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?

Morning everyone!

Last night I decided to deal with 10 items in my junk room spare room cum craft room. Not difficult since it still had loads of packaging from Christmas presents I bought online scattered around the floor. Having read "Banish Clutter Forever" I think I am going to have to resort all the storage in there at some point but can't face it yet! There is still a big box of A6 files on the floor!
It felt good just to deal with 10 things though!

Today I have to have at least a 10 minute tidy/sort in my workroom before I do much else. Determined to be more structured and organised.

I don't have DH/DP so only have my own junk to deal with. In many ways a lot easier but I also know that everything messy is my own fault!

My Dad was a bit of a hoarder and his room full of random junk study used to drive my Mum demented. She used to go on about how she thought one day the floor would collapse into the room below. He's been quite seriously disabled (both physically and mentally) for a few years now and my Mum has had to take over all the paperwork and stuff my Dad used to do. She has been able to totally revamp Dad's study and throw out loads of stuff. I think she would still rather have my Dad back in full health though - even with the hoarding tendencies ( He kept things like an old kettle element, "just in case" even though wouldn't fit a modern kettle!).

Had a major sort and move around yesterday, got rid of a chair and bookcase from the living room, lots of books have been moved to our craft room, there's most of one wall with no furniture against it now! The kids actually have room to play in here now. The craft room is the next to tackle. I actually got a lot of the crap out of there yesterday, but it needs sorting and decluttering still. Some stuff is moving out of there I think, but it's going to take some effort.
The only problem really is that we are cheaty declutterers most of the time, everything that doesn't go in the bin or recycling goes into the garage for later sorting. I don't drive, otherwise charity shop stuff would go straight in the boot as flylady advises, but at least it's out of the house, which is a start.

I love the minimalist wardrobes, but I want to change what I wear, go from jeans and tops to leggings and dresses, but I only have one dress atm, so could be pricey.

I keep looking at the rack next to the kitchen sink...we have a dishwasher which we use for most things, but the rack holds anything we tend to wash up by hand. As I shamefully admitted up thread, we don't then tend to dry it up but just leave it to drip dry. It makes the kitchen look really messy even when it's otherwise not...so I'm wondering, if I got rid of the rack, would that make us dry up and put things away straight away, or would we just continue to be lazy and leave things on the side to dry...?

i joined flylady a year ago and love it!! if you do a bit most days it is so much easier... put a load on everyday.. even half a load. do the ironing before it becomes a huge pile. wash up before bed every night.. a shiny sink in the morning puts a massive smile on my face!!
wipe down the toilet and sink everyday and replace toilet roll immediately ( this is something that has really changed my life!!)
declutter bit as often as you can.. it makes you less likely to buy/accept new clutter
I used to be offered stuff all the time by friends and family and used to say yes to be polite!! couldnt get rid of it as i felt guilty,, not any more. i just no thankyou,, no more guilt!

I have lurked on this thread from the beginning and have found many useful tips, thought I'd share my own. I saw the advert on tv for music magpie now taking clothes and the ad is a little misleading (IMO) in that I thought it was only designer clothes. It's not. I've just accumulated £10ish worth of stuff that was earmarked for charity. Only 9 items too so you get a decent price.
Check it out - a little bit is better than nothing.

Off now to take three bags to the charity, having rescued my £10 worth!

Made about £75 on WeBuyBooks and have a lot more space now to put my favourite ones on the shelf. MusicMagpie are supposed to be collecting 50 DVDs/CDs tomorrow as well, that should raise about £50. I can now find the CDs and DVDs I actually like to watch as the shelves aren't so crammed. This is a good system.

Antoinette, I had exactly the same thoughts about the drying rack today.
We got a dishwasher a few weeks ago but there always seem to be a couple of bits to be washed by hand like wooden spoons or the pasta pan which doesn't fit.
Having a couple of extra tea towels in the drawer clutters less than having a drying rack so I am thinking of getting rid of ours. I'm going to box it for a couple of weeks and see how we get on.

Good idea-I might shove it in the shed for a fortnight and see if we miss it!

Harriet, I do recommend it, fascinating read by fascinating woman. She makes a very interesting point when she states that despite living hermitically (is that even a word??) She does not want to live without electricity etc. she makes her living as a ou tutor and points out that without internet she couldn't do her job and live where she does. Interesting point about"things" not being your master, but your servant.

I read a lot about the Amish in my early twenties and this perspective concurs greatly with theirs, they dont flat out reject modern advancements, just very selective over what they adopt and how they do it, for example, they are not anti medicine, but choose to fund it in full payment up front, not via health insurance.

Arti, love your"just ten things". One of my worst characteristics is not starting something because I feel overwhelmed and not doing it well or in full.

And whoever recommended we buy books, thank you!

I spent a lot of today uploading cds to my ipod. Am I brave enough to bin them all once I've finished?

Wendy, I think I need less since we've moved so far out into the country. Believe it our not, I used to luuurve clothes when I lived in london and had a mildly glamorous job, but really theres no point having lovely evening clothes when I only really make it very infrequently to a church meeting. I look awful in trousers (size 14, abnormally short legs) but they are sooo comfy and warm, so I compromise with wearing dresses to work and just trousers at home. Doing three loads of washing a day helps too!

Sold our CD collection (most of it) on Amazon about five years ago. Made £300!

Don't bin CDs-sell them on Music Magpie or Amazon! You'll be amazed what you can get for them. (You do need the boxes and inserts to sell them though.)

just marking place. Doing HUGE declutter, have had health issues that mean housework not done over last year. 25 bin bags removed so far... and counting..

Wow, thunks, that is outstanding! That's got to feel good.

I've been following/inspired by this thread since the start of the year. I'm not going for a complete decluttering but have been doing a lot of sorting out of stuff. Clothing is a challenge piles are: give away, wear now, see if I can wear in June - when I (hopefully) loose baby weight. Have thrown out a lot of make-up and the old bits of perfume.

Big question for all of you is.... what have you done with your wedding dress? Mine, worn once 10 years ago... keep? sell? turn into something else....

Decided to spend 10 mins per day (unless under particular time pressure) decluttering/tidying work room (self-employed and need lots of "stuff" for work). It seems to be making a difference

Technical question: can this thread just keep going indefinitely or is there a limit to how long it can get? What happens then? Do we start up a new one?

Thanks! I'd be sad if our little minimising community disappeared!

My wedding dress is in a cupboard at my mother's house. Therefore it is clutter, but I don't have to see it...

I went through the plastics cupboard yesterday, threw out some useless / knackered ones, put some to good use in the baking cupboard (hate storing dried fruit in those "resealable" bags that don't reseal).

I had already thrown out approx thirty plastic takeaway containers and lids weeks ago. So DP wants to take some leftovers to work for his lunch and asks if I've binned them. I said yes, but we still have some other tubs. He says they are too small and went out and bought a new one!

I too struggle with decluttering as a lot of the stuff that needs to go is his. Some stuff he's ok about, like the ancient video recorder, he knows it's not worth anything so was happy to drop it at the amenity site. But there are loads of his pictures knocking about that are just awful just don't suit the house. War planes and stormy sea / boat scenes, mostly. There are also things that have been given to him by his grandmother (still alive, btw), which we don't really want. No one else in the family wants them either, but they'd hit the roof if we tried to get rid. It's like they don't want to give it house room, but they don't want it to leave the family, so we end up storing it.

Just catching up on here after not being on for a few days. The combination of back to wrk and now a cold means I have not got around to very much decluttering recently.

I have amde a real effort even when not feeling great to keep on top of cleaning the house and laundry though. That means that when I do feel a bit better I can get right back to the clutter clearing rather than trying to tackle a bombsite house.

I will try and list my CDs on MusicMagpie though. I did have a quick look at it but having seen everyones success on here it has spurred me on. I hope DH will allow some of his CDs to go too though.

Can I ask what websites you use to sell/ get rid of books?