This first post in the Cleaning series is going to cover something i find essential to any home.

Plants.

When it is summer our windows are always open, however as we move into fall and winter we start to shut our windows more.

As most of us know, our homes are full of toxins.  Everything we bring into it, what it is made out of, what we clean it with, it is all pretty toxic. Unless we have made sure that that isn't the case. However, if we live in the city, even the air that is filtering in, isn't all that clean. 

This is the world we live in, so what do we do?

Plants. Everywhere.

These are the top plants recommended by NASA for improving indoor air quality. Click to find out all of the recommended plants and too see what they filter specifically.

These are my favorite.

My family and I just bought our first home!

This moving has inspired a new found love for minimalism. When you have to pack up and move all your junk, you realize how much you don't want to have junk.

So in doing this i have managed to give away, sell, throw away an astounding amount of STUFF.

This really makes one think about why we buy things and why we keep stuff around. I am frugal, don't like spending money frivolously, and that can often turn into me taking every free thing offered to me and keeping stuff around that i may someday use, so that i don't have to buy it... when i need it... someday...

Which, then means i have a bunch of stuff waiting to be used someday...

This makes me think about the amount of time those possessions possess. I have to buy things to organize it, i have to clean it, i have to search for that thing when i need it and finally i have to move it. It is quite an astounding amount of time. I even started thinking about the things i think i need. Such as clothes and furniture. I started wondering if could par those things down. Less clothes, less furniture, less stuff. More time to devote to people and activities in my life that i enjoy.

Being that i am very busy and am constantly complaining to my husband and anyone else who will listen... about how i feel i never have enough time in the day to accomplish all the things i need to get done. This is huge. This sent me on a mission to simplify my, what i already thought was simple, life.

It isn't just stuff that i want to minimize, i want to maximize my living. So over the next few weeks or so i am going to attempt to show you how i am changing my life so as to inspire you to do the same.