A few tips for nurturing simplicity and peace at home this holiday season…

Now’s a great time to take a cue from nature by letting go of the excess stuff that’s taking up space in your home and potentially weighing heavy on your mind. The benefits are tremendous - clearing physical space helps to relieve anxiety and stress, boost your mood, and provide focus.

I’ve read that the more decisions you make in the day, the weaker your decision-making ability becomes. Based on this information, the more you can simplify certain areas of your life, the better.

We live in a fast-paced world. Smartphones offer instant information at a touch of our fingertips; an entire “meal” (and I use that word very loosely, by the way) can be had in a matter of seconds at fast food restaurants around the world; working faster is exulted in the workplace; "Life in the Fast Lane" is more than just an Eagles song from the 70s; and Joey Chestnut continues to dominate the world of competitive (i.e. fast) hot dog eating contests.

“I might need this someday.” This is a common remark I hear from clients and my job is to help them figure out what they want and need in their life and let go of those items that no longer serve them.

I find that my home is a reflection of my life. If my space is cluttered and disorganized, I feel scattered and disorganized (yes, this happens from time to time!).

One of my clients loves daisies. And once her family and friends discovered that she loves daisies, they started giving her gifts with daisies on them - everything from daisy earrings to daisy mittens and daisy towels.

When working to declutter and organize your closet and wardrobe, some people find it helpful to impose rules or limits on the number of items they own. Putting self-imposed limits in place around the amount of clothing one owns can be an easy way to simplify one’s wardrobe and end the constant wrestling of, “to keep or not to keep?”

I choose to live with less and embrace living more simply for many reasons. Here are my top three:

Funny story…. After my sister read my most recent blog post about my getting rid of memorabilia, she sent a text expressing her surprise that I had kept my creepy-looking babydoll all these years (25+). As you can probably guess, I have a reputation within my family for not keeping much of anything! Her text got me thinking about why I had held onto these, and other, childhood relics for so many years and why it was so easy for me to part with them now.

Hello, friends. How are you? It's been a while. We're smack-dab in the middle of January 2019 already and I'm baffled as to how that happened.

I read a fascinating article from the Center for the New American Dream on The Art of "Making Do." The author, in her late 30s, and her family had moved to the U.S. from Barcelona six months ago. Recently, her 8-year-old daughter participated her school's science fair. The daughter chose to research and study ladybugs, and she and the author put together a display for the science fair by using materials they had available in their home.

Numerous articles have been written about how millennials are choosing to spend their money on experiences instead of things. Why might this be?

When we keep bringing items into our home without releasing anything, our homes become bloated and stagnated. Let's consider previous hobbies or previous roles we used to play.

If you're looking for another reason to live with less, how about this: A 2014 study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that people who lived in cluttered environments were more likely to overspend than those who lived in uncluttered spaces. The studies' findings concluded that cluttered environments decrease self-control and increase the likelihood of impulse spending.

I’ve been taking an online class from Janet Luhrs, a simple living advocate who I’ve followed for the past 20+ years and the author of The Simple Living Guide. The class is full of great information about leading a more simple and fulfilling life.

When addressing clutter, whether it’s paper clutter or stuff clutter, Luhrs uses the following terminology to help one determine whether or not to keep an item:

Does the item energize you, are you neutral with regard to it, or does it make you feel drained?

Since I live in a small space, I need to be incredibly intentional with the items that are kept, especially when it comes to holiday decor. The rule in my house is simple: I only have decorations for Christmas (no other holidays) and, aside from a small, three-foot artificial pre-lit tree, all of the decorations must fit into one large plastic storage bin. That's it.

After repeated attempts to gain control of her home office, a client contacted me for help. She told me she didn’t know how to deal with her paperwork, and she was constantly searching for lost important documents in the dozens of piles strewn about her office. My client wasn’t interested in scanning the paper she had, she just wanted to get her paperwork to a manageable state.

In the span of three years, my client lost both of her parents and her husband. It’s now been five years and she feels like the mental fog has finally lifted, and she needs someone to help her get her house organized so she can put it on the market.

It's estimated the average adult makes approximately 35,000 decisions a day. THIS IS NOT A TYPO! 35,000 decisions! From what to wear to what to eat, from what route to drive to when to leave, it's no wonder we're exhausted every day! All of these decisions leave little time for the rest of our day-to-day existence.