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...

Sounds like everyones doing great

educatingarti - sorry about your dad, hope you get things sorted for him soon.

Well I've been out the house the last couple of days so my big pile of clothes is still in the corner of the bedroom. Got DS off school and he really needs some attention and quality time as his nose is a bit out of joint with the arrival of his new little brother, so not too sure if I'll get it done today but fingers crossed i can get him sorted with some activity for a little while.

But on a positive note I had 5 mins yesterday so cleared a ledge in our kitchen - it runs the length of one wall and is a collecting ground for all sorts of crap (i'm the worst offender). i was setting the table after and instead of moving my sunglasses to the ledge I put them away in my bag and then put the bag away. Progress

Somme - I'm jealous of your French car boot sale. I got all excited here once cos they seemed to be running the Italian equivalent nearby but because of stupid Italian bureaucracy and rules you can't actually just "sell" things yourself so the only thing you could do was swap your crap for someone else's crap! Would kind of defeat the point of me doing it

Hi all haven't been on mn for a while and haven't really caught up with the thread yet but posting so I don't lose it.

I had gynae surgery on Wed so can't do much for a few weeks. It is most frustrating as I am stuck at home for 2 weeks not driving. I will probably have a big list of things to do while I sit around looking at everything.

Apologies first message wasn't meant to post.

Hey Lemon - you can catch up on loads of inspirational minimalist & decluttering blogs - nurture your mind as that is where the BIG change happens. Hope you are on the mend really soon.

Couple of nice articles for today:

article on Minimalist Parenting

Nice side effects of becoming minimalist

Clutter Busting Routines

BeCool
thanks for posting the links. I love the "nice side effects" one, it is so true. I tend to get myself wrapped up in buying stuff, or have in the past. I have nearly got there with the loft, sold loads of stuff on ebay. Another 2 bin bags done yesterday. Im going to have to be careful, i dont want to over do it and end up throwing things that could be useful in the future!
Ive parted with all of ds baby stuff and since Im now divorced got rid of a load of wedding stuff. getting there :-)
hope you are all having a good day..

Hobnob - gift the clock to someone who admired it so much

I am lucky that my mum still wants to keep each and every one of our handmade ornaments. So she has a pig, alien, various pieces of fruit, an owl and a 'stick man' made from clay. They have pride of place on her dresser.

Today's joy has been removing crap from our bedroom. Or rather, putting stuff away. I'm amazed at how many odd socks have gathered there. So they now reside in my specially commissioned 'odd sock' bag awaiting their companion.

I've also gone through even more clothes and found some which escaped the too small to be worn cull. I can only assume they were with my ironing fairy.

This weekend we are staying with friends so very little will be done. But as it appears most of the house has been freed from things we don't need, or at least they are in tidy places for now, I shall continue with the loft efforts as I'm concerned we may have a wasp nest up there. A HUUUUUUGE one was flying around and made its way out. I've only just been able to capture and release it today as it was hanging round the hatch as if it wanted to get back in.

Sokmonsta I had a HUGE odd sock bag.

Last week I played a race with DD1 to see who could match up the most socks. She matched up 29 pairs!!! Go DD1 :)

I try to put socks into a zipped washing bag when they go into laundry basket, but usually this doesn't happen.

HobNob I agree with Sok re the clock, pass it on, tick tock!

I just looked at my RollaDeck on my desk at work and realised I haven't looked at it for AT LEAST 5.5 years. So I've just shredded 100's of those teeny cards. Very satisfying.

Now if only I could do the same with all the paper on my desk! One step at a time.

My mum saw my massive pile of clothes ready for cash for clothes
She had now brought round 5 massive bags. I'm pretty sure they won't take most of it (really old curtains, fabrics etc) so I'm going to have to go thru it all
Also dd is poorly, so I'm not going to have chance to go before next Friday

I'm considering putting the lot in the garage, but once there in there ill almost certainly forget about them

Oh hum....

Hey hobnob DD2 is a threenager but she is brilliant. She is fab. She is obsessed with pirates so guess what the theme of her 4th birthday will be! Ahaargh me hearties! Unfortunately my DH left us last January so now I am FT single working mutha... God you never know what is round the corner do you? He also lives 4000 miles away so I NEVER get time off - so the house is getting messier and messier and my need to declutter more desperate... Also I travel with work a lot so it is really hard to find any time at all... Currently in the airport trying to chill and getting a chance to go on mumsnet!

I have a desperate odd sock bag!

svrider take it straight to cash for clothes if you can. D you have to go through it first?

svrider I agree totally with Cristiane - do not open the bags. take it all to cash for clothes. Not your problem and potential blockage in your own work.

cristiane ExP and I separated over Xmas (well I separated from him). He's not having DD's overnight even though he's sorted a flat etc. He doesn't want me to go out!!!! So single FT working mother of 2 here. DD's are 5.5 & 2 next week. DD2 thinks she is Captain Hook and is obsessed with cake!

Much respect!

SVrider, how about taking them back to hers next time you visit and saying 'I haven't had time to go through these yet so I thought I'd do it while DD's got you to keep her busy'.

I've namechanged in honour of minimalising, how do you like it?

Hey becool high five! DDs are 7 and nearly 4... Where did that pirate thing come from?!

svrider I think that's right, cash4clothes can sort it out. And they may accept more than you realise. I used to live in Africa and the markets there sold loads of stuff like curtains and bedspreads that were sold to places like cash for clothes and shipped out there. There is an African woman right now buying those bags of clothes/ curtains etc that she will wash and press and then sell at the market at a profit, and use the proceeds to pay for her children to go to school... Think on that for motivation!

I used to have a huge odd sock bag - one of those big reusable shoppers. It was full of not so odd socks as we'd fling them in there to sort later.

Dh has made a brave suggestion today. Partly influenced by the 3rd breakdown in a year! He has wondered whether we could get rid of the microwave as it would free up a lot of space. This comes as he was trying to microwave some pasta sauce and the bloody thing won't heat up. We had this twice last year when the twins were teeny and we were microwave sterilising. Emergency dash to Tesco at 10pm one night to get Milton and a loan microwave from a friend a few days later. Weirdly all 3 have done the same. Anyway, I digress.

Since we're going to return this one as faulty, how naughty would it be to just say we'll have the money back and not bother replacing it (if they'll let us of course). I've worked out we cook baked beans, peas and heat/reheat food in it. But actually now the babies are weaned onto our food and aren't having their bottles sterilised, there's probably very little we need a microwave for, other than convenience. My parents manage perfectly well without theirs and thus we/the babies do when there.

It would give me a much better space to use when baking and we're unlikely to fill it with small appliances as everything else has a home in the kitchen.

I've dumped dh's holey jumper. Will try and clear out sock and underwear drawer later. Friend has given me a bag of clothes for DS which is great but that means I'll go through his and dump small clothes. All for a good cause.

I'm going to suggest a use for stained and outgrown clothing that can't be sent down the chazzer

Look away now, serious environmentalists . I pack them up until we go to centerparcs, wear, then bin them. Yes, I know they couldgo in the clothing bank but it feels sooo good to come back with an empty ish suitcase and no washing!
Didn't get much, well anything done today, after dc off to school my friends came round for bible study (arti, thanks for specifics, noted and prayed for), these were immediately followed by another group of friends who didn't leave til two then it was school pick up! Did manage to decree bath toys while dc in bath though. Found old rug dhs brought back from iraq tour, planned to declutter, but dh found it and it's now spread on bedroom floor!!!

Beautiful moon tonight.

silentmammoth Thank you! Special mattress arrived today!

Svrider my local cash for clothes came and collected my stuff from the doorstep - have a look online as yours may do similar.

Cristiane I've pmd you.

I have a recollection of someone talking about craft boxes last week. I organised ours after Christmas. I dismantled all the half used craft kits and organised the stuff into those re sealable sandwich bags - one for Pom poms, glitter pens, pipe cleaners, kit bits, sequiny stuff, etc. Then it all fitted nicely into a Really Useful box along with paints, brushes, glue and stampers.

Having done all that it has lain virtually unused since then... I imagine I'll get all tetchy when it doesn't get out back innthenorganised fashion I left it in!

Ok - I am in a mess! Everything is everywhere! ( Well not quite but it feels like it.) I need to do some serious 20:10 ing.

I started by not allowing myself to MN until I'd done 20 mins - so taken out rubbish, put more water in the car screen wash reservoir ( It seems to need topping up every 2-3 weeks at present so I hope it hasn't got a leak!!), emptied dishwasher and put dirties in, tidied up a houseplant that was staring at me ( got rid of dead leaves etc) and put a load of washing on.

Next 20 mins has to be for work as I have stuff all over my (very large) desk/table and 6 lessons still to write up plus general stuff everywhere.

I've been at sixes and sevens all week and now feel really rubbish - I think it is probably just reaction to all the stuff with my Dad. Yesterday I slept all afternoon! Housework has gone to pot even more than usual and I've not really been on top of work either!

Sokmonsta people managed without microwaves for centuries decades. Maybe try and calculate actually how much time ( if any) the microwave saves you in an average week and see if it is really worth it?

It wouldn't make a huge difference in time saving. Just means putting a pan on the hob for most things. Food which would need to be reheated otherwise dh could take to work for lunch and reheat there. He's said about giving our George foreman to his parents too (currently housed on top of the microwave) as we've not used that in over a year. It's just gathering dust. So we've agreed to give it a go and if we do genuinely need it, we'll buy another. But if not its a lovely clear piece of worktop. Seems dh is taking this decluttering lark on board.

sockmonsta and yay for sockmonsta's DH!

Well I spent far more time than 10 mins on MN on my first break but have now done another 20 mins work and written up a lesson (including filing/putting away).

My next 20 mins will be housework (ish) related!

Hi everyone.

Not done a vast amount since I last posted, but did have a useful 10 mins sorting out the condiment and baking cupboards. Got rid of a bin bag full of stuff that's past it's sell by date or I just never use. Left with a much pared down collection of ingredients I actually use. Have also put herbs and spices into alphabetical order to make it easier to check if we've got something rather than ending up with duplicates every time I try a new recipe.

Socks - definitely agree with getting rid of appliances you don't really use. As you say, they take up loads of space, gather dust and if you find you are really struggling without them (which sounds unlikely from what you say) they can be replaced.

Still spending too long between 20 mins sessions on internet!

Still, I have now put away/put in ironing basket every single bit of dried washing, put newly washed stuff on airer and put another load in machine! I've also decluttered a plant that was really nice but got a weird fungus/mould disease that I couldn't get rid of! Do you think this counts as an item on my decluttering "things out" list? even though I've kept the rather nice terracotta pot it was in? .
Ive now made myself a cup of tea and some sliced banana on toast (with honey). Once eaten I'm back on another 20 mins work. I'm slowly beginning to feel more in control but getting tired!!

clearsomme I love it!

sok I don't have a microwave. Not had one since I've had 2 dc. Only missed it for heating milk for coffees and now I have a lovely small nespresso device that I use daily.