Minimize What?

There are a number of things in my life that I’m actively working on minimizing, in hopes of maximizing other, more important, areas of my life.   My ideal would be to have all aspects of my life singing in perfect harmony to the song of my choice, thereby having control over the things that otherwise seem unmanageable.  What  are these instruments of my life that I want to harmonize?  I’ve broken them down into four primary categories; Balancing work and family, Personal Finance and Debt, Clutter, and Self Sufficiency.

Balancing Work and Family

My husband and I both work fulltime, and we have two small children.  Our daughter is five years old, and our son is 2 years old.  While my schedule is typically a straight 40 hours per week, my husband’s schedule varies between 45 and 50+ hours per week.  Our son attends daycare fulltime while I’m at work, and our daughter’s schedule is more chaotic.  Her time is split between pre-school three mornings a week, followed by time at my in-laws on those days, and daycare on the remaining two days.  With our daughter heading to kindergarten next fall, it’s time to revamp our schedules!

Personal Finance/Debt

Both my husband and I work salaried positions, and while we make pretty decent money, financially things are tighter than we would like.  We’ve been making small steps towards minimizing our debts, and building our personal net-worth.  It’s a weekly struggle, and balancing act, though we do see light at the end of the tunnel.  Our ultimate goal is to be debt free, and establish a healthy savings. 

Clutter

When we first moved into our house in 2007 it seemed HUGE!  We went from living in a tiny two bedroom rental, to our brand new house that had over 2,000 square feet of finished living space, and a full basement.  After unpacking everything that we owned, we had entire rooms that were empty, not to mention the empty closets and unutilized cupboards.  Now, 6 years, and two children later, our house doesn’t seem big enough to accommodate the mass of toys that our children have, let alone our other possessions.  Over the past few months I’ve been diligently working on ridding our house of the items that we never used, no longer use, or simply don’t need.  We’re a long way from being physically clutter-free, and doing our best to avoid adding to the chaos.

Self Sufficiency

In an effort to simplify our life, we’re also striving to be more self-sufficient.  This past winter I spent far too much time reading frugality, minimalism, and homesteading blogs.  I fell in love with the idea of homesteading, and would be thrilled to, one day, be entirely self-sufficient and live off our land.  The likelihood of that ever happening is unrealistic, though it has pushed us to try harder to gain some level of self sufficiency as a family.  We’ve taken the over-arching idea of homesteading and have begun utilizing some of the ideas that can/do fit into our current lifestyle.  We’ve planted a garden, we’ve started a compost pile, we’ve eliminated some things from our lives, and relearned the old methods of doing things that technology has all but eliminated in some respects.

All of these things intertwine, becoming more self-sufficient reduces our need to purchase certain things, which opens up cash flow to be applied towards our debts.  Balancing our work and family schedules allows us to spend more time on our self-sufficient activities.  Clearing clutter from our lives affects our personal finances through the sale of those items, and again allows more time for family as it cuts down on the time spent picking up random junk around our house. 

It’s time to make a deliberate effort in asking myself, “How can I minimize this?” as I tackle each obstacle that stand between where we are now, and our goal of harmonization.