简化生活的七大好处.doc

简化生活的七大好处
有很多人写作和谈起关于以极简主义生活方式生活，它并不适合每个人，虽然不是不可能，但对家里有小朋友的人来说要困难得多。
我不会自称是极简主义。我仍然有很多东西、不常用的东西在周围。我仍然有作为感情寄托而不需要的东西。在过去的几年，尽管我已经减少了房子里大量的东西。我曾经是一个完全着迷于漂亮东西的人，装饰品，小玩意儿，集尘器……随便你喜欢叫它什么。

下面是我摆脱很多这种东西之后，减轻负荷我所看到的成效。
1. 减少恐慌。你应该知道那种当你看见你的父母、兄弟姐妹或者朋友在车道上开车的感觉吧？你迅速的看看周围然后想“噢，天啊！我还没来得及清理。”进入恐慌模式。现在，更少的东西，你就有更少的需要扔掉，更少的需要清洗，更少的需要放好。我曾经请人过来花一整天的时间清洁，保证所有的东西都放好至少是被藏进储藏室里了。不是说笑。
2. 更少时间清理。所有这些散落在房子里，花费很多时间清理的我曾经喜欢的小玩意儿。清理表面就意味着要拆开所有这些小部件，除尘，然后再把它们装回去。现在我清理掉了几乎我所有的小玩意儿，清洁变的快多了。只需要抹布擦一下表面就好了。再也不需要吸尘器绕整个地方去把东西 从地板上弄走。
3. 更多开放空间。当我最终告别我的许多东西之后，我震惊于自由空间量。自然而然的我就想用更多的东西来填满它。时间久 了，那种欲望就没了，现在我很喜欢空间。减少东西是很容易上瘾的。要预先警告你自己。
4。感恩你所拥有的。曾经你清除了很多你不需要的东西，用或者喜欢的，必须都是你真正想要的。我好努力的才割舍那些对我来说没有那么深意义的东西。(我知道我应该对任何东西都可以割舍，但有些习惯很难打破)。我的目标是最终没有任何储藏物，我的想法是它必须值得我每天看见，每天享受才展示。
5。为搬家做打包准备。Leo几周前提到过，当准备搬家的时候打包整个房子是一个巨大的工程。想想如果你不需要那么多去的移动它们将是多简单，多令人高兴和多节省的一件事情。当我和我丈夫搬进我们的新 家时，我们丢掉了很多我们的旧东西。这样搬家那天就变得简单多了。自从搬到新家后，我们减少了更多，难以想象下次搬家我们该多简单呀!
6。 不需要整理系统。Leo上周在twitter上写道:”不要组织，简化。”我十分赞同，当我们有很多东西的时候就需要一个系统和处理方式来保持它，很多你 其实并不需要。我想比起用一堆对你不知是否有用的整理系统，把你的能量专注于减少或者简化更好些。
7。更容易专注于事情上。少了零碎的东 西，我发现我更容易专注于事情上。帐单，图书馆借书和预约事项比起埋在一堆杂志，新建和报纸下，不再容易遗忘。自从我不再清理或整理我也有了更多的时间花 在对我更重要或者更感兴趣的事情上(家庭，事业等……)
还有很多简化东西生活的好处。极简主义可能是一个极端，不过对于那些强人来说很 容易。对于其他的我们来说，从小事开始，一次做一点，记住你可以做到的重点，当你准备摆脱的时候。
当你减少你房子里的东西时，你是否注意到类似的好处?
7 Benefits of Living With Less Stuff
Post written by Sherri Kruger. Follow me on Twitter.
There are many people writing about and talking about living a minimalist lifestyle. Now it’s not for everyone and, although not impossible, it is a lot more difficult for those of us with young children.
I wouldn’t call myself a minimalist. I still have a lot of things kicking around that I don’t use routinely. I still have things I’m hanging on to for sentimentality sake as well as things I don’t absolutely need. Over the past couple of years though I have been reducing the quantity of stuff I have around the house. I used to be an absolute sucker for the pretty things, the decorative things, nick knacks, dust collectors … call them what you will.
Having gotten rid of a lot of these things there are several benefits I’m seeing as a result of this lightening of the load.
1. Reduced panic. You know the feeling when you see your parents, siblings or a friend drive up the driveway? You take a quick look around and think “Oh Dear! I haven’t had time to clean.” Enter panic mode. Well with less stuff there is less to be out of  place, fewer things to be cleaned, and fewer things to be put away. I used to invite people over and spend the entire day cleaning and making sure things were all put away or at least hidden in the closet. Not fun.
2. Less time cleaning. All of those nick knacks that I used to love to scatter around the house, well they took a lot of time to clean. To clean the surface they were on meant taking all the little bits and pieces down, dusting and then putting them back up. Now that I’ve gotten rid of nearly all of my small bits, cleaning is so much quicker. Just run a cloth over the clear surface and I’m done. Vacuuming no longer requires an initial run through of the place to get things up off the floor.
3. More open space. When I eventually parted ways with a lot of my stuff I was stunned at the amount of free space I had. I think it’s only natural, but I was very tempted to fill it with even more stuff. Over time that urge subsided and now I’m loving the space. Getting rid of stuff is addictive though. Consider yourself warned.
4. Appreciate what you have. Once you have purged a lot of the stuff you don’t need, use or like, all you should have left are things you really and truly want. I am trying really hard to get rid of things that I don’t feel a deep, meaningful attachment to (I know I shouldn’t be attached to anything but some habits are hard to break). My goal is to eventually not have anything in storage. My thought is that if it’s worth keeping it should be worth putting on display for me to see and enjoy everyday.
5.  Packing for a move. As Leo mentioned a couple of weeks ago, packing up an entire house when preparing for a move is a massive project. Imagine how much easier, more pleasant and less expensive it would be if you had less to shift around. When my husband and I moved into our current home we got rid of a lot of our stuff. It was easier to pack and didn’t take nearly as long to move it around on moving day. Since being in our new home we’ve purged even more and I can’t imagine how much easier it would be now if we were to move again.
6. No need for organizing systems. On twitter last week Leo said: “Don’t organize. Simplify.” I totally agree. When we keep too much stuff there is a need for systems and processes to keep track of it all, a lot of which you don’t need. I think you’d be better off focusing your energy on reducing or simplifying as opposed to trying a number of organizing systems that may or may not work for you.
7. Easier to stay on top of things. With less clutter I find it’s easier to stay on top of things.  Bills, library books and appointment slips are no longer forgotten about as a result of being buried beneath piles of magazines, mail or newspapers. I am also able to spend more time on things that really matter to me or interest me (family, businesses etc …) since I’m not cleaning or organizing.
There are a lot of benefits to living with less stuff. Minimalism may be an extreme for most, but for those who can legitimately pull it off my hat goes off to you! For the rest of us, start small, do a little bit at a time, and remember to be as critical as you can be when it comes to the items you are contemplating getting rid of.
When you reduce what you have around the house, what do you notice is a related benefit?