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?

[bluecarrot]

I have no need for it that I can think of. It's just pretty... Saying that, it's been in my cupboard for the last year so I haven't really seen it. Hmm. Will give myself another month to work it out :)

Today, after charity shop run, I'm packing up most of my Tupperware type things. I have too many. I've already chucked the cheap stuff but have a lot of lock and lock that I struggle to part with. Will pack away all but whats used daily and see what I need from it in next 6 months. Then it's on to books. I've already gone through a batch last night but we have probably over 1000 books here!

Good luck everyone :)

[AntoinetteCosway]

Anyone got any ideas on what's eBay-able? I've got rid of some clothes that way but what's left is either so old no one would buy it or so new I need it. (Lost a lot of weight this year.) We have an awful lot of crap in the house but it does mostly seem to be just that, crap...I would ideally like to combine decluttering with making some cash and am loathe to just chuck stuff out!

I have masses and masses of old jewellery that I don't wear. Not expensive stuff, mostly Accessorize and the like. Can I sell it? Is that even hygienic?

[lljkk]

Join the Ebay Challenges Threads, Antoinette. You need to research on Ebay if anyone has sold items similar to your stuff.

I think you aspiring minimalists are nuts, but in a nice way. Am fascinated by folk who manage to reduce their stuff to so little.

[MinimalistMommi]

Good morning everyone!
bluecarrot your clear out sounds amazing!

Does anyone know the square footage of their homes? We're downsizing in the next couple of months and moving into a tiny home, at least a third less square footage than now, if not half. So that's why I'm very interested in tiny homes and family life/minimalism/decluttering.

[MinimalistMommi]

bluecarrot I'm half way through the video you linked, very interesting esp. Kitchen section. These videos tend to show how 'normal' life can be in tiny space, eg with small dishwasher, stacking bowls etc. I think I'm more interested in minimalism combined with Simplicity you know? Where you can wash dishes by hand and just ditch the dishwasher for example & just have one mixing bowl rather than 10 stacked. Although, I did like the stacking beakers for drinking squash/water. Although I guess, if someone was extremely minimalist a cup would do for water and hot drinks etc.

[IWipeArses]

Tupperware - if you have the space ie. because you've cleared out your cupboards, store it with it's lid on, rather than stacked. Less time hunting for lost lid, easier to get out and you'll be more likely to use it. Not for tiny homes though I'd have thought.

broken le creuset, I think I'd go with freecycle. Even if I put it to use, I would feel sad, or guilty whenever I saw it.

Rarely, do you have another pair of shoes suitable for a funeral? If not, keep them. Do the red shoes go with anything you have that fits right now? If not definitely get rid.

[MinimalistMommi]

Ant I would get rid of the jewellery, or if you really want to sell it, sell it as a 'bulk lot' on eBay, so at least you get rid of it in one hit.

[MinimalistMommi]

broken le creuset, definitely send out of your home.

[MinimalistMommi]

bluecarrot we've got rid of hundreds of books in the past two months and two bookcases as well. They were just sitting there gathering dust, I'm so glad they've gone. We're using the library a lot now. I'd rather pay 80 p to order/reserve a book I would really like to read than pay full price then have to store it in my house after I have read it I'm ordering a lot of books through for my DC too, rather than buying from Book people website etc. My older DC doesn't re-read books so this seems a good way. It's free to order /reserve children's books too at my library.

[MinimalistMommi]

Here's the documentary on tiny house living incase anyone is interested:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=lDcVrVA4bSQ

[MinimalistMommi]

I love the white in this tiny home, it looks so cosy! www.houselogic.com/blog/home-thoughts/another-happy-family-living-tiny-house/

[lucysnowe]

Ah yes towels - our towels are ridiculous, I am constantly hunting round for a random one only to find they are all damp. We don't have a towel dryer per se so I will have to think of a different way to store them before they get washed.

bluecarrot - yes - basically be so on top of washing that I just do the clothes from the day before (this is more of a housekeeping thing than a minimalist thing tho!). In reality I will probably need at least two bins just to keep things off the floor. BUT currently we have two ginormous ones and they really look horrid and clutter up the house.

Another thing to declutter - art. I aim to choose just one or maybe two really nice pieces per room. I went mad and bought lots of cheap art on ebay and now my dining room looks like a pub parlour . I am going to have to be ruthless.

[bluecarrot]

Not sure it's environmentally or financially sensible to wash clothes daily tbh. Can you not invest in a nice looking laundry basket? Keep laundry in linen closet or similar? I guess you could store dirty clothes in the washing machine a few days as long as the door was left open?!

MM - I was just thinking of that family- I couldn't remember enough if their story to google it. It's a very practical and pretty home but I got a weird vibe from them...
We live a minutes walk from the library- it's 50p for adult book reservation here, and £1.50 a DVD. Plus if you want a particular mag, you ask nicely and you get the old library copy when the next months comes in :) we are there at least once a week and dd gets the max 9 books per visit. I tend to get the audiobooks from their online section. Our downfall is library book sales. Fill a box of books for £3? Yes please! Our last batch we sent out into the world book-crossing style. That was fun :)

I've always stored the lock and lock with lids on- partly why they take up so much room! But I ended up giving majority of excess to my mum, and she wants any others I end up not needing. Since she lives practically next door, if I regret getting rid of a particular piece ill just go get it back!

Le creuset... Still can't bear to part with it.

[MinimalistMommi]

BC I like your thinking about sending your lock and lock boxes next door

I do know what you mean about that family and the weird vibe.

Do you read the decluttering forum over on mothering.com? Quite a bit of inspiration there.

[MinimalistMommi]

LS (LucySnowe) Towels: Presently we have two bath towels per person so eight in total. I'm thinking of cutting this down to one towel each though as we have a dryer and just storing hand towels in our airing cupboard. I haven't done it yet though. Then I can just wash and dry them all at once while the children are at school/DH at work.

[TheWombat]

What an inspiring thread! I am not a natural minimalist but I hate clutter. Can I join in?
I have about 100 DVDs that could be sold, will Music Magpie take them?
My main challenge is not throwing away or Ebay-ing - I'm quite good at that. It's just that I tend to be seduced very easily into buying new stuff. Grr. Perhaps 'not buying new stuff' would be a good new year's resolution .

[MinimalistMommi]

TheWombat welcome!
I'm pretty sure music magpie takes DVD's...I might be wrong though!
Minimalism becomes a kind of mindset with time, definitely start with baby steps. Why don't you start a mini challenge in January ? Go a week without buying new stuff ? (food aside of course!)

[MinimalistMommi]

Oh & to motivate yourself, try to imagine all you stuff in your home in a big messy pile, & then before you purchase something new, just imagine adding it to the pile of stuff you already own.

[bluecarrot]

Ok ladies. I have just raced through one of the storage rooms and filled a car with 14 bin bags full of stuff for dump plus some extra bits in a box- broken hifi etc.. Plus found another 18 boxes of stuff for charity and one of stuff to sell. Just keep telling myself I can re-buy if I really miss it. I'm in the zone.

Result? 59 empty boxes ( some tupperware, some i could fit inside) and 2 ikea bags ( plus boxes I've used to hold stuff for charity shop)

REALLY wish I had done a few before pics but I guess there's no point in creating extra digital clutter.

I did cheat slightly in that any paperwork got chucked in a box to sort later, and little "bits" - toys, Allen keys, jigsaw pieces, doohickeys all to sort later.

Feel more light and free already. :)

Lunch, laundry then to clean room and replace the "maybe keep" and "def keep" stuff. DD won't believe her eyes when she gets home from school.

[MinimalistMommi]

OMG BC I wish I could see pics of this , you're AMAZING & I wish I could see pics of this right now! WOW!

[harrietspy]

Ok, so I just spent the morning clearing decks for christmas and haven't finished yet. Found my degree notes on Shakespeare under the spare room bed. I graduated in 1994. Hello, recycling bin.

I was supposed to be tidying up but I couldn't bear to just clear a path through the junk in the spare room where my mum is staying over Christmas. So I have a huge bag for charity, a box for eBay, a box for etsy, a box for car boot, a bag for the school fete and another batch of books to send to webuybooks.co.uk. And I'm saying goodbye to a load of books that make me feel guilty, sad or regretful whenever I see them. (They're going to charity shop because I don't want to keep them in my life).

Hello to all the new folk! thewombat I don't use musicmagpie but www.webuybooks.co.uk take dvds and cds.

This feels gooood.

[MinimalistMommi]

I found out this morning that I might be exchanging contracts at the end of this week. I don't feel ready to move into our tiny home! I need to take a leaf out of BC's book and start decluttering some more. As I said we are downsizing, our new home is going to be just over 500 sq ft for our family of four.
Some furniture we have currently is going to have to go which is going to be tough.

[MinimalistMommi]

harrietspy wish I knew about webuybooks.co.uk before I did my big book clear out. :/
Is it free postage to them?

[MinimalistMommi]

Right, I need to get of mumsnet & get to work!

[Viviennemary]

I am the exact opposite of a minimalist but I love the idea of minimalism! I got a book called the Joy of Less. That was really interesting reading and quite inspiring to make you get rid of clutter and not buy a lot of stuff you don't need. I am trying to make sure if I buy something new I get rid of something. Especially books which are easy to accumulate especially if there is an offer on in a charity shop. And same with clothes and shoes.