How do you best store digital things part 2

Yesterday, I wrote about how to best store your digital documents. You can find that here. Today, the focus is going to be on pictures. Gone are the days of gigantic photo albums, waiting to get your film developed, and waiting to see how many of your pictures turned out. Now, pictures are on demand, and you can edit and perfect them as you see fit.

So, in this on-demand world, what do you do with all of those pictures? They take up plenty of space on your phone or tablet, so where to put them? I’d suggest either saving them on a portable hard drive, your computer, or in the cloud. My wife and I have a 1 Terrabyte portable hard drive that we store our pictures on. The great part of it is that you can share it between devices. Saving it to your computer is another easy way, just plug your device into the computer and save. For many, though, saving to the Cloud is the easiest. If you’re an Apple user, you can save to ICloud. You can also use Dropbox, Google Photos, Amazon Photos and others. All of these are helpful tools, the only drawback is the limitations on space before you have to purchase more space.

The same principle applies for pictures as it does documents. You don’t want them just haphazardly thrown in one big lumped file. The organization can happen as you see fit. You can break it down by year, by subject, by month, however you want. And as with the documents, it’s a lot of work upfront, but once you get your storage organized as you want it, it’s very easy to keep up with. Also, once you’ve saved your pictures from your device, delete them if you don’t want them on your device. That frees up more space. This is a process I’ll be starting very soon, but I’ll be doing it while watching football, so I’ll be multitasking!

But what about those old not digital pictures? How do you store them? You can continue to store them as you have in the past, or you can digitize them. Either you can scan them in a flatbed scanner (or if you’ve got a printer/scanner combo) or you can use your phone. I’ve found a great app called Scannable, which connects to your Evernote account (and if you’re not using Evernote....well, that’s another blog post) and you can save to it. Also, the app Tiny Scanner works just as well.

Finally, if you want to share photos, you can get a digital picture frame and upload your pictures to that. Many of them connect via wi-fi, so that’s an easy way to share pictures with those around you. Another way that my wife has found, which is super easy and inexpensive is www.chatbooks.com. For $10 you can have your pictures automatically uploaded from social media, your devices, wherever. She’s made a bunch of them for our girls and summer adventures.

I highly encourage you to consider digitizing your photos. They are great snapshots and memories of your life. As I have seen in the area around me over the past year with Hurricane Harvey, water comes and destroys, no matter how valuable your things are or what your income status is. If you have solely physical photos, they may be gone forever. But if you have digital copies, you’ll be able to see those pictures and remember.

Check out the Uncluttered course as it will help you if you’re stuck in your journey of minimalism, or if you’re wanting to dive in.

Also, join The Minimalist Musician group on Facebook

How do you best store digital things part 1

The next 3 posts will be dealing with storing digital things. While digital things take up less space than physical things, they still take up space and do need decluttering from time to time. I’ll be breaking them down into 3 areas, pictures, videos/music and today’s post, documents.

Storing things digitally is a wonderful advance. It gives us access, space to store things that would take up so much physical space. But it can create clutter and hassles if you’re not always on top of it and keeping things organized.

So today, we’re dealing with documents. PDFs, Word documents and things like that can take up a lot of space and can create lots of clutter. Think of your hard drive or storage device as a filing cabinet. The device holds things, but inside the device are individual folders that hold individual files, or ideas. So, how to store all of them? How best do you organize and operate in that organization? Is it by year? By type of document? By idea? However you best think and organize, set it up that way.

Some things have a certain “shelf life” or usefulness. If your ou meant has outlived its usefulness to you, delete it. Or if you know you’ll need access to it down the road, consider moving it to another file or another storage device so that you can access it later.

For me, I work best by ideas. For my job, I direct different musical groups. So my files are organized by group, then in each folder is a sub folder. I’m in the process of updating them and organizing them more, and what I’ll end up with is it broken down by year. Now, if your brain doesn’t work that way, then don’t do it that way. Figure out what works best for you and how you best process things and then go from there.

It will be a bit of work upfront to get things organized, but once you get organized, if you keep on top of it, you’ll find your life less stressed and you won’t be having to spend time looking for things.

I did something crazy

This week, I tried an experiment. I have an IPhone and an Ipad. They are both somewhat redundant, but I am trying to intentionally give a purpose to each one. For my phone, it’s using it as a phone (shocking, I know), texting, music, tracking my walking and Fitbit check in. I have a few other apps like my Bible, photos, but that’s pretty much it. My Ipad has pretty much replaced my computer to do things. In fact, I’m typing this blog post on my Ipad. None of this is crazy thing that I did.

The crazy thing that I did is that I took my emails off of my phone. I had found myself checking my phone, like many others, over and over and over again. Did this mean that I would be ignoring people that emailed me? Not at all. It was taking more control of my time and intentionally making specific times to check my email.

So what happened? The obvious. I didn’t look at my phone as much. Did I miss emails? Not at all. Did I get more control of one portion of my life? Absolutely.

Now, I’m not saying that everyone needs to do this, but what I am saying and encouraging people to do is consider their relationship with their phones/tablets and how they choose to use it. Minimizing distractions and focusing on what is important in minimalism, and our technology can most definitely be distracting!

Check out this blog post for more about minimizing your screen time.

Check out this blog post for information about the Uncluttered course

If you’re on Facebook, click here to join the Minimalist Musician Facebook group

Uncluttered

Are you struggling as to what the first step is take in Minimalism? Or do you feel like you got rid of a bunch of stuff and you’re struggling where to go? May I suggest Uncluttered.

Uncluttered is a 12 week online course led by Joshua Becker, a minimalist whose voice has resonated with me, as well as many others.

What do you get out of the course?
Videos with step-by-step instructions
Interviews with thought leaders in productivity and minimalism
Live webinars tackling specific tough-clutter topics 
Live Q&As for members to ask questions
Weekly challenges
And accountability and encouragement from a super-engaged community.

One of the best parts I think about this course is that you get LIFETIME membership! That means that if you get to a “stuck point”, you can come back and review the material covered. 

The course is offered 3 times a year and registration starts today and goes through September 2nd. The cost for the course is $89. Check it out and sign up here!

Where to start?

So you’ve been looking at this idea of minimalism for a while now and it sounds great and all, but you’re not quite sure where to start. Great question! You can be paralyzed quite quickly and not be able to make any progress because you’re not sure where to start.

The easy answer.....PICK A PLACE! Start simple. Maybe it’s the drawer that you just throw things in. Here’s the thing....don’t just “go through” it and “organize” it. You’re just rearranging the junk and the clutter. What do you use and what don’t you use? What has value and what doesn’t? You can start with books. You can start with your kitchen utensils. It doesn’t matter where, just picking a place and starting is the most important place.

If you join The Minimalist Musician group on Facebook, I’ll be starting a challenge in August. It’s really, really easy. Each day, you choose the number of items to get rid of corresponding to the number of the day. So, August 1st, you get rid of one thing, the 2nd, you get rid of 2, and so on until you get to the 31st. On the 31st, you’ll have to get rid of 31 things. If you follow this, you will get rid of 496 items. That seems like a lot, but I think once you get going, you’ll see it’s not hard at all! I’ll be giving more details over the next few days in the group so we can get ready to start on August 1st!

One thing lacking

Before I dive in to this post, if you’ve read my blog and looked at timestamps, you’ll notice that there’s been a lull in my writing. It’s not for a lack of ideas. I was on vacation, then dealt with the busyness of the return from vacation. On top of that, I’ve been focused on creating a podcast for Church musicians, called The Healthy Church Musician podcast. Now that things have settled down, I’m going to get more in a routine of writing and my goal is to have a post up on Tuesday and Friday each week.

In our worship service this past Sunday, we looked at the 10th chapter of Mark. We’ve been going through the Gospel of Mark in our services. But there was something about this section of Scripture that jumped out at me. And it was in verses 17-31. It’s the story of the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus and asks what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus reminds this young ruler about the commandments, to which the ruler responds that yes, he has kept those. Jesus doesn’t argue with him about this, but says, “One thing you lack...go sell everything you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” This young ruler couldn’t do it. Was because he was rich? Somewhat. It wasn’t the things (or lack of it) that caused the issue. It was the relationship and value placed on the things. Jesus and His disciples traveled regularly. They didn’t have much and they relied on the love and generosity of others. They trusted in the provision of God. It seems that this rich young ruler didn’t want to or couldn’t do these things. So Jesus told him that one thing was lacking.

So let’s fast forward to today. As a Christian, I trust in God, but....the reality is that there are plenty of times that I focus more on my wants, my needs as opposed to the needs and care of others around me.  I allow stuff and things to get in the way of what’s most important to me. In the end, whatever I collect or own on earth will just go to someone else when I die. It’s not that important. But yet, for whatever reason, I seem to think from time to time that it does matter and collecting and owning these things are important. I’m moving away from that mindset more and more, but I find myself returning occasionally to thinking that stuff matters.

What’s the takeaway from all of this? Are we supposed to just sell all of our stuff and live on the streets? Of course not! But, it is definitely a step toward evaluating what our belongings and “possessions” really mean to us. That’s the thing with minimalism. As I’ve walked down this road, I’ve seen many struggle with the “what are the rules” question. And really, to each person, the rules will be different. Over the past 8 months or so, we’ve definitely gotten rid of a lot of things in our house. Looking forward, I’d hope that we would continue to do that as a family and continue in that mindset. It’s hard, it takes lots of work, but I’ve found it to be freeing, encouraging and extremely valuable. I hope that you’re encouraged and challenged to look at your stuff and your attitude and relationship toward it and determine what the best course of action is for you.

Collecting

One of the things that I’ve noticed about myself, and people in general is that we like to collect things. Back when I was younger, I collected baseball, basketball and football cards. That was my focus and passion, second only to music. Once I was in college, I was faced with a dilemma. Do I lug my expansive collection of cards with me or do I get rid of them? They weren’t valuable because they were of the 80’s and 90’s, when cards were overproduced, so I just got rid of them. I haven’t thought much about collecting cards since then.

My girls love Barbies, as many girls do. My youngest daughter’s room has all of the Barbie paraphernalia in it. The dream house, the cars, and a whole ton of Barbies. Many of these things were given to them by a family in our church whose daughter didn’t want her collection anymore. And my girls play with the Barbies quite regularly.....but there’s so much of it!

I could keep going with more examples from my life, but as you’re reading this, you can probably think of many more yourself. We collect things. And when we find something we like, people feel compelled to give us things that help us with that collecting. Now, inherently, there’s nothing wrong with that, until your shelves, your rooms, your house is filled with your collection. And you’re facing the “now what” with all of it. You’re overwhelmed, And you don’t control the stuff, the stuff controls you.

While the optimal first encouragement I’d give in regard to collecting is don’t do it, I have 3 encouragements in helping to deal with your collecting:

1) Find a manageable number. When one new thing comes one, it has to replace another item in your collection. I collected nutcrackers. I’d only put them out at Christmas. I kept a few out regularly. So I decided that 28 nutcrackers were not worth storing, so I kept the 8 I really liked, and got rid of the rest. If I get a new one, it replaces one in my collection.

2) Keep asking yourself why. Ask why you collect these things. Do they bring you joy? Cheer you up? Awesome. Do they serve a purpose? Because if you don’t keep asking why, you may end up with the dinner plates of the world collection and not really have them serve a purpose or have a place to store them!

3) Don’t be afraid to say no. As a musician, much of my music has been handed down or picked up through giveaways. And I’m thankful for that because I’ve found some great music. I’ve also found some awful music, music I’ll never use and music that’s falling apart. Why should I keep it? So, I’ve become more discerning. I’ve learned to look and if there’s music I know I can’t use, I’m not just going to take it and hold on to it to take up space.....I’m not taking it in the first place. No is a hard word to say, but it’s so necessary and beneficial!

Happy collecting!

Rules of minimalism

Yesterday I wrote a post titled “How many shoes do you need?” I shared it on Facebook and got a few interesting responses. Most of them were actual responses about actual shoes. While I’m glad people have reasons for specific shoes, that wasn’t quite my point. The shoes are a means to an end. You can insert anything for shoes and still have a question that only you can answer.

There has been a big push toward minimalism. But the interesting part of it is that there isn’t any specific “rules” that you must follow. If you want to have 20 shirts, you can. If you want to have 5 shirts, you can too. Really, the biggest rule is how you justify what you have and why you have it. And whether you consider yourself a minimalist or not, Justifying what you have and why you have it is practical and benefiical.

Whether it’s shoes and you having your reasons for 10 pairs of shoes, or CDs and your reasons for having 125 of them, or anything else you come up with, asking yourself the questions, “Why do I have this?”, as well as “Do I need this?” and “What purpose does this serve” will definitely help you to sort out the things that need to stay and the things that need to go.

So it’s not completely about shoes. It’s not about rules. It’s about your individual reasons for why you have what you have. I would guess that many of us, myself included, have plenty of things in our houses that we don’t have very strong reasons for why we have.

How many shoes do you need?

This topic was something my wife and I go back and forth on from time to time. Recently, I brought the topic up and she told me. Black shoes, brown shoes, casual shoes, heels, flats...and she kept going and after that my head started spinning.

When it comes to things, this question of how many do you need is an interesting one. And I’ve gone through this in my life. How many CDs do I need? How many shirts do I need? How many.....you name it.

With minimalism, there aren’t really any specific rules. That’s part of the beauty of it. You’re in charge. For me, the question of shoes is simple. Black and brown dress shoes, running shoes, old running shoes to wear for mowing, causal shoes, and a pair of boots. I’ve got a couple of pair of flip flops, but I rarely wear them. Simple, right? And even that might be excessive to some. But that’s what I’ve chosen as my amount of shoes.

I’m not dogging my wife for her amount of shoes. She does have a lot of them, and over the years we’ve been married, she does do a good job of going through them from time to time to cull them. But whether it is shoes, clothes or anything else, it can be quite easy to justify and explain why we need to have so many of some item. And if we’re honestly asking ourselves the question of if it is needed or what number is needed, we may realize that we don’t need as much as we thought we did.

So...how many shoes do you need?

Discipline and focus

Yesterday I came across a post on Facebook which really hit me. It was “Clutter is no just physical stuff. It’s old ideas, toxic relationships and bad habits. Clutter is anything that does not support your better self.” There’s a lot to unpack, but I’m going to deal with what hit me out of that quote.

I’m awesome at something. I do really great at it. It’s a talent that I have.....but I don’t want to be that way anymore. What am I awesome at? Being focused, successful and disciplined for a short period of time. And then I fall completely off the wagon. Whether that’s exercise, practicing music, composing music, being organized and cleaning up regularly, blogging, and more....I’m awesome at being focused and doing great for short, maybe 2-4 week spurts....and then for whatever reason, I quit. I stop.

So how does it change? That’s the struggle. Of course the easy answer is, “suck it up buttercup”. But that only goes so far.  So what changes? What is different? I wish I could say there is a magic bullet that if you do this one thing, everything falls into place. Ain’t gonna happen. What it is going to take is a plan, focus and consistency.

So how do I exercise more? Well, back on about Ash Wednesday (February 14th) I quit walking. Why? I chose sleeping in. This morning, that changed. I got up and took the dog for a walk, even though it was cold (for Texas) and it’s going to be a long day. That’s even more reason for me to do it.

How do I practice more? I calendar it. And I stick to that calendar. This is one of the hardest ones because throughout my week, my schedule isn’t always “regular”. There may be meetings that come up, funerals to practice for (that’s happened the last 2 weeks after Easter) and more. So it’s a matter of doing my best and when I’m practicing, focusing on using that time as well as I can.

How do I compose more? That’s easy. Just do it. Actually, the laptop I’ve used to compose is a few years old and it’s run slowly....which, of course, works great when you’re fantastic at making excuses. Of course I made excuses to not do anything because of schedule, computer being slow, and really, honestly, what the answer is, I was scared. Composing music puts you out there. You’ll get plenty of rejections, non responses or tepid encouragements. I’ve gotten plenty of all of them. But I feel called to be a composer, so the only way I can call myself a composer is......to do it.

How do I get and stay organized and keep the house clean. Funny, right? Well, yesterday was my oldest’s 9th birthday. We got the house (and her room) cleaned. So, keeping up shouldn’t be too hard. It’s about doing a few things each night after the girls go to bed. Of course, moving (as we’re hoping to) will lead to even more of a focus and attention to organization, what needs to stay or go, etc.

And finally, blogging.....how do I do it regularly? Just like doing things before bed, I sit down and write out posts. Whether that’s going to be daily or a few days a week, that remains to be seen. But in a previous blog incarnation, I planned out the month coming up and topics to write about. That helped to keep me focused. With this blog, I haven’t. I’ve basically been spitballing, throwing things against the wall, and been unplanned.....and yet you still read it. So thanks for that! I know that I’m capable of giving you better ideas and information than I have in the past, and I look forward to doing it.

How about how? Where do you struggle with discipline and focus? What habits are you wanting to adjust, change or drop completely? Comment with those habits!

Expectations

I took a break from Facebook starting on February 14th. I didn’t miss it. That was intentional. Also on February 14th, I started an unintentional break from walking and from writing blog posts. In this time period of the last 6 weeks, I’ve had an opportunity to think about that word expectation for a while.

There’s really 2 expectations. The expectations you place on yourself and the expectations others place on you. I want to unpack that aspect of personal expectations for a bit. In his book “Finish”, my friend Jon Acuff writes about how we make goals for ourselves, the goals may be a bit unrealistic, or something comes up to change that status, and we end up quitting. He talks about it in a lot more detail, but that’s a lot of what happened to me. I quit. I’ll admit that. My excuses were noble. And somewhat legitimate. I got sick for 2 weeks in that time period and still had to keep going with work and life. But what about those other days? Why didn’t I make healthy choices or walk or better manage my time? The honest answer, as I’ve been processing through it is.....I just didn’t want to. But today is a new month. A new start. So what makes today different than any other day? Well, it’s Easter. That means that my 6 week period of Lenten busyness is over. So what? That will be replaced by end of school busyness was a parent, preparing my musical groups for a concert in May, working with my team to plan summer camp in July and many, many more things to do. On top of that, God willing, we’ll be finding a house to purchase, so we’ll have to pack up, move and get settled in the midst of all of that. I’m guessing that while you may not be in the specific boat that I’m in, your schedule is busy, too. So how do you balance and manage those expectations and that schedule?

I come back to one word again and again. Organization. If you’re on top of things and deal with them immediately, you will be less overwhelmed. Again, that’s something I haven’t done well, not just over the past 6 weeks, but for years. I know I’m capable of it, but it’s a matter of doing it. Organization is simple things like dealing with mail immediately, cleaning your kitchen counters before you go to bed, doing dishes and putting them away, doing laundry and putting it away immediately. Those things may seem simple, but after a long day, you may not have the “want to” to do it. You’ve got to do it. Of course, there’s the bigger things like going through your clothes, books, digital files, etc. and while that takes more time, it is most definitely helpful and worth it.

One of the things I did on Friday at my desk before I left was to make sure that the top of it was picked up and organized. That way, after my hibernation tomorrow, I can dive into things on Tuesday and not have to be stressed about starting with my desk.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be dealing with this topic of organization and what it looks like and some simple and easy things to do. I hope you’ll keep checking back and also commenting with your ideas and tips for what works for you!

Week 6 check in

Wow! Here we are, 42 days into the new year! Only 11.5% of the year has passed! So how are you doing? I did one monumental thing for me at least, and had a couple of major realizations. So let’s dive in.

My monumental thing was that I participated in a 5K. This was my 4th ever, but this was the first time I picked a 5K because I wanted to do a 5K. The others were supporting an awesome ministry called Coreluv, which does great work with orphans in Haiti. So why did I randomly pick a 5K to do? I’ve set a goal of doing 4 of them this year. But here’s what happened. I ended with my best per mile pace ever, my best 5K time ever. I finished 169/175. The guy who finished first had a 15 minute and change 5K. I mean, the guy finished in 15 minutes. I finished in a smidge under 45 minutes. In fact, the majority of the people finished in 20-30 minutes. I did some jogging and the rest walking. I’ll be doing my next 5K in 2 months and I’ll be running it. I’m doing really well with the Couch to 5K app, and the best part is that my boxer/lab pup who has been going with me has only tried to cut in front of me about 3 times.

Now to the realizations. And they tie together. The first one happened Saturday afternoon. After my 5K, my oldest asked “why does daddy do 5Ks?” My wife started to answer, and she said because I want to be healthy, get exercise and I chimed in with “they’re fun!” But she noticed. She’s almost 9. And then she said the thing that got me. “I want to do a 5K with daddy, too!” There’s the realization that I’ve known since I became a parent, but I get those hit over the head moments as reminders. What I’m doing is being noticed. I’m setting an example for my girls, something that I didn’t always have the healthiest and most positive set for me.

And then the second realization happened yesterday while hunting for a book that my oldest daughter couldn’t find. What ended up happening was I was supposed to snap a picture of a page for my wife and send it to her (which I did), but I didn’t return the book to where it was supposed to go! But we’re looking everywhere in my daughter’s cluttered room. Then we looked under the bed. And the piles of stuff that came out from under that bed! It was a mess. But then the realization hit again. Not only am I being watched for the good example, but the bad examples are being picked up as well. My wife and I don’t always put things away like we should. And we don’t always make our girls pick up their stuff. So, when they see that example, they follow it. So I spent the afternoon focused on cleaning up the kitchen. And tonight, I’ll focus on another room. And another...and you get the point.

As a parent, it’s not easy. But when you’re honest with yourself and your children, and you work on consistent discipline for yourself and your children, you all win in the long run. That’s the word that I’ve always struggled with my entire life. Discipline. And it’s something that’s really hard to pick up when you’re 40. The good news for me is that I’m realizing it is possible. It’s hard, but it’s possible.

It’s up to you

As I’ve spent the last couple of days reflecting on a productive January and a success at Whole30, I was reminded of a truth that I forget all to often. Whatever your situation, you can make choices to change the circumstance. I was very, very, very unhealthfully overweight. I still am. But I am less overweight because I have changed my circumstance. I started focusing in on what I’m eating, exercising and there are results happening. As for the stuff around our house, there is less clutter and that is progressing daily.

Now this can absolutely seem overwhelming, right? No doubt about it. We see “quick fixes” sold all the time in regard to health. “Drink this shake 2 times a day and you’ll lose the weigh. Oh, did we mention that each shake costs $12.50?” There’s no quick fix. None whatsoever. It’s much easier to put weight on than to take it off. It takes intentionality to lose the weight and even more intentionality to keep it off. But it’s possible. So do you go out, get a gym membership, throw out all the unhealthy food in your kitchen and get to work? Well, that’s a little drastic. Baby steps are the way to go. Anytime you try to do too much at once, you’ll get overwhelmed. Start this way. Instead of 5 sodas a day, go to 3. And incorporate more water. Or instead of trying to find the closest parking spot somewhere, park farther away. You’ll get more exercise in. Starting with little steps changes your mentality and creates new habits. Or (GASP!!) instead of 4 cups of coffee, have 1 and maybe 2 cups of green tea. You get the point. Little changes make a huge difference.

The same thing goes with your stuff. You may feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. That’s OK. It’s up to you. You’re in charge. Maybe it’s just starting by cleaning off your kitchen counters and keeping them clean for a week. A small habit, then you add to it. Then you take the next step. That could be books, CDs, clothes, whatever it is where you feel cluttered. Go through and ask, “Do this have a definite purpose in my life?” And if that answer is no, get rid of it. If the answer is I’m not sure, put in a box and put the box aside for a while. If you don’t find yourself needing it or thinking of a purpose for it, get rid of it.

Little steps are the biggest way to make a change. It’s up to you. You can do it!

Sentimentality

Last Friday and Saturday, I went up to my mom’s house to help her go through things. I’ve been trying to get over there about once a month to do things for her and check on her since my dad passed away. Last Saturday morning we started going through things a little bit. And what happened? We got rid of some things, but a lot more were hung on to because of.....sentimentality.

My dad’s first wife left him in the early 70’s and took everything. Literally. I can’t imagine going through that. But that changed him. Anything that was furniture, and that was in the family was very tightly hung on to by my dad. And for almost 41 years my parents were married, so my mom was a part of that as well. So in 1987 when my dad’s dad died, a lot of things came into our house. When my dad’s mom died in 1999, more things came into our house. And now, my mom has all of this stuff. And what do you do with it? Do you hang on to it because it was in the family, and even though it’s really not needed, you feel obligated to hang on to it?

At the end of my paternal grandmother’s life, she needed a walker. As I shared before she passed away in 1999. That walker stayed at our house. In the fall of 2016, my dad was needing a walker. Guess what he pulled out? That same walker. So he hung on to a thing for 17 years as a “just in case”.  And when we were going through things in the garage last Saturday, there was a small box labeled.....”walker parts”. You guessed it, it were extensions for the very same walker. And what did my mom say? “I’m going to hang on to that because I may need a walker.” Frustrating, but when you’ve lived that life and have that mentality, it’s pretty much impossible to change.

So am I saying that you shouldn’t be sentimental about things? Absolutely not! I have things that I am sentimental about, but you have to remember the purpose and place of things. Just because it has been handed down through the family, if you don’t need it and can’t find a use for it, don’t take it. I know that sounds harsh, but you end up with a whole bunch of clutter that makes your life difficult. Memories aren’t the things, they’re inside of us.

In going through things with my mom, I’ve told her that yes there are things that I would like, but it’s a matter of what we’re going to use. And once we buy our house, we’ll have a better idea of what our needs are. But I’m not going to be sentimental about it. I’m going to be practical.

We’re moving!

Well.....not immediately. More like June, but we’ve found out that we’re approved to be able to buy a house. When we signed our lease last June to rent the house we’re in, we decided that was the last lease we were going to sign....for a variety of reasons.

But now....we have a deadline. It’s real now. And there’s a ton to do in going through our stuff to figure out what is beneficial and useful and as we look for a new house, we’ve made a list of things we want. My girls want stairs, my wife wants a big kitchen, I want a big yard for gardening and entertaining.

When we started our list, we asked the girls about what they wanted in a house, it took a while to get them to understand that everything will move......but does it really? Of course not! There’s plenty that will be leaving the house before we move.

It’s a matter of making and working a plan. And that’s where we’re at.  We’ll get there and it will be a lot of work, but in the end,  it will be worth it.

How do you measure progress?

Yesterday, I spent time working in my garage. At the first of the year, and pretty much when I started yesterday, it looked like this:

And by the time I was done, it looked like this:

Am I finished? Goodness no! But it’s progress. So let’s talk about that word progress. Who measures progress? You are the one who can and should measure your progress. That can be on your terms, in your own measurements. Does my progress mean that I got my entire garage cleaned out? No. But there’s places to walk in there. I brought in my plants from outside, because it’s below freezing outside. There are two old bikes that my girls have outgrown that need to go away. That pile that’s basically in the middle is stuff that needs to be gone through. Most of it will go away. Get rid of all of that and you’ve got a whole lot more space and organization. I got as much of the boxes in the recycling container, and as that gets emptied, I’ll add more boxes. So the progress keeps going. Slow, but steady.

So how do you measure progress? I think one of the most helpful things that you can do is to come up with a plan before you start. If you have an hour, or 30 minutes, or 15 minutes, make your plan. Focus on one area, then if you have time, go to the next. The most important parts to remember in making progress is that YOU are the one who determines your progress, and YOU are the one who measures your progress. Sure, you can (and should) enlist the help of others to help hold you accountable. But in the end, the responsibility lies with you. So, make a plan and get to it!

Speaking of plans, I’ve had to alter mine a bit, because while I was supposed to be working today, my wife was supposed to be working and my girls were supposed to be in school, we’re having an ice/freezing rain day. So, instead of trying to do more in the garage (once I do some work from home), I’m going to switch up my focus to inside, where it’s warm! I’ll share some of those results tomorrow.

Clutter

I’m going to ask you a simple, yet very complex question. What is cluttering your life? It could be habits, relationships, stuff, exercise choices (or lack of them), healthy eating choices (or lack of them) and many, many other things.

We all have something cluttering our lives. In fact, if we’re honest, we probably have a few things, physical and otherwise, that clutter our lives. That huge first step is identifying what the clutter is. It could be allowing social media to take up more time in our day that it should (raises hand), or the physical stuff cluttering up your house, leading you to be feeling disorganized, unproductive and frustrated.

Once you’ve identified the clutter....how do you get rid of it? Or, to start, how do you make it more manageable? Is that scheduling the time you allow yourself social media? Is it starting with a drawer or a room and going through and figuring out what is needed and beneficial for your life? It’s those little steps that start to build momentum toward real, long lasting change.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about resolutions, we make our resolutions or what we’re going to change much more grandiose and unachievable than they need to be. But more than that, we have this perfectionism mentality. That, if we can’t do it perfectly, we shouldn’t even try. You will not immediately eliminate all of your clutter whether it is physically, relationships, habits, whatever the case may be. But you have to determine what is causing the clutter, how best to start dealing with it....and then deal with it. When you get off track (and you will), you get back on track, give yourself grace and DO NOT QUIT. You can do it. One step at a time. Start with figuring out what is causing the clutter in your life. Write it down. Then write down 2-3 steps to help you get rid of the clutter. Then put it somewhere visible, where you can be reminded of it regularly. And then do it!

So now what?

You may be overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in your house, whether it’s Christmas stuff or just the overall amount of stuff. You’re ready to get rid of stuff and get rid of the junk and the clutter in your house. Awesome. So now what? Where do you start?

Trying to do everything at once is overwhelming. And impossible. And will lead to frustration and more than likely, you won’t get far. So, what to do? Start small. Start simple. There’s a couple of different directions and suggestions I’ll give for you to consider.

First, pick a room. Focus on that room for a month. I saw this suggested in a Minimalist Facebook group and I thought that there was some positive things that could come out of this. If you focus on one room for that period of time, you can really focus on getting down to the things that are really beneficial to you. This makes things less overwhelming and it helps you to be more focused and concentrated.

Another alternative is something that I’ve picked up from the bloggers The Minimalists. They do what they call the “30 day minimalism game”. The idea is that based on what the number of the day is, that is how many items you get rid of. So, day 1, it’s 1 item, day 2, it’s 2, and so on. This can be very beneficial, as well as quite challenging. I did it in the month of November, and while it was challenging, I found it quite fruitful.

No matter what way you choose to do, start somewhere. It could be that you pick tonight and start with your closet. Awesome. Start and start simple. Maybe it’s each day you’re focusing on a shelf or a drawer or something. You can do it. We can do it. Together. Over the next couple of days I’ll be sharing more about what I’ll be doing to close 2017 and get started into 2018.

Join The Minimalist Musician Facebook group!

Christmas 2017

Well, you’ve made it! You’ve survived another Christmas. You’re probably looking around your house, seeing all the stuff that has now been brought in, and you’re saying, “now what??” I hear you. My kids got a bunch of stuff. My kids had plenty of stuff before yesterday. My kids had more than enough stuff and needed to get rid of some of that stuff. But here were are. Now what?

If you’re a parent, start with you. If you set the example, the kids will follow. Thankfully for me, my wife and kids are going to my in-laws, so I’ll have time and ability to go through a lot of things. If you don’t live alone, make sure to communicate with the other person. My wife and I have talked about what in the garage and the backyard needs to go away. My girls are getting new bikes while at my in-laws, so their bikes can go away. We don’t need to store the old bikes.

Now for the “now what”. Start preparing yourself, your house, your family for next Christmas. What do I mean by saying that? Start thinking about your possessions, how you use those possessions, what space is taken up by those possessions in your house, whether things are necessary or unnecessary, and when you’re sharing things you would like for Christmas, whether you’re going to share a desire for practical, useful things. I don’t tell people what I want, because I am happy and thankful for what I get. So what did my wife and girls get me? Socks, a hoodie for when I walk, a new wallet, and body spray and body wash. All practical and useful things that I love and appreciate.

Stick with me. I’m going to be sharing thoughts and ideas over the next couple of weeks that will help you as you process and inventory your stuff, your thoughts, and most importantly, your life.

What do you use your garage for?

A few days ago, we went to a friend’s house. As we pulled into the driveway, my youngest said, “They’re not home!” I had texted them 10 minutes before and I knew they were home. And she said, “But their car isn’t in the driveway!” Which got me thinking....

I can count the times we’ve put one car in the garage. It’s 5. All of them due to heavy rains/storms and vehicles that had issues with leaking in heavy rains. And it took a Herculean effort to make space for the car in. Normally, they are parked in the driveway. Why? Because of all the crap in our garage! We have the normal things like bikes, lawnmower, other lawn/yard tools. But we’ve got lots of disorganized stuff in the garage and things everywhere so that there isn’t space to park one, let alone two cars in the garage, using the garage for its’ designed purpose.

So how about you? Do you use your garage for the intended purpose? Could you do something different to be able to park your car or cars in the garage? What would need to change? How do you change it?

My whole point in looking at this is not to point fault. In my neighborhood, there are so many houses that don’t have cars parked in the garages. My point in this is to encourage you, as well as myself, to look at the space you have, and to ask if there’s a better way. There may be, or there may not be. In our garage, we have a chest freezer, as well as our washer and dryer. That limits our space. But it all depends on your situation. You may not have any issue with parking your cars in your garage. Awesome! I’ll have more on organization in the garage and the rest of the house soon enough! If not, you’ve got some things to consider and some work to do!