text: Written by Courtney Carver - 31 Comments
  Categories: clutter I care about people. I care about animals. I care about health. I care about my time. I care about giving freely, loving deeply and doing work I love. I don't care that much about stuff.
  So after you've decluttered and simplified your life, what's left? What's next?
  I've heard a similar questions and concerns and I think this will help …
  Here are a few things that my friends have said about this very thing …
  Today, instead of decluttering or living simply. Before you give away one more thing …
  make pizza create your love list
  In what I know will be one of my favorite posts of 2013, my friend Dave said, "We need to know that when we crave simplicity, we are not after an easier life. We are after life."
  It is possible that you won't give yourself permission because you are …
  scared that you won't know what to do with your time and space. Don't worry if you don't have a passion. Often, you have to identify what you don't want to do before you can discover what you want to do.
  worried that if you do know what you want to do, you won't be good at it. How good you are won't matter. The joy is in the practice.
  feeling like you don't deserve the happiness that's available to you. You deserve every bit and once you realize your capacity for happiness and love and joy, you can share it with the world.
  Accept the invitation. RSVP with a resounding Yes. Simplicity may not enough, but you … you are enough and more.
  31 Responses to "There is More to Simplicity than Getting Simple"
  Michelle	January 15, 2013 at 7:10 am
  Wow! So well stated. I love that you hit the nail on the head about how we substitute one activity for another in order to fill that void. I know I will come back and retread this posting often on my own journey.
  Reply	Courtney Carver	January 15, 2013 at 8:08 am
  Thanks Michelle, I really think this is a common issue. We can obsess on something that we become comfortable with or "good at" and then avoid all that is truly meaningful.
  Reply	Kathy Mader	January 15, 2013 at 7:51 am
  Wow again! Great post. You are so gifted with expressing just the right sentiments with just the right words. Thank you!
  Thanks Kathy. You are very kind.
  Reply	Kate Bell	January 15, 2013 at 8:10 am
  Decluttering stuff from your surroundings allows you space to explore how you want to make an impact on the world and to then do it. Many of us are afraid. Afraid of that what next. What if we do make an impact? What if we don't? Our stuff allows us to hide from the world. I have been doing that. I also use the clutter of my fear to keep me hidden away. Clutter can be internal and that has to be cleaned up to allow us to bring ourselves fully into living more joyfully.
  Reply	Kim Olson	January 15, 2013 at 8:58 am
  Great article, Courtney, and I also agree with you, Kate, that our stuff allows us to hide from the world. For me, it also distracted me from doing other more important things. Now that I've really begun to declutter and minimize in earnest, I have found that I have fewer distractions and I'm happy to have more time to myself. I can also more fully engage in life and try to be more present.
  Reply	Michelle	January 15, 2013 at 9:10 am
  You are right Kim! When I explain to people why i am doing this…I tell them it's to get to the core of who I am, and then to be able to add experiences and goals back into my life that truly enhance and has meaning. I'm thrilled to see so many like minded people, even though I am a bit late to this party!
  Reply	Kim Olson	January 16, 2013 at 10:12 am
  It's definitely fun to read other people's comments and see how they view simplifying. I think it's so great how changes in our own lives end up making our relationships with others more gratifying.
  Reply	Bethany@OurSoCalledLife	January 15, 2013 at 10:14 am
  When I finished decluttering, I found room for many passions, the greatest of these being sailing. Last summer, I was afraid to go out and learn to single-hand, because I knew everyone would be watching. I didn't want to look stupid. I didn't want to make mistakes that everyone would see. I didn't want to fail. But my passion is not being a passenger on a boat, it's sailing. So I went out there. I screwed up in front of everyone. I looked silly. And as time went on, I looked less and less silly. Soon I was able to take the helm, like I'd been doing it for years.
  The joy definitely is in the practice. In sailing–as in life–we need to give ourselves permission to take chances and to make mistakes. It's the only way to makes our lives into something wonderful.
  Reply	Gilly	January 15, 2013 at 10:48 am
  I really enjoy your writing and I found this one very much to an important point. As a long time practioner of simplicity (I was already trying to simplify when I found Elaine St. James book in 1994), I can say that it is an up and down process. Over the years things will accumulate. But when I realize the accumulation has reached the point that it is distracting me from enjoying life, I declutter a bit. In the early days I found that my best thing was to take my cup of coffee into the living room and sit and drink it with the lights off. I would just let my thoughts drift–how light is it out, which cat had joined my for a visit, what could the day hold? That little ritual was a lovely start to the day.
  Reply	Patrick Rauland	January 15, 2013 at 11:23 am
  Excellent post. This makes me think that we, as minimalists, may be approaching the problem from the wrong angle. If we approach the problem as living life to the fullest, minimalism will naturally appear.
  Reply	Sandra Pawula	January 15, 2013 at 12:15 pm
  Amazing wisdom in this post and beautiful quotes too. Thank you, Courtney. I'm in the middle of the de-cluttering "mess" but I see there's so much to look forward to. And, I can even enjoy this very moment and the process of letting go.
  Reply	Laurie Buchanan	January 15, 2013 at 12:30 pm
  As we're getting ready to relocate to the Pacific Northwest, we're working online with a real estate agent. One of the criteria we said we want is space. He wrote back and asked, "What are you going to put in the space?" We replied, "Absolutely nothing."
  Shortly after that the phone rang. He was so taken aback he wanted to verify that he'd read our response correctly. We went on to explain that not only are we minimalists, we "live" yoga (we don't "do" yoga); it's a lifestyle for us.
  Reply	Mark Adam Douglass (@MADouglass)	January 15, 2013 at 12:54 pm
  Beautiful work Courtney.
  I love that you responded to your readers question with a thoughtful, inspirational piece, bringing together other great thinkers on the subject combined with your own ideas.
  I know that I have been loving the space and time that simplicity de-cluttering has given me, using it to be creative.
  Reply	Claire/Just a little less	January 15, 2013 at 1:31 pm
  Decluttering and downsizing can be a consuming project and it needs to be balanced with taking time to evaluate your life and decide what you want to do make you happy.
  Reply	David	January 15, 2013 at 1:35 pm
  Great post, really got me thinking. I spent a lot of time last year doing the decluttering, but then I wasn't conscious about a lot of the changes that took place afterward. There were changes, but I think that void gets filled differently for different people, and maybe we're too busy looking for a roadmap for what should happen next instead of being present and seeing what changes take place.
  Reply	EcoCatLady	January 15, 2013 at 1:50 pm
  Well, my take is that the primary issue here is that we, in this culture, are pathologically afraid of our own humanity. I mean being human is a messy business. We are filled with all sorts of crazy, often out of control emotions – and there are so many big and scary questions that we avoid like the plague – what happens when you die… why do people have to suffer… what is the point of it all… why am I here… etc. And clutter is only one of many distractions that we use to avoid dealing with all of this.
  I guess that's why I'm not terribly fond of the "self improvement" approach to life – "Follow these 10 easy steps and you too can achieve eternal bliss and happiness!" I think it just leads people into the trap of more form over substance behavior. Just as having the "right things" won't make you happy, neither will having the "right number of things." Trying to make your life look a certain way – whether that means painting a picture of wealth and success, or trying to achieve a spartan life full of clean horizontal surfaces – it's a futile exercise. No matter what pictures you paint, or how artfully you paint them, you'll still be the exact same person. And ultimately the goal is simply to BE that person – freeing up space in your life is just a tool to help you get there.
  Reply	Mark Adam Douglass (@MADouglass)	January 15, 2013 at 2:27 pm
  EcoCatLady: Great insight. Personally, I ignored the big and scary questions for years. But no longer. Now, I question everything.
  Reply	timethief	January 15, 2013 at 2:35 pm
  Your posts resonates with me because I'm in a decluttering phase at present. Though I lead a very simple life living in a semi-remote location, drawing my water from my well and splitting waste wood for heat, I still have too many possessions. It's when they begin encroaching on my space to create in that I know it's time for them to go. Overall the one in an one out replacement method of clutter reduction works well for me but when it comes to books, videos and cds – not so! In my research phases I slowly acquire more and more. In my writing phases I hold on but when the writing is done I celebrate my accomplishment by shedding the excess.
  Reply	Kate Carpenter	January 15, 2013 at 4:36 pm
  I'm sorry but I don't know how to say this without mentioning my book ENUFF: Eliminate the Needless, Useless, Foolish,and Frivolous. It's about chipping away the rock to find the elephant sculpture inside (you) and has chapters on finding your focus and creating a vision statement. The premise is that the whole point of digging out is to create a blank canvas and have the time and space and energy to pursue your real purpose – which up to a point, we have all assumed to be acquiring stuff becausue that's what we were brainwashed into thinking.
  I hope this helps some of you! – Kate
  Reply	karen t	January 15, 2013 at 4:53 pm
  What has prompted me to make some changes is the unfortunate circumstance of not being able to find something of "importance" due to all the clutter and disorganization. Things that matter have been lost in the junk. I am referring to material possessions but this could also be a mental/cognitive issue to address. I read somewhere recently to differentiate between de-cluttering/organizing and "de-owning". I need to be rid of the excess, not store it more efficiently. I also need to work towards changing when and how I acquire more "things". I need to regift and donate more often and not worry if someone finds out I didn't keep some"thing" they gave me. Thanks for the inspiring words.
  Reply	Mark Adam Douglass (@MADouglass)	January 15, 2013 at 5:01 pm
  Time thief: I love the idea of building decluttering into the end of a project. The project isn't finished until resources are returned to the world.
  Reply	Eva	January 17, 2013 at 8:11 pm
  "How good you are won't matter. The joy is in the practice." Good reminder. Thanks!
  Reply	Linda Sand	January 23, 2013 at 1:32 pm
  I discovered my stuff took my energy. It all needed to be maintained. By the time I took care of it all, I had no energy left for anything else. Now, when a friend has a need I have the energy to be there. That makes decluttering worthwhile.