A Quiet Simple Life

Sallie Schaaf Borrink

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Do It Now & Don’t Put It Down

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentDo It Now & Don’t Put It Down

There are two things I’ve endeavored to do more consistently (but not perfectly) in recent years. Both choices have enabled me be more efficient and positive about my homemaking.

First of all, I’ve tried to choose to “Do it now” rather than put off some small task. For example, Caroline discovered today a little bit of mending she needed done. Rather than put it off for another day, I put on a short video I wanted to listen to and simply did the mending while I listened. So many times I let mending needs languish for ridiculous amounts of time. When I finally sit down and do the task, it takes less than ten minutes. In the meantime, I’ve looked at it more times than I can count which has caused me both the stress/anxiety of not doing it in addition to the wasted time spent looking at it and not doing anything. So I am endeavoring to do things now rather than wait for a more “opportune time” when I “feel like” doing something. 

The other thing I’ve worked to do is not put things down to deal with later. An example of this is taking something from my office/homeschool room on the second floor down to the main floor and setting it on the dining room table to take to the basement the next time I need to go down there. I now tell myself to keep walking and simply deal with it. It usually takes less then a minute and then it is just done. So I have been focusing on the need to tell myself to do the task and not leave it for another hour or day. These are usually little quick things that won’t take much time, but if I don’t “feel in the mood” to deal with it then it’s easy to simply make the choice to leave it. 

Neither practice is earth-shattering or original, but they are better habits I’ve been endeavoring to develop. Both are definitely improvements in my homemaking. 

Homemaking In My Shop 

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5 Ways I’ve Simplified My Life This Month

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View Full Post with Embedded Content5 Ways I’ve Simplified My Life This Month

Caroline and I finished up our summer homeschooling yesterday. I now have two weeks off and we’ll start up with the new school year the day after Labor Day. I have been making small and large changes during August that are already paying off in terms of more time and less stress. I could write a post about each of these (and probably will), but for now I’m simply going to list them.

One, I have been steadily removing myself from email lists. I have significantly reduced the amount of email I receive. I’m already pretty careful about this, but have taken it to another level. Anyone who emails too frequently and doesn’t give me an option for less? Gone. Anyone subtly inserting propaganda that makes me feel stressed or angry? Gone. And so on. Even if it’s a company I like and might buy from again, if their emails annoy me they are gone.

Two, I deleted my Twitter account this week. I do plan to write a full post about this. Twitter is by far the most stressful social media I’ve ever used. It’s not even close. I think their algorithm is designed for it. I already feel different today by not having it.

Three, we have been cleaning out each room of the house. Last weekend, David took a carload of donations to a local charity that operates in our part of the county. I decided I didn’t care if there were things I could sell on Facebook for a few dollars. I asked the Lord to bless the people who find the things and provide that money for us in another way.

Four, I’ve been cleaning out homeschooing materials. Now that I know what we’ll be doing the last two years of homeschooling, there is no reason to hang on to a lot of things. I’ve been pitching stuff left and right. Some things will be donated.

Five, I moved all of my media files in posts to my own hosting/server. Every podcast and video I’ve made for both of my sites is now self-hosted. I have left some of them up on other platforms so people can find me, but nothing is embedded from anywhere else. No more adapting to changes on other platforms.

So that’s what I’ve been doing to simplify my life this month. Have you made any changes lately? Please share in a comment below if you have. Maybe your ideas will inspire someone else!

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Creating Work Zones In My Kitchen

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentCreating Work Zones In My Kitchen

I finally accomplished my goal of cleaning out the kitchen cupboards and changing the functionality of it. David and Caroline were a big help and we’re all pleased with the results.

Compared to most houses you see online today, we have a relatively small kitchen in a relatively small house. Every bit of cupboard space must be carefully used. There is one smallish pantry cupboard to my left as I’m taking this picture that I didn’t include in the pictures. It’s technically more in the dining room area. We use that for food. 

We cook two meals at almost every mealtime. David and Caroline eat what they eat and I eat what my EoE requires. Because of this, we use different ingredients, different tools, etc.

So one of the big changes was to assess which tools in the kitchen they use and make sure they are all in one area. All of the things I use are in another area. I know this seems rather obvious and it is. We simply hadn’t gotten around to doing this.

For example, I never use the cheese shredder because I cannot eat dairy. But the cheese shredder was stored in the left part of the kitchen where I do my meal prep which meant any time they needed it they had to come into where I was doing my food prep. The same thing with the liquid measuring cups. We have different cutting boards so I don’t get cross contamination from their foods, but their cutting boards were stored in the lower cupboard where I am usually standing. We have different pots and pans which were stored in two different areas and intermingled. We know which ones are mine and which ones are theirs, but we didn’t have them in separate zones which we do now.

So David and Caroline now have all of their regularly used meal prep items primarily in these cabinets in this corner. They work on the counters to the left and right of the sink. 

All of my things are in this corner.

There is still some overlap since they have many more tools than I do. For example, the spices are in my zone even though I don’t use most of them. A lot of their bakeware is in my zone. I also have the flour, sugar, and oats in my countertop space, but it makes the most sense to keep them there on the counter even though the only one I use is the sugar. If we had a bigger kitchen, we would have more options but we make the most of what we have. 

Yes, we do have two toaster ovens and two coffee makers due to the risk of cross-contamination of my food.  

The one thing we did not do in our big clean out and rearrangement was switch out the shelf liner. I would have liked to have done it, but I knew it would slow down the process significantly. So for now we simply wiped down all the shelves, washed everything, and organized things where they made the most sense.

I’m really pleased with the results and this is a huge item done on my to do list! 

Homemaking Inspiration In My Shop 

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Address Pages – 3 Free Printables

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentAddress Pages – 3 Free Printables

This set of free printable address pages make it easy to keep track of all your important contacts. Keeping a hard copy is important in case your digital copies aren’t available or go missing for some reason.

These free printable address pages includes the most important information you will want to record regarding your contacts. There are three pretty designs so you can chose the one you like the best or use different designs for different groups of contacts.

Get organized and know where your important information is with these free printables.

Free Printable Address Pages

The printable address pages file includes all three of these lovely designs. The includes spots for:

  • Name
  • Phone
  • Address
  • Email
  • Mobile phone

Download the Free Printables

You can download one file with all three versions right here. When you click on the example below, it will launch a PDF. Please save the PDF to your computer and then print as many copies as you need.

Please do not share these with others. If someone would like a copy, please share the link to this post so she can download her own copy. Thank you for respecting my hard work and respecting my Digital Products Terms of Use.

I hope you find these address forms helpful! Be sure to check out the other Free Homemaking Printables I have available for yoU!

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Password Organizer – 4 Free Printables

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentPassword Organizer – 4 Free Printables

We all have so many passwords to keep track of today. Websites, security questions, passwords, and more make online tasks sometimes overwhelming. If you have a habit of not writing down your passwords when you make a new account, then you need this set of Free Password Organizer Printables.

There are four pretty Password Organizer Printables in this pack that will make keeping track of all of those endless passwords and other login information much easier. By keeping them all in one place, you can simplify your life and also make sure you have a printed copy of them in the event you cannot access your computer where you normally store them.

So read on to see these helpful forms and download your free copy!

Free Password Organizer Printable

The password organizer includes spaces for details such as:

  • website or business
  • web address
  • email address
  • user name
  • password
  • security question and answer

Download Your Printable Password Organizers

All four lovely versions of this printable are included in one easy-to-download file. Simply click below on the light blue version to launch the PDF. Save the PDF to your computer and you may print as many copies as you need for your personal use.

Please do not share these printables with others. If someone would like a copy, please share the link to this post so she can download her own copy. Thank you for respecting my hard work on these and respecting my Digital Products Terms of Use.

I hope you enjoy using these forms! Click the form to launch the PDF.

Happy organizing!

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In Our Cozy Home This Week No. 27 – Landscaping, Switching Seasonal Clothes, Behind the Scenes Website Work

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentIn Our Cozy Home This Week No. 27 – Landscaping, Switching Seasonal Clothes, Behind the Scenes Website Work

Happy Monday! It’s a later-in-the-day edition of the weekly post. I had a number of things I needed to get done today so writing this had to wait until I had completed them.

We’re all doing well. David has been working on some landscaping trim (red scalloped bricks) around the gardens in front of the house. He finished that up today and it looks very nice. It’s still too early to put in annuals or new perennials but hopefully we can add a few more plants and flowers next week. One good thing about the chilly April and May we’ve had so far is my ability to keep having a fire in the evening. It looks like it should last well into May this year with the arctic blast arriving later this week. The s word (snow) even came up in the forecast. I like snow, but May is a bit late even for me.

I’ve been doing massive amounts of behind-the-scenes work around this website. It’s personally quite satisfying to see the progress. I’ve been retagging all of my posts to make things easier to find when someone comes here looking for an answer. I’ve also been adjusting categories, rewriting some posts to make them better, etc. I made the popular posts and products lists in the sidebar more specific so hopefully that is beneficial. It makes me happy to make the site more helpful for people who need help or information.

I’ve also been adding in lots of free printables. I have many more to come. If the free printables aren’t where you are at, no worries. I’m not turning into a printables website. I’m simply doing a lot of batch work (like I did recipes a few weeks ago). There will be plenty of regular content as well.

I only have one goal this week and it’s one I’ve already been working on.

Goal 1 – Finish cleaning out master closet as part of the seasonal switch. I am washing everything, putting away winter clothes, getting out spring/summer clothes, etc. I’m trying to find a solution for shoes. We keep them in the original boxes, but I’d like something that generates less dust than the cardboard due to my dust allergy. I’m looking at options for breathable plastic, but haven’t found anything that I think will work well.

What do you have planned this week? Any special homemaking projects? I hope you’ll leave a comment and share what you are working on.

Encouragement and Wisdom in the Shop

21 Days of Scripture for Simple LivingThe Freedom of Learning to Say “No”She is Clothed… Proverbs 31:25-26 ArtworkMinistering to Someone with Chronic Illness

Artwork: “Blumen Pflucken” by Carl von Bergen

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In Our Cozy Home This Week No. 9 – Cleaning Out Linen Closet, Office Files, Yearly Goals

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentIn Our Cozy Home This Week No. 9 – Cleaning Out Linen Closet, Office Files, Yearly Goals

Happy last Monday of the decade! With Christmas and New Year’s Day falling on Wednesdays this year, the holiday weeks seem very long and less well-defined. It’s interesting how the way Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day fall on the calendar can make such a difference in how we perceive the holidays. I mentioned to David that since Thanksgiving was so late, it seems too soon to take down our Christmas tree. It feels like it’s barely been up. We often have it down by New Year’s Day, but this year I think we’ll keep it up until at least next weekend (unless I hit that moment where it HAS to come down because seeing it is making me melancholy).

We have almost nothing on our schedule this week and so I have only two big plans. First, get a lot of work done. Two, clear out a lot so I don’t have to take it into the new decade. I’ve already started on both, but here are my three goals for the week.

Goal 1 – Continue (and hopefully finish) cleaning out all the files in my office. I started on this yesterday and I was ruthless. My plan today (if we don’t lose our power from the snowstorm and wind) is to finish going through a pile of file folders on my desk and either throw each thing away or make a plan for how to use it on my website.

Goal 2 – Finalize my goal list for 2020. I don’t make resolutions because they don’t work. I make detailed lists of goals (personal and work) I can cross off because I need to see things crossed off to remain motivated. This works for me because when I’m tired, unmotivated, or uninspired, I can usually find something on the list that I want to get done and do it. So it helps me focus and do worthwhile tasks related to the big picture of my life goals and dreams rather than just turning on a video or something less worthwhile.

Goal 3 – Clean out the linen closet. It isn’t messy but actually quite organized. The thing I need to tackle is older sheets, blankets, mattress pads, etc. that we don’t use and will probably never use. In the past, we often had overnight visitors, but that almost never happens now. We sadly do not have a guest room which makes it very difficult to host people. I had mentioned in the forum about wanting to learn to make a braided rag rug out of sheets. I have a collection of older sheets in dark greens, whites, green and white check, green and white floral, pinks, and such that would harmonize really well. So I’m going to drag it all out and see what I should do with them. I have no plans of starting the rug. I simply want to decide what to do with all the extra bedding that just sits there.

So those are my ambitious goals. I truly love weeks like this that are wide open – no meetings, no plans, no homeschooling, etc.

What do you have planned this week – big or little? I hope you’ll share your three goals with us in the comments and then come back and let us know how it went in the Friday Follow-up post. If you need inspiration, check out the inspiration in A Quiet Simple Life Planner & Guidebook.

Have a great day and week – however you are using it!

Artwork: “Seamstress Sewing in an Interior” by Carl Vilhelm Holsoe

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