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 am probably very minimalist on the bra front as I find it extremely difficult to find ones that fit and are comfy! I existed all of last year on only 2 but have just bought a 3rd! Have recently put 2 uncomfy ones in a charity bag leaving only 1 uncomfy one ( that I might actually find more comfy as I lose more weight ) and a strapless one that I need for a couple of "posh" dresses I wear for weddings etc!

ooo bras! I currently only have two, and a sports bra. I need one more esp as the current ones are aging. Recently threw out a lovely one that I didn't wear because I went off the colour - and two more glam ones that I loved but offered inadequate support so were never worn.

I should just mention here that I am loving having so much drawer space now I've cleared out a lot of clothing. It's easy to keep tidy and I can find stuff so easily.

Just dipping in. Bag to charity shop this weekend (and another half full in the cupboard), bag of stuff on freecycle and 12 listings on ebay (mainly baby clothes). I also have two bags of baby clothes to go to a friend - getting rid of the pregnancy and baby stuff makes it easy to declutter daily as there's so much of it!!

I have to confess that I have just found a whole lot of towels that I had forgotten we owned, I used them to pack up a box of framed pictures over a year ago!
So they are going to a more deserving home along with a few of the framed pictures which haven't made out of box onto the wall in any of our homes over the last 10 years. They were all gifts. I am definitely a sentimental hoarder!

2 bags to go to charity shop (when I have car).
Another box of books packaged & ready for webuybooks.co.uk.

I'm preparing for The Great Room Swap to accommodate our student lodger (which will include dc sharing a room for first time in 3 years!) and am getting incredibly anxious about emptying the garage in our old soon-to-be-sold house. I wish we lived closer to it (not 80 miles away!) so that I could tackle it in brief forays rather than one big onslaught...

Just caught up and enjoyed reading everyone elses posts.

Wendy, that sounds exhausting and very stressful. I'd be quite upset by that. Good idea about womens aid and it sounds as if you handle it brilliantly.

Someone else posted about sort of de cluttering screen time. Mmm, interesting. I have deactivated fb with this plan and will also be getting rid of my smart phone. Theres just no need. I dont want my children to remember me as permanently distracted by it.

Have just read "Simplicity parenting" and recommend it, especially comments on toys!

silent I had a completely screen-free Lent last year (except for v.bounded email times, which I couldn't avoid). I had so much more space in my head!

So much for de-cluttering!

I was looking for an A6 ring binder to put my own paper in and use for keeping records of spending each month. I found one on ebay ( they aren't that common - usually A5 or A4) last week and bought it - it cost £4.50 with free P&P

A big box arrived today. Turns out I've ordered a box of 60 A6 binders! All for the princely price of £4.50! I could use one a year for the rest of my life and still not get through them all!

Anyone want an A6 binder?

Wow, everyone's doing so well! I've had a few days of doing nothing as DD is ill and requiring constant cuddles (how awful for me, I know ) and I'm itching to get going again. One trick I've found is that when I do a cupboard or drawer, I note it in my diary and put a future note to look at it again-it's amazing how much stuff you keep during a clutter purge that seems necessary, and then a month later you realise isn't at all!

educatingarti you made me laugh! Stick them back on eBay? You might make quite a profit!

Wendy shunt the train into the sidings ie re-home it!

I spent a few minutes in the Oxfam bookshop today - I had a few minutes after a meeting before school pickup and it was too cold to loiter in the playground - and saw 3 books I wanted to buy. Then I remembered that I've been trying to sell books and give 'em away unless I love or really need them... So I wrote down the titles of 2 of the bargainous books and if I really want to read them, I'll get them from the library. I know this sounds really obvious, but it really helped to curb the impulse...

I did actually buy the 3rd for £1.99 - I need to read it quite quickly for a work project and decided to buy it because (i) it would cost me £4 to get the bus to the main library and back (ii) I'll give it away when I'm done with it. V proud because Oxfam have a BOGOF on novels but I didn't go for the 2nd free novel...

educatingarti your binders really made me laugh . Sell 'em on!

My wardrobe has had a dammed good culling and as a result I've been more focused in the sales at filling in the gaps. It's worked well and I've wasted less time and money, browsing and buying.

Post christmas we had a good sort out and an ornament amnesty 'I'm not keen on that' 'neither am I, I thought you liked it'.

The PIL turned up for a late 'xmas' the amount of tut unwrapped was generous, heart in right place but the source of many of the guilt kept stuff was apparent.
I spotted DH rescuing the packaging for regifting. Even as a child he was never a one for 'stuff'.

My family have a saying used since I was a kid "It's rude to give ornaments'

I have sorted out the hall table's drawers and cupboards, getting rid of all but 2 pairs of gloves and woolly hats per person (must have been about 10th other kids' ones...), all Xmas stuff is now together in one box for the loft that is bright red and sealed, so should be easy to find next Nov, and I've just done the coat stand. At least 3 coats that people have left here, but after months they can go to the charity shop! Also 2 bags of books and 2 bags other stuff for charity shop and 2 of clothes and stuff for the clothes&clutter swap party.

Also starting to use up kitchen cupboard stuff in preparation for knocking down the kitchen... very pleased so far but only one more week before I return to work.

I'm keeping all 11 umbrellas I found though, as they break soon enough.

notcitrus
Would you like to make an inventory of your 11 umbrellas? I think an A6 file would be very useful for this!

Christ. This farking train is apparently going to be a cross I have to bare. DH is getting pissy about it, doesn't want to get rid, won't give where it should actually go any thought. So I guess it will sit in the giant box on top of a chandelier in our utility room until the utility room gets torn out in a couple of weeks to become our new lovely entryway. Perhaps I'll suggest it goes in the loft until the boys are actually old enough to use it and he'll forget about it for a few years and then I can rehome it.

Tomorrow I will plod along with my file clearing and tackle the cupboard of bags in the kitchen.

Seriously, does anyone have handy tips for handling the DH. Going through the house I'm realising a lot of the clutter we've still got is his stuff that he can't seem to go through and organise. I buy storage boxes and he chucks stuff in, but never gets rid. I've never, ever, gotten rid of anything of his with out his knowledge, but I may have to start resorting to it. He keeps stuff because he can't be bothered to think about it, forgets what he's got and can never find anything. He never seems to learn that this is because he's got too much crap and it isn't organised. I love him, but may kick him out in the annex to live on his own with all his beloved treasures and scraps of paper.

Wendy, we have similar traits in our dhs! We're lucky in the sense we have big separate outbuilding in which I chuck a lot of dh stuff; he doesn't miss it. Not much help to others though.

Binned pair of maternity trousers yesterday, doesn't sound big deal but I bought them with first pg and because I never get a proper bump, didn't fit them. Thirty weeks with dc5 now, still in normal clothes and just thought, sod it, and chucked them. Wardrobe now consists of:

2 bras
4 knickers
5 sock pairs
3 tights
3 work dresses
1 pair trousers
1 tracksuit bottom
1 dungarees
3 cardigans
3 coats (smart coat, anorak and lovely red coat can't chuck but is surprisingly impractical as very light and only suitable for late spring/early summer)
1pair trainers (might chuck as rarely wear)
Work knee high boots
Pair heels
Hiking boots
Wellies

Gosh, it reads as loads! What else can I bin?

Harriet, love the idea of screen free lent. I'm wondering if you have read "silence" by sara maitland? She has some very interesting comments on minimalism, though she doesn't identify it as such.

Trying to reducea lot of"attention seekers" in my life, face book first to go, next smart phone, would love to lose tv but dh not keen ) have lost this battle consistently for ten years, did not have tv when I met him). Also want to get rid of land line but that seems tied in with internet. I did not have a mobile two years

Ago, but living rurally with lots of dc, made me think again. Right have posted essay for which I apologise! Insomnia !

DH snap!
My virtual DECLUTTER isn't going well - I reactivated both fb and Pinterest. Still plan to get rid of smartphone, and would love to not have a tv (I didn't use to either), especially as you can catch up with rare good stuff on the laptop (Borgen, homeland, cbeebies ;) ).

Why does my phone capitalise DECLUTTER? It's a sign (of what, I'm not sure).

silence, I've heard of the S Maitland book and really want to read it. And I don't think your clothes list looks like lots at all!

Smartphone is bloody useful for such things as finding out where you are and how to get where you want to go though (for a directionally-challenged person like me!)

I also use mine to send off pics as I take them to family abroad.

It's a question of disciplining yourself over its use I suppose. I don't have any games on mine for that reason.

silent your clothes list is quite minimal - do you really only have one pair of trousers? I don't have a lot of clothes, but you put me to shame!