65 Best Simplifying Tips That Will Make Your Life Better

I’m a big believer in uncomplicating your life…because life does a great job of that on its own. When you do what you can to simplify your life, it leaves you with more time, space, energy, and even money for what matters most to you. Here are just some of the best simplifying tips on Practigal Blog to do just that.

My 65 Best Simplifying Tips

Make sure to click on the links within each tip to get more helpful ideas and information on that topic!

Mindset & Mental Health

Practigal Blog covers a lot of topics to help you simplify all areas of life. Here are just some of the best simplifying tips on mindset and mental health:

1. Stay present. Practicing mindfulness can help you live in the present…and enjoy it more!

2. Living an intentional life is about taking small steps every day towards your goals. Keep your eyes ahead on the life you want to live, or you’ll end up living one you never intended.

3. You need to do less good stuff and own less good stuff in order to have the time and money for great stuff.

4. Practice gratitude so that you can truly enjoy your life.

5. Identify any thoughts that are cluttering your mind so you can begin taking steps to remove them. Replace the clutter in your mind with good, positive truth.

6. Think about what causes you stress and leads you down the road of poor mental health, and minimize exactly those things.

7. Minimize the distractions in your life…the excess or anything holding you back from the life you want to live.

Decluttering

We talk a lot about decluttering on Practigal Blog. Here are some of the best simplifying tips on decluttering your home:

8. If you can’t keep up with all of your stuff, then you have too much of it. Simply start decluttering your home, and it will get easier as you go along.

9. To declutter a large area quickly and efficiently, you need to be prepared with the right mindset and a methodical plan.

10. If you struggle with where to start decluttering, do a quick sweep of the entire home or focus on what’s causing you the most stress.

11. If you can’t decide what needs to go when you declutter, think about the true cost of your things, which things serve an important purpose in your home, and which things you absolutely love.

12. “The best way to take on a big project, like decluttering your entire home, is creating a solid plan to help you along the way. A decluttering plan can help you break the job into do-able steps, keep you organized along the way, and help you follow through to reach your decluttering goal.” (guest post)

13. “When you’re setting your decluttering goals and making your decluttering plan, remember to keep your expectations realistic. It took years to accumulate all the “stuff” in your home. You can’t expect to get rid of the clutter overnight. While it doesn’t have to take years to get rid of the stuff, it will take time to declutter your home.” (guest post)

14. “If you’re losing your motivation to declutter, it’s probably not the best time to tackle a difficult area to declutter. Decluttering somewhere quick and easy will let you start seeing the results of your decluttering efforts right away. Which will help bolster your motivation to continue.” (guest post)

Capsule Wardrobes

Capsule wardrobes are a popular topic here on Practigal Blog! Here are just some of the best simplifying tips on capsule wardrobes:

15. For a smaller, more intentional wardrobe, create a capsule wardrobe of only items you absolutely love and that are versatile, timeless, and of high quality.

16. You need to create a capsule wardrobe that works for you. Don’t forget to take your personality, style, lifestyle, and climate into account. Otherwise, you will end up with a capsule that bores you, or one that looks great but isn’t functional for you.

17. To find high-quality pieces for your capsule, inspect the fabric, seams, and any buttons or zippers. Of course, knowing some high-quality clothing stores helps!

18. It’s important to understand your personal style, as well as what colors and styles are best for your skin tone and body type.

19. To maintain your capsule through the years, you need to change your shopping and decision-making habits, evaluate the effectiveness of your capsule periodically, and replace items as needed.

Organizing & Maintaining a Decluttered Home

Next, let’s look at tips to help you stay organized. Here are some of the best simplifying tips on organizing and maintaining your newly decluttered home:

20. Declutter before you organize anything. But to stay organized, you need to have a maintenance plan. Your plan needs to include not overbuying, communicating the new standard, and creating new habits.

21. You have to keep evaluating, keep editing, and keep deciding. You may have to declutter again to find the right amount of stuff for your home.

22. You have to be intentional about what you allow to come into your home. It will be fairly easy to maintain your decluttered home if you only buy items you love and serve an important purpose in the first place!

23. A home management binder is a great way to consolidate important information that you need to refer to often, manage the paper clutter, and be prepared for when someone else needs to run your home or care for your kids.

Prioritizing & Time Management

There are a lot of amazing simplifying tips on Practigal Blog around the ideas of prioritizing and using your time well. I’ve broken down this section into 3 main topics: priorities, productivity, and routines.

Priorities

First, let’s look at some of the best simplifying tips on prioritizing:

24. Make time for your top priorities first or it will be your non-priorities that dictate your time!

25. If you have way too much on your schedule and are always busy, begin by simplifying how you spend your time. When you simplify your time, you get your life back, because you are able to prioritize what you want and minimize everything else.

26. Make self-care a priority, especially when you are busy. You can’t give of yourself unless you have something to give.

27. You need to learn to guard your time and make sure that the things you do line up with who you ARE and who you want to BECOME.

28. Learning to say no is an important step in simplifying your life. If you can’t say no, you will experience burnout. And, if you can’t say no, you might be discouraged by what your life becomes.

29. When you fill your time with only things you believe to be important and necessary, and stop adding more to your schedule when you already have enough on your plate, you are able to do your best and be your best.

30. Don’t use comparison to gauge your success. Resist the urge to compare how much you are doing to how much others are doing!

31. To slow down your fast-paced lifestyle, you need to leave more space and margin in your life.

32. You can’t remove all of your obligations, but you can choose which ones are not actually necessary and either minimize them or remove them for good.

33. Give who and what you love most of your time. Don’t waste your time and energy on unimportant things. Don’t take on more than you can reasonably handle. And, don’t let other people dictate your life.

Productivity

Second, here are some of the best simplifying tips on productivity:

34. If you want to be your most productive self, you have to know your priorities and keep them at the forefront of your mind as you move throughout your day.

35. Take advantage of your prime-time hours, those hours of the day when you are most productive, most on your A-game, and most yourself.

36. Please stop multi-tasking! You can better keep your focus by only doing one task at a time. Doing more than one activity at once is possible, but it isn’t possible to do both well. And being more productive IS NOT about doing a ton of mediocre work.

37. Don’t over-schedule yourself. Leave buffer time in there, because the unexpected WILL happen. You can expect that!

Routines

Third, let’s explore some of the best simplifying tips on routines:

38. Have some sort of morning routine to get you in the right mindset. Do something every morning that makes you happy, calms you, and encourages you.

39. Creating a routine around what you actually need to make your life better increases the chances that you will stick to a routine. That’s because you will see EXACTLY the results you were longing for!

40. When you establish a routine, it helps you make time for your priorities. You can literally make your priorities a part of your daily routine. Then, you get to everything else if you get to it.

41. Make sure you have quality time with people built into your routine, as well as time for everyone to decompress.

42. Knowing your priorities inside and out will help you stick to a routine, because you will be able to say “no” to everything else that pops up a little easier.

43. You can more easily stick to a routine once it becomes a habit. Creating healthy habits takes determination and consistency!

44. Don’t give up on a routine that isn’t working after only a few days. Give it at least a week, because there are many factors that contribute to the appearance of success. After at least a week, begin making small changes to your routine over time until you find one that works for you.

Housekeeping

Housekeeping isn’t a heavily covered topic on Practigal Blog (yet!), but there are many amazing simplifying tips covered in my Simplify My Life! Starter Kit:

45. A cleaning routine actually gives you so much freedom, because you aren’t thinking about your dirty home all the time, and you aren’t stressing about when you will get it done!

46. Learn ways to get more done in less time. It’s all about efficiency!

47. Train those living in your home to do their part. Make sure that you aren’t taking the entire cleaning routine on yourself. EVERYONE who lives in your home helps make it dirty, so they can all help clean it up too!

48. The best way to simplify laundry is to declutter the amount of clothing in your home. Don’t forget to declutter the towels, bedding, and anything else you have to wash on the regular.

49. When we plan our meals, it takes the stress out of deciding what to make and eat at the last minute. It decreases the chances that we will splurge on take-out or going out to eat. And, it helps us save money because we go with a list and are less likely to over-buy. Not only that, but meal planning allows us to feed our family quick and easy meals, even on our busiest nights.

50. Add plenty of quick and easy meals to your plan and don’t add in a bunch of new recipes right off the bat.

51. Plan out a month’s worth of meals and repeat the same meal plan the following month or create two meal plans: one for cold weather and one for warm weather.

52. To decorate simply and minimally, “take everything out of the space and then put in just one thing at a time – starting with the large furniture, then moving on to the smaller furniture, and finishing with the decor. When it feels “decorated” but not cluttered, STOP! Is there anything in the room you can remove without losing function or style? If so, do it!” (guest post)

53. When it comes to entertaining, don’t feel like you need to copy whatever you experienced growing up (or what your mom always did)!

Parenting & Relationships

Here are some of the best simplifying tips on parenting and other relationships:

54. Be strategic about what kinds of toys your kids have so that they can entertain themselves and learn from their play. Do your best to keep toys that work well together, can serve multiple purposes, or encourage learning and growth in your kids’ areas of interest.

55. “Everything you do the night before to prepare for the next day will have a positive impact on how your morning goes. Having some kind of routine in place for meals is so helpful in reducing stress and helping you feed your families healthy meals. It’s important to invest in our families, while still taking care of ourselves.” (guest post on routines for families)

56. When creating a capsule wardrobe for kids, you can get away with a smaller wardrobe since they outgrow it so quickly, especially if you are careful to pick versatile clothing pieces. (That also means that their capsule doesn’t need to be filled with expensive or high quality pieces!)

57. Simplify date nights by simplifying your expectations, doing what works for your current stage of life, and by planning dates that are inexpensive, fun, and give you a chance to connect.

58. Don’t make assumptions when it comes to prioritizing your relationships. Communicate with your partner.

59. Be more intentional with your time spent with others. Focus on growing the relationship and blessing the other person.

Travel

Some of the most popular posts on Practigal Blog have been about minimalist travel. Here are just some of the best simplifying tips on traveling and packing:

60. When you’re planning to travel, don’t overbook your trip. Leave room for unknowns, relaxation, and spontaneity!

61. Have a clear purpose (or two) for your trips, so you don’t fill it with unnecessary things.

62. To pack light, don’t pack non-essentials. Bringing only what you know for a fact you will use.

63. Pack clothing that can be mixed and matched to create multiple outfits. And, don’t forget to consider the weather and the activities you will take part in while on your trip!

64. When you travel as a family, schedule down time into your day, plan some simple activities that don’t wear any of you out, and make sure all activities are family friendly.

65. To simplify your travel spending, shop around for the best price, pack light to avoid extra luggage fees, travel during the off-season, get creative with where you will stay, live like the locals, and don’t eat out as much.

Simplify Your Life!

Well there you have it! Those 65 tips are just some of the best simplifying tips on Practigal Blog. Be sure to click on the links to explore each topic further and receive even more helpful tips!