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How to Upgrade Your Lifestyle Without Spending an Extra Penny

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How to Upgrade Your Lifestyle Without Spending an Extra Penny by Joshua Becker Fifteen years ago, in Vermont, I discovered minimalism. While cleaning a garage full of clutter, my neighbor changed my life with a couple of sentences. She said, “That’s why my daughter is a minimalist. She keeps telling me I don’t need to own all this stuff.” The scene that played out in front of me changed my life. My garage, full of dirty clutter, had taken up hours of my morning, while my 5-year old son played alone on the swing-set in the backyard. I realized the need for change. All the things I owned were not contributing to a better life. Even worse, they were keeping me from it. My wife and I, along with our two young kids, embarked on a journey to remove all the unnecessary possessions from our home and life. And with it,  came countless benefits. Real things like:  more money , more time,  more focus , and  less stress . One of the most surprising benefits I discovered along the way was the abil
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EMBRACE EMPTY SPACES

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These past months, I have been busy packing to move to our new home. Since I cannot take a lot of stress, I decided to do my packing in stages.  Right at the beginning, about two months back when renovation work was underway, I went through all the stuff I had in my drawers, cupboards, etc that I didn't think I would need for the next two months. I call them my RARELY USED ITEMS.  I was able to purge quite a lot of stuff from this category very easily as I wasn't in love with them, didn't really see much use for them and knew that I wouldn't miss them. I had to find new homes for some of them too. So it was good that I started early.  There were quite a number of things, however, that I didn't use but had sentimental attachment to. I put these in a separate box to decide later about.  In one box, I put all my replacement items - duplicate things that I might need if what I used presently broke.  And so I managed to par down my possessions quite a bit. I felt relief,
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HORIZONTAL SURFACES DRIVE ME UP THE WALL!

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Did this picture give you JOY when you saw it? Well, my topic today is all about sparking JOY in the way you see things in your home.  Today I was challenged to look around my home and count the number of horizontal surfaces I currently had. Guess how many I found?  11 in my master bedroom 6 in the kitchen 12 in the living room 3 in my small bedroom.  Yes, we live in a 2BHK apartment and these are my horizontal surfaces.  A horizontal surface is any surface you can sit on or keep something on. Here are some classic examples: Chairs Tables Tops of cupboards and refrigerators Sofa Window sills Ironing board Bed Look around your home and discover your own. L ook at each of them carefully and see if they make you frown with displeasure. If they do, they are cluttered. Here are some of my horizontal surfaces. Which ones inspire and which one irritate?  The ideal option, of course, is to have nothing at all on the horizontal surfaces. But that is just not practical, yes?  So I started watchi
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SHINE YOUR SINK

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  T he first baby step you are asked to take in the FLYLADY method is to  SHINE YOUR SINK.   When I first heard it, I was wondering why shining the sink was pivotal to keeping my home tidy. But, I decided to OBEY. Every night, before I reset the kitchen, I would wash up all the utensils and shine the sink. In one article, someone said to wipe it down after shining it. So I added that to the routine.  In the morning, the first thing I got to see was that SHINY SINK! Guess how that made me feel?  It made me HAPPY.  You see now why the FLYLADY asks to start with that baby step.  FLYLADY Marla shared the reason for choosing this particular task to begin the baby steps. She was a slob so her sink was always piled high with dirty dishes. Her husband threw her a challenge. "Darling," he said, "if you will keep one half of the sink shiny always, I promise to bring you a cup of hot coffee every single morning!" Well, our fiesty FLYLADY took up the challenge and the rest is h
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NOTHING WASTED - A STORY OF THE BUDDHA FOR ZWMINIMALISTS.

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  A disciple of Buddha, said, "Oh Master! I have a request to make." Buddha: "What is it; tell me?" Disciple: "My robe is worn out. It is no longer decent enough to wear.Please, may I have a new one?" Buddha looked at the disciple's attire and found that the garment was absolutely in tatters and really needed replacement. So he asked the store-keeper to give a new robe to this disciple. The disciple offered obeisance to the great master and left the room. Buddha kept thinking about the incident and felt that he had perhaps missed an opportunity to teach a valuable lesson to the disciple. So he went to the disciple's quarters to talk to him. Buddha: Are you comfortable in your new robe? Do you need anything else? Disciple: Thank you Master. I am very comfortable and do not need anything else. Buddha: Now that you have a new one, what have you done with the old one? Disciple: I have used it to replace my worn out bedspread. Buddha: What did you do wi
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