5 Important Action Steps to Simplify Your Life at Home

by Randi Destefano

Life at home is anything but normal these days.  Most of us have been cooped up at home, feeling more distracted than ever.  Some days it feels like a blessing, as if God hit the reset button just for us and we finally have time to breathe and regroup.

Other days we just wander around the house aimlessly, distracted by the news and conflicting reports on how to stay safe.  Between homeschooling and work-from-home the day is gone before we know it.  Focusing on anything is hard. 

Now that we’re spending so much time at home, suddenly we see our spaces with new eyes, and we’re definitely focusing on it.  After weeks of staring at the same walls, sitting on the same sofa, and prepping meals on the same island that became your home office and home school, we long to make some changes. 

Clients are telling me they’re finally ready to update their bathroom, change wall colors, or buy new furniture.  Here in our house, we’re working on all the projects that we’ve been putting off.  For years I felt the porch was too dark.  It was all I thought about when I sat out there.  So the project of the week was painting the porch!  It’s funny how such a simple change like paint color can bring peace of mind.

Keeping life simple so we can enjoy it more is a lifestyle choice that’s becoming more accepted.  Do you ever wish you had more room for fun and joy in your life?  I know I do!  After all the tension, uncertainty, and distractions simplicity at home is a good place to start. 

After thinking about what I really want, (and the list was long) I narrowed it down to these 5 Important Action Steps to Simplify Your Life at Home…

Action Step #1: Re-evaluate Your Stuff

Too many possessions will complicate your life and lead to clutter.  Living in a cluttered space drains our energy, our attention, even our bank accounts.  And who wants that?  Have you ever spent time organizing the clutter and all of your stuff, only to find that after a week, it’s a mess again and you can’t find anything?

Do you have a closet filled with clothes from 10 years ago?  A pantry filled with expired food?  Five sets of dishes?  Instead, think about what you really value in life and start to live a life based that.

Right now, I value being active outside.  I no longer want a lot of stuff that I need to dust or maintain.  And that includes house plants, books, and nic-nacs.  Slowly these things are going to new homes.

Action Step #2:  Look at Your Time Commitments

Review your list of values and set priorities.  Then use your Best YES (and your Best NO) to help you decide what is good for you and your family.  You can start bringing joy into your life by doing the activities you actually love doing (gardening, being creative, relationships with family and friends, etc.). The things that no longer serve you can be off your plate!

Action Step #3:  Focus on Your Goals

As women, we love to be people-pleasers and over achievers.  Can you relate?  We set all these goals for different areas of our lives and think we need to work on all of them at the same time.  This is crazy, and a recipe for a mental explosion!  You want to be homeschooling Mom of the Year, lose weight, decorate your house by yourself so everyone has their own “work space”, plant the garden…The list goes on.

Take a deep breath and know that there’s a better way.  And that is called FOCUS.  I like to make a brain dump of all the things I want/need to accomplish.  Then I’ve learned to choose one important goal for each area of my my life: personal, home, and work.  Once a goal is completed, I can move on to the next one.

Mentally release the rest of the list for now.  And don’t beat yourself up with negative thoughts if you fall off the wagon and binge eat or stop a project for a day or two.  Just focus on your ONE THING again until it’s done.

Action Step #4:  Eliminate artificial and toxic ingredients

Eating clean, intermittent fasting, plant based are all the internet talks about these days.  We work so hard at it.  Somehow we forget that just as we watch what goes into our bodies, it’s equally important to watch the ingredients in our cleaning products, our skin care products, and our makeup. 

My journey began with the simple need to find a product for my clients that would clean granite counters and stainless appliances without leaving a “greasy” residue.  Chemical cleaning sprays began bothering my breathing, so I switched to “clean”.  And now unexplained skin issues have made me start looking at the chemicals in skin care products and makeup. 

Do yourself a favor and start checking ALL labels.  Not just on food.

If you want to learn more about clean beauty, visit my website: www.beautycounter.com/randidestefano 

Action Step #5:  Stop Multi-tasking

Have you ever caught yourself checking emails, watching TV and trying to carry on a conversation with your kids?  Chaos, right?  And nobody likes feeling stressed from doing too many things at one time.  Just like focusing on one goal at a time leads to success, working on one task at a time has the same effect.  Being focused on one thing at a time allows you to do your best work, and no one feels like you’re not paying attention to them.

“Simplifying your life will bring balance, freedom, and joy.  When we begin to live simply and experience these benefits, we begin to ask the next question, Where else in my life can I remove distraction and simplify life to focus on the essentials?” – Joshua Becker-

To learn more ways to Simplify Life at home, follow my Instagram page: www.instagram.com/simplifylife.randi

                                                                      And my Facebook group:   Simplify Life