A Simpler Life

Posted by Rachael | 0 comments

I love spring! I love that the weather is warmer, my plants are growing, and my children can be outside playing. One thing I don’t like about spring is the “big swap”.

You know what I mean- gone are the long sleeved shirts and heavy pants. It is time to bring out the shorts, swimsuits, and tank tops. Unfortunately that swap is a dreaded event in my household. This entails pulling down the huge plastic containers from the attic. Then I have to pull out the winter clothes from the closets. I have to trash the stained clothing, separate and organize the rest into too small for them, too small for their sibling, and decide where they belong. Then I have to get out all the spring clothes and organize, hang up and fold, and decide what belongs to whom. Now comes the repacking of the winter clothes. Then finally they can be put back into the attic. The process takes a minimum of one week but more than likely two.

What happened to the one winter dress and the one summer dress that our beloved Laura Ingalls grew up with? Why is a month out of my year clouded over by too many clothes? Once they are in the closets they don’t seem like too many but there are inevitably one or two outfits for each kid that never even gets worn!

photo credit: Susan at From the Narrows

I don’t know about you but I am interested in simplifying! I am going to simplify clothing in my household. Every child does not need a jam packed closet. I decided to go through the cute dresses and give half away. That is my start. I plan on scaling down even farther. I want to live a simple life, not a complicated life. With all those clothes comes lots of laundry! I simply don’t want to spend this much time on clothes.

I want my focus to be on all that is growing around me- the plants, the animals, and my sweet children. Maybe this is one step closer to living a simple life. In voluntary simplicity, you are on “a journey to find more meaning, more joy, and more fun in life by getting out from under the burden of so much stuff, to remove the barrier of stuff that keeps us apart from other people, from God and even from ourselves.” (www.simpleliving.org)

Are you interested in simplifying your life? In what areas could you live more simply?

Rachael Moriarty is wife to a Navy Tubist and mommy to three children, ages 1 to 6. She is Director of a Classical Conversations group and a childbirth educator and doula. She works along side her hubby on their hobby farm and has a passion for kitchen experiments. She aspires to train and reach the hearts of her children that they may know the purpose of life is to know Jesus and make Him known to others.