Good morning friends! I am so grateful to have you alongside us in our family's journey. Today I have a special post for you from one of my blogging friends, Rachel! She is sharing insights with us about how to create simplicity in your home as you come together in marriage. I tend to get cluttered so this is a post that inspires me to continue to make efforts to clean up my life cobwebs and place value on the simple!
Hello, friends! I'm Rachel...believer, wife, dog mom, lover of crisp sheets and hot cups of coffee, and proud chapstick-tube finisher.
I'm über grateful that Andrea opened up her space to me today! Seriously. Guest posts are a blogger's love language. *insert heart eyes emoji*
I want to show you why I think simplicity in marriage is important and how to do it. My husband Hans (like from Frozen, except he's nice) and I have been married about a year and a half, so we don't have it all figured out. Does anyone?! But here are some insights that have helped us create a more meaningful, intentional, simple life together.
A simple life, to us, looks like guarding our calendars against busyness and excess activities. We commit to what is necessary and the places God has called us, but we say no to a lot of "good" things. They aren't the best things.
We share a closet and a dresser, because we'd rather have fewer well-made, functional items than hoards of cheaply made things.
We carefully but ruthlessly evaluated every single item within our home, making sure that each thing we decided to give space to was truly earning it's keep.
Our lack of excess means that our home is nearly always tidy, because there's just not that much stuff to get messy.
We have time to help others paint, move, or babysit because our schedule allows for margin.
Simplicity means that we can give away more of our income, because we don't buy what we don't need.
This simple living means that we have more time and less distractions. More money (not much more...I mean, we're newlyweds) and less clutter.
Mmkay, you may be thinking, that's all sunshine and daisies for you, Rachel, but you don't know MY life.
No, I don't.
I don't claim to have this figured out, neither do I claim that it works for everyone or that it's somehow made Hans and I better or perfect. It hasn't. We're not. What I will tell you is this: we believe Jesus has asked us to live simply so that we may live intentionally, and He might be asking you to do the same thing.
He's got a jealous heart, y'all.
He hates anything that takes our time and affection away from Him. Whether it's a PTO meeting or an overflowing closet, Let Him help you clear the clutter in order for your relationship with Him (and your marriage) to flourish.
Can I give you some practical steps on creating simplicity after marriage?
1. Talk about it. If one of y'all is super gung-ho about simplicity and you start trying to force it on your spouse, expect things to go...poorly. Discuss it together. Both the "why" and the "how" of what simplicity will look like for your marriage.
2. Trim the fat on your Schedule. You know, the things that are excess and maybe even good, but not best. The things that are not necessary. Gracefully let go of and say "no" to scheduling commitments. Not every dinner invitation or church event is require attendance. Your schedule will be healthier for it in the long run.
3. Share. Sometimes forced limitations really help us evaluate what is most important. Try sharing a closet, a dresser, or even a car (we do all three!) and the restriction will kickstart not only your conversation about simplicity, but your ability to carry it out as well.
4. Let go of the old. There is a definitive before and a definitive after when it comes to marriage. Where there used to be two, there is now one. Let go of some of the old things that defined that previous stage of your life...the cheap plastic bachelor-pad mixing bowls, the shabby chic duvet, maybe even photos of old flames. Let it go and...
5. Embrace the new! Hans and I had very different decorating styles when we bought our first house together. Like Caroline Joy Rector said in this home tour, "Embrace the messy mash-up at first – it’s like a fun little rite of passage. We’ve all been there." Over the past year and a half, we've let go of much of our own style ideas and embraced new ones together. Our home feels entirely us now, not just half Hans and half Rachel. Simply us. I could probably talk about simplicity all day long! If you want to continue the conversation, join me on my blog, Twitter, or Instagram. You can also find an entire series I did about simplicity right here.
Comment below, because we'd love to know::
How do these principles of simplicity apply in your life?
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Simplicity is the biggest thing for me. I moved countries with a couple of bags of essentials, and I had to throw so much out (and by that I mean give away, donate, recycle, etc). I moved in with my fiancé and immediately set out to clean the house out of its clutter.
ReplyDeleteIt was tough at first, but we are pretty good about keeping only the essentials. Somehow we still get around to owning more than we can handle.. Great post and advice!
..Jesus has asked us to live simply so that we may live intentionally.. Well said, LOVE this! Thank you for sharing, I love all your tips (everything has its place mentality) & intentional lifestyle together :) my husband & I aspire to live simply too, thanks for the encouragement :)
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