My 8 Tips for Simple Living

This is the last day in the frugal simple living series. I’ve shared a lot of tips and ideas over the last 31 days. I hope you have found a few new ideas to help you live a more simple life.

I thought on this last day of the series I would share with you the ideas I find that are most important to me in my own life to help me live more simply.

My Tips for Simple Living

Contentment

I think the concept of contentment is probably the most important to truly living a simple life. Once we know what we really need we can embrace living our life with just what we need. There are things I would like to change about my life right now. But how I respond to those things can make me content or discontent. Being content doesn’t mean you stop striving to reach your goals, it only means you are happy with where you are until you reach them.

Intentional

Knowing what is most important to you is important for simple living. We all have the same amount of hours a day. We can choose to use them wisely on the things that are truly important to us or we can do what is in front of us at the time. When you take the time to really think about what is important and be intentional about how you spend your day, your days will be more satisfying. At the end of each day, you can look back and know you spent your time on the best things.

Focus

Focus on what you have and using it to its full potential. Whether it be the income you have and making a budget to use it as wisely as you can or rinsing the shampoo bottle with water to get out every little drop. When you focus on making the most of what you have, you can be satisfied you’ve done your best with what has been given to you.

Grace

Start by making small changes towards living a more frugal simple life. Making small changes and building them into habits doesn’t happen overnight. Give yourself grace when you slip into old habits you are trying to break. Ask someone to be your accountability partner. I have to say I’ve broken quite a few habits by having a great accountability partner to cheer me on and focus my efforts. Often a little outside accountability can make all the difference in whether we succeed or fail.

Be Generous

Living a more simple life is about letting go. Letting go of things we really don’t need but keep. When we start to live a more frugal simple life we can be generous in sharing those things we don’t need with others.

Get to know your neighbors and be willing to lend a hand. I know not everyone lives in a neighborhood like ours where everyone watches out for one another and helps each other out. But I do believe when you are willing to lend a hand it opens doors for you to get to know those who live near you. Then you can start to build friendships with your neighbors.

Learn

As you go along your simple living journey don’t be afraid to try something new and get out of your comfort zone. Learn new skills as you can to become more self-sufficient. I didn’t learn to bake my own bread or sew all in one day, but I did overtime. My husband and myself have tackled many jobs around the house on our own to save money and they have worked out. Use YouTube to learn a new skill or ask a friend to teach you.

Let Comparison Go

Let go of keeping up with the Jones’. Most of the time when we see others with things we long for we don’t see the stress and debt that comes with those items too. When we can live contently with less, our stress to maintain those items or earn money to support them is gone. Know what is important to you and your family and let go of the pull to be like everyone else.

Use it Up and Purge it Out

Keep up the habit of decluttering regularly. I know I try to be a good gatekeeper to keep the clutter out of our home, but some can sneaks in. Having a plan for regular decluttering can keep your home clutter free.

Teach your kids how to declutter and how to decide if it’s time for an item to go. It’s taken me years to instill these skills into my kids. My daughter just this year decided on her own to declutter her room without any prompting from me. The hard work of teaching these skills to your kids will serve them well as adults.

Foster the attitude of using things up. When you are focused on using an item to it’s full potential you can be sure to only have things you really need. Find ways to use items you have before you purchase a specialty item. See if you can borrow or share items with family or friends if it’s only needed on occasion.

Purge items regularly. Things we need today might not be needed in a year or five years from now. Don’t keep items for a someday use, purge them and move them out. Know when an item has value enough to bother selling it and know when it’s best to just donate it.

I think those eight items sums up frugal simple living to me. I find living a frugal simple life starts much more in the mind with my attitude being most important. Once I can get my thinking in line the rest seems to follow right along with just a little effort.

What other tips could you add to my list of tips for simple living above? I would love to have you share them below in the comments. I’m sure your ideas will bless others who read them.

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This is the last article in the frugal simple living series, if you missed any, you can see them all by following this link.