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?

LOL BC oh yes I forgot about anonymity! Important point!

Wow, DH seems to be coming over to the dark art of Less Stuff. We have a really big bedroom and since moving in, he's wanted to build an enormous cupboard (think plasterboard, door, basically another room) with shelving, rails, etc in. Reason being - there's space for it and it will be useful storage. I would prefer just to have the space, as if it becomes a cupboard he'll we'll fill it, rather than rehoming things we don't need. Yesterday DH agreed! He thinks we need a different wardrobe (I agree, ours doesn't fit in a sensible place) and some shelves in the in-built storage cupboard. Am delighted.

About to do a freecycle trade of baby clothes, have binned 8 "spare" half-used, drying out shoe polishes, loving understairs cupboard shelving. Bit annoyed nothing sold on ebay apart from one thing that I fear the buyer won't pay for :(

You can set photos so only your mumsnet mates can see them, and restrict to people on this thread, for example .

peppaprig it's really great when DH's cross over to minimalism, well done for turning him

Ill have a go at pics when I'm on laptop later :)

Spare curtains. Mm. I have a blue pair, a yellow pair, a red patterned pair and (possibly) several of those light muslinny/ netty/ summer gauzy affairs from ikea.

Our house has blinds. Not even a single curtain rail exists from basement to roof.

I am now pondering that even if we did move, I may not even use them.

I've been travelling around the world for so long, moving from house to house, that it's become almost second nature to keep stuff, in case it is needed in the next house, even if it isn't in this one.

That must make sense on some warped level... But it's deeply flawed. Surely it would make more sense to keep less... I suppose it's financial. We've had to ditch cars and lost thousands on each of them, so I guess we keep stuff to save rebuying next time.

I'm really dragging my feet this week. Two bags to the charity shop but thats not really great for a whole weeks decluttering. I'm trying to keep in mind the 365 blog and see the bigger picture, but its hard not to want an instant fix and to keep ploughing on.

Pixie think of it this way, each carrier bag/bin bag that leaves your house means you have reclaimed that 'lump' of space in your house. It adds up very quickly!

It's like losing weight Pixie - it didn't get cluttered overnight so it won't get uncluttered in a week or two either. Slow plodding is fine, bag at a time - just don't bring any more stuff in and you'll see results soon.

I've got rid of the VHS tapes and some DVDs; a newly decluttered stack of books is waiting to go. I also have an old analogue TV to get rid of - it has been sitting on the bedroom floor for six months

House looks nicer though. Once the TV is gone I'm going to focus on tidying and cleaning, then have a review of how things are going overall on the minimal path.

I have also been minimising the fridge and cupboards and making an effort to plan meals and use up vegetables, fruit and stuff from the freezer. Have really enjoyed eating some decent cooked from scratch meals and I have done some much needed economising on the grocery shop too.

My house looks like it has been trashed this morning, I had to race out the house first thing. We're pretty minimalist and I can't imagine what my house would look like right now if I had more stuff. It makes me realise that for a calm environment I really need to pick up and tidy away as much as possible as I go through my day and every object needs a home...there's stuff all over surfaces at the moment and it just looks such a mess...
In my new house I really want clear surfaces so I'm going to have to really look at how I do store the stuff I actually have.

Very special VHSs seem to have some sort of resale value on Amazon. I am looking into this further.

I've been reading this thread with intrest. I've been shoving stuff in the loft rather than getting rid of it, for a long time. Today though, I've spent the day sorting and clearing out DD1s room and DD2s room and a bit of the loft.

I downloaded Simplicity Parenting onto my Kindle, it's got some good ideas re the childrens toys. He suggests keeping a toy library so they're not all out at once, but rather just a couple of boxes, then swapping around.

I kind of do that already, with a lot of toys in the loft and getting them down every so often. Today I streamlined it, so all the boxes are labelled and easier to reach. I got rid of some really baby toys to the charity shop, and some bits they never play with. Now Megablocks, dolls pram, wooden train set, Happyland & some big Playmobil sets are in the loft and Dolls, Sylvanians, Barbies & Lego are in tubs under DD1s bed.
DD1 was really happy with her room when she got home from school because its so tidy.
Have you seen the Ribena Plus Play Report?link here It basically says that children need less toys. I'm not sure I could cut down to that amount of toys though!

mazzi I've just cut down on my dc toys as well. They are 3yrs and 2yrs and I've found that they actually play together now rather than just pouring everything into the middle of the room and then smacking each other with them.

What's left has it's own place, I put a picture of what goes in each box on the box which has made tidying up easier for them.

Now, how many clothes does a toddler actually need? Mine are always mucky, from the park or beach or garden etc. They currently have a mixture of soft cotton joggers, a mixture of shorts (summer here) and a mixture of long and short sleeved plain tops plus a hoody type jumper and a fleece. They also have one "nice" outfit each for if the occasion arises) I still feel like I'm drowning in laundry.

Its not it's, bloody phone.

Several items of clothing have left the building today because although of fine quality, correct size/shape, etc. the image they conjure up is of a previous me or another planet me - not current and I would n't want them to work in the future.

I'm also grouping things together, all the stationary is united and it turns out DH & I have three compasses, set squares in four sizes and a set of professional draughtsman pens. We've both been using computers for 20 years and if we need a circle draw round a plate - madness but still got them.

xMinerva I'm not very good at thinning out clothes for the children. DDs have 3 drawers and a hanging rail each. They're 7 & 4, both at school so during term time it's mostly uniform, but during the hols they seem to get through so many clothes!

They've got far too much though. I get given a lot of hand me downs, which DDs love but I should probably weed some out.

Am soooo proud of myself!

Have been ill with no energy for months, so all kinds of stuff has been piling up. Was getting quite disheartened.

Have been feeling better lately and realised that I had enough energy tonight to have a good crack at the loft.

Three bags of rubbish sorted, a bag of clothes for ,my mum, two bags of coats to the charity shop and two boxes of toys to give away. Yay!

And have made a start on getting the Christmas decs away (I do have a good reason for that, honestly... holiday plus birthdays, etc etc. ).

Anyway, pat on the back for me. Plus I feel inspired to do half an hour or more tomorrow night while hubby is working late.

I've managed to sort out about 7kg of clothes for ClothesForCash, which has cleared one of the 3 million plastic boxes in the loft.

Boffin I know I was the person who originally posted about clothes for cash site but just googled it and this link came up:
forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3243840
So I'm not sure if the site is ok to use or not. Just wanted to flag it up!

So yesterday I had a big tidy up and cleared all the surfaces, and finding homes for everything, it made such a difference this morning, I feel calmer, more organised and tranquil. When we get into our new home I'm going to focus on organising as well as decluttering.

Loving the work everyone is doing.

Does anyone know where I can recycle old mobile phones and laptops? I've sent a couple of OK quality ones off to a buying website but these are too old for anything but recycling and I'd rather not just send them to landfill.

Hell, if you check your council's website they should take electronic equipment at the Household Waste Recycling centre.

Not a minimalist blog per se, but lots of her advice ends up being minimalist. She has no sofa or chairs in her living room, there's a photo further down the page, and she advocates minimal shoes and standing desks etc. www.alignedandwell.com/katysays/more-about-katy/ I've read through the whole blog and am very inspired to walk lots and improve my posture, and also to lose the never used huge armchair from the tiny front room and rearrange it so I can sit on the floor more comfortably without feeling oppressed by furniture.

I never seem to get rid of enough toys. Most of them never get played with. Arrgh.

Iwipe can't wait to check out her blog! She sounds like my kind of woman LOL

IWipe about the toys, can you try boxing half up and putting one half in loft as an experiment to see how DC play with less?