“It is vain to do with more what can be done with less” -William of Occam
Ahmed and I started a great new initiative, to live a more simple life. Realize this doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to simplify ones life depending on how much you got going on. We decided it would be best to start the process off by going through each and every thing in our apartment. We took out things that we hadn’t used in the past year or simply did not need. We further separated the items into piles of donation, selling on Craigslist, and garbage (which was further separated into recyclables). Yesterday we dropped a big donation off to “Penny Wise,” a thrift store where all proceeds go to DuPage Children’s Hospital.
Next thing we did was clean out our email inboxes, and categorized folders or labels in which we placed important emails. We also unsubscribed to low priority mailing lists which usually wastes our time. And lastly, we sat down and discussed an action plan for other things we would like to simplify in our life, such as eating.
Going through this process made me realize that having more “stuff” actually makes you busier in cleaning, taking care of and looking after these things. This in turn takes away from the precious time us housewives or working moms have to spend quality time doing things we enjoy.
We all like having nice things, but my philosophy is buy things of good quality that you really really like and just keep it for a long time. There is no need to have 5 pairs of black shoes and 3 spring jackets. At the end it’s just more to handle.
Less is more.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Are you sure you’re a Desi Muslim American Hyderabadi female?
April 18th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Mashallah, very inspirational blog. This is sort of weird, but I was talking to Ammi about the same thing yesterday. I dont know Farah, me and you have this way of completing each others sentence
Love you!
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I *just* had a conversation with Saqib about having a simple lifestyle. This was very on-point and in accordance to what I was telling him– less is more. I generally like to keep things simple, it reduces the amount of upkeep, effort, and organization required in my life.
When I move to IL you can help me keep things simple– looking forward to it
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:23 am
Mariam: I don’t know what to say…we are just too much alike in our thinking, so much so I would have to call it weird lol!
Ayesha: I would love to help you start your new chapter in life in a simple way! Call on me anytime buddy