Simple Living

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Live better, with less

Ideas and inspiration for living more simply. A place to share tips on living with less stuff, work, speed, or stress in return for gaining more freedom, time, self-reliance, and joy.

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How to live simply with kids? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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My wife and I lead a pretty simple life. I work from home at a low-stress job. She is a stay-at-home mom. We have a small house, a garden, and some chickens. But we have a 3-month-old and a two-year-old. Nothing about our life feels slow or simple. On top of watching the kids there's always tons cleaning to do and house repairs and upkeep. How do you balance things that aren't optional like vehicle/house maintenance, upkeep, and raising kids? Is simple living just a luxury of those who don't have kids?

Or are we already living simply and it just doesn't FEEL simple?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Simple living doesn't always feel peaceful. 😅 I'm also a SAHM with what I would describe as quiet hobbies (reading, journaling, crochet, etc). My toddler provides plenty of chaos though lol.

With a 3mo and 2yr, you shouldn't be worrying about simple living right now honestly. You're in the thick of it. It's okay to just be in survival mode.

I imagine what you need is quiet time and a break. Do you have any family that can babysit sometimes so you two can go away for a while? Even a few hours is helpful. Does the toddler still nap? That is the time for one of you to also power nap, if possible.

The key is to simplify the house maintenance too. Some days the laundry and dishes will fall behind. That's okay! These days are gonna go by fast. I can go on and on about cleaning and organizing systems if that is something you wanna hear.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Some good advice and sorta what I didn't want to hear lol. My wife and I do have a night every week when family watches the kids and we go on a date or just spend time together. I think I just have to come to terms with the fact that the house will always need cleaned and that there will always be a list of maintenance things that need done. I guess my issue is that I often need a clean house and mind in order to have peace. So maybe I need to work on my mentality with those things to have peace even with things that need done and a messy house.