5 Things I Can't Live Without In My Simple Life

Over the past year and a half, my family has spent a good amount of time traveling and “living” somewhere besides our house. Along the way I’ve realized that there are certain things I cannot live without on my simple living journey.

• Printer – during our travels, I was focusing on family and on experiencing new things, but I was also working. A good portion of my work is done online and digitally, but every so often, I need something printed. With so much communication being done through email, documents often need to be printed, completed and submitted (including forms from school, rebate submissions and documents requiring original signatures). Since these types of things often arise for me, a printer is a must right now.

• Scanner – A key practice in our simple living journey is that we don’t store many papers in our house. Although I just mentioned that I can’t live without a printer, we don’t print things just to print them. That said, when paper does come into our house, we do our best to get rid of it! We do this by scanning documents that we are likely to need or reference later. Note that I said “likely” here. Being intentional with what you scan is important-you don’t want to create a digital mess of documents on your computer!

• Our Magnet Board command center – While I use my electronic calendar to track all appointments and contacts, I still need to have a central location for the papers that flow into our house including notes, invitations and upcoming school events.   After living without it for a few months, I’ve decided that it is one of my simple living “must haves”! I felt like we were officially moved once this went up on the wall in our current

• GPS – With our love of travel and exploring, we rely heavily on our GPS.   I remember the days of charting out our trips using paper maps and I actually remember buying software to plan our travel times and stops! The ease and convenience of having the GPS makes this another item I can’t live without. Note that we do use our phones for GPS occasionally but we prefer using the separate device itself to avoid overusing the data on our cell phone plan.

• Color – I realize this isn’t really a “thing”, but it is a part of pretty much every “thing”. I’ve shared this before when I organized my books, but it bears repeating. Color makes me feel alive. I spent too many years blending in and choosing black, white and gray because it went with everything. But now, in my simple life, I need color!

When I started this list, I didn’t think it would end up containing three electronic items.   While at times I want nothing to do with a device that plugs in, most of the time I am grateful for the freedom they provide. And since my freedom is important, I’m intentionally choosing to keep them in my simple life.Remember that simple living doesn’t have to focus on what you get rid of.  Instead, think about what you MUST HAVE in your simple life then go from there!Blessings,Lisa