Inside: Read about my favorite quotes to embrace simplicity and start living with less. You can also download a FREE printable with 6 quotes for a fun DIY artwork.
Simplifying your life is not necessarily simple or easy to do.
Decluttering your home of the excess takes time, hard work when faced with years of accumulation, and sometimes heart work when learning to let go of sentimental items.
This seemingly arduous task is enough to make anyone throw in the towel before seeing the benefits of living a simplified life with less.
Today I want to share something that has help motivate me to NOT throw in the towel when simplifying gets challenging. And instead, I am able to just throw OUT the towel. See what I did there? 🙂
One thing that helped me, and continues to help me, is reading books and blogs about other people’s journeys towards simple living. I love that we each have our own journeys to share and learn from.
Today I want to share my favorite quotes that have inspired me to embrace simplicity and start living with less.
I hope that they inspire you as well and motivate you to start your journey or keep going.
You can do this too! I believe in you! Sometimes, all you need is a little motivation from others.
Before I get to the quotes, though, I want to first explore the word motivation.
What does the word motivation mean?
According to the dictionary, motivation means “The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.”
So it’s the reason WHY you want to do something or change something or improve something in your life.
Ok, that sounds good. But…
What does motivation have to do with simplifying your life and living with less?
I am so glad you asked!!
You may have heard that simplicity is a great lifestyle and you want to give it a try. You know that decluttering is one of the steps on the journey toward simple living but you take one look around your home and immediately get overwhelmed and give up before you even start.
Does that sound familiar?
It was for me!
The thing that changed for me is something that habit expert, James Clear, explains as the core of motivation. He says “at some point, it is easier to change than to stay the same.”
In terms of decluttering, that meant I got to the point where I was sick and tired of picking up all the toys every day. I was sick of not finding what I was looking for. And tired of spending all my time cleaning.
I kept reading all these books and quotes about decluttering and was soaking up all the knowledge, which is good! But I eventually got to the point where I was ready to do something about the clutter.
I was ready and MOTIVATED to make a change.
It became easier to declutter than to keep tripping over the toys.
So now we know what motivation is and why it’s important for simplifying your life.
Now the question is this:
Why do quotes motivate us?
According to beingbetterhumans.com there are several benefits of reading inspirational quotes, including:
- Quotes provide a different or better angle on a subject.
- Inspirational words can remind us about what we already know, or aspire to be, and trigger something inside us to get back on track.
- Quotes take a big idea and compact it down into a short burst of knowledge.
That second bullet really aligns with what James Clear said about taking action. The quotes inspire us and will hopefully motivate us to take action.
I love to collect quotes and refer to them when I need a little inspiration or encouragement to take the first or next step.
I hope you enjoy these hand-picked quotes to embrace simplicity in your life today!
Quotes to Inspire Simplicity and Living With Less
On my blog, I talk about decluttering your space, time and mind. Following those same categories, I found a quote or two that will hopefully inspire you to declutter and simplify each of these areas of your life.
I also love the two quotes on getting started because getting started is half the battle!
How to Start:
The best way to start decluttering is to just pick a teeny tiny space to tackle. This could be your car, one drawer, or your purse. The specific space doesn’t matter as much as the act of decluttering and getting the hang of it.
The more you declutter, the easier it will become.
“One tiny step is all it takes.” Courtney Carver
“Getting started, even in very small ways, is a form of active inspiration that naturally produces momentum.” James clear
Declutter Your Space:
I love the short quote below from Courtney Carver! It always makes me smile because I used to think every shelf in my home needed to have something in it. But I have learned over time that white space is glorious!
Do you have any white space in your home?
“Clutter is not just the stuff on your floor – it’s anything that stands between you and the life you want to be living.” Peter Walsh
“Stop filling all the spaces.” Courtney Carver
Declutter Your Time:
Physical clutter in our homes is not the only kind of clutter. There is also clutter on our calendars.
I encourage you to take a hard look at your priorities and then compare those to what’s on your calendar. Do the two align? If so, then you need to teach the rest of us your secret. 🙂
If they do not align, I encourage you to start eliminating commitments that no longer serve you and your family.
As my kiddos get older, my husband and I are trying to be really intentional about what activities we sign them up for. We would much rather spend time going for a walk in the woods than running from one activity to the next. We don’t always get it right, but we recognize the feeling when something needs to change, and that’s what is important!
“Choose to focus your time, energy and conversation around people who inspire you, support you and help you to grow you into your happiest, strongest, wisest self.” Karen Salmansohn
Declutter Your Mind:
Having the right mindset is huge when it comes to simplifying our lives. Both of these quotes below help encourage you to think about stuff in a different way. It’s not just stuff, but it’s time spent working to pay for it, time spent cleaning it, time spent managing it, and eventually probably time spent discarding it.
All of that time could have been spent doing something else, something that you truly value.
I also love the quote from Gretchen Rubin, because sometimes we will get it wrong, and that is ok! We just need to learn from those mistakes and try again next time.
“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” Jennifer Burger
“Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail, but every day is a clean slate and a fresh opportunity.” Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project
As a special bonus for reading this article, I want to share 6 MORE quotes to embrace simplicity in your life that I love! I have made them into printables that you can display around your home as a fun DIY art project. Click the link in my bio below to get your FREE printables!
How do you use these quotes as motivation to simplify and live with less?
The thing with quotes is that they are just words if you don’t do anything with them.
As James Clear states, “Learning and listening can help you think about things in a different way, but creating, producing, and experimenting is what propels you forward. Passive inspiration can give you ideas, but active inspiration will give you momentum.”
Here are a few ways to use these inspirational quotes in your life:
- Print off the FREE printables (click the link in my bio below), frame them and display around your home as DIY artwork.
- Save the images as a screen saver or background for your phone or computer.
- Print them off and hang them by your computer with some fun washi tape.
The important thing to remember is to take what you are learning and to apply it to your life.
Don’t wait to take the first step. Start right now. Take that one teeny tiny baby step and get started in any direction. You may learn that it wasn’t the right direction, but it’s a direction and you are taking a chance for the better!
Don’t forget to download your FREE printable with 6 quotes to embrace simplicity below!
Let us know in the comments: What is your favorite quote about simple living and how are you going to apply it to your own life?
I can’t wait to read your comments below!
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About the Author:
Hi, I’m Tara! I’m a wife and a mom to two beautiful and active kids. I write at i Dream of Simple about my family’s journey to declutter our space, time and mind with the hope of learning to cultivate a life with enough. Download 6 FREE Simplicity Quote Printables to display around your home and connect with me on Instagram and Facebook!
