The minimalist quiche

[educatingarti]

This is a new thread to replace the minimalist journey one which is nearly full!

Have posted out a load of Ebay stuff and I feel cleansed, I tell you, cleansed. And £100 richer.

Can I de-lurk and join you?

I have been slowly trying to declutter and go minimalist for a while now and have just finished reading the book Simplicity Parenting (which I made DP get on kindle so it wasn't another book coming to find a home on our rather large bookcase!)

So far, I have given away our "office" chair and a bookcase as we never actually used the spare room as an office- more a dumping ground and latterly DD's room.

I have put several bags of clothes to charity and sold quite a lot on ebay (but the fees and postage seem to be getting higher and it's putting me off a bit!)

Ugh, I have gotten very little actually done today. It has taken me HOURS to source and order a new bathroom suite and taps. As it turns out, the perfect taps don't exist anywhere I can actually get them (but they do exist on pinterest - which is annoying). But it is done and I can declutter an item on my ToDo list, so progress. I did find the coat I mentioned earlier and also another coat I'd forgotten I had - so those are going. Also moving a clothes rack out to the annex for guests to hang clothes on - so at least it is out of the house (or will be when I can summon the energy to take it out).

I think that is it for me today. I'm off to the interweb to find a bathroom cabinet, wish me luck....

Gosh, this thread moves quickly!

Got in from work today and 2 charity bags have been put through the door, one for clothes and one for bric a brac so I am going to start my decluttering journey by filling those tonight...

Hobnob, don't be discouraged. It's great that you're finding time to do anything with a clingon baby. Until we had children I was relatively good at clearing out and we moved regularly.
We were lucky in that about the same time children came along we got a home with load of storage space but because there was no much need to get rid of stuff and there was always something more pressing to do it has built up and built up.
Then we had to move and I realised we had stuff I didn't remember owning. That made me very uncomfortable.
(The only thing I'd been good at passing on was the baby stuff as I know lots of people a few years behind us and when my last child was born I knew the family was complete.)

Hello delurkers!

hobnob it sounds like you've accomplished masses. When you've got a small baby (or any pre-school age children frankly) clean pants are a massive achievement, and anything else is a bonus. Sorry you're frustrated though. Hope you're being compassionate towards yourself and found necessary chocolate/biscuit/jam on toast. My dc hate tidying up after themselves too. I think I might institute a quick tidy before bed or something. If I can be bothered.

Just been through 2 boxes of papers and random other stuff that have been hogging a corner of the kitchen for months and reduced it to a small in-tray.

But hall is still full of boxes of papers!

Temporary delurk til I can compose a post worthy of your support moving house in approx 17 days...where to start?!

boffinmum I've not tried to sell on eBay yet. I am, frankly, scared of it. How did you start off?

Mum2Fergus, I would start by identifying the voluminous items that you won't be keeping and trying to find new homes.
If you are packing your own stuff, try to be selective while you pack boxes rather than packing a whole cupboard without thinking.
But if you're anything like me, you'll run out of time and just tip drawers into boxes without even looking at the contents. It wasn't so bad because I labelled the boxes according to where they came from eg top kitchen drawer. Then I forced myself to sort through as I unpacked. Which is why the office is still not fully unpacked 1 month later.

I want to join! I lurked/posted a bit on the last thread, I think.

I've got a 5 year old DS and a DC due in May, and would really like to get rid of lots of stuff before the baby gets here!

The bursar at my Cambridge College wanted to pay for a skip to put the token ring main equipment into (we were taking it out in order to install ethernet instead). I said I thought this was a waste of money and I could actually flog it instead. I listed all the parts on Ebay and they were snapped up for quite a lot of money by someone who wanted to extend a token ring main system. He collected the whole lot in a massive estate car, College got loads of money and the bursar was about as chuffed as I had ever seen him. I got a pay rise on the back end of it!

You did ask ....

at Boffin!

Well I am a Boffin!!!

Soooo...17 days to go til house move. Ive been a bit poorly and DS had chickenpox so packing wasnt top of my list. Ive halfheartedly done a few boxes but being newly inspired by the thread Im going to unpack them and start again in earnest!

Today Ive made a start on one of the big bedroom cupboards...Ive filled a carrier bag for bin and a bin bag for charity shop. DP will drop that off tomorrow and post 6 Ebay sales for me. I cleared my make up and hair stuff drawers too. Tonight Ive sat and cleared out the filing box, keeping note of all the change of addresses I need to do. The eternal question...how long should I keep wageslips? Ive mine dating back to 1998 lol...

Oh, hob nob those days are tough.

Slight aside here, I meet with a group of women to read the Bible each week and we were reading Daniel and talking about challenges we face as Christian s (obv along the lines of persecution, ostracism etc). I piped up that I found it far harder to juggle work, motherhood and marriage and ensure four children go to school, pre school and nanny in fed, in clean clothes with packed lunches and homework done.

We all agreed that was far harder than merely being chucked to hungry lions.

In my convoluted way km trying to say, be kind to yourself because it's the hardest job on earth.

Hi cheerful yank, what date are you due? I'm due third april.

Harriet, ebay is really easy (I'm techno illiterate). It walks you through every step. Do you have a smart phone? The app is really good.

I found the sentiment someone posted here about things 'moving through your life' hugely helpful in letting things go, and seemed to chime with DH as amazingly he bought into my minimising wish, and this weekend we spent two 12 hour days properly clutter checking.

Out have gone all sorts of things crammed into baskets on shelves in alcoves either side of fireplace. Then we thought 'they'll just fill up again', so we are getting rid of the baskets (9 of them!). Then why stop there, so two of the shelves have gone too, leaving 'white space' (well, grubby off cream)! This weekend we have to go through cd's and dvd's to donate or sell. All will go if I get my way.

I've also had the revelation that instead of trying to store, and regularly trip over coats, boots, shoes etc in our tiny hall, we should just own the average number we can realistically store, allowing for visitors. This sounds obvious, but I have really struggled with getting rid of perfectly good coats etc, but now I have, and its made me very oddly happy!

Already I feel as if I can breathe in the house, and I've noticed that this week we've been more of a team with the routine daily chores, which is great.

Welcome delurkers, lovely to see you all! Mum2Fergus we are moving too in about 25 days! Very excited. We've been chipping away at the clutter for a while now, but moving has given us new impetus. We keep saying "But do we like it enough to pay someone to carry it for us?" And "But the new flat looks so lovely with nothing in it - will this thing make it lovelier, or a bit less lovely?"

hobnob don't be down on yourself. Just by aiming to reduce, and having a mini declutter when you can, you're already thinking differently to all the people wandering around shopping centres blindly buying more and more stuff and then paying for a storage unit to house it all. That's the path we're all encouraged to follow by advertising and peers - and it's hard sometimes to keep pushing against it. Plus, when DS was a baby I had whole weeks where I achieved less than nothing ie by the end of the day I was in slightly more of a mess than I had been at the start despite continuous toil towards getting things sorted.... And I've only got one kid! It's a process, every little item in the charity bag is a victory.

How funny that we're all stationery junkies harrietspy and SilentMammoth

I will post my desk 'before' and 'after' pics at the weekend! Gulp!

bec you are so right. Just paying attention to the stuff we have is a huge step. I'm really interested in all the neuroscience around paying attention and how just noticing our behaviour is transformative. (I heard a great interview with Kelly McGonigal on the neuroscience of change but I can't find the link!)

Someone mentioned earlier about getting the kids on board with minimalism.
I admit I haven't really tried. I'm hoping to lead by example and that when the communal spaces are more pleasant, they'll be inspired to tackle their rooms which are cluttered with junk models, nice shiny paper from chocolate bars etc.

But on the environmental impact of excessive consumption, they really like the story of stuff animation:

www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/

Another stationary junkie here. I have "minimalised" down to four empty notebooks and two half filled ones which is amazing for me but still too many really.

Hello de-lurkers! I love hearing everyone's stories, its so motivating.

Have picked another 18 books off the shelves today - now to input them into We Buy Books. Did you find a voucher code in the end Antoinette?

pixie, it's worth searching webuybook's twitter feed to see if they have an active voucher code at the moment. And this week I managed to sell stuff books with fatbrain.co.uk that I couldn't sell on WBB.

I didn't, pixie, sorry-I joined their Facebook page to try and find one but they directed me to their google+ page and I'm not on that so didn't want to join up and bring more virtual clutter into my life! Hope you find one though-do share if you do

Has anyone ever ebayed perfume? I have quite a few half full bottles that will take me decades to get through and I'm not even that fond of. I don't know whether it would be an odd thing to eBay though!

Half used perfume sells really well on eBay. You'd be very surprised. I sold a Cd this week and a DVD box set for £25 on eBay. Both of which were sitting on a shelf doing nothing. I've also cleared out a bag of make up, perfume, toiletries for my sister. Nobody needs 6 tubes of hand moisturiser and 20 eyeshadows!

I've noticed that a lot of stuff I'm getting rid of were either impulse buys, cheap, stuff that I didn't try on in the shops, or items that I thought I should own (despite not living a lifestyle to use them). I love shopping but I've stopped physically going to the shops, taking my purse out and have in subscribed to lots of store emails. I am determined to stem the tide of unneeded stuff into the house!

Wow - so many amazing stories of de-cluttering progress. I don't think I de-cluttered anything yesterday . I've got some time off work next week though so I'm hoping I'll feel inspired then!