The minimalist quiche

[educatingarti]

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

Well, I;m not even dressed yet and I've already emptied our 'spare' fridge (ridiculous, no room for it but we got it when my mum moved house..) put it in the playroom and advertised it for sale, thus freeing up space in the kitchen so we can once again, use the door that leads through to the hall without having to walk round through front and dining rooms..! Also taken a ton of unworn coats off the hatstand and, okay, fair enough, chucked them in a cupboard until I can bag them up, and intend to put all the spare clothes that i have soretd out over the past months into a bag and charity shop them!! hooray.

It's interesting about DCs. I've got one who occasionally gives me stuff saying 'I don't play with this anymore. Can you sell it?/Let's give it to someone who will'
and the other who keeps every scrap of paper and when I said 'when we have enough money we'll buy a dining table we actually like rather than one we inherited' started mourning the future loss of the dining table and is insistent it could be reused as a desk in his room! He'll be a future hoarder if I don't nip it in the bud!

Just made ds12 throw all his (no doubt worth a fortune..) old videos in the bin. Dh will be sorting through it later - so I will cover them with cat litter...Am On A Roll

Yay to eminem

Loving the cat litter idea!

eminem you seem very determined and I think that is the key to getting stuff done. Sometimes that determination can wane for a while but I have found being on this thread keeps me ticking over until the next time I am ready to really go for it.

I am going to clear under my sofas today when DD goes for her nap. The boys shoce toys under there all the time. I imagine I can probably discard a lot of it.

I will also have a look through my pan cupboard as I have way to many, including a lovely cast iron frying pan that never gets used. Probably as it is too heavy. I will list it for sale. Will try and keep a list of how much money I make during lent too.

Right, back room is in such a tip having upended the under-stairs cupboard I have told DH (and he is now not allowed to let me do otherwise) that I am putting back in things that we use frequently in a tidy and ordered manner. Everything else must find a new home or go!! I am trying to be ruthless.

We'll see how that goes - got both SIL's coming to stay next weekend and want the house to look presentable show-home-esque by the time they come. I'd say front room is, bathroom will be once bathroom cabinet is up, kitchen is, and back room has to be by then. DD's room only has what she needs in it and ours is a right old tip clothes heap on the floordrobe but fingers crossed they won't see our room!

We are thinking of doing an NCT nearly new to get rid of everything we hardly used/didn't really need much for DD before DC2 comes along that way we won't get confused and will only have essentials!

I have a stall at a sale this weekend. I just cannot wait to get rid of the crates of stuff cluttering my house, but organising it all to look presentable, clean and ironed is making for a very stressy week, especially with the bubba never sleeping and needing to go to hospital tomorrow to get checked out for allergies.

Ooh long sentence there. Sorry grammar police.

Good luck with your sale hobnob, and the allergy tests. I know what you mean about wanting the things out of your house. As soon as I decide something is going I just want it gone immediately.

I sorted out a few more toys for charity today and a couple of pans to be sold on facebook.

I havd started listing items that are going and this week I am over 40 items already. I am hoping that I can maybe do 40 items per week for lent.

Feeling really tired but have made it through a hospital appointment, therapy appointment, library and food shopping!

Didn't manage to drop stuff off at the charity shop as I ended up only passing after they were shut. however, it doesn't much matter as if I leave it a few days, I'll probably have another one to go with it.

Lemon - 40 things a week - that's an ambitious target. I'm aiming to ditch 365 net items out by the end of the year, (not counting consumables)!
Blondie well done on your determination re cupboard.
Hobnob I hope your sale goes well. I don't think I've got too much that I could actually sell - even webuybooks didn't want most of mine!

Arti we have lots of toys going atm, and many are small. I'm counting each toy car as a single item, so it adds up quickly.

There is a large holdall by my front door waiting to go to the charity shop. I love seeing things leave the house.

Living room rearrange didn't happen. But only because dh did the ironing which was piled onto one sofa. There was a lot! We had already taken a basket load to mil when we dropped the bigs off. We also had to spend time hunting for a letter dh needed.

On the other hand, 2 dc had haircuts, so tidy children again (does that count ).

My HS volunteer is coming today so I will rearrange as much as I can while she is here.

Things from under stairs now in relevant piles - shoes, bags, baby stuff, documents, (urgh the dreaded sort of bank statements, bills and important letters awaits) empty boxes, wrapping paper, craft materials and board games.

Now to get chucking!! Hoping this quiche gives me the strength to be ruthless especially with the shoes is there a company that I can give all this stuff to and they sell/ebay it for me and I get a cut? Just seems a shame to get rid of things that were expensive and not make anything out of them... for a charity shop to then extort a small fortune out of it

Gah! Wish me luck :D

Blondie, with the shoes, how about you start with the ones that only go with one particular dress/suit and try on the outfit to see if it still fits, is in good condition etc. You might find you are finding clothers to eliminate at the same time.

Someone is coming to buy our spare fridge today, so that's a tenner! DD off for the night at 1pm so will attempt to do some little bits and bobs!

Lots of great work going on here. I had a loooong lie in this morning. I feel frustrated that I've "wasted" so much time, but I do think I needed it. this afternoon I'm going to have a massage . I'm paying for it as a treat with some money I got for Christmas. I'm looking forward to it but I'm also going somewhere I've never been before and its a salon/studio in someone's home so I don't know what it will be like.

I need to declutter the fuzz off my legs though before I go - does that count?

Just sold the fridge - and got £12 have also cleared out about one/millionth of the paperwork that needs sorting, and have a vaguley see-able computer desk (the drawers are still firmly closed though) wating to take dd to meet her friend and friends mummy then I am free until tomorrow at 4.30!!! I think I may stay in the dining room/study bit and sort that for the rest of the day... This is SUCH FUN! (so far..) Nothing 'big attempted yet though...

eminem - Nothing big attempted yet? I think you've done loads! Just think of that huge fridge-spaced hole - and all the valuable DVD's your DS has chucked!

I am currently finding out about selling china. I've sent a valuation request to this company chinasearch.co.uk/ to see what they would give me. I have some Brambly Hedge/Flower Fairy/Beatrix Potter stuff that is a bit too twee for my current taste so if they will give me something for it I might give it a go! I've decided I'm going to set up a "Holiday/Treats" fund with money from anything I sell.

Paperwork is dire - especially when you have to shred loads. I dug out a folder of car paperwork for a car I don't own anymore (old MOTs and insurance etc) when I was clearing "The Shelf". It needs shredding mostly because of personal details. Maybe I'll do it later this evening!

I'm glad you are enjoying it! My enthusiasm waxes and wanes but I think seeing other people's enthusiasm is really catching.

Staring at the lovely space vacated by my coffee table. Drove it to a charity shop this morning

Thanks for that link to chinasearch arti. I've got a few pieces that were gifts, but I've never really been into that type of thing at all, I just don't get the point of ornaments for ornaments sake - if I'm going to display something in my home then I want it to be something relevant to my own tastes or travels, not someone else's! I've finally reconciled myself to the fact that it would be better to move them on out that keep them hidden away in a box...

Other than that, I've made a good start today by giving away some toys to a friend with a gorgeous little DS; they actually belonged to my brother so I was feeling reluctant about chucking them, despite the fact that my own DC are too old for them/have similar ones of their own/DB is unlikely to have his own kids any time soon. I feel much happier now knowing that they'll get played with again!

And the next task is to clear out old greetings cards. I have kept all the cards I received when the children were born and most of their birthday cards so far too... The kids love taking them out and having a look at them, which is sweet, but of course they never put them back in the same place and they end up in little drifts all over the place. I've decided to get tough and bin the majority of them, other than the odd special one (especially those from my mum, she always sends hand-made ones) and will allocate them a folder or small box each to keep them in, on the understanding that they PUT THEM BACK!

Argh, a whole day wasted at the hospital, didn't even get seen! Sale looming large and SOOOO much ironing and sorting to do, but helping at school disco tonight so rest of evening will be spent placating the baby after abandoning him for a whole 2 hours.

Lemon, this stuff needed TO GO as soon as ds was born in October. I am SO over tripping over it!

Emin I think you have made an amazing start. Look back to the op of your original thread and how desperate you sounded. Your posts are full of positivity now.

arti I can completely understand the waxing and waning thing. That is why this thread is so necessary for me to keep me going.
I just counted up my sales and have made £30 this week, with my two baby carriers still to finish on Ebay that should be another £100. It is quite exciting.

No real clearouts today but took a box of mils old cookbooks to the dump today as they had got damp in the back of a cupboard.

Oops meant to sat sorry about your wasted day harriet

Hi everyone!

I was intending to take a load of stuff to the charity shop today but my hospital appointment took 2 hours and then I had to go and get a weekly shop. Have been cleaning at home since.

Has anyone else felt silly about the amount of stuff they actually own? When I think about how much money I have wasted on crap things I don't really need it makes me quite embarrassed.

Oh paint yes! So much just-rubbish!! Well today after dropping dd off, I tackled the playroom/conservatory - I managed to fill and entire recycling box with papers, bits of cardboard , ds old school work (I asled him and he said 'chuck it', so instead of sitting and getting soppy, I did ). I admit I didn't go through things with a tooth comb, but we do need the skip for that, but I cleaned it thoroughly and rearranged all the toys - dolls houses (sylvanian blinking families...) all in one box and ready to be played with then put away. We have three bookcases in there too, which do need a good going over but for now, i am very pleased. I found hundreds of cassettes as well..unfortunately I have the 'no, they could be valuable' issue to contend with with these as well.. but a start has been made!