Marla Dee - Clear & Simple

Simplify Home

A simpler life begins making your home a happy place. How would that feel?

A home is a kingdom of it’s own in the midst of the world,

a stronghold amid life’s storms and stresses,

a refuge, even a sanctuary.

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer

If you were standing at the front door of your home right now looking in, what would you see? What would you feel? The purpose of your home is to be a sanctuary from the rest of the world, a place you can go to relax and connect with loved ones. Sadly, many homes today hold the clutter and stress from our overfull lives. There are now TV’s in every room which support checking out from our bodies and lives. We have lost our gathering places, like the kitchen table, where we could unload and share. A simpler life begins making your home a happy place. How would that feel? How could that support your health, your family and the giving of your gifts?

To make this transformation simpler, we want you to begin with one room and choose from the ideas below. We feel the bedroom is the most important room in the home since your body spends the most time there (even when you are sleeping the molecules of your body are needing to heal). Here are places to start:

HOUR OF POWER

Set your timer for one hour and journey through your bedroom gathering all the obvious stuff that doesn’t belong there, is no longer useful, or that you are ready to let go. Keep in mind that you are only going after the obvious and easy stuff. If you have to stop and think about it, then wait. You might be shocked what goes away.

FOCUS ON THE FLOOR

Start at the door into your bedroom and work your way around the whole area staying focused on the floor. Pick up and bag all the stuff that you know needs to leave. Don’t worry about the other stuff, it comes later. Then grab the broom or vacuum and relish in cleaning away the old dust and grime. Return to the door, look around and take in the difference.

HIDING UNDERNEATH

You can start the clutter clearing by pulling out all the stuff under the bed (or other furniture). You want to avoid using this as a storage area if at all possible. If you must store something, choose items like extra blankets or clothing. Remember, your body is feeling everything under there while you are sleeping. Once you clear the space, take a the time to clean it also. You will love how it feels.

ADD BEAUTY

Take a look at the top of your nightstand, dresser and other surfaces. Since you have cleared the clutter, can you add beauty like a candle, a plant, or a framed picture?

Enjoy this guest blog – 10 Organizing Tips to Live by for a Tidy Home

For more help on your bedroom clearsimple.com/organizebedroom

Clear & Simple, Simplify Your Life, Simplify Home, Marla Dee, Kate Fehr

Your Guides to a Simpler Life, Marla Dee & Kate Fehr

We love teaching the Clear & Simple Way© to transform your life.

Simplify Office

by Marla Dee

What if you could walk into your office tomorrow excited and energized?!

Regardless of the size of your business, it is essential to have a personalized and organized workspace.

It helps refresh your mind, improves your productivity and deepens the joy in your work.

– Marla Dee

If you were standing at the doorway of your office with the person you admire most, would you be excited or ashamed? We certainly understand if your work space has become cluttered, disorganized and draining. This is what happens when your work expects more than you can give. You might be spending more time in your work space than at relaxing home. You might even be working from home! We wish more companies would give their employees, and more entrepreneurs would give themselves, at least one day each year just for clutter clearing and organizing.

If you are ready for an office that supports you rather than stressing you, we are here to help. You can start with just your desktop, your supply area, your technology, your paper or your productivity. Here are some great ideas to get you going. Give yourself permission and remember it can be powerful to pick just one!

What every office needs and wants:

A really nice, big enough desk that you love working at.
An uncluttered desktop area for work and creativity.
A very comfortable, supportive chair and a carpet protector to go underneath.
Two desk drawers for daily supplies, along with an area for other supplies.
Two drawer file cabinet within arm’s reach of your chair to hold active projects.
Window and/or dimmer lighting for your preference and needs.
Computer equipment that is fast, accessible and ergonomically correct.
A shredder and recycle container close by so you can clear the junk quickly.
Inspirational object, plant or framed picture of someone you love.
Bulletin board or other area for visual reminders.
Incoming container for the paper and information coming at you.
A vertical and visual action container for the papers that need your attention.
A project action center or location such as a different file drawer.
To read container and location to keep your reading papers separated.
Music you love or quiet depending on personality.
An office with a door so you can have privacy when you need it.
A great chair to welcome collaborators or visitors (like your spouse).
The entire iRAFT System to handle all your papers. Get details at clearsimple.com/iRAFT
Checkout the Ultimate Filing System for homes or small businesses – FreedomFiler.

What if you could walk into your office tomorrow, look around and feel yourself get excited and energized?!

Your Guides to a Simpler Life, Marla Dee & Kate Fehr

We love teaching the Clear & Simple Way© to transform your life.

Simplify Your Life Homepage

Clear & Simple, SEE IT. MAP IT. DO IT., Simplify Your Life

Deepen the transformation with our Simplify Your Life eBook.

The Simple Life… ha! We get the absurdity of even uttering those words. With all of the roles, responsibilities, relationships, children, 4-legged children, tasks, events, emails, papers, belongings, needs, wants, and more, life is anything but simple. It is complex, multi-faceted, and ever-changing. So, is a simpler life even possible? Is there really hope? Yes, you can craft a different kind of life. Enjoy reading about simplifying change, choices, play, sharing, growth, and more.

By simplifying, you will be more present and available for what life puts in front of you. You will enjoy the small things. And you will live with grace and gratitude.

Welcome to Simplify Your Life. This eBook will set you at ease, inspire you to play, awaken your senses and open you to new ways of being. No matter how big, complicated or busy your life is, it can be simpler. Are you ready to love the life you already have?

Buy Now

Simply Sit

by Marla Dee

A simple practice for anyone, anytime, is to sit. Just sit. Just breathe. Just be.

In an age of constant movement,

nothing is more important than sitting still.

Pico Iyer

Clear & Simple, Simplify Your Life, Simplify Your Home, Marla Dee, Kate Fehr

A simple practice for anyone, anytime, is to sit. Just sit. Just breathe. Just be. How long has it been since you did this? I’m not talking about meditating or any activity that requires focus. I am asking you to sit still and simply be with yourself and the world around you. There are times all throughout your day to do this. It only requires giving yourself permission.

I keep noticing my resistance to sitting still. My comfort zone is being busy. When I think about just sitting my brain goes to what can I do? Crazy right?! I recently read a wonderful book, The Sacred Enneagram, by Christopher L. Heuertz. Christopher shares a practice called engaging solitude, where he suggests taking 20 minutes a day to sit quietly with myself. I have been doing this for months now and it is blissful. I hadn’t realized how pressured I always felt to be doing something. I now give myself permission to do nothing.

It can fun to discover your favorite place or time for sitting still. Personally, I love my morning sit with my cup of strong, black coffee. The world is quiet, my body barely awake, and I get to sit. There is no doing involved, simply breathing and being in my body in the moment. I am always delighted, and often surprised, at what pops up to be noticed. I also love to end my day with sitting outside staring at the night sky.

Sweet ideas for sitting still.

Begin or end the day with sitting on your porch. Hang out with yourself.
Take five minutes to sit at your desk at the beginning or end of the work day.
Take five minutes to sit in your car after the work day before you head home.
Go sit in the grass or lean on a tree. Let your body touch the earth.
Sit at the edge of a river, a stream or the ocean. Feel the water.
Sit in the sun or the rain or the moonlight.
Sit in your favorite bookstore or coffee shop.
Plop in your comfiest chair, without the TV on or a book in your hand.
Sit in front of a fire, either in your home or in the forest. Let yourself get lost.
Sit next to your child or loved one and simply breathe each other in.

Let yourself simply sit right now, wherever you are. Give yourself 5 minutes. You might be surprised. You might feel something new or let go of something old. Try this simple practice. I hope you will get hooked and make it part of your everyday life.

Your Guide to a Simpler Life, Marla Dee

We love teaching the Clear & Simple Way© to live free of clutter and get organized at last.

Simplify Your Life Homepage

Deepen the transformation with our Simplify Your Life eBook.

The Simple Life… ha! We get the absurdity of even uttering those words. With all of the roles, responsibilities, relationships, children, 4-legged children, tasks, events, emails, papers, belongings, needs, wants, and more, life is anything but simple. It is complex, multi-faceted, and ever-changing. So, is a simpler life even possible? Is there really hope? Yes, you can craft a different kind of life. Enjoy reading about simplifying change, choices, play, sharing, growth, and more.

By simplifying, you will be more present and available for what life puts in front of you. You will enjoy the small things. And you will live with grace and gratitude.

Welcome to Simplify Your Life. This eBook will set you at ease, inspire you to play, awaken your senses and open you to new ways of being. No matter how big, complicated or busy your life is, it can be simpler. Are you ready to love the life you already have?

Buy Now

Simply Play

by Marla Dee

I learned how to play from my daughter.

Play is the spark that keeps our fire burning!

Marla Dee

My daughter Jessica is in her late 20’s. All her life, she has taught me how to play. I tend to forget that play is a part of life. I forget that play happens every day. I forget that play nurtures me. I forget how to just have fun. I was taught when you get all the work done, then you can play. The dilemma here is that the work is never done. So, I’ve adopted my daughter’s approach of bringing in play at every opportunity. At this moment, I am in my comfy clothes, curled up on the couch, surrounded by pillows, coffee cup beside me, laptop in my lap, writing. Life does not get sweeter than this. I am having fun. I have come a long way. I have learned from a master.

Simple play ideas that my daughter has taught me:

Play with a kitten or puppy. If you are really brave, bring one home with you.
Go to the park and let loose in the playground. Get on a swing.
Color or draw. Why not splurge on a new pack of crayons or colored pencils.
Climb a tree. Collect rocks. Dig in the dirt.
Pack a yummy picnic and eat in your yard or on your porch.
Put on music and dance in your living room. Really let loose.
Have a slumber party followed by breakfast in bed.
Read a story then let yourself get lost in it. Isn’t it amazing how hours go by?
Play hooky for one hour during your work week. Be daring.
Cook with your fingers. Eat with your fingers. Yep, get messy.
Let a song or a story come out of you. Go ahead, do it right now.
Watch a movie you’ve seen before and act it out.
Or you can play at being different animals or characters.
Wrestle around on your living room floor – hug, tickle, laugh, let go and just love.

Lastly, invite a playmate into your life. I did, unexpectedly. Back in the fall of 1994, I was meditating outside on a beautiful, warm day. All of a sudden, I heard a little voice inside me say Hi, Mom! I looked down at my still flat stomach and asked, am I pregnant? Yes, she replied, so simply & sweetly. Why now, I asked, for I had been waiting for her to come for years and had given up. I will never forget her response, because you are ready for joy in your life. To this day, the memory of that moment grabs me in the gut. She came to remind that life is about joy, about play, about creating. She awakened my long lost child. She brought me back to life.

So, I insist that you play today! Be spontaneous. Start simple, start small or go for it and take a whole day. Just do it. This is not about planning, it’s about being. Play is the spark that keeps our fire burning.

Your Guide to a Simpler Life, Marla Dee

Simplify Your Life Homepage

Deepen the transformation with our Simplify Your Life eBook.

The Simple Life… ha! We get the absurdity of even uttering those words. With all of the roles, responsibilities, relationships, children, 4-legged children, tasks, events, emails, papers, belongings, needs, wants, and more, life is anything but simple. It is complex, multi-faceted, and ever-changing. So, is a simpler life even possible? Is there really hope? Yes, you can craft a different kind of life. Enjoy reading about simplifying change, choices, play, sharing, growth, and more.

By simplifying, you will be more present and available for what life puts in front of you. You will enjoy the small things. And you will live with grace and gratitude.

Welcome to Simplify Your Life. This eBook will set you at ease, inspire you to play, awaken your senses and open you to new ways of being. No matter how big, complicated or busy your life is, it can be simpler. Are you ready to love the life you already have?

Buy Now

Simplify Choices

by Marla Dee

Taking responsiblity for my choices takes courage.

The impetus of all human behavior is the yearning for freedom. Freedom is to be at-choice in every condition or circumstance.

Most of humanity is rearely at-choice: we simply repeat the old reaction patterns. This is not choice at all, this is unconciousness.

You see, choice implies awareness. Increasing our awareness imporves our choices, which in turn determines our freedom.

Otis Woodard | www.adept.global

Clear & Simple, Simplify Your Life, Simplify Your Home, Marla Dee, Kate Fehr, Simplify Choices

Reclaim the power of personal choice. A simpler life begins with awareness of my power to choose. Do I acknowledge that my life today is my creation? Am I willing to be accountable for past choices and their affect on my life? By answering yes, I am set free! I am empowered to make a new choice, to make any choice. I come to know that my current choice will affect all things from this point forward. I get to choose the direction I wish to go. Simple, yet huge. It helps me understand why I distract myself or play the victim and want to make someone or something else responsible for my choices. Taking responsibility for my choices takes courage.

Years ago, I attended a weekend retreat, led by a modern-day warrior, Otis Woodard. Otis cuts through the layers of self deception to help others reclaim the power of choice. The retreat was entitled Clearing the Past and I went there with a specific intent. Within hours I created the perfect excuse to run or to face my old way. I was paralyzed knowing that I didn’t want to run, yet feeling the strong pull of my past pattern (my old choices) tugging at me. I chose to stay. I am grateful for this gift to myself. By being accountable for my choice I got to learn and change my direction. I learned I am not my emotions or my mind talk. I let them come up and move through me. I then chose to let them go and settle into my heart. My heart is wise. My heart is my center and can always guide me. I heard stay, listen and open. This one choice changed the direction of my life.

What choice lies in front of you today that you have been procrastinating or avoiding? Are you willing to look at the message the universe is offering you? All choices in your life become simpler when you take accountability for making them.

Guidelines for making clear choices.

Which choice is life supportive?
Which choice grows me?
Which choice feels right in my gut?
Which choice opens my heart?
Which choice brings me peace?
Which choice reflects my truth?
Which choice takes me to the next step?
Which choice deepens love and connection?

Choose to reclaim your power by embracing the choices in front of you. You can keep it simple by starting with one. What is a daily choice that would support the direction you want to grow? Today I choose to take my morning walk. Today I choose to call a friend. Today I choose to eat a healthy lunch. What will you choose to do?

Your Guide, Marla Dee.

I love teaching the Clear & Simple Way to live free of clutter and get organized at last.

Simplify Your Life Homepage

Deepen the transformation with our Simplify Your Life eBook.

The Simple Life… ha! We get the absurdity of even uttering those words. With all of the roles, responsibilities, relationships, children, 4-legged children, tasks, events, emails, papers, belongings, needs, wants, and more, life is anything but simple. It is complex, multi-faceted, and ever-changing. So, is a simpler life even possible? Is there really hope? Yes, you can craft a different kind of life. Enjoy reading about simplifying change, choices, play, sharing, growth, and more.

By simplifying, you will be more present and available for what life puts in front of you. You will enjoy the small things. And you will live with grace and gratitude.

Welcome to Simplify Your Life. This eBook will set you at ease, inspire you to play, awaken your senses and open you to new ways of being. No matter how big, complicated or busy your life is, it can be simpler. Are you ready to love the life you already have?

Buy Now