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'd forgotten that Flylady thing about forgiving yourself and letting go, graceless - thanks for the reminder!

I have my ebay, etsy and car boot boxes, but if I haven't shifted them by a certain date (yet to be decided) the contents will go to charity.

Pixie, tell me more about Evernote. I had a quick look at your link. Do you scan paperwork or just take photos with phone?

harrietspy DP was indeed on the bus... But has had to leave this evening :( probably wont see him til after Christmas now which is hard!

He asked what all the boxes were for and I explained. And helpfully pointed out I've too much food in my cupboards! He thinks its the same stuff there as when we started dating but he hasn't considered the fact I just buy the same things :) some have been there a long time though. Working through it will be my challenge for next 6 weeks I think. But I'm def finding a new home for the mung beans- ewwww.

I made about £2k since the summer selling stuff but now I'm down to mostly 99p items, plus about 4 boxes of items I estimate will sell for £5-10 each. The 99p items will go to charity shops ( will get more than 99p for them there - it's only as postage involved that I'd get less profit- n

Aww, mobile site has gone wonky again!

I was saying.. I'm not using charity shop as dumping ground!

While we're talking about selling, can I call on your collective wisdom? I've inherited a gorgeous blue enamel c1930s 'Telephone' sign that I want to sell. I've seen an identical item go in an antique shop for £150 - which is more than I earn some months so I'd like to give it a try.

Where would you try to sell something like this?

bc sorry dp's had to go. I hope your Christmas is as good as it can be.

How much time do you have /what value do you put on your time?

Would you approach the antique shop and ask if they would buy it from you? You wouldn't get £150 obv, but it's low hassle!

Also, any auction houses near you? You could maybe email them with good quality photographs and ask what they think. Low - medium hassle.

I'd forgo £20-30 on a £150 item rather than spend days researching it in fine detail ( I used to do latter! )

But I love how it sounds. Got a pic?

Well, I have finally started DS came home and we went through two wardrobes and some drawers which were full of his 'just in case' clothes. And 99% of them have been recycled. It took us about 25mins to do, so quick. I held everything up and DS said 'yes' or 'no' and it was DONE

I have just done a small but momentous thing. I had a tub of files from my nursing degree sitting at the bottom of the wardrobe. I qualified 11 years ago and have moved house four times since. Not once have I ever looked in the box. Well I have been through it all and taken a few dozen interesting or useful things out to keep and the rest has gone in the recycling. I've got other boxes like that to deal with. It only took me half an hour!!

Well done graceless and chottie!

I haven't done anything today so far ( except bring a new book into the house that the library didn't have. It's on job hunting and highly recommended so its my Xmas gift to myself :) )

Think tonight DD and I will start looking through her stuff but she gets overwhelmed so 15 mins max. Maybe 15 mins of fiddly stuff decluttering. Then ill read my new book :)

Tomorrow I'm going to clear the car port. Fencing put up a few years back means we can't get a car in it ( nor did we ever park a car there before fence!) but it does end up as a workshop/dumping ground. I'd like it clear and just keep the recycling and two wheelie bins in it so I don't have to go outside in dark and rain ( or change out if my slippers...)

hello mimimal ladies, sounds like you're all doing well - great to read about your success to keep me going. Not much progress yesterday as spent evening with a family member who has had bad news, but tonight am going to try and clear odd sock box and find 10 items to make up for yesterday's pause and not, repeat not, comfort buy something from Amazon because everyone else is out having Christmas fun and I'm at home with DS.

I agree with bc on the sign, I would approach the antiques shop first and see if they'll take it off your hands. Or wait til a no insertion fees weekend on ebay and then list it with a starting price which is either close to or exactly what you want to get (bearing in mind selling fees of course). But they only come round once a month or so, so you might have it round for a while.

*minimal

We took a load of stuff to a charity shop today. It was in a laundry bin, which was also intended for the charity shop, but I was waiting in the car with DD while DH took everything in and he came back out still holding the basket! He was embarrassed to go back in but I was damned if I was going to bring the bloody thing home again!

Small change compared to what some of you have been achieving recently though. V inspirational!

Hurray for all the stuff leaving our homes! Sorry am on phone and difficult to scroll back but someone made £2000??!! That's amazing. And you clearly have a much higher calibre of excess stuff than I do - I've made maybe £50 on eBay over the past year or so but it's been torturous! And the book buying website that's been mentioned, well I put the isbn's of about 30 b

Hurray for all the stuff leaving our homes! Sorry am on phone and difficult to scroll back but someone made £2000??!! That's amazing. And you clearly have a much higher calibre of excess stuff than I do - I've made maybe £50 on eBay over the past year or so but it's been torturous! And the book buying website that's been mentioned, well I put the isbn's of about 30 books into it the other night and it didn't want a single one of them! Not even 10p! So they've gone to charity. And like I said, with the extra peace in my life from the calmer emptier home, I could do a shift of overtime and get £100!! There's no price for calm is there?

Xx

Oh bugger. Sorry for the double post!

Graceless I am very much in your camp - a whole box of CDs and DVDs made us about 15 from music magpie earlier this year. Ah well, freed up our mental space for that great invention which will make our millions. Or something.

I know this is skipping back a bit but I am also really impressed and inspired by mm and your screen free and internet rationed home. I am awful at just wasting time on internet during day when I could be paying more attention to DS or making better use of his naptime. So might try to implement your rule of no internet while he's around/awake. Don't think we'd go completely screen free, not least cos I use our TV for radio - does this count??

I'd heard of playful parenting, too. Sadly our library has neither but I plan to buy them in NY as a reward for some (as yet undecided) simplifying/minimalising goal.

lol, cluttering up our digital space graceless?! ;)

The £2k was some big things - a freezer, play kitchen, stair gate...actually lots of stuff that I cant actually remember now! I was boring and saved it all though because my job ended in October and I needed a buffer.

Do also consider school libraries and regular public libraries when getting rid of books. Or www.bookcrossing.com/ which is rather fun Some of my local charity shops are selling 10 kids books for a £1 as they are so overrun with them.

This evening I challenged my daughter to find 30 things in her room to leave the house. I went first, though since Ive already cleared so much I only found 17 before the buzzer went off for her turn. She was doing v well and found 35 things before clicking that it was much longer than 5 minutes. Silly mum "accidentally" turned off timer before the buzzer... but she def enjoyed the challenge.

Her wardrobe contents are confirmed as follows:

School stuff
1 trainers
5 school polos
3 school joggers
2 school jumpers
5 white crop tops
5 white socks
2 white tops that she will wear as vests under uniform
1 pe kit (tshirt, shorts, socks, trainers)

Other stuff
3 tops
3 leggings
5 crop tops
1 fleece
10 pants
3 socks
1 "dressy" skirt - currently no tops to wear with it

2 thermal pjs
2 nighties
2 bed socks
1 pair slippers
1 dressing gown
1 swim suit

1 long coat
1 short coat
wellies
hiking boots
1 hat
2 scarves
1 ski gloves
1 wooly gloves

a backpack / lunchbox combo
a cross body bag for day trips
an overnight/carryon bag
2 purses

1 pair of fairy wings
assorted hair accessories.

Cant really streamline any more than that.
Her underwear all needs replaced (santas job) though needs properly fitted bras asap, which ill obv need to do! But will be disposing of old stuff as soon as new stuff washed and ready to wear.
Also need warm flat black boots - currently wears mine.
needs new school uniform tops too as gone through growth spurt but has had current stuff for 2.5 years. again, giving away old stuff as new stuff comes in.
and needs a top to go with her party skirt.
and will look out for wooden hangers for adult sized clothes and get rid of all the kids ones.

so 2 new things needed, but everything else is just replacing.

bluecarrot you would love my MIL. When she moved out of the big family home years ago she presented DH and DSIL with a spreadsheet listing all the items of theirs she still had. They had to fill in whether to bin or keep until they could collect. If they didn't fill a space or come within a certain timeframe it was going. Thanks to her my DH is not so much of a hoarder.

My DM, on other hand, still has all of my school books in her loft as I wouldn't let her throw them out without me going through them which I never have. Now feeling a rather bad daughter and considering telling her just to bin the boxes. I haven't looked at them in over a decade so can't imagine there is anything actually worth keeping. Does decluttering another loft count??

yes of course it counts - its your stuff and you feel a bit guilty, so free yourself from the guilt and tell her she can get rid :)

I do love spreadsheets....except Id need to be doing it for stuff in my house that belongs to other people. I have an entire room filled with other peoples stuff!

bit of inspiration ladies [http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-hoarder-next-door Hoarder Next Door Christmas Special]

Doh! Hoarder Next Door Christmas Special

Clearing carport and room we store gardening /outdoor stuff in. Lots of old paint out there that will have experienced frosty conditions so should be brought to skip for disposal. Will make sure all gardening tools are cleaned and then store them properly for winter.

That will be a fairly big job so that's all I'm expecting of myself today ( as well as actually taking the stuff to dump.

I have an old buggy that no longer folds but is otherwise great condition. At some point I intend to add tool belt round the handle bars, remove the hood and fabric seat and insert a flexitub on top and an old kitchen basin ( has a crack so no longer usable for water) on the shopping basket and voila- a gardening cart! My garden is quite long and I want something that carts all my stuff around easily so I'm not running back and forth to tidy up after gardening session :)

harrietspy, I have a doxie go handheld scanner that lives on my landing strip so I scan stuff in as it comes through the door and put it straight in the shredder/recycling. You can also just take photos with your phone, and I autoforward any email receipts and statements as well.

About once a week I plug the scanner into the network and upload everything to Evernote, and some things I might also forward to iPhoto or whatever. It means I can easily find any bill just by typing in keywords (like: Electricity 2006 August).

(We also have all our data mirrored with http://www.backblaze.com/ as I am required to manage data and IP sometimes for clients so I can't lose anything!)

I scan using an app on my iPhone :)

I've just been listing some stuff on eBay and it's free - don't know if it's a free listing weekend or anything. I've put three pairs of winter boots and a down jacket on, all starting at 99p. I've listed them for ten days to try and pick up the Christmas and New Year crowd.

You can list up to 100 x 99p items for free a month (though new users are limited to 10 listing a month I think)

Items over 99p attract listing fees. :)

I cleared car port and back room but still needs a lot of work. 1 v v full carload away to skip and about half a carload still here but skip will close before I can get there. There's a lot if boxes and pots that need washed out. Maybe a plan for tonight- watch iplayer in kitchen while washing them. Then a lot of the pots will be donated to the local gardening group who keep our town blooming :) ill keep some but I tend to get so many throughout the year there's no point in keeping them all.

I took before pics but it too dark outside now to take after pics. Ill do that tomorrow.

Meeting a friend later and DD is giving her little girl some of her old books and fancy dress clothes. Will give DD a bit more time playing in the laptop then give her a "give to Sarah" challenge to see if there's anything else. (Friend already knows I'm calling up tomorrow to lift anything her daughter doesn't want, and it'll be whisked away to charity shop on Monday)