Margaret Arnold • December 14, 2024
Precious Treasures, Little Lovelies: Embracing Simpler Holiday Traditions

Downsizing our home and lives has given me the chance to reflect on family and friends holiday traditions. While some traditions have naturally come to an end because of age and distance (a warm goodbye, St. Nick), new ones have emerged. I’ve enjoyed the research, creativity and simplicity these new traditions have brought, all while continuing my Silverish Simplicity practice of “light and variable.”


These practices have embraced a “take your time” approach allowing me to reflect, give with intention and celebrate meaningfully with family and friends.


Here are some of the learnings and highlights:


Precious Treasures Passed On – This year marks the fifth, and possibly final, year of passing down memorable keepsakes to my four children through holiday sorting and decorating and a family dice game. The treasures I’ve discovered while downsizing range from the silly to the significant — family games, formal silver service items from grandparents and cherished Christmas ornaments. Each item has meant enough to be intentional and not throw away, recycle, sell or donate — and they’ve triggered laughter and storytelling.


I also saw and seized a timely opportunity to include a significant regift with a client and friend, along with a small indulgence (more on that next). The item was a meaningful memento from a shared connection, and I hoped the message on it would resonate with her, given her current circumstance and the person who gifted it to me. It did! I received a note of appreciation about the meaningful gift.


Each piece, while used or regifted, falls into the category of precious treasures and has brought me simple joy as they leave my life.


... THey've triggered Laughter and Storytelling ...

Little Lovelies Under the Tree – My earliest memories of gift-giving, outside of an annual gift exchange with my three brothers and two sisters, were Secret Santa games with high school friends, college dorm mates, and work colleagues. Decades later, I recall the simplicity of those small gifts — used and enjoyed without concern for storage or excess.


Over time, gift-giving blossomed without warning to a more mature tradition with “small indulgences” like holiday ornaments, candles, candies, eventually leading to considerable gifts in terms of expense and storage. Today, however, I’ve returned to a simpler, more nostalgic approach — gifts that are small, useable, and full of cheer.


Gift ideas, which come into my life through travel or experiences, are now what I call my “little lovelies.” Spoiler alert: I’ve included a few from this holiday season below.



While I may no longer be a grand gift-giver during the holidays, I hope family and friends enjoy these small tokens of affection, each given with personal meaning, and they find use for them in their lives. I look forward to my ongoing “little lovelies” research for the next holiday season.

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Past Blogs

Laura Ingalls Wilder Book Collection

Stories in Small Moments: Essays and Simple Living

By Margaret Arnold • October 11, 2025
After nearly 30 blog posts about simple living, I continue to find enjoyment in downsizing and being intentional. This summer reinforced my commitment to simplicity in two ways: first, letting things move on—including my 55-year collection of Laura Ingalls Wilder books to my son's fiancée, a teacher, with whom I discovered a shared love of the series; and secondly, using groceries wisely, experimenting with what's on hand and increasing freezing techniques rather than waste (more on that later). This intentional approach extends to reading, one of life's simplest pleasures. Some of my best memories and connections to people are through reading. Laura Ingalls Wilder's books read in the early 1970s remind me of home upstairs in the girls’ “dormitory” bedroom. The Sound of Music on a family road trip in a GMC motorhome in 1976 gave me moments of escape alongside five siblings. Kate DiCamillo, Gary Paulsen and the Harry Potter series remind me of my children as emerging readers and their well-worn books. Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig and Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner connect me to an early book club of serious readers and friends I still cherish today. This intentional approach extends to reading ...

Downsizing Without Losing Memories

By Margaret Arnold • August 23, 2025
With the State Fair and the new school year here, memories flood back — once captured on a paper calendar pinned to the bulletin board, then in spiral-bound weekly calendar (still my favorite, pencil only!), and later on desktop electronic calendar. When we decided to downsize while preserving memories, I organized nearly 35 years of family dates into a single Google Sheet called "Family Important and Fun Dates from Margaret’s Calendars." This simple digital chronicle of our family’s journey, from our children's milestones to the activities and adventures my husband and I now enjoy as empty nesters. tODAY, THERE IS JUST ONE GOOGLE SHEET ...

Saying Goodbye to Boxes, Keeping the Memories

By Margaret Arnold • July 26, 2025
Thirteen years, seven rental properties, and countless storage boxes later, my oldest daughter finally has a home of her own. Through college, medical school, and residency, we continued to store belongings that didn't fit or belong in the cramped spaces of her temporary living situations. Passing along her belongings felt like closing one chapter and opening another—most of all, it represented the end of her grueling training years and the beginning of truly settling down in a lovely home and neighborhood. Her move got me reflecting on my own relationship with storage and my journey toward "Silverish Simplicity." In our former family home, we had one large storage area and two guest bedroom closets filled with plastic totes and banker boxes (see picture below). I even stored empty totes—a sure indication I was planning to accumulate more rather than less. With our move nearly four years ago and the natural process of downsizing while launching our children into their first homes, the number of boxes and totes has dramatically decreased. More importantly, I have no reason to purchase new totes, and I celebrate each time I empty a box or bin and it moves on to family members who need them. ... THE NUMBER OF BOXES AND TOTES HAS DRAMATICALLY DECREASED ...