It's so common to compare ourselves with others, especially due to the popularity of social media. Comparison can cause us to constantly want to live large for the sake of appearances instead of living a simpler life for ourselves. You can still have financial independence and great success in many other ways, a simple lifestyle doesn't mean a lack of ambition. It's about recognizing that what you have is enough instead of craving or desiring more. In this article, we're going to share tips to make life easier with simple living, so you can spend time living a life you want.
17 Simple Living Tips That'll Change Your Life
1. Don’t go overboard
Before you begin making changes in your life, realize that small steps forward are what get you across the finish line. If you decide to make one big jump ahead, you might get hurt or stumble along the way.
What does this mean? Don’t make extreme changes in your life you’ll regret – and don’t try to do all simple living tips in a week. Ease your way into a simpler life.
You should also know the key to a simple lifestyle is not quitting society and going to live in a cabin in the woods. You should have every tool modern life makes available at your disposal – but don’t use it unless it’s necessary.
Let’s take credit cards, for example. You don’t need to cut them out to live a simple life. You have to avoid using them unless it’s necessary. If you decide to cut them, you might face a time when you need them – and that’s when you turn your simple living ways into an unnecessarily-complicated life.
These are just some of the habits of a happy person, as well. You may have our own habits or things you want to implement that you may find helps you lead a simple life.
2. Make a list of what matters
Simple living starts with a simple life. You need to know what matters in your personal life, to know what needs to be kept and what needs to be axed. You'll find your life has less stress when you remove things that don't serve you. You can make a to do list of all the things you want to include in your life. You might keep some essentials from the modern world, like laptops to help you work remotely. But you might declutter your home to make life simple. Plus with less to clean, it'll be easier to take care of your mental health through self care ideas.
A minimalist mindset can be a life changer. In a single task, decide your priorities and needs. Making room for the things you want has never been easier. It's time to enjoy the simple pleasures.
3. Clean house
Now that you know to not go overboard, it’s time to make the first of many changes. The very first thing you need to do is clean your house. Remove anything you deem unnecessary from it.
Get rid of anything that might be more trouble than it is worth.
You need to think about anything that you haven’t used in three to six months. Poor-fitting clothes, unused gym equipment, TV, videogames, your broken car. You can and should sell most of it – anything else, you can donate. Try not to throw anything to the trash; instead recycle, reuse, or give to someone else.
You might even change your house if that’s what you need to do. Moving to a smaller house can (and will) make your life simpler. Before you do, though, make sure that’s what you truly want.
Remember, simple living isn’t about removing yourself from modern life, but making the changes to live simply in a modern environment.
4. Invest in your personal development
It's much easier to start living a simple life when we have the knowledge and resources to make it happen. For instance, if you wanted to grow your own garden instead of grocery shopping, knowing how to create one, maintain soil health, and which plants are best to grow in which season can help you start simple living.
If you want a quieter life, you might also start learning how to better communicate with others, draw boundaries, or stand up for yourself.
Investing in your personal development for a simpler life is also about learning finance and how to buy the material possessions you need instead of want so you can grow your earnings. There's life changing magic that results from taking time to invest in your education. So spend time reading blogs or watching podcasts to learn about the topics that'll help you pursue simple living.
5. Cut the cord
If you thought wasting time on social media was crazy, wait until you hear about TV. On average, it’s close to 4 hours per day.
Add both up, and you are wasting close to one-quarter of your day on nothing – that’s why you can’t lead a simpler life, you are spending hours on end on something unproductive.
Cutting the cord (canceling your TV subscription) will free you from mindless time-wasting. It will allow you to do what you genuinely want to do – that’s simple living right there, one easy decision away from you.
You will also stop throwing money away every month. You might not realize it, but a cable subscription makes a dent on your monthly income. The more money you spend, the less chance you have to embark on a simple living journey.
6. Create a morning routine
As you embark on a simple life, you'll want to create an automatic morning routine that helps give you structure for your new simple living way of life. Your morning routine should include things that allow you to live simply, such as making your own food, taking non-priority tasks off your to do list, having an offline life by eating breakfast with the kids, hearing real life anecdotes from your family instead of doomscrolling someone else's life.
Basically, during your morning routine, you want to step away from modern technology or anything that causes more stress than you need at the start of your day. Create morning habits that excite you about life, eat healthy, and allow you to keep living simply.
7. Go on a social media detox
Did you know most people spend 2 hours on social media every day? That’s 60 hours – or close to 3 days – every month. It’s insane. And it’s also an addiction.
Your phone plays a massive role in complicating your life. It’s also a necessary tool – you can’t disconnect yourself from the world. You can make yourself less available to it instead.
Start by deleting social media. Use your phone to organize social meetings, but don’t socialize through it. You should make a phone call if one-on-one meetings are not possible, but you shouldn’t replace human contact with it.
Studies show anxiety skyrocketed because of smartphones. Removing yourself from social media will drastically simplify your life. So save time and save money from not endlessly scrolling through social media, seeing trending products, and comparing yourself to others.
8. Eat slowly
Mindful eating is the practice of carefully chewing each bite of food and savouring your meal. Fast food isn't just made quickly, it's also quickly gulfed down. Make a conscious effort to eat meals that nourish you and that you actually spend the time to taste. Chewing your food slowly can drastically enhance your eating experience. Instead of impulse adding another bite of food in your mouth, make a conscious effort to eat slowly.
Living simply is also about caring about what you eat. Eating locally sourced foods can be a great way to live simply. Going to a farmer's market can be a great habit to get into for eating local foods.
9. Adopt a chess mindset
Start viewing your life as a chess match. Make moves thinking three or four steps ahead.
You might think this complicates your life unnecessarily and the complete opposite of simple living – but you can make your life simpler by planning ahead.
If you decide to act based on impulse, you might end up trapped in a poorly-decision-made cage. Dig yourself into a hole you cannot climb out of – it happens. You should think about how far you should dig before you start, and that’s how you can always climb out of it.
Let’s look that social media detox example. You delete all social media, only to realize you need it for work-related reasons. If you start thinking a couple of moves ahead, you’ll see that you shouldn’t delete all social media but only your personal profiles.
Crisis averted before it began.
If you start planning ahead, you’ll prevent a lot of crises. And that’s the right way to live a simple life. One of the most common life tips is to plan and prepare. Think ahead, write down what you want to accomplish, and the good habit you want to adopt.
10. Reduce physical possessions
Having a minimal wardrobe, cutting down physical possessions, and re-evaluate the future expenses you make. You can have a good life without indulging in credit card debt to buy things. More stuff often means more organizing and more cleaning.
Mainstream culture makes it seem like you can only enjoy life if you have the mansion, fancy sports car, and loads of cash. You can still have a vision board, goals in life, and find a way of living a simple life. Some billionaires like Warren Buffet live in the same house they bought before they made it. So, even some successful people are out there doing the simple living lifestyle for their own life. A simple life doesn't mean you're poor, have less money, or can't afford to live large, it simply means you value and prioritize other things like quality time, quiet time, less stuff, and time spent with others.
11. Cure your credit addiction
Do you think most people live paycheck to paycheck? Well, not really. They live neck-deep in debt. It’s an unfortunate reality in America, and often, it isn’t entirely people’s fault. But for the fault that is under their control, taking control of their money habits can help them find peace of mind. Living in debt will keep you chained to a job that you hate, stressed out beyond belief. That does not sound like simple living. Constantly worrying about money doesn’t allow you to live a good life.
Then again, you shouldn’t see this as a black-and-white thing. You should aim to pay all your debts – but you shouldn’t throw your credit card away. Remember not to go overboard. You should use credit for things you need and can afford in the long run – always plan ahead.
This isn’t a call to never use credit, but only to do so when necessary. You probably can’t buy a house with cash, you’ll need a mortgage for that. You also need good credit to get a mortgage. So, having a credit card necessarily bad.
12. Remove yourself from useless discussions
Do you remember the last time a heated discussion lead to a good thing? Or do they always end up complicating your life one way or the other?
It doesn’t matter who you were arguing with, whether it was family or friends. And it doesn’t matter what it was about either – religion, politics, you name it.
You need to stop going on a Quixote-like charge against problems that aren’t yours to begin with. Let’s take politics, for example. Unless it’s a local thing (add a stop sign here, help the district school there), don’t get involved – unless you want to overly complicate your life. It’s one of the easiest ways to achieve inner peace.
You can apply this almost anywhere. Remove yourself from useless discussions at work, it’ll only pile on you later on. Religious arguments at the family reunion? That’s not simple living either.
14. Take on less
Simple living is also about making life easier. One way to do this is to take on less. Living a simple life isn't about signing up for every activity, attending plans multiple times a week, overworking, or managing a full calendar of kids activities. You'll feel lighter when you start saying no to things to prioritize yourself. You don't need to add stress to your life.
Do the things you'd like to do. Hang out with the family at home talking during dinner. A simple living guide is all about the word no. Saying no to things that don't better you, that drain you, that make our lives feel uncomfortable.
15. Shape your mind and body together
Sometimes, you won’t be able to live simply. Modern life will catch up one way or the other – but don’t worry. You have different tools at your disposal to help you cope with that problem.
First, train your mind. Let it become quiet. You can try guided meditation or mindfulness exercises to achieve this. There are other ways to do so, though. You can paint, play an instrument, anything that brings your mind into a halt and away from modern life issues.
Second, train your body via mindful walking. You need to stay in shape. Otherwise, health problems will drag you away from simple living into a living hell – and that’s no good. Going to the gym is always a great option. You can also go for a walk, swim, or anything that keeps your heart rate up.
A healthy mind and body will protect your sanity when life doesn’t want to remain simple.
16. Keep it simple
You could add countless things to this list, but that would be overly-complicating things.
This list could also be simpler – way simpler. Just a one-item list. And this is that one item: just keep it simple.
Life is filled with distractions and issues that will complicate your life. If you address them quickly and don’t let them pile up on you, there’s nothing to worry about. When life starts to complicate, take two steps back, and plan three steps ahead.
17. Delete all emails after they're resolved
Going to inbox zero can be a blessing. Stop consuming so many marketing emails in your life. It's so easy to watch your inbox fill up with emails telling you to buy one thing or another. You can keep important emails in a folder in your inbox. Unsubscribing from promotional emails or removing a promotional inbox altogether can be helpful for reducing the emails you get that you don't need.
Your email inbox becomes like a tv. You need less tv, but also less email. Current events can be looked up. When you need something, you can search for it. Emails from family or friends can be a way to connect with others. And work emails should be sent sparingly.
Keep on simple living
How do you keep your life simple? Begin living simply by trying out some or all of the things on this list. Whether you develop a morning or evening routine with limited activities is up to you. You can keep cell phones, but don't become all consumed by them. Simple living is all about cutting out the things you don't need so you can live your own lives with a sense of appreciation, magic, and beauty. The world isn't inside your phone, it's in your living room where the children play. It's in the bedroom with your spouse. It's at a family dinner where everyone's laughing at a joke your parent just made. Simple living is about giving yourself your life back. So, go on and practice simple living for yourself and see what the magic brings you.
How will you be practicing simple living in 2023?
