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!

Now they're both beautiful and useful!

Love the decluttering of the calves story!! Brill:)
Hey all Just been catching up on everyone's great work. I've been doing ok, trying to keep on top of the progress we've made.
Getting a bit of a buzz from organising (saddo!) and thinking about what we really need and what works for us as a family in terms of what stuff lives where. I never could do it before as the clutter/un-necessary 'stoof' just kept thwarting my good intentions.
Took 2 big bags to the chazza the other day and it pissed me off a bit that the girl just took them, no thanks, and just threw them onto a table saying to another woman 'some more stuff' as if I was making work for them. grr. Yes, stuff - my precious little babies clothes that no longer fit, and I've been especially brave letting go of!! I felt like asking for it back & taking it elsewhere! But hey-ho, hopefully some Mummy or Daddy has bought them and is happy to have found them.

Hullo all, name changes from bmcs but still me. Not much decluttering going on here but FINALLY gave away platform flip flops.

And loft is looking very much better.

My mum is coming to say in a fortnight - which means of course getting to work on the spare doom!

I made a little start last night and have identified a duvet and fleecy blanket that can go to the chazza! I also found out that the IKEA zip up bags will house my spare double duvet ( I use with sofa bed in spare doom when guests come!) thus containing it in the cupboard when not in use rather than it slowly expanding and unfolding on the shelf so that the cupboard door doesn't shut! Hooray!

stay - not say of course ( though I expect she will have plenty to say too!)

Love the boot story, Artemis. I similarly held on to my black knee high Campers when the zip broke seven years ago and have taken them with me on four house moves. I finally got round to getting them fixed this summer and I wear them every day now!

If only I could declutter my calves, Artemis Alas, I have tried, but to no avail - be I slim or round, my calves shall be evermore abnormally wide for my frame apparently. At least there's Duo!

Looks like no collection today after all, but for once that's okay as there's just far too much other stuff for me to do. Occasional MNing is allowed

I am trying to commit to not reporting back until I have something proper to report, so that I can spur myself onwards to do work/study/immense declutter... I don't want to!

Polkadot MIL always goes hunting for toys in the charity shops, every time she or other ILs visit she brings/sends stuff for DS. However, 9 times out of 10 it's really lovely stuff - last trip we got one of those wooden activity cubes, a lovely big wooden plane and a large wooden wire-bead toy (don't know if they have a proper name - the ones they always have in waiting rooms!). So just to say, I wouldn't be surprised if someone will be happily appreciating them even if the staff weren't so receptive

Delasi, I'm trying the same policy wrt to achieving before posting.
So what did you do in those 7 minutes?
(I have identified 6 or 7 kids books for the charity shop and in the process to my great relief found a lost library book.)

Right. I've had enough. I'm fed up of saying I'm going to carboot everything. I've neither the energy nor inclination at the moment and am feeling very much swamped.

So plan of action;
Sent off for a bag for all the dc's outgrown clothes. One that pays 60p a kg so if anyone knows of better let me know.
All the dc's outgrown toys are going to a local toy shop where they pay you a % of what they make.
Books and dc's to the likes of magpie or similar.
Everything else saleable to charity shop.

Sound like a plan? Now just to find some boxes to put things in. Can't be that hard surely??

Little Iorek is sick today, so comforting him -and MNetting- for me

DP has fixed the heating, so all the tools etc put back in cupboards. The house suddenly looks a lot less cluttered.

This weekend is EBay/Gumtree/free cycle weekend. Hopefully we will part with a few things

Artemis have you recently slowed down an exercise regime? I had HUGE calves when I ran regularly. Since stopping they have decreased -and everything else has increased-

I need new boots, off to look at Camper

Sok the plan sounds good!! What doesn't go this weekend will go to charity

Not sure if magpie will take your DC
But it's worth a try

If it is any consolation, I made £7 at a a car boot over the summer, after fees. Not worth it IMO.

Sok, I charity-shopped all the stuff I'd been planning to car boot. It feels good.

My current issue is that I want to minimise paper work but I find that I just don't work so well with solely electronic versions of academic notes, etc. I use Evernote but end up printing stuff out so that I can scribble on it and organize my thoughts. Maybe I could just scan the boring official paperwork - where you don't need to keep originals - and file it electronically, and keep paper versions of my work notes...

My formerly obliterated/annihilated "to Ebay" pile has reformed. And is slowly growing.

I'm giving myself till the end of this weekend to actually list the items (there are a few pairs of DD2's last years winter boots and shoes I think will sell well) and if I don't they will go to chazza on Monday.

I'mso glad I can put this in black and white and in public to y'all as it really helps me to stick to it.

I had a child free hour after work last night and managed to get floors done and bathroom sink/loo done and kitchen surfaces nearly cleared (just one corner to go) - so flat is looking pretty good in advance of the weekend.

DD1 gave her work table a tidy and clean this morning WITHOUT BEING ASKED!!! Hallelujah! I'm very excited about this.

DD2 will work her chaos no doubt.

Lol Iorek. I hadn't even seen that typo. Are you sure??

My mental state needs me to just let go instead of saying I could do with the funds.

Sok I wouldn't like to say I've tried...

IMO you are totally doing the right thing. I have stored clothes for craft projects, things I have been meaning to sell for -years- months are just hanging around.

I'm going to put what I can up for sale this w/e and what doesn't sell will go to charity

It's time to let it go

Oh and when I read your magpie DC post I Laughed so hard and little Iorek asked what was funny.

I told him I was thinking of posting him in the post box, he said as long as it was lego land that would be fine

Makes me think of Flat Stanley!

Darn posted without decluttering anything. (Unless you count temporarily decluttering of DCs who are currently being driven to their GPs.)

This thread is actually vaguely inspiring me to tackle a bit more in the spare doom! Stuff went to chazza this morning!

Current dilemma> I have fairly nice feather cushion inners I don't actually need atm. If I send them to the chazza, I will then suddenlly decide I am making cushion covers for people for Christmas. If I stash them away somewhere they will languish there for aeons quite a while!

Love all this talk of decluttering DCs - a friend had a dream about mailing her 6 month old grandson and it seemed totally ok in the dream. Her only dilemmas were where he should be sent ( confusing instructions from his mother) and where to put the label so he didn't chew it!

@ arti !!!

I suppose you could give yourself a deadline. If you're going to make them for Xmas 2013 you need to start now ish.

If you haven't got time, chazzer them??

If its helpful, my SIL made cushion covers with feather inners as Xmas pressies last year, the recipients were very keen to show them off

I didn't get one -no I'm not jealous or holding a grudge, no not me-

clear Well, in those 7 mins I made DH make me a cup of tea... slowly making my way through that tea bag stash (not easy when you're coffee drinkers, see).

I mentioned earlier how some stuff here is not all mine (long story, but not totally odd). Anyway really wanting to shift it now, I want that space!, so decided to try and help by starting to go through it. I boxed and bagged some stuff, cleared one unit and nearly finished clearing another. I have a bin liner for obvious rubbish - can't really do major declutter as it's not mine! Hoping to store away some of the stuff tomorrow, if I can, and hopefully the rightful owner will be around at some stage to take it off my hands.

Meanwhile I have yet again refilled the living room with bags, although far fewer than when I was sorting through the clothes. I think 3 are cables and another is stationery. And some other random stuff. They are to be sorted and properly homed. It's one of those moments that looks like a backwards step, but hopefully should result in a great change.

We'll get there, eventually.

Delasi, that's just reminded me that my parents we stored a trunk for someone from before when I was born until I was about 16. It moved house with us at least twice. To be fair, the owner did live on another continent for many years. I remember lots of laughter upon the reopening of the trunk but I don't think much was kept.

I have listed some kids magazines on a giveaway site. Hopefully they'll be gone rapidly. In the mean time they are no longer taking up space on the book case.

Goal for this weekend: sort out the junk room from hell where everything was dumped after the move spare room.

Working til 4ish today (joys of boarding school...!) but after that I need to get going, my mum is coming to stay in 2 weeks time...

I hope I'm allowed to post now as I made a tiny bit of progress yesterday... I chucked a few bits of clothing while I was putting a wash on. Not much at all but I've slipped back into the 'all or nothing' state of mind recently, ie not bothering with little bits here and there because I was too hung up on the bigger picture - so it is progress that I managed some incidental decluttering...