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?

How about scanning the diaries? I must admit my DH just got rid of his, he had a whole pile, and the ones over the last eight years do mention things about DC but he got rid anyway. We have photos and video, we just couldn't see ourselves reading back through them.

Remus I am desperate to do my underwear drawers. Too much rubbish that doesn't fit.

My makeup etc has been cut down by quite a bit yesterday, but not as much as I would like. I think I will need to revisit that area again in a few weeks.

I've also been thinking about spending less time wasting my life away in the evenings. I just veg in front of the tv. I recently started couch to 5k and really enjoyed being out 3 times a week clearing my head. Unfortunately it is currently on hold due to a hip injury, but will get back to it. But it has me thinking I could be doing some more decluttering in the evenings. I think I may start with some clothes this evening. Nothing to stop me rotting my brain cells with the soaps at the same time.

On diaries, I think I might go through and photograph happy/important entries with my phone and get rid of the rest.

Suffolk I had a good sort out of my boys room before christmas, so it isn't too bad but it was a space I kept putting it off due to the difficulties of storing tiny toys. It felt so god to get it done though. I will revisit it and be more ruthless before we redocorate it in spring.

I am saving most major projects for when the dc are back at school, as it is easier without them in my hair. I feel that I should do something fun with them in their last few days of holidays.

I used to have a lot of diaries, all full of misery. I binned them all with the exception of the one from first year at university, which had angst but was also funny. I dont miss them at all.

school yearbooks, funny that should come up. I recently had a trip home and cleared out everything my mum was storing for me, I had little hesitation in chucking the yearbooks. I didnt have a good time at school, was happy to get rid of them.

Hey, I actually managed some decluttering today! I pretty much went on a rampage as the state of the house was winding me up. We just seem to have so many things that don't have homes. I am pretty good at putting things away when they are finished with, but those bits that don't "live" anywhere just float around, being messy and in the way.

I've only got one box of books and one bag of clothes ready to go, but I have got a lot of other housework done too, so I'm feeling quite good about what I've achieved. I cleared all DD's too-small clothes out of her wardrobe, they are now bagged up, and if next DC is a girl they will get used, and if a boy, will go to charity shop.

I think I too must get real about what I can actually sell. Who is going to make a journey just to buy a book for a pound? I think I'd be more successful doing a car boot, but I can't drive (yet, having lessons).

I think I will ask DP to take us up to the amenity site tomorrow to drop off the stuff I've boxed up. I don't feel the benefit of decluttering whilst the stuff is still in the house.

lemon bloglovin is great. You get a daily digest of any new posts from blogs you follow. I've got boffin on there - did the mince batch cooking fest this weekend, and suffolk too. Love your writing style, and find it interesting as I'm a compulsive de-clutterer rather than a clutterer. Will have a think about the psychological reasons why, but think it's as I grew up with very few material possessions, and had the teeniest bedroom in the world.

Great thread, i'm due my bi annual declutter.

Just wanted to say that i started de cluttering over two years ago. I found that it took me two years to get down to a simpler life. I did it in waves and was a bit more rutheless each time. Stuff like diaries, school shirts etc took a Long time to go.

I have a much simpler life now. You really don't need so much stuff and it's so much easier to sort, tidy and clean with less.

It is an ongoing process though, stuff just creeps back in, which is why twice a year i ruthlessly and systematically go through every room in the house.

Good luck ladies...it a good journey.

I found the tip today after only 18 months of living here This thread is working wonders for me! Two big items gone and an epic fail on a third - a beautiful wooden highchair -which we just couldn't bear to part with even though we have never used the bloody thing. Its looking at me mockingly now

Peppa that is perfect thank you. Feel I may spend too much of my life reading blogs now though.

Oh and can you tell em what boffin mums blog is called so I can find it.

Here it is

Thanks peppa

Perfect timing it seemed too, as I have downloaded the book for my kindle free today.

I'm really interested in what peppa says about being a compulsive declutterer. I think the urge to declutter can, for me, sometimes be a way of exerting control when other things feel out of control. I find myself trying to clear out my boys' rooms when I am feeling really anxious about work (and therefore avoiding it). Definitely one of those times when working from home is a disadvantage...

I'm realising again and again that striving for minimalism is about so much more than decluttering. I want to live a simpler, richer, more conscious life and not turn to my 'false refuges' (chocolate, telly, stuff, mindless surfing) to anaesthetise myself when things are tricky. Over Christmas I've dropped my usual routine of getting up early to write/meditate and I now feel as if I'm one mass of tension because of all the difficult feelings I've been avoiding. I can't cure this simply by getting rid of stuff. I'm forcibly reminded that the point of minimalism is that we choose to stop possessions or telly or Maltesers or a slavish addiction to Zen Habits-type blogs coming between us and a conscious life...

So tonight the laptop is NOT coming into my bedroom. It will be me and my book.

Night all, and thanks for all the inspiration!

Great post Harriet A lot to think about in there.

"a simpler, richer, more conscious life" - yes! That is what we are striving for here. I think I was a gypsy in a former life! I like the idea of being a nomad, moving on with very few possessions, seeing different places, and not feeling tied to a place. Home is simply where my I, my husband and child/ren are.

Ha Antoinette. I've been here about four or five years, so I must have passed you by!

So, I'm going to reread the thread again.

Where did you all start? Just small? Just the 15 minutes a day thing? Or did you go at it like bulldozers and try and do as much as possible for impact? Will be gleaning ideas to make a start on Saturday - have about two hours... And could in theory do the same thing on Sunday.

Am in awe of your clothing decluttering. I have about that much that I actually wear and mountains of clothing gathering dust in various states and places around the house - wedged into cupboards or piled onto baskets. We actually have a walk on cupboard on our bedroom (it sounds v grand, it isn't) and I wanted to get some additional shelves in there (it has two hanging rails and one shelf at the mo) but I'm wondering if I need to just get rid of stuff rather than concentrating on storage...

Lentil - we try to live to that maxim anyway (we are an ex-military family who have been schlepping around the world for some time) but we seem to carry everything with us. There's no travelling light involved...

It just feels too much. As though we are being weighed down.

I've just got a new job, and we are able to finally sort out finances, and so I feel as though I can liberate things. It's almost as though I have been subconsciously holding onto everything in case... (In case of what I have no idea, but I guess it's a little like hoarding food in times of famine...)

Didn't do any specific area today, as had quite a busy day. Recycling gets collected tomorrow though so DD and I challenged eachother to see who could find the most bits of recycling. Didn't set timer or anything, just went for it. :) ( she won but cheated by grabbing the Xmas cards!)

I'm heading away with DP for a long weekend on Saturday morning do wont be about for a few days. Then when I return its back to super-clearance while DD is at school. A break in a clutter free hotel room always helps!

Also, a chat with DP about kids, marriage and mortgages in the last week has def helped me focus on spending money wisely, and therefore not wasting money now buying unnecessary bits and pieces :) I already had a few incentives not to accumulate more but this certainly helped!

Good luck everyone :)

jimmycorkhill thanks for linking to the Putting Me Together blog. It looks great and just what I need now that I'm doing Project 333.

madwoman I think the way everyone does this is different. I personally like to do maybe 30 minutes every few days. If you do this on a regular basis, you really get through stuff. I know others will spend all day throwing stuff out.

At the risk of sounding critical, I think some of us are working towards minimalism whilst others are just decluttering. I think you have to get rid of the clutter to stay living a minimalist life but it's only part of the process. Working out how to reduce the clutter and noise in our lives is the next challenge and as harrietspy describes so well, that can be quite difficult at times.

It's different for everyone though. I read this blog on zen habits yesterday and thought "this is absolutely not how I want my life to be!":

12 rules

madwoman I find that the Flylady thing - 15 mins on a timer then a quick break for a drink of water/cup of tea before setting the timer again - is what works best but I don't always keep to that...

Queen I just looked at the 12 rules post. 1 million people! Sounds positively Messianic. I wonder if this guy has family... One of the minimalist bloggers I read suggested that some forms of minimalism are "lifestyle porn" and that some of the men who brag about only having 2 pairs of socks and a Moleskine and being able to pack all their possessions into a handkerchief aren't minimalists, they're bachelors. Hopefully this will help me not to get too sanctimonious!

Lentils it was moving 4 times in 4 years that drove me towards minimalism. I'm still encumbered by stuff but now obsess over the idea of what 'home' means and love the idea of being able to move without 600 boxes.

I am going to link to the Putting Me Together blog on mine. It's brilliant! I want a mustard cardigan too!

I think it is going to be a struggle going from mad house home of 6 to lovely minimalist home for me, but I am trying to look at it as a gradual process. The children would freak out if they came home from school and all they had was one book, 3 pens and some wooden animals! But I can get there a bit at a time.
We have talked about giving up the house and travelling for 6 month/1 year in 2014/2015 (eldest dd will be in year 9 so before she starts GCSE years at school). This is working as a great incentive to get rid/sell!

I saw the 12 rules post as well, and that is definitely NOT how I want to live. I want to live a peaceful, relaxed life, and that does not sound peaceful and relaxed to me!

Yesterday made progress with Christmas decorations. We have gone from a HUGE box (the kind that 4 children can have a tea party in!). It had no home and lived all year in a corner of our bedroom. It has now gone down to a large shoe box and 3 boxes of lights! These will live under the bed until I have cleared out the eaves, then they will fit in there!

I would love to have a true minimalist home (or what I consider to be one in my head!) but realistically this will be very difficult with 4 dc!

I am noticing now that my boys are playing differently with there toys in the new spaces, and this is encouraging me to continue. Their game is in depth, detailed, complex, not mad dashing, chucking things every where. This is encouraging.