{pic 1.2.3}Hey guys so since it’s the new year, I’m starting a new series here on my blog. It’s called Lean For 2016. By “lean” I don’t mean I plan to share how to loose weight in 2016-rather “lean” means to trim out the excess in your life, to make your home, daily schedule and habits as efficient as possible. My husband works a lot with lean planning in education-so we talk about how this concept can be introduced in any part of our life.
Some people call it the “minimalist” lifestyle, I like to think about it as efficiency. Mainly because I like to have things and don’t want to go and purge everything, but I want things to have an order and a place. So throughout this series I’m going to go step by step through parts of a home and lifestyle and give tips for how to make those things run more efficiently, how to “trim the fat” so to speak from your home and life-not your body, although that’s a good thing too 😉
People ask me all the time about the best ways to organize. I love to organize and find a great sense of peace going to bed at night knowing my closets are organized-is that crazy-I kinda think so 🙂
So who’s with me?! Ready to make your lifestyle more lean? If you are on the fence just try out one thing and see how it goes. 
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T I P S F O R B E G I N N I N G A L E A N L I F E S T Y L E
- Slow down on your spending. Most of the time we buy things out of habit. Make shopping lists and STICK to them! This goes for food, or clothing shopping. When you are transitioning to a leaner lifestyle, every purchase should have a reason. You should have a place for it in your mind before you buy it. If you don’t know where it will go or are buying a duplicate-don’t buy it.
- Make lists. Make a list of what you want to organize or make more efficient. Is there one part of your home or one aspect of your life that you think could be more efficient? Write it down. Write down why you think it’s not efficient and then write down at least one thing you are going to change to make it more lean.
- Start with just one area at a time. Do you ever start out putting your basket of clean clothes away and then decide your closet needs organizing, then decide you wan to organize your room and move that one bookcase and then change your room color and then find some old decor piece in your attic and then decide your attic needs cleaning and before you know it your house is a disaster zone just because you were putting your clothes away?! That happened to me all the time and the way I avoid that messy attic staring me in the eye, is to pick just one area to work on at a time. Pick your closet-and stay with your closet until it’s done. Remind yourself the attic will get cleaned eventually. If you followed step 2, the attic may be somewhere on your list and if it’s not, then forget about it until the other, more important things are done first.
- Pick one area to be clutter-free. This can be a counter, a desk, a room, a table a closet, etc. Find a place that you can consistently keep clutter-free. This may not mean “empty” but whatever is there is for a very good reason. For example if you chose your desk, choose to keep it clutter free by only having a desk lamp and pencil cup. There must be a very good reason why something has the honor of staying in your clutter-free zone. If you have one area that is clutter-free, it will hopefully motivate you to do that with other spaces in your home.
- Think lean when buying food. Plan meals that are similar so that you can use the same ingredients for several meals. This will cut down on shopping time and menu planning time. Then hopefully on cooking time too.
- Just start! The best way to a minimalist lifestyle is to just start! Try one of these tips above then work towards incorporating the other tips that I will post in the coming weeks.
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In the next few weeks my posts will include more tips for how to make specific areas of your home more efficient, like your kitchen and bedroom. Also, areas of your life like your daily schedule. If there is an area you are hoping to make more organized please let me know and I will make sure to address it.