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[educatingarti]

This is the new minimalist/decluttering thread! I hope everyone likes the minimal title!

Hi all
Just a bag of clothes (big next bag!) to friends who have a younger daughter. So have gleefully put stuff in that bag. My daughter's drawers can now close. Gave a book to a Neighbour for his charity sale. Result!

Hello all ye minimalist goddesses

What is the secret?!! My clutter is drowning me and whenever I get rid of a load of stuff I am never able to be ruthless enough? Do I just chuck everything so I don't have to make decisions?

Heeeelp

Hi everyone
I've been reading this thread gearing up for my big clear out. We're moving house on Saturday so I'm trying to clear out as much as possible, theory being if I can't get to the tip/charity it's already packed in appropriate easy to shift boxes. I've got a stack of stuff to list online, we've said any money we raise from selling stuff will start our deposit for a house fund. I've been having some stern words with myself "no you don't need those boots you've never worn, yes they were a bargain and yes they are pretty but you've never worn them".
I just wish I had my mum, she was amazing at this stuff when I lived at home but she can't come over and help. I keep picturing her being here going "keep, bin, charity. Keep? Why? When did you use it? Are you going to use it? Is it any good? Are you sure you actually need it? So keep, bin, chairty?" The answer was never keep at the end of that!

madame Today I threw away a great big self portrait my DS did last summer (drew round him and he painted it). It was ace. But we have photos of him doing it, and pictures of it. I can't keep it just because. I am NEVER going to put it up on a wall and admire it, it's just been rolled up on top of the bookcase.

If you can't think of a use or display for the thing, chuck it.

If a charity bag comes through your door, fill it. Hide the stuff in a corner for a while if you want, and then realise that you are not using it, and chuck it.

Get pleasure from having less stuff. I feel relief much more acutely than the brief anxiety I get from thinking about throwing it away.

Daydream put the boots on :)

Called a local charity today on my lunch break to arrange pick up for three huge bookcases - we have built in shelves in the new house, and are allowed to fit more shelves if we like.
The charity shop were very picky ... demanded a photo of each item and full description before they would take them! I was a bit but they apparently passed the test so will be collected next week.

madame

my top tip would be to start with one drawer, cupboard or corner and work from there. That way you see results fast and it won't overwhelm you.

My MIL is a hoarder of epic proportions (not that I am implying you are ) and she periodically gets bursts of trying to clear things, but does a little bit here, a little bit there, gets disheartened and then stops.

Yes, I second the earlier advice, madame: small bursts in well-defined spaces.

For me, it's been really helpful to focus on one room at a time (even if it's only ten minutes a week). I've also found it helps to have a halfway house for some things you're really not sure about getting rid of (like a suitcase - something out of sight anyway) and then you can come back to it 6 months on. I've only retrieved 2 or 3 things from purgatory, as it were. Good luck!

I don't even need to put the boots on, they're velvet boots. I call them my superhero boots but funnily enough have never had a need for some high heeled boots to fight crime in.
I went through a box of 'keepsakes' earlier and threw a load out of cards, letters from people I don't talk to anymore and photos. Why did I have a photo of my best friend from when I was 15s' shoes?

I'd put them on and go to Tescos looking AWESOME

Decluttering has pretty much ground to a halt here, and the house is feeling more cluttered than ever, due to DH doing some work in the spare room. Everything from the big cupboard in there has had to come into our bedroom, and it's all baby stuff that we need to keep as DC2 is due in 8 weeks or so. I'm now thinking we should have found out the sex, as then I'd know if I could get rid of all the girly stuff!

I did two areas in our bedroom at the weekend. Tops of two chests of drawers that had become dumping grounds. Not a huge amount of stuff thrown away but things put where they should be. Best bit is they took just a few minutes each and have made a big difference to the feel of the room.

Paperwork for me this evening - getting rid of this www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/40107872/?query=helmer and using folders in the bottom drawer of my desk - I realised having the cabinet was allowing me to hoard far more paperwork than is necessary.
Also FINALLY getting rid of a stupid, metal box file thing which is about the size of a cat-carrying box (only comparison I could think of) which is broken and useless, but which DH has stubbornly been hanging on to for years. It's supposed to be for files and he has stored.... unlabeled, old, rewritable cds in it.

I think my problem is that we have loads of stuff that just has no place. So when I'm picking up stuff we are keeping, I don't know where to put it, so it just gets moved around!

I really need to declutter clothes and kitchen stuff too. It is far too easy to get behind on the laundry and washing up when there is too much scope for it to build up. I need to be more ruthless.

I'm new..

ArtemisatBrauron invited me

Welcome willow

thanks

so do I need to My name is Willow & I'm a hoarder/stockpiler & trying to change ?

Currently driving DH by having every room a tip. My (perhaps OCD) is that I need to look & consider everything. There is an emotional attachment to tat..however, on the plus side I have been frantically ebaying (am not really quids in, but at least recouping some expenditure).

I'm sending the majority of items via myhermes who are around the £3 figure.

I'm struggling with receipts..I will confess that I keep them but don't look at them in case I can't find what I'm looking for (hello?), trying to get disconnect from the DC clothes (what is that all about?) & the sheer volume.

I hate to run out of things or not be prepared (obviously need many pairs of shoes/coats/hats/gloves for every eventuality). Does the dog need 3 beds ? do I need 30 tea towels...why have I got so many thongs when I haven't worn one in 15 years .

collect/gather/store needs to change to collect/gather/get rid of

I'm currently mning while staring at a pile of... Stuff? Junk? Things I need? I've no idea! It's all a muddle. Ds has been playing me up so I've had to forgo some tidying time, so house is wallowing in mess, ds plays up more because he has no space and so it goes on!

Homestart volunteer should be with me tomorrow morning so I promise I will get at least one box/bag of stuff ready for leaving the house.

I haven't decluttered anything today! Am totally worn out and felt ill at work so pretty much crashed after my shift finished at 7.

My homestart volunteer is coming on Thursday :)

Willow- it is easy to attach emotional security to things rather than relationships! Try and do it a little at a time. Could you start by spending a short time every day in one room/area but decide that everything you touch has to be either given away, thrown away or put away?

Fuzzpig - I can I identify with your exhaustion! I am currently feeling pretty stressed out having seen the fibromyalgia consultant yesterday. . He kept on about my need to do (more) exercise. I am sure that exercise is important but he didn't seem to understand that on a lot of days, the energy choice would be between exercise vs getting enough work done or doing the food shop or eating reasonably healthily! It has really really wound me up - so much so I found it difficult to sleep last night!

However, today I may be able to get out a couple of things I know are in my big cupboard in the spare doom that can be thrown out or taken to the chazzer. I have a bath board that my dad used the last time he was awell enough to be able to come and visit - I'm fairly sure now he isn't going to be able to do that again

I do have an easier workload this week (GCSE aftermath) so it should be an opportunity to get outstanding work and household things done - on the other had being wound up really isn't helping!!

Hi all I've been lurking on this thread and was inspired to clear out our loft at the weekend. I sorted six boxes of books, 3 of CDs and numerous bags of rubbish, then promptly stacked it all in the hall, intending to ring a charity to come collect it at some point. Got home last night to discover that DH had loaded it all in the car and taken it to cancer research! Had huge panic that Id thrown out something essential but realised I hadn't actually looked at any of this stuff for 4 years so can't have been THAT essential....feel so much lighter today...such a lovely feeling!

Welcome Lucid and well done ( to you and your DH )!

Hi lucid :) I would've panicked too in that situation. That's why while DH does pretty much all the general housework due to my health, I am in charge of decluttering because I wouldn't be able to handle not being in control of knowing what was thrown away.

DH is attacking the mountain of washing up today and we have gone through and decided what bits to throw away. A few tacky bits of plastic/kids' crockery, anything with a chip in it, all saucers as we never use them even when we use little teacups, and a few other bits too eg a teapot with a missing lid. Success!

Welcome Willow and Lucid! And a for fuzzpig to celebrate your crockery success!

Hope you don't mind, but I'm posting a link to a blog I've recently started which is, in part, about decluttering and moving towards minimalism.

dancewiththeblackdog.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=28&action=edit&message=6&postpost=v2

yay, nice to see you willow!

I used to be exactly the same, I felt really sentimental about loads of things and found it really hard to get rid of anything, e.g. felt I always had to keep anything at all my mum gave me, even if I wouldn't use it/didn't like it. I started trying to get rid of things I didn't care about, like socks/pants and then tried to move on to stuff I felt was harder.

Every time you get rid of something that you feel sentimental about it will get easier - I quickly realised that I wasn't throwing away the affection I feel for those people, or weakening our relationship, and that in the end, having an old t shirt my mum gave me wouldn't make me feel better if she died, or replace her, so why was I hanging on to it...

Sorry that was meant to be helpful, not morbid!!

I didn't find it morbid Artemis - and I really agree with your idea of starting with things you don't feel emotional about, and not going straight for the really challenging stuff. If you can't get rid of a top you bought on holiday ten years ago, you won't be able to get rid of the ornament from a late grandparent, etc etc.

When I have successfully decluttered before (well I say successfully, obviously we never got completely clear but we certainly made a good dent IYSWIM) I've done 'sweeps' where I go through simply taking rubbish first, then really obvious clutter, etc - basically doing a slightly 'deeper' search each time, if that makes sense.