Simple Life Together

Let's face it, there are some situations in life that cause us stress that we just don't need. The bad kind of stress...the kind that holds us back. Not the good type of stress, the kind that propels us forward. Two things that came to mind for us. The first was meals and how we overlook some simple meal planning techniques that lead to fueling us to take on the day ahead. Another was the "excess baggage" we carry through life. So, let's take a look at simple meal planning and paring down some excess in our lives to see where we can makes some changes, and hopefully, improvements! Read more... Vanessa’s Topic: Simple Meal Planning After Dan talked about doing a Personal Review in Episode 037 it got me thinking about doing one of my own.   As I was doing this self-reflection, I discovered a couple of things I was doing that were causing undue stress in our lives: 1) My waiting until the last minute to get dressed when we were going out or had to meet someone for dinner causing us to be a couple or so mi

For years, I would tell my students that the most exciting moments in life are lived at the intersection of Preparation and Opportunity. It’s that mix of thrill, the crescendo of anticipation turning to fulfillment...when something that’s been building is finally imminent. And sometimes it lasts an instant, but typically the way I’m talking about it, it lasts longer...it’s a season or milestone in your life. And it feels awesome! While 'preparation meets opportunity' is a great tool to guide our lives and how we live them, sometimes its simple things that make the day to day more enjoyable. One area we're trying to make strides is through eating more "simple foods." Read more... Preparation Meets Opportunity and Making Food Simple Dan’s Topic: Preparation Meets Opportunity Dan's History with Afghanistan:  When I was a young man working in DC, the Soviet-Afghan War was going on.  This was the mid-1980s so the Cold War was still in full swing. I became interested in Afghanistan and its people, so I studie

Let's face it, we all suffer from procrastination once in a while. Sooner or later we need to deal with. Ironic right? If procrastination is something you've struggled with, there are a few things you can do to help overcome it. Along the same lines, as we go through life we all pick up bad habits, get into negative routines, and generally get off track from how we want or intend to live our live. It really helps to stop once in a while, contemplate your life, and do a personal review. Read more...  Procrastination and Doing a Personal Review Vanessa’s Topic: Procrastination Dan and I just came off of a 1 month working vacation (Episode 35). It was so much fun I really didn’t want it to end, but  I was actually looking forward to getting back to work.  My transition has been a little bit tough though.  It’s not that I lack the motivation...I’m just having problems getting started. And I know I’m not the only one who struggles with procrastination.  Even the most productive of us struggle at some point

Busy Is The New “I’m Fine”, & Back To School...Simplified! Dan's Topic: Simplicity Resources So what's your default response when someone asks you "How's it going?" I've been noticing that the most common response is…"Busy!" I've even found myself guilty of it from time to time. I'm not sure if people really are that busy, just think they're supposed to be that busy, or just perceive themselves as that busy. I'm also not sure what my reaction is supposed to be. But I have to admit, when I hear people use the automatic response to “How’s it going” is “Busy”, I’m skeptical. So, when I hear it I wonder, is it: Read more... Really a mini head-trip? Are they saying “I’m so important...people rely on me!”? Is it a defense mechanism for “Don’t give me anything else to do”? Are they justifying their poor prioritization? Is it an excuse for not taking action on things that really matter? So, I began to wonder if I was the only one this bothered and did a little searching. I found a great article

Living in 50 Square Feet…Vacation Simplified! We've had a standing dream: More time with family, and way more time to enjoy the outdoors!  We've mentioned on the show that have been trying to sell our 4 acres overlooking State Natural Area in the Texas Hill Country.  Well, we sold it, and it freed us from other debts and allowed us to pursue 2 of the pillars we live by, Family and Future. So, listen in as we talk about out summer adventure, some things that made our trip awesome, and some things that you can do to help simplify your vacation time, too! Read more...  Background: Before we started podcast…last year around this time we decided to simplify our lives Commitment to simplify and live with less Reshaped our life plan and lifestyle First decided we didn't need big dream house…but then we started looking at Class A RVs to build this new life plan and lifestyle Actually had one picked out…35 ft Bounder  Classic..with 4 TVs…everything gadget and accessory you could imagine…that cost more than

Let's Talk Money, & An Interview with Bonnie Dewkett, The Joyful Organizer Whether we like it or not, many things in life boil down to relationships.  We all have a relationships with money and we all have relationships with the "stuff" in our lives. Again, just like many other things in life, our relationships can be positive or negative experiences. But often it just depends on how we frame them. So, let's take a look at our relationship with money and our relationship with "stuff". To help us look at money, we're going to discuss a recent article by Seth Godin, one of our favorite bloggers. To help us look at the things we surround ourselves with in life, we'll talk to Bonnie Dewkett, Certified Professional Organizer from The Joy of Organizing podcast. Read more... Combined Topic: Let's Talk Money With Seth Godin     In this episode, we talk about an article by Seth Godin.  If you haven’t heard of Seth Godin, he’s written fourteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. And eve

An SLT Update, & the Value of Simple w/Joel Zaslofsky Well, we're a little over 6 months into this "whole blog/podcast thing" and we figured it was time for an update. Actually, we're probably way overdue for an update! There are some things upcoming that you may be interested in and we'll also be taking a little bit of a break as we head into our summertime family working vacation. But the highlight of this week's episode is an interview with a good friend of ours, and fellow simplicity aficionado, Joel Zaslofsky of the Value of Simplicity blog and the amazing Smart and Simple Matters podcast! Simple Life Together Update:     We wanted to let you know some things that are going on with us and the show: Photo organization: We’ve talked about this in the past and it’s probably one of the most requested topics we get. We’re still researching and asking the pro’s for some tips, so you can look forward to that in the next couple of months. Dan will be doing an Evernote tutorial, too, at some point. He's been

It's All About the Choices We Make! It's true. There's no getting around it. Generally speaking, the way we end up is all about the choice we make in life. Now certainly there are some cases where, as the bumper sticker says, "Things Occur", but for the most part the course we choose to take along life's path lead to conclusions that we help form. So what are some of the choices we make in life that have major impact on our path toward simplicity? Well, there are a lot of them, and most of them are well within your control. Read more... Dan's and Vanessa's Combined Topic: It's All About the Choices We Make Most things in life boil down to the choices we make. Grant it, there are many things in life that we can’t control, but most things are the result of choices. So...disclaimer up front...we’re talking mostly about adults here. Sure, kids have choices too, but as Vanessa and I were discussing this topic she reminded me that when it comes to things like education and opportunities, some kids don’t have

Simplicity Resources & Learning Styles in Organizing Wow! There is so much information out there to simplify our lives that some times it can get pretty complicated!!! Isn't it great to have a resource you can go to to find most of what you need on a subject in one location. That's when a site move from being just entertaining to become a real resource. Same goes for books, or any other type of information for that matter. We have lots of other great links on our Recommendations tab at the top of the site, but we wanted to highlight a few here. Which resource work best for you are often dictated by your learning style. Each of us is unique in the way we prefer to learn. When it comes to organizing, the same thing applies. Which type of learning style works best for you? Read more? Dan's Topic: Simplicity Resources So a couple of episodes ago we talked about the start of our journey toward simplicity so I thought I’d share some resources that influenced me as I started the journey, and still do. Like most

You've Got Plenty of Time, and Where Do I Start? You can't buy time. Some may want you to think you can, but you can't. Time is most likely the most democratized asset we have. As we live our lives, it doesn’t matter who rich or how poor you are, we all get the same amount: 24 hrs in a day 168 hours in a week, 365 days a year...and so on. It doesn’t matter if you’re the wealthiest person in the world, none of your wealth can buy you one more minute of time. So how do you get on track to really making the most of the time you have? Knowing where to start sure helps! Well, it's time to take charge! Read more... Dan's Topic: You've Got Plenty of Time So again, you can't buy time. Sure, there are ways to pay others to do things you don’t want to do, and we all do that. We buy our vegetables already picked, our meats butchered, and some foods prepared. And that does allow us time to do other things, but that time is filled with something else. And that’s where I’d like to focus today...how we choose to stru

Honestly, we had other plans for this week’s show, but we got a bit sidetracked. Here’s how:  We finally got around to doing our “About Us” video for the website! When we first started the show 6 months ago, we put in a placeholder that said something like “we’ll be doing a About Us video soon.”  Well,“soon” apparently is relative! If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. We had a “found” day this week as we were supposed to close on selling our land but the closing date fell through...now we’re scheduled for tomorrow.  So, we figured, let’s do our About Us video! And as we worked through what we wanted to talk about, the whole back story of how we got to this point came flowing out. Our Combined Topic: Beginning Our Simple Journey Now, we’ve talked about some of this in some of the really early episodes of the show, but we thought it was time to cover the whole back story. We thought maybe some of you would find it interesting to know how we got here and maybe some of y

The Cost of Clutter and Managing Your Passwords with 1Password Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks!               Google Drive Tutorial Yay!  The Google Drive Tutorial is now available for purchase! This tutorial is just over an hour long and focuses on all the fundamentals of how to use Google Drive for creating, sharing, and storing  documents using Google's free, full-fledged office suite. This tutorial will be available at the discounted price of just $7.99 until 30 June 2013, when it will increase to $9.99. Either way, it's a bargain! In this introduction, you'll learn how to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and even forms and surveys! So, don't wait to pay full price! You can have immediate access to Dan's 1 hour+  windshield tour of Google Drive right now! Simply click here or go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/GoogleDrive. Plus, if you're not completely satisfied I'll give you your money back. So, no clutt

Organizing Important Family Documents and an Intro to Google Drive Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Vanessa Topic: Organizing Important Family Documents I read somewhere, that “family and home office filing systems are a lot like snowflakes...each one is unique and different.”  And it’s so true! With that in mind...I’m going to share some basic concepts and things to think about when it comes to preparing your documents so that you are prepared and less stressed if and when an emergency or major life event occurs. So, why organize and be prepared? If there were a major life event or emergency...let’s say a fire, flood or tornado...would you be able to grab your important files and paper within a moment’s notice?  Well, there’s one good reason to get organized. 70% of Americans die each year without a will (Forbes.com 3/30/12).  So that means...someone will be appointed by the state to handle all matters of your estate...possib

Spring Cleaning Your Home, Life & Tech Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Vanessa Topic: Spring Cleaning Your Home and Life Spring cleaning is all about de-cluttering, deep cleaning, and prepping for the summer!   ceiling and floor vents ceiling fans and baseboards gutters washing the windows and window sills clearing out and wiping down the inside of drawers de-funkifying the inside of your oven and degreasing the stove vents sweeping and moping under appliances, couches, beds, etc. decalcifying your water fixtures Spring cleaning can also include other things like: switching out seasonal clothing and home decor  testing fire alarms and replacing batteries Fire alarms checking fire extinguishers for their expiration date service your lawn and gardening equipment How to prep lawn equipment for Spring service your vehicle and stock up on vehicle emergency supplies before a summer road trip. g

"Someday" Isn't On The Calendar & An Interview With Kerry Reifel of The Simple Year Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Dan and Vanessa's Topic: "Someday" Isn't On The Calendar As we traditionally do when we have a guest interview on the show, the two of us will do a joint topic.  We've hit our 25th episode, and so we thought we'd reflect back on where we started and throw some ideas out to our listeners about where we might be headed with Simple Life Together.  Here are the things we reflected on and discussed: Made the decision to simplify our lives and for us that meant somewhere between consumerism and minimalism...not exactly sure how to define it other than “simple”, but now we know it’s not consumerism, not minimalism, not raising our own chickens and sewing our own clothes. Nothing wrong with that...just we’re not at that level! We looked for a community but couldn't find one! Dan wanted to start a podcast for years and

Simplicity Can Be Complicated & Tackling Piles of Files with Smiles Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Dan's Topic: Sometimes Simplicity Can Be Pretty Complicated One of the major topics people talk to us about is how it seems that a good portion of society has given up or lost their way when it comes to choices they make and and even seems like they’ve given up on taking responsibility for shaping their lives. On last week's show I mentioned Stephen Covey's classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey addresses at the beginning of his book that responsibility is our "ability to respond." When it comes to living out our decision to pursue a more simple life, we exercise our ability to respond in the choices we make. Choices on what to let into our lives, and choices on what to let go of. In doing that, we exercise that responsibility at many levels..first in our choice to live simply and then with each decision we ma

Simplicity "Traps" and There's an App for That! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Vanessa Topic: There's an App for That! I often get asked about how I stay so organized...a natural question I suppose since I am a professional organizer and all.  Well one of the things that keeps me organized is using technology via my iPhone and iPad. As a matter of fact, I affectionately call my iPhone my “Mini Command Center.”  It’s got everything I need (or think I need) right at my fingertips.  Like Dan has discussed in the past, our iPhones have replaced so many other physical gadgets...a camera, a vehicle GPS system, a Garmin wrist watch, an iPod/MP3 player, and a calculator just to name a few things. I thought I would discuss some of my favorite apps.  My main purpose it to get you to think about apps that may help you too. You may not pick the ones I discuss and use, but hopefully when you're wondering if there's a better way to track or d

Life's Spam Filter and Simplicity For A Lifetime Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Before we get to the topics...we wanted to let you know that we had a terrific Skype visit with Mohamed Tohami of Midway Simplicity not too long ago and he posted it up on his website, MidwaySimplicity.com. Of course we have links to Tohami’s site in the Simple Living Blogs section of our Recommendations page  here on the website. You can also go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/midway and that will take you right to our Skype video. We had such a good time talking with Tohami and if you like to see us in video action, check it out! Heads up though...Vanessa’s face is cut off in the video. It rendered full screen during the interview but for some reason Skype software cut her off on the final render! Dan's Topic: Life's Spam Filter Alright so you know I love my Gmail, and I have all of my email accounts setup come into my Gmail account. I’ve had my Gmail ac

Some things just make life easier. When it comes to working on your Mac or PC, menu bar apps and browser extensions are like little superpowers that give you lots of additional capabilities. We'll share some of our favorite with you to make your computing experience a little simpler. Speaking of superpowers, being organized can be a superpower in it's own right! Vanessa shares some tips on how you can help others get organized. it can be a little tricky, so this is some good stuff! Read more... Dan's Topic: Menu Bar Apps & Browser Extensions I thought I’d cover just few tools in my toolkit for working on my Mac and in the Chrome Browser. Even though many of the Apps are Mac specific, the Chrome extensions I’ll tell you about work across the Chrome Browser platform. Apps that I operate in my Mac’s Menu Bar: Text Expander Text Expander is a Mac only app, but there are other programs for PC that function similarly. Just Google “Text Expander for PC” and you’ll find some. Check out the reviews for t

Organizing Your Clothes Closet & Mentoring Our Younger Selves Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Vanessa Topic: Organizing Your Clothes Closet Since we started the Edit and Forget Challenge, there are a couple of things that I’ve noticed: A lot of folks love the idea of editing, but they’re having a tough time convincing their significant others to jump on board. So the biggest piece of advice we give them is to listen to Episode 11 With Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist, where he shares some tips on how to work with your loved ones.  Basically he recommends to start with your own stuff first. I also noticed most folks start with editing their clothes. I guess it just seems like a natural place to start because most of us have our own clothes that we don’t share with anyone else.  I also think folks start in their closets because you can make a significant impact visually...letting go of 20 pieces of clothing frees up a