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When Life Gets Overwhelming

And we are scrambling to keep up, press pause with me for a minute. Let’s talk about all this. There may be a number of things that you have no control over right now. Are you and your spouse working from home? Do you have children that are now home as well? When your stress level has risen considerably, look at what you can control. And then, simplify, simplify, simplify. Wherever you can simplify, you will reap benefits. Your brain needs a break. There is enough going on in the world without complicating our lives unnecessarily, is there not?

Your goal is to let your brain coast on automatic pilot for as many daily tasks as possible, for example getting dressed, making dinner, etc. The best way to do this is to make choices ahead of time. That way you don’t have to make decisions every time you turn around. Pretend you are going on vacation for 2 weeks. You are just going to need enough clothes for 2 weeks. You are just going to cook a few simple meals while on vacation. Choose your meals ahead of time, so you are not faced with the dreaded “what’s for dinner?” question every day. Remember, if you don’t like your decisions, you can change them. You will end up fine-tuning your system. There is a lot of information out there about how to put together a capsule wardrobe. For our purposes, you can just pick out 5 tops, 5 bottoms, 2 sweaters, shoes, and a more formal outfit in case you need to dress up. Bada bing, bada bang. You’re done. Store the rest of your clothes in a bin, or another location other than your closet.

When it comes to cooking dinner, don’t forget to think of your kitchen as a “vacation house kitchen” as well. You don’t need the hassle of pawing through a bunch of kitchen stuff you don’t really use to get a pot out of the cabinet. You don’t need to wrestle around with all your plastic containers every time you unload the dishwasher. Remove irritation by removing extraneous items that would not be in a vacation house kitchen. Store them in an upper cabinet if you have a lot of cabinets in your kitchen, or perhaps in the basement. Or, you could just decide you will probably not be making jellied aspic, and say goodbye to your mold in the shape of Mount Rushmore.

Simplify your home, simplify your life. Your brain will thank you.