The minimalist quiche

[educatingarti]

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

Hi everyone

I went to an education conference on Friday - and yes- you guessed it, got given lots of freebees. I need to sort my bag out into things that can be incorporated into my usual stuff ( eg pens- get through a fair few of these with tutoring), crap stuff that will go directly into he paper recycling and stuff I want to keep and have more of a look at as it may be useful for my teaching! I've already de-cluttered the tin of mints!

I've actually done 2 lots of batch cooking this weekend too - unheard of for me!

Still a bit stalled on the general de-cluttering though!

Hello all - Just checking in! I've done no decluttering in the past couple of weeks due to all possessions being covered in building dust or packed away. Our bathroom is just about ready for me to move back into properly and I've purchased some new shelving from ikea and a set of drawers to keep new towels in - 2 for each person. All the others are going to be torn into rags, recycled or moved out to the annex for guests. I'm sadly excited to unpack all the bathroom stuff and have a chance to get rid of some of the random stuff we've had sitting around for years. I'm very minimal on make-up and the like already, but do have some old bits and very seldomly used bits that can go. My new downstairs storage cupboard is nearly ready too - so will be going through all of the household cleaning stuff again. I also need to sort through and organise all the hand tools which are currently thrown in a drawer. I think a new toolbox will be necessary now that we have space for one! Hopefully the plastic drawers can go or be put to better use.

Keep it up all - I'll be joining you again full force in another couple of weeks (she says optimistically).

Hi everyone,

It's been slow on decluttering here too. I've been sleeping a lot so went to the GP and apparently I am anaemic and that's why I keep nodding off at random times!

I have made myself fill a black bag for the charity shop today and have listed some bits on eBay. It's slow progress but I will get there!

Good luck to all!

Oh, I hope you feel better soon. I was anaemic for a while too. I didn't realise there was anything wrong with me for ages because it occurred at the tail end of the 'not getting enough sleep because of young children' phase of my life.

Hello All. I have not done much this weekend as it was dh's birthday and then I decided to do nothing and relax for Mothers Day.

I have sold some make up on Ebay. Got pretty good prices for it too. £12.50 for one blusher.

I had plans today to start on our kitchen cupboard of doom, but I have the worst period pains that I have had in years. I can barely walk. I am currently waiting for painkillers to kick in, although I'm not sure that they will work well enough for me to do much.

I need to finish sorting out dd's room today. I have not fully put everything away on her bookshelves since we got them. So I will make the effort to do that.

Wendy the changes sound exciting. It's lovely to have shiny new spaces, and you always want to keep them nice.

paint I hope you get some energy back soon. I've had pretty severe anaemia in all of my pregnancies and it wiped me out. I'm often borderline anaemic in everyday life as it is.

Afternoon all! Just recovering from a stomach bug here, which may go some way to explaining my incoherent ramblings about clothes last week! Queen, the kids have so many clothes because they are given them new by well meaning relatives. I am new to thinking rationally about clothes, and just used to try and stuff them in over full drawers. Now I'm trying to return things at source and get gift cards, but need to be organised and spend them before they expire.

Progress is being made here in other areas. I managed to remove all of our digitally stored music from one system which we don't use and put it on the system which we do use, so I am happily reminiscing through my old music collection whilst the aforementioned system is already attracting bids on eBay . The reason we were hanging onto it is that it has a CD player which the kids use, but I figured we could pick up a cheapie somewhere. Then I thought it should at least look nice and found a cool one in Muji, but that will cost more than the eBay value if the one it is replacing! Back to the drawing board...

I have also made first inroads into clearing out old toiletries which I will never get through and a probably allergic to anyway. I now need a block of time to empty out and wash all of the bottles. But it feels good. It will need a few goes I think to get things how I would like them, but as we keep saying, baby steps!

hobnob that explains it about the DC's clothes. I'm no contact with my family so don't have any well-intentioned relatives at all. I do have a friend who hands me down clothes so they tend to come in big bagfuls. But I think being mindful about it is the source of the solution. Gift cards sound like a plan and as the kids get older, maybe the relatives can be steered towards things like shoes and winter coats.

All bar one thing sold on eBay this week. I listed my old cups and saucers that www.chinasearch.co.uk didn't want and got £8 for them. Our Paypal balance is tantalising close to £2k now which is brilliant. CDs and vinyl are still selling at a steady place on www.discogs.co.uk.

I sorted out the cupboard under the sink but am still resisting the kitchen cupboard - you know the one, it has calpol, endless pens, old mobile phones...

Evening quichettes - just checking in to try and remotivate myself now the DC are all well again and various volunteering duties that seemed to all land on me at the same time are done and dusted.

One good thing came out of the horror that is World Book Day - the kids and I dumped their huge bag of costume bits and bobs on the floor, and only stuff that a) fitted and b) was likely to ever come in handy was allowed back in. We ended up ditching more than half of it! I like to think we were doing our bit for other parents too, I could imagine some harassed mum breathing a sigh of relief as she finally found just the right Pocahontas/Snow White/Little Mermaid in the 11th charity shop she'd tried...

In the meantime, nothing else has gone out, but nor has anything else come in. My mum always tries to send a Red Cross parcel to us at Easter no matter how I plead, but has contented herself with just a chocolate egg each this year. i think I've finally got the message through that I'm not just being polite or trying to save her money, and that the kids will not love her any less for it!

Yay to Teddimac for rescuing some unknown mum in her last minute World Book Day nightmare!

Hi there
I have been reading this thread for a while and have found it very interesting and helpful. Since Christmas I have gone into major declutter mode and have been ruthless and taken several bags to the charity shop.

My problem is though that the house still seems so hard to keep organised. There is always 'stuff' everywhere! I have two small dc so I know this is to be expected but everything is always a mess and things are hard to find, like this morning we were late for school as ds couldn't find his water bottle. I often feel that I just can't cope with running a home. I have tried decluttering and I am good at writing lists but things still remain difficult to keep on top of. Our house has 3 bedrooms but is not massive compared to the amount of stuff we have. I find the kitchen especially hard as it is quite small.
I find the mess makes me feel very irritable and stressed and I am always moaning at my dh about it, like a right nag!

I am returning to work on Monday after a year's maternity leave and so wanted everything sorted but it's not and I'm worried it will become even more stressful when I go back. I don't understand it when I go to my childminders house and she seems to have no clutter or 'stuff', it's all so neat looking.

I wondered if anyone might be able to help tell me where I'm going wrong as it just seems a never ending clutter cycle? Thanks

Hi Jemster - Welcome!

In haste because I should be working!

I have found the book "Banish Clutter Forever" by Sheila Chandra really helpful - I don't know whether it would help you too!

jemster it sounds like you've done loads and are probably hitting that slump lots of us also had at this stage. Unfortunately getting an organised, minimalist life doesn't happen overnight.

I would aim for just a couple of things a day, everyday. That way it doesn't feel as overwhelming but you're still making progress. It sounds like you might need to spend some time focusing on 'a place for everything'. Once everything has a defined home, it makes it much easier.

And going back after mat leave is also hard. It will get easier!

Hello Jemster

Everything needs it's home and that home should be closest to where it is used so the water bottle should either be near the sink (where it gets re-filled) or in the school bag.

With young kids the adults have to take time each day to make sure the things go back in the right places. (Whether that is getting the kids to do it or doing it yourself)

The hard bit is ensuring that you have the space where you need it and unless you are lucky to live in a very spacious house, that means getting rid of stuff.

I used to live in a spacious house and we had loads of stuff but we didn't often have 'yikes, where's my water bottle' situations because although certain areas (like the basement) were always cluttered with random stuff, other cupboards were used properly, always for the same things.

I'm sure you childminder either has very little stuff or a massive cupboard/shed/garage/loft of doom!

Even though my DCs are bigger now and in quite good routines with regards to putting things in the right places, we (adults) still have to do about 10-15 mins tidying in the evening to keep in control.

The 'Banish Clutter' book is quite a good read if you have trouble letting go of stuff.

its (aargh!)

Thank you for your replies. The water bottle does actually normally get put in the same place after school but for some reason yesterday it ended up under a pile of yet more stuff! I hear what you're saying about taking time each evening to check on the whereabouts of dc's things. When I'm back to work I will have to have everything ready the night before or it will be chaos in the mornings!!
I think it's finding the places for everything that I'm struggling with. Things like cookery books. We haven't enough cupboard space for them or wall space for shelving. Also the amount of dirty plates, cups etc seems vast especially as only me and dh drink hot drinks, we have a whole cupboard full of mugs and we have a fresh one for every cuppa which is quite a few in our house!
I've had a good clear out of clothes but there is always piles of clothes in each bedroom. I have asked ds, 5, to put socks and pants in wash basket which he seems to be doing but that leaves the rest for me to wade through!
I think the problem is we have more stuff than we have storage for it so it just spills out everywhere. We have a lovely big kitchen/dining table which is always covered in all sorts, making it hard to actually sit down and eat!
I just feel as though I am constantly chasing my tail and can never ever catch up, it's exhausting. I'm not sure how much more I can chuck out but some days I just feel like getting rid of everything! I also find it really hard to clean properly with things everywhere.
I will keep watching this and hope to pick up more tips. Thank you

Do you use all the cookery books?
Can you create a ring binder with all your usual favourites, get rid of the books then use the internet when you need inspiration?
Or at least keep only the ring binder in the kitchen and keep the books somewhere else if you only refer to them once in a while.

Hi Jemster it does sounds like you have made a good start with things. I agree with Queen that you have probably hit a slump on the decluttering. If you stick with this thread it should help you come out of the other side of it.

I can also understand your worry about returning to work. When I was returning to work after DC3 I was so worried about how I was going to cope and have enough time to do everything. I found that actually going back to work made me more organised and better at sorting out my home too. You realise that to get out of the house and keep on top of things they just have to be done. You can't just put off things until tomorrow as you won't be there, you'll be at work. Hopefully you will find this too.

It also sounds like maybe you need to be more ruthless with how much you getting rid of. Do you really need loads of mugs? Could you not just wash them up more often. And the cookbooks are a great example. Do you use them all? Could you sell or donate some of them.

Nothing terribly big going on here, just a couple of Ebay parcels sent off today. I need to get cracking on some more big projects soon.

Yes, this thread is very motivating. I feel like I haven't found much stuff to get rid of recently because I've been busy with other things and feeling a bit tired/lazy in my free time, but if you have a box/bag on the go and are mindful about what you use as you go about your daily life, you'll find things to pop in there.

Mugs: we are in the process of creating a utility room. We still need to do the electricity and decorating but when it's done I'll be moving all the mugs except 4 (one for each of us) into there. We need to keep more than 4 because we often have guests but they don't need to be taking up space in the kitchen. (My aim is to crate a space for the food processor in a cupboard. It's an old one so takes up lots of space on the work surface) In fact in the process of writing this post, I've decided to box up the spare mugs today and keep them elsewhere. This will have to be a less accessible place than the utility room but then when the utility room is finished, having the mugs in there will feel like an improvement (rather than less convenient than having them in the kitchen).

We're a family of four as most of you know and we have four mugs, same goes for cereal bowls, plates etc and knives and forks.

What do you do for guests, Minimalistmommi?

I was also wondering how the 333ers are getting on?

I was thinking of your 4 of everything when I typed my post

We do use all the duplicates we have, but only when we are hosting overnight, which can be a few times a month in the summer months.

hobnob I'm quite shy so I'm a bit of a hermit so if MIL and FIL pop around there are just enough mugs to go around
On the very rare occasion there is more then two extra adults in the house I've been known to ring my MIL and say we don't have enough X,Y or Z
Family know my ways now, so they just find it quite funny and turn up with a extra tray or whatever if we're having a take away in front of the telly

LOL Somme it works for us, but I know it wouldn't work for everyone! It means I never have piles of dirty dishes, because I have no choice but to wash up

Just had yet another estate agent in. I've been clearing and cleaning up, trying to get DDs to let go of some crap things and OH has a large arm chair in our bedroom where he leaves his stuff instead of putting it away. So, natch, agent mentioned removing the clutter. Would it be so wrong of me to just chuck everything including OH in the dustbin?

On a more positive note, my wardrobe is looking spacious

Jemster It sounds like you're really fed up, although it does seem to me like you've made a really good start. A lot of us have found that when you revisit an area you've already done, you often find more things that you can get rid of. I think decluttering is self-perpetuating, the relief as things leave the house makes you want to get rid of more! It can be frustratingly slow if you don't have much time, I'd love to have a massive blitz on the spare room, but with a toddler running around it's not possible, so it has to be little & often.

I definitely think you should box up some of the extra mugs and crockery. It makes room in the cupboards, and encourages you to wash the pots more often, because you need them clean so you can re-use them. This in turn means there is never a huge, daunting stack of washing up.

That said, I've done naff all decluttering recently. I am going to have to re-think the kitchen layout, as DP and I are getting married and mum is very kindly buying us a food mixer as a wedding gift, and she thinks my aunt will be buying us a breadmaker. I anticipate (and hope!) that both of these will be used very regularly, and will need to live on the worktop, which means I need to make space. My tea / coffee / sugar jars currently live on the worktop, as do my pasta & rice, in nice glass storage jars, but they might all have to be re-homed in cupboards. I am quite attached to my storage jars, but realistically, the pasta and rice can stay in the bags they come in. Maybe. Split bags and spilled contents really irritate me.