Living Simply

When An Ordinary Monday is Anything But

October 9, 2019 by Amy Slenker-Smith 1 Comment

It was an ordinary Monday. Our family plans included work, errands and a math quiz. My son headed off to the bus stop. His swim bag packed for practice after school. Dad went into work early. And I left with a car full of donations and my grocery list. An ordinary Monday. Or so we thought. So when the school's number popped up on my phone, my heart skipped a beat. It was my son calling from the nurse's office. I could hear in his voice he didn't feel well. His stomach hurt. I asked all the usual mom questions and drove to pick him up. Why I'll Never Win Mother of the Year He hunched his back and held his stomach as we walked to the car. The nurse mentioned he was like that all morning, unable to get comfortable. It turns out I didn't answer the first time he called. Nor did two other emergency contacts. He waited and the pain got worse. "How was your quiz?" I asked. "Are you stressed about it?" "Nervous about the musical tryouts?" It had to be stress right? In …

What If We Owned Just One At A Time

January 29, 2019 by Amy Slenker-Smith 2 Comments

I was chatting with a friend about the number of items I own such as towels, shoes, and books. She asked. So I offered guidelines to help her get started. Not rules or mandates, just successful practices that help me live better with less. She stared at me in amazement but pressed for more answers. She appreciated the logic of my decisions and realized how overwhelmed she was by her own excess. I don't profess to know the perfect number of items. Minimalism isn't about that. While people have certain possessions in common, like cups and plates, our circumstances dictate the appropriate number to own. But in my experience, duplicates always lead to more missing items. I could never find a pair of scissors when I needed them! Minimalism challenges me to question every category from housewares to hours on the calendar. And when I say I own one pair of gloves, it really means that I own One At A Time. This is true of many items in my home. Owning one does …

Get Organized and Declutter with Simply Enough – June 8

May 25, 2018 by Amy Slenker-Smith Leave a Comment

Wash Metro Readers - I'm excited to announce another speaking event. We had such a great discussion at the April event, that one of the guests asked me to host another! I'm delighted to do so on June 8. How many times have you said, "If I could just get organized..." Well, now you can! Join me on Friday, June 8 for an inspiring conversation about the joys and benefits of living simply. Simply Enough is about more than helping you to declutter and organize your home. It’s about challenging you to live differently. Living simply means owning less, but having so much more. Is your dining room table covered with papers? Do you have to clear the kitchen counter every night before you cook dinner? Is the garage a war zone covered in winter grime? Are your cars parked outside? Are your closets so full that it's difficult to rehang clean laundry? Does cleaning feel daunting because the house is overrun with toys, books, and decorations? Do you have boxes …

It’s Okay To Just Be Still

May 25, 2018 by Amy Slenker-Smith 2 Comments

It was Day 3 of our two-week adventure to Hawaii. As a family, we love active vacations making the islands an ideal location. That said, sometimes my son hits a wall and just cannot keep up. Our morning activity included snorkeling at Hanauma Bay where the sharp coral scratched his leg and nearly scared him off forever. I realized that we had crashed into that proverbial wall as I led him back to the beach and tossed the gear aside. I wish I could tell you that I'm really good at recognizing these moments. That I am calm and compassionate. Or that I plan for them and always schedule rest days and early bedtimes. I do not and I am human. :) Thank goodness for grace! Like many moms, I make mistakes and sometimes don't even realize it until we're reduced to tears. My son was excited, overstimulated and jet lagged. We filled every hour of those first three days. After the crash, he and I sat on the beach, snuggled and slowed down. The beauty of the bay encircled us with …

Please Note We Are Not an Overlook Family

May 24, 2018 by Amy Slenker-Smith Leave a Comment

Experiences, not stuff. How many times have I uttered this phrase?! It even affects the way I approach aspects of travel like overlooks and photos. Here's what I wrote last year about limiting picture taking: ...a weight lifted when I decided to not take so many photos. I recalled another trip when I had to download, organize, edit and save 1,352 photos from just two weeks of travel. With this memory (nightmare) in mind, I suddenly looked forward to scaling back and enjoying the ride. Roadtrip If you’re new to Simply Enough, our family of three traveled the US in Spring 2017. We homeschooled my son, took time off of work, worked from the road and simply made it work. Life is too short to spend it buying a bunch of stuff. I’ll choose #experiencesnotstuff every time. I know. You have 100 reasons why you could never do this. I beg of you to consider it. Don’t just write it off. Curious how we did it? Read more here. Traveling from Utah to Sedona, Arizona, we stopped at the …

How to Up Your Game on Recycling

May 10, 2018 by Amy Slenker-Smith Leave a Comment

I was chatting with a friend and mentioned that I decline straws in restaurants to keep them out of the trash and often the ocean. But as the discussion continued, we realized how uncertain we were about what items are Trash vs Recycle. What can you recycle? Years ago, I read that placing non-recyclable items in the recycle bin actually does more harm than good. I just couldn’t remember why. So, it inspired this research to up-my-game around recycling. It turns out that plastic bags jam the sorting machine and most pizza boxes are not recyclable. Good to know! Plastic Bags Traditional plastic grocery bags are best recycled at your local grocery store. Plastic bags, when placed in our recycling bin pose a threat to littering your neighborhood and can be a problem for our recycling facilities. Pizza Boxes The grease from a used pizza box prevents it from being recyclable. It can be disposed of with other solid waste. If your pizza box doesn't have any grease on it, …

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