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?

Blackbag, thanks for the book recommendation,I need all the inspiration I can get!!! Are you glad you bought it, id it a good read? I'm just wondering if I should get it too, I need all the help I can get!

I'm thinking about the Buddhism for mothers book too but I have so many unread books so maybe I'll order it from the library when I've read the others... I'm really interested in mindfulness but went a bit crazy a while back in a completely unmindful way buying every book on mindfulness I came across. The irony.

I think the discussion about music is really interesting, especially the desire to 'own' something that we hear... My issue isn't so much feeling the need to own music as automatically reaching for the same thing again and again. I love 6music too but I am so ignorant about music and end up listening to the same stuff on cd again and again. I think all of this is perhaps part of the same thing - wanting to be conscious and not to fall back into easy patterns/take the path of least resistance. I always feel SO much more alive when I've heard something new to me. A challenge for me would be to put aside ALL my recorded music, not to choose programmes on BBC iPlayer and just to listen to whatever is on 6music.

harrietspy definitely try to order it from the library, I've read quite a few mindfulness books and Buddhism for Mothers talk so much sense for family life! It really is an amazing read & has so many light bulb moments. I've read it twice already!

My DH is watching the children this morning while I have been have a two/three hour intense clear out in our bedroom.

I've cleared one fully stuffed 'bag for life' carrier bag and two extra carrier bags on top of this, these have just left the house in the last half hour Three books are going to book bank on our way out this afternoon. The problem is I've been decluttering for so long now, the satisfaction is quite short lived and I'm already looking around for still needs to go. We had family visit a few weeks ago and I was asked if I'd already packed for the move (I hadn't) but too me, when I look around, there is still so much 'stuff'.

BlackBag thanks so much for recommending Banish Clutter Forever. It's the first book of its sort I've read that actually seems practical rather than idealistic and impossible! Just done the bathroom, now onto the next room...

marking place on thread - tiny house with way too much STUFF esp after christmas

Hiya been reading this thread and doing no decluttering over the past week: poorliness and Christmas getting in the way but I keep spotting things and thinking "why am I hanging on to that?!" which is going to make the chucking out much easier when I get started again. I think that's the best thing about decluttering ~ it comes in waves, you're never finished and you can give yourself permission to let that be okay.

If I don't get back on here, happy new year. Hope 2013 is serene for all of us xxx

I wanted to post about how I've been getting on with my clothes. Thanks to this thread I came across Project 333 which is about having a minimalist wardrobe but is less extreme than it sounds.

The idea is that you have 33 items of clothing for three months (excludes underwear, sleepwear, stuff you lounge around in at home and exercise clothes). Then after three months you rotate three old things out and three new things in. Being American, they suggest you pack everything else up and put it in storage but the reality of the size of my house is that the stuff I'm not wearing is living at the far end of the wardrobe.

I decided to give it a go and have been doing it for a couple of weeks now and much to my surprise, I'm really enjoying it. Courtney Carver, the woman who writes the Be More With Less blog came up with it and says more than anything it should be fun. I thought 'yeah, yeah, so far so American' but it really is. It's making me wear the clothes I really like and feel good in.

It's also helped me massively in deciding what I can get rid of. I couldn't work out why I had three pairs of jeans which I rarely wear - it's so obvious but it's because I don't like any of them and I also don't really like wearing jeans. I like dresses and have counted that I have (kept) eleven. They've all had relatively little wear and I realised it was because I was keeping them for that mythical 'best' that never comes.

Anyone fancy giving it a go with me? It's a good one if others in your house aren't into the whole minimalism thing.

Hello, back again! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I'm going to have a catch up with the thread now. Accumulated waaaaay too much crap over the holidays and am already stressing about it

Hurrah! And a big thank you to all the minimisers on this thread! Thanks to you I have music-magpied 3 boxes containing 116 DVDs, identified a pile of old costume jewellery to eBay, and emptied out my drawer of hole- ridden, ancient Pjs (nice). Long may the minimising journey continue.. :)

Phew all caught up with this thread, am feeling inspired and ready to declutter!

I have a one year old who has just found his feet so can't do anything now, but as soon as he is in bed I'm tackling the towel cupboard- it never occurred to me to have only a few per person, I have loads.
And the worst of it is that I'm using scabby old towels when there are lovely new ones packed away from our wedding which are 'to nice to use everyday'. Not anymore, I will chuck my old crap and use my nice stuff everyday!

The bit that stood out for me is 'is it beautiful, is it useful?' Ill definitely be using this mantra while starting my clear out!

Thanks for inspiring me ladies, looking forward to getting stuck in now!

Go Glitterkitten go! Enjoy the journey! Yay to using nice everyday!

Some interesting links to e books here on minimalism:
www.365lessthings.com/simple-saturday-one-readers-declutter-story-by-mary-ellen/

QueenofWhatever I don't think I own 33 pieces of clothing!!!! I'm sure it's less than that...
What I find works for me is I buy from one shop (White Stuff ), spend a little bit more on stuff I REALLY LOVE then buy less IYSWIM? It works for me!

I definitely don't own 33 bits of clothing...way, way less

Just did a count...I have 24 items of clothing (not including coat and nightwear/underwear) It's not something I have done intentionally, clothes ate just do blumin' expensive!!!!

...just counted up it's ten pieces of clothing plus a winter coat and a rain coat, that includes pj's and I don't have any loungewear or exercise clothes!

Forgot to add what Watson the laundry basket...make that 27!!!

Seriously, you have 24 and 10 pieces of clothing each? How do you cope with dressing for work, being at home, going out let alone the different seasons? I genuinely don't understand how you manage. Excluding underwear I've been wearing six items of clothing today - thermal t-shirt, wool tunic, skinny jeans, fleece, jacket and scarf. Oh, and gloves and boots.

Most of my clothes are from charity shops or eBay, I don't find clothes have to be that expensive.

33 times of clothing... I probably have more like 133

I've got rid of a LOT of clothes over the past couple of months, but I still have a wardrobe and chest of drawers full. I think it's an area I just don't want to de-clutter any further-I like clothes and don't want to wear the same things all the time!

I am seriously in awe at 10 items. I have a trench coat for when it's cool and I need to be smart, a winter coat, a gilet for in-between-y days, a padded jacket for spring/autumn, a tuxedo jacket for evening wear, a blue suit jacket and two boucle thick cardigans for less formal but still work-smart cover ups when my classroom's cold. My coat collection of 8 is almost the size of your entire wardrobe! Do you not end up literally wearing the same one or two outfits every single day?

queen I'm in...have probably been wearing about that number of clothes per season for last year due to being pregnant then breastfeeding and trying to buy clothes which area as ethical as possible which limits choice and ups cost.

However would be good to do this challenge as it might make me feel better about wearing similar things all the time, rather than fed up to back teeth. One thing I don't get-am I meant to throw out three items at end, or back to storage? And do accessories count? Maybe I should read the blog....

Oh gosh, accessories count?! I have cold feet, I was thinking I could have fun wearing the same top with different jewellery...but maybe I should attempt to put together a wardrobe before chickening out

If I was happy as a SAHM I could get rid of about half of my wardrobe. I never go out so don't need smart clothes except for the once-every-5 years wedding type event.

I have a lot of nightwear, too, because I get so very cold.

When I first read the site I thought oh god, that sounds awful. But I've found in life that when I instantly start resisting an idea, it usually means that I'll get loads out of it. I just counted things up out of idle curiosity and it went from there.

I'm between Antoinette and blossom. I'm no fashionista but like having clothes to play around with but find I wear the same things all the time. I'm not sure why but I've found that a lot of the clothes I had been wearing most of the time I didn't really like that much. Even in this short period of time by having chosen what I love, I'm enjoying it much more. I think I've subconsciously been saving a lot of things - I really like this so I don't want to wear it out so I'll wear this sludgey, worn top instead IYSWIM.