Life is crazy and chaotic. Sometimes you need to come back to what matters most, but you’ve got to know what those things are. And once you decide what is most important, you will naturally experience a more simplified life. What matters most? What can you remove from your plate? What is no longer serving you and your family well? These are all great questions that you can think through to help simplify your life. I am excited to share with you the 10 things I have done to simplify my life and how they have impacted me, my family, and my business.
In This Episode, Allie Discusses:
How prioritizing what is important to you brings simplicity to your life.
The power of saying “no” even when it is difficult.
How having boundaries in order is such an act of simplification.
Why alone time is healthy, no matter if you are extrovert or introvert.
The ways established routines encourage simplicity.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Amanda Wilson’s Instagram
Blog Post: How To Say No
Episode 024: Phone Settings For A Present Life
Episode 003: How My Morning Ritual Is Changing My Life
WANT TO DECLUTTER YOUR HOME?
You buy stuff with your time, not just your money. Less clutter equals less stress and more time. It’s as simple as that! Your Uncluttered Home is my most popular, globally-praised decluttering course, designed for moms who want to live their lives more than they clean up after it. It’s truly the A-Z of minimalism – every room, every area of your house, totally uncluttered. This super extensive, extremely detailed course is literally everything you need to become a minimalist mama who’s able to be a lot more present for what matters most. This truly is the ultimate when it comes to my philosophy and implementing it into your own life.
Mom life. We are surrounded with the message that it’s the tired life. The no-time-for-myself life. The hard life. And while it is hard and full of lots of servitude, the idea that motherhood means a joyless life is something I am passionate about putting a stop to. I’m on a mission to help you stop counting down the minutes till bedtime, at least most days. I want you to stop cleaning up after your kid’s childhood and start being present for it. Start enjoying it. I believe in John 10:10 “that we are called to abundant life” and i know mothers are not excluded from that promise. Join me in conversations about simplicity, minimalism and lots of other good stuff that leads to a life of less for the sake of enjoying more in your motherhood. I’m Allie Casazza and this is the The Purpose Show.
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Hey, beautiful! Welcome to The Purpose Show.
I don’t know if this is your first time listening or if you’ve been a faithful listener from the beginning, but either way I want to say that I’m really glad that you’re here! I’m really glad you’re listening and I believe you’re listening for a reason. I’m happy to spend this time with you.
This episode is all about things that I’ve done to simplify my life. I sat down with the idea for this episode and I started to write what are some things that I’ve done, some things that I’ve put into practice that have simplified my life and really made a difference.
I’m all about asking the question: What can I remove from my plate in the different areas of my life? What has to be done by me? What do I want to be done by me? What’s dragging me down? Is it necessary that it drags me down? Is it just a part of life?
Is there a way that I could learned to enjoy this more? Is there a way I could learn to do this more efficiently? Is this serving my family? Is this serving someone else in a positive way? What is going on with each area of my life?
I think that’s how you really get intentional.
I sat down and wanted to come up with the list of the things that I’ve done to bring in simplicity. I ended up coming up with 10 things, which is perfect because all the articles that you see floating around out there, especially the ones that go viral are “10 things to do this, 10 things I’ve done that did this,” and I always wonder, “Do they sit down until they came up with 10 things or what?”
I always feel I come up with awkward numbers (8 Times That I Was A Great Mom) but this time I really did come up with 10. Perfect. Let’s dive in. The first thing that I would say came to my mind about things that I’ve done to simplify my life is I decided what’s most important to me. I would encourage you to do this and to keep your list to 5 or less things.
Life is crazy and chaotic. Sometimes you need to come back to what matters most, but you’ve got to know what those things are. For me, my list is broken down into relationships because really that’s what each area of life breaks down to is your relationship with your priorities.
It’s my relationship with God, my relationship with myself, my relationship with my husband, Brian, my relationship with my children and my relationship with my business.
And frankly that’s about the order that it’s in. The reason that I have it in that order is, well, first of all, God. Not to be cliché, but really He is my most important relationship. And I’ll be honest and say sometimes my actions may not reflect that. But in my heart of hearts, that’s what’s most important to me. That’s the relationship that deserves the top priority. And if I feel like my actions are not aligned with that statement, I know that I need to make some changes and some shifts. And I will and I do. That’s a constant fine-tuning of sorts.
Controversially, I put myself next instead of my relationship with my husband. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong, perfect or flawed, or what, but that decision came out of a lot of reflection and a lot of learning in my twenties. I just recently turned 31, so, I’m no old sage or anything, thankfully.
But I will say that in my almost 11 years of being married to Brian, being a mother and “growing up,” I’ve learned that if I don’t prioritize myself first, I’m kind of a terrible wife, mother, person, friend, sister and daughter, and all the roles that I fall into because I’m an introvert. The way the Lord made me is beautiful and incredible. But it’s human. It’s flawed. And if I don’t prioritize myself and take care of myself at least a little bit, I don’t perform well. I don’t feel good. I’m snappy. I’m cranky. I’m short-tempered.
Of course, there are times where I feel like that and I’ve got to suck it up and be a decent person. Do my job. Get through my day. Be a nice wife. Say nice things. Hold back from saying something rude, unhelpful or cutting. But my point is, after my relationship with the Lord, my relationship with myself is important in that I need to make sure that I’m taking care of myself.
I put my husband first in a lot of ways. But all in all, I will say that I will make sure that I carve out a little bit of “me time” before I carve out a little bit of “marriage time,” if that is what it comes down to, it often does not.
I hope I’m getting my point across that I have to take care of myself so that I can be a better wife, a better mom, more available, more patient, kinder, able to respond and be mindfully present for my husband and for my children.
The order doesn’t matter as much as you saying what your priorities are.
Friends and family are very important to me, but they’re definitely on the outer rings of my life. Not the center ring. They don’t come before that other list.
That doesn’t mean that I’m selfish. That doesn’t mean that I’m money hungry because my business is on the other list first or anything like that. It just means my relationship with God first, and I’ve got to take care of myself. I have to make sure that I’m having some quiet time. That I feel OK. That I have taken a shower. That I take a second to myself. That I’m not feeling anxious or like I am lacking something. That I am just not doing good and not able to function. That my marriage is healthy. That my relationship with my kids is going well, or at least it’s been taken care of and that I put time into.
My relationship with my business is so important because my business is not just a business. It’s my passion. It’s really a ministry of sorts. It is so important and it is my family’s livelihood.
When it comes down to it sometimes (a lot of the time actually) I do have to prioritize my business and my work above having coffee with a friend who’s going through a hard time. Every once in a while it just comes down to it.
But usually – because I’m an entrepreneur, I work from home and I’ve got an amazing team behind me to carry the load of the day-to-day stuff – I can say, “You know what, I’m not going to work today. I’m going to finish up school with the kids and I’m going to go ahead and have lunch with my friend because she needs me.” I do that all the time.
But when I’m writing out my priorities, when I am writing out what really matters, that’s kind of where my list is. I think it can be really daunting to come up with that list, but I think you should do it. And they think it’s important.
If my feelings about a relationship with my main people and my business are suffering, something’s going to have to give, because those are my priorities. So that’s one thing that I have done to simplify my life is: I called out and said “what is most important to me?” And I made that decision prayerfully and thoughtfully over time.
I’ve got that list. I know I can come back to it if I’m feeling a little lost, overwhelmed or burdened by all the things. I can come back and look and say, “OK, what are my priorities? What needs to be top of the heap here in this situation?”
Although it can be daunting at first, once I did it, once I decided what’s most important to me in my life, it simplified my life. It simplified my decisions. And it simplified a lot of things because my calendar reflects those priorities. My heart reflects those priorities and the way that I make decisions and say “yes” and “no” to things reflect those priorities. So, simplified my life a lot.
Another thing that I did to simplify my life is I learned to say “No.” Learning to say “no” can be so difficult for some people. It is not super difficult for me. It depends on the circumstance. There are some things that I feel like, “Oh, my heart goes out to the situation. I want to say yes, I want to be there to help.”
I am really passionate about giving. I’m getting a little personal here, but in the first year of my business our family was America’s version of poverty. It was really, really, really bad. (If you want to hear our story, you can listen to episode six of this podcast.) We came around to the other side. Our business was thriving and went as a business from zero to seven figures in 18 months. It was so exciting and crazy. I have always been passionate about giving and helping others and my difficult financial experiences in my life with my husband definitely fueled that fire.
I became even more passionate about giving and wanting to do good things with this money. I got a little bit too gung-ho about giving and gave away too much to where it was like, “Oh crap, now we don’t really have a safety net here.” We probably should have put a little bit more away because that’s what you want to do. I have a hard time saying “no” when it seems good, when something seems charitable, when it seems like it’s going to help somebody else.
I definitely think that sometimes self care and prioritizing your own family can turn selfish. I think sometimes it could turn into you’re not really “looking outside of your own bubble.” I never want to get to that point. It’s such a hard balance. I really think it’s got to be some kind of gut check that you have with your own self and a “heart thing” that you’re watching and prayerfully keeping watch over I guess, and asking the Lord to point out to you if you’ve gone too far one way or the other.
In this case, with the money thing, I had gone too far. Too much charity, not enough being careful, wise and a good steward. I wanted to give back after I felt like we had had to take so much and we weren’t able to help at all.
I’ve since learned to say “no” and to be wise. I’m not talking about just with money – that was just in one small example – but in little things like volunteering for something or having coffee with a friend, sometimes you just need to say “no.”
Sometimes it’s not a good idea. It’s not wise. It’s not a moment to be giving. It’s a moment to be wise is in the way of, “I know what my family needs today and this isn’t gonna work for us.”
There’s a lot of talk, from me as well, about self-care and having time away, taking care of yourself, having girls’ nights, going to get a Mani-Pedi every once- in-a-while. That’s so great. But sometimes it’s the opposite and while this girl’s night that I just got invited to is so fun and a great idea, it’s a really bad week for me to leave my family and do that. It’s going to end up not serving me and actually stressing me out. You may need to say “no.”
I’ve got a blog post about saying “no” and I’ll link to it in the show notes for you guys. It has really simplified my life to have that skill to know how to graciously say “No, I can’t do that right now.”
Unapologetically having your boundaries in order is such an act of simplification and it’s a habit that will serve you well.
The third thing that I have done to simplify my life is I turned off the things that distract me from my life. I’m talking about Facebook, phone notifications, all those types of things. There’s recently been a podcast episode about that and I’ll link to that in show notes for you guys as well. It’s literally called “Phone Settings For A Present Life” and that is exactly what it is. How to physically set up your phone to stop beeping to you and distracting you from your actual life. It’s so funny, especially being a blogger, there’s this pull and this almost expectation to share every moment and to not actually enjoy very many of them.
I feel like I have struck a really great balance of sharing plenty, sharing the fun stuff, the silly stuff, the serious stuff, the family moments, the business moments, the processes behind the scenes, but also really not feeling like I always have my phone. I found that balance I feel like. And I’m really happy with the balance I’ve struck. I want you to feel like that too. Turn off the things that distract you from your life.
I do not have the Facebook app on my phone. Facebook is on my computer and I can log in and do what I need to do there for work or pleasure or whatever. And then I’m done. It’s not carried around with me all day long. I don’t think it should be.
Your texts, your phone calls, your social media app alerts. All those things are only in the way how much you let them be in the way. I decided to prioritize (back to #1) and turn off the things that distract me from living my actual life, from being present for my God, myself, my husband, my children, my business, my friends, my family, and all these other things.
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When you buy something, you buy it with your time. With minutes from your life. Not just with your money. Studies show us that less clutter equals less stress and more time. It is really as simple as that.
This was the founding reason that I created Your Uncluttered Home. It has become my most popular, globally-praised, decluttering course that I designed for moms who want to live their lives more than they want to clean up after it.
It is truly the A-Z of minimalism. Every room. Every area. Every nook and cranny of your house totally uncluttered. This super extensive, extremely detailed course is literally everything you need to become a minimalist momma who is able to be a lot more present for what matters most.
To learn more about the course, go to alliecasazza.com/allcourses.
This really is the short-cut version. The exact journey that I took as a mom, 5-6 years ago, that got me to this point of an uncluttered, minimalistic motherhood where I am spending the least amount of time on my house every day.
Motherhood is just way too sweet a time to be spent struggling so hard and living in survival mode day in and day out. Our stuff is really the cause of that.
If you want to start this lifestyle, if you want to simplify your life… I believe that it all starts at home.
Simplify your life. alliecasazza.com/allcourses.
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The next thing I did to simplify my life is I started spending time alone. This was another thing that totally came out of my 20’s, of me figuring myself out.
I say this a lot, but I’ll say it again. Extrovert and introvert is not being hyper or super high energy, or loud versus quiet and shy. It’s actually where you get your energy from. Extroverts get their energy from being around other people and introverts get their energy from being alone. There’s people that are both, and that’s called ambiverts. I don’t know many of those but I know they’re out there.
I am an introvert, and learning to give myself alone time, oh my gosh, it just restores me in such an amazing way. It’s unbelievable what less than 10 minutes of being alone will do for me.
Even if you’re an extrovert, being alone is so good for the soul. Just being quiet for a second. Get the kids in bed, check in with your hubby and make sure he’s good, and go for a 20-minute drive. Get a Chai latte and go for a drive with the windows down. Don’t even turn music on, just be by yourself. It’s so nice to see what good company you are and where your thoughts go. What worries, fears, dreams or joys come to mind?
Another thing I did to simplify my life was I simplified my home. You know, obviously this is what I’m really known for, but my gosh, I had a hard time not putting this first. I simplified my home. I got rid of the clutter. I let go of the drawerfuls of junk and crap that was taking up all the nooks and crannies in the closets, under the bed, wedged in between couch cushions, crammed into nightstand drawers and kitchen drawers. Multiple spatulas, spoons, and bowls that were mismatched. Magazines and random clutter.
I got rid of all of it and I’ve kept it all away by ruthlessly being the editor of my home over the last six years. It has transformed my entire life more than almost anything. It’s been huge.
You probably already know this is what I do. This is what I’m known for. This is where my signature course, my ecourse, “Your Uncluttered Home” came from – this has been my process and my journey and let me teach you how to do it. Simplify your home. Watch your life transform. You wouldn’t even believe it if I told you all the different areas of my life that have changed just from simplifying my home. My marriage improved. Relationships improved with myself, with my kids. I was a lighter person, much happier, less stressed out. I found it so much easier to stop yelling and stop reacting to my life because I wasn’t living in this place of constant stress. My life no longer reflected the way that my home was cluttered. It reflected the way my home was uncluttered.
Studies show that the way that we have our homes is a reflection of the way we have our lives. And I really believe that. It’s been true for me and true for the thousands of students who have gone through “Your Uncluttered Home.” I definitely, definitely would say that one of the biggest things I did to simplify my entire life was clearing my home of clutter.
The next thing I would say is I established routines, specifically my morning routine. That’s also a podcast episode. I am not sure what number it is, but I’ll link to it in the show notes. My morning ritual is very important to me. I like to call it a ritual because that’s really what it is. I don’t like to think of it as a routine. I don’t know, it just feels like the word “ritual” is so much richer, better, more spiritual, important and beautiful. And that’s how I feel about my mornings.
I hate when something is going on that causes me to miss my morning ritual. That happens very rarely because my morning ritual begins pretty early in the morning. It’s only when we’re traveling and I have to get up early to leave for the airport for a trip or something like that that gets in the way. I feel the difference in my spirit. I really do.
My morning ritual has transformed my life so much. It has simplified so many aspects of my life.
Another thing that I did to simplify my life is I downsized. Back before all of this, before I decluttered, before this part of my story began, we lived in a pretty large house. It was definitely pretty large for our family size at the time. We only had two of our kids and it was a lot.
It was so much maintenance. It was so much cleaning and it wasn’t really worth it at the time because I was so overwhelmed. I was fighting depression and we only had two of our kids. I was pregnant with our third, Hudson, and it was so much extra work. It was so not worth it. We couldn’t even afford to furnish all of it. It just felt empty, dull and high maintenance. Oh my gosh. I mean it was awful.
We ended up downsizing and started to live in smaller houses. Nothing super tiny or anything but just pretty small. Small enough to where the potential landlord would say something like, “Are you sure this house is big enough for you guys?”
Friends and family would comment regularly on the fact that we were living pretty small. It didn’t feel too small to us but small enough to where it got comments for sure. It was a little bit against the norm, even now when we have four kids. Actually, this is the first time that I’m saying this on my podcast now that it’s out, but we know we’re going to be adopting and so our family is going to grow even more.
Our house is about 2300 -2400ish square feet. And it’s three bedrooms. We work from home, we’ve got an office that’s an extension of the garage. So even now our house really isn’t that big for a family my size. It’s definitely the biggest house that we’ve had since our big downsize.
I think the original house that I was talking about before was over 3000 square feet and it was just a lot for me, especially at the time. And you know with more space comes more cleaning, more maintenance.
But it’s OK; I can handle it now. I’ve got less stress. I’m not depressed. My kids are older; they help. My husband’s here to help. I have a housekeeper that comes once or twice a month and helps. My season is different.
We still live a little smaller than most people with our family size. And it’s great. I love a small house. I think there’s something really beautiful and there’s something to be said for small living. And I love when people message me and they say, “You know, I’ve got two kids and we live in a thousand square feet and we just love it. We’re outside all the time.”
It’s so true, you get out and you start to live. You enjoy the outdoors. You really make your little home count, you know? It matters to you more. It’s more important to you. It’s cozier. I love a small house.
Another thing that I did to simplify my life was I started walking. This might sound silly and you might wonder what that has to do with simplifying, but it really does. I started walking as a way to simplify my health. I think that the health and wellness industry is a money hungry industry of unnecessary advice. And I got sick of it. I just wanted to feel better. I wanted to lose weight. I wanted to feel like I had more energy.
I wanted to get moving, but I really don’t like to exercise. I just started to walk. What I found was that, first of all, I love walking. I love taking walks, whether my kids come along or Brian’s home and they stay with him and I go by myself. I love to walk. I started to let my thoughts wander. I started to get really grateful. Then I started to intentionally think of things that I was grateful for while I walked. I call those my “gratitude walks.”
Sometimes I do that. Sometimes I listen to a podcast or an audio book. Sometimes I listen to music. Sometimes I pray. Sometimes I have absolutely no agenda and I just go for a walk and see where the Lord takes me. But walking simplified my health. I lost weight. I feel better.
I do more than just walking now, but I still walk. It’s a simple practice that I am really fond of that’s really changed my life, that I really love.
The ninth thing that I’ve done that I would say simplified my life is I implemented a “nothing day.” It used to be once a week. Now I guess I still have a “nothing day” once a week, but really a very intentional, absolutely zero things on my calendar day, once a month for sure.
Sundays I like to turn off social media, at least for the most part. I don’t look at my phone much. There’s no work, unless I really want to. I love what I do. Sometimes I getting inspired and want to jot down a blog post or something. It’s just rest, whatever rest looks like that day for me.
“Nothing day” is when you feel pulled really thin and you just need a break. “Nothing day” is no phone alerts, no phone at all, maybe. No capturing things for social media. I just unwind. Maybe my family will go and do something fun. Maybe we’ll just hang out and do nothing at home. That’s usually what it is, but it’s just a day of “vegging out” and just “being.”
It’s something that is so overlooked and not very often scheduled and it needs to be. It’s so good for the soul. I implemented a “nothing day” once a week, about 1 ½ – 2 years ago and it was so good.
Now I’m in a season where I don’t really need a “nothing day” every single week. We have very restful family days on Sundays, but it’s not technically a “nothing day” now because we’re going to church, Costco and stuff.
I have a “nothing day” on my schedule about once a month, sometimes more depending on my need. Let the day take you. If you want to leave and go do something, great! But, it’s OK to stay in with no bra and no makeup and just hang out on the couch with your hubby and let the kids play games. Just veg. Just be. It’s good. It’s good for the soul.
Number ten is I simplified my eating. This goes back to the whole thing about the health and wellness industry. But you know, it’s overwhelming. We eat at least three times a day and making food can be so complicated. It can really take over your day.
A friend of mine, Amanda Wilson (I’ll link to her Instagram account) because she is an incredible Instagram-er for the health and wellness industry. She taught me about food prepping instead of meal prepping. Food prepping is when you prep basic foods so that you can put plates together for meals, instead of deciding what you’re going to eat way ahead of time, making the meal, and putting it in the fridge.
Because what was happening for me was I eat by mood, so I would make a meal and put it aside and I wouldn’t want that later. What if I didn’t want leftover spaghetti or whatever it is?
Instead, I started prepping basic foods that I know I eat all the time, like grilling up some potatoes, grilling some chicken and seasoning it lightly with salt and pepper, so it can be used for any recipe. Making some cauliflower rice and putting that in the fridge. Things like that. Things that could be made as part of a meal but aren’t already a designated meal.
That really helped me. I simplified my meal plans. Maybe we’ll do a separate episode on this, but I just simplified my eating. I cut the crap. I stopped trying to be all specific. “Oh, is this exactly Paleo?” I just said, “You know what? I want to eat clean. I want to eat well, but I also want to eat real and not have this takeover my entire life. I want to cook because I want to enjoy the atmosphere that I create my kitchen when I’m cooking, not because I have to.” I wanted to bring some joy into my eating and I really simplified our food in our house and it was so good.
I would encourage you to find a way that you need to simplify your eating, if that’s feeling like a point of stress for you. I have a really good friend who just absolutely loves food. She loves everything to do with the creation of food. She would never want to simplify this area of her life. She loves cooking from scratch. She is amazing at it. But that is not me.
While I do enjoy cooking from scratch, I don’t want to do that for every single meal. This is an area of my life that it served me greatly to simplify. I found a way that worked for me and our family. I would encourage you to do that if that’s hitting home for you.
And there you have it. 10 things that I’ve done to simplify my life. I hope that this was inspiring in a different way than my episodes usually are because I’m really just telling you something that I’ve done and not really telling you exactly how to do it. Which I think can make you be creative apply this to your own life in a different way than usual. So, I hope that inspired you guys.
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This was an episode of The Purpose Show. Did you know there is an exclusive community created solely for the purpose of continuing discussions surrounding The Purpose Show episodes? And to get you to actually take action and make positive changes on the things that you learn here? Go be a part of it. To join go to facebook.com/groups/purposefulmamas.
Thank you so much for tuning in. If you are ready to uplevel and really take action on the things I talk about on my show, and get step-by-step help from me, head to alliecasazza.com. There are free downloads, courses, classes, and ways to learn more about what the next step might look like for you and to focus on whatever you might need help with in whatever season you are in right now.
I am always rooting for you, friend!
See ya next time!
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