Out with the old and in with - NOTHING! Further adventures in minimalism.

[MrsPennyapple]

Following on from the Minimalist Journey and Minimalist Quiche threads. The journey continues...

I had a dream last night about the need to declutter my room and the corners of my garage.
Things certainly have changed!

Eek, id struggle with decluttering a violin too! Have you got any actual plans with it? If your unsure, could you try setting a date to either start playing it again or too re gift/ sell it?

If I had a violin, and my children hadn't yet chosen musical instruments, I'd definitely wait until my DCs were at secondary school to see if they expressed an interest. I'd probably find a new home for the music.

Unless you really need the space under the bed for something else?

My aim is to have 'more space for the dust bunnies to run around in' under the bed (I read that on a site someone linked to on a previous thread) or at least for it to be a holding zone for those things you can't convince yourself to be without until they've been in a box for about 6 months.

Well the lesson I learned from yesterday was not to bite off more than I can chew. Underwear drawer looks great but i tipped loads of clothes out and didnt get a chance to finish so looks worse than ever.

I'm busy for the next days so will have to stay there for a few days. aagh - my entusiasm got the better of me.

miemohrs - hello & welcome.
So where are you going to start? Where are you in your head - do you want to hold onto stuff, or are you ready to release stuff and just keep what you use/need/love?

Do you think those unopened boxes could just remain unopened and go somewhere intact? Or is that too hardcore :)

Might be a good idea to start with one room? I started with my kitchen - I had help. It changed me and really encouraged me to tackle whole flat. My tally is now at least 20 bin bags to charity, 20 of rubbish/recycling - out of a one bedroom flat. I'm not done - I'm in transition. I work FT and find it hard to summon up the energy at the end of the day so most of my success is on Sundays when ExP has DC. I'm quite good at decluttering now, but I try to take it a step further towards minimalism. I'll never be a sparse white minimalist, but I strive to learn the principles, I find them inspiring and I'm moving towards a less is more existence.

Here's my kitchen thread which might be inspiring.

If it all feels too much, many on here use timers to great effect - set your timer for 20 minutes of work, then reset/have a cuppa for 10 minutes. Repeat if you feel up for it. Have bags ready for rubbish/recycling/charity shop and go for it.

I understand why that is difficult for you.

Still, there are plenty of other much easier places to start! maybe a kitchen or bathroom would be a less emotional place to begin with. Books, magazines, clothes, paperwork (my own nemesis)?

You could set your timer for 20 minutes NOW, and then come back for 10 min on MN and report to us what you have done.

Love it!
Get friend to help maybe??????

Here is a link to lots of motivational minimalism/decluttering blog posts with a focus on families - I posted it on the "DH doesn't want to declutter" thread, but it's worth posting here too.

41kg of clothes gone! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Wow Hobnob - that's impressive!!!

but they were free (i love freegle) and what we don't need are going to neighbours and inlaws as soon as we've had our pick.

Otherwise I've been getting rid of rubbish today. Haven't had a chance to get to storage locker as dd1 had a fiasco of a hospital appt (they told me wrong day) so am just organising stuff to go. One bag/box at a time. Am also putting stuff on freegle that I don't want to just take to the tip, but it is still useful to someone.

Miemohrs, I didn't see your post before was deleted. But there's nothing wrong with keeping things for emotional reasons. I've got a bag of baby clothes from each of the dc that I really want to keep, but I don't know what to do with it. I keep seeing people who make the clothes into little stuffed animals. But then I won't have them to see how teeny they were if that makes sense. I'm sure one day I will decide to pass them to a nicu or something. Or maybe find a baby doll which will fit them for the girls. Other baby stuff I don't hold onto so much.

41kg!!!! Seriosuly impressive! Well done!

I made another "pass" at my wardrobe today and ended up deciding against decluttering something. DD4 used to have bloodyawful episodes of collapsing when she would go completely unresponsive. Terrifying in a baby. As you can imagine, we ended up nee-nawing to hospital and being kept in a few times, and I developed a sort of OFRS; nappies, toothbrush, change of clothes and a book to grab and go with. Happily (thank God) DD hasn't done this for well over a year, but in view of the sheer number of DC I think I'll keep it ready packed. Please God we'll never need it.

Spare room decluttered

Sorry, I meant tp say hi to miemohrs. Miemohrs, I did read your post before it was deleted and really felt for you . Sod the clutter, decluttering brings up a hell of a lot of emotional baggage doesn't it?

I know, I would never have predicted that I had 41kg of outgrown children's clothes . Amongst those bags were all the newborn stuff from my dc. I found the pretty little dresses that hardly got worn hard to let go of but this thread has helped enormously with that. There is no practical use for them in my life, and keeping a few mementoes, for me, will just require the finding of a storage vessel and place to put it and I know I would never look at it, and then dc would someday have to decide what to do with it. So it went out.
Miemohrs I feel for you. It was the arrival of surprise dc3 that has allowed me to excavate the baby stuff at all. Otherwise the decision would be agonising.

hobnob
I recognise you... Were you on July 2009 maternity thread?

I'm travelling ATM so no more decluttering. But the bathroom is still looking fab and I am NOT missing or feeling guilty about all the stuff I chucked. Amazing how light you feel

41kg?! Amazing. Impressed!!

Didn't manage to read miemohrs post but decluttering is pretty emotional I think! I threw out some fertility thing we used 6 years ago to help conceive DS (Omg I still had it??). And tonight as I was putting underwear back in my drawer I picked out 2 bras (Pre kids!) and some unworn still with tags bodysuit which a friend posted me. Into charity bag it went. Feel good.

I know I'm not decluttering as fast as some of you are but working full time and no family around makes it quite intense! Still sticking to my resolution to dump at least one thing today so think I'm doing ok!

A friend just told me she did a car boot sale on the weekend and made £120!!! I can't believe it. She said she sold old clothes from dh, herself and her kid, plus some household stuff and unwanted gifts/toys and old toys.

How?! Have you guys done that? Should I try? Or is that the same as the eBay box that gets bigger and bigger and never makes it out of the house?!

Hobnob - I'm another one in awe of your 41kg. Impressive stuff.

Takeaway - I've decided to try and sell some stuff at NCT nearly new sales. That way, there's a fixed date I know I need to have the stuff ready for rather than thinking I'll get round to ebaying it or find a car boot to go to someday. Anything I don't manage to sell at the nearly new will be charity shopped.

Had a fairly productive day. Managed to go through one set of drawers sorting paperwork etc. Got rid of an ikea-bag full of paper recycling and a bin bag of other rubbish. Still have one box of papers to go through to work out what needs to be kept and what can be shredded. Think I might also still be holding onto too much for sentimental reasons eg party invites for DS1, letters for appointments when DC were newborns etc

Also sent an old ironing board and two broken lamps to the dump.

Lol Sokmonsta!
Having nightmares about the corners,
... and the cupboards, wardrobes, double garage, etc.
Today's achievement: work boxes organised into sections. Phew!

Decluttering is very emotional - trying to persevere to get to the fulfilling part. DF is a terrible hoarder and I have a need not to do that to my DC but also I hope DF will be inspired. I completely understand as he lost DM a long time ago and he as been an amazing Dad to a big family.

Big thanks to all those suggesting the timer, I've definitely found it a good motivator - helps me to do at least 20 mins a day and often more.
I can identify with LubyLu2000 though as I now have a few piles. I need to find a way to focus on 1 room at a time. Otherwise I get distracted and start 4 jobs in 4 rooms and finish none
I am unnecessarily excited about my garden incinerator but there was a bit missing and it's raining but paperwork (at least 8 boxes of cr*p) is my nemesis so I need the cathartic burning to begin. DF loves a good fire so may help him too

Takeaway2 I'm a bit scared of car boots, have heard reports of people crowding around cars before you've even parked - my inner agoraphobic couldn't cope. NCT sounds better but I'm ready to just donate and give away to make faster progress as I work long hours too.