37. Create a simple weekly dinner menu. If figuring out what’s for dinner is a nightly stressor for you or your family, consider creating a weekly menu. Decide on a week’s worth of simple dinners, set a specific dinner for each night of the week, go grocery shopping for the ingredients. Now you know what’s for dinner each night, and you have all the ingredients necessary. No need for difficult recipes — find ones that can be done in 10-15 minutes (or less).

38. Eat healthy. It might not be obvious how eating healthy relates to simplicity, but think about the opposite: if you eat fatty, greasy, salty, sugary, fried foods all the time, you are sure to have higher medical needs over the long term. We could be talking years from now, but imagine frequent doctor visits, hospitalization, going to the pharmacist, getting therapy, having surgery, taking insulin shots … you get the idea. Being unhealthy is complicated. Eating healthy simplifies all of that greatly, over the long term.

About 2 years ago I started drinking pretty much only water. Cutting out soft drinks and sweet tea was a huge change for me. I have to say that I feel much better and I even lost some weight! My plans, once I get settled into my house, are to plant a garden to grow organic produce and also foster some edible landscaping around the property which will provide both beauty and sustenance. I also would like to get into a rhythm of life that allows me to be able to create a set of meals for each day of the week that is both healthy and financially sustainable.

36. Learn what “enough” is. Our materialistic society today is about getting more and more, with no end in sight. Sure, you can get the latest gadget, and more clothes and shoes. More stuff. But when will you have enough? Most people don’t know, and thus they keep buying more. It’s a neverending cycle. Get off the cycle by figuring out how much is enough. And then stop when you get there.

What does it mean to have enough? This has really been the driving question for my journey toward a more simple life.  I think I’ve written about this before on my blog. The idea is that everyone can have “enough” if we are all willing to live with what we need. I enjoy living in America. I really do. But we have such a huge problem with consumption.

What can I do? What can we do? What can you do? How much is “enough?”

34.Consider a smaller home. If you rid your home of stuff, you might find you don’t need so much space. I’m not saying you should live on a boat (although I know some people who happily do so), but if you can be comfortable in a smaller home, it will not only be less expensive, but easier to maintain, and greatly simplify your life.

35.Consider a smaller car. This is a big move, but if you have a large car or SUV, you may not really need something that big. It’s more expensive, uses more gas, harder to maintain, harder to park. Simplify your life with less car. You don’t need to go tiny, especially if you have a family, but try to find as small a car as can fit you or your family comfortably. Maybe not something you’re going to do today, but something to think about over the long term.

I took into consideration the amount of space I would need in a home. The one I am trying to buy is around 1,000 sq. ft., which is more than I personally need, but if I’m going to be trying to live in community (and cut down on cost of living) 1,000 sq. ft. should be just fine.

As far as the car goes, I drive a truck for work. It’s a company truck and my personal truck so I really can’t afford to have a vehicle of my own right now. In the future I’d love to get an electric car, but until then I will walk and ride my bike whenever I can!

31. Learn to live frugally. Living frugally means buying less, wanting less, and leaving less of a footprint on the earth. It’s directly related to simplicity.
32. Make your house minimalist. A minimalist house has what is necessary, and not much else. It’s also extremely peaceful (not to mention easy to clean).
33. Find other ways to be minimalist. There are tons. You can find ways to be minimalist in every area of your life.

I’m learning to live more frugally. I used to be Best Buy’s best friend. I consumed copious amounts of DVDs, CDs, and other electronics.  At one point I had around 500 DVDs and Blu-rays. Ridiculous, no? So, I have been selling my DVDs, Blu-rays, TVs, and getting rid of Cable and other things I don’t need. It has been such a relief. I have been able to budget much easier and spend my time more wisely.

Minimalism, for me at least, is directly proportional to becoming Frugal. I find, that to spend less, I must get rid of the things that fuel my addictive buying behavior.

Bye TV! I’ll miss you. Sort of.

30. Keep your email inbox empty. Is your email inbox overflowing with new and read messages? Do the messages just keep piling up? If so, you’re normal — but you could be more efficient and your email life could be simplified with a few simple steps.

I check my Email everyday. I skim most of them as the come in on my phone, so I can delete the unimportant ones quickly from my computer when I get home from work. I keep some in my inbox if I think they might be important in the near future. For example, all Emails regarding the purchase of my new house are still in my inbox. That means some of them are 4 or 5 months old!

29. Establish routines. The key to keeping your life simple is to create simple routines.

Ah yes, routines. Routines is such a hard word to swallow though. Hows- a- bout we use the term Rhythm? That is way more monastic….

Creating a rhythm of life is important in any community. It helps us to form our actions and thoughts around a common purpose or way.

Creating a Rhythm will be important for our community and will help us to keep simple lives.

26. Create a simple mail & paperwork system. If you don’t have a system, this stuff will pile up. But a simple system will keep everything in order.

27. Create a simple system for house work. Another example of a simple system is clean-as-you-go with a burst.

28. Clear your desk. If you have a cluttered desk, it can be distracting and disorganized and stressful. A clear desk, however, is only a couple of simple habits away.

For me, 26 and 28 go together.  My mail and paperwork tends to be what the clutter is on my desk. I need to have some sort of filing system for mail, papers, etc. Anyone have any bright ideas that have worked for them?

As far as cleaning the house goes, I’ll have to see what the new house requires, but I’m feeling good about making Saturday my day for Laundry, floor cleaning, dusting, etc.

More than 1/3 Complete! Day 25 of a 72- day blog post extravaganza!

25. Streamline your life. Many times we live with unplanned, complex systems in our lives because we haven’t given them much thought. Instead, focus on one system at a time (your laundry system, your errands system, your paperwork system, your email system, etc.) and try to make it simplified, efficient, and written. Then stick to it.

I haven’t had much experience with streamlining, but I’m sure that it is a great idea. I tend to be a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of guy.

-I go grocery shopping only when I’m hungry and realize that I don’t have any food left.

-I clean when I realize that, “Wow, this place is a mess!”

-I wash clothes when I have none left in my drawer (at least none that I want to be seen in public wearing).

-Mail gets buried under piles of junk on my desk, and bills get paid when I remember to pay them.

-I have two calendars… one for school and one on my blackberry. I almost never look at them.

-I read in the most inefficient way… 8 books at a time.

-I receive Emails, but read about 3 of them?

Needless to say, Streamlining could make my life a lot less cluttered and give me some time for things I’d like to do. SO, task #1: streamline my week by creating time to do specific chores and activities.

I finished up a New Kind of Christianity a few weeks ago. I think I read it all in one weekend. I haven’t read all of Brian’s  books, but I can say that this one is going to stir the waters for a lot of people. Through the book, Brian asks us to take a journey with him to deconstruct our Greco-Roman understanding of the Christian faith. To be honest, the book didn’t raise a lot of new ideas for me. However, I do believe that, for someone unfamiliar with ideas Brian raises in the book, this is going to be a rude awakening. As usual, Brian interacts with the ideas he proposes with grace and understanding for those who may struggle through the pages. Overall, I think this book is a great introductory travel guide that will guide new Christians into further discussion on where we are going as a faith community.

24.Be present. These two words can make a huge difference in simplifying your life. Living here and now, in the moment, keeps you aware of life, of what is going on around you and within you. It does wonders for your sanity.

Every Sunday morning I stand before a congregation of people and voice some various announcements about what all is going on in the coming months and weeks. At the end of my announcements it is my job to transition into a time of worship. We usually take time to engage in silence (which, to be honest, I wish we could spend a lot more time doing) and then I open with a prayer. I try to make sure that, every week, I include in the prayer the desire for us to be present in that time… for us to be fully here with each other and listening (not just that God would become present with us).

That being said, I believe that most of the time we are all running around like chickens with our heads cut off, constantly in need of something to distract us from complete silence. We desire noise over quiet, chaos over peace, and rush over patience. In doing these things, we are never fully present with our true selves. We are but shadows wandering at break-neck speeds to get things done that don’t particularly have any end.

We are lost when we are not present.