How We Simplified

Begin a Journey to Simple Living - KeeperoftheHome.org

A few weeks ago I took you on a room-by-room tour of the little cabin in Alabama where we recently moved. To be honest, I don’t think we would’ve been able to fit into the space if we hadn’t have simplified many of our belongings beforehand. It’s amazing how much stuff just two people can collect!

I’ve gone through my items many times in the past, but before our Alabama move we really buckled down and took a hard look at everything we owned. We got rid of a lot of things, and I think we could still stand to get rid of more! But even with this level of simple living, (it’s not minimalist), we’re already enjoying the freedom of clutter-free. 

Today I’m over at Keeper of the Home, giving some specifics about what items we ditched, and our thought processes behind the purge. I’ve also got some tips for starting your own simple living journey, if you feel inspired(:

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Click over to read my simple living post at Keeper of the Home.

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4 Comments

  1. This may not be in direct answer to your question but my ideal home is a one room cabin approximately 24 wide by about 30 ft long to include a 8×24 screened in porch. Kitchen and living area one space with a wood cookstove like I used to have on the farm we had.
    I like the simple life, cooking from scratch, raising chicken and sheep. quilting, making rugs on my mom’s loom which would be set up on the porch. reading a good book or listening to instrumental music, just quiet, taking walks at dawn and dusk, gardening. My parents just gave me 20 acres of their homestead. They have lived there almost 65 years! and I know just the place to have my dream shelter!

    1. That sounds amazing! We lived in a cabin about that size until recently. It even had a wood cookstove originally! In case you missed it, here’s a little photo tour of the cabin. It had a porch, but I love your idea for a screened-in one! You’d get a lot more use out of it that way, I bet. I hope you get that beautiful dream home soon!

  2. I followed a pin to this article but your link to the article on the Keeper site does not work. I’d love to read the full article! Curious about what seems to me to be a paradox. Your blog title says flourish where you are, yet you moved somewhere else, to what sounds like your dream home. Do you have writings about flourishing where you are when it’s not in a beautiful natural environment? I look forward to reading more.

    1. Hi Wendi! Here is the proper link to the Keeper of the Home post: https://keeperofthehome.org/journey-simple-living-begin/ I’m hoping to house that post back here on my own blog, though, but haven’t completed that process yet!

      Now, to clarify: I have actually never lived in my dream home as an adult! Living in that tiny cabin was sweet and special, but it was only ever temporary and certainly not my dream home! After living in apartments in Michigan while my husband completed his Master’s, we moved to the rustic cabin when my husband accepted a job in Alabama. We didn’t have any kids at the time, so it wasn’t too small for us. However, it had its privations and at times felt a bit like we were camping! The cabin had a few things that made it not ideal for a baby (like open stairs, big stone fireplace, etc.), so once our new baby was a toddler we moved into my parent’s basement for a time. Now we rent a house from my in-laws, which I did not pick out. All that to say, we have been well taken care of, yet none of these living situations were the dream home I envisioned as a girl.

      My commitment to flourish where I am is ongoing. Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s hard. We are daily, monthly, and yearly choosing contentment with this house, this state, and these circumstances God has placed us in. And now I’m working to create my “dream home” in this house I live in now, even though I didn’t choose it. For posts along those lines, you might like these:

      11 house resolutions for intentional homemakers
      how to be a better homemaker when you’re waiting for a better home
      I choose less (the day I realised all I wanted was Green Gables)
      7 simple ways to live more abundantly, right now

      Also, I just realised that when you say “beautiful environment” you might be talking about the scenery around where we live! For that, I’ll admit Alabama is a beautiful place. But Michigan, the state we left behind, was also achingly beautiful. I really think there’s beauty in every state and country if you look for it. And if it’s not right outside your door, you might have to plant it!

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