Resolve to Live a Simpler Life

I am an experiential learner, a graduate from the School of Life, one who must first make the mistake before “getting” the lesson.  My journey towards simplicity and my mission with White Space ™ to assist others who are seeking more balance, order, simplicity and control grew from my own experience, too.

Simplicity and order were not always a chosen way of Life for me.  During my sixteen year career in the fast-paced, hard-driving world of advertising, I excelled in my drive for the accumulation of “stuff” – stuff to entertain, stuff to distract, stuff to alleviate the basic dissatisfaction I felt with my life and the path I was on.  I accumulated stuff until my closets were crammed, my bookshelves overflowed and my storage space would store no more.

It was during my self-imposed sabbatical throughout which I slowed the pace of my life and cleared the clutter from my closets and my mind that I discovered the joys of order and simplicity.

Sonia Choquette says in her book True Balance that “order helps us to see the patterns of our life.”  William Morris, founder of the American Arts & Crafts movement, said “Have nothing in your home that you do not believe to be useful or beautiful.”

With the ever-increasing pace of Life, there’s no time like the present to examine the “stuff” of our lives and determine what is truly useful and what is holding us back from seeing the patterns in our lives.

Thoreau extolled from his cabin on Walden Pond, “Simplify, simplify!”  I’m not suggesting that, like him, each of us have only two shirts.  Variety is also the spice of life and I’m a person who enjoys choices in my wardrobe as well as in my life.

But I have also found from working with hundreds of clients that we truly are creatures of habit.  We have favorite things to which we gravitate time and time again.  While our closets may be bursting with our latest fashion finds, we all tend to choose from among a few (the term “few” is relative) select items in our closets that enhance our mood, boost our self-esteem, make us feel more attractive and more confident.

If you start your day standing before an overflowing closet packed with clothes you haven’t worn since the last decade, how much stress does that create before you are even dressed?  As you make your way to the kitchen to prepare coffee for breakfast, do you have to run an obstacle (def: barricade to progress) course?  When you open a cabinet door, do fifteen things you weren’t looking for tumble out before you find the mugs?  And, when you get out of the house and go to your car, does your garage look like an old pawn shop filled with leftover sports equipment, gardening supplies and that  set of used tires you took off your car six months ago?

In the age of continued down-sizing, those who survive job cuts and outsourcing are more often than not asked to handle more tasks on a daily basis – and with less support.  This often results in offices filled with piles representing the next pressing project – or filing to do from the last one.  While a popular desk plaque claims a “neat desk is the sign of a sick mind,” the truth is a neat desk is a sign on an undistracted mind – a mind that can focus on the immediate task at hand.  A mind that can be productive and creative.  If your work surface is cluttered with piles, where do you work?

A recent Wall Street Journal poll clearly reinforced the case for neatness when reporting that 51 of 52 CEO’s polled would promote the person with the neat desk over the one with the messy desk.  What’s your promotability?

As you commit to finding the patterns of your own life by clearing the clutter from your path, feel free to borrow from my “Principles of Life Management.”

Principals of Life Management by Cynthia Ivie, Master Simplifier

1. Principal of Zero Growth:  Nothing new comes into your closet without something old exiting.
2. Principal of Prime Real Estate:  Whatever you use most often should be closet at hand and easiest to access.
3. Principal of Colorful Sorting:  Use color-coded files to designate main topics; i.e. financial, career or education, home and family, etc.
4. Principal of “There’s No Time Like the Present”:  Get started right away.  Don’t procrastinate on stress relief.
5. Principal of the Buddy System:  Invite a friend or an objective third party to help you.  The other person is less attached to your stuff and will encourage you to part with more.  It also enhances the “fun factor.”
6. Principal of One Person’s Trash is Another Person’s Treasure:
   Donate your items to some worthwhile charitable organization.  You get a tax benefit while someone else finds warmth from your old coat.
   If you have your own “principals” of life management, please share with us.