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?

[Bonsoir]

Top tip: only have one set of sheets per bed and one set of towels per person. Wash, tumble dry and put them straight back on the bed/in the bathroom. When old, replace and recycle the old ones.

No linen storage = a huge gain of space.

[MinimalistMommi]

Bonsoir that's what I want to do with my towels! I already do that with bedding which I know with two children most people wouldn't risk but its worked out so far here.

[Santaandme]

Just wow at this thread.

Today I am going to:

• Declutter kitchen: Throw out pots without lids and broken trays.
  
• Throw out Tupperwares. I am drowning in the stuff.
  

Can anyone tell me what they do with post? This is the bane of my life currently. For Visa purposes, I still receive paper statements. I like the idea upthread about scanning and saving bills etc..

[bluecarrot]

Panic setting in that I'm discarding stuff I "need". Skipping lunch and heading straight to dump before I give in! Eek! Maybe I should have properly sorted the boxes....

[Bonsoir]

It's even easier with towels than sheets, I find. The best bit is never having nasty old out of date towels - you can freshen up the look of your bathroom with new towels/bathrobes etc really easily!

[MinimalistMommi]

BC quick, go to the dump, you can do it! You will feel fear when you are at dump but just push ahead with it!

[MinimalistMommi]

Bonsoir some towels are washing now, once they're dry I'm going to take a look a choose which four I'm going to keep.

[MinimalistMommi]

I've just found a skirt DD has outgrown, I find that once you are further into minimalism/decluttering journey it gets harder! I'm really getting down to bare basics here so it's hard to see how to go forward IYSWIM.

[MinimalistMommi]

I pass a clothes recycling bank on walk to school so I will take skirt this afternoon and see what other clothes I can find we don't need/outgrown.
Doesn't seem much compared to BC's progress!

[MinimalistMommi]

Santa for starters with post, recycle all the extra leaflets that come with bank stuff and keep just actual bill. We have a large Really Useful box with dividers in it for bank/medical stuff for current years stuff.

[MinimalistMommi]

Just found outgrown pyjama set belonging to DD that can go this afternoon too!

[bluecarrot]

Dump closed til 2! Going to have lunch in the cafe beside it as a wee treat while waiting for it to open. Silver lining and all that :)

Santaandme- do you have a smart phone? I saw a receipt stored app (on apple store but I'm sure android have it too)

[MinimalistMommi]

Sounds like a plan BC!

[forevergreek]

For post just get it all electronically. You can just log into you bank and find any detail you want there instead of rummaging through paperwork

We live in central London. Small one bed flat, 2 adults, 2 young children (I have no idea of sq ft). The only books we have are a few reference for work ( everything else for adults on kindle), and some children's books. We also use the library. We also own no DVDs and just subscribe to love film/ netflixs
Toys only exist if they fit into a certain cabinet we have ( is organised with baskets etc)

We all share a bedroom but have two sofa beds so can actually have a few people staying.

I think having such a small space we need to keep 'stuff' to a minimum. But a small space is great for us as it means we get out a lot and get to see Lots of new things and explore new places ( the money sved for having smaller accomadation, not impulse buying, no excess toys/ clothes etc means we can afford holidays/ flights to new citys/ memberships to national trusts/ zoos blah blah etc which are far more beneficial IMO)

[IWipeArses]

Bonsoir, no tumble dryer here, but I pared the bedding right back. We currently have two sets of sheet, duvet cover and pillow covers, for all beds, plus a couple extras for the children. I used to have a third set for ours and there was always one at the bottom of the laundry basket as it just wasn't needed.

[MinimalistMommi]

forevergeek that sounds amazing, I really wish you knew sq footage, I'm a real geek for stuff like that! It's the reason we are downsizing, we are moving from suburbs to city centre (still very quiet street) and our mortgage will be less then rent we are paying now and our bills will be much much lower. We currently rent huge three bed house and are going to small two bed/two reception townhouse. With money saved, after things have been done to house that need doing, we want to be able to spend money on experiences rather than stuff. That's our long term plan anyway.

[MinimalistMommi]

forvergeek we don't bank like that at moment, I must sort that out!

[MinimalistMommi]

We also use LoveFilm and don't buy DVDs apart from selection of Disney ones for DC's.

[MinimalistMommi]

Sorry, on iPad, mis-spelled your name ForverGreek so sorry!

[IWipeArses]

forever, your place sounds great! What sort of size/shape is that toy cabinet? Photo/linkage? And what age are your kids?

[blossombath]

Hello, may I join? What Fuchzia said is,me exactly. Haven't time to read all but seen great ideas already so marking place to read later

[LemonBreeland]

Receipt app sounds interesting. Will have to look for one. I did the mn test on a new website to manage your finances but couldn't get it to work properly. It would be great to have an easy way to look at how I spend my money.

I am going to clear out our dresser and get rid of vile serving plates that lovely people bought for us and we will never use. I also have a fancy dinner service and a fancy cutlery set. I can't get rid just yet as my Mum would be offended as she bought them for us. But last year they didn't even get used at Christmas. They just take up space I could use for other things.

I must work on getting dh on board with this. Maybe show him some youtube clips. That might appeal to him. Haven't watched them myself yet as I'm at work and can't get youtube here, but will watch later.

[MinimalistMommi]

Lemon would your mum even know if you got rid of them? I had to have hard conversations with my family, but once that was over and done with, it was like a weight had been lifted. We just exchange cards at birthdays and Christmas's now and not presents for example.

[QueenofWhatever]

lucysnowe we haven't had laundry baskets for some time now and it works fine. It just occurred to me that we were creating more work by putting them in a holding bay in effect before then putting stuff in the washing machine.

By definition if you have full laundry baskets and/or a backlog of washing, you must have more clothes etc. than you need.

I've been working on minimalising our wardrobes a bit more today. I came across Project 333. The idea is that you have just 33 items of clothing (excepting underwear, sleepwear etc.) for three months based on what you love rather than what's useful or you actually wear.

I went through my wardrobe and it came out at about 36 things, interestingly including things I don't wear that often. You then rotate things in and donate stuff out - haven't quite understood this bit yet.

It also 'motivated' DP to go through his stuff. I said he could keep five tops which shocked him a bit. However he's got rid of two thirds and now has about eleven tops - I guess it's a work in progress!

[QueenofWhatever]

minimalistmommi our house is 59sq/m. Don't know what that is in feet, my friend's DH is an engineer and worked it out for me.

We have two beds, two baths, open plan kitchen/sitting room and a utility/office. But I have skylights in every room and trifold doors onto a walled garden .