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!

Love that article. Totally agree about not buying more storage, IME it has mostly only added to the issue. Only a very few well thought out storage items are coming in now.

I'm so glad we didn't rush off to ikea for that bookcase now. Maybe one day we will need/want it, but ATM we are doing much better with the little Ercol shelves that we dug out, and also now we've moved the table into the kitchen there's a whole new space in the living room. Progress!

My shiny new iPod arrived today. Been saving up most of this year for it! Very exciting as it is the first new iAnything I've had. And rather than bombarding it with games, I am keeping it minimalist and only putting a choice few - a couple that can't be played on the old family iPad (it's a first generation hand me down so doesn't have stuff like a gyroscope).

I have started playing my favourite game on it too - Castle Story, which I didn't put on the iPad as the DCs would wreck my kingdom :o - and even my new kingdom is having minimalist principles applied to it

It makes sense to invest in new storage/shelves etc (if you need it) at the END of the process, once you feel the new space and work out what you REALLY need.

I just want to share something small but it's really worked for us - an odd sock bag.

ONLY paired socks go into the drawers now. Any odd sock (belonging to any of us) goes into the odd sock bag that hangs on a hook in wardrobe. Every now and then i go through it and make pairs, and toss any unmatched socks.

It is so lovely to always be able to find a pair of socks. It's such a small thing but it really works.

We bought new socks We had a bunch of old black ones, they were quite worn, I ditched all of them and went to M&S and bought the black men's socks that have a coloured pattern on the sole for each pair and 5 pairs each in a different colour, eg pink, green etc for me. I only wear socks occasionally and they're hidden so I don't really mind what they look like. But it means they all get paired up really easily and DH has stopped 'losing' his!

However an 'odd box' works in our house - it's small, maybe 30x30x30cm, and it folds up if empty. If I find random things about but not entirely sure what they are/where they come from they can go straight in there. Then later I can go through it all and home or chuck as required.

IorekByr I think I saw that show - did she have a "wrapping paper station" in her office? I remember her kitchen cabinets were literally stuffed full of things as well, on these rotating bases so she could get to it all. yes it was organized, but she had waaay too much!

I pulled out the cooker today and nearly died when I saw what was under it - the cooker was here when we moved in and we did clean the kitchen but hadn't pulled it out before. It must literally have never been cleaned. It took me over an hour to clean just the cooker nook and small patch of floor, and the sides of the cooker. There were two spoons, about 10 teabags, a dried out lemon slice and about two inches of dusty grease down there. All the walls down the side of the cooker were encrusted in thick grease too.

I may need to move house again to feel clean

On the plus side, I have a weekend off for the first time in 3 weeks and I'll finally be able to get going on some de-cluttering.

Those shoes are going, as are some clothes that I have been keeping "just in case", some nail polish and make up which I hoard in boxes and never use, and a big bag of snarly tights that I can't be arsed to sort out/worry over.

delasi how odd, I was literally just pondering throwing away all my socks and buying a set I actually like today!

Artemisa Do it! It's oddly liberating...

Well, chucked some huge boxes of stuff today, cleaned everything, organised toys... it looks nice in here! Still plenty to do but the space is lovely. BIL and FIL arrived, plus SIL (BIL and SIL are teenagers btw) so more than a full house at the moment. The living room stands little chance of remaining spotless but it won't be too bad, and they're only here for the weekend. Has massively increased the dishwashing though! We have no machine so it's all by hand. I'm so tired! Currently enjoying a chocolate Horlicks and then off to bed.

No more minimalism over the weekend whilst ILs are here, but DF has said he'll help take some big furniture away next week which will make a big difference.

Still baby steps here as I am recovering from a summer of chaos. Tacaled the ironing pile and have half filled a bag of old clothes for a "cash for clothes" collection at ds's school. Theres another two weeks before it has to be taken to school so I hope to add more stuff to it. Already I can see a difference as there is room to get stuff into ds's drawers!! I

starfish Yay! I will share in the drawer space joy I finally put the rest of our clothes into the drawers today, there are even actual gaps in the drawers and it just feels so much better.

Which brings me onto... MY MILESTONE! (ahem)

...3 years ago DH and I moved in together when we got married, we moved into a tiny place, the majority of our stuff stayed in boxes, and the flat came with almost nothing - including no washing machine. Where we lived it was £7 per wash at the launderette and we had little money, so... we just lived in pyjamas and replaced with cheap clothes for the occasional venture outdoors I had a uniform for work, DH was ill and at home all day so I hand washed those basics. After nearly a year we moved, we then had a washing machine but we had so much dirty clothing and linen that we had accumulated. I slowly tried to make my way through it all, sorting stuff to chuck, cleaning, charity etc, but it was taking so long because I was very busy and DH's illness got worse. Then after just over a year we moved again, to here, still with a lot of this laundry to sort. I carried on tackling it bit by it.

As of today, it is all officially, entirely, 100%, sorted I have chucked stuff too worn, cleaned others and gone to charity, and cleaned what we actually want and need, and put everything in a home. There are NO MORE clothes in bags. The only laundry to do are the few bits currently in the hamper. It sounds ridiculous but I have literally had multiple large sacks of clothes and laundry hanging around for 3 years and for the first time since then I can see everything.

Today I bought a pair of fleecey winter boots, as I walk a lot and need something warm, waterproof and comfy - they're lovely, very good quality, I had been staring at them for over a month, I couldn't find anything I liked more, so I decided to go in today and just go for it and to my surprise they were half price! This is my I-finally-sorted-out-the-horror-that-was-our-clothes celebration gift

Yes Artemis she did have a wrapping station and also more baking trays than a bakery! The amount of STUFF was immense

Today I've tackled the top of the built in dresser. A real dumping area. Oh the shame , the last time I recall doing this was December last year !

I threw out 3 x carrier bags of rubbish, a lot of DC old -very- dusty artwork into the recycling, about 4x amazon boxes and rehomed a few odd bits.

It looks much better but next I have to do the INSIDE

Well done on your MILESTONE Delasi !!!

Artemis, amazing! What an achievement!

I mean, um, delasi. So sorry.

BRILLIANT WORK!

hehe I'll take the mistaken congrats anyway

well done delasi it must feel great!

I have earmarked lots of clothes to go today - am excited to cut the ties, I don't know why I keep stuff I never wear, it's like some kind of bizarre comfort blanket to keep these things even though I always choose to wear something else!

Thank you all It feels weird and wonderful, I can't believe I actually lived like that for 3 years. And congrats to everyone on all the progress! It looks like everyone is pushing ahead despite all of the other stuff to do, it really does motivate me each day; DH thinks I'm funny, when I decided to finish the clothes this morning before breakfast I was thinking about everything I'd learned on here and that was what spurred me on.

I just bought some things I'm actually nervous about buying now as I want to be very sure of things. I have come to terms with the fact that I never use our mop and bucket as I hate the things, and I don't use the vacuum cleaner on the laminate or lino (which is most of the flat) as it's cumbersome. So I'm tending to wash the floor by hand and use a dustpan and brush Finally decided to get an E Mop thingy, and I'm chucking out the mop and bucket.

I have an odd sock bag too. I had it especially made as I was fed up of dh doing one thing and me doing another. So now all the socks go I the bag and get sorted out regularly. Any that seem to have been there a while get pegged together for another wash and then get thrown out/used to make puppets :)

Very, very slow progress here. I'm in a complete state of inertia. Even doing basic housework feels beyond me at the minute. We've had a hell of a week and lurched from one thing to another. So things have built up again.

Still, onwards and upwards. Today is a new day. Can kick the dc outside and get on with a few essential bits.

Sokmonsta with your name you had better have a sock system. Ba dum ching.

Have a couple of hours child free today so husband is going to tackle loft with me for an hour or so and see how much we can get rid of. Huzzah! Old electronics packaging...off you go!

Two enormous bags of obsolete cables, packaging hardware and assorted peripherals in bags ready to sort for recycling/tip/rubbish. . .

Proper progress being made. Vision becoming reality, slowly but surely. And may have said this before but I have EXCESS STORAGE BOXES. More and more. Will give some to my mum and sis who struggle with stuff and storage, and often keep things which become mildewed.

building I am of your cable sorting. Also great that the vision is being made real!

Today has been all manner of laundry as there was extra bedding to clean following IL visit. However I am already finding it much easier to live in our home and I like it more too. I have more motivation to maintain it so I have been immediately putting away washing, neatly, things don't just get dumped on chairs/beds/tables, I feel all grown up Only thing is as I do the major clear outs I start to see the tiny details, so I've already got my mind on some of the more delicate tasks ahead.

Hi all,

It's great to hear how you're all progressing.

I Haven't done a lot this weekend but did manage to chuck a load if shoe boxes. One year at the dc's school they did a shoe box collection and I didn't have any shoe boxes so I had to go begging round friends and family for boxes for them - ever since I've kept every shoe box we've ever had so that I'm never caught short again. And do you know what? They've never done an appeal since! So about a dozen boxes gone today :) (what's the betting they'll do an appeal this year now - sod's law )

Dd3 went into the spare room this weekend and found the pile of toys 'to go' - though she didn't know they were to go. Most if the things she found she had a little play with and then discarded so I will sneak those back upstairs. But two toys in particular she has played with all weekend so I will have to let her have those. Oh well.

I'm moving ahead surely but slowly but I'm a bit disappointed in how long it is taking to clear the spare room - was hoping it'd be done by now but tbh I think I need to use the room for my piles of sorted 'stuff', bin bags, boxes and eBay stuff. So the spare room is going to be full for a while yet - but at least it's an organised full and bot just anything and everything strewn across every available space. God, I hope eBay have a free listings day soon though because that stuff is taking up a lot of space and I could do with it gone.

Oh, I also managed to sort out some more baby clothes for my friend this weekend and I cleared out the tin/jar cupboard - couple of things go off this week so glad I did it.

Also, this thread spurred me on to sort through my 'odd sock bag' today - it actually started off being an odd sock bag but eventually became the place I dumped all socks after washing them so that every morning we have all had to rummage through it to find socks for ourselves - no more! :)

Gave several huge bags of clothes to a friend for her girls recently, and asked yesterday if I could have one special dress back, if she hadn't given it away. She hadn't, and is going to give it back but I feel like she is being really funny about it, and I can understand why. I am feeling quite low about it, like I am a terrible person for asking for it back.

My daughter has done this before as well, given toys away and then asked for them back, and it isn't' good, is it? The person feels like they kind of have to, even though they had originally thought it was theirs and might have wanted to keep it. Plus it is obv a PITA.

My dd was virtually hysterical last night about some toys she had given away that day, given totally independently of me, seemed very happy to give them, etc. She is okay today, BTW.

What is up with me and my dd? Why are we so weird about this? I think it is something to do with feeling like we ought to give things away to make other people happy, but maybe doing it before we've fully thought it through.

Not happy with myself. Help?

Aww building, I really feel for you. How old is your dd? Bless her, it is hard.

The only advice I can give is to maybe have a little space where you leave things you've decided to give away - leave them for maybe a month and then decide whether or not you really want to give them away.

I think it was a bit mean of your friend to have been funny though. If somebody gave me bags of clothes I'd be ever so grateful and wouldn't mind giving back a dress! Maybe give them to someone else next time.

Thanks so much. I have said we will have a maybe pile from now on!

She is a very good friend and I'm not totally sure she was being funny, maybe just mildly annoyed... and as I was writing it out I thought, 'would I be funny? no! so maybe I'm not entirely at fault here...'

Think I am also in the hormonal slump of PMT, tbh.

Although, if you've been given something for your children that they LOVE and then someone asks for it back, that is not fair on the children. I did say I don't want it back straightaway and I'd wait til her daughter had grown out of it but she said she'd rather not risk it getting wrecked. God, I'm over thinking this massively.

She'll still be my friend, obviously. I just have such a horrible indecisiveness about STUFF.