A life of their own?

Returning home after a 20 day vacation provided the opportunity to look at my home, my office and my schedule with a fresh perspective. After living out of one suitcase for three weeks, everything seemed so much more complicated than necessary. My feeling on this was cemented while I was looking for an important document and wondering why there were five or six different places that it might be found. I wasted an hour searching, when I could have used that time to finish a project, or even better, had an additional hour at the end of the day for self-care and relaxation.

I wondered why there are so many places for important documents all over my apartment, and while I was at it, I also wondered why there are so many email accounts for me to wade through, so much junk mail to recycle, and so many different places I keep track of invitations and appointments. It appears that when life is hectic and busy, sometimes things just seem to have a life of their own and multiply until you put a stop to it.

The solution to making more free time and energy for non-work pursuits is to streamline and simplify! Conserving energy by not dispersing it in multiple unsatisfying directions is one of the keys to becoming and staying energized and well. There are many different approaches to simplifying, but I don't want that to get complicated either. I am going to stick with these two maxims: Say No and Let Go. For instance, I can solve dilemma about the missing document by Saying No to multiple locations where I toss things and instead designate a specific location and make a point of using it.

How many different areas of your life would benefit from using these phrases to focus, streamline and simplify? I imagine there is more than one! Here's an exercise in using them:

Pick one area of your home or office that seems to have the most life of it's own. In my house, it's usually the kitchen! Take a look around and identify the items of particular concern. In my kitchen, the recycling and those plastic grocery bags are out of control; in addition, there seem to always been more dishes than we can handle. Now, brainstorm ways to simplify by Saying No and Letting Go. I can Say No to plastic grocery bags at the store by bringing reusable canvas bags, and I can Let Go of the hundreds sitting there by putting them out with the recycling. As for managing the large piles of paper and plastic recycling that is often tripped over in my kitchen, I could start Saying No to buying individually packaged items at the grocery store, opting instead of bulk good whenever possible. I could also Say No to catalogs by having the companies take me off their mailing lists, and Say No to junk mail by getting my address off those lists too. I can also Say No to my laziness and make more of an effort to bring the recycling out to the bins before it piles up. As for dishes, I can Let Go of keeping 8 settings accessible for every day use by putting half of them away for special occasions.

Which part of your house (or maybe your job) seems to have the most life of it's own? How can you streamline and simplify by Saying No and Letting Go?