Uncoveries

Inspiring You to Uncover and Design a Meaningful Life

Our Experience Playing Minsgame Multiple Times

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My husband and I have played multiple rounds of minsgame. This past July was our fourth time.

How the game works is like this: you remove an item from your home (by selling, donating, giving or throwing away) on the first day, two items on the second day and so forth. Each item can be as big as an appliance or as small as a button. It all depends on you. With both of us playing in a month with 31 days, that equates to nearly a thousand items (992) gone from our home.

It’s been challenging this fourth time around. Frankly, I wasn’t able to find 496 physical items. I only found about 78, a much lower number than I needed. That certainly wasn’t the case when we first started down the minimalism path.Continue Reading

5 Tips on Living a More Minimalist Lifestyle

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There’s a staggering excess of things we don’t need.

Piles of junk mail show up in our mailboxes each day. Thousands of products are promoted in stores and on screen, and hundreds of promotional swag are given out for “free.” Every item has an additional hidden cost. Every item takes from our limited reserves of time, energy and attention.

In a world of such excess, I’ve found it essential to pare down and embrace a minimalist lifestyle.Continue Reading

9 Areas To Declutter For A High Quality Life

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This is the fifteenth article following The Irony of Quitting My Job to Take a Sabbatical, the first in a series on what I learned and what I’d recommend from quitting my job to take a six-month sabbatical (without another job in sight). This week, I expand on how decluttering helped change my life by sharing the 9 main areas of focus.

“Simplicity involves unburdening your life, and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere with a high quality life, as defined uniquely by each individual.”

– Linda Breen Pierce

When you’re busy running from one thing to the next, it’s easy to miss a lot of things.

Clutter tends to hide more clutter.

Continue Reading

How Decluttering Helps You Change Your Life

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This is the fourteenth article following The Irony of Quitting My Job to Take a Sabbatical, the first in a series on what I learned and what I’d recommend from quitting my job to take a six-month sabbatical (without another job in sight). Last time, I talked about how the most important aspect of your life is often a lesson we need again and again. Below, I share the role decluttering played in building up Uncoveries and crafting the life I really wanted.

 

“The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.”

– Joshua Becker

I’d made big progress in quitting a job that wasn’t fitting.

The next contributor was key in how Uncoveries got started and how I embarked on the path I’m on today.

Before I left for Prague, Anthony and I attended a conference on simple living and met a likeminded community of folks who were questioning the pressure around the fast-paced and constant consumerism in mainstream culture. The conference inspired me to barely buy any souvenirs during my trip; the past me likely would’ve bought at least three times more.Continue Reading

7 Ways to Make the Most of Each Day

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Each day is a gift, a new beginning, another opportunity to be fully embraced.

Yet many of us don’t make the most of each day. By packing it full of every possible to-do list item, meeting, commitment, email and phone notification, the hours fly by and we feel somewhat shortchanged as we turn in for the night.

Why? Because it’s easier said than done to make the most of each day. Especially when you feel like you’re behind on multiple projects with an overwhelming number of obligations, errands and tasks.

Life could be so simple, but we are masters in complicating our lives—to the point there are no moments savored, no progress made on what’s truly important and a deficit of what brings joy in your life. Sound familiar?Continue Reading

Listen to Your Intuition: 3 Reasons Why

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In this society, there are many who are determined to follow the well-worn or more certain path, even if they don’t necessarily agree with it. This is a great trait if the motivation is soundly based; it demonstrates a willingness to stick it out, showing determination and grit. However, if you’re doing something you don’t care about or believe in, it’s never worth it.

Not listening to your intuition is damaging in the short-term and especially over the long-term. When you don’t listen to the one voice that matters the most, you are letting the most important person down in the worst way possible–yourself.Continue Reading

How to Simplify Your Thoughts

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In my efforts to embrace simplicity across as much of my life as possible, I’ve found amazing benefits in simplifying what goes on in the mind.

Unchecked and allowed free reign, the thoughts in your head can be destructive, distracting and nonproductive. The impact can range from decreased energy, indecision, irritability, to hopelessness and unhappiness.

Your thoughts are powerful and, with practice, entirely within your control.

In simplifying your thoughts, you’ll be able to dedicate more of your energy and productivity towards important goals and tasks. Each of us has a continuous stream of internal dialogue and thoughts going through our head each day. Are you aware of the content your mind is creating? By going through these 4 tips, you’ll be able to simplify your thoughts to focus on what will be the most productive.Continue Reading

5 Quick Tips to Simplify Your Home

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Imagine this. You open the door to your home and walk into a place of peace and tranquility. Is this what you see when you enter your home?

If what you see instead is a battleground of chaos, you have the power to change it with a few simple tips. Follow these quick tips to simplify your home every day and over time to create an environment where you can relax, enjoy and focus on living the life you really want. The state of your primary environment makes a huge difference on your quality of life, so what are you waiting for?

Here are 5 quick tips to simplify your home and create a home sanctuary.Continue Reading

5 Ways to Spend Your Energy More Intentionally

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You only have a finite amount of energy in a day. Many people begin their day in a hurry, rushing from one thing to the next. They end up exhausted in the evening time, perhaps feeling like they haven’t done much of anything and wondering where the time went.

This is where more intentional use of energy comes in. We’re not necessarily talking about doing more. We’re talking about simplifying and focusing more of what actually matters and focusing less on what doesn’t matter. With greater awareness and intentional choices, we are able to maximize the amount of energy we have for the things we want to do each day.

Here are 5 ways to spend your energy more intentionally each day!Continue Reading

5 Ways to Embrace Simplicity in Food

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We begin exploring simplicity with one of the most basic things in life.

Food is universal.

Many people have an immense love for food, and I’m definitely not an exception. I used to keep the Food Network on for most of the day and watch all types of delicious eats I didn’t have in my kitchen. What I was actually doing was spending my energy and attention on food options I didn’t even want before I saw them. The constant parading of exotic and indulgent options advocates for variety, complexity and in many cases less healthy choices.

Instead, I’ve become an advocate for simplicity in food. When I say food, I mean whole, unprocessed, and high quality products from nature. Simplicity in food is often overlooked, and is an area beneficial to everyone. The benefits include healthier choices, more energy, less stress, less waste, less consumption, and often less cost, depending how you go about it.Continue Reading