I’m thrilled to introduce you to my friend Lorilee Lippincott. She’s just released a book on simplifying!!! That’s something I think we could all grasp hold of. It’s easier to make a Kingdom Journey when you travel light! Y’all show Lori some love and don’t forget to comment to be entered in the drawing for a free book. Take it away, Lorilee . . .
Do you have a cluttered life? One where you feel you are always running? Feel like you are busy all the time but never seem to get anything done?
I felt like that for years and finally did something drastic about it about 2 years ago. My schedule is still full, but it is full of what I value and I feel I am accomplishing a lot.
What changed?
We got rid of what we didn’t value in our life. I know this sounds a bit harsh, but it really isn’t. I am still married to an amazing man and I still have my adorable children. It is everything else that changed. I realized that material†possession as well as schedule clutter was taking a large part of my life and it wasn’t what I really wanted to spend the time on.
We were a ‘normal’ family in a 2000 square foot house. 2 kids and lots of great garage sales in the neighborhood had us fully ‘stocked’. Beyond that we were running a construction business where I did all the paper/book/scheduling work at home while trying to maintain order, be involved in community service, hold positions in the church, homeschool… it was just kinda crazy… but also kinda normal.
Now we live quite a bit different
Instead of 2000 square feet we are in a small 1 bedroom apartment. Instead of our living space being ‘fully stocked’ the kids have space to play. We have moved out of residential construction for the most part and my husband has been doing commercial trim work instead. The pay is less but it leaves me with almost no paperwork or phone calls and still allows us to keep our self-employment freedom. I am still very involved in church, looking for more ways we can do community service in our new neighborhood, homeschool the children and working on my writing.
I don’t think any of us every want an empty life. We want our life and our schedules to be full. However, so many people (like I was) are running in life but aren’t sure they are getting anywhere. I want to be remembered as a servant of God, a helping wife, and a great mom – not an expert life juggler or homemaker.
The past 2 years have been fun, challenging, and freeing. If you were to tell me back then that our ‘urge to declutter’ would end up with us owning almost nothing I might have laughed. Now, I think we are still living with lots more than we really need, I love the time I have gotten back, and hope to simplify down to backpacks with my family some day and travel.
Looking back I don’t see what we did near as drastic as when we first got started. But the more I talk and write about our change, the more I find people feeling just like I was 2 years ago looking for that same change…. not very many people I talk to want to simplify as far as we have but that is the beauty of both simplicity and individuality. We are all different, but we can all benefit from limiting our lives to what we need and what we love.. the rest is just clutter.
The Book
This past Monday I released Simple Living – 30 days to less stuff and more life‘ for others wanting to simplify and not sure where to start. I am really excited about this book because it is an action book. The book is broken down into 30 short chapters/days, each containing an assignment 30-60 minutes-ish, in 30 different areas of the home and life. This book won’t take you from being a pack-rat to being a minimalist instead it will show you these 30 different areas in life and get you started working in them. Not only will your life and space be simpler after you finish, you will also know where you need to personally work more on simplifying, and you will have the experience ‘under your belt’ to continue.
Simple Living – 30 days to less stuff and more life is for sale this week for only 99 cents. You can’t not grab a copy at that price :) Also, I would like to give 3 readers a copy for free. If you would like to receive a copy of ‘Simple Living’ for free just leave a comment on this post and let me know an area in your life that you want to simplify. DRAWING HELD FRIDAY!
You don’t have to, but I would love it if you would also share this post on social media to help me get the word out about the book. Thanks so much!
Bio: Lorilee helps families simplify at Loving Simple Living and has just released ‘Simple Living – 30 days to less stuff and more life‘. It is on sale this week for only .99. Find her on Twitter.
