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[educatingarti]

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

Well, I may have crippling backache whilst I feed the little one, but I'll be able to take my mind off it by spinning! Genius really :) (I should mention that there is another chair available, it just needs moving.)

I'm also trying to think of non-stuff presents for DH this Christmas - purely because he's so hard to buy for that I end up buying him things I doubt he'll really like, just because I need to get him something.

Was the first thread really seven months ago? That's nuts... (Thought I'd have made more progress in that time!)

Harriet it really works too - for my birthday in June DH got me theatre tickets for a Tennessee Williams play, a Liberty of London gift-coin which I used to buy my favourite perfume (I had just run out) and posh replacement running leggings x 3 in a smaller size as my old ones were holey and baggy, along with two books I had been talking about for ages. Best birthday ever.

Harriet I am also pondering the same thing. My DCs have never really asked for anything (they will be 6.6 and 4.4 this xmas) so perhaps not so much 'expectation' but I have overbought in the past and it's pointless. I do generally choose quite well for their main gifts and stocking fillers but then go a bit mad at the last minute every year!

Harriet I have been thinking about xmas too. Ds has just had his birthday and mil brought over the usual bag of plastic crap presents. She has previously come out with the line "I can't just buy him one thing, can I" to which I said that just one thing that he really wants is fine. But she has taken no notice. Sigh
I am wondering if I can tell her a £25 limit for xmas.

Oh no starfish, how frustrating. Is she the type of relative to demand to see your DS playing with those toys on future visits, or is she less bothered about it? Does DS actually like all the toys?

I have to admit, although I do often feel sad (particularly at Xmas) that my family is so tiny and somewhat dysfunctional - I am very grateful for the fact that we never really have to deal with huge bags of Stuff. My mum and PIL often choose clothes/jammies but apart from that it's a case of us choosing something with their money as they don't like choosing presents. So generally it's easy to avoid the tat!

starfish my granny does this - each person in the house gets a huge bag of crap rather than one thing they actually want. It drives me potty. I would genuinely rather receive nothing. If DS is young enough not to notice I would just steel yourself and ruthlessly chuck it all out - he won't care. If he is older then I think you need to speak to her, otherwise your house will end up full of her tat!

Indeed artemis. I have seen loads of threads on MN about this issue and I'd say it needs nipping in the bud!

Well I have done rather awesomely today if I say so myself! I've spent a good couple of hours throughout the day (with a DVD on the laptop and plenty of resting) in the DCs room. DH had swept everything on the floor into boxes this morning to clear their floor (some downstairs too) so I had space to sort through them all while DH played outside with the DCs.

I went through one box at a time and pulled out rubbish (only one binbag worth, so it shows we've done a lot of good work in the past few weeks!). I took out anything that fit into categories that I'd already found a place for, like vehicles, lego, happyland, animal figures etc and put those away. There was loads of stuff that I would have dithered over so I amalgamated it all into one box (admittedly a 48 litre one ) and put that out the way for now. I did pull out any game pieces and put them in a separate tub though as I'm not ready to sort through that yet but at least they are safe.

Anyway, I now have 4 more Ikea Trofast buckets empty (for those familiar with that system, it's the equivalent of 10 of the shallowest ones ) and a 21 litre Really Useful Box too.

It really has made a difference even though I didn't actually get rid of much. :)

I am psyching myself to go through the picture books though. DD has a chapter or two read from bigger books most nights now so it's mostly just DS that uses them, and TBH loads of the picture books I've brought home (thanks to my job in a library and previous volunteering in a charity shop) don't get a look in compared to their favourites, so I may as well take them to work for the booksale trolley.

Fuzz and Artemis - we have had a lot of stuff over the years. Some goes out - but ds has sn so although he wants new things he doesn't grow out of the old stuff as quickly as most kids would. We have half the playmobil back catalogue in storage......

Have hardly been reading this thread let alone doing anything. Went to stay with lovely friend thus weekend who lives in a small house in which everything is well-tended and has a place. She said it is easy to keep on top of it because there's no choice. And I was inspired to clear out the cupboard under the telly. .

I think I like DVDs in boxes because I look for the running time to see how late they will finish. But we hardly go out, so it isn't as if we have to watch it all in one evening, is it? Maybe case logic is the way to go.... hmmmmm.........

Morning! I lost you all from 'threads I'm in' so thought I'd catch up. This thread moves so fast I've skimmed I'm afraid.

Lounge is looking good. Books that we kept are all on 2 shelves in a cupboard (stops the twins attacking them). But we have wii/Xbox games and DVDs on our small bookcase now and they've taken a liking to them. Am going to look at the case logic things you've been talking about. Not sure I could get rid of the DVD cases but I'm sure mind over clutter will see sense eventually.

My hall is looking very cluttered as we still have the old lounge carpet in there - waiting on friend helping dh move it. Unfortunately they ended up not doing it on floor laying day.

I've also got 6 boxes of dc toys stacked up in the hall to go through. 4 are smallish boxes and one of those has the crafting stuff in. But two are just huge 'chuck everything in' boxes. Dd keeps grumbling she has nothing to do and it's entirely my fault as I won't let her have her barbie dolls and all the teeny pieces that go with them out while the babies are roaming the lounge. She drops pieces everywhere and the twins put everything in their mouths. Any ideas? It's depriving her at the moment

I love that so many people are coming round to the idea of using CD books for their DVDs :o I am so glad we did it.

I am over the moon with what I did yesterday. Got rid of a bag of books after my post, and when DCs went into their tidier room they immediately rediscovered a few favourites among what I'd left. Plus, although the living room is covered in happyland and toy cars, I am not panicking as I know exactly where to put it all upstairs. Thanks to DH the table is clear underneath so the DCs were using it as a den this morning!

I'm sure there's one more box of books somewhere certainly some loose ones lying around anyway. Once I've got them all together I might ask the DCs to go through them and reduce them further.

Sok, I sympathise with the last paragraph, I'm sure the most spoken sentence for DS' first 3 2 years was "DS, take that out of your mouth!". Very frustrating.

How old are your twins and DD? Could DD play with the barbies in her room while the twins are downstairs with you? Or during nap time only?

No advice for sokmonsta, really. People used to tell me to get ds1 to play up at the table but that never really worked...He still dropped little things on the floor and eventually ds2 started climbing and disrupted his brother's games. So I'm sending sympathy. Hope someone else can be more helpful.

Fuzzpig I love my muji cd files and don't miss the boxes at all!

It's quiet on this thread. I hope you're all enjoying the sunshine and not ashamed to post because you've been bringing the wrong kind of stuff into the house!

We've decided on the colour scheme for a new family bathroom and ordered all the furniture and tiles so I've been able to have a cull of towels. I'm looking forward to having a functional room: the previous owners had started ripping out the old bathroom just before they divorced and sold up so the only thing we've been able to use for the last 7 months is the toilet. (There is also an en-suite so we have been able to wash!)

I have also sorted the books with CDs as they haven't been listened to for a while but I realised that's because we haven't done any long car journeys for months and we've got one coming up for our summer holiday. Still I found a couple of very babyish stories to go.

I've had a burst of clearing energy today and my sister and I filled 4 bin bags of stuff that's not charity shoppable (although I do hate the landfill thing). We've set a date to do a huge charity shop/dump run in a fortnight as I want to get the house 'done' before hols and FT work starts!

I also feel like we have acquired too many Christmas decs over the years and it becomes too much of a performance to put them all up - when what I love doing is cutting green stuff from the garden and decking the halls, making tree biscuits etc... I don't feel quite brave enough to completely lose a whole box of decs (mainly baubles and stuff with absolutely no sentimental value) so I'm going to store them separately and see if we miss them this year. I'm acutely aware that I may have to move somewhere considerably smaller at some point and I want to have shed as much stuff as possible. I feel lighter with everything that leaves the house!

It's a great feeling isn't it. This thread has really helped me see the immediate benefit of each thing we get rid of, so I no longer feel tortured by the "it doesn't look any different!" feeling. I know that each bit helps, even if it takes a really long time.

DD's reward chart starts on Monday and so we have agreed that Sunday night onwards she will have to sleep in her actual bed (as opposed to the mattress on the floor). There is still a lot of random stuff on the bed where the mattress goes (it's a large wooden shelf rather than slats or metal IYSWIM) so I need to get to work on that.

I'm with you on the Xmas decs Harriet, I kept buying cheap ones each year for no real reason. I need to sort that out this year as there's loads I could get rid of and then I can finally pack it nicely in decent boxes. Not the most urgent priority here though so I am resisting the temptation to get distracted by it!

I read about the want/need/wear/read ethos re Xmas/birthdays on MN last year. It really is very helpful.

MrsPA any news?

Lovely ladies, I am thinking about buying this.

www.hypnosisdownloads.com/stress-management/declutter

Big step for me and I'm panicking slightly just thinking about it.

I've used similar relaxation/hypnosis tracks for giving birth (very good) and losing weight (OK) and general relaxation in times of high stress (excellent).

It's only $14 - if it doesn't work for you it's not a huge loss. I think these methods can be employed very effectively.

Don't panic! And breathe :)

Yes, I realised I was putting up barriers when I was worrying about the money...it isn't very much.

I have also asked a friend to help but get the feeling this is going to be a hard road for me and it feels a bit much to ask of her. Maybe if I asked her to help for an hour once a week for a month, to get the ball rolling...

BeCool Thanks for asking, nothing to report though. Precisely ZERO. This baby has no intention of shifting, it seems.

Nor have I done any decluttering. Pretty poor show eh?

I did declutter DD off to her Nana's for a couple of hours though, that's good right?

what is the barrier? Are you overwhelmed by it?

Do you have a partner who can help? (I only successfully decluttered after splitting from my P! So they aren't necessary).

Where are you based?

MrsP I'm surprised you can move!!
Go catch a breeze under a shady tree :)