Declutterers - Aspiring Minimalists out there?

[Chestnutx3]

I sort of do flylady but have been overcome by the decluttering bug and have been reading lots of books about minimalism. I have got rid of bags full of clothes/sheets. Boxes full of books.

Still feel I haven't scratched the surface in many rooms - large house but with little storage at the moment. Also haven't unpacked fully and we have been here nearly a year!

Any other aspiring minimalists out there?

Any tips we can share?

I sold loads of books via Zapper, it all added up and they collected by courier - I tried to buy mainly Kindle books with the money to stop the book mountain emerging again.

Please come and declutter my house! I need help!

Hi there

I am a professional organiser. Wisteriawoman, I am happy to offer some tips if you want help. More information is on my website www.joannehuey.co.uk

Thanks
Jo

Mothering.com has the most minimalist community I've ever met online, go look at their decluttering boards, if you fancy inspiration!

I've been reading minimalism blogs etc for years. I know I will not become a minimalist because I like my things and I am not ready to part with most of them yet.

Decluttering is fun. I feel at peace when I clear all the surfaces in a room.

I have found the best tip for me is to stop buying and use what I have.

For example I kept on buying various cleaners for the bathroom and kitchen -- I purchased so many that I stop buying last October and I still have plenty left.

Similarly I love clothes shopping, but own so many clothes I have stopped shopping. It's little things like realising a dress I purchased last year has only been worn 4 times. I wore it 5 weeks ago and I'm hankering it to wear it again tomorrow, but then I realised I would be seeing many of the same people -- so pulled out another dress which has a similar story. So I have enough dresses and need to stop buying for awhile.

I am scrounging trying to find things to flog on Ebay, for some reason that motivates me to get rid of things, too. Along with not buying anything if I can avoid it. And browsing the wanted ads on Freegle, that helps me let go of stuff, too.

Because I am a hoarder/frugal type rather than a minimalist I realise there are loads of things I will probably never need to buy again, I mean never, in the next 40-60 yrs: cutlery, coats, jumpers, bed linen, towels. It's shocking to realise how little stuff I need, sometimes.

So,this is what it's boiled down to for me this long weekend - a bloody good declutter to get back on the straight and narrow!

I've been really busy the last few weeks and the walls have started closing in - I've got horses in the kitchen ffs!! (DD2 ran out of room for playing with her horses in front room so has resorted to the kitchen....)

I've been watching 'The Hoarder next door' that I've been recording in anticipation of the big push,and now I'm galvanising myself for action.As I live in a very compact and bijou residence,minimalism isn't a real option if my kids are to have any toys or possessions at all,but my goal is to balance organised but busy areas with calmer and clearer relaxing spaces.My major sticking point is paperwork and books.....

I'd be happy to join in with anyone who would like a buddy-buddy system for a bit of a clear up (once I've had another coffee and digestive....)

May I ask what you do with old cassette tapes? Moving in two months and trying to declutter. They do not take that much space but it all adds up.

Permission granted to bin them Random.

(why would you want to keep them?)

OP, apologies, did not respond to your initial query. I bought fly lady and try it, but finding it hard to do the throwing away bit. Will watch thread to learn.

Can I lurk on here for tips? I have a bin liner of clothes in the boot of the car that hasn't made it to the charity shop yet, and various piles of odd books. I find it hard to let go of things without thinking I should have/could have made money for them. Stupid, really - I am telling myself now (and this might help someone else hence talking to myself here) :

• I have bought these items, the money has been spent some time ago
• I have had the use from them
• someone else can now use them, enjoy giving it away for its own sake
• the amount these things will get is not worth the expense of fuel in driving them to the cash-4-clothes place, or the expense in mind clutter of having them hanging round the house whilst waiting for them to sell on the local free-ad Facebook pages, or the hassle of listing cheap items on eBay that won't sell for much more than a pound or two each if I'm lucky.

Obviously this is all cheap stuff - I will sell my carpet cleaner on eBay, sold my juicer recently on local FB page.

Now, can someone help me with getting rid of kids' things? Both the toys and games (mine range from 4yo to 19yo so I am now guilty of thinking "perhaps I'll keep it for the grandkids"!!) and the drawings/cards/memorabilia.

Cassette tapes - bin! But I was never attached to tapes, now vinyl is a different matter...

Kids things - I have taken to taking a photograph/scanning the old drawings/cards/memorabilia and then throwing them away almost guilt-free. As for keeping stuff for the grandkids - unless it is really special stuff I wouldn't. MIL gave me loads of old toys for DS that she kept in the loft from DH. DS doesn't play with them (and they were filthy as had been kept in open box in loft for 30 years, and many were broken) and they now sit around in the house taking up room as DH won't let me throw them away (even though he didn't even know they had been kept!).

Gosh - writing that out about DH's old toys has made me again! We have had a loft conversion and converted the back of the garage so storage space is minimal. I cannot believe I spent hours sorting out and cleaning them to have the pleasure of them cluttering up my house! I was a bit when MIL brought them over a couple of years ago. Think I may give them all back to her for the other grandchildren to play with when at her house...I have decided that they need to go now. Today!

Box up any stuff you're not sure about, keep it out of sight for 6 months or a year, whichever you are comofortable with. If you haven't had any need or desire for it in that time (chances are you won't!), out it goes. If you haven't missed it in a year you really can't pretend that you still want/need it!

We did this by accident while doing various house moves in quick succession. AFTER lugging said boxes from place to place, we eventually opened them and chucked the whole lot out! (Would have saved a lot of time and hassle had we realised earlier!).

Anyway, I now use this method day-to-day. I have a cupboard in the spare room known as 'Quarantine'. Anything I'm not sure about goes in there for a few weeks or months before being reclaimed or going to the charity shop. I've got loads better over time - more often than not stuff goes straight away, or at least in a few weeks.

Second tip - do not mistake organising for decluttering. A whole load of neatly organised boxes of junk is still junk!

Oh and read the Miss Minimalist blog. Best one.

okay, here's a quandry, how many pairs of jeans does a 10yo girl need? Given I'm not even an aspiring minimalist, but given she's got school uniform most days, are 2 pairs of jeans + 2 pairs of other casual trousers enough?

Dd angling to get a pair of skinny jeans ilke her best mate just bought.

Chestnut What books did you sell via Zapper?

I read your post and thought it was a good idea, so I just entered the barcodes of about 12 books I had lying around on their site - half it said they wouldn't take any more copies of and the rest it offered me 30p a book?! Is it really worth doing?

Can someone link to the miss minimalist blog please? Thanks

Inspired by thread have started very small - one of those tall CD racks from IKEA in the study, have taken everything out and so far have a 1 foot high pile of CD-ROMS that I either have no desire to ever use, or that don't work on Windows 7 so are pointless (does bloody frustrate me though, did have some fab educational software that was never re-released). They are heading to the wheelie bin as soon as I've finished the shelves. Have also sorted all the back-up CDs of our digital photos into order and properly labelled them. (We do have an external hard drive but I keep a CD as well after the last hard drive failed and we lost 1 year's worth of pictures. I also now am diligent about printing a selection of the best pics and putting them in albums for the same reason)