Friday Five: 'Tis a Gift to Be Simple

Photo by my niece, Laura Nichols, the day I let her use my camera!

Today's RevGalBlogPals Friday Five is courtesy of kathrynzj who is coming off of a week of vacation and is interested in streamlining her life. She invites us to respond to this question:

What are 5 things you do or things you have bought that have made your life simpler or easier?

That's EASY!

1)  Kindle Touch -- Let me count the ways!

• Easier to hold than a traditional book and easier on the eyes.
• Less space to keep books. 
• Lots of free and very very inexpensive books to have and others to borrow.
• Can carry around a Bible (or more) and even simple liturgies for home Communions or hospital crises.
• For sermons, it's the best -- simple & sleek!  (Ditto about funerals and weddings)  I like the leather case that my sister gave me. 

2) Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) -- I am trying to get all of my documents into two backup places and this is one of them. (The other is an external hard drive that I back up once a week.)  In Google Drive, I get 5 GB for free and I haven't used all of that.  After that, it will be $2.50 a month, which I think will still be worth the peace of mind.

3) Zen Habits blog -- Inspiration for gentleness and simplicity. Simplify and Savor Life or 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life would be good places to find ideas for today's topic.

4) Be More With Less blog -- More good ideas and challenges for simplifying and downsizing. I think it would be great to try 50 Days with 100 Things.

5) Gluten Free (and now almost) Grain Free Eating: At first glance, this might sound more complicated and more trouble than it's worth. Aside from the health benefits (for me -- your mileage may vary), there are simplicity benefits. Think about it:  there are whole sections of the grocery store that I no longer need to mess with.  Searching a menu is easier.  I am "limited" to making choices of among things that are less processed and have fewer ingredients, which itself is probably healthier.   The Joy of Limitations may not appeal to everyone, but my INFP personality finds my life a whole lot simpler when I live within certain limitations.

BONUS: Something I wish I could manage better:  Right now I am trying to manage getting ready to move.  I am ready to downsize and I know what I want/need to get rid of. The challenge:  how to get rid of what I am ready to let go of.  Sell? (How?) Donate? (To whom?) I wish I could do it better and (please) a whole lot faster.