Moving Forward With Minimalism

[MinimalistMommi]

This is a new thread following on from the previous 'm' thread on Good Housekeeping!

All Minimalists or aspiring minimalists welcome!

Oh no building! Dd1 got wise to that as we have a recycling bin in the kitchen. I have to wait until she's gone to bed/school now to get rid of some things. And tell her I've sent them to great-grandma (who she hardly sees).

Have been busy selling dts summer clothes this morning! 3 outfits sold. Figured while I was putting the ironing away, now the weather has turned the majority of the summer clothes can go away/be sold depending on what will be used again.

Congratulations ringa. Ill envy your size of house as we've got 4 dc 5&under in a 2 bed. Decluttering here is saving my sanity slowly and will help when we can eventually get into a bigger house.

wow i bet thats a squeeze!We lived in a 2 bed until dc3 was 8 months,so we had a 19month old and a 3 yr old too,it was a relief when we moved here,it felt really empty!doesnt take long to fill it though.

I am going to clear out my big drawer of plastic shit in the kitchen tomorrow,and maybe the drawer with all the random shit in i boyt too!its full of chargers,receipts,bits of change,hairbands etc.

I bought some underbed storage boxes from wilkos last week and put all the clothes that ds3 can wear when hes big enough into them and under dds bed,along with some of the toys the boys dont play with but are sure to ask for when theyve noticed their gone!hoping i can rotate them to keep the amount of stuff out to a minimum.I did go through all the toys and threw out all broken ones and gave away some stuff on freecycle.

I have just needed to look for ds's birth certificate and waded through several drawers of crap from two different drawer units.
A bit of stuff - really obvious rubbish - has gone into the bin/recycling/ in the shredding pile but as I had a mission I didn't really have time to do much of a sort through. That will be addressed although I suspect things will get temporarily worse as I try to amalgamate the stuff to keep into some sort of logical system!

But I have found the birth certificate!!

It's quiet on here! I feel we collectively need motivating, but I don't know how to do that.

Here are my little bits of progress (in case it helps anyone):
-sold a playpen that returned to us from the last people we lent it to. In the past I would have stored it until needed again (big basement) but all our local friends have completed their families and I'm not holding onto it until I'm a grandmother.
-chucked two almost threadbare pairs of swimming trunks when helping DS get his kit ready last night.

Yes I agree - we need an injection of motivation as a group! Unless everyone is so busy minimising they don't have time to post of course :o

It might just be difficult with settling back into school routines etc. I have been exhausted with so much going on and hadn't done anything for a couple of weeks.

I am proud today though - DH and I had the morning to ourselves and wanted to play a video game (last of the romantics, we are :o) but I said hey, why don't we try and fill a binbag up first? So we did - almost entirely from the kitchen. We did more than a binbag really as also got lots of stuff in the recycling.

BeCool - re the Minimalist Christmas. It's something I'm still forming in my mind, but if you started a thread I would definitely pop along (I'm already on the countdown thread... I love Xmas!) unless people would rather talk about it here knowing we are among people who 'get it'?

clear Agreed! Definitely slowed down over here, had a very busy week last week so just chucked out a newspaper here, an empty box there, no real difference.

The colder weather is reminding me of how time is moving on however. Really didn't want to add to my workload but I think I need to get some double glazing film for our windows and spend some time covering them - we moved in here last winter, not long before I gave birth, so I didn't really do much here at that time but noticed lots of little things (eg how the windows get condensation, which can lead to mould voice of bitter experience ). So I think I should do that within the next week before it starts to get colder and actually have an effect. I'm also thinking about the best ways to keep warm in here, we don't have any central heating, just some convector heaters (no gas in the building), but the loft is insulated and as we live in a flat our front door isn't exposed to the wind which is good.

The weather is another good reason to sort out our clothes. Tbh my clothing doesn't vary massively from winter to summer, tights get thicker and boots get worn, but a lot of my clothes are the same and the difference is simply layers. Regardless it would be good to have everything organised and know where it all is. On an older thread someone linked to Life Hacks, and when I saw the drawer organisation tip I squealed like a geek with delight. DH thinks I'm strange. But that's going to be my new approach to the drawers!

I may also spend the day trying to master the ninja fold...

Right, today is clothing day! Once DS gets up from his nap, that is. His cot is still in our room and I don't want to disturb him or get up right now

I think DS knows I was using him as an excuse for laziness, he's just got up... well, off I go to organise the clothes then!

Marking my place to come back later - think I need his thread!

That's more like it!

My excuse is gardening in every spare minute. Over the last few weeks FIL chopped down some leylandii (sp) and I've dug out the stumps and roots and turned over the earth and planted some pretty shrubs with variegated leaves and flowers. I've also dug up a sycamore tree which had planted itself about 25 cm from the house. It was only a small tree but the under earth trunk was about 10cm diameter so it has obviously been chopped back over a long time by previous owners.

Afternoon all! It's been a while - hope you're all well. Will have catch up thread sesh soon.
Earlier today, driving along, I realised I've turned a corner. I was actually looking forward to getting home!! Sounds silly but DH and I have been on a mahoosive mission involving a skip, and a whip-cracking/duracell bunnyish M-in-L. I like our house again! Got rid of loads to charity/friends/family/random people outside - garage crap, old stuff,un-needed/un-liked furniture, and (my biggest challenge) more baby clothes/things. Weighed in lots of tatty, bobbly, not-fit-for-selling clothes. Bathroom cupboards cleared, furniture moved around, bookshelf bought, put up straight away (miracle) and books/'beautiful' things put in it. Still an ongoing project but definitely getting there.
Want to clear out then I can get going with the cleaning (want to get back on the flylady thang, and also check out the sweary-er UFYH) and put nice things up like pic frames etc. Felt like jibbing out reclining infront of TV so
many times but just kept at it. Proud of myself. Should hire M-in-L out!!

I want a minimalist Christmas too! Thread sounds great. Love Christmas. Already asked for the Simplicity Parenting book and started mentioning there's a 'no-plastic' policy for kids pressies this year.

With DH's family we are 11 for Christmas. 7 adults and 4 children. At Easter it's the same group. So the adults pull a name out the hat at Easter and they only have to get one adult a gift for Christmas. We all (three couples + 1 single) buy gifts for the children.

We usually all contribute to the kids stockings too (which requires a fair amount of coordination and sneaking about). I like that, it means that there is genuine surprise in finding out what FC left. This years I aim to convince everyone that stocking fillers should be edible or useful rather than gadgets.

Hello again

Stuggling a bit here as lots of work on (freelance so have to take work when it comes in) plus DD2 has started school but mornings only.

DD1 has started year 3 and is very unsettled. She an august birthday and she just seems so tiny compared to the other kids. They are getting a ton of homework too which is exhausting for her. They've both been waking a night and/ or really early so I am like a half shut knife these days.

Onwards and upwards though I guess...

Oh I've done nothing today... basic cleaning, cooking, some typing, but no major work. I did, however, take on another commitment So I really need to get sorted asap so that I have an easy space to do all of this stuff in (a lot of my work and study involves doing things from home).

However we may have to go away for 2 days this week (argh!) which eats into my free time, and then there's next week... noooooo! The time is running away! I don't like it!

I'm seriously considering just chucking the bags I have left to sort. One has shoe polish, another hair clippers, so I'll take those out and just bin. Can't be doing with this. 'Tis ridiculous. Ridiculous!

I need to do a season/size check on the dc's clothes this weekend. Small steps now, so busy.

I've been adding to my possessions
Some new boots and a handbag ( though these are for Dad's funeral so I guess it is allowed) then some more leggings ( may well get rid of tattiest pair in time - when i can work out which pair is tattiest?!) Then I bought a new dress (expensive -for me anyhow) just for no reason at all other than I like it and think it will suit me ( and some of my other clothes are a few years old and starting to look a bit tatty for work). The dress is mail order so yet to arrive! OK now this post is sounding more like Style and Beauty than minimalism!

Have a bit of time today to do at least a bit of hotspot fighting etc if I put my mind to it which I doubt I will

Just a mini rant.

I'm selling some stuff on Gumtree.

If I have put 'in working order' on the advert, that means the item works. Why do you need to ask me multiple times at the point of pick up? If I was dishonest enough to sell a broken item I am unlikely to tell the truth at the last moment am I?

I have priced my items to sell quickly. You are getting a well looked after item for a teeny tiny price. Don't haggle on my doorstep. It's already a sixth of the original price. I'd have taken it to the chazzer if I wanted to give it away.

Smile goddamn you. That's my precious child's baby toy never to be played with again by them. I need to know it's going to a loving home. I want it back...bring it back .

I realise the last point is probably unreasonable.

Oops, sorry about the last post. I've calmed down now . Just a bit sensitive to selling on some of our baby items, sob sob.

Aww jimmy :(

It can be hard getting rid of baby stuff. DH has unearthed some more baby things among loads of failed boot fair boxes (I thought we'd taken everything to the chazzer at the time but apparently not!) and I know I will want to look through it rather than donate it 'blind' - even though it's been more than a year in the cupboard...

I am really chuffed today as DH did absolutely loads downstairs (hence unearthing the boxes) - there were 6 more binbags outside when I got home from work! And he didn't even mind when I quizzed him on what he'd got rid of

My parents are on holiday for a week but when they come back I might ask my dad if he would mind doing another tip/chazzer run (he's lovely like that :)) and try to do a big clear out in time for that. Hopefully another big sweep will provide another boost in morale!

I went to an art class today which was fab, and we need to take in little bits and pieces next time (2 weeks away) for a collage printing thing - annoyingly I can of course now think of loads of perfectly suited items that I recently got rid of! Ah well. At least I now have the incentive to look for other things and hopefully that will help me try and sort a few bits out on the way.

Still struggling to do much. Bag of clothes sorted last week was not collected by the sally army. Bag had got a bit torn and it had rained so they were wet and ended up in the bin today. Oh well at least they have gone!

Thanks fuzzpig .

At the moment we're just storing baby things for future DC. Not sure how I'm going to feel when the time comes to getting rid I've already become so used to all the mini things kicking about... I still struggle with the concept that in a year oe two my child will actually speak! Oh dear...

Anyway, today is going to be a more successful version of Tuesday, in that I'm planning on getting something actually done Has to be clothes, plus some ruthless chucking. It's also laundry day and I'm currently on the 3rd and final load... I like doing laundry, just not so good at putting it back!

Have just bought loads of useful tat from IKEA. Baskets, new chair cushions, more baskets, stickers for children, etc. This is honestly not a bad thing for me. Husband will no doubt disagree.

Ooh building I am of your ikea trip. I would like to go sometime if only for their moose shaped pasta! :o

Have to say, I am feeling more positive, decluttering wise, than I have for a few weeks. Made a bit of progress and thanks to DH the kitchen is much clearer. Going to bite the bullet and ask landlord to take their fridge at some point - it doesn't work too well so we were using it, unplugged, as a cupboard. But if it goes we can move our fridge and have a whole free wall. DD suggested moving our table into the kitchen so we can eat in there. Sounds like a refreshing change and the extra space in the living room would be awesome.

Ooh, fuzz what a good idea! More space in kitchen is always a good idea and I'm jealous of the possibility of a table in there.

We are rearranging and finding new ways to organise...not getting rid of many old toys really but then kids will always play with duplo and so on. It is slooowly coming together.