Lifestyle, Self Growth

5 Simple Ways To Jump Start Spring

There’s something refreshing about the days getting a bit longer, brighter & the air becoming warmer. Opening the windows & allowing the warm breeze to refresh the home, embracing extra spring cleaning & displaying florals for a sense of nature. Being someone who has been practicing the simple life, I find spring to be the perfect time to reflect, refresh & regain a sense of control of our clutter filled baggage. Luckily, there are tons of simple ways to refresh your life for spring & possibly start a new. Here’s how…

Refresh Your Home From Top to Bottom

This is the perfect season to conduct a full blown sweep of your space. This means vacuuming as well as cleaning the baseboards. Go through every single drawer & corner of your home & ask yourself if anything needs shifting. I always tend to find a few unwanted items to donate, trash & even sell. It’s important to cycle through your items & make space for the new.

I tend to downsize my decor at this time after the sweep of holidays that occur during the winter. I’ll even go one step further & downsize any decor that is placed in storage like from previous holidays.

Formulate Your Style

I love decluttering my closet & creating seasonal capsule wardrobes. This spring I plan to incorporate more bright colors & floral prints to embrace these warmer days. In the spring, I tend to take everything out of my closet, hold each piece up & ask myself if I still wish to own the item. More bulky items like sweaters & coats are put away in storage or a spare closet within our home.

This way, I can make space for pieces that coincide with the season at hand. I also love to experiment with my style at this time & determine if there are new items I’d like to add. I don’t necessarily like to over shop, but I do like to treat myself to a few fresh items.

Change Up Your Digital Aesthetic

Digital declutters are just as important as declutters within our homes. I tend to refresh accounts I’m following, creatively brainstorm photo ideas & even delete or clean up ones I no longer want shared. I try to stay rather intentional with my digital space these days by posting less frequently & even living more so outside the world of social media. This is a perfect time to establish healthier screen time habits. Our mental health is strongly affected by social media whether we want to believe it or not, so if you find yourself drained of certain social media platforms, this may be the season to delete or cut back on these apps.

Plan A Few Fun Adventures

One of my goals for this year is to travel more often. My husband & I have already brainstormed a few beach vacations for the summer months as well as a Caribbean cruise. I’d also love to travel to a few other places with my brother & family including Chicago, Salem, & Europe.I believe it’s important to plan a few adventures to look forward to & to break up our humdrum routines. You can even choose more simple adventures like local hikes, sport activities or bed & breakfasts.

Check in With Yourself & Your Goals

Since we are a few months into the year, it’s a great time to reflect on those new year goals & determine if anything needs to be tweaked. With each season, I like to have a self care moment with myself, see how I’m doing & determine if there’s growth needed to be down or not. In most cases, there is always room for improvement. But I also like to reflect & celebrate any wins I may have had along the way.

-B

Lifestyle

5 Types of Books You Should Declutter From Your Shelves

I’ve been decluttering my home inch by inch to give it a proper refresh. The other day, I noticed my bookshelves are filling up fast. And not all the books on there are worthy of a permanent home. So, I went through & donated a few books that weren’t very good, one’s I probably will never read or ones I won’t re-read. As much as I would love to have a home library one day, I want to be sure most of the books I collect & keep are top tier. Here are 5 Types of Books You Should Declutter From Your Shelves

Books You DNF

Sometimes I’ll DNF a book & come back to it later because I’m a bit of a mood reader. But sometimes a book just doesn’t make the cut for whatever reason. And when that happens, it doesn’t deserve to stay on my bookshelf. A book I’m considering decluttering that I DNFed this past year is Ghost Story by Peter Staud. I was looking forward to reading this one during spooky season, but as I started reading I didn’t know how old the book was & the writing style was just not my cup of tea. I don’t know if or when I’ll pick it up again.

Popular Books You Dislike

Just because it’s hyped on the internet & it seems like EVERYONE loves it doesn’t mean you will. There were a few books I read this year that were extremely talked about & lots of people gave five stars. But I would consider them to be flops. For instance, everyone seems to love Where The Crawdad’s Sing but I just found it rather boring.

Series You Will Never Finish

I for one, always seem to commit to finishing an entire series especially if I own all the books. But sometimes, it doesn’t hit & there’s no sense in wasting your time on finishing it. This past year I read three series including ACOTAR, Throne of Glass & The Red Rising saga. Luckily, all three of those series were incredible. But there are a few I am hesitant to read including The Wheel of Time series [ which my husband loves] or the Shatter Me Series, Addicted Series or the Folk of Air series. Some just feel either too long or too YA for my taste.

3 Star Reviews or Below

To make sure I don’t become a hoarder of books, I try to keep to a motto of decluttering books I rate 3 stars or below. Rarely do I re-read books with such low ratings. Although 3 stars is relatively high, I always ask myself if I’m going to read it again. If the answer is no, I’d much rather donate it to someone else to read or sell it. A few books I’ve decluttered from this category include Where The Crawdad’s Sing & The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren.

Books You Enjoyed & Will Never Re-read

Even if I really enjoyed a book, there are some times where it’s a one & done type of read. There are some cases where I want to make space for new books & sometimes you just have to narrow them down. Types of books that fall in this category for me are romance books, seasonal reads, self help nonfiction, or memoirs.

Tropes That Aren’t Done Well or Overdone

We all have favorite tropes. Mine in particular lean towards enemies to lovers [ especially in the fantasy genre], friends to lovers, found family, who done it & strong female leads. But there are some authors that don’t hit the nail on the head. Especially someone who has read a lot of books with similar tropes, you tend to find yourself ranking them. I discovered I far more enjoy enemies to lovers trope in a fantasy world over everyday life scenario. Keep your favorites & let go of the rest.

One of my favorite ways to declutter my book collection is to read more books digitally. If there are popular books I’m not sure I’ll enjoy, I’ll try to find them free on Kindle Unlimited or audiobooks. A few books I loved listening to on audio include It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey, Heartbones by Colleen Hoover & Circe by Madeline Miller.

What were some of your least favorite books of 2022?

-B

intentional living, Lifestyle

15 More Ways to Simplify Your Life for the New Year

It’s the start of a new year, which commonly stands for a fresh start. And one of the best & sure fire ways to see change is to simplify life. And from personal experience, I’ve discovered simplifying can be done in a multitude of categories. Last year, I shared 15 Ways to Simplify Your Life & it received so much praise that I wanted to share 15 more ways for this new year.

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Here are 15 More Ways to Simplify Your Life in 2023

1. Create a Vision Board

I find vision boards & collages to be a creative & visual representation of my goals & aspirations. It takes me back to the days where I would spend hours cutting out magazines & making collages that I would hang on my bedroom door or closet. Back then, it was usually photos of the Jonas Brothers or Zac Efron, but I digress. Whether it’s digitally on Pinterest or done the old fashion way, I think vision boards are a fun way to really ask yourself what you want to accomplish or strive for & the new year is one of the perfect times to do that.

2. Downsize Your Digital Footprint

We tend to focus on the physical clutter when we are simplifying our lives & tend to neglect our digital space. In the new year, look through your social media platforms & let go of the ones you aren’t using or ones that aren’t benefiting you. Go through your followers & mute or unfollow those who aren’t inspiring you or are providing a negative pool. I also recommend cleaning up your devices, desktops, files, photos etc to make space for new memories & projects in 2023. If you are looking for specific decluttering tips in the digital space, click here to read 15 Ways To Downsize Your Digital Space.

3. Let Go of Clothing You Don’t Love or Use

I love closet declutters! As we know by the countless blog posts I have about said topic like 30 Items You Don’t Need in Your Wardrobe I find it so refreshing to let go of clothing that doesn’t fit, is worn out, or has simply met it’s expiration date. Make space for new items, a fresh style & one that works with your lifestyle in the present moment.

4. Prioritize Relationships That Lift You Up

Life is too short to place your time & energy on people who don’t deserve it. Focus on the ones who lift you up, encourage & help you grow into the person you wish to be. When we waste time on those who bring us down, we are only hurting ourselves.

5. Let Go Of Habits You No Longer Want to Entertain

Every time I think about this point, I picture people rushing for that gym membership on January 1st. And then by March, they are back to their usual routines. My biggest suggestion with letting go of old habits & striving for new ones, is to be realistic. Take baby steps if possible in the direction you want to be in. Habits are better formed this way then going full force all at once. Whether it’s adding a few healthier options on the grocery list or carving out a few hours in your day being active – these small changes will keep the enjoyment alive.

6. Say No More Often

I talked about this concept in my 11 Things I Intentionally Say No To blog post & I’m reiterating this fact because saying no is so powerful. I used to be quite the people pleaser & thought I had to accept every invitation or request that was presented to me. News flash, saying yes to everything simply causes intense burn out. So, in the new year say no more often & put your self care & rest time above certain things. Pleasing people won’t give you more friends, it only hurts yourself.

7. Learn to Gift More Practically

Living a simple life means not allowing excess clutter to enter your home or someone else’s. I’ve learned to gift & shop more practically by choosing clutter free alternatives. During the holidays, I shared 50 Clutter Free Gift Ideas that can inspire any gift related holiday in the future. I’ve learned gifting practically saves you money & allows you to shop smarter.

8. Shop Smarter

When we feed into consumerism & trends of society, we tend to over shop which can become detrimental to our bank accounts. By living a more minimalist life, I’ve learned I can live without so many things society tells us we should have. I prioritize the essentials & even find cheaper & more efficient alternatives. Not to mention when we shop smarter, we are helping the environment as well [ especially if it’s sustainable alternatives]. Check out this blog post on sustainable alternatives & plastic free swaps here.

9. Slow Down Your Routines

Society makes us feel like we need to be busy all the time. We need to be doing more & productively become faster. This is not the case. It’s actually more productive when we slow down some & take our time. Allow ourselves those breaks so burn out doesn’t fester. One of my favorite things to do is have slow mornings on the weekend or whenever I can. I’ll make a warm beverage & just sit in silence for a few minutes before my day really starts. Instead of rushing through our tasks, we should learn to savor them.

10. Stop Keeping Up With The Trends

You don’t need the new Ugg ultra minis or flair leggings. You don’t need to the newest iPhone if yours is still working great. Only buy trends if you genuinely love it. Otherwise, you are wasting your money on items that will go out of style in a few months or you’ll just get tired of. Stick with classics & buy items that make you happy & fit your style. If certain trends do that for you, great!

11. Lessen Your Screen Time

Downsizing my social media & intentionally choosing other activities other than looking at my phone or laptop screen has helped me stay grounded & relax more often. As a blogger, it’s tough because I’m always in front of my laptop typing away. But I try& schedule in time for reading a good book or spending quality time with family & my husband. Getting lost in good conversation is one of my favorite things & sometimes we can forget that act of connection when we are starring at our phones all the time.

12. Get Outdoors

I want to take more walks in the new year & get outdoors more often. I love going on hikes or just walking through the neighborhood. It’s so healthy to get that fresh air & vitamin d. And I think it’s something we tend to forget. In the dark winters especially, I find short walks to be so relaxing & help me get through the season depression that tends to creep in when it gets darker earlier.

13. Focus on Experiences

Focusing on experiences over material items opens yourself up to making new memories, stepping outside your comfort zone & evolving as a person. I love spending money on experiences & trips over new clothing or makeup now a days. In my honeymoon blog post to Maui, I talked about how the best money to spend in with traveling. And it’s so true. When you let go of the notion to add more clutter into your home & instead venture out and see the world, you are expanding your horizons & getting a taste of what else is out there. And you aren’t creating physical baggage for yourself that will weigh you down.

14. Downsize Your Products

I love simple routines for the efficiency & the quickness. As someone who has rather sensitive skin, I rarely like to experiment with new products & have an array of items to choose from. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” stands true with my lifestyle & my wallet also has thanked me. The concept of decision fatigue can really wear at us & so when we have less to choose from, it becomes easier for us to then focus on the parts of life that matter even more.

15. Live in the Moment

A habit I’m trying to enforce more in the new year is being more present & living in the moment. I think we all tend to live in the mindset of “what’s next?” when we really need to be focusing on the “right now.” How many times do you find yourself scrolling your phone mindlessly instead of engaging in heartfelt conversation? All of a sudden the voices around you sound like the adults in the Peanut specials & you missed every word someone said. Not only is that rude, but you are doing yourself a disservice of escaping from the present moment. Stop rushing your life & worrying about the future so hard. It’s good to plan & have goals, but I think we tend to forget that our future is based on what we do in the present.

How do you plan to simplify your life this year?

-B