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!

Yes, definitely alternate them while he is hopefully too little to notice, so they both get a bit grubby :o

With the new one, you could perhaps sleep with it, hold it lots etc when he's not looking so it has your smell on it too.

Got rid of all those little bits of wrapping paper that seem like they'll come in really useful but actually end up scrumpled at the bottom of a pile somewhere. .

Also hoovered out car. Wrapped actual presents. Had my face painted by my daughter....very relaxing and so sweet.

Storage bags arrived! Huzzah! A new organisation and decluttering push can commence.

Ooh can I join in

Bit of background: It's just me and DH. We currently live in a rented flat filled to the brim with our landlords crap belongings so can never declutter as much as I would like. However, we are now looking to move somewhere unfurnished so I'm clearing our stuff a bit to make sure it doesn't all end up in the new place unnecessarily.

In the last week I have thrown away four manky pillows and 2 duvets that I found in DH's suitcase. They have not seen the light of day since 2008 and looked and smelled like a boys student flat. Urgh!

I got rid of a bin bag full of old bedding and towels and another bag full of my old art college work. I have filled two big charity bags full of random knick knacks and I'm going to give my wardrobe a going over and take a look at our extensive DVD collection.

I am mentally already moving out!

Hello Jimmy and Fuzzpig. Thanks for your advice about alternating. I had planned to do it anyway but in the event it went without a hitch: DS saw 'Doggy' on the shelf in the shop (luckily on a display so only one of them!) and made urgent noises as original Doggy was at home. So I bought it, gave it to him, he slobbered over it and is sleeping with it now while the other one goes into rehab the washing machine.

As it was such a lovely day I didn't do much inside but weeded the garden and cut the grass instead. I did venture into my study only to back straight out again.... It is basically a vile pit of junk. I weeded a box of books out of the snug instead, where we have an entire wall of bookcases. It doesn't look any different as it was a drop in the ocean!

Can't see today being very productive - DS had a coughing fit at 3.30am and while he went back to sleep I didn't... Am going to look and feel mighty rough today. Waiting for my wake up call any minute, ug.

And we're up.

I have realised that the phrase 'an entire wall of bookcases' will make many people on this thread itch

A questiom: I have an old laptop ( very old, maybe 8-10 yrs?) that I nonlonger need. It's main virtue is that it is very small and light. Anyone know if there is anywhere I could donate it to? And how I can ensure all personal info is irretrievably removed?

I think the on,y way to irretrievably remove info from laptops is to smash up the hard drive. That's what we did to our old laptop but it was defunct. And getting to the hard drive was a bit of an irreversible process too. Sorry not to be more helpful.

Thanks - I have heard that. Seems a shame though...

Just ventured up into the dreaded loft. Tackled a small pile for approx five minutes (am spending longer writing this but at least I can lie down!). I made some decisions which is usually very hard for me. Ended up with three bags for the chazzer...inc a physical board game of the game Hangman which someone passed on to us. Never played it BECAUSE WE HAVE PENCIL AND PAPER, FGS.

I don't want to keep out of rotation toys in the loft. I will put them in their rooms but they can't reach all the spaces in their rooms so they will still need to be 'got out'. Duplo (which at nearly 7 and 9they have pretty much outgrown but will always get played with if brought out) will come down from the loft too.

Instead of keeping sentimental baby toys in a box, they will go on the childrens' bookshelves on display. Hurrah!

I need some storage boxes for my husband's childhood treasures, so will get him a nice box for those. To generate goodwill towards my (to him) bizarre project.

And I also spent time today while the children were tearing round a play barn ... writing lists! I found I could visualise the piles items that need attention and made some decisions while drinking tea. We keep the telescope, for instance, despite it almost never getting used, because we love it.

Building, I was decluttering from a distance too yesterday as I had to do a lot of travelling for work!

The only baby toy my parents kept was my comforter (they didn't really have a choice as I still slept with it when I was at secondary!).
I don't have any baby clothes. It doesn't bother me. I have several early years books from when I was a child.

I definitely keeping the sentimental baby stuff for me rather than for them.

Oh, yes, I'm definitely keeping the baby bits for me. I was given a few of my old baby clothes (and in fact older too) and I though they were pretty horrible and that my mum was barking for hanging onto them all this time.

Birding If you still have the laptop, I was just wondering - would you consider giving it to a friend/relative/child who might need it but wouldn't be inclined to try and resurrect your old info? I only say this as DH has had two laptops in working order but not fit for his needs (on two separate occasions, I've just realised he's been getting through these laptops...), he wiped everything (I mean everything, including the OS), installed a new OS, and gave them to friends who needed them at the time. Technically somewhere on that hard drive is personal info, but it would take some hard work to access it, the kind of knowledge that not a lot of people have, plus the inclination to want to get at it in the first place! So, he wasn't worried about that.

On a separate note, I have decided that I think I would make a good SAHM But whilst we haven't had some windfall enabling me to give up work altogether, I have instead decided to get up 30-60mins earlier than usual (and so, go to bed slightly earlier too). Going to bed earlier wouldn't have a huge impact on evening 'down time' and time with DH, but getting up earlier would mean a lot more could get done around here (especially with possibly DH and DS still asleep!).

Haven't done much this week, DH and DS have both been quite ill so I've been taking care of them. Finally ran out of energy yesterday and succumbed to the sickiness, spent the entire day in bed, was up in time to play with DS a little then put him to bed, then make dinner. However it seems to have done me good as I'm right as rain for now today.

I've had another busy week. My dad is taking DH and the DCs out and mum is staying with me to do a wee bit of housework but also we will probably laze around reading a bit too!

I've finally found you again!! I was on the first few threads under a different name and got on so well. Just lazily drifted away from it, as you do, and have been regretting it for ages. When I tried to find you again I couldn't. I'm so excited! New month, new start. I am getting back on board!

Off to catch up on this thread from the beginning.

Yes, one of my DC starts school again today, the other tomorrow. I'm hoping for a 'back to school routine' boost.
My 'home management' desk is all cluttered again so that's the task of the week.

You don't need to destroy your hard drive unless you are a spy or similar and suspect government agencies with supercomputers may try to recover your data.

IDK what OS your old laptop is running but if it's Windows then DBAN will do it. www.dban.org/ The term you would want to google is "securely erase hard drive"

I've sold a few laptops on eBay etc and never worried too much about destroying the hard-drive - we just restored them to factory settings and wiped all the drives.
Most people wouldn't have the expertise or money to recover data from that deep within the hard drive.

This moving house business has meant buying a lot of stuff, although mostly it has been things like paint, curtains etc which don't take up any room!

Well we made a little progress yesterday, although it doesn't much feel or look like it! Emptied the falling-apart bookcase so now have large boxes of books. Unfortunately dad's car broke down so didn't get to take it to the tip. But he is coming back on wed so we will do a tip/chazzer run then. Hopefully I can get more stuff together by then.

Hmm - one step forward two hundred steps back here. Dad is quite ill again (while Mum is on holiday and he is in a nursing home for respite care) so instead of a quiet day tidying and catching up on ironing yesterday ha ha who am I kidding! I did a 300 mile round trip to see him (blessedly a friend drove me!) and I'm now at the "give me caffeine and paracetamol intravenously NOW" stage. Am waiting on the GP's visit this afternoon to see what the next step might be before I decide whether to contact mum who desperately needs a break and time away!

I'm just tacking jobs one at a time as that's all I can manage. Off to try and sort soft tyre on car before I need to use it this evening!

and for everyone - it seems to be one of those starts to the week!

I have a slightly more radical plan for this week, as I feel I'm reaching a plateau and need the kind of boost that is brought about by seeing major changes. I have some stuff that needs going in the loft, so I am going to attempt it (I thoroughly dislike going up ladders ). Then, I am going to try and clear out a freestanding cabinet and say goodbye to it for good. That should hopefully be a start...

Thanks for laptop advice everyone. I don't have a lot of secret squirrel stuff to worry about, just the usual bank details etc. Will try the suggestion of CoTananat and see if I can figure that out.

I spent yesterday evening in front of the telly going through piles of paper that had collected on a chest of drawers in the sitting room. Lots of receipts etc - all now shredded or filed as required. Hasn't made much difference to the overs volume of clutter in the house but I feel mentally uncluttered and am enjoying looking at one newly cleared surface.

I've just got some great ELC/HappyLand bargain toys from the chazzer - in excellent condition for DD2.

The very first thing I will do when I get home is pass on some older toys to XP to create room for the new bits.

I love my new life!!

I was just wondering, has anyone read Minimalist Parenting?

I loved Simplicity Parenting but could do with more inspiration.

DH has made progress with the living room. It looks great and my piano is clear so I will be playing it tomorrow! Basically we agreed to just focus on the living room due to impending teacher visit (4 days away!), and after that we are going to be strict with ourselves and do one thing each evening - mostly sorting through a box/drawer etc. But we've agreed we MUST do something every day now as it is so SLOW. Hopefully if we both agree to do stuff every day it will happen faster. I wish I could write an exact plan but I'm not entirely sure where to start. We did agree though that we will always designate something to do at least the day before, so we don't get to the evening and not know what to do IYSWIM? I don't know though, should I just write a list of every single bloody thing that needs sorting through? Even though we've done loads, there is still SO MUCH.

Wednesday should be good as hopefully we can get lots more stuff to the dump. DH dismantled an exercise bike to take too. I was given it for free (except courier cost) but it doesn't work properly and makes a hideous screechy sound unless DH takes the gears apart every single time. So we've agreed to ditch it and I will be getting a mini one instead (it's literally just pedals on a tiny stand that you use when sitting on a chair/sofa) - only getting that because I have to start Graded Exercise Therapy as part of my treatment, and my therapists agreed cycling (starting at 2 mins a day!) is the most practical option for me.

BeCool I love HappyLand stuff. I am thinking of more toys that can be ditched but HappyLand is staying for now! I was pleased today when DCs spent their birthday money (a fiver each) on reduced Lego sets as it can just be added to their existing bricks rather than adding a whole new toy/a tenner's worth of tat if that makes sense.

Jeez I am soooo sore today - always am after working on Mondays (3-7pm) but the room looks nice. I'm glad I didn't rush to Ikea - may still get either the Billy or Expedit at some point, but at the moment it looks good with just the DCs' books out on the little Ercol bookcase, and extra space in the room (DH put up my other Banksy picture on the new wall space!) so hopefully we can get by without spending more money.

fuzzpig Great progress In terms of lists, I think it all depends on what works for you psychologically, personally I can't write down everything as it just makes me feel down and I spend ages adding tiny detail after tiny detail. However I can walk into each room and know exactly what needs doing and in what order (eg drawer x might need to be sorted first, before box y can be dealt with, then bag z can be done... etc).

So instead I make a list of the first lot of things that need doing. Once they're done I can go onto the next phase, and then the next, until we're done we're not yet done!. I do it across all of the rooms as I have a limited attention span for these things and get a bit fed up of working on the same space for an extended period of time. I can then go back to each room as I work through this cycle and see what needs doing next, which I can't always visualise if I focus on it consistently as I just get tired and think, "Well this will do". For example, our kitchen and bathroom are more or less complete - probably 98%! It's the really small details that I'm picking up now, like, "Why do I have these bath toys in here that never gets used?" or "I don't actually use the kettle often, so let's put that in the cupboard".

Progress! I've decluttered two lunch bags. They were very tatty after last year and being used over the holidays. As dh caved and bought the dc new ones, I've binned the old ones without a pang of guilt. And stopped dh from retrieving them as 'they may be useful'. No they won't be! They will sit on the side in the way or end up in the loft for me to throw out later.

Looking forward to tomorrow when dc back at school. Onwards and upwards!