Debt is a major problem for a lot of people these days. The problem is, even if they know they want to get out of it, they have a hard time figuring out how to start. If you fit this description, this 12-Step program spells it out for you. Now, there isn’t one way to get out o...

Last week I asked you all to offer up your best weight-loss tips. And boy, did you deliver. I’ve compiled some of your best tips into a list of ideas, below, for those looking to lose weight (and that’s probably most of us). It’s not a step-by-step guide, and there are contrad...

Have you gotten good at organizing your tasks in a to-do list, but have trouble actually executing them? You’re not alone. Getting things on your to-do list actually done is difficult because it’s really a collection of habits that most people don’t think about. Today, we’ll l...

Sometimes we can be so busy with our jobs, and our personal goals, and changing the world, that we have very little time to spend with our kids. And trite as it may sound, the time we have with them is so limited, and passes so quickly, that we may lose out on their childhoods...

How often have you eaten a meal and not really tasted it, or completed a chore or drove to work without really thinking about it.

One of the problems in our daily lives is that many of us rush through the day, with no time for anything… and when we have time to get a bite to eat, we gobble it down.

Often we’re told that we have to suffer now — give up what we want — in order to succeed later, that in order to save we must sacrifice. Give up instant gratification to get delayed gratification. But you can do both. For years, I was confused about this, as I read books and w...

Many people who try to simplify their lives and declutter their living spaces find that the most difficult obstacle in their quest for simplicity isn’t the clutter itself … but a significant other or roommate who isn’t on board the simplicity train. Living with a packrat can b...

A little trick I like to use to make my days much more pleasant is to find little, simple pleasures and sprinkle them throughout my day.

Everyone knows that cooking for yourself is a great way to eat good food while being frugal, and to eat healthier at the same time. But not many of us have time to cook up a fancy meal each night — which is why many people eat out instead. Just not enough time and energy in th...

One of the most rewarding changes in my life in the last couple of years has been finding peace with a morning routine. I’ve made it a habit to wake before most of the world, at about 4:30 a.m., and just enjoy the quiet and solitude. It has made all the difference in the world...

…thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”, Leviticus 19:18 One of the few rules I try to live my life by, and fail every day trying, is the Golden Rule. I love the simplicity of the Golden Rule, its tendency to make I interact with happier … and its tendency to make me happie...

Step 1: Begin gradual exercise. Instead of trying to change your entire life with an intense weight loss plan, we’re going to start small. All you want to do is make a commitment to get yourself moving for at least 10 or 15 minutes each day for 30 days straight. Some key point...

Does your filing system include stacks of paper, or is your “To Be Filed” folder overflowing? If you have trouble with filing your documents, you may need to find a way to simplify your filing system to keep yourself organized. Filing is something many people have a problem wi...

Building up an emergency fund, if you haven’t already, is one of the most important things you can do to help your finances. But you knew that. It’s common financial advice, actually, but what’s not so common is how to actually do it. Obviously those who haven’t saved up an em...

he key to creating calm and simplicity in your life is creating simple systems, instead of haphazard systems of chaos that form naturally when we don’t give thought to these things. We’ve talked about creating a simple system for handling mail and paperwork, and others for thi...

Running is my zazen. It’s my meditation, my peaceful routine, my inner sanctum. In Zen Buddhism, zazen (which literally means “seated meditation”) is the central focus of the practice. Depending on the school of Zen, zazen is used to concentrate on koans or to just sit and be...

I have a confession to make: until recently, I was a digital packrat. While my outer life has become fairly simple, as I declutter my home and workspace, and my paper files have also become pretty simple, my digital life was a mess. I had all kinds of files on my hard drive, j...

Last week, I dropped my 3-year-old son Seth Isaiah and my 1-year-old daughter Noelle Cayce to daycare for the first time ever. It broke my heart to leave them there. Despite my fears and broken heart, both babies did very well their first day, didn’t cry, and actually seemed t...

Any parent knows that kids create clutter like nobody’s business. It’s enough to drive a simplifier such as myself crazy. Still, with a little diligence, and a little bit of Zen detachment, it’s possible to have a simple, (relatively) uncluttered home as well as peace of mind....

I worked in the “Happiness” business. For a long time I worked in the Hospitality industry, restaurants and hotels, where I have been a busboy, host, waiter, bartender and manager. For 12 years I spent most evenings and weekends, and every holiday, taking care of people who we...

It’s a rare person among us who doesn’t feel the need to get more organized. I consider myself fairly organized, for example, but there are times when I get a little lax about my organizational rules, and there’s always room for improvement. And if you’re already organized (re...

My dad and I were talking about his recent financial turnaround, and one of the things he said was that he loves being free of debt. My dad doesn’t have the best of credit, and he isn’t wealthy. He has a decent income, an old car that seems to run fine and doesn’t belong to a...

I can’t claim that my home is completely minimalist, but it surely isn’t cluttered, and most people I know would call it a pretty minimalist home. One recent visitor saw my kitchen and remarked, “I’ve never seen a kitchen that looked so clean, so clear of stuff!” Well, I do my...

While being a vegetarian isn’t for everyone (and neither is Pamela Anderson), I talk to lots of people every day who tell me they’d like to become vegetarian, but it seems like it would be too hard, and they don’t have the willpower. But becoming a vegetarian, for me and for m...

Recently I began to do something in my bank account that would have been unthinkable to me a few years ago: build a (relatively large) cushion in my account, to allow myself to pay all my bills at the beginning of the month. It makes more of a difference than you might think....

Note: this will be another short, sorta-fun post that’s not on the weekly schedule. It’s not supremely useful, so feel free to skip this post. :) As I noted last week, I consider myself a minimalist. Does that mean everything I do is minimalist? No, but there are some odd litt...

This fantastic quote summarizes something that I’ve been trying to focus on recently in my daily life: “Whatever the tasks, do them slowly with ease, in mindfulness, so not do any tasks with the goal of getting them over with. Resolve to each job in a relaxed way, with all you...

Confession time: I’m a cheapskate. Some would say frugal, which sounds much more positive, but in reality I can be a real cheapskate. I am fairly frugal (though not always), but sometimes I take it too far: I have T-shirts with holes in them, I never buy new clothes, we’re sho...

Who among us has the time or energy for housework? Sure, we often make the time, if we don’t like living in a pig sty. But too often our homes fall into disorder, just because we are too tired or too busy to do a bunch of cleaning in our spare time. Photo by Shaylor Instead, m...