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!

I got rid of lots of kitchen stuff at the start of this process. All that crap that gets accumulated, things that do one job and get left at the back of the cupboard and never used - all gone!

I think MinimalistMommie does the one cup/plate/bowl per person. She is great with towels and bed linen too - and has inspired me to get rid of lots of that stuff which is very satisfying.

I have lots of odd bits and bobs. Whilst 'true' minimalists might buy everything from the same range (ie IKEA white stuff) so it all matches and is clean and simple in the cupboards and easily replaced, I am leaning more towards the suggestion of someone on a earlier thread who buys everything from charity shops so it deliberately mismatches. Though some days I find the matching white scenario more appealing.

Anyway I have a way to go with the stuff I have left and what has been a big change is I'm not looking into getting a 'new dinner service' etc - that kind of shopping/buying/consuming has lost all appeal for me.

At home is me and 2 young DC. Grown ups visit sometimes. I have the bits leftover from what was originally a 4 place dinner set:
3 plates
3 bowls
3 bread and butter plates
plus two 'steak' plates, which are very old and I love.
3 water tumblers, one wine glass, one champers glass (the rest were broken and not replaced).
I'm hankering for a large water glass - not as big as a pint though, but I've not found the one I want yet.

I'm moving towards replacing all the glassware eventually with those cute cafe style glasses that stack and are great for wine (and make me feel like I'm on holiday).

I have too many coffee cups (about 7) but some the DC use and so will get smashed eventually.

A few bowls for snacks.

And some plastic kiddie bits that will eventually go.

PolkaDot have you ever thought of not ironing at all? or reducing your ironing by hanging things carefully (and perhaps lowering expectations?).
The only time my iron has been on in years is for Hama Beads :) or very occasionally if I do some sewing.

Hi all! Reading through, getting myself more motivated I am not torturing myself knowing that I'm not going to do much any time soon, just too much on my plate - I haven't done laundry in a fortnight Just about left with some clean clothes!

We did a major clear of kitchen stuff, mainly when we moved a year ago and then a few more bits recently. Almost all medium appliances went - we had a steamer, slow cooker, fryer, all sorts that seemed good but never got used. We have kept a smoothie/blender, coffee machine, electric grill, toaster and kettle, all of which get used. I got rid of all of our dinnerware Just got fed up of having so many plates, bowls, serving dishes etc, might sound silly, so we moved into this place with none of those. LL actually already had plates and bowls in here so we're using those so I can't chuck them out despite there still being too many for my liking. When we move again I'm just getting 4 plates and 4 bowls. I just buy stuff I like, I don't care if it's mismatched as the whole house is anyway! We also have 4 mugs and 3 espresso cups, they all get used a lot (have chucked 6 large mugs and 4 small mugs). Plus about 6 plastic tumblers (we can't be trusted with glass apparently ).

We do have 4 champagne flutes and a large serving bowl, both wedding presents that I really like, so I've kept them although we can't use them in the space here as it's too small. So I'm looking forward to using them more in our next place, whenever that is.

Agree with avoiding ironing! We have an iron, mainly for shirts when necessary/super creased, but I dry all shirts, skirts and dressers on hangers and the creases just seem to fall out whilst drying and they look fine.

I dry dresses, not dressers

Btw, we never 'entertain', sometimes my DF & DSM come round for takeaway, sometimes ILs come for a week, but both of those families are super laidback (like us ) so they expect pretty much nothing, are happy eating off of laps, using paper plates, whatever the situation might be, My DM would be a bit more about it but we always go to see her instead! So basically it's easy for us to get away with a very basic way of being. As we have more DCs and they get older then we'll of course have to buy more plates and such.

ILs come for a weekend... although BIL sometimes stays for a week...

We don't actually own an iron at the moment. Even when we did I only used it for sewing. Life is too short for ironing.

Haven't got to the kitchen yet but loads of stuff I can get rid of. Though we don't entertain as such I think we will keep a couple of extra things as we do occasionally have people over. I'm afraid I don't think I could bare to give people paper plates however minimalist.

I have been using dd's bath times to clear out the bathroom cabinet. I have then put all the bottles and stuff that usually sit on a ledge into the cupboard. Like magic the bathroom looks lovely :)

HearMyRoar I don't think paper plates are particularly minimalist and having spare plates probably still fits into the ethos!

We just have a very, um, casual home - we live in a small flat, there's no dining table/chairs, so 2 sit on the floor, 1 on a director's chair usually used for the PC, and 2 on the sofa, all in the living room, which is also the study area, home office and guest room and the reason there are 5 adults in the first place is because the ILs decided to spend the weekend without notice, so you reach a point where simply eating off of something clean will do Tbh it usually means one of us eats out of a bowl instead of using a plate, because paper plates would mean actually having the forethought to stock them in the house. But this attitude is entirely tied into how DH's family operates, I've honestly never met a group of people more laid back about anything pretty much ever...

That's lovely that your family is laid back. What count is spending time together!

That reminds me of when we were making our wedding list. We didn't have much of anything before we got married and my mother tried to persuade us that we needed twice as many small plates as big ones (so we wouldn’t have to wash up the side plates to serve cake or starters on). She was a bit when I said that we’d just expect people to put their bread on the table (DH is French) but although we still do 'entertain' occasionally I’ve never regretted not getting the extra plates.

Having said that I still can’t get my head around not using a plate for breakfast. I’m ok with dry breadcrumbs on the table but not buttery toast.

some ideas for Minimalist Gifts

Also Joshua Beckers ebook "Simplify" is only 79p on amazon.co.uk at the moment (and also on offer on the US site and perhaps elsewhere?). I think the offer is on for about a week. Joshua writes the very inspiring blog Becoming Minimalist which you've probably come across if you google minimalism.

Ah, now bowls I can live with, we also resort to bowls, though usually due to crap washing up :o

I can sympathise with the small space. We're pretty much the same. I am a bit obsessive about eating at a table though so got one of those butterfly tables where both sides fold down and have folding chairs. They are bloody uncomfortable but at least they don't sit about taking up the entire living room. We do only have 4 chairs so would also be on the floor if we ever had more then 2 people round at a time.

I am inspired by the idea of only having 1 towel each. I think I might spend dd's bath time tonight sorting out the towels to 1 big, 1 medium and 1 hand each and a couple of small ones for dd. I think this would dramatically reduce towel numbers.

The only problem with all the minimalising is that I now have an awful lot of stuff to get to the charity shop.

Another small space dweller here - clearsomme you virtually described my living room though since decluttering I've managed to get a small table in a usable condition and position in one corner. it's still a hot spot for paperwork and crap collecting in the corner of it though. It feels really good when the surface is clear.

The DC have chairs set up at table permanently and I use a folding one.

I love eating from bowls!

Good Evening! Thanks for your advice everyone.
I find this thread so inspiring, it's great to have like-minded people to bounce ideas off & keep us motivated.
Becool and Hearmy I avoid ironing wherever possible, and I admire those that don't do it (and despair of those who iron socks, like my Auntie!) but I can't do crumples. That's not even a word is it?! I've been tempted but certain clothes of ours would look like we'd slept/been wrestling in them if they weren't skimmed with the iron. Do the creases drop out quickly? I may have to conduct an experiment.

I have just counted 13 knives in the kitchen drawer. There's 2 adults and 2 teenie-polkas. Wtf?!? As for spoons, well put it this way i couldnt be arsed counting them! I think I'm going to have a big cull this weekend. I'll put excess plates/mugs etc in the garage for ten years now.
I'm also going sort the foodstuff out & into neatly organised plastic storage containers (pasta/rice/cereal/lentils etc) which I'll probs get from Ikea.

Marking my place again as this dropped off my 'threads I'm on' list. Will post properly tomorrow.

Hello Everyone. I haven't posted for a long time but I catch up with this thread regularly.

Have I gone too far? My 3 year old DD1 couldn't find a toy and instead of looking for it asked me if I had given it to another person .

Yesterday she refused to put on her jumper. She said "I don't like it. Take it to the charity shop"!

I wanted to do a pre Christmas cull of her toys but my DP has told me to rein it in (not using those exact words ). He said I'm not sentimental enough.

We have got rid of sooo much stuff but I still think there's a long way to go. I hate to think I've lost my family's support before I have my dream minimalistic home!

Grrr! I have spent 5 days looking for my tweezers (not 24hrs a day) including on my desk.
Finally gave up, bought some tweezers at 1pm today.
Now I've found the originals, on my desk.

Of course :o

In one randombagoshite the other day I found two pots of nail varnish removal pads and three nail clippers

randombagoshite I have many of these but didn't know they had a name!

I should trademark it :o

3 pairs of tweezers over here... sigh. I always lose them.

We just bought a slow cooker not very minimalist! Though I did clear out a massive bag of clothes, and the spare room of doom is now an actual, nice spare room! with one extra chest of drawers in it that needs to go

Ooh Artemis I love my slow cooker.
It is minimalist - Using up all your (almost past it) veg & saving time cooking!

I always lose nail clippers. I think dd might sneak out in the night and hide them.

I agree with Rosa that slow cookers are minimalist. One pot cooking, good simple food with minimal stress. I love mine, use it at least 2 or 3 times a week.

I'm really struggling today. DCs have been stuck in all weekend, it's not their fault they are going stir crazy. Don't know what to do, I'm not well enough to even stay outside with them (no private garden so need constant supervision due to cars) let alone take them for a runaround. Feel like the shittest mother ever right now.

Oh Fuzzpig, you're too hard on yourself. Your Dcs will be fine with a weekend indoors. My DD2 and I have barely left the house all week either and I haven't been ill. Have a and/or and put Downton the telly on. Hope you feel better soon.

fuzzpig Agreed, you need and and not a guilt in sight. And some for good measure.

Well, new problems have arisen in the property! But meh. I have not the energy to worry about them (issues created by poor workmanship). Just need to carry on, there's enough to do as it is. However getting that itchy I-must-throw-everything-out feeling again It's not the bulk stuff that I buy, that stuff is actually fine, as although it naturally takes up space I find space for it and it also naturally depletes as we go through it. It's just the random stuff. The odd bits and bobs. We're slowly descending into clutter, not by adding to what we have but by becoming disorganised through my lack of ability to do anything about it for a little while now and DH's own ailments. So I need to find some time to nip it in the bud and, whilst I'm there, just start chucking more and more stuff. I feel the need to purge!

Morning all
Artemis I am glad someone else has been able to tackle the a spare doom. Mine has washing drying in it at the moment, plus a pile of ironing plus other random crap but I did get 5 items to a chazza at the weekend which has helped ( sadly they were mostly old items for which I now have a new replacement but at least I am not adding to the clutter much )

My work room desparately needs a sort out