Christa, Day 72: Is This the End of Is It the Beginning?

As I said yesterday, while thinking about today, I can't believe that the project is over. Getting all the way to today from Day 1 has been an interesting journey - and sometimes a rushed one. I think I had more doubled up days that anyone else who made it all the way through. Anyone else being Julia *waves* at Jewels and Smiths. I wish I had some sort of prize to give you for walking down the Simple Living Manifesto item by item with me. And heck, I'd give everyone else who participated, whether a lot or a little, a prize, too, if I could.

Because what a great endeavor, even if in the end all one did was think about each day's simplification idea!

Today's idea? It's refreshingly simple, where other items on the list have been worryingly complex in some cases. Day 72, the last day, offers up a road map we can all use moving forward to ensure we don't allow ourselves to fall into the trap of increasing, useless complexity in the present or in the future.

Always ask: Will this simplify my life? If the answer is no, reconsider.

First, l think I'll ask did this simplify my life... I think the answer is yes. I sincerely believe that I made changes during this project that I would not have made otherwise.

For example, I made the difficult decision to walk away from a job I'd been doing more or less happily for six years because the work and the time involved were no longer worth the pay. I put in the effort to get rid of larger furniture that was taking up space in my tiny house. I started working more regularly on my business side project in the hope that it will someday allow me to spend more time with my family and less time working for someone else. With help from my Internet friends, I have started to experiment with meal planning. I'm still working on being present more when it counts and driving more slowly and spending quiet time doing nothing other than enjoying the feeling of being alive. I'm still in the process of decluttering and destressing, and I don't know if I'll ever get the hang of single-tasking...

But I'm working on it. I'm still working on everything, beginning with Day 1. I've heard it said that it takes 21 days to create a habit - which means I still have a ways to go with some of the later list items!

This may not gel with your experience, but from the beginning, my assumption was that everyone would approach the 72 Ideas in 72 Days Project differently and that everyone would walk away from it with different things.That's cool. Because that was the point. We all need to learn different things, after all. In the end, I plan to continuing applying the lessons I have learned over the past 72 days and hope everyone else will, too.

Moving forward, will that simplify my life? I think it will.

Julia's Day 63: In which I reveal the contents of my diaper bag

Considering that I move through the universe in the company of a not-yet-potty-trained toddler, I actually carry very little.

Julia's day 57: In which I lament the untimely death of my couch

Focusing on quality over quantity is funny when it comes to spending. You might spend more initially, but you end up spending less over the long run because you don't have to replace things as often. True story!

Julia's Day 52: In which I discuss convergent evolution

As it happens, I've been making a 3-4 item Most Important Tasks list for, like, a GAZILLION YEARS. Except I just called it a to-do list. You know. Simple.

Julia's Day 42: Creativity's got me down

In contrast with what Leo suggests, it seems to me like the key to inner simplicity, in my case, is to stay as far away from the inside of my own head as possible.

Julia's Day 35: Gettin' pretty lonely on this blog here...

Since Corolla and Camaro have the same number of syllables, I'll just sub the one in for the other in the song, and assume that my car situation is just fine.

Julia's Day 34: Is it really downsizing if you're just getting rid of stuff you didn't use?

Actually, we are considering a smaller home. We've got more than enough space here, and the layout is rather less than baby friendly, so why not at least try for something better suited to our needs?

Christa, Day 16: Simplicity In Action

As I sit down to write this - with a glass of wine, no less - it's barely 6:30 p.m., dinner has been eaten by all, there's hardly a dish in the sink, and other than this, there's nothing absolutely pressing on my to-do list. Tedd is out and about with the P., possibly at the playground by now but maybe just wandering up and down the streets parallel to ours. Crickets are chirping just outside the window. The house is basically tidy, barring the fact that the kitchen counters are all in a tizzy because I caulked today.

Now I can't exactly credit all of this to the steps I and my fellow contributors have taken in the past two-ish weeks, I can't entirely say that this is just a fluke. Why am I drinking wine and blogging right now? Because a few days after Day 4, I unofficially said goodbye to Manolo for the Brides and Manolo for the Home. Because after Day 5, I started doing a little meal planning and figured out a dish washing scheme that seems to be keeping our wee kitchen mostly dirty dish free. Because as per my Day 7 post I have been making an effort to limit online play time during work time, and that left me with more time to devote to a super secret professional project that saw action last night and this morning, too.

Bear with me... this is just my roundabout way to try to find inspiration for today's voluntary simplicity idea:

Create a simplicity statement. What do you want your simple life to look like? Write it out. More here.

Sounds easy enough, right? But drafting a personal philosophy can actually be rather difficult - especially when you're asked to create one on the spot. The link in today's item seemed more complicated than guidelines for creating a simplicity statement ought to be, with revisions and inner q&a sessions, and a surprising use of the words "turbo charged". Simplicity and more specifically, voluntary simplicity, might be difficult to master initially, but it should become a habit, a life. It shouldn't require something akin to a business plan.

So keeping in mind that I want my simplicity statement to be simple, here's mine:

My goal is a life that never gets 

so complex I can no longer enjoy it.

End of story. Done. It covers all the bases. It reminds me of what I'm working toward. And to enjoy the stuff of life instead of always trying to create something more than life to enjoy. It can be applied to consumerism and our budget, my work life and my home life. It's something to ponder as I make decisions about the future and consider the detritus of the past. Plus, it's a great reminder that so many of the things we have been conditioned to think will make us happy frequently add another layer of unwanted complexity to our lives.