Simplifying Life

Rowan9

Thanks from me too ceridwen for those words. Something to hold onto and read when crisis thoughts fly around.
Mary - re 'act of God' - I came back from a lovely meal at the pub last night to find my dog had chewed up by reading glasses (new). So I had a bit of a laugh just now about the Act of God clause. I did post in 'insurance' on this site - just an immediate thought and query but they were cheap frames and , as someone helpfully pointed out, I probably have a £50 excess on my insurance. Going to take them into opticians today or tomorrow and see what they can do. The lenses are ok so if they have the same frames I'll just get lenses fitted into another pair. Blimmin' dog. Luckily I had not thrown out my old 'bought' glasses which had a wonky screw so i tightened it up and they will do in the meantime. I need a special lens for one eye though so don't want to do this long-term. Not very frugal of my dog was it?

Plan to tidy up the top of the fridge today. i think I've been saying that for a week now but today i really will do it. Will also tidy up OH's side of the bedroom - just fleeces and stuff lying around - in prep for his folks coming tomorrow. I have simplified the visit by doing a menu plan (well, DD did) and we will shop for it tonight.

Finishing off here with another quote from Timeless Simplicity:
'To live more consciously, moment by moment, is to become aware that we are present in all we do.'
John Lane

I think this links with your words on 'Just for today..' ceridwen, because this moment is all that we have - the past is gone so what is the use in worrying over it? We can't change it. We will spend needless time worrying about the future, about things that very likely will never happen, or we can just (try) to 'be' in the moment. That's what I am working towards just now and know that it isn't a quick fix. Maybe it's good that it isn't a quick fix because again that is symptomatic of our 'want it now' culture. If I want 'mended' now and become a more calm and content person, where would the personal growth be if it happened instantly? Ha - easy words as I feel right now I'd say yippeeee if it happened over night, but I'm sure it takes time for a reason.

ok thoughts over and off to have another cup of tea
w

ceridwen

Thanks wmf - your quote links in perfectly with my "Just for today...." piece. It helps us to have "targets" to aim for in this sense I feel - mainly perhaps because it helps reassure us that we are far from the only ones going through whatever-it-is we are going through at the time. Whatever-it-is that is going on in our lives that we would prefer not to have in those lives isnt there because some giant "Lottery finger" (as in "it could be you") is pointing at us personally and singling us out - its called part of the human condition and lots of us go through x/y/z (darn it!)

Little teensy organiser thoughts for the day:

- I find it helps when I have a particular temporary "project" that I'm focusing on to have a particular folder made up just for that
(particularly useful if one has several ongoing "projects" at a time being worked on - penalties of living in an old house or whatever - lol)

- When shopping: take a small plastic food container with you for those items of food bought loose (eg mushrooms/grapes/etc) - so delicate items of food dont get crushed just thrown straight into the melee in the shopping bag (being virtuous and not taking a plastic bag for them).

moneypooh

Hi :j

I joined in with the de-cluttering thread yesterday and am soooooo glad I found this one this morning.:D

My life is far too complicated and a period of ill health last year has made me realise I NEED to simplify things BIG time.

I work full time (self employed - so that's double normal hours then!!) and have two school aged children.
I have the usual pressures of running both a business and a home. OH is wonderful, we run our business together and our home. I do feel extremely stressed sometimes and running around after the children means very little 'me' time. Both children are involved with many interests/activities (all of which we have encouraged).

I started de-cluttering around the house seriously last year and am probably about half way there.
This year I have been sorting out CD's/DVD's and photos.
I sold all the DVDs/CDs we don't need anymore. So many films are on TV now that we don't need a hard copy. I usually only rent now and just buy DVDs I really can't do without. I certainly need a little Mr Depp when ironing!!

I have put all the 8mm video tapes onto DVD, a job that needed doing for 14 years. I was really concerned that the tapes would fade and these are all baby/children memories. DVDs take up so little space and all safely copied onto the pc hard drive.
I'm doing the same with photos. I found boxes and boxes of photo albums in the loft. What is the point of that? I will aim to get all of them scanned and then I can make copies for the children to keep too (on CD). It'll be great to see the photos on TV!!

These jobs mean just a few boxes of DVDs/CDs and so much space.

One problem I did have was recording so much from the TV, last year I watched a Christmas drama in November!!! There were so many vhs tapes hanging around it was unreal! So before Christmas last year we bought a HDD/DVD recorder (to do the 8mm tapes) and decided to clear it every couple of weeks if not watched. It has been very liberating to not have 10s of hours of stuff to get through.

I have made a real effort to decide which programmes to watch - not getting into a series if I know it'll just go on the back burner in a few weeks. Making life sooooo much simpler and meaning more earlier nights - no more burning the midnight oil at 2am...

I still don't get to much R&R but I'm working on it, I guess the best thing is that I have realised that life shouldn't be so stressy.
Clearing out and simplifying things really does help clear the mind.:T :T

ceridwen

moneypooh

....and thats one of the benefits of simplifying....that if (what do I mean if - dont I mean when?) ill health happens its easier to deal with things and maintain at least a "basic" life whilst waiting for things to return to normal hopefully. Its reassuring to me for instance just knowing little things like all the bills are on direct debit (except the insurance - which I pay yearly to save money) - then if one is ill then theres no problem wondering how to get them paid in order to avoid being cut-off (voice of experience here from having to beg favours in paying my bills before when ill!). I've also got details of several places I could buy my shopping online if I couldnt get out to do it temporarily lined up in reserve. Little things like that help if the "s.....t hits the fan" temporarily.

Charis

Hi moneypooh, welcome to the thread. It should carry an addiction warning I have completely changed my outlook since I have been on here, done loads of those 'one day I will' jobs. Wonderful. I feel like my life is my own again.

moneypooh wrote: »

Hi :j


I'm doing the same with photos. I found boxes and boxes of photo albums in the loft. What is the point of that? I will aim to get all of them scanned and then I can make copies for the children to keep too (on CD). It'll be great to see the photos on TV!!

I would like to do the same but find that the files are enormous and never the same quality as the originals unless I spend ages 'despeckling' etc. It is a great idea to scan old photos but I am reluctant to get rid of the originals in case the scanning and storage technologies improve beyond recognition like the rest of IT has in the past ten years. Also no one knows how well the CDs will stand the test of time. Maybe we should keep the originals stored safely out of sight and look at our scanned copies for the time being? One other thing is the need for labelling the photos. Quite how, I am not sure. In thirty years who will remember where and who and when? I might use a very soft pencil to write the details on the backs of the originals, together with the approximate dates.

Rowan9

hello moneypooh and welcome to this very heart-warming thread:hello:

Thanks everyone for inspirational threads today.
re the films - it took my sister and i YEARS to get round to getting dad's old cine films onto video. He was a great 'filmer' when alive and had all sorts of home movies - family, local events etc. We have one from 1965 when I was 5 - a circus came to the field behind our house and for using our garden tap, we got tickets to the circus and made friends.......lovely.......BUT looking back at the film, there are elephants walking on their hind legs and bears dressed up in ballerina skirts cycling round the ring on bikes. Yikes it shows how far we have come with fair treatment for animals. Anyway, you have spurred me on to start to enquire about getting them onto DVDs - same with our own videos of our kids when little.
Good luck all in your quest for finding simplicity in your life. I do find it hard to 'be' in the moment but tried extra hard today when I heard birdsong. Certainly simplifying lots of things, from clothes (take up less room, fewer choices to make re what to wear!) to food (menu planning has been a great saver of .what?.......having to think of what to eat! I closed bank accounts with some money in them (obviously!) and just bank with one. Not very MSE but needed for my sanity at that time. I'm now in a position to think about opening an account with another one but if it gets too stressful I won't. All bills are DD, like you ceridwen, except insurance. whew can't believe how wonderfully freeing that decision was.
Hope you are all enjoying a bit of sunshine wherever you are
w

mary43

Welcome moneypooh..................this is the place to be if you want or need some encouragement in simplifying your life.

Not got there yet..............will my life ever be simplified ? Probably not in total - but if I can deal with the c**p life throws at me then thats a big improvement.
Have managed to clear out a lot of stuff but have to confess to doing no de-cluttering this week at all ! Spent all this morning making a card for niece and her new baby...........so, not time totally wasted in my book.
Ordered MIL's flowering plant for the weekend.............should last longer than a bunch of flowers providing she remembers to water it...............lol

Still debating on what to do about this chunk of plaster that fell off the wall yesterday............chap I know said to get the insurers to sort it out but with the excess and the premiums going up next year due to a claim, is it worth it ? Probably not especially as OH was going to knock it down anyway............that's just decided it for me.............lol

Like you wmf and ceridwen - all our bills are direct debit.........what a load off out mind that was when we did that some years back. At least there's no 'panic attack' when the post comes.
My desk still needs a good tidy up to say the least and as fast as I clear drawers out they end up in a mess again............bad habit and has to stop.
Letter rack is about to collapse with the fatigue of papers being stuffed in it for want of putting them in their rightful place at the time so thats another on my list of 'stuff to do'. Will be ever reach the point when we've de-cluttered and simplified to perfection ? Heavens I do hope not - they'd be no reason for this thread then and we can't have that can we.

Oh, photos..............I always keep mine in an album...........I like to take them out from time to time and flick through the pages of endess memories they hold. One cupboard is absolutely full of them.................they could do with a bit more organising I suppose........into which year they are but sometimes its more fun if they''re a bit random.

Well, back to the act of actually doing something to make my life simpler and easier to live with.................:j

ceridwen

Whenever we feel like "what can one person do?" we need to just think of the latest modern-day "heroine". Stand up and take a bow Rebecca Hosking:A :A :A (aka the person who realised what devastating damage plastic bags are causing to our world and has started the campaign that will end their use).

see:

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1717476.ece

and

www.messageinthewaves.com/facts.php

(which has a useful 10 minute film at the end)


She has only been campaigning against plastic bags for a matter of months and just look at what she has achieved.

The front page and next 7 pages of yesterdays "Daily Mail" are her doing and so is the front page and next 6 pages of todays "Daily Mail". Every single article is down to that one woman. You know you've made a difference when a national newspaper runs the biggest and best campaign I have EVER seen it run.

She is going to win her battle - and it wont even take THAT much longer. IMPRESSED!

Rebecca - you humble us. Proud of you gal!

So - whenever we feel we cant do whatever it is we are after in our own personal lives - then I, for one, will remember Rebecca and what a bit of determination will do.

:A :A :A :A :A :A :A :A :A :A :A

mary43

Just goes to show..............how many times have we all said 'well what difference can I make?' as we drone on about this and that.
Well,this fine lady has just proved a point.................any one of us could make a difference if we had the courage to stick our neck out and have a go.
Well done Rebecca:T

ceridwen

Just goes to show mary that great reformers dont exist just in the pages of history books - Florence Nightingale, William Wilberforce, Elizabeth Fry, etc - but some of them are here and now. Another one of them has just died recently - Mother Teresa.

And many of these people didnt set out with huge advantages in life to the rest of us - like a wealthy background or huge intelligence level. Many of them were (and are) "ordinary people in the street" - like you and I.