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...

Sunnywithshowers I just read that as " books, handbags and goblins" which gave me a chuckle I've yet to find any goblins when decluttering but they may be hiding there somewhere!

Managed another sort through of toys yesterday helped by Ds1 (3) who was lovely, he sorted through and made a pile of "things to give to another baby who needs them more" Double buggy is going to the tip to free up cupboard under the stairs space - only bought it for £30 2nd hand, used it for nearly a year so not too bad.. The alternative is cleaning it up, fixing the hood, uploading photos etc which doesn't seem worth it.

Ordered some work clothes from Matalan, which means another trek through the wardrobe to find things to get rid of. One in, one out!

I have a bag full of stuff for the chazzer which has been in the boot of the car for a week. Applause, please. This is hard for me.

at goblins Nishi

MIL has taken DH and I to the chazzer, and is at tip with DH. We can now move a bit more in the garage.

Nishi - put the pushchair on free cycle. Someone is bound to take it away for you :)

I put my second double on Gumtree. Hopefully got someone taking it tomorrow.

Applause for core. Now you just need to get them to the charity shop. At least they are out of the house. I leave things by the front door and walk right past them. It's taken me until today to remember the play-doh to go to the grandparents. I only promised it would go ooooh a month or more ago.

Managed to get the things I said I was going to done, but I somehow came back with three beautiful rings I bought almost on the spur of the moment. Oops!

Picked up the keys to my new house today (still renting), so I want to book a van and start packing tomorrow :).

Thank you, thank you.

They might actually go to the charity shop tomorrow. Or Friday. .

Hello everyone - I've been out of action with face ache sinus inflammation/pain for nearly 2 weeks now. I really don't want anti-biotics & hope I've turned the corner now, but I'm not here to moan. Just to let you all I'm lurking and cheering you all on, if not posting.

I just came across this fab blog post on Becoming Minimalist re 101 things in the home that can be reduced, that I just had to share with you all.

I'm quite chuffed to see at first glance at least, I've tackled so many of these items!! I intend to print off the list and give it a proper review, with ticks and all, later this evening.

I have been lurking here and on the other threads and finally coming out from behind the piles of stuff to post.
We have recently moved to a house less than half the size of our previous one (which I thought I had declutttered)

So now have boxes in house and 2 storage units of stuff.

But have made a start
3 chairs , 5 lamps , a table , 3 vases , box of kitchen things , cushions freecycled.
Pans which won't work on new hob given away . 3 boxes of things and a massive suitcase , 2 big bags of clothes - gone to charity shop. Some garden stuff gone to a friend. Emailed auction house with details of 6 large pieces of furniture for valuation. Am currently editing Christmas decorations (we no longer have a loft !). To put it in perspective the storage units are nearly the size of my sitting room ......a long way to go but a start.

Hello everyone! Back after a few days holiday in the Lakes (well not quite actually in them but not that much dryer on certain days). I have to say I bought things while I was away. A magazine - (which will eventually be recycled) some new pairs of thicker socks for walking boots/shoes, a new fleece and some re-proofing stuff to do my waterproof coat/overtrousers etc.

Well I guess the waterproofing stuff is a consumable so doesn't count and going away for a few days has made me realise how unsorted my really casual walking/muckbout clothing is as I rarely need more than a day's worth at a time. This is fine except for holiday times when I start to get a bit stuck for stuff, so buying the new things has made me decide to do a major clothes sort this weekend - especially focusing on casual clothes! As I have bought 5 new things in, I need to get rid of an equivalent number at least !

Stuff is currently being unpacked all over the hall, kitchen and bedroom floors and I am doing my usual of MNetting rather than sorting so I do need to get on! Some 20:10s maybe?!

Spent 5.5 hours today sorting 21 old A4 Box files which were stuffed to bursting with all my notes, essays etc from 3 degrees. REcycled most of it and have small pile to scan (already scanned about a 3rd of it), giving the empty file boxes to a scrap store near us.

It feels so good!!

Not that much to report today, but proud of DS for declaring a few of his old Lego guides/ manuals needed to go, "as they take up too much space". So in the recycling bin straight away :).

Also put the table, 4 chairs and parasol set out for BHF tomorrow and must add a coffee table later.

Well I still have a poorly twin. But I did manage to organise the dc's bedroom to get a second cot in today. Have removed a bin bag of outgrown clothes, another of outgrown/unused cloth nappies. Unpacked the twins duvets to go in their cots.

Unfortunately my plan to swap rooms was scuppered when I discovered I could fit the bed in. But nothing else and room to move was reduced to about 2 inches either side! Dh is now talking about getting a new bed and down sizing to a double.

sok hope your LO feels better soon. Does anyone else find that things can get a bit worse before they get better? e.g. clearing out those box files now means car is full of box files until Tuesday before I can get rid of them, there is a fairly large pile of paper to be scanned stacked on the dining table etc, whereas before it was all stacked neatly in the spare room.
Same with books - I have sorted out a "read and chuck before the move" box which is now looking very cluttery in the living room, even though it will mean at least 2 less moving boxes.

Hello! Have been travelling for work for the past two weeks or so and it's been hectic at work. Don't remember if I said that I did a boot sale a couple of weekends ago and although I made £15 and got rid of bits and pieces, there was still plenty especially the bigger stuff.

Anyway I listed a couple of things on eBay and bigger things on Gumtree and happy to report that I sold a car seat base yesterday on Gumtree and both items on eBay have bids. So methinks I'll be doing that now.

3tins of condensed milk decluttered from the cupboard, 3 years out of date. It was nearly banoffee!
Jewellery envelope ordered via Traidcraft for my non valuable odds and sods. I'll get the tesco one sorted today.
Bits and pieces on Facebook ahead of summoning effort for eBay. I had made my peace with charity shopping, and then spent several hundred more pounds than we have on my course, so every penny counts just now. Sadly, energy levels for selling have dissipated and other hobbies and commitments have mushroomed, plus going back to work is looming large next month. I'm going to need you guys to keep me going.

Hobnob I know I've got a tin of condensed milk in the cupboard... or it might be evaporated, I can't remember. I had planned to make fudge at some point but couldn't remember which I needed, so bought both. I used one of them in rice pudding, but the other is still in the cupboard. I'll check which it is and find a recipe to use it up, I'm sure it'll be something really healthy - not!

Downsize That's an impressive list! What is it with lamps, do they multiply in the night or something? I've sold three and there's still one waiting to be freecycled!

OK - So I have banned myself from all areas of MN except Good Housekeeping for the whole weekend in order to Get Stuff Done including a proper sort out of clothing. (Then I can decide if I actually need to buy anything more, rather than just buying something randomly.)

Artemis - I know exactly what you mean about hte "worse before it's better* syndrome! I expect to be in exactly that state with clothing this weekend!

I will also be decluttering my fridge-freezer this weekend as the compressor is on its last legs. I need to get rid of random unlabelled and out of date stuff from the freezer and hope my neighbours can accommodate the rest of the stuff for a few days! Then the repair man will take away the fridge-freezer on Monday, fit a new compressor and bring it back on Tuesday! I'm trying to see this as a fantastic chance to have a lovely shiny decluttered freezer rather than yet another unwanted chore to do over the weekend!

Right - 30 minutes of lesson planning before I do some household stuff!

Wow, have just taken about a week to read right through this thread. Inspired to declutter before I move house on 1st July so thought I would take some tips from the hard-core minimalists on here

Paperwork is my biggest elephant. I just keep moving it around into different boxes. And soon it will be tax return time again

But the real reason I de-lurked was to ask if anyone knows why the Britain's Biggest Hoarders episodes aren't available on iPlayer? V frustrating - I was just about to take myself off to bed with the iPad and watch one.

Arti, I'd love to help declutter your fridge freezer this weekend.

Somehow we've ended up entertaining Saturday evening, Sunday lunch and afternoon tea (three different lots of people) so there's loads of cooking to be done. Fortunately Sunday lunch is an aged relative who isn't a foodie so it doesn't have to be anything fancy.

And the weather is fine finally, the garden beckons, and a whole load of paperwork has built up on my desk since last weekend...

Do you realise that we are nearly at the end of this thread?

Cq, hello and hope someone will be able to advise you soon.

Welcome cq, moving house is always a great motivator to declutter, especially if you are moving somewhere smaller or with less storage. You can get rid of an awful lot in a month :)

Good luck with the paperwork, you're not alone in struggling with that.

Hi, I have been lurking on this thread and found it very motivating. My house is not too bad as I have always had a less is more mindset, however it is a constant work in progress.
I think the hardest thing is finding time to declutter on top of all the usual daily work that needs doing. Reading here helps keep things ticking along slowly but surely.
DH is slowly coming round to the idea that rooms look better without his piles of paperwork on display!

I have been lurking too.

Today I organized my pantry-- it has stupid deep shelves, so you can't really put a lot of things in the back that you might want to access.

From the top:

Shelf 1 - disposable pans, paper towels
Shelf 2 - plastic shoebox of snacks in front, large container of nuts/dried fruit behind
Shelf 3 - oils, vinegars & spreads on a lazy Susan
Shelf 4 - plastic shoebox of breakfast stuff in front (honey, slivered almonds, chia, coffee, raisins, sultanas....), bread box behind
Shelf 5 - 3 tall cereal containers in front, extra boxes of cereal behind (I was very proud of this lightbulb moment, the extra cereal previously lived in an entirely different cupboard!)
Shelf 5 - more plastic shoeboxes, containing dh's water bottle collection. He actually got rid of 3, of his own accord, during the reorganization.

All shelves have been labeled :-) The boxes/containers in front are all easy to pull out, so you can access things behind quite easily.

Tomorrow i am going to chuck a bunch of ds1's toys in the garage since he really only plays with his Lego, cars, puzzles and drawing things. This will make our living space a lot less cluttered. Not getting rid of them as ds2 will be born any minute (literally!) and we really do have the space in the garage (god I sound like such an excuse-maker!)

What is working for me is:

1. focus on one tiny area at a time.
2. work with what I have - old jars & cardboard boxes as space dividers means the space gets organized NOW rather than waiting until some mystical ikea-infused future.

Hi Ladies! Can I join you? I've been reading this rather long post over the past couple of days and want to join. I have been doing what I thought was ruthless decluttering but after reading all of your posts have decided I haven't been ruthless enough. I too have the ebay boxes which are messing with my head as well as a husband who thinks things may be useful so we'll just put it in the loft. So right now I'm starting in my den/craft room/dumping room and having a go at one cube at a time. I've got a tip pile, a charity pile and an ebay pile. New ebay rule for me: I'll list on free listings, relist on the second free listing and if it doesn't sell then it's going to charity.

Looking forward to tips, hints, ideas and updates.

I'm experiencing an unexpected but welcome side effect from decluttering - LESS WASHING!!

I don't know how this has happened - less clothes in wardrobes shouldn't really mean we are wearing less clothes, but I'm currently running at about 60% of the loads I was doing just a few months ago.

Maybe it's down to change of season but we are still wearing lots of layers.

Anyone else found this?