Boredom and Motivation

In four days time it will have been 6 months since I started my maternity leave. Six very long months. I'm now reaching a point where I am extremely bored. I adore my children, but I am just not a stay at home mum. And with my studies now finished for the year, I haven't had a lot to do.

This has resulted in me taking up 2 very bad activities:

Eating a LOT of junk food and shopping.

Now I'm sure why you can understand that these activities aren't the greatest things for me to be doing. To start with my waist line and energy levels aren't entirely happy with my newfound love for cakes and chocolate (who am I kidding? I've always loved these things!) I've also been put on a special diet by my Doctor due to stomach problems. I haven't stuck to this diet at all since that happened!

Shopping is killing my bank account, and my house. All the work I have done so far since starting on this venture has almost been a total waste thanks to my unnecessary shopping. Clearly my Consumer Addiction has started to show up again.

I haven't really spent much time cleaning out lately, mainly due to laziness - which I am not proud of. However with my partner finishing up work for the christmas holidays next Friday I'm looking forward to getting stuck into things with his help and motivation. We plan to hire a skip bin over the new year and throw out anything broken or too damaged, stained or old for donating to the salvos.

This journey has been a lot harder than I expected, and although I welcome the challenge, I am lacking a little in the motivation, particularly since feeling as though I am in a rut. I'm thankful and eagerly awaiting my return to work in the new year!

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT

Becoming Organised

I used to like to think of myself as a fairly organised person. Sure, I owned too much stuff, and couldn't always locate things when I needed them. But my bills were (almost) always paid on time, I was hardly ever late to anything, I had paperwork sorted, I had systems and routines in place, and nearly everything had a checklist.

Around the time we started planning for our second child, that all went to hell. I still went on, thinking I was a totally organised domestic goddess, completely oblivious to the mess around. The forgotten appointments, the lost items, the house over run with… just… stuff.

This morning, this all came crashing down. My eldest starts Kindy next year. I found all the notes in his bag from his pre-kindy session yesterday about food (what he can and can't bring, and how it needs to be stored), library days, show and tell, appropriate clothing, etc, and started reading through it this morning over breakfast. My first response was "Hell, there is a lot of rules!". My second response was "Argh!!! I am soooo not this organised anymore!!"

I have really let go since my youngest was born. Struggling with sleepless nights, a baby with reflux, a mischievous 4 year old pushing for attention, and then I went and added studies to the mix.

With less than 6 weeks before I go back to full time work, and I have to juggle work, study, kids/partner needs, home duties, football training for my son, kindy and daycare requirements for the kids. Not to mention trying to clear out the house, and packing for the move later in the year. It's time I get my butt into gear!

Checklists are my best friend. Along with anything that can help our time-poor family. When we are both working full time, we do our grocery shopping online. I also try to do this as often as I can with other shopping. This means I need to be organised. Making sure I allow enough time for items to be delivered for things like birthday presents. I find this quite budget friendly too, as I'm less likely to make impulsive purchases. Most websites offer free delivery over a certain amount, too. Coles do free delivery on Wednesdays, and Target offer free click and collect over $40, or free home delivery over $75.

My planner is probably my bestest friend on the earth. It holds everything. Including lists of present ideas for the kids, my budget, birthday party planning for the kids, and assignment due dates. Unfortunately it's way too big to take out everywhere with me, but it sits at home, and will stay in the car for times of need once I start working again.

I guess the main things I need to stay on top of are routines - washing, cleaning, lunches, study times, etc, and clearing out the house to make sure that we have less items to navigate in the house. This was really the kick up the butt that I needed to get back to being super-organised-mum, and a minimalist too!

Attitude of Gratitude

I have sadly only recently discovered what gratitude can do for my soul. It's seriously like an awesome foot rub for your emotions.

I have recently downloaded a free app on my phone on which you simply list everything you're grateful for that day. When I've had a good day, I can list 10-20 things. When I've had a bad day, it's a little harder, but I can still usually belt out 5 or 6 things that I'm grateful for that day.

I especially try to do this exercise when I'm in a bad mood. I find that I am able to distract myself almost completely from whatever it was causing my bad mood, by looking at the great things in my life. I also try to list things that are directly related to whatever is causing my bad mood. For example, if my 4 year old son has put me in a bad, stressed out mood. I make a list of all the things about him I'm grateful for. His strong will, the fact that he is more like me than his father, his imagination to come up with some of the white lies he tells.

If I'm in a bad mood due to lack of finances, after reminding myself that we are actually a lot better off than many families, and that once I go back to work in January, money won't be so tight, I start to list all of the things that money has done for us, such as putting a roof over our heads, feeding us and building our first home.

Gratitude is a completely necessary practice for those who want happiness. It helps you to realise that you can be happy with what you have, and you don't need more to be happy. After all, that's what the Simple Life Experiment is all about!

Signing up for IBOT with Essentially Jess!

Road Blocks

I'm feeling stuck in a rut. I'm feeling tired of being Mummy. I'm feeling tired of doing the same things over and over, day in, day out. I'm tired of our debts hanging over our heads like a big reminder of our less-than-smart decisions.

I just want to hit the ground running and just feel like there's all these road blocks (or are they excuses?) that are stopping me. They seem to be stopping me in all aspects of my life currently.

My most common road blocks are:

1. The Kids
2. Sickness
3. Focus
4. Space
5. Energy

Really, these road blocks are totally avoidable, or easily recovered from.

The kids? I can get stuff done whilst the oldest is at daycare, and the baby's napping. 

I've been sick a couple of times this month. This makes it hard to get lots of things done, but I can still do bits and pieces here or there. Clean out a drawer, list a couple of items on eBay, read one chapter for school, or even stick one load of washing on.

Focus is a hard one. I really struggle to focus and I am so easily distracted. I need to make sure I am well fed (with healthy food, and take regular breaks. If I'm really struggling then I could have a coffee for the extra brain power.

Space is limited. But this is why I have decided to take on this new lifestyle. I have now decided to stop trying to sell everything that is leaving our house. My original thought was that I could use this money to help pay off credit cards. Now I'm seeing just how time consuming this is, and it's also extremely frustrating. It means that everything is hanging around the house. I need to really do 1-2 trips to the salvos each week, to clear out the stuff and make a good amount of space.

Energy really is the same kind of road block as focus, with the same solutions.

I have a picture in my mind of what I really want our lives to look like. It may differ from my partner in some ways, but we both agree on a lot of things. We both like a clean house, but we hate cleaning. We both want more money to have awesome experiences and adventures with. We both want our kids to grow up with a good attitude towards money, gratitude and charity. 

Really I need to decide if the life we want is worth overcoming the road blocks.

Living a Simpler Life

Welcome to The Simple Life Experiment! I only started writing on this blog about 2 weeks ago, and it's purpose is create an online journal of our family's transformation from a cluttered home and life, to a much simpler way to live.

Why have I decided to do this? My partner and I have a young family. We both work full time (though I am on maternity leave for another 2 months) and I also study externally/online. I was finding that I am spending more and more time doing housework, trying to find things I have misplaced, trying to find homes for things that have no home, shopping and just generally doing things that I don't want to be doing.

It was time for a change.

After doing some research online I came across websites such as Becoming Minimalist and Zen Habits. Both of these websites are filled with years upon years of blog posts and articles about becoming a minimalist, or living with only the things that you need or love. If you get the chance, I highly recommend both websites, and there are many more out there!

As much as I have wanted to jump in with guns blazing, I have calmed myself down and am moving slowly. My partner G and I have done an initial sweep through the house, identifying all items that we can see easily that we can remove from the house. I have listed all of these items on eBay and Gumtree and slowly I am seeing bits and pieces disappear. Once the majority of these items have made their way out of the house I will start going room by room, donating and selling what I can, and throwing out the rest. I am fully aware that this is going to be ongoing process, and kind of like peeling back layers. I also need to get my consumer addiction under control.

So what are the benefits of simplifying our home and life?

Time
Think about how much time you spend cleaning your house. Lifting up all of the furniture to vacuum or mop underneath, moving small items to dust, picking up toys and putting them away, etc etc. Imagine how much less time you would spend doing that if there wasn't as much stuff in the way. What about time spent looking for something you have lost. That other shoe, the phone bill, your keys. Or time spend organising your items, when really you just need to cull your items. This time could be spent with your family, or doing things that you actually want to do.

Money
It's a sad thing to admit that you have purchased the majority of your things on credit. Store cards, credit cards, car loans, they are all used to purchase things. And if you continue to use them to purchase things, you will fall deeper into debt. I have managed to stop shopping anywhere near as much as I used to (more so through necessity than choice), and I have things clear in my mind that I want to do with the money saved. I am trying to sell what I can from our house and using the money to pay off credit card debt, and I have realised that if we didn't have the credit card debt or 2 car loans, I could afford to quit work, or at least go part time, and focus on my photography. I could afford our wedding sooner than expected. I could donate a lot more of my time to great causes. Saving money is a great pull factor.

Stress
Stuff causes stress. a cluttered room makes me so much more tense than a clean, tidy room. And a cluttered schedule? Makes things even worse.

These are the three biggest benefits in my eyes. There are SO many more, that I am sure I will discover and get into at a later time.

I don't have a Facebook page for this blog, I don't have newsletters or Twitter, or anything else. Please let me know if you would like to follow along on my journey, and how, and I will look into it!

Signing up for Flog yo blog Friday over at With Some Grace.

Update and Plans

I haven't done much around the house the last couple of days. I have been a bit behind in my school work so have spent heaps of time catching up, and I'm spending today with my kids.

Just a quick post to say where I'm at and my plans for the next few days. I did a big clean of the house on Wednesday after myself, my partner and my baby girl being unwell. Embarrassingly, this took me almost a full day. I can't help but think how much quicker it could be done if there wasn't so much "stuff" in the house.

This weekend I'm going to tackle the filing area. This will be a HUGE job and could take a lot of my time and energy so I'm not too fussed if I don't get anything else done. If I'm feeling up to it, I plan to clean out the walk in wardrobe as well. Another big task.

Wish me luck!

Breaking Point

Today I reached breaking point in my house. It was a busy morning trying to get the kids ready and in the car to take my son to daycare. After drop off I had some shots to take for an assignment so I started the hunt for my tripod. Unfortunately my camera and tripod don't have a home so I just had to search.

It wasn't with the camera, I couldn't see it in the linen cupboard, which was where I thought I had last seen it. It wasnt in the wardrobe, or under the cot in my daughters room. After sending a very frustrated text to my partner at work I decided it HAD to be in the linen cupboard and started tearing it apart.

I found my tripod, behind a pile of towels. I also found a new level of frustration with the situation. If everything had a home this sort of thing wouldn't happen. If I didn't have so much stuff jammed into my linen cupboard and my walk-in-wardrobe I could've searched and found so much quicker and easier.

So clearly, although we don't have piles upon piles of stuff to navigate in our tiny 3 bedroom home, the fact that I spent almost 30 minutes searching for one of the most important pieces of equipment for my schooling, or that I couldnt tell you if we have received our latest credit card bill, or where the most recently paid water bill is means we have a slight problem. I can't wait to get stuck into creating a minimalist life for our family.