Living the Simple Life

Posted by Sandra Williams Oct 26, 2008

Elaine St. James used to be a busy real estate investor but the long hours were stressing her out.

She points out simplifying doesn't have to mean a sudden move to a cabin in the woods. It's often an ongoing process to scale down and simplify your life according to your own desires.

To achieve a simpler slower paced life, she advises us to cut back on things that are not essential or complicating our lives.

Some of the ideas I liked:

• Do less housekeeping & laundry
• Watch less television
• Let go of stuff you don't need (declutter)
• Change jobs or cut down hours if possible

She does have good suggestions in Living the Simple Life (ISBN: 078686219X) for simplifying the lives of your children as well. I do think many children are overbooked with structured activities.

Although I have never been a social butterfly, some of her suggestions seem severely anti-social. She does mention how lifestyle changes and priorities are unique to each individual.

I am not a huge fan of the telephone for instance but I would have a hard time giving it up. Family gatherings are important to me as well and not a time waster. One of her time saver suggestions was to refuse all invitations. To be fair she does say to just try it for thirty days, but I guess I'm too close to my family for that.

We both agree that there are too many things that complicate people's lives. Contemplating whether you really need something before you buy it makes sense. It's not always a matter of whether you can afford something or not. It's deciding whether it will simplify your life or complicate it.