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...

Hello can I join? My volume of stuff just drives me nuts. It's so time consuming and mess making.... What you wrote wendy is very useful as it will change how I feel psychologically about getting rid of stuff.

Will try to make a start today, not brilliant at selling on eBay but I will try.

What do you with perfectly good stuff that you don't need < eyes lampshade that is sitting on my table in bedroom for no reason I can remember >

Free listing on eBay you say?
I've kept 3 items back. Ill do a lazy eBay mobile listing in them today.
Thank you thank you thank you!

Wendy - fab post above.

Loves - car is perfect place to start.
Get it empty and sparkling. It will give you a boost every time you use it and it's a manageable space.

I've got a few listings set up on ebay, which I will start later on. (I find it easiest to set up ebay listings in advance, and schedule the time for a Sunday at around 9pm. Theoretically this costs extra, but if you find out it's a free listing weekend, you can then go in and revise the listing to start immediately. It then qualifies for free listing. If you happen to forget, they will start at the scheduled time so you'd have to pay the schedule fee.)

Hello and welcome Cristiane. If I have good stuff to get rid of, I either use Freecycle or I send it to the charity shop. For random oddments of crockery etc, I take that to our local amenity site. It's like a recycling centre but there is a section where you can just leave things, and people can come along and look, and take what they need.

Note because Royal Mail postage has gone up there are new maximum postage charges on Ebay.

pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/maximumPP_FAQ.html

pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/maximumPP_FAQ.html

Free eBay listing?

Cristiane if you are on a role I always take good stuff to the charity shop. Bag it up and stick it in the car / hall so you can take it there the next time you leave the house. Freecycle is great for bulky items, but there are so many time wasters on there who always delay coming over to get stuff and so many e-mails to answer that it is more hassle than it is worth (to me). I just get stuff out as quickly as possible so that I can get the reward (of less mess and more space) and keep the good minimising vibe going. Don't let unwanted stuff sit there. Wherever it is going, take it there now or ASAP. DH has a stack of DVDs sitting on our mantle that has been there for near 3 weeks now - he has PLANS to give them to friends - but none of it has left at all and he's now really forgotten about it. I'm going to spend the money to post them to the places they need to go to just get them off my mantle or it will never happen.

added a few extra bits to the charity shop bag and left it in this afternoon on the way out for a nice walk around the local river/common, now making curried carrot soup from leftover veg for lunches this week. Almost an NSD today until I realised we were out of pasta and had to get a bag for dinner tonight. 95p isn't so bad though!

Thanks for the bathroom storage ideas everyone. It's too small for drawers and the sink overhangs the bath so we couldn't fit a unit in.

BeCool that unit looks great but wouldn't fit our bath I don't think.

I'm trying not to have four types of shampoo on the go but DH has his own as otherwise the shampoo gets finished before the conditioner, which he doesn't use.

It's true that you do get people messing you about on Freecycle sometimes, it can be more trouble than it's worth.

I've started my ebay listings, set to finish next Sunday, so will hopefully be able to send a few more things on their way next week. Still haven't taken to box of stuff to the charity shop, I'm definitely going to get that done tomorrow.

Welcome Cristiane, I think with the perfectly good items sometimes it can ge hard to juet give them away as you can think about what they cost.

If you are already happy to let them go then charity shop is the easiest.

I listed a couple of items on Ebay today and tidied a large cupboard, didn't actually take much out of it but sorted some items to reuse.

Hoping to tackle more tomorrow.

8 bags in boot for dropping at charity shop tomorrow. 5 bags of rubbish. 2 bags of recycling. Wow! Most out of the bedroom which I thought I had sorted 3 months ago.

I had my amazing decluttering tidy cleaning loving friend to help. We done 3 out of 4 main living areas now over 3 Sundays. She is like a guru - energising and thought provoking.

I'm starting thinking about buying new furniture. Beautiful purposeful furniture we love and enjoy. Not the sad tat I got for free or picked up cheap that looks dreadful. It's all a big adventure.

Aesthetics aside I'm feeling personally awakened and energised by the whole process.

I PG yoga DVD (unused) listed on eBay.

So taks for this week is not to mess up my nice clean car

Brilliant Loves!

You've inspired me to do my car - I reckon I can get it done in a lunch hour as it's not too bad. But it's getting v dusty. But first I have to get rid of all the bin bags in boot full of charity shop stuff. That is todays mission.

Lying in the bath this morning, I'm looking around and thinking "I don't need that" and "Oooh that can go" etc - which is a huge turnaround from thinking about stuff I want!! Out is the new In!

YY BeCool to beautiful and purposeful furniture! You are making your home, creating a lovely and nurturing environment for yourself and your children. How amazing!

Loves Well done! You aren't going to want to get out of the car!

Ponderosa at the end of the day if you are using the items, then they aren't clutter. There is lots of nice bathroom storage available. If you don't have any floor space for drawers then you are going to need wall-hung storage of some sort. If you have a high enough ceiling then something like this over the door frame works well I think. There are loads of shelf options for in the shower. Loaf do some nice bathroom storage. Homebase has a good practical selection as well.

My FIL is visiting at the moment, so not much going on here. I have a couple more hotspots in the house to sort - mainly the upstairs hall which has become the dumping ground for items and furniture that don't have a home yet. We also need to get some things up in the loft which we don't use, but would be difficult to replace (TV stand, christmas tree stand, antique desk that we don't have space for now, but will when the DCs don't use the conservatory as a playroom anymore). I also have several boxes of photo frames which we had hung on a 'gallery' wall in our last house. I need to decide if / where I want them.

Here's some motivation!

Favourite minimalist quote:

Elise Boulding. ?The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.? (1920)

And this is my absolute favourite:

Antoine de Saint-Exupery. ?Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.?(1900)

that second one should have been in bold, it's good enough to do again!

Antoine de Saint-Exupery. ?Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.?

Fantastic quotes thanks MM!

I've printed them out to put on fridge (just for a while mind you) - which is clear of all fridge magnets for now as I still can't bring myself to put them back on. (though DD2 is missing her phonics magnets!)

I absolutely love that second quote, it's my all time favourite BeCool I would live to get to that stage, where I could look around and think that here is nothing I could take away. I guess that would be seriously minimal.

I just wanted to say something about ebaying stuff & decluttering.

I have successfully ebayed unwanted possessions, clothing, bundles of clothes etc in the past. I've not made a fortune but I've done OK.

So when I started slowly decluttering I had a "to ebay" box. Which grew and grew, which took over the hallway and which became a huge physical and mental obstacle to me.

I felt a huge personal burden to 'ebay' this stuff, to claw some money back, to build up my PayPal account etc - and why not? I had lots of great stuff to sell, some of it new. I had at least £200 sitting there, probably more.

My point is it became another obstacle, another HUGE blockage in the route to decluttering, and to sorting out my flat.

So if you can just list it, sell it, post it - no problems. But if like me, the duty/obligation "to ebay" becomes an obstacle/burden on your decluttering journey, then I would recommend just taking it ALL to the charity shop.

I cannot describe to huge sense of relief and positivity that came from giving myself permission to let someone else sell it & earn money for charity. I don't think I'd be at the point I am today if I hadn't done that.

The most important point is if I hadn't given myself permission to NOT ebay and to simply give unwanted/unneeded possessions to charity shops, the 20 or more bin bags I've give to charity shops in the last 3 weeks would STILL be in my flat. Think of that.

I had years worth of Vanity Fair magazines I wouldn't throw into the recycling as I could "sell them on ebay" - FFS!!! They aren't even included in the charity shop bin bag tally as they all went into the recycling.

BeCool I had a similar experience, mostly with baby clothes / things. As I've already said on one of the previous threads MIL has a shopping problem and when I became pg with DS1 an avalanche of stuff started to arrive in the post. More clothes than at least 3 children could wear, baby gear, toys, books by the dozens. All of it new and all of with expensive shipping from abroad. I tried to ebay, NCT sell, storage systems, etc. It caused me no end of stress as I could not keep on top of the stuff and I spent a lot of time and money trying to sort it and store it. The local secondhand children's shop wouldn't take most of it as it was not UK brands. Ebay was earning me 99p or so per item and it just was not worth the hassle. I finally gave up and life has been so much easier since. Anything unwanted or unneeded just goes straight to the charity shop now with tags on. They are grateful as it sells well for them and I no longer have someone else's shopping compulsions taking over my life. Win win. I wish I had given myself permission much earlier - it would have made a difference to my quality of life the first year of DS1's life!

Wendy amazing how your MIL's shopping addiction becomes other peoples problems!!!

It is about giving yourself permission isn't it? And the 'permission' leads to these huge changes in our lives!

I struggled with baby clothes too - but for different reasons, mostly sentimental. Now I have kept about 4 baby bits from each DD, mainly handknits from my Mum.

Hi can i join?

I've been lurking on the old quiche for a while, and have been read minimalists blogs recently. I got into decluttering years ago through flylady and I love the whole anti consumerist/simple living philosophy.

Saying that, there are still corners of the house which are full of junk, particularly the study, as I am scared of paperwork, and our shredder has died (again).

We are a largish family in a big house so things do accumulate quickly, if I don't consciously chuck stuff. Dh is getting the idea, so when he buys something he always chucks at least one or two of that category of item.

What I do notice is that the rooms which are dejunked are easy to keep tidy, and cleaning is easy.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing about everyone's efforts.