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[educatingarti]

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

Got rid of about three things to a charity collection today! Tbh I had forgotten about it but saw the neighbours had the bags out so just grabbed what was to hand; there is more stuff upstairs but two more collections are due this week!! (Would have preferred it all to go today as itnis a charity that has worked with my disabled ds).

Morning! I took my lunch down to the river today and ate outside - I've been busy indoors otherwise.

My mum is coming to stay so I have had to tackle the spare room (of doom). I have come to the conclusion that DH needs a shed/man cave/room of his own as any space he is let loose in instantly becomes a tip of mixed rubble including - wires for things, empty packaging, receipts, odd socks, books, papers, old magazines, weird plastic things. All mixed together in piles and squirreled away behind things. I was planning to share one of the bedrooms with him as a study in our new house, so we could have a proper spare room but now wondering if I could stick it!

I recently cleared out our bedroom and it is so peaceful and lovely there now, except for his side of the bed where he has dropped all sorts of things already. He just doesn't see it.

Really interesting reading about your DH Artemis my DH is the same...it drives me crazy

I'm sure I've mentioned before the mail issue we have. He would open letters and leave envelope and contents in a pile on the dresser. This would continue for weeks until I could bear it no longer and sort through it myself. I put a rubbish bin/recycling bin/shredder by the dresser so he could deal with it straight away, but he still doesn't. I asked him about this pile and he said it was rubbish/recycling, I asked why he didn't used the bins, because he didn't think the system was still in place

Like you said, he just doesn't see it. Am I going to spend the next 30 years sorting through/being annoyed by his rubbish piles of bits, receipts and just rubbish??

I hope not

Probably. My Dh rarely even opens post, just piles it up. Sometimes I hand it to him to open, otherwise I just open it. If anything needs his attention then I pass it on, otherwise I just deal with it. Which is why the cheque that just came will go in the joint account from where I can spend it

Morning. Enjoying the lovely weather and minimising the garden!

Had a load of plant pots I got from free cycle. I've used what I needed and was planning on getting rid of the rest. My Homestart volunteer has taken them today for the care home she works in so the residents can grow things. More room for the dc to roam. Just need to mow and weed plus lay some more slabs and clean the Wendy house. Still! It feels like a never ending circle trying to create space in our home. But I'm sure we will get there one day.

Hello everyone. I've recently joined the flylady thread (which is great & really helping with the procrastination) so I'm currently focusing on de-cluttering the kitchen. Going to tackle a cupboard or drawer shortly then reward myself with a big lump of chocolate whilst watching Luther behind a cushion

Still tackling the clothes, seem to have hit a wall with it. I have however put up one if those hanging storage things inside my wardrobe so now the things I am keeping are more organised. Lots more stuff for the charity shop just need to get it together and out of the house

Have found the cleaning etc much easier and quicker since becoming better at letting stuff go. And I haven't missed any of it.

we've had my mum staying so I haven't gotten much done for the past 2 days. Now it's full-on packing for the move mode, so things will hopefully gather pace. I've decided to get rid of 2 more bookcases and 2 chests of drawers so my Friday goal is to arrange for them to be picked up by a local charity shop and pack/chuck/donate all their contents.

Gradually accumulating a pile for the kids charity car boot sale.

This thread is moving slowly now summer is here!

I'm picking out my books to take on holiday. The campsite has a bookshelf where you can leave stuff for others to read.

Kids off on camp for a week next week so hope to find some spare time for minimising.

Morning all!

how is everyone getting on. I've managed to declutter some teaching/revision/text books I no longer need on We Buy Books. It is bizzarre what they want and don't want. They want some books for the old science syllabus that students aren't doing any more, but not others. then they want answer booklets for some workbooks, but not the workbooks themselves! Ah well I will be a whole £9 richer and I have a bit of room on the shelves again so it has to be worth it!

Just getting geared up to start my first day of full-on packing - taking pictures of the furniture I want to get rid of so that the fussy charity shop will agree to pick them out!
I have 2 more trays of paper to scan and chuck too - a busy day ahead.

Dc old/broken garden toys went to the tip. Garden looks so much tidier and there is room to play now!

The thread about getting rid of all the toys made me a little itchy to part with stuff, but we are pretty much down to what they mostly play with. I may put about 1/3 - 1/2 of it in the garage. I love how quickly they tidy up the one box of toys they have at grandparents houses. Meany mummy.

I put some stuff up for sale last week, only one item has a bid so far, but at least I got them listed. I'm sure they'll go eventually, don't want to let things go too cheaply.

Packed all day - exhausted now and too tired to go for a run, I'm so behind on my half-marathon schedule.

On the plus side, as I was packing I sorted out 2 more boxes of stuff for the charity shop and the fussy furniture people are coming on Thursday for the 2 bookcases and chests of drawers which is a definite incentive to pack all that stuff up too.

Looking at the boxes stacked up I think there is a real, discernible difference between now and the last time we moved. I'd say we are half way through packing (or maybe even 2/3rds) and there are far fewer boxes than before.

I have to keep reminding myself that every book, shoe, plate etc makes a difference and not to keep things just for the sake of it.

Arte I hope you manage to keep your number of boxes down. I wish now that I had de cluttered every time we have moved. Instead we left it 'til the last minute and panicked packed...open a box and throw everything in! If I had known how it would end (house full of stuff) I would have tried to do it like you ! Good luck

Just moved DSs into new room- in it they have bunk beds, rug, clock and their bed soft toys. It's fantastic!! Even DH agrees its great. Tomorrow I'll move in their chest of drawers. We have decided when DD is settled into her new room we will put the boys toys in what will then be the spare room. So instead of having a spare room it will become the playroom -of doom-

Garden has been cleared of old building material so that's looking better.

The house is in decorating chaos but I can see the light at the end...it feels good.

Now it's for me, have a lovely sunny weekend!

We bought a dryer! I know that's the opposite of decluttering, but we're going to use it for good and not evil - I promise. We've already switched back to cloth nappies (stopped because they were getting musty and taking forever to dry) and I'm going to get rid of most of my clothes and just keep a few outfits. Dh has already halved his tshirt collection of his own accord! And he has suggested that we get rid of all laundry hampers and take dirty clothes directly to laundry room, so that will free up space in the bedroom.

I haven't been doing much lately. Things have really got on top of me. I am still managing a few bits here and there though. Homestart volunteer visiting on Thursday so I will try and get a few more bits for the chazzer to join the pile we've already got.

I was thinking about the whole simplicity parenting thing yesterday. I took DCs to the library (I work there, but they don't actually get to go that often), and as usual, DD basically refused to choose any books and just sort of shut down. I have always been baffled and a tad embarrassed by this, especially as she really loves books, reading and being read to.

However, now I've read SP I have a new perspective. Watching her behaviour when we are there, I realised she is actually just overwhelmed by choice (it's a tier 1 library and the junior section is huge). She will aimlessly wander up to a shelf and dither about a bit. This also happens on the rare occasion she gets to choose a new book (eg with World Book Day token). To a stranger she would appear to hate books! Whereas at home she's absolutely book mad and will happily choose books from the shelf/bucket.

So now I have this new perspective, I am not going to pressure her into choosing her own books. I hope when she is older she will start to enjoy seeking out her own books, but there's no hurry. For the moment she is more than happy for me to choose her daily reading books, and loves me bringing home chapter books I read her at bedtime too. She likes the fact I'm in charge of it and she can trust me to choose something good. And it is great for me, as I can choose stuff I'm happy to read and that I know is an appropriate topic/level - so far it's all been stuff I loved as a child. Not a rainbow fairy in sight :o

Sorry I've waffled on somewhat. I know it's not particularly to do with clutter as such, but for those interested in minimalist parenting I thought it might be a valuable insight!

Thanks Iwill - I got exhausted the other day and did panic-pack my shoes without really clearing them out, so I will have to re-open that box and re-evaluate!

It is definitely worth taking a break and having a glass of wine/brew rather than freaking out and hurling things into boxes

Had such a strange afternoon - DH was very cross with me for wanting to throw out the 3 (yes THREE) bottles of white wine vinegar I found lurking in the back of our cupboard with only 1 table spoon out of each bottle. We had a long heated discussion about the usefulness of keeping such things (I argued that we clearly hardly use the stuff, so why keep it...)

Then he suggested we sell /donate all the computer consoles and games which were taking up half a cabinet in our front room, and did so without any fuss at all.

so - 1 large box of plastic and wires being collected by games trade in people on wednesday, 3 carrier bags of broken/non-valuable games and electrics going to the electric recycling bank and (my contribution) 2 more carrier bags of books going as well.

WIN!

I sorted out a few moré things from my wardrobe, some I haven't even worn, OH brought them back in from the car because these got mixed up with the recycling I could scream.

Hi Adora! Welcome back to the world of decluttering! A big booo to OH who obviously hasn't yet got "with the programme"!

Hi all! Another glorious day! I need to get back in on the minimalist action, so today I'm going to amaze myself with my fantastic get-rid-of abilities. I'm not going to ponder, I'm not going to stall, I'm just going to put my mind to it and plough through it. Then go for a nice walk with babba and be able to come back home to a better place. Let's see if the power of positive thinking and my motivational musings actually work! Report back later.
Have a good day and hope you brill people get whatever you want to do today done.

I'm feeling the sun today!

Glorious planning for this week is fine tuning the lounge. On the coming weekend we will be taking our truly dreadful (baby vomit stained) carpet up and laying laminate flooring. I want to box everything up in advance for the big furniture to go out in the garden. Gives me a good chance to go through everything. Have told dh he needs to sort his books out. I culled mine quite effectively. But the space has been filled by an overspill of his books! I know he wants to keep quite a few to re-read and loan to friends but there's no excuse for some to remain.

Hello Decluttering lovelies!!!! I've been away for a long time.

I had a big burst yesterday in my flat reorganisation after a lull of sorts, and though I must post.

So major de-cluttering happened earlier this year - after I asked (X)P to move out and faced life as a single parent. DD's x 2 and I live in one bed flat - but all else in our life is sorted and we can't afford a bigger place in the area (or even close). So I started the de-clutter as a way to make our flat bigger and more liveable and even enjoyable and nice looking with the aim of staying put for another year or 2 before moving.

I did several waves of de-cluttering and the entire flat has been gone over. Bags and bags and bags of stuff went. Age old dust was removed. Months on I miss nothing. I actually can't even think what all the stuff I was so desperate to hold onto was.

Now I'm into replacing furniture piece by piece for more functional (and lovely) pieces - and yesterday the huge old sofa bed went. The bed bit of it died last year. Furniture movers told me it was the heaviest sofa they have every moved and we actually had to break part of the house to get it in. Ever since I've been worried about how to get it out.

It took friend and I 40 minutes to break it into pieces with hacksaw, brute strength and lots of sweat (it was 30 degrees plus). It's done along with chest of drawers that was falling apart (long ago replaced with Muji drawers).

And I got a lovely new Muji sofa bed and footstool (that converts to a single bed) delivered. New sofa seats more people than the old one and is smaller! Bigger but smaller!!! Both sofa and footstool double up as beds which is essential. And the footstool can effectively turn sofa into a L shaped piece great for TV watching & slumbering lazily.

The sofa bed is designed for everyday use - which might just happen.

Next stage is to get the tv/wall unit/bookcase ensemble ordered, delivered and installed.

Oh & I've been looking around charity shops for a butter dish all year - and today I found a lovely one, in white for £3.50.

Another huge change was while we were working on changing sofas etc, there was no dust or peripheral mess to deal with - as it's all been done before. The place is largely dust free!!!

marvellous!!!

BeCool, I'm totally in awe of you taking charge of your environment like that! And what fantastic results. Brilliant.