Table of contents for Simplify Your Life in Real Simple

MY LIFE FELT like it was in a blender. It was a Tuesday morning, a remote learning day for my daughter with no preschool for my son. I tried to work at my desk while keeping an ear on my daughter’s lessons. Late for a Zoom meeting, I rushed into the other room to set up the iPad for my son, slamming my toe on the coffee table and crumpling to the floor. By 4 p.m. I still couldn’t pull leggings over my swollen foot. I heard my daughter talking to her remote piano teacher, a college student 850 miles away whose face was peering into our home. “My mom is still in her pajamas!” Mom-shamed, I hobbled back to my bedroom, which also was my office, which was littered…

CHRISTINE PLATT Literacy advocate, author of The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living with Less, and mom of one “I Wanted My Home to Be a Picture of Calm” When Christine left her job as a lawyer to pursue writing full-time in 2015, she started working from home. “For the first time, I was there not to just eat and sleep,” she says. Being at home prompted an awakening: “I always knew I had too much stuff, but I had everything relatively organized,” she says. She realized, though, that even if everything fit in her closets, it could still be an overwhelming amount to maintain. “I couldn’t ignore it anymore.” Goal: “When I started, I just wanted to be a minimalist,” Christine says, laughing. “My goal was ‘How can I make my…

Cellphones and Tablets When Charles Gerba, PhD, a virology professor at the University of Arizona, analyzed various household surfaces, his team found that cellphones had 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats. Need any more reason to wipe yours down? To clean the case, remove it, spritz a 50-50 solution of water and white vinegar onto a microfiber cloth, and rub evenly. Tackle any grooves in the case with a cotton swab dipped in the solution. For the phone itself, just use a soft lint-free cloth. Don’t jam swabs into ports or headphone jacks—they can shove grime deeper in and leave fuzz behind. A can of compressed air is your best bet there. And you generally don’t want to put alcohol or hydrogen peroxide on your devices, says Leanne…

ONE REASON yoga is so valuable for stress relief is that it incorporates dynamic, or moving, stretches. Moving stretches activate your range of motion, circulating blood and oxygen and delivering nutrients to tissues. This powerful combination is incredible for melting away muscle tension. What’s more, you can do these stretches for free at home, no fancy yoga studio or equipment required. Here are six basic yoga poses that specifically target tense muscles in the neck, upper and lower back, and hips—those that tend to get tight and strained during times of extreme stress (or even after sitting at a desk all day). They’re low-impact and beginner-friendly, so you can work them easily into a daily fitness or stretching routine. Harvard University research has found that activities such as yoga that…

SHIRA GILL Shira’s dining room in Berkeley, California, triples as an office and a backdrop for her online organizing classes. The built-in cabinet holds the items she needs for work and family time. 1 Edit away: Shira reduced her collection of hosting supplies to the most she might need for the largest party she throws—her Hanukkah open house. 2 Labeled bins help corral all kinds of small items, including candles, napkins, and party decor. 3 It’s not a waste of time to put your stuff away at night even if you’ll just take it out again in the morning. Shira’s family “shuts off” at 6 p.m. by stashing their work in the cabinet—and closing the doors. NIKKI BOYD For the author of Beautifully Organized, cabinet drawers are the foundation of…

IT’S EASY TO get overwhelmed by all the health advice you feel you have to follow (or else!). Eat this at exactly that time. Never eat that. Try this new dance workout. Meditate. Begin a 12-step skin-care routine. Do squats while you clean your home. (As if!) Sip a green smoothie each day. Never have sugar again. Exhausted yet? While some advice you hear or read has real merit, there’s so much based on nothing that you could quickly lose focus of what is actually important and useful. But what if you could streamline and find the very thing that experts do themselves to preserve their health now and in the future? We asked a registered dietitian, a dermatologist, a psychologist, and a cardiologist for the key bit of…

Grilled Chicken and Pepper Salad ACTIVE TIME 30 MINUTES TOTAL TIME 50 MINUTES SERVES 4 1 ¼ cups plain whole-milk yogurt1 cup packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves1 tsp. lemon zest plus 3 Tbsp. fresh juice (from 2 lemons)1 clove garlic2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided, plus more for grill grates1 tsp. kosher salt, divided4 6-oz. boneless, skinless chicken breasts8 oz. sweet mini peppers, halved lengthwise1 red onion, sliced into ½-inch rings2 6-inch pitas1 5-oz. package salad greens PROCESS yogurt, parsley, lemon zest and juice, and garlic in a blender until smooth, about 2 minutes. Transfer half of mixture to a small bowl; stir in 1 tablespoon oil and ½ teaspoon salt and set aside. Transfer remaining mixture to a dish; add chicken, turn to coat, and let stand at room temperature for…

PATTY BRAHE of Long Island, New York, was standing in the produce section of her local gourmet supermarket when she found herself in a pickle over tomatoes. “There was an entire aisle of them,” says Brahe. Cherry, plum, heirloom, Campari. “It was overwhelming. They all looked the same, and the prices were all over the place.” Clueless as to which would work best with the dish she was making (a simple crudités platter), she spotted a fellow shopper eyeing the two-for-$5 cartons of cherry tomatoes. “She looked savvy, so I just got those. If I hadn’t copied her, I probably would have just left without any.” While Brahe’s experience in aisle 1 may sound like a first-world problem, it’s emblematic of a modern-day phenomenon affecting anyone who has ever…

1 Create limits. Prevent small items from spreading all over the counter or dresser by containing them on a tray. Even if the tray gets cluttered, it’s just one small spot—and easy to hide away when company comes. 2 Never set mail down. Letters, catalogs, and bills still pile up even though people use less paper now than they did 20 years ago. To prevent this accumulation of paper stacks, carry mail straight to the recycling bin and toss stuff into it. Almost everything postmarked “presorted standard” is probably junk, as is much mail from companies you don’t have an account with. (Opt out of unwanted mail altogether at ecocycle.org/junkmail.) Mark events on the calendar, then recycle invitations. Set bills in a letter sorter to handle at the end of each week.…

YOU’RE UP BEFORE the sun rises, with every intention of hopping on your spin bike. But you putter around, run out of time, and skip it. Or you get on the bike but pedal half-heartedly as you respond to email on your phone, then beat yourself up for not being more motivated. We are giving you permission to stop sabotaging yourself. Rather than doing one intense workout, you can find various exercise opportunities throughout your day. You don’t have to push yourself and get all sweaty to boost your mood, strengthen your bones, lower your risk of heart disease, and experience other positive effects of exercise. Walking for 10 minutes three times per day, for example, can deliver benefits such as lower blood pressure. “Everything counts,” says Michelle Segar,…

FRONT COVER Ali Harper/Stocksy BACK COVER Clockwise from top: Ali Harper/Stocksy; Duet Postscriptum/Stocksy; OR Images/Digital Vision/Getty Images TITLE PAGE AND CONTENTS P. 1 Jasmin Merdan/Moment/Getty Images P. 2 Yaroslav Danylchenko/Stocksy P. 3 from left: Kaat Zoetekouw/Stocksy; Ted + Chelsea Cavanaugh; Marc Tran/Stocksy CHAPTER 1 PP. 4–5 Yaroslav Danylchenko/Stocksy P. 7 Judy Davidson/Moment/Getty Images P. 8 iStock/Getty Images P. 11 Monsoreh Motamedi/Moment/Getty Images PP. 12–16 hollaillustrations/iStock/Getty Images (4) P. 17 Sanny Van Loon PP. 18–19 Sunyixun/Moment/Getty Images P. 21 Photodisc/Getty Images P. 22 Digital Vision/Getty Images PP. 24–27 Dan Saelinger/Trunk Archive (2) PP. 28–29 iStock/Getty Images P. 31 Kaat Zoetekouw/Stocksy P. 32 The Image Bank RF/Getty Images CHAPTER 2 PP. 34–35 Marti Sans/Stocksy PP. 36–37 Jared Soares PP. 38–39 Brian Casazza P. 40 Amy Drucker PP. 42–43 Create + Gather…