Core Truths

Talk about a garage clean out...today we sold one of our cars! We still have our family SUV we use on the daily. And we have a 14-year-old paid-off car we’ve kept as the “kid car” so the kids can learn to drive and use it as their first car (more on that later). But we also had the “commuter car.” Also known as “the fun car.” Truth be told, two years ago, we needed it. Or at least we thought we did...because every driver “needs” their own car, right? Wrong. We may have thought we needed an extra set of wheels, and, even if we did, we did not necessarily need a car at that price and, especially, one that was financed. In our recent reflections, we’ve assessed everything. Turns out, we don’t “need” that car. And we certainly don’t need the note! So we sold it. If eventually we need a second car, we’ll share with the driving teenager. And if we need more than that, we’ll find something cheap enough we buy with cash. So today, no more car note, no more maintenance, no more insurance. Now, ...

Have you ever had something so big to say that you felt like you had to say it or otherwise you’d just burst? That’s exactly how we found ourselves about six months ago. We were going through the day-to-day of jobs and school and commitments. We were overextended, over-scheduled, and over-exhausted. Our home was overly appointed and overly cluttered. And much like our time, our budget was overspent. We came to a point, we were simply over it. For years we talked with each other about how there was too much going on, too much money going out, too much of our time spent doing things we didn’t want to do. As the years went on, the conversations started to come on more and more, and our ideas of making big changes began to get bigger and bigger. About six months ago we decided we were going to start putting some of our ideas into action. We knew we didn’t arrive at this place overnight, and we certainly would not get out of it overnight, but we were going to chip away at all the things bit...

HERE IT IS!! The third and final installment of those items that take up our time! We’ve previously shared how the number of our things and the size of our homes can be huge time suckers. Here we are to close out this series with the biggie—the amount of DEBT we carry around in our lives! We’re on a mission to live a simple life. But we truly can’t simplify our lives without addressing how the burden and sheer volume of mounting debt consumes our time and keeps us from living the life we really want to live. Here’s what we know. We can’t do it alone. We hope you’ll join us on this journey!

We previously questioned the things that take up our time, including the number of our things, the size of our homes, and the amount of our debt. In this particular episode, we continue that conversation by addressing specifically how the size of our homes and amount of square footage we purchase--along with the cost to fill, maintain, and upkeep it--consumes our time. We're on a mission to live a simple life. But we can't do it alone. We hope you'll join us on this journey!

We are by no means “minimalists,” but over the years we have found ways to get rid of some of the clutter, and more importantly, not bring more stuff in. We’ve answered lots of questions since launching the Core Truths episode, “ The ‘Things’ Taking Up Our Time ,” and we thought it best to share more of what we’ve done. Whether it is buying the things, storing the things, sorting the things, or even purging the things, we have found that by having less we are getting more of what we really want, which is more TIME! Our journey to having less stuff and having more time started back in 2015 when I read the book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (I share more on this in “The Great Purge” ). I’m not going to lie, I thought the book would be about how to organize and store and how to keep the house clean. Boy, was I wrong. We started out following the guidelines in the book and have continued to do so through various stages of purging. One of my favorite principles of the book ...

In this episode, we highlight the "things" that are taking up so much of our time! Buying things, storing things, sorting things, purging things. We also talk about one of our favorite gifts to give...and it's not one more "thing!" We hope you'll join us on this journey!

We've shared with you our quest to live a simple life, our thoughts on this notion of "busyness," and our desire to create a new normal for ourselves and our family. In this episode and in our quest to live a simple life, we talk about the value of time and question the things we allow to take up our time--such as the number of our things, the size of our homes, and the amount of our debt. We hope you'll join us on this journey!