Posts by Rachel Jones
I Can’t Keep my House Clean, What’s Wrong with Me?!
Ten years ago, this was a common phrase out of my mouth. I didn’t notice anyone in my peer group with a home in the same shape as mine. I didn’t really understand how to maintain a clean house and after failing at it for the last ten years I felt like a complete idiot.…
Read Full PostDecluttering 101
Step 1: Start with daily tasks Let me just tell you this now: Setting up a morning and evening habit of doing a quick tidy in the kitchen and washing the dishes makes all the difference in the world. And if you don’t believe me, I challenge you to try it for a month and…
Read Full Post3 Steps to Take as a Beginning Minimalist Mom
Get up earlier than the kids Minimalism is shifting your mindset from a negative-focus, me-focus or reward-focus approach to life. Those are things that every human struggles with, we are a very self-oriented group, so shifting the way our mind works takes intentional effort. But, one of the easiest ways to combat that me-focused thinking is…
Read Full PostHow to Raise Children with Minimalist Preferences
Before we get into the how-to part of this post, I would like to issue a disclaimer: You can do all you can to influence a person (child), and in the end, there is no guarantee what their preferences will be, how organized they’ll be or if they will care even one iota about the state…
Read Full PostAuthentic Minimalist Home Tour
It is my pleasure to introduce you to Evelyn, who has kindly offered to share some images of her minimalist home with us: What square footage do you have in your home? 1,000 sq. ft. How many people live in your home? (And were they on board/participating in the change?) We have four children, and they…
Read Full PostWhy a Minimalist Playroom is Better for Kids
I don’t remember any friends with playrooms when I was a kid, but when I started having my children, I attended many a playdate at people’s houses, always hosted at the houses that had playrooms. It was like a daycare facility, except none of them ran a daycare- that’s what they had acquired, trying desperately to keep…
Read Full PostEngland Minimalist Apartment Tour
It is my pleasure to introduce you to Rosie, who has kindly offered to share some images of her minimalist home with us: 1. What square footage do you have in your home and how many people live in your home? It’s just my cat, Patti, and I. For a while, I led a nomadic lifestyle,…
Read Full PostCombat Depression with Decluttering
The clutter-depression cycle is getting more and more attention these days, and as someone who struggled with it, I know first-hand how challenging it can be. Even one small simple action each day towards getting out of this cycle makes a difference. Like Courtney Carver recommends, take one small step each day and it will…
Read Full PostStunning Minimalist Guatemala Home Tour – Pauline
It is my pleasure to introduce you to Pauline, who has kindly offered to share some images of her home with us: Hi! My name is Pauline, I am French and grew up in Paris. I then moved around for a few years before settling in sunny Guatemala. I have built my own house and lived…
Read Full PostClutter-Free Easter Baskets
If you have recently embraced a more minimalist lifestyle, the old traditions, like giving Easter baskets, tend to cause doubt and anxiety: the kids are expecting this, this is what we’ve always done, I don’t want to ignore all those traditions we’ve had, etc. You don’t have to give them up completely, there…
Read Full PostUsing Time Blocking in Everyday Life
I love productivity hacks, I enjoy having schedules and goals and getting things accomplished. Something about having a visual layout of my day and week that helps me grasp everything that I have going on. I’ve learned though, that I can’t cram stuff into my daily or weekly schedule just to have it there, in…
Read Full PostCalm and Inviting New Zealand Minimalist Home Tour – Bayley
It is my pleasure to introduce you to Bayley, who has kindly offered to share some images of her minimalist home with us: My name is Bayley. I live in New Zealand with my husband and our two young boys. We started our minimalist journey about 2 years ago and have never looked back. I am…
Read Full PostSimple Tricks to Begin Your Minimalist Lifestyle
Is this stuff helping you live the life you want to live? That’s one of the central questions I tell my students to ask themselves as they are evaluating their possessions. Most of the time we keep things in our home for other reasons: It was a gift. I need to own it because of…
Read Full PostBuilding Margins into Your Calendar
Do you have a schedule that is so packed, you can’t even get it all done? This is a struggle for so many of us and the question is, how do I simplify it? In the culture of today, this is normal. It’s “normal” to have things scheduled for every family member from 8 AM…
Read Full PostThe Most Eco-Friendly Ways to Dispose of Things While Decluttering
This is a guest post from Emily Folk, Emily is the editor of Conservation Folks and feels passionate about eco-friendly living and reducing her footprint. It happens to everyone — everything seems fine until one day, we realize our living space has way too much stuff. With our landfills increasing in volume every year, decluttering can feel wrong when you…
Read Full PostA Day in the Life of a Minimalist Mom
I shared what a typical workday looks like for me, but in all honesty, I only have 1 – 2 workdays each week, the rest of the week I’m a stay-at-home mom with a toddler climbing all over me and holding toys two-inches from my face so I can “see” what he’s talking about… So,…
Read Full PostMinimalist Downtown Apartment Tour
It is my pleasure to introduce you to Cheryl, who has kindly offered to share some images of her home with us: I’m a 46-year old professional organizer living in downtown Lynn, Massachusetts; it’s a very artsy community on the North Shore. Lynn was recently recognized for its artist murals: Beyond Walls. My apartment is on the…
Read Full PostA Day in the Life of a Minimalist Entrepreneur
Embracing minimalism gave me so much extra time, I was able to pause and decide what I was passionate about and how I wanted to spend that extra time I found I had. For me, that has been helping others simplify their homes and lives and for myself, experiencing life as an entrepreneur. Learning the…
Read Full PostDecluttering Toys with the Kids
Rachel Bowman is a full-time working mom of three girls under 5. Rachel started Just Getting Things Done when she realized she didn’t want to be that mom that doesn’t have any energy anymore, who thinks everything is a burden or a chore. She wanted to be a mom that enjoys her children and her…
Read Full PostDecluttering Challenge: 2018 in 2018
Is this the year you are going to do the “great home declutter” and turn your home from a cluttered, overstuffed embarrassment into a clean, organized and joyful space? Is this the year you’re going to embrace minimalism (or at least a form of it) and devote the time you want to, to those things that…
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