Do Less this Christmas

Welcome to the world little man! Our third son was born just a few weeks ago and we are thrilled to be a family of five. As I planned and expected it’s been a very low-key couple of weeks that should continue to be quiet right into January. I planned to take to my bed

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24 Clutter-Free Advent Calendar Ideas

We’re settling in with our new baby here so I’ll be sharing a few updated posts from the archives in the next few weeks with many of them focused on holidays traditions. I yearned for an advent calendar growing up. I thought they were the height of cool and reserved for the rich. The calendars

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Simplifying When Your Family is Expanding

  Child number three due any day here. The only tell around here is my belly. No nursery being painted. No boxes of strollers or swings or furniture to be assembled. The only thing I’m anxious about, again, is childcare while I’m in labor. We’re lucky to have a few people on call for different

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How to Stop Buying Stuff

How to stop buying stuff if you’re in shopping mode. After all your good advice, I got to work on our living room/dining room area. I thought that spending my dollars and time on getting one room to a happy place for me would, as suggested by several readers, help me enjoy living here more.

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Is Your Home Your Happiness?

  Is the beauty or function of your home, your happiness? Do you remember the first apartment or house you lived in after leaving your parent’s home? My first living on my own experience was in a dorm room and after that I lived in a succession of inexpensive housing situations. Four bedroom apartments with

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The Time and Money in Your Daily Commute

How do you decide to trade money for time? We recently had to make some choices between time and money. Which person in the family would get the much shorter commute and who would gain a significantly longer one? It made me think about the book All the Money in the World by Laura Vanderkam. Vanderkam

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1 In, 2 Out: June

Why did I start this challenge? It’s kept me on my toes but it is really hard to keep track of things. Stuff is insidious. We received free t-shirts for our big walk and they were out of Chris’s size so I thought it was a good chance to get two workout tops I could

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Filling The Emptiness Is Easier With Less

Sharing a personal story today from Vee – someone that I met through this blog and have kept in touch with as we both moved overseas. Some important reminders for me in this essay about being kind to yourself during big life changes and examining why you have things you don’t use or even like.

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