We have had a couple of extremely productive days around here. We’ve built shutters for the guest house (which we’ve been meaning to do for a couple of years), we closed off part of the outdoor patio to make it look nicer (almost something we’ve talked about for a while) and now have a lot of painting to do. We’re in full on downsizing mode — and the YouCapture theme of simplicity could not be more fitting for our lives right now.

Since we haven’t really gotten rid of much in the last 10 years (probably because we always seemed to be upgrading in space, instead of going down — like now), there is a lot to be done. And to be honest, although we trashed about 15 cubic tons of stuff when we first moved in (I so wish we’d be into Freecycle then, knowing what I know now) but there was just so, so, SO much more to be done. One day soon, I’m going to share to some photos of our barn. It’s the polar opposite of simplicity!

It’s a bit sad to us to realize that many of the projects we are doing and things we are cleaning out really don’t take much time. And why we never got around to doing them for ourselves is beyond us…I guess we just got complacent and lacked the motivation to get it done. It’s so much easier and productive when both of us are around to do things, instead of just one plowing along.

We are welcoming the upcoming simplicity which will (hopefully) soon fill our lives with open arms. The thought of being surrounded with only the things we love and use often (a la the William Morris Project) makes us all quite joyful. I think even Mackenzie is liking the fact of getting rid of the boring toys, repurposing some to bath toys so they get some new attention, and letting other kids that don’t have toys get her other stuff. It’s amazing how perceptive a 3 1/2 year old is! Ayla is inspecting every thing that leaves our property and making sure to stay close by so we don’t forget her in the move. She definitely knows something is going on. 😉

By the way, if you are in the Frankfurt area and would love to snag some awesome free stuff (from old furniture to Singer sewing machines to old farmer stuff to whatever else we decide isn’t worth the hassle of putting on eBay), please be sure to join the Freecycle Hanau group. Our stuff goes live on there first  since Frankfurt delays the posts after manual approval. But if you want something, you need to act quickly. Most things are promised to someone within a few minutes. We couldn’t have imagined that we could get rid of so many random things so quickly! But you will need to come pick them up at our place! We’re also going to be putting a bunch of stuff on eBay (especially Mack’s clothes) so I’ll let everyone know where to watch out for those as well (if you’re living in Germany — unfortunately the shipping to the US would just be insane!)

I haven’t taken many pictures of our progress or simplicity lately — but I think the new shutters my wonderful husband just built fit the bill of simplicity — not to mention they just make things look more finished and perfect.