As I have mentioned, I recently moved. It’s been a process and has required some personal growth (read: I have become a crier). Don’t take that the wrong way;  it’s just that change, even a change you want, can be difficult sometimes.

One of the more demanding changes is that my home is smaller. While downsizing has come with challenges, this is becoming an unexpected gift. I don’t have the option to keep a lot of unnecessary items around. Our new motto is a place for everything and everything in its place!

It’s more of a necessity than anything, but slowly, as our home is coming together and we continue to streamline our process, I find it’s more peaceful. I am becoming one of those people that I previously may have referred to as (ahem) sociopaths. I have organizers in many of my kitchen drawers. I have plastic containers and dividers for each space for order and functionality. Now let’s be clear: I am still unpacking and getting closet shelves installed, so it’s a hardcore work in progress, but the drawers that are complete and the spaces that it’s currently possible to have this sort of aesthetic, well, let’s just say – I love it!

It’s awesome to open a drawer and instantly locate a tape measure, a measuring cup, a corkscrew, or a chip clip.

This approach was further affirmed a few days ago when I was sitting in a mindfulness course I am taking for work, and one of the activities was to create a non-financial vision for the next few years. I wasn’t even sure what I would write about but as I let the words flow I realized that what I am doing is a version of Marie Kondo. But instead of asking myself if the item brings joy, I ask if keeping it brings simplicity or complication. Better yet, it’s a choice of whether keeping it creates more ease or less. The real caveat is whether keeping it will bring more ease or less… in the long run.

Some choices are not easy, but I believe having fewer belongings will lead to greater capacity in other areas of my life.

In many ways it is creating freedom for me. By having a smaller home, I can spend far less time cleaning it. Ultimately, as our space gets organized, I hope that if everything has a place, I will spend less time looking for lost items or trying to shove an item into an overfull closet.

We are on a “Keep It Simple, Sweetheart” path. Yes, I know the KISS acronym typically ends with stupid, as in “Keep it Simple, Stupid,” but that seemed a little harsh. As I have shared, I am trying to warm up my disposition a bit for the South 🙂

As we head quickly toward the holiday season, simplicity may be useful in some areas of your life. You may not be looking to downsize your home but want to do less during the last part of this year and enjoy more. Why not take a moment to contemplate what might bring you more joy? Who knows, it might be less… it might be more, sweetheart.