Peace of Mind Organizing

Q&A with Courtney Carver, author of Soulful Simplicity

24 December 2017

I’ve been a fan of Courtney Carver of Be More With Less since I heard her speak in St. Louis about her Project 333 minimalist clothing challenge. I immediately accepted the challenge and have been enjoying my tiny wardrobe ever since.

Courtney has a new book—out today!—called Soulful Simplicity: How Living with Less Can Lead to So Much More. When her publicist invited me to interview her for a Q&A for this blog I jumped at the chance.

I really enjoyed reading Soulful Simplicity, in which Courtney takes us on her journey toward simplicity, letting go of excess clutter, debt, and responsibilities. She describes the many ways it has benefited her life (including improving her health) and gently guides us to embracing simplicity in our own lives.

I heartily recommend the book for everyone who feels they’re surrounded by too much stuff or overwhelmed by life’s choices or just not living the life they see for themselves. The book inspires, it doesn’t goad. It’s a quick and fulfilling read.

Here are some highlights from the enjoyable 45 minutes I spent with Courtney on the phone.

Why did you write this book?

I wrote the book to go deeper than where I’ve gone with the blog. And also because as much as I love hearing from experts and learning from experts, I am much more moved by learning from other messy humans, like myself.

I love that message, but I think of you as an expert!

I definitely don’t consider myself an expert. In fact, I think I’m just learning along with everyone else, and just sharing the experiments and the different things that I’m trying. I’m learning just as much from people who are doing the same thing or doing other things.

I just think it’s so important that we share our stories. I think so often there’s so much of ourselves that we don’t share and so we secretly think that everyone else has it all together and we’re the only people who don’t. On some level, during some time of our life, we’re all a little bit of a mess. And if we share that more openly, it’s less scary to go through. I know I pretended for a long time that I had it all together. And I definitely didn’t.

I think those are wonderful reasons to write a book. I’m curious, when you started your journey, what were some of the biggest surprises that you encountered? Or the things you didn’t expect that happened?

I didn’t really have specific expectations about how things would turn out, so I was really surprised at how much more present I was by letting go of things. I knew of course that by letting go of clutter, there would be more space. That seemed obvious, but that there would be more implied space, more mental space, more heart space, that really surprised me.

How long did that take for you to observe that?

I would say I could notice it, little pieces of it, but when it really set in it was probably a couple of years into it. Because at first you’re really focused on the changes that you’re making and you’re actually adding a little bit to your plate when you’re taking on bigger projects. So it can be a little daunting because you think “I’m really overwhelmed, do I really want to do more to become less overwhelmed?”

As I was reading the book, I was wondering how with your job, and everything going on with your health, you were able to fit in all the changes, including the decluttering and blogging?

I was definitely adding more in, but I was so excited about the changes that I was making and the progress that was happening that it actually lightened things up a little bit. Even for instance, when I started my blog, I was working full time. I didn’t enjoy my job, but working on this other thing, even though it was more hours spent working, I knew it was leading to something that would help me get out of that job. It made me not hate the job as much once I started doing something that I was really interested in.

It probably felt like the beginning of an escape path. Rather than feeling trapped in your job, you were working on something you enjoy that might allow you to let go of your job.

Definitely. Instead of spending that extra time after work complaining and whining about my job or thinking about how much I hated my work, I was actually working on something I cared about.

You started this journey after you were diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The changes you made to your life, including improving your diet, reducing clutter, and eliminating debt actually improved your health and allowed you to live without medicine for MS. Why do you think that is?

I think the biggest thing I would point to is the reduction of stress. Letting go of the stress of the debt and the clutter. And the stress of really fast-paced life. The stress of being someone who I wasn’t. Doing work that was really outside of my heart. That was all very stressful. But when you’re in it, it feels normal. It feels necessary. You convince yourself that it’s up to you to hold all these pieces together no matter what the cost, until you break down to the point where you can’t hold anything together anymore. And then it’s time to rebuild.

Right. That’s a huge message. I think we get caught up in that race, and it feels so necessary, and even desirable for some people, though it perhaps isn’t necessary or desirable at all. But people can get out of it. You created this life for yourself that you’re sharing with us. I think this book would make people who feel trapped feel like there’s a way out for them too. That’s gigantic.

Yeah, when you say desirable, I think you’re right. I think we convince ourselves it’s desirable, because otherwise it’s unbearable.

Those are some powerful words. I think you’re absolutely right. What would you say your favorite aspect of embracing this soulful simplicity is?

That’s easy. My favorite aspect is that I can actually now show up for my life. I can show up for conversations and really be there for the people I love. I can show up for my work and really be there when I’m for instance writing a book or writing a blog post. I have the time and energy to really dive in and stay focused on that one thing. Where prior to really getting rid of a lot of the excess, there was just always too much to be thinking about and dealing with. And so if I was in the middle of a conversation with you, I would probably be also checking my phone, or thinking about my to do list. If I was writing something I would also be checking email and social media, or something like that. I would try to do too much at the same time, which I could kind of gloss over and do that, but I would never be making any real connections. Never be writing anything of substance, and never be really content with my connections to people or projects.

I really believe that we get more freedom when we have less stuff, and you’ve expressed that so well in this book. The book isn’t a how-to, it’s not telling people what they should do. It’s about how you benefited in your life from doing what you did. The way you expressed it is just so clear and so gentle. I love that it’s not directive.

There was more to the interview, of course. I intend to create at least one more blog post from the interview. Stay tuned!

If what Courtney says in this interview resonates with you, please do yourself a favor and read this book. And if you can, go see Courtney talk about the book in person. She’s going on a book tour early next year. (Alas, it doesn’t look like she’ll be coming to St. Louis.) To see if she’s coming to a city near you, check our her book tour page.

Tagged with: books, courtney carver, simplicity

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