As a new year begins, I thought it would be a good idea to examine how you currently live and how you can make it even better. To do that I’m going to talk about how simplicity and abundance can be used to create a life you love.
This article is the first part in a four-part series on simplicity and abundance for your:
Space: the physical world you live in
Mind: your mental experience
Body: your physical health
Soul: your inner experience.
My intention for you is to be able to identify goals for yourself after reading these four parts and be able to begin integrating your insights to create a whole picture of who you are and what you want.
DEFINITIONS
I want to start with some quick definitions to make sure we’re all on the same page.
Space: This refers to your home, your living space, your workspace (office, desk, locker, cubicle, etc.), your car, and anywhere else you spend a lot of time.
Simplicity: Reducing sensory “noise” in your space.
Abundance: Increasing the things that bring joy, comfort, and functionality to your space.
THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR SPACE
The physical areas where we spend our time impact us. When your space is uncomfortable, you will be uncomfortable.
When you think about space you might be thinking about an entire house, or a special area all your own. If you live with roommates, your room may be the only space you really have sway over so it needs to meet your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs. You define your space.
Ask yourself these questions to help begin to connect your space to the rest of your well-being:
Do I look forward to being in my space?
Do I feel good/comfy/safe in my space?
Do I feel drained by my space?
Does my mood or mental (positive or negative) state match the state of my space?
Do I feel motivated to care for myself in my space, i.e., exercise, eat healthy, get a good night’s sleep, etc.
VISUAL SIMPLICITY
Visual simplicity is the idea that there is a reduction in the stuff you can see. A reduction in what you might call “visual clutter.”
My favorite room in my home is my bedroom. It’s the room with the least amount of furniture, least number of things on the walls, or stuff cluttering flat surfaces. The colors are simple and soothing to me. It’s easy to keep tidy because it has the least amount of stuff in it. I’ve worked hardest in this room to reduce or simplify, especially my wardrobe.
This room causes me zero anxiety because I love visual simplicity.
Your job is to figure out what makes you feel best.
To figure out if you’re a visual simplicity gal like me, ask yourself these questions:
Do you feel closed in by rooms with lots of stuff in them?
Do you feel like I can breathe in rooms with less stuff in them?
Does a colorfully diverse room create tension in you?
Do you feel best in spaces where the primary colors are simple?
ORGANIZATIONAL SIMPLICITY
Organizational simplicity is for those who do not enjoy mucking about with details when putting things away or looking for things in their space.
In areas of my home where there isn’t a lot of space (our house is small, just right for two people) my organization tends to be as simple as I can get it.
I use large bins in our linen closet for large categories:
Anything that has to do with hair goes in one bin
All of my husband’s primping stuff goes in another
Anything having to do with travel is tossed together, and so forth.
It’s the same in my pantry:
All grains are in one bin
Baking needs are together
Pastas are in one bin, etc.
I have a 16-inch-wide pantry and it makes the most sense to me to be able to pull out a single bin, paw through it for what I need, and move on. Others with the same pantry would not use the same system, that’s why it’s based on who my husband and I are and how we operate.
To decide if you might prefer organizational simplicity ask yourself these questions:
Do you feel more efficient when categories are in one large area together?
Does it seem like a waste of time to divide things up into smaller parts?
Do you feel more able to find things when you have fewer bins/baskets to choose from?
Do you feel like more detailed organization creates more work for you?
Do lots of small containers make your head spin?
VISUAL ABUNDANCE
Visual abundance is when you like being able to see everything. Visual abundance people will tell me that if things aren’t out, they’ll forget they exist. I totally get that, as my daily vitamins, supplements, and medications are always on the windowsill above the kitchen sink so I can see them or else I’d never remember to take them.
My husband’s favorite room in our house is the front room. It’s like walking into an arcade/man cave. The walls are covered in sports and movie memorabilia in the style of the salons of the Louvre, one of the largest art museums in the world, where the walls are packed with paintings wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling.
It’s a sensory overload of color, lights, images, and sound (if he turns the volume on in the machines when friends come over.) He loves it! Even in our living room we have a lot of things on the walls like photos from our travels and posters from our favorite musicians.
Being able to look around at everything seems to make him feel loved.
So, do you think you might be a visual abundance type like my hubby?
Here are your questions to find out:
Do you find yourself displaying lots of small items?
Do you prefer lots of color in my spaces?
Do you feel energized by lots of visual stimulus?
Do you think those minimalist pictures of homes on Pinterest are pretty, but they really don’t express who you are?
ORGANIZATIONAL ABUNDANCE
Organization abundance is for those who do best when items are divided into their categories and separated.
One woman I worked with had an over-flowing bin of medications from herself, her husband, and her son. She knew there were many expired prescriptions in there, but couldn’t get herself to dig through it. She stuffed this bin into a cabinet and kept all of the bottles for the medications that were currently being used on the kitchen counter beneath that cabinet.
What we figured out was that having a large bin to shove things into was a terrible idea for her as stuff got lost like tossing it into a black hole.
What she needed were multiple smaller lidded bins with labels to put the meds into like: “Mom”, “Dad”, “Kid”, “Pain”, and “Antibiotics”. With that system she could easily see what was in each one, how much they had, what wasn’t even being used any longer, and what was on the brink of expiration.
When we headed to her pantry it was the same thing, she needed small, labeled sections, risers, and bins. My large category bin concept would have been a disaster for her.
We all think differently, one is not right or wrong, correct or incorrect.
How you need things is how things need to be.
So, ask yourself these questions to see if organizational abundance would work better for you:
Do you lose things with regularity because everything gets too mixed together?
Do you prefer to have items separated by type, style, size, color, etc.?
Do you love focusing on details?
Do large bins make it far too easy for you to throw things in there and forget about them?
Do you feel overwhelmed by bin or baskets that are filled with too much stuff?
CREATE THE HOME YOU LOVE
In the end you will have a home that will be a combination of visual and organizational simplicity and abundance. One style will work in one area, and another will work better somewhere else.
The personalities of the people in your home will dictate this, too. When you have little kids, visual abundance tends to run the show, and organizational simplicity may make the most sense for toys, and clothing. When those same children get older it may change, when they move out it may change again. Who knows?
The point is to build a home that suits you and fits the function of your life.
Personalize your home and don’t worry about what anyone else is doing.
To keep the search for your style going, let’s get you set up for either Integrative Life Coaching to talk about your life as a whole, or Virtual Declutter Coaching to focus on your home!