I don’t know who came up with this idea, so I can’t give credit to them personally.
If you know me, or have been following my journey for awhile here, you have probably seen my love for organization, lists, and finding new ways to *eh hem* reclaim my sanity. I have many boards on pinterest dedicated to several of these categories. I try to implement them into my life, some of them stick and some of them don’t (and that’s okay). I started coming across pins for “GYST” or get your shit together sometime ago, saving relevant ideas, but not really diving in. I figured we were doing fine with what we were doing and why change what’s working?
That is until I started getting fed up with certain things. Not because they weren’t working, but because they simply were not serving the lifestyle that I want. Raise your hand if you feel that you aren’t living the lifestyle you actually want to have. 👋🙋♀️
In talking with several people, I have found most of them are not happy with their lives as a whole. There is a yearning for more or change that feels impossible to find. Leaving us with feelings of defeat before we even have the willingness to try. Me being me, says, “screw that, I can make things happen and have the lifestyle I want to. If there is a will there is a way.”
In order to see change you first must begin.
You can start by jotting down your ideal lifestyle. For example, I have 3 things I am trying to improve on: finances, maintaining my home, and a variation of minimalism. I feel like those 3 things will set a foundation for the lifestyle I am trying to create. Find your why, your intentions.
Then you take those categories to the ever so fun Pinterest and find the lists that go with them. So for me I downloaded and printed these [not sponsored].
Because I am tired of wasting money on food that doesn’t last, or finding ourselves buying fast food because of XYZ excuse. I printed the meal plan and laminated it so that I can write with a wet erase marker and reuse it every week without having to print more sheets. While meal planning, use what you have to make meals and only buy what’s needed to finish a meal. For instance, I have plenty of chicken in my freezer. So I found meals that utilize the chicken and I maybe only need 1 or 2 things to finish the ingredient list, to complete the meal.
Sometimes when it comes to cleaning the house I feel overwhelmed because it feels like a lot to take care of for one person. I decided to try this list out so that I am focusing on one area at a time instead of trying to do all of it in one day.
I think it’s safe to say we all have unnecessary clutter in our lives. We tend to be a materialistic society. I just want less to manage because clutter stresses me out and makes me attitudinal. The declutter challenges are a great way to get out of that stress and feel a sense of accomplishment at the same time.
We decided to embark on a no spend month. So I saved several pins like these ones to help keep us going. My biggest challenge is saying no to things like new clothes, books, and home decor. But none of these are things I actually need and I have other priorities I am trying to accomplish with money. I would rather our money go to the priorities instead of the unnecessary things that might trigger joy for a short while.
Once I had them all printed and laminated the ones I want to reuse, I got out my 3-hole puncher. I put all of these sheets into a binder, it actually doubles as my school binder because I refused to buy another one just for this. It’s fine. It works.
Having the physical sheets to check off helps with accountability and mindfulness. I want to be intentional with my life and having it all in a binder makes it more doable. Perhaps I will post an update once we make it through the first month [especially with the no spending piece of it].
Do you have your shit together? What aspects of your lifestyle do you want to change or improve? Which do you feel you have mastered? Let me know what you’re doing to live the life you desire!
~jenn
Reclaiming My Sanity 