100 Days of Simplicity-Less Clutter, More Living

Have you heard of #the100dayproject?

It’s a fun challenge where a person takes on a themed project and will work on a single piece every day for 100 days (a drawing a day, a poem a day, a quilt square a day, etc). You can surprise yourself with how much you can accomplish in 100 days with consistent work. I’ve seen so many fabulous projects come to life over the years on Instagram (where a majority of people post their progress) and Twitter.

My challenge is 100 days of simplicity and I am so happy that so many of you have reached out to me about my project! I’m absolutely loving it so and I am already experiencing the rewards of my challenge.
While my project is more of a lifestyle challenge where I work to embrace less to have time for more joy, I still feel it works. I’m making conscious decisions, changing my lifestyle bit by bit. Already one of the biggest benefits is not having to clean as much because I’ve simplified my kitchen and downstairs.

There are 5 goals of my 100 days of simplicity:

• Simple recipes – recipes with 5 ingredients or less. The goal is to enjoy the natural flavors of the ingredients and to also shop by season as much as possible these next 100 days.

• DIY household items – creating clean and natural products without the harsh chemicals

• Making the change to a more minimalistic home – less is more. It’s time to get rid of the excess for a less cluttered life.

• Crafting and repurpose – use what I create and repurpose the old to help minimize waste.

• Bringing nature into the home – nature is oftentimes forgotten in the middle of our busy and mainly indoor culture here in America. My goal is to make nature part of my home.

100 days of simplicity--less clutter for more living

Before simplifying…

For the first day of my 100 days of simplicity, I cleaned out my primary kitchen cupboard. The goal was to remove anything I didn’t use or didn’t use often. That pretty much was the top two shelves. I also cut down on the plates I had available and only supplied what we needed.

Being a food blogger and someone who loves to entertain, I’m still keeping these dishes!

I have moved them out of the house to avoid using them and taking up prime real estate. This will help cut down on dishes used (and then need to be cleaned) and I was also able to use the free space to bring in serving dishes. I usually use regular plates for “serving platters” (I know disgraceful!) and only use nice platters for entertaining. Well, this leads to me forgetting I even have some of these nice dishes. Now is the time to start using them for what they were designed for and to stop taking up wasted space in my garage.

After

There are these beautiful, wooden salad bowls I received from my grandparents house when they were moving to Texas. I thought this would be a great way to add a little nature into the home as well.
A light went off in my head and I remembered a lovely wooden dish my grandma got me–I pulled that out too. My hope is that I will use them on a regular basis now.

My progress continues as I make my way through the house. Tips are coming your way on what I’ve learned throughout this challenge!

You can follow along with my 100 days of simplicity on Instagram (ApronWarrior) under the hashtag #100daysofsimplcity

Have you simplified your life? Would you like to? What are areas you feel were/are the most challenging? Let me know in the comments or send me a tweet @apronwarrior