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[educatingarti]

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

ROFL @ Star made me snort!!

I was thinking DH aka ___

For me it would be DH aka chief mess maker

Anyone know why you would put jam knife down onto a wooden work top next to a sliding pile of papers ?

Answers on a postcard to.......

Hello, fellow m-ers. I've not been on the thread for a couple of weeks, had zero energy so have done not much of anything, let alone decluttering. Even going upstairs has me needing to sit down for a minute or two.

MIL dropped off the moses basket earlier this week, which meant that DH was finally forced to get rid of his old computer, and the desk and chair, so that the moses basket could go in it's place (in our bedroom). At first I felt really guilty, listening to him vacuuming and moving stuff around upstairs, whilst I sat on my arse, but then I remembered - he was only doing what I've been asking him to do for at least three months! I also freecycled the duplicate iron and ironing board (from when we moved in together so ended up with two). The bedroom looks so much better now!

It has been nice catching up with the thread and seeing everyone's progress. Next task for me is to declutter my uterus, someone in there is taking up an awful lot of room. (Due 5th Aug.)

I totally sympathise with being pregnant in this heat. DS was due on August 19th and didn't arrive til the 30th!

fuzz and iwipe If I weren't already married I would be offering you two creepy matching rings and a lifetime of happiness I googled caselogic after your posts, bought two massive ones and DH's our DVD collection (3 massive heavy boxes when we moved in here, probably more now!) is now in two cases which take up 1/2 of one smallish box! YES!
Wonderful ladies that you are

That's great Artemis! Glad to have helped :o

Does your DH actually know you've done this BTW...

Artemis, you are very welcome!

hehe fuzz yes he even helped! He isn't into packaging and has often complained that DVDS and games are overpackaged. He did keep some of the leaflets etc from inside the boxes but these are tucked inside the storage case so I don't mind that.
I genuinely think this is the compromise we both needed to stop me feeling like every shelf in the living room was used up storing DVDs/CDs only he wanted to keep and him feeling like I wanted to throw out all the things he liked!

I agree about the overpackaging. For example it's always baffled me that DVD cases are so much taller than CD boxes, even though the discs are the same size. What's that about?!

It did take us a while to take absolutely everything out of the boxes as some cardboardy ones are quite nice. The last thing to go was our beloved Friends 40 disc box set, but eventually realised it was pointless keeping the box just for the sake of it. It fits nicely in the Caselogic thing anyway as it's 4 discs - which is one series - per page. We do still have the book it came with though.

Artemis I googled it too!

I thought about buying one for the DCs DVDs, I'm not sure why I don't want to do this

I keep on thinking, when the DCs have grown out of the DVDs, who will want a pile of discs? Or do you keep the boxes, store them in the loft?

This is quite irrational, help me

No I throw the boxes into the local scrap store, we don't have a loft! I was thinking if DH ever does want to get rid we could either donate discs to charity shops in clear plastic wallets (these cost about £1.99 for looads on eBay) or even sell them as they are on eBay - but DVDs don't really hold value even when boxed and new so I'd probably just charity shop them and someone can get a film for 50p instead of £3 because it isn't in a box.
But I would also consider putting them in disc recycling... I am a philistine clearly

Ok, that makes more sense to me now. I just didn't want to end up with a load of DVDs to be binned. But now I know you can donate/recycle them, it'll be easier!!

This thread has helped in so many ways, before I thought I should keep everything until I needed it again or could pass it on. But now I know it's ok to let things go. I'm enjoying the space

When are you off to summer school Artemis?

Tomorrow morning - 2 weeks away teaching then I'll be driven by a colleague back to my new town and new house!! So excited! I am trying to pack up as much as I can around the house today as it will help DH, he is feeling the strain of finishing the thesis quite a bit.

We decided just to move the CDs as they are and chuck the boxes/put in case logics in our new place. If I were going to be here for the next 2 weeks we'd have the time to do it but not in the next 12 hours...

Are you emotional about leaving the old house?

You are very brave leaving it to DH to move you...wished I had done that

I hope everything goes well for you tomorrow, it'll be a huge day

I am a bit emotional but it's not too bad - I've only been here 1 year for my first secondary level teaching post, I am moving to a different school which is nearer DH's work and is also a much better school with better perks for me

I'll really miss the friends I have made here and some of my pupils too. But our new house is soooo nice and has a massive garden - we have a big flat here but no outdoor space so we're both really excited for the move.

I feel a bit about leaving DH to do the move but I have control issues (mark one bossy wife with added crossed arms and foot-tapping) and I need to trust him.

Ah, I didn't really think about the 'what to do when the DVDs are outgrown' issue, because as I said above I don't plan to get rid of any! TBH, many of the DCs' favourite DVDs are only in our collection because they were our favourites from childhood anyway! They are pretty brainwashed retro children really. The newer DVDs are mostly Disney type things and I can't see us ditching them either. There are a few DVDs that DH and I have no attachment to - Thomas, Peppa etc - but if the DCs wanted to get rid then I'd probably just chuck them TBH.

Although when I did get rid of a load of old CDs (stuff like freebies off magazines from my dad) I actually donated them all to DD's nursery - they used them to make shiny Xmas decorations!

Oh and with the empty boxes - you could consider asking if your local library want them! We are always needing to rebox DVDs and CDs at work when the cases get damaged, and we particularly use the standard DVD cases which fit the red magnetic security tags. My colleague was really pleased when I took some in for her recently.

fuzzpig allegedly dvds are in bigger cases than cds so shops could fit the dvds in the display units that previously held videos

One of those pieces of useless info gleaned from somewhere or other.

That makes sense, thanks starfish! I've always been a bit at the extra/wasted plastic.

Thanks fuzz (I'm still pg, btw, and there is NO. SIGN. of that changing any time soon.)

I am now wondering if DH will agree to take the old desk,chair, etc to the amenity site this weekend. The desk and computer have been dumped in the spare room for now - that's not as bad as it sounds, the room is being decorated for DD to move into, so they won't stay there.

My concern is this: He has left the chair (standard office swivelly chair, the cheapest variety) next to the moses basket, in our room. He's expecting me to sit on that to bf, isn't he? He's thoughtful, but at the same time, hasn't got a clue.

Most of us have control issues -as we KNOW how to do things properly-

A garden to sit out in will be lovely. We had a flat in SE London and when we rented a small house with a garden it was utter bliss!

Will you have a shed? If so maybe you could talk DH into storing some of his -rubbish- important things in there ?

Oh MrsP, a swivel bfing chair . That has made my day!!!

DS is looking at me like I've gone mad, ROFL, that's brilliant !! -and a little bit scary as I can imagine my DH doing the same thing-

Yes because we all love spinning through at least 720 degrees with a small person clamped to our nipples don't we :o

Sympathies to those heavily pregnant in this heat. My ds was born 31 Aug and I remember being very grateful for the rain...

Ages ago, back on the first thread, I talked about putting away a load of the boys' toys to see if they missed them. I told them what I was doing and why. 7 months on they have missed nothing and are happy for the stuff to go.

One of my challenges will be not to replace this stuff at birthdays and Christmas... I'm wondering what a minimalist Christmas looks like... Forgive me for talking about this now but I really need to work on this... They really don't need anything, but ds1 would love to be able to watch premiership football so I'm wondering about giving him tokens for Sky Sports day passes instead of stuff... There is such a pressure for them to have a huge pile of presents in their stocking and of course they've come to expect it. (This makes them sound spoiled but it isn't their fault). I feel queasy thinking about Christmas... Would welcome thoughts from the more seasoned minimalists on how to change expectations around presents!

harriet I am pondering this very thing for our first Christmas in our new home. My DH is the most generous and thoughtful man on the planet (it is official ) and he loves buying gifts and usually buys me a mountain of presents for Christmas.
We need to work out a new model for this year - I was thinking of This which is a cool idea to get each person something to wear, something to read, something they want and something they need.

Or just buying one "big" thing and then a really strict limit on small/fun things.

I love want/need/wear/read, artemis! Thank you.