I remember exactly where I was last January. I was working a twofer and hating every minute of it. What’s a twofer you ask? Well in my case, it’s when you work for one company and get contracted out to work at another: two companies, two managers, two sets of “rules”…you get the idea. Why am I telling you this? Because January 2011 was also when I decided to break free and re-commit to simple living.

You see, three months prior I’d realized that I had allowed my life to become complicated. I was unhappy and this time it wasn’t because my finances were in shambles. No, it was because I had committed to a job I knew was wrong for me and, in turn, sacrificed what I knew was right. My days were spent juggling. I had three computers on my desk: one for each company and my personal laptop. You can imagine how cluttered my calendar and desk must have been! Worst of all, my lifestyle encouraged schizophrenic consumption. For example, I lived a car-less lifestyle on the weekends, but during the week I rented one to go into the office. It was a complete waste of money. I needed relief. I craved simplicity.

Does any of this sound like your life? If so, I bet you’re aching to make some changes. You want to live a simpler life, but have you thought about what that means, exactly? Obviously, simple living means different things to different people, but there is a central theme that attracts many: less is more. But to have less, you have to let go–you have to break free.

But, how exactly do you break the mental and emotional chains of consumption and live simple? In this three-part series, I’ll break down three areas of simple living: Less Stuff, Less Distraction and More Meaning. I’ll share what I think are crucial points for each area (and hopefully you’ll share your thoughts too!) and provide some tips for success. Let’s start with getting rid of the stuff you don’t need.

Part 1: Less Stuff

• Declutter Your Life - Look around your home or office. Is it well-organized? Can you find everything you need? Does everything have a home? If so, congratulations, you’re in the minority. If not, it’s time to ask yourself why you’re holding on to so much stuff. Clutter clouds our minds and lives, pigeonholing us into accomplishing less and stressing more. Trust me, I know. When I looked at my desk last January, I realized that the clutter symbolized things I didn’t want in my life. You’re better than that. It’s time to break free. There’s no easy way to get rid of clutter: you just have to jump in and tackle it.

Tips for decluttering your life:

There are three keys to decluttering: letting go, getting organized and developing a system:

• Let go of anything you haven’t used in a year or more by donating it, recycling it or throwing it out. If you come across something that you have an emotional connection to, you don’t have to make a decision right then. Set it aside for a day or two, while you go through less emotional items. When you’re ready, come back to it and decide if you really need it. The point is not to lose the momentum.
• Once you’ve let go of stuff you don’t need, get organized. Make sure you have shelves for your books, baskets for your wires and file folders for your papers. Better yet, go wireless and paperless. Check out WorkAwesome and Mashable for ideas on creating–and sustaining–a paperless office.
• Once you have what you need, develop a system for staying organized. Decide how and when you’ll keep things tidy, write it down and hold yourself accountable. If you have a family, put together a system for everyone (preferably with their input ) and post it someplace in the house where all can see. Need ideas for developing a system? Check out Unclutterer.

• Stop Buying Things – In the words of Man vs Debt blogger Adam Baker, “Sell your crap.” Before you sell your crap, though, stop buying crap. It’s simple: we don’t need most of the stuff we buy. This is a hard pill to swallow, I know. There are messages of consumption all around us, urging us to buy, buy, buy. And if you don’t people think you’re crazy. Only, you’re not. There’s a reason so many people want to learn about simple living and minimalism: they want out. Whether you take drastic measures like not buying anything for a year or you just focus on buying only what you need, this is the first step off of consumption junction.

Tips for stopping consumption:

• Analyze your reasons – I’ve known a lot of people who love to shop and they all have their reasons. Some buy things because it makes them feel good, others buy things when they are bored. I think most of us buy because we’ve been programmed to by commercials and advertising. If you’re trying to reduce your consumption, it’s important to know why you are driven to buy in the first place. Why? Because once you know the reason, you can do something about it.
• Fill the void – Not everyone who shops is filling a void, I just want to get that out of the way. Still, one of the best ways to appreciate what you have is to see life through the eyes of those who don’t have as much. Doing meaningful activities like volunteering, coaching or just spending time with family members who don’t have many material possessions can quickly put things in perspective. In the end we realize that we have much more than we really need.

• Reduce Paperwork – Paper is everywhere. In your office. In your mailbox. On your table. One of the things I deal with every year is managing all of the papers that come into my life each week–it’s an ongoing struggle. But there are ways to overcome the paper mountain.

Tips for reducing paperwork:

• First, get rid of junk mail. You can opt-out of direct mail by visiting Direct Marketing Association’s website (www.dmachoice.org), registering and choosing which, if any, junk mail you’d like to receive. This includes catalogs, magazines and other, general mail offers. For credit card offers, there’s optoutprescreen.com, which DMA will redirect you to. This site allows you to choose whether to stop credit card offers permanently or for a period of five years.
• Next, develop a system for managing the papers that you can’t avoid, like government, medical and financial records. You’ll need two things: a filing system and a shredder. Every time you get a piece of mail, review it to see if it warrants saving. If it doesn’t, shred it immediately. If it does, file it. At the end of every month review your files and shred anything you don’t need anymore. Why should you do this? Because it’ll save you the headache of having to go through years of paperwork later on down the line.

Hopefully these tips will help you eliminate, reduce or manage the stuff in your life. It may take some time, but if you begin letting go of the attachment to material possessions, you’ll soon find out that many of them aren’t adding much value to your life. Before we can manage the distractions that life brings, we have to clear a path through our unnecessary belongings.

What about you? How do you manage the “stuff” in your life?

Photo credit: Daryll Jann Bumanlag | CC BY-ND 2.0

less is more