just stuff around, I feel so much lighter mentally.

Sounds like an awesome plan. Since we are remodeli...

2011-12-21T15:52:56.181-06:00

Sounds like an awesome plan. Since we are remodeling our kitchen right now, it's first on my list. What I never use will not be going back into the cabinets or drawers. :o)

I love the fact of only paying cash. We agreed to only do that when we got married 3 years ago...very good thing.

This is great! We really should do something like ...

2011-12-21T05:41:20.211-06:00

This is great! We really should do something like this (both the hubby and I like to hoard--er, I mean collect things). Our house is too small for all our crap! Of course, we could get a bigger house but that seems a little crazy.

This is a wonderful guide, molly. I move a lot - t...

2011-12-20T21:28:20.970-06:00

This is a wonderful guide, molly. I move a lot - that's probably the only time I drastically reduce, but I'm lucky to have a fairly small living space and so I can't hoard too much :) I'm sure your downsizing will facilitate (necessitate) your process.

Thank you for posting this! It seems like you have...

2011-12-20T21:07:41.302-06:00

Thank you for posting this! It seems like you have a great plan in place :) I've been doing some self reflection recently and definitely feel that changes are in order to achieve more mental and physical peace and health in my life. I won't get into specifics now, but changes are definitely coming and I'll definitely be referring to this post down the road :) Very inspiring!

We did TONS of decluttering and donating when we m...

2011-12-20T20:53:48.063-06:00

We did TONS of decluttering and donating when we moved. I do have some regrets about some things I gave away, they would have been hard to move but I feel weird just getting the same thing again.

Something that was really helpful to me was using Freecycle. the people would come to my house and collect things and it was really helpful. I got 3 animal carriers from them too among other things.

Keeping most things packed makes me realize what I really need too. I hope to downsize a lot of my paperwork that seems sentimental but it's silly to keep because it takes up too much room and I can't even access it very well.

Your plan sounds mighty sensible to me. It might t...

2011-12-20T20:39:52.003-06:00

Your plan sounds mighty sensible to me. It might take a while but I'm sure you'll feel wonderful once you're making progress.
Something I've done in the past is note when I actually use things. So for clothing/shoes I'll use a different shelf once I've worn them or hang them the other way in the wardrobe. In the kitchen taking everything out of a draw/cupboard and only returning it after it's been used then culling those that we can live without.
The other thing I've done that you're onto is the waiting period- telling yourself you can get something if you really want it next week/month. This seems to help with the 'it's on sale must buy now!' shopping mentality.
I'm really glad you've decided to share this all with us, hopefully it will rub off and push me into good habits too :)
All the best xxx