Anyone want to join me in a minimalist journey?

[lucysnowe]

I've been reading a load of minimalist mum blogs and have been brainwashed inspired . We are undergoing some building work at the mo and the amount of stuff everywhere is absolutely doing me head in. Once it is finished I want to have a ginormous sort and throw out. We are getting a tumble dryer and I plan to start culling clothes, sheets, towels etc, with the aim of getting ALL washing done each week and not have massive full up bins cluttering up the place. Next: toys, ornaments, and random bits of paper. Anyone fancy doing the same for the New Year?

I think opting for screen free etc is a distinct issue from minimalism, one can be a screen junky minimalist or a screen free minimalist! in fact many leading exponents of minimalism seem very attached to screens.

IWA I agree, the Internet can be addictive. I have a rule, when the children are in the house, the wireless Internet is turned off and my iPad is banished to my bedroom. Needless to say, they're are both in school now. If you want to help limit yourself, I've found packing it away is best. In the evening, it is very rare I'm on-line. At 6pm my iPad is put on top of my very tall wardrobe in my bedroom, I have to stand on tippy toes to reach up there! That way, I'm not tempted to hop on line and I can truly rest/relax properly in the evening as I'm downstairs, far away from my iPad!

StillSmiling I certainly didn't mean to be minimalist you should be screen free, I just meant for me the decluttering/minimalism/simplicity all go hand in hand in my family's life. It is like a philosophy for us.

PS people is RL at school gates don't know we're screen free, it's not worth the looks of disbelief and 'You're not being serious' expressions. The reaction tends to be negative so thank you to IWA for being interested in different approaches.

Simplicity and minimalism often go hand in hand though stillsmiling.

There isn't an ideal level of minimalism for everyone to aspire to either, everyone finds the place on the spectrum from extreme minimalism to extreme messy hoarder that they feel comfortable with.
Bare walls all the time would make me miserable, but I love my futon bed.

I wouldn't want to be completely screen free all the time, but I'm attracted to the idea of not having unlimited broadband at home, like this.

I lived in a student house with no tv, no outbound calls, no internet and this was before mobiles, for a few months, just music, little radio, lots of talk and crazy fun. If we'd had a telly we'd have sat watching Star Trek all the time.
I used to check my emails on a Sunday at my Mum's.

IWA I read that article a few months ago! It's a great article. I have a love/hate relationship with the Internet. By the way, I'm very jealous of your futon bed.

I love it, it's a seven layer kingsize futon, just on the carpet. I fold it over every morning and roll it and flip it once a week when I strip the bedding. Lots of floor space during the day, it's the only way we could fit a kingsize in our room too.
Best of all, baby can't hurt herself when she rolls off it.
I'd love to try the much thinner traditional style of futon sometime too.

Oh my, IWA you're so lucky! It must be very comfy. I have a beautiful white king size iron bed but no matter how hard I try, 'stuff' still get shoved under it somehow, and we are pretty minimalist here! Nothing could get shoved under a futon. I'm struggling with bedding issues at the moment. In the tiny house we are moving into my children will be sharing a small room. I'm on the brink of having low bunk beds hand made (so the bottom bunk is almost on the floor, but not quite. The overall height of the bunks would be 123 cm, which isn't that tall) but I'm worried when my older girl clambers down will she wake my youngest girl? I hadn't thought about futon beds. My gut instinct tells me they might feel too 'temporary' for a child to feel secure if they got folded away each day? Hmmmm. There isn't space for two single beds to be up full time in room IYSWIM which I why I automatically chose bunk beds. I did think of a trundle bed under my older girls iron bed but didn't think that would seem fair on my youngest. I find making what should be quite simple decisions hard!

Definitely worth thinking about futons for them. I bet they'd love being responsible for helping fold up and unfold them each day. They could put them in different places, or right next to each other.

IWA I don't know what to do now! Where would I even find good quality children's futons on-line? I need to make the decision as soon as possible as we're exchanging contracts on the house any day now.

We got ours from this company- www.futonshop.co.uk/futon_mattresses.php it was on sale, they aren't cheap. But you can get cheaper ones on ebay. I don't think it's much different to the cost of a good bed and a decent mattress that will last.

What age are your children? Would they like to share a double? If so take a look at the ikea daybed for ideas. It has storage under in drawers and converts simply for a single day bed to double ( can be a sofa in the day)

Forevergreek they're 7 & 4. I asked them about sharing a double a while ago and they both said no. I think my youngest would most certainly kick my oldest in the night! I love the idea of a sibling bed though!

I'm basing the bunk beds we're having made loosely on this design:
pinterest.com/pin/2040762302712842/
There will be a small gap under bottom bunk slats for ventilation though.

pinterest.com/pin/2040762302712842/

That looks really nice. I know my eldest is looking forward to having a bunkbed when the youngest is big enough, but he can be a little risk-unaware, so I might try and persuade him to have a futon too.

IWA that sounds like a safe option to me!
I'm going to talk to the children when they get in from school and ask them what they would like and then go from there as it needs sorting out, if the bunk beds are being made they take at least three weeks.

I'd love a Murphy bed. Or any other type of hidden/transforming furniture like in the links I posted a few days ago. I have even designed some tables myself ( wouldn't trust myself in making a bed though!)

Two carloads of stuff away today and I've two boxes of things that friends have first refusal over before the remainder goes to charity. Ill see them tomorrow.

I have one room entirely empty except for the stuff I plan to sell, and another room ( equivalent of our attic) clear except for Christmas /Easter decorations boxes, the dismantled spare bed, boxes or photographs ( which needs sorted) and my craft stuff ( which also needs sorted). The layers analogy has been in my mind too. I've got the initially obvious excess away now, it's all the little bits need done now!

I'm exhausted though!

I'm a bit at the notion of not watching much telly being classed as a different approach! I grew up with no tv and we rarely watch, it just seems normal to me. But I would happily watch more at some times if its what I felt like doing.

On beds my sis got her kids beds made (cheaply) where the lower bunk had its foot end only under, they were right angles in a corner.
The higher was only about 12 inches above. This meant neither bed was high for safety and both kids had a sitting space during the day.

Stillsmiling when I grew up and at school the TV was rarely on during the week (At breakfast time, after school etc) and nowadays TV bracketing the school day seems very, very commonplace.

I do think it is unusual today for a child not to watch TV/play computers/be on an iPod/iPad at all during the week and simply watch an hour of TV over a period of seven days or watch no TV at all. TV/screens are so very commonplace in today's society I think kids are expected to watch TV/play computer games so I personally feel it is a different approach in modern day living.

Stillsmiling that bed solution sounds good!

Antoinette my place is pretty well on the way to being minimalist , but only because I have an attic of doom. I really need to tackle that in the New Year.

bc the Murphy beds look amazing!

It sounds like you're transforming your home! How is it making you feel? I used to feel exhausted after a big declutter, it's quite exhausting both physically and mentally.

For space saving, multifunctional furniture is the way to go. My favourite thing in our flat is a coffee table, with four little seating stools stored under/ within it. Each stool when taken out can also be opened at the top and is hollow inside for more storage. It's great as when guests come over there is four more places to sit without taking up space.