You've come so far Erica, you can definitely tell you're happier and more confident in your life and how you manage your home. You've been one of my favorite you tubers from the beginning, very relatable and thoughtful in everything you share with us. Thank you!
Erica, your 23 things are right on. I have implemented most of the things you mentioned. But I can add one more, mail that comes in, of course is sorted over the waste basket to get rid of obvious junk. My bills are on auto pay, but there is always some that needs attention and a place to live until I can get to it. I have a nice, decorative box with a magnetic flap on the lid. In it goes. Once a week at least, I go through the items, deal with it or toss it. My box lives next to my reading chair, not on my desk or counter. Easy to access for deposits and there when I sit down and have time to look at it. I’ve been on this minimalist/simple living journey for quite some time. It is a continuous process, and always interested in new ideas and perspectives. Your videos are great, I’ve been watching since the beginning. Happy 2023!❤
Thank you for talking calm and clear. Also alone is essential. And that doesn’t mean to get the house done. Music 🎶 housework gets done. I wish we could share pictures to inspire each other.
I so enjoy your videos, Erica. Have been watching since you were decluttering the PA house. What a success story you are! You have motivated my own cleaning and decluttering so many times. Thanks for your ongoing inspiration! 💐💐💐
I think photo drawers/boxes are the bane of everyone's life. I still have some albums of old, odd sized photo's that I need to scan. I have been putting it off for a year, because it can't be done whilst watching TV, but if I could get them done it would free up a shelf in my craft room cupboard, and I love an empty shelf. One thing I did learn is that living life with a camera/phone stuck to my eyeball is very much a waste of time. When I scanned the hundreds of photo's I had, I realised that I only really needed one shot of the Nile, to remind me that I had been to Egypt. A dozen shots of river banks is overkill.
Great advice, Erica. I love the way you express things so simply and use your own experience to amplify your points. It is lovely how much you incorporate your children’s wants, needs and abilities into your own pathway for life without allowing your own wants and ideas to be swamped in the process. It seems to me that you live a wonderfully balanced life these days and it shows in how comfortably and confidently you come across.
@@EricaLucasLoves Love that! I think that communication is the key to any relationship or marriage. So many people miss out the long chat and in doing so they miss out on so much about what life is and where each person is at in any give period of time within a couple or family.
Erica l have been a subscriber from your first video! I know this is a bit personal but several years ago you did a video on your finances. I would love if you would do a follow up as you have been so disciplined l would love to see where you both are now looking ahead to when you purchase another house. Fay
My hubby shared a tip about emails: when a junk emails makes it to your inbox, don’t open it but swipe left enough to show “more” and click “move to junk”. It totally works!! I tried the unsubscribe thing, but I found I got even more junk! Once I did this truck above, it’s amazing! It took about a week or so to actually see the difference of the volume of junk emails, but it has totally worked! Hope that’s helpful🤗
I loved these suggestions and wrote them out as you were sharing. This helped to identify the areas I would like to work on in 2023. Was happy to hear you will go in depth with these on future video's. Something I would like to share but is not talked about, when it comes to decluttering I was struggling and researched my area to find a person to help me. I made the decision to spend the money to hire help with my decluttering. My person removes and takes to donation center for me as a part of my process. It took several months to find the person and i have no regrets when it made my final decision to pay for helping me declutter. This is only one step in the declutter journey and i am happy to follow along as your also sharing the advantages of this process and how to change your live. Thanks so much for your openess and willingness to share this journey with us. Long time follower of your channel. Blessings to all in this new year.
Can’t wait to see more about your meal plan method. I struggle every day with meals. Not knowing what to fix. Tired of fixing the same things. And cooking around sports.
You are awesome Erica!! For photos I discard/declutter unwanted first, then put them in a shoebox style with cardboard files named eg. Us/Our Home, Names of Children separately, Weddings, Friends, Extended family, Holidays, etc. It is so easy to file them in each category, no dates or years to worry about, just all photos for that child in that section. It is easy to put the box/es somewhere where you can easily look at any time. You can even decorate the box nicely, so it looks nice on a shelf. I found with so many albums, it was overwhelming and took up too much space. I am in Australia, and I so wish I could come over and help you do the photos! xJo xxx
The tip about keeping your pans near the stove, I take it to the next level. All my frying pans are near the stove, but I keep my saucepans and stock pots in the cabinet under my water pitcher instead because about 90% of the time I need to fill my saucepans with water before taking them to the stove.
i was gong through squirrely pieces of paper while you were talking. trashed 12 pcs. got a 4x11 note book thats been in my drawer for a yr. and did the brain dump from smaller books that were driving me bonkers. thanks. and a blessed weekend.🙏💗🐶🏵🌸☕☕☕☕
Great tips Erica! I have been on a journey to a more simple lifestyle since 2020. Decluttering has been one of the most helpful. Regarding your photos, it might be helpful to you to just do a keep and a discard sort first (making quick decisions.) It will decrease the amount of photos right away. Then maybe sort with a few broad categories i.e., childhood and adulthood. Next sort those broad categories into more specific categories. It's a big job, so breaking it down into smaller steps can help with it feeling overwhelming. Keep us posted! :o)
Love the sheet fort. Sort through the photos with your family. I had fun with sisters passing the family photos around the table deciding what each one of us wanted to keep. I tried organizing my own photos and decided having them all in the same place was a good enough solution.
I got caught up in the constant organising and decluttering and took a very long time to move on to the enjoying and acting in the space and time I'd carved out for myself with the organisation and decluttering. Now I'm starting little baby steps to move on to the actual doing of the simple living - the fun part - not that I don't enjoy the o&d part but there's a lot to enjoy in life so I'm staring to say - bring it on!
Yesterday I made meatloaf and divided it in half and froze it to cook another day. It’s just me and my husband so half a meatloaf feeds us twice. I also fried up one pound of hamburger and froze it to use later for whatever recipe needs cooked hamburger. My only problem is we only have one fridge with a bottom freezer and it is getting full.
Function over form! I love that concept. That's why you can go out and buy all the organization items until the end - until you know how your spaces are working! Love.
Thanks Erica - Happy New Year 🌻 sending with love the best thing I did for photos was get a scanner - the Fujitsu Scansnap has been a fast way to scan old photos to get a digutal back up before putting into eg albums - then i can give a relative a copy as a fire back up plus bonus i can use the scanner to scan so much mail and shred / recycle originals unless one of the few i need to keep 🌻 loving the idea of a 5 week meal plan - going to run with that thanks
I love purses ( you don't have to lose weight to buy a new purse), but I always get five-pocket jeans and keep my essentials in the pockets. I love your recipe book. These were all good ideas!
I live how you explain things. It helps me to see how things could work in my life. Your tip for using a separator to lift your bowls off your plates so you don't have to keep lifting them is a game changer and I had to stop the video and go and do that right away! Thank you.
Thank you! So very helpful. In this moment I feel like you're my life coach 😊 my 3 key takeaway comments, simplify my savings, play more music (I'd forgotten how much I love to dance whilst cooking!) And reclaim some time for myself. As ever, thank you ❤️
good ideas. clear flat surfaces maybe the hardest one. Or prioritizing one hobby. Also this is the first time in a long while there was actually a video when you pointed to another one to watch. 🙂 I have been watching you since the beginning- what a difference!
Lots of great ideas! I had to laugh when you got to passwords. Since it's not safe to use the same one for every application, I finally had to write them all down and put them in a secure spot. My kids might need them someday when I am "gone" and I don't want to make things terribly difficult for them.
I listen to you and other you-tubers while I get my work done. I have a small cross body but I no longer have children at home. I unsubscribe every night! Good advice, I completely agree!
thank you for the inspiration ;) i just say no to a friend for going an event tomorrow or to be free for a family member directly the same day he asked (not emergency) and sincerely i felt a need of personal rest.. it might sound selfish but sincerely, after i feel better and happier to meet them :) (if not emergency, and i feel a need of rest for me first, i do now consider my first need first) i feel it more respect for me and so for the others, so when we meet, i feel very disponible to share with them :)
With kids or grandkids I use a Fanny Pack. Hands free. Then again I don’t give a hoot about fashion. I am functional, comfortable clothes and accessories.
'Switch bills to autopay' - YES! From watching several different US channels, I get the impression that this is far less common in the USA than the UK (where I am). I have all my household bills automated (what we call direct debit / standing order in the UK), and I was always confused why this didn't exist / wasn't used in the USA (and I'm sure there are reasons why!).
I love your channel. Thank you for your honesty about life and clutter! Your videos have really helped inspire me to continue to declutter and keep it simple. I watch your channel and get ideas of more ways I can downsize; it helps my mind tremendously! Thank you!!
Your hair looked beautiful, Erica! I appreciated the graphics & stock footage while you talked. For some reason, I can't pay attention when a RU-vidr just talks. LOL. I would love to see a retrospective on your journey. Maybe take us back to the old house via stock footage & talk us through your thought process. I am still in awe of what you did while Andy was deployed & the kids were so little!
I prefer to ship ads instead of meal plan. I get the next week ads from the grocery stores ( in my junk mail) then I see what on sale and where and that's what we eat for a week. It's been working for our family for 40 some years now. It also keeps you eating seasonally without having to spend farmers market prices.
I'm glad we will be talking about each thing in depth, as so many interest me! I've already done number one, for the past couple of years. My current handbag is just a bit bigger than my phone. It has a shoulder strap. The smaller the bag, the less stuff i can drag around!
I have been rocking a fanny pack since 2020 and i love it. I am hands free to hold / run around with or carry my kids and i cant accidentally nleave my purse anywhere. It has been great. And if it gets too full it is easy to notice and fix. If i have somewhere classier to ho i have tossed it into a more proper purse easily. 😊
Great ideas!! I struggle with photos (printed and digital) and recipe organization. I have recipes on my phone, handwritten recipes, printed recipes, etc. Ugggg!! I really want to organize them all in a binder .
Just found you, and very happy that I did. I enjoy the way you think and the way your logic works. I will be following you as I feel you can help through your sincerity and honesty. Thank you!
What a great video!! ❤️ Lots of valuable usable information. The photo process is a long and thoughtful project. It took me quite a while to get my non digital photos organized and not overwhelming. I sorted like you did then bought two big photo boxes that hold those smaller plastic boxes. One large box is organized with photos premarriage/ and family heritage photos. . The second is organized as family photos. You may need two of these photo box containers because of the size of your family. This system is so easy to categorize the smaller boxes and then once they are in the bigger case it stacks so easily in the closet
I feel as though you have been spying into my life just a bit. lol I am so in tune with you and your ideas. Yes, to the smaller purses! I also wanted to carry around much less. I recently purchased a smaller purse for summer and one for winter at a second hand store. I enjoy playing music while I wash dishes or clean house, because it adds that element of fun, and takes my mind off any drudgery involved. I have unsubscribed to email lists, but now have a few more I need to unsubscribe to as well. Simplifying routines is great, because that's the way my brain works. I have been brain dumping for years now. It allows me freedom to live my everyday life without worrying about all the to-do's I want to get done. I began gardening because I can remember my mother gardening. It seemed a natural progression for me to begin. Over the years, I have grown to like it quite a bit, and enjoy the blessings of canned and frozen garden produce. Last year, I put picture albums together, which had been in disarray for years and years. I organized chronologically, then used the best of them and the least amount of them I could to add to the album, then gave the remainder to our (adult) kids, nieces and nephews, siblings, etc. They were all thrilled to receive my excess photos. But now I need to process the digital photos similarly, and hopefully get some online printed albums done. As an aside, some years of photos were much harder than others to dive into. For the tougher ones, I gave myself the grace to work on them only as long as I could emotionally tolerate. It took quite a while to process through the ups and downs, but eventually I got there. For my dishes in my cupboard, I store them vertically (on their sides) instead of horizontally, in a wire rack made specifically for that. No dish is on top of another. Reducing visible clutter for me is to keep up with washing dishes. At least that is the biggie. Reducing my inventory is another sure way to accomplish this concept. I look forward to seeing you tackle these and other topics this year. Keep up the good work!
Hi there sweetie pie hope you are well great ideas I always try to take 15 minutes per night before I go to bed to do swipe through lounge room Kitchen and bathroom before I go to bed it is good start to the day love from Eugenie your friend xxx 💖💤🍁
I paused and unsubscribed. I only found 8 things to unsubscribe from, so I've obviously learned to be selective in what I subscribe to in the first place. Yay for me!
#9 Prioritize One Hobby totally hit home for me today. I have a few hobbies I like to do but because of ADD I sometimes get bored or find a new hobby and really get into that. Example : years and years ago I got into cross stitch then my mom died in a car accident and I set that aside for over 10 years. About 3 Christmases ago I started making sock gnomes and did that for almost a year. After that it was Diamond Painting and after about a year I am now doing paper crafting (junk journaling). I get really excited and very into the craft, watch videos, get the supplies and goodies then all of a sudden my season of life changes and I set it aside and find something else. I've only been doing junk journaling for a few months and all of a sudden water color and learning to sew has become a huge interest to me...enough of an interest that I am seriously considering getting the supplies to start one of them. Not cheap! I still have supplies from ALL the other hobbies. I have a cross stitch nook up in my little loft area upstairs, haven't touched it in months. I'm 1/3 of the way in to a Diamond Painting for my oldest for a gift that I rolled up and set aside. I have bins of supplies from making gnomes. Oh I forgot I got yarn and was making toilet paper roll gnome Christmas ornaments and have a basket of empty rolls and yarn. OMGoodness how could I forget Cricut!! I have a Cricut machine and a mug maker and all the vinyl/iron-on supplies and pens. See what I am saying. I seriously have a problem. I need to reevaluate it all and dedicate to one hobby. I loved cross stitching but over the years my eyesight and arthritis in my hands keeps me from doing it for more than just a little bit. Sock gnomes are out, I'm done with it. Diamond painting I really enjoy but again, doing it for any length of time hurts hands and strains eyes. Thanks for saying this. I really need to pick something and stick with it.
