Saturday, December 13, 2008

Quest for Simplicity: Eliminating Clutter from our Lives

My husband, with a background in Finance, frequently reminds me of the need to acknowledge a sunk cost and move on. I find a lot of truth in his observation. When we have invested ourselves in a thing or an activity, whether with our time and energies or our money, we find it difficult to let go even when our investment stops yielding returns and becomes a burden. And so we clutter or lives with objects or activities that drain our time and energy, while at the same time we strain to make room for those things that are truly meaningful. As I examine my life to determine what is clutter and what is not, I find it helpful to keep in mind concept of sunk cost. Something that is currently blessing my family--tangibly or intangibly--is not clutter. Something that was once a blessing, but is now only a burden, is clutter and should be let go.

Quest for Simplicity is a new feature on my blog aimed at helping eliminate the clutter in our lives. Clutter can come in many forms, whether it is physical clutter taking up space in our homes, unnecessary obligations taking our time away from our families, or emotional baggage sapping the energy we need to fulfill our responsibilities to God and our neighbour. I hope some of you will join me in taking a look at how you can simplify your life, cut back on stress, and make more room for those most important things that might be getting marginalized.
Feel free to grab the Quest for Simplicity icon and post it on your own blog. Write a post about what you are doing/want to do to simplify your own life, then come back here and sign the Mr. Linky; be sure to include the url for your specific Quest for Simplicity post.
Update: I have removed the autolinks from this page. Instead Mr. Linky will be included at the bottom of each Quest for Simplicity post I write; If you write a Quest for Simplicity post, sign the Mr. Linky at the bottom of my most recent Quest post. Once you participate once I will put a link to your blog on this page as well.
I look forward to hearing from you! Also, the code for the Quest for Simplicity button is now easily accessible in a scroll box below the button. Copy to your blog and you're good to go.
I look forward to reading your thoughts on simplifying life!

3 comments:

Karene said...

I think this is GREAT! I want to write something. I'm not sure how the whole Mr. Linky thing works but hopefully I'll figure it out. I will at least put the icon on my blog for now and see if I figure out how it all works as things go on. This is a great idea and I look forward to reading yours and others thoughts about it.

Paula said...

Mr. Linky is easy. Once you put a post on your blog, you come back here and enter your name (or however you want to identify yourself) and the URL for your post in Mr. Linky. You want to enter the specific URL, i.e. http://a-large-room.blogspot.com/2008/11/mr.html rather than http://a-large-room.blogspot.com/
Your name will then show up on a list, and someone who clicks on it will be taken to the post on your blog. It's a fun way to see what everyone writes.

Tara said...

Sounds like a great idea! Its something I have been doing here and there as I can, so having an external motivator will be a nice plus. :)