Podcasts about simple life together

Designing the life you were meant to live is not only possible, it's is something you can take control of yourself and MAKE it happen. A great place to start is by making the commitment to simplify your life. As I said in the last episode, simplifying your life is one of the most impactful things you can do. As we bring Simple Life Together to a close, we wanted to offer a little update on where our simplicity journey has taken us over the last three years. This is Part 2 of that update. Do yourself a favor and listen to Episode 78 first ;) This is what will most likely be our final update episode, so if this is your first time listening in, I'd suggest you go back to around Episode 65: Strategic Simple Living to make sure this episode and Episode 78: Still Simplifying After All These Years Part 1 make sense. Of course if you want in on ALL the goodness, just start at Episode 1! It'll be worth it, guaranteed! Thank you all so much for listening in! It has been a great ride and I'm sure we've learned much more from you than you learned from us. Please...go out there enjoy your... Simple Life Together! Comprehensive list of past SLT Episodes

It's been a while since our last episode and many of you said you wanted an update. So, we posted on the Simple Life Together Facebook page and the Edit & Forget It Facebook Group and asked for your questions. Since we're in the thick of the Holiday season, many of you had holiday simplicity related questions. Others were looking for lifestyle answers for their questions, and many just wanted to know what we've been up to. Well...we sat down for over an hour last night and just kinda "freestyled" it. Read More... Topic: Simple Answers to Listener Questions Update on Vanessa's S.I.M.P.L.E. Organizing System Course Vanessa launched her S.I.M.P.L.E. Organizing System course to a small list of people and it went really well! That said, we're not really happy with how the course is currently hosted on an external site. The content is proven and system works, but we’re just not happy with any platforms we’ve tried. They’re too expensive and seem clunky. So we’re considering just making the course an “in your Inbox” course, so people don’t have to log into an outside website, remember another log in, hope the site isn’t slow, etc. People are comfortable in their Inbox. They go there every day. And it would lower the cost of the course dramatically. So I’m working hard on that, to bring Vanessa’s amazing system to more people in a simpler way. If you want to be in the loop with Vanessa’s course, the S.I.M.P.L.E. Organizing System, you can sign up for updates at GetOrganizedSOS.com and you'll be the first to know when things are ready to go! Listener Questions Simplifying The Holidays - Tips on storing your Christmas decorations and paraphernalia...for next year - Giving experiences instead of things - How to keep the holidays simple - How to be present...NOT perfect...for the holidays - Tips on simplifying cleanup after the meal - Creative non-material gift giving ideas - Favorite holiday traditions - What to tell people when they ask what gifts you'd like - Favorite podcasts, audio books, blogs, simple living role models you find inspiring, iPhone apps as gifts New Year's Goals, Resolutions - Setting  goals and resolutions for the New Year or any time - How to stop procrastinating - Simplicity when no one is watching or listening What We've Been Up To - Expectations vs. Reality as we transition - Updates on our move, status of the house build, etc - How Sunshine, our son, and his mom are dealing with our move - Our teardrop camper, favorite trips this year, planned trips for next year - New business ventures/challenges for moving Vanessa’s organizing business - When we're getting our nationally syndicated talk show on HGTV and/or Oprah (we loved this question!) - Changes/updates to our exercising routines or smoothie making/juicing Question: So, we answered your questions...how about you answer one for us? What are your plans for the New Year? How do you plan on incorporating more simplicity into your life? We’d love to know! Announcements: Feedback: We've had lots of great comments on iTunes...thank you so much! The show went a little longer than we expected, so we'll be sure to read the comments on the next episode. Shownotes: You can download a PDF of our show prep, too. Resources and Links: You can help support SimpleLifeTogether.com by using our Amazon Affiliate Link for any purchases you must make. Thanks! The Pursuit of Perfect by Tal Ben-Shahar Comprehensive list of past SLT Episodes Photo Credit 

This special episode of the podcast features interviews that Mike conducted with veterans of the military service, Gary Miller Jr. of GaryMillerJr.com and Daniel & Vanessa Hayes of Simple Life Together as part of the Voices For Vets campaign. These discussions focus on what aspects of the military that they've been able to translate into making their civilian lives fulfilling, and how they prepared for the transitions to their new lives beforehand. Relevant Links http://voicesforvets.co/ (VoicesForVets.co) http://garymillerjr.com/ (GaryMillerJr.com) http://www.abetterguy.com/project-killing-how-and-why-to-let-go-even-when-it-hurts-with-special-guest-mike-vardy/ (A Better Guy Podcast - How To Quit Even When It Hurts) http://www.abetterguy.com/mike-vardy-talks-the-business-of-writing-and-why-working-from-home-isnt-always-sexy/ (A Better Guy Podcast - The Business Of Writing and Why Working At Home Isn't Sexy) http://facebook.com/meetGaryMillerJr (Gary Miller Jr. on Facebook) http://simplelifetogether.com/ (Dan & Vanessa Hayes: Simple Life Together) Want to send Mike an app, book, or something similar to discuss on the show? Email him at podcast@productivityist.com and he'll give it a look. Want to listen on Stitcher? http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=53149&refid=stpr (Click here.) Support The Productivityist Podcast by becoming a patron! http://www.patreon.com/Productivityist (Click here) to visit The Productivityist Podcast's Patreon page and see what perks await those who pitch in a buck or more.

Okay, folks. We had intended this episode to be more of a “finality”. It was supposed to be more of a "farewell" episode and post. But the truth is, we’re having trouble with this because Simple Life Together is such a big part of our life. If it sounds like we’re waffling a bit, that’s because...well, we are! So I guess you could say that we're simplifying Simple Life Together. We should just jump right into the dirty work and break it all down for you...  Read More... Note: Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  Simplifying Simple Life Together It Hasn’t Been an Easy Decision to Simplify Simple Life Together! On the last episode and up until we went to SimpleREV in Minneapolis we intended for this episode to be our last for quite a while. Here's why: What started off as us documenting our journey to simplify our lives, turned into something more...something better than we expected! We unexpectedly built an amazing community of supporters and like-minded people in 154 countries. We’ve gotten and continue to receive such heart felt support from that community...especially when we shared some of our toughest challenges. We’ve also made some amazing friends along the way. We were blessed with opportunities to speak about our life and our podcast at different conferences and on different podcasts. We’ve been blessed with the opportunity to meet many of the people who inspired us both personally and professionally on our journey. Folks like Leo Babauta, Joshua Becker, Patrick Rohne, Mohammed Tohami, The Minimalists, Joel Zaslofsky, Dan Miller...just to name a few. Some of them have become good friends. Even better...we’ve gotten to meet some of our loyal listeners and supporters...how cool is that? And, we’ve helped others in the community who are just starting out and making a real impact; folks like Dave & Sheryl Balthrop, Chris & Sarah Wehkamp, JF and Cheryl Moreau, Lara Blair, and others. We were blown away by the amount of positive feedback about the show and how we influenced others to simplify their lives too. Feedback that brought us to tears. We never thought we could impact people the way that we did...and be impacted by them, as well. The podcast helped us to really focus on what was important to us...and solidified our passion for simplicity and to live more deliberate and meaningful lives But Producing the Show Isn’t All Sunshine Although we love sharing and teaching others, over time, the success of our podcast led to the feeling of obligation of having to produce awesome content ALL the time. And let’s face it...our lives just aren’t THAT interesting that we have some type of major topic to talk about for 40 minutes each week. Still, we started realizing that the show was shifting from documenting our journey to “having” to produce good educational content each and every week, then every two weeks. Some of which took a lot of time to either research or compile coherent thoughts. And we started to feel the pressures of the podcast from: Coming up with content Arranging our week to fit in research, recording and editing Dealing with tension between the two of us...running out of content, waiting until the last minute to produce, the time obligation, defining roles and expectations, mistaken assumptions of who should do what, etc. We get along really well and, for the most part, what you hear on the show is what you get with us. But every once in a while, working together on the show stretched things a little bit. Not too often, but definitely more so when we started feeling like we HAD to do a show as opposed to the times when we just couldn’t wait to share something. Hopefully, those tougher times were transparent on your end and you weren’t any the wiser. They weren’t often, but hey,

Never underestimate the power of habit. In mid-April of 2014, I decided that I needed to make some positive changes to my morning ritual. I've talked about my morning ritual a few times on the Simple Life Together podcast, and we discussed the power of habit, routines and rituals back in Episode 30 and also in one of our most popular episodes, The 7 Habits for Highly Effective Simplicity in Episode 55. But recently I read a book on habits (well, actually I listened to the audio version) by Charles Duhigg, titled The Power of Habit. But let me back up just a bit and talk about my positive changes to how I spend my early morning. Following a visit to the doctor and the results of some medical testing, I decided that I need to get more active. Of course, my wife Vanessa had been encouraging me to do this for years...but you know how sometimes when the "advice" comes from a spouse or other close family member you occasionally ignore it? Well, yeah...that. Moving on... Note: The school year starts soon! Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  The Power of Habit I had always intended to start walking, but I never seemed to be able to fit it into my day. But as I've explained in the past my morning ritual consisted of me waking up about 2 hours earlier than the rest of the family, making a delicious cup of coffee with my Aeropress, and sitting down for some "me" time behind my Macbook Pro. I knew that had to change and I intended to not only establish a new walking habit, but to eventually turn that into a ritual as well. Vanessa and I have defined "ritual" as a mindful act or actions that have an overarching benefit. Think of a ritual as the sweet spot; something that probably needs to be done, that you actually enjoy doing. So as I started off to develop my new habit of walking, The Power of Habit was playing in my earbuds on Day One. As I listened and walked, Mr Duhigg explained what he calls his Habit Loop which consists of Cue, Routine, and Reward. He also highlights what he calls "Keystone Habits;" small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that carry over into other aspects of their lives. Duhigg contends that Keystone Habits have a ripple effect into other parts of your life, creating positive change unexpectedly. He used examples of exercise and eating together as a family as Keystone Habits, and I'd use our family time around the fire while camping (that "fire circle" I've mentioned before) as a prime example, too. Well, thats exactly what I was hoping to develop with my walk, a firm Keystone Habit. So I started off deliberately to ensure I did all I could do to make this work. Knowing there are many ways to interrupt developing a new habit, here are a few things I did to help ensure success: I prepared the night before by setting out my walking shorts, shirt, my RHA noise canceling aluminum ear buds, and Vibram Five Fingers. Yes, I wear (and LOVE) those funky toe shoes! I set my alarm to ensure I walk at the same time every day. When the alarm goes off in the morning, I turn it off, and say to myself "Get up, get out!" Some days are just tough and it's easy to make excuses. But I know that once I'm out there on my walk I feel better. So I say every morning...Get up, get out! So once I'm up I go make my coffee. My ritual includes my beloved Aeropress and Cafe Bustelo Espresso. Armed with my coffee and my iPhone loaded with an audiobook or good supply of podcasts, I head out for between 1-1.5 hours and cover 4+ miles each and every day. And I LOVE it! Sure enough, this walking habit has matured from a simple habit, to a routine, and is now a ritual that I enjoy. It has also become what Mr. Duhigg would refer to as a Keystone Habit, as well, spreading other goodness into various areas of my li...

The number one reason we love simplicity is that it gives us flexibility to live our lives the way we want. Sure, it takes some real effort to get to the point where we could drop what we were doing and take a 30-day vacation, but once you get to the point where you can shape your life to do the things you want to do, and live they way you want to live, you'll love simplicity too. It is so worth the effort and probably how you'd like to live your life too. During our recent trip, we covered over 6600 miles with our tiny teardrop camper in tow. But thankfully, we didn't drag along a lot of complexity with us as we traveled. But simplicity doesn't just "happen." Some deliberate decisions and actions ensured we could enjoy our experiences together as a family without some of the misfortunes of the Griswolds! Note: The school year starts soon! Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  Why We Love Simplicity We absolutely love the freedom to spend our time (for the most part) the way we want to. That's why we love simplicity. All the things we have done to simplify our lives over the past couple of years is really starting to pay off. So when the time came for our summer vacation, all the dividends of our efforts manifested themselves throughout every facet of our trip. Now, we always like to leave you with some solid take-aways for every blog post or podcast episode we do. So, the take-away for you isn’t us talking about our trip...I mean, who cares about that other than us, right? But rather, the things we experienced tie directly in with almost everything we talk about on Simple Life Together. No doubt you take what we talk about and adapt it for yourself, right? Well, that’s exactly what you’ll do with this info, too. And if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll even save you some time or effort by helping you avoid some of the mistakes we’ve made. So here are a few key points from the show: How we made time to take a vacation, chose to align our work w/our Freedom Pillar, and then juggling clients to free up vacation time. Why we went where we did and a little about each stop, including: Florida Nashville: Mastermind group and dinner with a fellow CPO, her garden, small town, etc... Other stops in the Blue Ridge area Why one of our ‘hopeful’ spots to live in ended up being a "no-go" for us Meeting some full-time RVers Stopped for an over-nighter in Shenandoah NP. Look out for lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). Well, just bears, actually. A visit to Luray Caverns Why we went to Hershey, PA (duh...chocolate!) Lake Placid in the Adirondacks The Buffalo, NY area and Sprague Brook Park Highlights from the trip: Meeting George & Sheila Spending time with family (basically, for all the same reasons we talked about in Episode 35) Kevin & Evette’s amazing eggs! Exploring Buffalo Visiting Elvis' Graceland We wonder what it would be like to live that lifestyle sometimes, but I’d bet Elvis would have traded with us on a few occasions. Thanks to Big Jim Sykes of Sirius/XM Elvis Radio at Graceland for letting me explore and get a photo op in the studio setup Small space living in our teardrop, and our son in his Hennessy Hammock Enjoying simple foods and not eating too much ‘junk’ on the road More 'Wins' and Lessons Learned Again, we LOVE our Merino wool clothing choices and our techniques of packing light! You can't beat the good ol' fashioned fun of sitting around a campfire! In essence, we really enjoyed slacklining, fishing, time with family For another take on spending time with family, check out the new blog by Chris & Sarah Wehkamp of ParentsWho.com There's a big difference between "living the dream" and just "buying the dream"!

We've been sharing our story about simple living here since the tail end of 2012. But we know we're not alone when it comes to simple living! We put the call out in our last episode for more volunteers to share their story here on Simple Life Together. Well...you answered the call and and today we have our second Profile in Simplicity guest who is going to share how she's simplified her life, too! But before we tell you any more about our special guest, we want to give you a little reminder/background about this segment. Read more... Background for Simplicity Profiles: We're looking at doing Simplicity Profiles every month or so. We’ll start the show with our featured guest and talk with them about simple living, how they embraced simplicity, what they've learned along the way, etc. We think the talks will last anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes. Sometimes longer, sometimes not. Then we'll do the announcements, sometimes a Thing segment, and sometimes the Qs & Comments segment. We think it’s great to highlight your stories, and for you to be able to share: Your triumphs Your challenges Your struggles Things you’ve learned along the way Each of us has our own story when it comes to simplifying, simplicity and simple living. Sharing what you’ve learned, what you’d do differently, advice you’d share, and even mistakes you’ve made on your journey, helps us all grow individually and as a community. We’re all in this together, so we’d all love to hear from YOU. When we started Simple Life Together, we kind of felt alone on our journey. We really wondered who would want to listen in and weren’t sure whether or not what we had to say mattered to anyone but us. Well, you’ve changed that for us, and we want to change that for you, too. We’ve been incredibly inspired by stories from the Edit & Forget It Facebook page, emails we’ve received, voicemails...you name it. YOUR story is unique...and if you’re willing to share it, it can serve to inspire others to follow your path. We’ve found out first-hand that something we mention in passing on the show can have a positive impact on someone on the other side of the world...and make their life a little better. Your story can do that too! The world is waiting, and we want to share our platform so you can share your story just like we have. Simplicity Profile: Liz Neighbors is joining us to share a bit about her simplicity journey. Liz and her husband Griff split their time between Connecticut and spending the summers in Cape Cod with friends. Liz worked in retail for years but stayed home to raise her kids for the past 18 years. In that time, Liz has blogged, ran an eBay business, and started getting that “it’s all too much feeling” lately like so many of us. She’s been a Simple Life Together and Edit & Forget It Challenge supporter right from the start. And get this...Liz started a mission of no shopping back in November of 2013 and is 7 months into her journey! Tell us how you got started on your simple living journey...and maybe paint a picture of what your life was like before you started simplifying your life. What was the catalyst? Everyone struggles in some way when it comes to simplifying or editing, or making major life changes. What has been the biggest challenge(s) for you along the way? And do you still struggle with any? What does your life look like now that you've been on your simplifying journey? Can you share with us some things you've learned along the way or things that you may have learned from others on the Edit and Forget It FB page? Tell us how people can find you Question: So, how have you been simplifying your life!  We’d love to know. Be sure to leave a comment below. Thing Segment: Vanessa: Aereo….watch tv online. It's a nice alternative to cable and allows us to watch more local channels on our laptop or on our big screen television via Air Play. It was especially nice to watch the NBA playoffs and finals where the San A...

Abe Lincoln said, "The best way to predict your future is to create it." When living simply, taking action now can help you shape the life you want to live. Back in Episode 38, we talked about the concept of preparation meets opportunity. You may recall a few lines from that show that went like this: “When you’re working on that Life Plan, or your dreams and goals, prepare for those opportunities you want to come along. I’m a firm believer that you can determine your own destiny if you make your own future. Shape it yourself. You’ll have obstacles along the way for sure, but you’ll also find encouragement and inspiration, too.” We want to give you a little bit of context for our journey by connecting some dots. Our goal is that it may help you form you own dots to connect later on. So, If you’ve been listening in or reading our blog posts for a while and are familiar with many of our back episodes and posts, now you’ll see exactly why we picked some of the subjects that we did. If you’re new to Simple Life Together (and we have more and more joining us each week...yay!) then this will be a great “jumping on” point for where we are and how we got here! So, the “What’s In It For You” is this...taking deliberate small steps forward from the ideation we talked about on the last show, will help you shape your own journey to live simply. "The best way to predict your future is to create it” is a great way to think about it. So thanks, Mr Lincoln, for that fine quote and the title of today’s episode.  Read more... Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  The Best Way To Predict Your Future Is To Create It Like we said earlier, you’ll see how a lot of our past episodes relate to the things we are doing in the “initiate movement” step of the TLPs, to move towards our simple life goals. In no particular order, here are some of the things we’ve done, are still doing, or getting ready to do, to move us forward: The Edit & Forget It Challenge We introduced The Edit & Forget It Challenge back in Episode 9. The Edit & Forget It Challenge has fulfilled a lot of objectives for us. Here are a few: It helped us loosen our grip on “stuff”...physically, emotionally, and intellectually. By intellectually I mean that buying became a lazy, default “easy button” that overrode the acts of contemplation (considering whether or not we really needed something), innovation (what else could I use, how can I get access to that?), patience (do I need it now?), and appreciation (caring for what you have now so it can serve you long term). E & F helped us develop new habits toward spending. (why did I ever buy this?) It taught us to be more deliberate about what we buy or allow into our lives (things, circumstances, commitments and events). And, it influenced us to physically downsize our stuff so we can achieve the goal of living in a smaller home, customized to our lifestyle now and long-term. Edit & Forget It Continues to Challenge Us We recently did a another full frontal assault on our garage and it felt fantastic! It helped us reach a few key objectives that we had as our goal. Namely, we: Identified our biggest pain points with the garage and finally solved them Eliminated duplicates, triplicates and quadruplicates of hand tools. This allowed me to find what I needed so much more quickly Eliminated some “space stealers” without sacrificing storage capability. This opened up a LOT of floorspace that was formerly taken up by yard tools, etc that encroached on the main area of the garage. We still have more to go in the garage! Not that we have so much “stuff”, but when you’re fine tuning,  getting to exactly where you really want to be it takes time. I still have some files out there that we need to go through with a fine-toothed comb. The Upside of Downsizing In Episode 42, The Upside of Downsizing,

We hinted in Episode 63 that we've been enjoying more and more healthy smoothies. About two and a half years ago we did a 12-day juice fast. Since then, we've slowly incorporated juicing into our lifestyle at least 3-4 times/week. By doing that...juicing became a regular part of our life.  We became addicted to how good it made us feel which led us to look into other ways to improve or expand our healthy eating goals. Juicing led to eating more raw foods, eating smaller portions...and now smoothies! So, who better to talk about smoothies, than our friend and someone who’s become our own personal... "healthy liquids expert," Farnoosh Brock, the author of The Healthy Smoothie Bible!  Read more... Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too! Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic:  Farnoosh Shares The Skinny on Healthy Smoothies We asked Farnoosh a bit about simplicity and a lot about healthy smoothies and her new book. So, we'll share the questions we asked her with you here, but to get all the goodness you'll just have to listen in to the show this time. Before we get into the book, let’s start with simplicity. You’ve really adopted simplicity into your life over the last couple of years and had a terrific guest post on Joshua Becker’s Becoming Minimalist blog that we’ll link to in the show notes. Share some thoughts on how your life has changed with your focus on simpler living. When we talk about juicing, one of the first questions we're asked is what's the difference between juices and healthy smoothies, or juicing and blending. How would you answer that? Which do you recommend, juicing or smoothies? So Farnoosh, what would you list as some of the benefits of integrating healthy smoothies into your lifestyle? How do you recommend people get started with healthy smoothies? Be honest...what is your favorite smoothie? Tell us about the process of making healthy smoothies, and share some tips on how you've simplified your smoothie making? Major Takeaway: So the major takeaway here is this: Adding healthy smoothies to your lifestyle is a simple way to increase the intake of fruits, vegetables, certain superfoods, and even supplements into your life. While we're big juicing fans, sometimes prep and cleanup from making healthy smoothies is a LOT easier. Give it a try! You can get your own copy of Farnoosh’s Healthy Smoothie Bible today! Question: So, you know we’re enjoying more smoothies! And if you didn’t see it, Vanessa did a post this past week about dehydrated snacks that we like to make, such as fruits and jerky. Be sure to check that out, too. But how about you? Have you adopted any new healthy changes or simple foods lately? Do you have any tips or advice you’re willing to share? We’d love to hear it. Be sure to leave a comment below. Qs and Comments, iTunes Reviews And we got a nice voicemail from Connor Trueman  from Journey To Simple and also Liz Neighbors on our Speakpipe app on the website. Thank you both so much for phoning in!  Announcements: The SLT Facebook Page: We have a Simple Life Together Facebook page and forum. Yeah...some of you are saying "FINALLY!" Now, admittedly, we’re not the biggest fans of Facebook, but it seems to be where most people are. We’ve had the private Edit and Forget It page on Facebook for over a year and it’s become a wealth of information and and a great resource for everyone there. We’re hoping the open Facebook page for Simple Life Together will grow to be the same. We’ve installed a forum app there too so we can categorize things by topic. That should help a lot! We haven’t started seeding topics there yet but it is an open page and open forum so feel free to start setting up topics too! So, we look forward to seeing you on our open Simple Life Together Facebook page We’re building the new Simple Life Together page on Vanessa’s previous Get...

So we talk all the time about scaling back, editing, etc. But there’s probably one thing or another that you’ve decided would be your simplicity splurge. That something that you’re just not going to scrimp on. Well, that’s perfectly fine. We all seem to have that little something that we’re just not willing to give up. For some it’s photos, for others, it’s coffee paraphernalia. Almost all of us have our little simplicity foil...that thing or things that seem to go against our efforts to simplify. Read more... First, A Big Announcement! Okay, we’re sharing some big news on this show...our first book, Super Mom vs Supermom: Simplicity Tips for Busy Moms, A Simple Life Guide to Getting Organized, Finding Margin, and Embracing Simplicity for Moms is done! Well, done enough! We’ll be updating the cover any day now, but it will be live in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com hopefully on Saturday, 8 March 2014. So, we’re posting the final draft, minus the cover art, on the Edit & Forget It Challenge Facebook page for the next 3 days, so you can have a look or download the DRAFT pdf free there. If you’re not a member of E & F you can always sign up for free at SimpleLifeTogether.com/edit. You’ll receive an email with directions on how to join the Facebook page. We ask that you do us a big favor and review the book on Amazon.com (we’ll post the link to the book on the Facebook Edit & Forget It Challenge page, and here on the website, as soon as the book is "live" on Amazon). So here are some of our goals we had in mind with the book: This one is “mom” focused but has great info for everyone. So, even if you’re not a mom, we’d love for you to have a look! We wanted to keep it short but packed with info! Minimal fluff.  Most people aren’t inclined to read a 300 page simplicity book! Like we said, it’s the first in our series of "Simple Life Guides for Less Than a Latte”, so it’s priced at $4.99 for now...until the price of lattes goes up! We think that’s a great deal and hopefully others will too!  Of course, we’re giving you complete access to the draft on the FB page for the next 3 days, but if you’d like to purchase the book on Amazon when it's available, that would be especially great! We ask that you do us a big favor and please review the book on Amazon.com, too. Amazon rankings are directly tied to reviews and downloads. So, the more purchases and the more reviews, the more exposure the book gets, and the more likely people are to find it! Again, we’ll post the link to the book on the Facebook Edit & Forget It Challenge page, and here on the website, as soon as the book is "live" on Amazon. Most people who read it won’t be current listeners or readers so the book has lots and lots of links to our shows and Vanessa’s videos. Therefore, most of the info will be new to them. So, all told there’s about 96 pages of written content, with access to around 50 hours of audio podcasts, and a bunch of topical videos related to the written content. Of course we hope for glowing reviews, but be honest. If you see any glaring mistakes, please opt to let us know personally by email, versus an Amazon review. You can reach us by email.  We have plans for more Simple Life Guides, and you can read more about that in the book! OK, so this is our first book and book launch. We KNOW we’re going to make some mistakes along the way with it but we’d really, really appreciate all your help. Finally, anything you can do to help make the book a success would be awesome and so, so appreciated! We wouldn’t have the confidence to even do this without your support! So, as soon as you have it, please feel free to share the Amazon link with your Facebook friends, tweet it out, or gift the book to a mom you know could use it. Topic: What's Your Simplicity Splurge? OK, We'll Go First... So we thought we’d share some of our splurges with you, and maybe talk about some of the feelings that can rise up around that littl...

We've been sharing our story about simple living here since the tail end of 2012. But when it comes to simple living, we know we're not alone! So, in this episode of the show we have our very first Simplicity Profile! We've mentioned a few times that there would be a few changes coming in 2014 for the show and here on the website, too. So, last week we introduced the Qs & Comments segment where we answer questions you send in. And today we have our first guest on talking about how she's simplified her life, too! But before we tell you any more about our special guest, we want to give you a little background on this new segment. Read more... Background for Simplicity Profiles: We're looking at doing Simplicity Profiles about once a month. We’ll start the show with our featured guest and talk with them about simple living, how they embraced simplicity, what they've learned along the way, etc. We think the talks will last anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes. Sometimes longer, sometimes not. Then we'll do the announcements, sometimes a Thing segment, and sometimes the Qs & Comments segment. We told you there would be a few changes coming along, didn’t we? We think it’s great to highlight your stories, and for you to be able to share: Your triumphs Your challenges Your struggles Things you’ve learned along the way Each of us has our own story when it comes to simplifying, simplicity and simple living. Sharing what you’ve learned, what you’d do differently, advice you’d share, and even mistakes you’ve made on your journey, helps us all grow individually and as a community. We’re all in this together, so we’d all love to hear from YOU. When we started Simple Life Together, we kind of felt alone on our journey. We really wondered who would want to listen in and weren’t sure whether or not what we had to say mattered to anyone but us. Well, you’ve changed that for us, and we want to change that for you, too. We’ve been incredibly inspired by stories from the Edit & Forget It Facebook page, emails we’ve received, voicemails...you name it. YOUR story is unique...and if you’re willing to share it, it can serve to inspire others to follow your path. We’ve found out first-hand that something we mention in passing on the show can have a positive impact on someone on the other side of the world...and make their life a little better. Your story can do that too! The world is waiting, and we want to share our platform so you can share your story just like we have. Simplicity Profile: Tania Ginoza is an Assistant Financial Controller who lives in Hawaii. She is also a freelance writer and blogger who shares her passion for design, a creative life and living well on her website MauiShopGirl.com. When not crunching numbers or writing, she can be found walking the beach during sunset hoping to spot a whale or two! Tell us how you got started on your simple living journey...and maybe paint a picture of what your life was like before you started simplifying your life. What was the catalyst? Everyone struggles in some way when it comes to simplifying or editing, or making major life changes. What has been the biggest challenge(s) for you along the way? And do you still struggle with any? What does your life look like now that you've been on your simplifying journey? Can you share with us some things you've learned along the way or things that you may have learned from others on the Edit and Forget It FB page? What advice would you give someone who is "on the fence" about where to start simplifying in their own life? Tell us how people can find you (mauishopgirl.com)  Question: So, how have you been simplifying your life!  We’d love to know. Be sure to leave a comment below. Qs & Comments Segment (New): Our first question comes from April. April wrote in wondering how to cut down on the stuff coming into your home, especially gifts for her daughter?

We always call what we’re on a “journey” because we always seem to be learning new things, paring down to less and less, and finding ourselves in new circumstances along the way. But in the beginning, it sure helps to have a little bit of a roadmap. We’ve never been the types to tell you “this is what you need to do” or claimed to be “The Expert” in any particular area. Your journey is up to you. But, it sure is nice to have a general idea in mind, isn’t it? So, we wanted this show to serve as a sort of a Simplicity Quick Start Guide for your journey. You know how when you're working on a puzzle you check the cover of the box from time to time to see if you're on track? Well, that's what we hope you do with the episodes listed here. Check them and gauge your progress once in a while. Read more... Simplicity Quick Start Guide So we broke our Simplicity Quick Start Guide down into 5 categories and listed some of our most popular topics in each. This way, you can go back and listen to those shows you may have missed, or re-listen to them based upon your simplicity goals. So here are the 5 categories we used: Starting Out...The Decision to Simplify Simplifying Everyday Life Organizing What You Have Designing Your Lifestyle Your Digital Life, Simplified Part 1: Starting Out...The Decision to Simplify Beginning Our Simple Journey Edit & Forget It Challenge Becoming Minimalist First Steps on the Road to Simplicity How Typical is Your Home? Part 2: Simplifying Everyday Life: How Clutter Effects Your Life Power of Saying No Simplicity for a Lifetime It’s All About the Choices We Make Your House is on Fire! What 5 Things Would You Save? How Routines Can Simplify Your Life Things to Eliminate in the Coming Year Part 3: Organizing What You Have: The Benefits of Organizing and Having Less How To Organize Any Space Organizing Your Clothes Closet Helping Others Edit & Organize Why We Can’t Let Go of Our Clutter How to Organize Your Photos Organizing Important Document Part 4: Designing Your Lifestyle: Creating Your Morning Routine Difference Between Being Frugal and Being Cheap Juicing with Farnoosh Brock Life’s Spam Filter Busy is the new “I’m fine” Live the Life of Your Dreams Part 5: Your Digital Life, Simplified: Sun Tzu and the Art of Inbox Warfare Gateway Gadgets Living Without a Printer: Evernote Simplified, Part 1 and Part 2 Menu Bar Apps & Browser Extensions Going Paperless Managing passwords with 1Password Backing Up Your Digital Information Takeaway: So, there you have it! A great Simplicity Quick Start Guide and the perfect resource to help you get a head start on simplifying your life in the coming year. Why wait for the New Year to make a resolution? Start now and get ahead of the pack. Question: So, are you going to get a jump on the New Year and start simplifying now? What are some of your favorite episodes? What did we miss that would make our Simplicity Quick Start Guide more complete? THING Segment: Dan’s Thing: Road time! Sleeping in the truck & teardrop, Hudson Bay Point blanket, Thoreau’s Walden (Librivox.org for..free) , seeds, lemon water and the occasional Tabasco Slim Jim! Had a great 2558 mile road trip so far! Made new friends, visited family, saw old friends (some after 25 years). Enjoyed seeing more of this beautiful country. Vanessa’s Thing: Free kid's Kindle Books from Amazon.com! All the joy of reading for our little girl but none of the clutter...woo hoo! Announcements: We'll be taking the month of December off to concentrate on some writing projects! So, you'll have PLENTY of time to catch up on previous episodes of Simple Life Together! Enjoy the holidays! Consider signing  up on our email list!  If you’re not on our email list you’re missing out on one or two blog posts we do per week, and the occasional video, too.

It's our 50th episode and we wanted to pass on our Top 20 simplicity websites, and also  our favorites for minimalism, lifestyle and more! You know, we have so many resources available to us these days that sometimes it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, as the saying goes. It’s nice to have one source that you can go to in whatever interest category you have. So, we wanted to put together an episode and talk about some of our favorite websites and blogs that helped us on our journey, and still do...our Top 20 websites! Main Topic: We’ve talked about many of these before and even had some of the authors on the show, but we want this show to be a tribute to them and a resource for you. We decided to break them down into 4 different categories to simplify things (go figure...that's what we do here): Minimalism, Simplicity, Lifestyle, and  Lifehacking/Productivity/Tech...and we threw in a couple of bonus blogs too! So here they are, our Top 20 simplicity websites: Minimalism: Becoming Minimalist: Joshua Becker (listen to our interview with Joshua on Episode 11) Zen Habits: Leo Babauta The Minimalists: Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus Simplicity: Midway Simplicity: Mohamed Tohami (Tohami interviewed us! You can see it here) Value of Simple: Joel Zaslofsky (we talk with Joel in Episode 33) Be More With Less: Courtney Carver learn more about Dress With Less) Simple Life Reboot: Sheryl and Dave Balthrop Slow Your Home: Brooke McAlary Unclutterer: Erin Doland and staff iHeart Organizing: Jen Jones Lifestyle: The Simple Year: Kerry Reifel and now Kandice Bridges (listen to our interview with Kerry in Episode 25) Prolific Living: Farnoosh Brock (hear our conversation with Farnoosh in Episode 19) Tiny House: Alex Pino Rowdy Kittens: Tammy Strobel Apartment Therapy: They did a story about our office, aka the World Shedquarters) 48 Days: Dan Miller Lifehacking/Productivity/Tech: DocumentSnap: Brooks Duncan (Brooks talked about going digital in Episode 6) 4 Hour Work Week: Tim Ferriss Lifehacker: Staff Lifehacker had Vanessa on TWICE for the ASK An Expert series. Check out Part 1 and Part 2) Digitwirl: Carley Knobloch and staff Bonus Sites: (Tech) MichaelHyatt.com Mike Hyatt and team Real Simple: Staff On the Green Road: Cece Reinhardt + Brenda Daugherty Takeaway: So, there you have, the Top 20 simplicity websites and blogs that have helped shape our journey so far and that we still look to for information, inspiration and motivation. Question: So what are some of your favorite websites and how do you follow them? Do you subscribe to email lists, RSS feeds, etc? How often do you share content from your favorite websites, blogs or podcasts with a friend? Maybe it’s time to spread the love, huh? ----------------------------- THING Segment: Dan’s Thing: Community...especially the Simple Life Together and Edit and Forget It Facebook communities.  We learn so much and appreciate how everyone supports one another in their pursuits to simplify. Vanessa’s “THING”: Dymo LabelWriter.  This label maker has made life so much easier for Vanessa, especially when it comes to labeling file folders! It's fast, easy to use and very versatile with its many different sizes of labels. Announcements: We still have a couple slots open for Washington DC area meetup. We'd love to have you come join us for some great conversation, pay as you go snacks and drinks, and the chance to connect with others who are looking to lead a simple life in the modern world. We’ll be at La Tasca in Rockville Town Square at 7:00 PM on Sunday, 24 November. There are just a few spaces left. It’s a free event and really just a chance for us to meet you and get to know you face to face, so make sure you grab a seat before they’re gone! Just go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/dc to sign up or search for Simple Life Together at Eventbrite.com

Be honest. If you're like us you probably have thousands of photos, digital or print photos that are totally disorganized! You have the best intentions, but you probably have no idea how to organize your photos. Welcome to our world! We were thrilled to have the opportunity to interview Cathi Nelson, Founder and President of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (APPO) to help answer one of the most asked questions here on Simple Life Together: "How do I organize my photos?" The interview was fantastic! Cathi offered up a wealth of information on how to organize your photos, both your physical and digital photos. We highly, highly recommend listening to the interview!  Before you do, here is little more information about Cathi and some of the questions we asked her on the show: Continue reading... How To Organize Your Photos: An Interview With Cathi Nelson: About Cathi Nelson: Cathi Nelson is the founder and president of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers™ (APPO), and her own photo organizing business, Photo Simplified. Cathi Nelson has been helping people organize their photos for over 17 years. Through Appo, Cathi is now teaching others to do the same. Appo provides support and education for entrepreneurs looking to build a photo organizing business, and educates the public on the need for photo organizing services. Cathi is also member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).  She was a speaker at the 2011 NAPO annual conference and the Independent Photo Imagers Annual Conference, and frequently speaks on photo organizing at libraries, continuing adult education classes, and photo organizing retreats. If you want to know how to organize your photos, you won't find better answers than from Cathi Nelson! Interview Questions: 1. Tell us a little more about who you are and how you make people's lives simpler. 2. What is the biggest challenge you see with folks and organizing their photos? (Lack of routines...taking too many pictures...not letting go or deleting bad ones…unclear idea of how you want to store and enjoy them?) 3. Organizing hard copy photos can be a daunting task.  For those with hundreds or even thousands of physical/hard copy photos, do you have a recommended process of how they can organize them? 4. How do you recommend people categorize their photos?  Chronologically or by person, place, event? 5. What are some ways and products people can use to store their printed photos and negatives? Any special considerations for storing old, fragile, sentimental, or historical photos? 6. With mobile devices, it’s so easy to take hundreds and even thousands of photos before we even think to download them. Do you have any recommended strategies for managing our mobile device photos? 7. I heard you say on one of your tutorials: “Don't let your kids grow up to be JPEGS.” Can you explain what you meant when you said this? 8. Do you have any preferred software to organize digital photos? What about creating photo books? 9. How can one alleviate their fears of losing hard copy or digital photos? 10. What types of habits or routines can people adopt to manage and keep their photos organized and prevent it from becoming a big task in the future? 11. For the do-it-yourselfers or those looking for help, what are some online resources to help people learn about organizing their photos? Additional Photo Organizing Resources and Information: Other popular services: Picasa/Google+ auto backup on iPhone Flickr Snapfish Photobucket Shutterfly There is a great comparison of these services on CNET Main things to consider: Pricing Storage capacity File types File size Bandwidth limits Resolution of pictures Announcements: Michael Hyatts' Platform Conference 3 - 5 November 2013, in Dallas TX at the Omni Dallas Hotel at Park West: We're both attending this top-notch conference to help you build your online presence/platform.

Dan and Vanessa Hayes of SimpleLifeTogether.com join us this week to talk about lifestyle design. We touch on routines, priorities, simplicity and other topics. Sponsor: get an intranet you’ll actually enjoy with your teammates from Igloo. Dan provides business development consultation for select business owners/leaders in niche markets by helping them build an integrated approach to enhancing their company’s web presence, customer/community engagement, content development, search engine optimization (SEO), media platforms, and branded videos. Vanessa is a Professional Organizer and the Chief Simplicity Officer of Get Simplifized! She provides hands-on professional organizing services for residential and business clients, and also is available for virtual consulting, as well. Together, they co-host Simple Life Together, a podcast dedicated to leading a simple life in the modern world. The show is routinely listed in”What’s Hot” in 5 categories of iTunes. Make sure to check out the Simple Life Together site and podcast, and let Daniel and Vanessa know how much you appreciated their appearance on this episode. Write a review in iTunes Please connect with me Subscribe, rate, and review in iTunes Follow @ErikJFisher Check out more Noodle.mx Network showsThe Audacity to Podcast: "How-to" podcast about podcastingBeyond the To-Do List: Personal and professional productivityThe Productive Woman: Productivity for busy womenONCE: Once Upon a Time podcastWelcome to Level Seven: Agents of SHIELD and Marvel’s cinematic universe podcastAre You Just Watching?: Movie reviews with Christian critical thinkingthe Ramen Noodle: Family-friendly clean comedy

An SLT Update, & the Value of Simple w/Joel Zaslofsky Well, we're a little over 6 months into this "whole blog/podcast thing" and we figured it was time for an update. Actually, we're probably way overdue for an update! There are some things upcoming that you may be interested in and we'll also be taking a little bit of a break as we head into our summertime family working vacation. But the highlight of this week's episode is an interview with a good friend of ours, and fellow simplicity aficionado, Joel Zaslofsky of the Value of Simplicity blog and the amazing Smart and Simple Matters podcast! Simple Life Together Update:     We wanted to let you know some things that are going on with us and the show: Photo organization: We’ve talked about this in the past and it’s probably one of the most requested topics we get. We’re still researching and asking the pro’s for some tips, so you can look forward to that in the next couple of months. Dan will be doing an Evernote tutorial, too, at some point. He's been waiting for the dust to settle and now is ready to start working on it.  If you have any special requests regarding Evernote, drop Dan a note at Dan@SimpleLifeTogether.com. Finally, we’ll be on the road a bit for the next month or so...we’ll be in Portland for Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit for the 3rd year in a row and then we have some mixed business & fun time with family throughout July and early August. We typically release shows every Thursday but for July we'll have shows on the 4th and 18th and then pick back up in August! Interview with Joel Zaslofsky of the Value of Simple We had an amazing interview with Joel Zaslofsky...creator of the awesome Smart and Simple Matters podcast and the Value of Simple blog. He’s incredibly open about his journey from a six-figure corporate job to carving out a niche online, while shaping his simple lifestyle. He offers tons of tips and free resources on his website to help you "liberate your time, money and talent."  We were thrilled to be his guests on Episode 15 of the Smart and Simple Matters show back in January and we’ve been dying to have Joel on our show. Well, we finally made that happen and it was fantastic!  You don't want to miss this interview!  Here are some of the questions and things we talked about: - So Joel, who are you and how do you make people's lives simpler? - So, you talk about your “Personal Renaissance.” Can you describe what that is, what it’s been like for you, and how it has led to a simpler/more focused life? - Can you tell us a little about the backstory of “liberate your time, money and talent” as it relates to you, your clients and your people who follow your work? - Tell us about your love for spreadsheets and some ways you use them to simplify your life. - How would you define curating, what do you curate personally, and how do you think others could benefit from curating? - Batman has his Batcave, the Super Friends had the Hall of Justice, and you have the Refuge of Simplicity! Can you share what goes on there? - Can you give us any tips about “keeping it simple” with a family? - For a lot of people, the whole “investment thing” is complicated. You address simplifying that in your online course “Start Investing with $100.” Can you share a little about that? - So Joel, what have we left out that is “must know” info for our listeners? What have you got going on these days? Thing Segment Dan’s Thing: Our upcoming trip to WDS Vanessa's Thing: Passing her BCPO Exam and all the support she got from friends, family, colleagues....and even YOU...our listeners!!! Links from our Interview with Joel: Research: How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers (this is the 100,000 words a day research) Your Memory is Like the Telephone Game (this is the reference to how much our memories suck, even if we think they rock) Smart and Simple Matters: iTunes

In this episode I interview Vanessa Hayes of the Simple Life Together Podcast and of GetSimplifized.com.  This was a very powerful episode for me and I hope for you too as we learn as much about mindset for living “our best life” as we learn techniques and strategies for organization and simplification. I love the […] Related posts: NTW 23 – Government Contracting and Work/Life Balance with Liz Salem NTW-038 Simplifying Your Life with Donna Smallin Kuper Podcast Episode 14 – Working with Your Nature with Pamela Hoke

The Cost of Clutter and Managing Your Passwords with 1Password Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks!               Google Drive Tutorial Yay!  The Google Drive Tutorial is now available for purchase! This tutorial is just over an hour long and focuses on all the fundamentals of how to use Google Drive for creating, sharing, and storing  documents using Google's free, full-fledged office suite. This tutorial will be available at the discounted price of just $7.99 until 30 June 2013, when it will increase to $9.99. Either way, it's a bargain! In this introduction, you'll learn how to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and even forms and surveys! So, don't wait to pay full price! You can have immediate access to Dan's 1 hour+  windshield tour of Google Drive right now! Simply click here or go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/GoogleDrive. Plus, if you're not completely satisfied I'll give you your money back. So, no clutter and no risk...simple! Vanessa's Topic: The Cost of Clutter In preparation for my Certification at the end of June, I’ve been doing a little bit of reading, studying and freshening up on my professional organizing skills. Well, during my studying I came across some articles and books that talked about the cost of clutter. I’ve talked quite a bit about clutter in previous episodes and I’ve mentioned here and there some of the costs of clutter, but I thought I’d bring all those thoughts and some additional ideas about the cost of clutter together in one discussion. Now, as a reminder let me define what clutter is:  Clutter is anything we don’t need, want or use that takes our time, energy or space and destroys our serentity (Clutter’s Anonymous definition). With that definition and with the various things I’ve read, I think there are 4 Main Areas Where Clutter Costs us: It can cost us in regards to Money It can cost us Time It can cost us our Health And it can cost us our Sanity Let me explain a little more... In regards to Money: 10% of American households rent storage units which can cost between $600-1000/year. 23% of Americans are late paying their bills because they lose the statements or just plain forget to pay their bills altogether. And of course, late payments result in late fees. Even worse, repetitive late payments can even cost you your credit score! (Which by the way can cost you time as it may now take longer for you to pay off your debts)....oooh...clutter can be a vicious cycle! Let’s talk about food: You know what happens to us when we don’t have a plan for our weekly dinners? We end up going out to eat right?! Which cost 2-3 times more than if we ate at home! Food can also cost you at the grocery store when you don’t know what you have at home because your pantry is a mess and you end up buying duplicate food items or throwing things away because they’re expired! That’s one of my peeves at home....I do not like to waste food! Ok...so this also happens with other things in the home like office supplies, cleaning supplies, toiletries, light bulbs, batteries etc. When your home is cluttered and you don’t have homes for these things, it often results in them being misplaced....and increases chance of duplicates being purchased....because you can’t find them! At work, clutter has the potential of costing you a promotion because clutter can result in disorganization, missed documents, missed deadlines, and so on. Now, let’s not forget about digital clutter: Having to buy more memory for your computers, or more storage space on the cloud...or what about apps that you purchased and never use? All that digital clutter can cost you money! And of course, another way clutter can cost you in regards to money, is having to pay an organizer to help you get organized! Although I’d like to think of a professional organizer as more of an investment.....

"Someday" Isn't On The Calendar & An Interview With Kerry Reifel of The Simple Year Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Dan and Vanessa's Topic: "Someday" Isn't On The Calendar As we traditionally do when we have a guest interview on the show, the two of us will do a joint topic.  We've hit our 25th episode, and so we thought we'd reflect back on where we started and throw some ideas out to our listeners about where we might be headed with Simple Life Together.  Here are the things we reflected on and discussed: Made the decision to simplify our lives and for us that meant somewhere between consumerism and minimalism...not exactly sure how to define it other than “simple”, but now we know it’s not consumerism, not minimalism, not raising our own chickens and sewing our own clothes. Nothing wrong with that...just we’re not at that level! We looked for a community but couldn't find one! Dan wanted to start a podcast for years and said he’d do it "someday." Well, no matter how many times he looked on the calendar, he never found “someday” there. We decided that maybe the community we were looking for was looking for us, too. So, Dan floated the idea to Vanessa for a sanity check and she was all for it...and Simple Life Together was born. Dan brought some tech simplicity and military techniques to the mix while Van brought the organizer background to the mix. We’ve been amazed at the number of people who felt just like we did and joined us! Not that episode 25 is some magical number, but we’re having some pretty strong feelings about the show and the future of the show. We think a lot of people listen to the show and take some positive steps in their lives...not because of anything we say or do, but just because they know they’re not alone in the fight. We’re thinking of some logical next steps and we really need some help and advice from all of you on where we go from here: Considering a community site for more interaction, videos, tutorials, forums to share experiences, arranged by topic, etc. We’re also considering doing products for the community, too. Dan has already been asked numerous times to do a video screencast to go along with his Evernote Simplified Parts 1 & 2. It will be an investment on our part if we do it. If there is enough interest in the community, Dan may stop doing client work or seriously draw down on it to support the community In the end, it’s not about what we want, it’s about what you want! If you just want the podcast and that’s it, that’s fine, but if there is an interest on a full community then we’re considering that too. Dan create a survey that we ask you to please take 1 minute to click some boxes so we can gauge the level of interest. No commitment on your part or our part...yet...but we wanted to ask you what you’d like to see. So, please go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/survey to take a 1 minute survey to share your thoughts with us.  We won’t make any decisions about the community’s future without your input. Heck you ARE the community!  So please, share your thoughts with us. It’s just 4 Questions, 4 clicks and and one block to share anything else that’s on your mind.  We really need your help on this one! Thanks so much and we look forward to your input, thoughts and ideas as we go forward with SimpleLifeTogether.com! Guest Interview: Kerry Reifel Of The Simple Year We were so lucky to have Kerry Reifel here on the show! Kerry is a middle class, working mother of two young girls and wife to an active duty military officer.  One year ago on April 24th 2012, just as her husband took off on a 6 month long deployment overseas, Kerry set out on her own exciting adventure of not buying anything new for one year. Although her family had the means to buy the things they needed and wanted, she realized much of it they really didn’t need.

Life's Spam Filter and Simplicity For A Lifetime Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Before we get to the topics...we wanted to let you know that we had a terrific Skype visit with Mohamed Tohami of Midway Simplicity not too long ago and he posted it up on his website, MidwaySimplicity.com. Of course we have links to Tohami’s site in the Simple Living Blogs section of our Recommendations page  here on the website. You can also go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/midway and that will take you right to our Skype video. We had such a good time talking with Tohami and if you like to see us in video action, check it out! Heads up though...Vanessa’s face is cut off in the video. It rendered full screen during the interview but for some reason Skype software cut her off on the final render! Dan's Topic: Life's Spam Filter Alright so you know I love my Gmail, and I have all of my email accounts setup come into my Gmail account. I’ve had my Gmail account since it first came out in ‘by invitation only’ Beta back in 2004... and it’s done nothing but get better and better, and more powerful. One of the best things about Gmail is its incredibly efficient spam filter. It’s very seldom that I get spam in my inbox because long before I check it, my spam filter has already done what it does best...keep all the junk that I don’t need to deal with out of my inbox so I can focus my attention on the emails that are truly important to me, including the ones that you send (which we love to get, by the way). Occasionally, I do go back and check my spam folder just to see if something got filtered out that shouldn’t have been. I’ve only had this happen a few times and I can tell you that in none of the cases was this catastrophic. It might have been a minor inconvenience to me, or more importantly, to the sender. But it never really caused any issues that couldn’t easily be resolved. I also go back and check my spam folder from time to time...not regularly...just once in awhile, out of curiosity. It’s interesting to see the junk that goes in there! As of today....I have 3,576 junk emails in my Gmail spam folder. That’s from less than 30 days ago. Apparently I’m missing out on all sorts of opportunities! Loans, inheritance from afar, opportunities to help the Nigerian Finance Minister with that country’s accounts...countless pharmaceuticals to make some of my body parts bigger and others smaller, and apparently I’m pretty irresistible to foreign women from lots of different countries (but especially Russian women) and the ideal candidate for instant credit! And adding up just the totals on the first 2 pages I have almost $450 dollars of unclaimed Wal-Mart gift cards. I have so many offers for Lasik surgery that I’m starting to think they’re from listeners of last week’s show who heard me tell my story about petting ODC’s tail, aka the watering can. Suffice it to say, I really appreciate all the hard work my Gmail spam folders do for me. It’s just something that is too easy to take for granted but really saves me a lot of time and effort. Well, you might be thinking this topic is about Gmail or tech. But the reality is, as I checked my spam folder the other day, something hit me. As I scrolled down...and saw the thousands and thousands of  things that I didn’t have to deal with anymore because my filters did it for me, I realized that SIMPLICITY is the spam folder for my life! Simplicity helps us deal with the physical manifestations of the spam emails we all get. If we let it, it helps us immediately discern what’s important and what’s not...what’s in line with our life plan and what’s not...what’s congruent with our faith, our morals, goals, aspirations, dreams and relationships. Just as spam filters protect us from following links that lead to trouble such as scams, malware, viruses, deception...so simplicity protects us in our everyday lives from the false promises of...

Some things just make life easier. When it comes to working on your Mac or PC, menu bar apps and browser extensions are like little superpowers that give you lots of additional capabilities. We'll share some of our favorite with you to make your computing experience a little simpler. Speaking of superpowers, being organized can be a superpower in it's own right! Vanessa shares some tips on how you can help others get organized. it can be a little tricky, so this is some good stuff! Read more... Dan's Topic: Menu Bar Apps & Browser Extensions I thought I’d cover just few tools in my toolkit for working on my Mac and in the Chrome Browser. Even though many of the Apps are Mac specific, the Chrome extensions I’ll tell you about work across the Chrome Browser platform. Apps that I operate in my Mac’s Menu Bar: Text Expander Text Expander is a Mac only app, but there are other programs for PC that function similarly. Just Google “Text Expander for PC” and you’ll find some. Check out the reviews for these as I don’t have any experience with any text expander programs for PC. Automatically expands text using little short codes or “snippets.” From a single line signature to paragraphs or a full page of text, just make a little snippet and you’ll save tons of time as you type! Use it for signature blocks, code, email addresses (D.D), web addresses (for instance our SLT.C our HSLT.C snippets)...you name it! I even use it for common spelling mistakes that I make! For some reason, every time I type podcast it comes out podca-t-s! So, I made a snippet that automatically corrects that with Text Expander! Available through this link in the Mac App Store for Mac at $34.99, and through this link in the App Store for iPhone and iPad at $4.99 Dropbox It’s available for Mac and PC. Adds another folder on your computer that acts as a virtual drive. Use to supplement a good backup plan by storing docs there. More about that in Episode 3. Load it on your PC, Mac, smartphones, tablets, etc, and have everything synchronized on every device. If you change/edit a document in Dropbox while working on your laptop, it will automatically update everywhere else. If you're on someone else's device, you can log in to your Dropbox account on the web and access your information. My service of choice for synchronization of other programs, too. I use it to sync the Text Expander account, our BizExpenseTracker app and our 1Password account. You can even share documents or folders with others so they can have access, too.  Done seamlessly...on the Cloud. Free and they give you 2Gb to start out with.  You can sign up at SimpleLifeTogether.com/Dropbox. Evernote  Brand new to the Evernote arsenal is the new Quick Note function. Quick Note feature lets you create a note at any time, no matter what you’re doing on your computer, by clicking the elephant in the menu bar at the top of your screen or using the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-N. To create the quickest Evernote notes ever, simply pop open Quick Note and start typing. Once you’re done with your thought, click Save to Evernote or Command-Return, then continue doing what you were doing. If you don’t save to Evernote, then your content will stay in the Quick Note window waiting for you to add more stuff. Create audio notes and screenshots by clicking on the relevant icons in the Helper. Just mouse over the icons in Quick Note and you’ll see text that explains each icon’s function. You can also add images or attachments by simply dragging them onto the elephant icon in the menu bar. Every new item will be added to the same note until you save it to Evernote. As Evernote says, “It’s the perfect on-the-go complement to your normal Evernote use, and once you get the hang of the keyboard shortcuts, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.” You can get Evernote in the Mac App Store for Mac,

How Typical is Your Home? And...A Gateway Gadget Intervention Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Website guide update: The way, the Simple Life Guide to building your “Side Gig” is ready and we’ve had a bunch of people sign up. So if you're ready to start on the path to shaping your life a bit more by starting a lifestyle business on the side and you don’t have any experience starting a website, well this guide and the video links will lead you through how to set up your site, step by step, and it even includes some fantastic branding information, too!  It’s completely free and you can sign up at SimpleLifeTogether.com/websiteguide. Vanessa's Topic: How Typical Is Your Home? Dan and I were interviewed a couple of times last week and during one of the interviews we were talking about how much stuff we have in our homes. Dan started talking about a study conducted by UCLA's Center on Everyday Lives of Families. They sent a team of professional archaeologists, anthropologists and other social scientists to conduct a systematic study of home life in 32 middle-class, dual-income families in Los Angeles. Based off of this study they created a book: Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors. UCLA also created 3 short video ethnographies for their university television station which are now on YouTube. The book and the videos highlight their major findings which I thought were absolutely fascinating! The pictures and videos may not be as mouth-dropping as what you might see on the show Hoarders...but I think it does hit a little closer to home because it’s not highlighting those extreme cases of hoarding....it’s highlighting what is becoming...or rather...actually already has become the “norm” in the middle class America. So I reviewed some of the major findings and then discussed my thoughts. Findings in relation to stuff: With Family #27, they found 2,260 visible possessions in the first three rooms recorded (two bedrooms and the living room),” and that didn’t include “untold numbers of items tucked into dresser drawers, boxes and cabinets or items positioned behind other items.” In another home, Family #1 they looked at a display shelf in a girl’s bedroom and found: 165 Beanie Babies, 36 Human/Animal Figurines, 22 Barbie dolls, 20 other types of dolls, 3 Porcelain dolls, 1 Troll, 1 miniature castle America has 3.1% of the world’s kids...yet it owns 40% of the world’s toys.  As a matter of fact, toys were found everywhere in the home.  It’s as if the home had become primarily child-centered. The average refrigerator front panel in the homes studied holds 52 objects. The most crowded refrigerator was covered with 166 different objects. In most cases there was a direct corollary to the amount of stuff on a fridge and the amount of stuff in the home (ie: a more cluttered fridge = a more cluttered home) Only 25 percent of garages could be used to store cars because they were so packed with stuff. One article called this, "The New Junk Drawer" and rightfully so because that’s exactly what it’s become. They found mountains of clutter in many of the homes. One family even had to resort to using a bathroom shower stall as a laundry hamper. They also observed a huge trend in shopping at “big box” stores (like Sam’s Club, Costco, BJ’s) and how the items bought at these stores actually created more clutter and required a second refrigerator or freezer. Findings in relation to the effects the stuff had on these families: Managing the volume of possessions was such a crushing problem in many homes that it actually elevated levels of stress hormones for mothers. Ironically, it rarely affected the men because they didn’t have to clean it up! There are several ways in which items come into a home but few processes on how to get it out.

Our Edit & Forget It Challenge and The Power of Saying No Happy New Year! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Special Announcement: Especially for listeners in and around San Antonio/Austin, TX Our friend and colleague Karen Meade of Let’s Get Organizing will be hosting her annual Organize and Energize workshop. It’s on Saturday, January 19th, 2013 from 9:30 Am to 12:30 PM at TriPoint on North St Mary’s, in San Antonio, Texas. There’s a great lineup of speakers talking about organization, meal planning, health and fitness and Dan will be there talking about tech. For more information check out LetsGetOrganizing.com or Facebook.com/LetsGetOrganizing. Hope to see you there! Main Topics   Dan's Topic: Introducing the Edit & Forget It Challenge! 2013 Fewer Things in 2013  We're kicking things up a notch right off the bat this year and really stretch our commitment to simplifying our lives. We're challenging ourselves with what we call Edit & Forget It, 2013 Fewer Things in 2013. We'd love it if you'd consider joining us! We know this is a lofty goal and certainly won't be for everyone Our true focus is eliminating many things we truly don't need any longer and reach a point where we have what we need, appreciate it, and be able to enjoy some margin in our lives We don't really have "clutter" in our home since Vanessa is a Professional Organizer, so eliminating 2013 things will be a real challenge! It's good to have an accountability buddy when challenging yourself…and all of you that listen to the show will be our accountability buddies to keep us on track! We'd like to be your accountability buddies, too! If you'd like to join us for the challenge, just sign up on our Edit & Forget It List. Here's a direct link to that list on SimpleLifeTogether.com. Those who sign up will will get emails from us from time to time as a little bit of encouragement along the way No, you won’t get a trophy at the end of the Challenge, but in the end you'll probably have a place to put one if you did! Some Background: We were amazed when we heard it quoted in a presentation that the average American home has around 300K things in it! In raw numbers, 2013 things is just under 1% of that! That doesn't sound like much of a challenge does it? Truth be told, we think that figure counts each and every item So if you had a 250 piece Lego set it counts as 250 pieces That doesn’t seem too realistic to us and kinda makes getting rid of 2013 things no challenge whatsoever So we established some simple guidelines for ourselves To eliminate 2013 things from our home in 2013 the numbers work out, rounded up, anyways, like this: About 6 things per day About 40 things per week About 170 per month We're also including going paperless because that is a great way to eliminate paper clutter from your home. So, you may want to re-listen to Episode 6 and our interview with Brooks Duncan of DocumentSnap. We'll put some links in the show notes for the scanner we use and the one Brooks recommends. Edit & Forget It Guidelines: Note: We may have to come up with some additional guidelines for ourselves along the way based on any new discoveries or unanswered questions we run into. But we're starting with these: Things that normally go together or that you originally purchased together count as one, e.g. a pair of shoes counts as one (not 2), a deck of cards counts as one (not 52) a puzzle counts as one (not 150). Donated packaged food counts, thrown out food does not. Scanned documents count as one original if disposed of. A document is a document whether it is a single page by itself or a ten page document. Each scanned document counts as one item. Things that we don't ordinarily keep in our home (like junk mail, catalogs, etc) don't count for us as we recycle those immediately upon receipt.

Things To Eliminate in the Coming Year and Tips for Successful Resolutions Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Main Topics   Dan's Topic: Some Things to Eliminate in the Coming Year I'm not a big "New Year's Resolutions" guy, so in keeping with the Exupery quotation I've discussed in previous shows and use to guide me on our simplicity journey, I thought I'd give resolutions a little twist. If you recall, Exupery said, "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but nothing left to take away." So let's resolve to remove some things that add no positive value in our lives. Only you know what applies to you and what's right for you, but here are some suggestions for consideration… Stop wasting opportunities: Opportunities to grow are all around us Grow by Learning...Education is a great way to invest in yourself Take a class (online or in the real world)…lots of places offer Adult Education classes Or teach yourself! Check your local library to see if they have how-to or self help books Other Great Resources: Also check http://www.khanacademy.org for classes I watch CreativeLIVE.com for free courses given live by experts. After the live class is over the classes are available for purchase. Screencastsonline.com has great tutorials for Mac and iOS-based platforms. Run by Don McAllister Lynda.com has all sorts of courses, from business, photography, videography...the gamut of software for Mac, PC and others (you can also get 7 days free unlimited access here) Izzyvideo.com for video tutorials If you're a podcaster, Cliff Ravenscraft's classes are great! Find them at PodcastAnswerman.com and use discount code SIMPLE for up to $500 savings on Podcasting A to Z! I have or had paid memberships in all of these and see them as an investment in me and our businesses Grow by Experiences such as Volunteering Getting active in your children's school or after school activities Mentor someone in your chosen profession or a student studying for your profession If you belong to a church, see if your church needs help with something you're skilled at  Stop letting what you already have go unused: The first thing that comes to mind is Experience and Expertise and that ties in with the opportunities to grow we just mentioned Look around and see if you are using technology to your advantage If you're not sure how to use some of your tech, there are tons of free How-To tutorials on YouTube to help out. Stop "holding on"…some stuff is just not necessary any more: If you have unnecessary "stuff" you can donate it, sell it, give it away to a friend or post it on freecycle.org (complete listing for all countries where Freecycle operates at SimpleLifeTogether.com/freecycle But there's probably more than "stuff" you need to get rid of... Bad habits Same old routines- If they're not working for you it's time to let them go Work situation: If you're ready for a change than check out Dan Miller's 48 Days Podcast Stop Letting Others Dictate How You Use Your Time: DVR your shows or "cut the cord" and watch online on sites like iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, in the US. Outside the US, just Google TV Steaming sites to find those available in your area, such as the BBC's iPlayer. Don't forget to check your local network sites to see what streams they offer, too. Another way to control your own time is to: Choose Podcasts over radio. Podcasts allow for time shifting your favorite content. You can listen to podcasts as your walk, run, work, commute, travel, do chores…whenever you want? Break free of the 10 to 20 minutes per hour devoted to advertising on commercial broadcasting stations. iTunes University has free college-level classes, tying into the education suggestion mention earlier.

An Introduction to the Simple Life Together Podcast Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Welcome!  We've waited a long time to get started on this and we're so excited to finally "get it out there."  So, in the show we give you an introduction to us, a little bit about our background, what “simple” means to us, and then we talk about our format for the show. We shared the major "pillars" of our life plan, highlighting that our focus is on the following: - Faith - Family - Friends - Finances - Future Ok, so here’s how we envision the Format of the show: Every episode, we’ll each pick topics for discussion. Vanessa’s will likely focus on organizing, the household or her business and Dan's will likely be centered around technology, business or DIY projects. Together, we’ll also focus on family issues/kids, our relationships, future plans, designing our lifestyle, etc.  These are just some areas, but we haven’t set any boundaries because life has endless topics. We’ll also have a segment where we each pick one thing per episode that we want to highlight...something that’s had a positive impact on us since the last show.  It could be an app, an experience we had, a conversation, a product, whatever. We tried to come up with a name for this thing, whatever it is, and in the end we just decided to call it ”The Thing.” Our commitment for the show: - Nearly complete candor...but some things you know you can’t just put “out there" - Little sugar coating because life isn’t always sweet and besides, we’re low carb eaters - Imperfection...because nobody's perfect. Perfect is the enemy of really good.  Our goal is to produce a really good (but simple) show. - Open to feedback and new topics!  We want you to be part of the show because that’s how we all learn - Not too much structure...because we’ve both had jobs that pegged-out the "structure meter" and now we like our lives to be a little more “freeform.” A little bit about us... - We both have our own businesses, which really helps with designing our simply life together - Dan is retired from his first career and now does  Business Development Consulting helping niche business with their branding, media presence, and strategic planning. - Vanessa is a Professional Organizer and helps clients simplify and organize their lives, at home and at work so they have more time to focus on what’s truly important to them, too. So that’s what we do for a living and I’m sure we’ll share more about ourselves as we go along. What Simple Means to Us - Actually having time to enjoy life with those we love - Living within our means - Not being slaves to our possessions - Embracing the concept of “less is more” - Living more deliberately - Focusing on our endstate and how we want our lives to be in the long run - Less  distress (negative stress), more eustress (positive stress) The Thing Segment: Vanessa:  Not compare herself to others Dan:  Quote from Antoine de Saint Exupéry “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Closing Thoughts: We hope you join us on the journey If you like the show, please subscribe and consider giving us a good review in iTunes If you know someone else who might enjoy the journey too, send them a link to SimpleLifeTogether.com There are links to our Twitter and Google Plus profiles and other contact info on the left side of the website. We'd love to hear from you ! Be sure to leave comments below or send us a voicemail.  Comments, questions, thoughts, ideas, suggestions...they're all welcome! Links we mentioned in the show: Tim Ferriss 4HWW Deferred Retirement Plan Michael Hyatt's Life Plan  Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you!