Intentional Living

Struggling with Less Structure? Getting Things Done in the Age of Coronavirus

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In a 24-hour period last week I had two clients not show up for their Zoom appointments.  This isn’t a regular occurrence.  The first emailed later stating, “… I don’t even know what day it is because they’ve all started to blur into one. “  The second, shared waking up that morning thinking it was a totally different day of the week.  I might be annoyed, if I didn’t totally get where they were coming from.  Days … Read More

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Five Possible Outcomes When You Stop Shopping

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In January of 2018 I challenged myself to not shop for or purchase clothing, shoes or accessories for twelve months.  Four months later I shared my takeaways to date from my shopping ban.  It’s now February of 2019 and I wanted to check in and share what I’ve discovered that I believe could be of benefit to you.  Before sharing, I must confess to the purchase of two banned items. Going into 2018 I was confident two … Read More

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Ethical Consumption – Questions You Should Be Asking

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Reading time ~ 5 minutes  Until recently, our minimalism journey has been focused primarily on releasing stuff we no longer need or want. My focus shifted a little last month though after noting how many people commented on a particular topic on a professional organizer’s forum I subscribe to. The topic was Ethical Consumption.  Unfortunately most of my organizing colleague’s comments related to the back end of consumption, which I’ll call ethical disposal.  This encompasses recycling, reusing, … Read More

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2019! New Year, New Look & New Choices for You!

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I hope  2019 is going well and you’re still keeping up with those new year’s resolutions!  I’m not big into beginning of the year resolutions but I am into goals. One of my goals for 2018 was to “continue to update my website to best reflect my chosen direction.”  I was doing well with that goal until the day came when my website theme was no longer updatable. You see, it seems that website themes (the platforms … Read More

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Three Habits My Clothing Shopping Ban is Teaching Me About

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As of May 1 I’ve completed one-third of my year-long clothing shopping ban.  Through this experiment I’m learning quite a bit about my shopping, wearing and purchasing habits.  Any of you out there who might be trying to curb shopping, reduce spending or just be more mindful about your purchasing might find what I’m learning helpful.   1) Shopping Habits: As expected, I continued to notice during the first few months of not shopping how strong my celebratory … Read More

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Honoring YOUR Values as You Simplify Your Life

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Reading time ~ 4 minutes Sometimes people in your life have a hard time understanding choices you make. There is a woman I knew, we’ll call her Jill, who was frustrated with a friend of hers, who wasn’t available as often as Jill expected her to be.  The friend was happy to hang out with Jill during the day, but every time Jill invited her to dinner or an evening meeting or event, she was turned down.  … Read More

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You Can Release Your Albatross!

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Once upon a time… I owned the beautiful antique reed pump organ in these photos*. It was black walnut and oak with intricately carved panels and delicate calligraphy lettering on the red velvet encased stops. It provided a workout when played, because the air forced through it to create sound was produced by pumping its large pedals.  It was one of the first antiques my mom purchased back in the 1960’s and it was the first “piano” … Read More

Time to Share Our Previously Untold Story

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It’s not often a blog posting is 18 months in the making, but the time has finally come to tell a story I alluded to in an August 2016 posting. In that post I shared my husband and I had “been undergoing extensive unanticipated renovations at the new house” and I noted that would be “another story for another day.”  When I wrote those words I’d been treading water for a couple of months, having recently surfaced … Read More

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Are You a Minimalist at Heart?

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I think deep down I’ve always tended towards the idea of less being more.  I was the kid who actually wanted the smallest bedroom and who loved to declutter and rearrange my mom’s cupboards.  I was the college student who thrived within the confines of a dorm room, where life was all about living tiny and having only what you needed and loved.  The first home my husband and I purchased, a 600 square foot condo in … Read More

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Why Do You Shop and How Might You Stop? Thoughts on Minimizing and Shopping

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Why Do You Shop? Have you ever thought about why you shop? If not, I urge you to give it some thought. We all shop for different reasons.  We shop because we need things like food or shelter.  We shop because we want things, like tools to make our lives easier or trendy clothes so we can feel stylish.  We may even shop as a means of coping, what some term “retail therapy.” There was a time … Read More

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