Not only have I said this many times before and written about it in various articles, there are also more than enough articles out there about it.

So why write another one?

Well, firstly it’s a good idea – as I’ve said so many times, I love simplicity, living in the moment, minimalism, mindfulness, Zen, decluttering, focusing on what’s really important… (I believe all these things are connected).

Secondly I do also want to say that though these concepts seem simple, they are not necessarily easy.

I personally struggle with lots of this stuff every day.

If you were to take a look at my house, it’s full of junk. You would be amazed at how much clutter there is – everywhere!! That is because despite loving the idea of minimalism, of simplicity, of keeping life simple, I also love recycling, upcycling, re-use and dislike any form of waste, so I tend to keep anything I think could be of use now or in the future, even broken things that I think I can fix or things I’m not even so sure about but have a strong feeling could come in handy one day.

Anyway, I do of course realise that decluttering and a love for recycling don’t sit so well together. My solution is to use all the stuff I have as quickly as I can, get through all those projects which I’ve been keeping stuff for, sell or give away stuff I probably won’t use, basically do something that still fits with my recycling/re-use ideals (even if it is somebody else’s re-use) but gets the decluttering happening faster because I haven’t been managing it.

I love the idea of minimalism too – I have friends whose houses are really empty and they just look great. They have ‘stuff’ that they cherish and of course because they have less stuff there is more room to truly cherish that stuff that they do have.

Another problem is, whilst I truly do believe in being in the moment, my mind still jumps all over the place, into the past and into the future, I still worry about things I shouldn’t, I still struggle with stress and anxiety due to past events or future worries – it is not easy.

All that said, I do have and have had quite a lot of successes on that less is more journey so let me share with you my general approach/philosophy on how to get those so you don’t think I’m a total loser.

Make it Easy On Yourself

Without going through a shopping list of my little victories and why they fit the less is more idea I’ll share with you a kind of approach that has always worked for me – make it easy.

Having said that these things are simple but not easy, then I suppose that should really be make it as easy as possible.

Find a trick to achieve the ‘less-is-more’ goal you are looking for.

For example my latest trick (I’ve been doing this for about 8 months now) to eat less is: children’s meals. I’m 49 years old. A fully grown man, but I love eating childrens meals if we eat out. It’s like a little game for me but always, always proves more than enough. Always. So we go somewhere, maybe for a walk followed by a pub lunch, and I ask for the kids menu and assuming it’s got some decent food (some kids menu’s are terrible – they just fob kids off with frozen fish fingers, microwave food or some tasteless crappy pasta dish) then I order a kids meal. There are some truly amazing kids meals in some places, just like little mini versions of the adult meals, amazing.

If the kids meals are crap, then I might share a main meal or have a starter, a snack, a sandwich, but the intention is basically to have a small meal.

Why is this such a revelation?

It is! It is because most places charge too much these days and also then serves too much food, maybe to justify the price, maybe because that’s what people expect but I basically don’t want to order a nice meal which I could have stopped half way through but end up finishing because I don’t want to waste anything and then I’ve eaten too much.

Have I considered this to be cheating? That I should pay more because I’m an adult? That I could be putting someone out of business?

Hmmm…. Well, I do like that the children’s meals are less expensive but the main point is that I find them the ideal portion actually. I just don’t need to eat that much, so if there are small adult portions then I would happily order those and pay whatever the proprietor finds appropriate for those, but generally that concept doesn’t exist.

We did go to one place recently who had a menu not specifically for children but for Children or Adults with a Smaller Appetite. It was written right there on the top of the menu. Perfect. That’s what I’m talking about.

My weight management is better than it’s ever been, I feel healthy and eat a good amount, not too much, not too little, I also eat some less healthy stuff but feel I have room for it because at no point of the day am I over eating (and that’s thanks to my intention to eat smaller meals – or kids meals).

Whether you like the idea or not, and believe me nobody around me seeing me doing this is copying me so it’s probably just me finding this to be such a good solution – it works for me. I find it fun, correctly sized (‘less is more’) and it gets me the results I want.

I’ve written a lot about kiddies meals here but I’m not trying to persuade anyone to do the same thing, what I am saying here is find something that works for you. Find something that makes it easy for you to do something less that gives you more. Find something that helps you to be more mindful. Create a system to help you if you’re not managing otherwise.

Want to declutter your clothes? Experiment with only wearing whatever you feel like the ideal amount of clothes to have achieved your decluttering nirvana – take 1/3 of your favourite clothes and put the other 2/3 of your clothes in a different room, in a suitcase under the bed, in some boxes in the attic. See how that feels for 3 months. Or take a set number of clothing items and do the same.

Make a game like I effectively have with the kids meals. Whatever that might be for you.

Final Thought

So I guess why I wrote this is to share that it isn’t easy. Not just to write another article about something I happen to be interested in and how wonderful that concept is, but instead to talk a little bit about the other side of some of these concepts. Yes I still think they are awesome concepts, so beautiful and so simple. Life is all about being in the moment, it’s all we actually have. Your thoughts shape your world, your entire being so if your world isn’t the way you want it, change your thoughts and you will change your world. Too difficult? Change your environment to make it easier, declutter, spend time with people you love to be around who you care about the most and who care about you. Do things you love.

None of that means it’s easy. I struggle with some of this stuff and I believe at some point everyone does. That being said, we can find ways to make it easier for ourselves. First of all we can think about these concepts, that’s already a huge step. If you know that you should be living in the present and you worry and find yourself dwelling in the past or worrying about the future, you can try and bring yourself back to the present – much better than not knowing about or appreciating the concept of mindfulness in the first place. If you know you want to declutter you can keep working at it and find ways and systems to make it easy on yourself. If you want to do less, find a way to cut out the busy schedule that doesn’t really do too much for you. Many people rush around doing not much, take a step back, take a look and see if there are some of your activities you can drop to make those that are important to you pop a little more.

Say Yes to Less. I believe that’s half the battle, sometimes we just need to remind ourselves.