https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 11 Jun 2026 04:25:55 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-753217 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:17:33 +0000 meredithNYC 753217@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Cole: I am with you. I hate to be such a Debbie Downer, but the American obsession with "space" really gets to me. The fact is, we are having smaller families these days and yet, our homes keep getting larger and larger and larger. It's just wasteful, in my opinion. I hope I don't offend anyone by saying that, but over the years it's become something I think about a lot.</p> <p>We have a small house (about 1400 square feet) and I think it's perfect for me, my husband and our daughter, plus any other children we might have. It's okay for children to share rooms! I'm not sure when this fell out of favor so much.</p> <p>We are lucky that my husband's work commute is very short, so we have one car and I take him to work and pick him up (I'm a SAHM) and we cook almost all the time. We tend to eat very little meat and I hate wasting food - makes me feel guilty, so I try and be creative about using everything we have. Other than that, we have a clothes line to cut down on energy costs, we cloth diaper, recycle, garden and want to start composting. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-753127 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:42:37 +0000 Boheme 753127@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@littlebittyhouse: I feel like it makes cleaning SO much easier! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-753071 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:26:21 +0000 littlebittyhouse 753071@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@grizz: DH and I are resoving to be the same! Purge all the things! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-752454 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:50:41 +0000 Boheme 752454@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am a ruthless purger of excess stuff in our house. DH is content to hang onto 5,000 t-shirts, but I just can't do it. I do a big clean-out probably twice a year, selling and donating everything we don't use. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-752438 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:46:38 +0000 littlebittyhouse 752438@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@regberadaisy: less 'stuff' in general. things we buy, stuff we hold onto (papers, coupons etc) it is not as organized and streamlined as it used to be.</p> <p>@Cole: You said it perfectly!</p> <p>@looch: We made the Ikea mistake a few years ago when we moved in and have been learning our lesson. </p> <p>@MrsCB: DH and I did our closets and drawers this weekend. THREE bags of clothing for the salvation army! It felt really good to be ruthless about purging! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-752017 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:38:13 +0000 ShootingStar 752017@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm pushing DH to de-clutter, haha. I have kind of a weird house configuration because it's a townhouse and we're going to be moving our bedroom before LO is here to the loft on top of the house. DH has issues getting rid of things and when he moved in with me he brought boxes of stuff and just left them in the loft. 3 years later that stuff is still sitting there. He never reads and yet he has tons of books, he's got papers and homework from elementary school, and a bunch of other randomness. I told him he needs to thin it out and confine himself to one box of memorabilia that will go in our utility closet.</p> <p>Every time I clean I come up with a car load of stuff to be donated. I'm sure when I clean out my close this time there will be giant amounts of clothes that no longer fit, are worn out, or I plain just don't wear. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-751937 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:13:44 +0000 T.H.O.U. 751937@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think for me is to limit shopping. All the little things add up in the closet and junk up our life. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-751898 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:54:56 +0000 looch 751898@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am trying to live and make decisions deliberately. As an example, we're moving to a new house and as a result, need to buy some new furniture. We are buying the absolute best that we can and making an effort to select pieces that are made in America. We're purposely not doing IKEA stuff because it needs to be replaced every so often and we'll end up spending MORE by buying cheaper. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-751887 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:51:16 +0000 TemperanceBrennan 751887@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We are making an effort to declutter our life and eat cleaner. </p> <p>We moved into a new house about 2 years ago and at the time thought we had some much space. Now our unfinished basement is filled with tons of random stuff - from wedding decorations to heaps of empty boxes. I would really like to get it under control. </p> <p>Beacause it seems you fill up whatever space you have, DH and I are tying to be mindful of what we want and what we need. We would like to stay in our house a long time even though it is on the small side. </p> <p>We also just signed up for Fresh 20 in order to manage our groceries and meal planning better. We are easing into it this week. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-751821 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:12:51 +0000 Cole 751821@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were recently talking about a similar topic. I have noticed that a lot of people "outgrow" their homes a few years after having children and I have noticed that a big part of it is not constantly thinning out their possessions. For example we know one family of five that is moving out of their 5500 square foot home into a 7500 square foot home because theirs is "too small". </p> <p>As a result we have made a point of making it easier to be constantly purging. We have a designated spot for things we no longer need that can be sold or donated and I take them to Salvation Army monthly. I also try to be more mindful of bringing things into the house. I recently read that someone added another "R" onto reduce, reuse and recycle-- the fourth is now "refuse." I can't tell you how much of the stuff we are purging is random junk we have been given. Hand me downs from my mil, "swag" from conferences my husband goes to for work etc. </p> <p>One of the other things I am making a point of working on is cooking from scratch. I was really good about cooking almost everything from scratch we had a few big things crop up over the last year and a half and it feels like I am just coming out of lala land. Meanwhile both of our weights ballooned and I feel very unhealthy. I know that rebuilding those habits will really help us both now and when we have a lo. I keep cringing about some of the things I have been eating and thinking that I really don't want to raise a family on those things. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-751808 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:02:22 +0000 regberadaisy 751808@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I guess I'm not sure what you mean by living more "simply"? Less commercial goods? Less takeout etc?</p> <p>I cook 90% of what we eat from scratch but that's not simpler by any means! hahah We are kitchen gadget whores though. :P </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-751740 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:15:36 +0000 heffalump 751740@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I feel like we live more simply now because we can't afford not to with LO here :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/living-simplymindfully#post-750911 Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:59:22 +0000 littlebittyhouse 750911@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH and I were talking yesterday saying how we feel like we lived more 'simply' before our LO was born. I am not sure if it because we seem more on the go or because I am not as 'from scratch' as I was but we've decided to make the conscious decision to live more simply/mindfully. First up is a serious spring cleaning and decluttering! YAY!</p> <p>Have you made any big family decisions lately? </p>