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From Clutter to Clarity: Simplifying Life from the Inside Out

By on November 9, 2009 in building the family, faith & womanhood, frugal & simple

Nancy Twigg’s From Clutter to Clarity: Simplifying Life from the Inside Out is most definitely the best book on simplifying your life from a Christian perspective that I have read. It is an easy read that really helped clarify my perspective in all aspects of my life.

I feel the description on the back cover truly encapsulates the book well, “Is your schedule so full you can barely breathe, much less volunteer for a good cause? Do you spend each day worrying about things you can’t control? Are you tired of facing endless mounds of junk? Cluttered homes, overbooked schedules, and maxed-out credit cards are only symptoms of what’s happening on the inside. As you follow God’s directive to clear out the clutter that complicates your life, you’ll discover the clarity you desire. Isn’t it time?”

I love how she keeps the focus on simplifying first and foremost by addressing the core of our hearts, the root problem. Are we trying to find satisfaction in things? Or through maintaining a busy schedule that we don’t have time to think about our discontentment? It starts with your mind and heart! Simplifying is more than just cleaning out closets, drawers, and boxes of receipts.

The book begins by offering a new definition of clutter: “Anything that complicates your life and prevents you from living in peace as you live out your purpose.” She then follows this up by dissecting Hebrews 12:1-2, and addressing it’s application to inner clarity (simplicity of mind-set, getting rid of counterproductive thoughts that clutter your mind), outer clarity (simplicity of daily life – how you use your time and how you relate to your possessions), and finally financial clarity (simplicity of spending – how you relate to your money).

Hebrews 12:1-2 states, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus…”

This book is a call to acknowledge honestly what is really holding us back. “Throw it off” as Hebrews describes. Get it out of your lives and thoughts, for even good things can lead to sin, if we become consumed with it and turn it into an idol. Nancy shares, “Even noble pursuits become clutter when they endanger our sanity and leave us with no time to connect with God.” You will encounter struggles in the battle (it is hard to say “no”), but remember to keep fixing your eyes on Jesus! He is our Source! He provides the ability to lay aside the clutter in our life and be set free through Christ Jesus. “Through the toughest times in our spiritual lives, it’s our God-empowered persistence that keeps us moving forward.”

“Our suitcases are filled with all kinds of dead weight: habits we need to give up, attitudes we’ve long since outgrown, and activities and possessions that no longer serve a reasonable purpose.” Are you ready to clean out those suitcases? Then, I strongly encourage you to find a copy of this book, and prayerfully read and journal through it. Nancy provides very thoughtful clutter buster questions at the end of each chapter that will provide you with strategic tools for destroying the clutter in your life. She also provides a wealth of practical tips for diagnosing and attacking the clutter in the inner, outer, and financial areas of life.

I personally have grown a lot in understanding how to simplify my life in the outer realm, but while reading this book, I realized how much I had yet to grow in simplifying my life in the inner realm. The Lord has graciously used this book to help provide so much more inner clarity and purpose that I have ever experienced!

I’m eager to read her other book: Celebrate Simply: Your Guide to Simpler, More Meaningful Holidays and Special Occasions! It’s the perfect time of year!

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Free to Be Green: 10 Steps Towards Green Living

By on October 22, 2009 in frugal & simple, natural & green
Screen shot 2009-10-22 at 9.05.40 AMPhoto by Denis Collette

This talk was prepared for a live presentation I made on Wednesday, October 21, for a local mom’s group. I post it here for reference for these ladies in addition to inspiring others to join us in pursuing a good stewardship lifestyle.

Aaron and I and our two little ones took a weekend vacation to the beach in Sept. I have had a life long passion for the ocean. Growing up we would take annual vacations to the beach and enjoy the beauties of the Oregon Coast. Watching the rhythm of the waves, cuddling up and enjoying a good book, digging for agates, hiking, and exploring. It is simple and beautiful. We find rest and refreshment in the beauty of God’s creation. Nothing brings me as much pleasure as just being out in nature. Fall is here and we see the glorious changing colors of the earth.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…and it was good. He made man in His own image, in His own likeness and gave him dominion over the birds of the air, the fish of the seas, and called him to care for His creation, to steward it, to protect it, because it was good! “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry around the ground.” (Gen. 1:28)

There is a truth in this first command that is often overlooked! God has made us rulers of the earth and we are to be stewards, caretakers of the world around us. What does it mean to “reign” as Genesis describes?

Cornelius Plantinga’s says it this way in his book, Engaging God’s World:

“God gives human beings authority in the created world, what we might call ‘responsible dominion.’ Let them take responsibility for keeping the earth, for respecting the integrity of kinds, and times, and seasons. Christians and others have sometimes taken dominion as justification for the ‘conquest’ of nature…the Bible speaks of dominion, not in the sense of conquest, but in the sense of stewardship…To have dominion is to act like the mediator of creation. This means that a human steward of God’s good creation will never exploit or pillage; instead, she will give creation room to be itself. She will respect it, care for it, and empower it. The person who practices good animal husbandry, forest management, and water conservation shows respect for God by showing respect for what God has made.”

Did you catch that? When we care for His creation, we are showing honor and respect to the Creator. This is a high calling…a royal assignment! Being good stewards and caretakers of God’s glorious creation is a wonderful privilege entitled to each person on this earth. Not just me, not just you, but all of us together as a united force.

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Simple Home Decorating on A Budget

By on October 9, 2009 in frugal & simple, making a home
Screen shot 2009-10-08 at 4.18.52 PMPhoto by Cottonblue.
Originally published in January 2008 under the title Decorating on A Budget – part 1 & 2. Updated with current pictures.

Did you know that your home is an embassy of Christ’s kingdom? It is especially designed by God to be a place for others to find refreshment, encouragement, a haven of rest to their souls from the weariness and trials of this world. This haven must be a welcoming place to display the glory of God! This should always be our chief goal in our decorating. How can I make my home more of a testimony to the work of Christ in my life? How can I seek to refresh others as they enter into my home?

Furniture Layout

Make conversational areas. The key is to arrange your furniture so that the line of traffic from door to door is not passing right through the conversation area. You want to keep the furniture facing each other in smaller, intimate conversation areas without having people walk right through the center and taking away from the relaxed setting. You do not want this flow to hurt your fellowship. Arrange your future close enough that you don’t have to shout to have a conversation. The closer the better.

Choose a purposeful focal point. Each room will have a focal point of some sort. Most American homes have the furniture arranged so that the focal point is the television. This does not serve to invite conversation, but only distracts from it. Use your windows and fireplaces for this purpose.

Re-arrange your furniture with the seasons. Re-arranging adds fresh variety and change! It gives the feel of a whole new look without adding anything! For example, if you have a large window in your living room, you might make turn your furniture to make that the focal point in the summer as it is bright and cheery to look at. In the winter, the outdoors may not look so attractive so turn your furniture inwards to your fireplace. I recently angled my dining room table for a change in the corner, and I was amazed how appealing it was.

Keep furniture away from the walls. Arrange your furniture on an angle or in a unique fashion so it is not flat against a wall, or simply pull it away from the wall a bit (if possible). This adds a variety and creativity to your layout! We have placed our bed frame on an angle in the corner of our bedroom. It does take up more room in this way, but it is different and variety is the spice of life.

Have a place nearby to rest the arms or place a cup or mug. It is important to have a coffee table or end table near every seat, so your guests don’t have to stretch too far to relax themselves or place their beverage.

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Simple & Frugal Children’s Bedroom Decor

By on October 7, 2009 in frugal & simple, making a home

IMG_6614We have finally completed our decorating of Karis & Titus’ bedroom! What a fun project it was of practicing making my home lovely! My goal was to complete this in August…but hey, at least it was completed before the end of the year. ;)

We started decorating the kids’ bedroom by choosing a gender neutral vintage green color. We added red highlights through the curtains, kid’s table, and rocking chair. We also spray painted our picture frames for a photo collection. These colors were selected from our gender neutral crib bedding set. All the furniture was found on craigslist, gifted, or loaned to us. I don’t think we have ever bought a new piece of furniture as there is so much available through used sources.

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Homemade Cloth Wipes

By on September 8, 2009 in bellies & babies, frugal & simple

IMG_6359This week we are doing a little mini series on some of my favorite recommendations for cloth diapering! Stay tuned for my extensive review on various diapers we have tried over the last two years of our cloth diapering adventures. If you are new to cloth diapering, or want to hear more of the pro’s and con’s, check out our previous series on Cloth Diapering 101 here & here.

Let’s begin with simple cloth wipes! Did you know that it is just as easy to use cloth wipes when you are cloth diapering? In fact, it reduces your waste and costs significantly. Simply toss that little cloth wipe in the cloth diaper pail and wash with your diapers. I have found cloth wipes to clean baby’s bottom far more effectively versus their disposable friends. You can find cloth wipes online through many cloth diapering sites, such as Nicki’s Diapers (my recommended supplier), but it is easy to make your own. I chose to use an old receiving flannel blanket because it is very soft, durable, and frugal. It is thicker than many of the cloth wipes on the market and thus lasts longer. These wipes are also very handy in the kitchen to clean up dirty little hands and faces. We keep a stash at all times with the kitchen towels for this purpose.

Supplies:

Flannel fabric (take an old flannel receiving blanket and you are set! One receiving blanket will make you around a dozen wipes.)
Thread

Start by cutting your choice fabric into 8 x 8 inch squares. Sew a zig-zag pattern around the edge. Congratulations! You have a cloth wipe. It is that simple. It will fray just a tad but its just a cloth wipe and nobody cares! Store your wipes in an old wipes container. I like to run my diapers under water and ring them out to keep them damp in the container. You can also make a simple wipes solution by mixing some castile liquid soap and water and pouring over your wipes. I keep a soapy mixture in a foaming container to apply directly on the cloth for those difficult jobs.

How many wipes should you make? I would recommend having about 2-3 dozen wipes. Evaluate how often you change diapers and wash to figure out your needs.

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My Favorite Frugal & Re-Purposed Housecleaning Tools

By on September 1, 2009 in frugal & simple, natural & green

Picture 3This week we are focusing on natural housecleaning in preparation for the Natural Housecleaning Carnival this Friday! If you haven’t heard about it, check it out and prepare all your tips and recommendations.

I wanted to share with you three different frugal and effective housecleaning tools. I am always looking for ways to re-purpose and reuse items after their original purpose been spent. Two of the three ideas accomplish that to the fullest extent!

Scotch Brite Scour Pads

Picture 1 Scotch Brite Scour Pads are very useful when you need a good scrubbing for various housecleaning tasks. I keep one at the kitchen sink for all my dishwashing needs. I have used many different scrub brushes over the years specially designed for the task but they don’t work as well. The Scotch Brite (or green scratchy as I call it) works so well on scrubbing all the leftovers off both my stainless steel cookware and my favorite hard anodized non-stick pan and everything else. I use it to scrub all the gunk off my stove top as well. When you have some dried food product on a glass or plate, the green scratchy saves me so much more time and energy because it scrubs effectively. No intense elbow grease needed here! I also keep one in my cleaning bucket for those tough water stains in the toilet or bathtub.

Make sure to get the variety that has the green heavy duty scour pads on both sides for ease of use and effectiveness. I have found the blue softer side on the other variety to be pretty worthless. They are very cheap and are available everywhere. Tip: You can wash them in the laundry multiple times before they start falling apart, thus stretching your dollar. Also, just make sure to wash the dishwashing pad from the cleaning bucket one. ;)

Re-Purpose an Old Toothbrush

Picture 4When your toothbrush has seen better days, before throwing it into the trash, consider adding this useful tool to your cleaning bucket or by your kitchen sink. A toothbrush is a good instrument for getting into all the crooks and crannies of housecleaning. Scrubbing around the toilet or sink, drain and cover, faucets, in the tracks of sliding shower doors or windows, tile grout, or any small hard to access places. Keep one in the kitchen for cleaning the wheels on your can opener, baby bottle lids or sippy cups,

Handy Dandy T-Shirts

When your old t-shirts have pass their prime, re-purpose them for cleaning your house! My husband’s old cotton undershirts are my favorite housecleaning rag! I just cut or tear each shirt into four rags. They work great for all my needs including windows. I have completely eliminated paper towels from my house because I didn’t like the waste, so t-shirts is my substitute. Surprisingly, they leave very little lint behind.

Those are my favorite tools. What are yours?

This post is a part of Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.
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Simplifying Your Book Collection

By on August 27, 2009 in frugal & simple

booksChristina asked: I had a question on how to simplify my bookshelves. I went to conferences on the value of collecting and keeping godly books and lets just say I’ve gotten quite a collection! How do you determine what books should be saved? My Aunt said the likelihood of my reading a book twice is minimal so I should just get rid of all of my books. But others say there may be books I want my future children to read for a “generational library” and that godly books are hard to come by! I definitely want to de-clutter my shelves but I really have no clue how to go about it! Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!!!

Books! Oh glorious books! I am a huge fan of reading myself and it can be easy to amass a large collection, especially if you practice frugal book reading and buying practices. It is definitely very wise to collect books, especially if you can choose them carefully. Books can be very dangerous as well. It is best to take wise precautions and ask thoughtful questions before even purchasing a book. These same questions can be asked as you simplify your collection.

Is this book beneficial and edifying?
Would I or did I grow as a result of this read?
Or is/was it fluffy (light in truth and not really stretching my understanding)?
Would I read it again?
Would this book help build mine or my children’s intellect as a result of this read?
Did it stretch me?
Does this book truthfully retell history?
Does this really deserve a place on my shelf?

Books you will find on my bookshelf include: Christian living (not just light weight books but books that really challenge and grow me spiritually), Bible-study helps, historical books (learn from history or we shall be doomed to repeat it – books that truthfully detail the past), good solid classics (that we enjoy as a family and/or my children will benefit from in the future), and lots of biographies. I love learning about the lives of those who have gone before me, especially missionary biographies. I honestly have only a few select fictional books.

There is definitely a place for fun and light reading, especially on those nights when you can’t sleep, but those books can easily be found at the library and do not need to take up space on your shelves.

If a book really truly deserves a place on your shelf, make sure it gets good use after you have completed it. Loan out your books to family and friends. Start a loaning library or donate books to your church’s library. Share your books and see others be blessed as a result. This is one simple way of being generous! Don’t just let them sit and collect dust for years…make them worth the purchase!

If a book does not deserve a place on your shelf, pass it on! Sell it on Cash4Books or Ebay or simply give it away.

Simplifying the Home School Resource Collection

For all the home school mommies out there, consider giving your input on simplifying the home school resources collection. Some of the above evaluation questions may be helpful, but I would love to hear from those with a bit more experience than I. ;)

Heather asked: I have 7 children and we are relaxed homeschoolers, so the education of my children partially depends on the material we have just hanging around our house, so I keep alot of books. I do use the library, but I also purchase many. There is no telling what the children will be interested in the next day. So getting rid of books is tough. Do you have any helpful guidelines on keeping/getting rid of books?

What tips do you have to share on managing the book collections? Do you have any specific tips for managing home school resources? Please share!

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Slowing Down

By on August 21, 2009 in building the family, frugal & simple

Karis & Aaron enjoying the quiet streams..

Karis & Aaron enjoying the quiet streams..Aug 08

“The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.” Psalm 23:1-2

He lets me rest in green meadows. Did you hear that? God desires for us to slow down and take time to rest. He designed it that way! He calls us to rest! Everything is damaged by hurry. Speed does not yield devotion. The more hurried our pace, the less intimate we will feel in relationship to God or any other relationship. Hurry damages intimacy in every relationship. Jesus was never in a hurry. You never hear about him running. He was always sitting down to teach or reclining at meals. You even hear about him sleeping in a boat while a storm ragged around him.

Richard Swenson says in his book The Overload Syndrome, “I have thought long and hard about the issue of speed and have come to believe that it is as much responsible for the problem of personal and societal dysfunction as any other single factor. Virtually all of our relationships are damaged by hurry…I think I would not be far wrong if I were to postulate [say] that our sense of the presence of God is in inverse proportion to the pace of our lives.”

Nancy Leigh Demoss shares in her radio program, titled Slowing Down, “Hurry just is not conducive to godliness. It’s not Christ-like. It’s not conducive to healthy relationships. It’s not conducive to spiritual growth. Godliness and intimacy with God are not cultivated on the run. They require time, meditation, focused attention.”

I encourage you to read the full program or listen to it here.

Let’s not get too wrapped up in that to-do list. Take time to just enjoy your family. Spend time sitting at the Master’s feet rather than being the busy Martha in the kitchen. I’m preaching to myself today!

This is another call to the simple lifestyle…

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Frugal & Fun Makeshift Kiddy Pool

By on August 20, 2009 in bellies & babies, frugal & simple

IMG_6272

We decided to be creative while trying to bear the heat of the summer this year by making our own kiddy pool. We took a under the bed plastic storage bin which had been storing random pieces of clothing and filled it with water for our own makeshift pool. Karis loves it and has a blast in it for most of the day during a few heat waves we have had this summer. Works great for small spaces as well as we are limited on our condo patio. We replace the lid when not in use to prevent the water from getting dirty, but also to save the water! In the winter, I want to transform it into a sand box. We will probably keep it on the deck but may also experiment with bringing it into the kitchen for some winter fun.

Have you been keeping cool? How are you enjoying the summer?

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Setting Up & Harvesting Your Own Worm Composting Bin

By on August 19, 2009 in frugal & simple, natural & green
My good rich compost!

My good rich compost!

I began my own composting bin this past February using the helpful starting kit offered through Azure Standard. It is actually a very good deal and an easy way that kicked me into gear to start saving my food scraps and turning them into lovely new nutritious soil. But, you can easily set up your own bin with a few basic supplies. I have finally gotten around to figuring out a simple method of harvesting my bin as it was definitely overdue. I wanted to share a few tips with you that I have learned in the process.

Why Worm Compost?

1. No waste! You can use the majority of your food scraps (no meat or dairy) and put them to good use. Composting is all about re-using and recycling! Since beginning composting, we have decreased our garbage quantity significantly. Previously we would fill up the kitchen garbage in one week, but now we can easily stretch it to every two weeks. So it saves money!

2. Turn your food scraps into rich organic soil. If you don’t have a garden or can’t use it all yourself, this rich soil can be a great gift to a neighbor or local farmer. Your offer will not be turned down.

3. Worms are fast, efficient, and odorless. The only cause of odor in your bin will be if you add meat or dairy scraps. Avoid these products, bury your scraps well, and your bin will be perfectly odorless!

4. Worms are self-propagating. You only need to purchase worms once and then they will multiply on their own! You will have a continual supply of good rich compost.

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