The march towards Minimalism continues...

[MissAnnersleyismyhero]

Hey all, thought I'd make a new thread to encourage us all to keep going on the journey to minimalism!

Haha! Hadn't actually read my post back... Blame autocorrect for that :o

TBH I'm not so much culling as chucking away rubbish/broken stuff. Not really managing proper decluttering

Nor me fuzz.

Some bits went yesterday as I was cleaning the kitchen (did the cutlery drawer) and three bags of clothes and books went to a charity collection this week. The clothes are offset by the new ones though - ds has grown again!!

I never have time to keep on top of normal stuff as well as doing a de-clutter.

Starfish, perhaps you're underestimating yourself. Your post reads as though you are! You decluttered the cutlery drawer while cleaning the kitchen.
We put some shelves up recently and DH is going through his stuff whilst tidying it away. It's stuff that has been in boxes since we moved in ( well over a year ago). He has come to terms with the fact that he's never going to have enough time to regularly play all the geeky games he owns and that better games have come out since so when he does have time, he'll play other stuff. Hurrah!
Meanwhile I am getting lots of laundry fried in this fabulous weather.

Love how laundry frying is catching on :o

I went through all the DCs' clothes with them today, and filled two shopping bags of stuff for neighbours plus chucked a few tatty bits. It turns out they really don't need much in the way of new stuff - I've decided 2 tshirts and two light summer dresses (or a dress and a short play suit thing) for DD, and two tshirts or polo shirts for DS - really don't need anything else!

One more wash to put on and that will be absolutely everything clean, so by Tuesday everything will be put away :o and then I can try washing all my Skechers to see if any are worth keeping for summer workwear.

Thank you clear.
It just seems an uphill struggle.

I wish I could get my dh to get rid of some of his games....he has obscure board games galore and computer games for two ancient computers that he never touches....and yes. The ancient computers are still there too!!

Not been on here for a while - too busy both decluttering and recluttering at the same time! Had the builders in but they finally finished last Friday. Both DCs have moved rooms in preparation for the baby's arrival (37 weeks now, so any time in the next 5 weeks - quite possibly the full 5 given DD went that far overdue!). Consequently we have had 3 weekends of mammoth decluttering (including the garage), moving stuff around and also acquiring things like new furniture, carpets and blinds. DS has gone into the loft room which was already there but was a dumping ground, so all that stuff has had to be sorted and either binned or found a new home.

We're mostly done but I now have to find space for the remaining bits which are currently in the guest room - mainly children's clothes which are mostly sorted and bagged but just need a home. However a huge pile is summer clothes which I need to go through with each DC to see what still fits and what should be put away for the baby or discarded.

And then I need to sort out the baby's room. We have found everything for the baby so he'll be cheap (apart from new buggy as the 6yo Maclaren just won't last much longer) but it just needs putting away now we have empty drawers and storage. We are nearly there, thankfully.

And then I have to get as much life admin done as possible between now and whenever the baby arrives!

Life has been very crazy, but there is nothing like a new baby to focus the mind. We have achieved an awful lot and the house is starting to feel more together and less cluttered after a terrible few weeks of things being displaced and having loads of workmen traipsing right through the house.

Hope everyone else is well. Right, I'm off to fry some laundry ;)

Everton, that must feel great.
Starfish, DH is still holding onto plenty of obscure board games but no longer feels the need to keep the not so good ones (a bit like me with books)
Tidied my desk which was out of hand again. A whole office binful of stuff out in the process.

Hello all. I know it was mentioned ions ago on this thread but I'm going to have a go at project 333 (too tired/cackhanded to sort out link) when you live for three months with 33 items of clothing excluding underwear, sleepwear and exercise clothes but including accessories, shoes and bags... Wardrobe looking very empty. (Surplus is in a suitcase under bed). Also I've been reading interesting book by Jeff as Something called More or Less: choosing a lifestyle of excessive generosity.

In other news, I have kept back a dozen ancient Ladybird books from my childhood but am donating the rest. Six bags in the hall ready to go to charity shop. After every layer of purging I find more things I don't want or need...

Happy Thursday, one and all.

Didn't manage to do the car boot last weekend due to illness - hoping for next Sunday (1st June, I think!) otherwise I may have to crack and just donate everything to the charity shop. It's a shame really because I really think I would make £50-£100 and every penny counts atm.

Going to splash out on some flowers for the living room today when I go into town after work to have my eyebrows threaded and grab some white wine and sweet chestnuts for the risotto I'm making tonight.

Thinking about getting rid of my teenage diaries... They're full of misery, self loathing and evangelical self laceration. I might see if there's anything interesting in there between the pages of generic misery and keep just those bits. Or maybe that's too big a distraction just I'm about to move house... Two days to go.

I've never done such a comprehensive cull and it feels so good, but there's no way I could have done this before. My kids are junior and senior school age now and I just didn't have the time or energy to do this when they were smaller (even though I'm working OTH more hours now).

Hope all is good with the MN minimalisers. I'd be up for a discussion of what we are hoping to make room for, iyswim.

Hi!

Been a while again I'm just not managing much at all.

Mainly what I want to make room for is actually using the stuff we are keeping! For example games - we have loads (lots worth keeping, we are game obsessed) but don't play much either as a couple or a family as there is just too much clutter, some of the games are scattered all over the house from when we weren't careful with the DCs getting their mitts on them etc.

Basically the clutter is just so... Imposing. The stress of it is constant and pervasive. Everything is more difficult because of the clutter. I am far less likely to say yes to requests for crafty activities etc because of it.

I also never invite people round apart from a couple of very good friends, and play dates are next to impossible. I'm hoping it will be better if we manage to move in the next year or so but we need to get a handle on it before we move or it will only get worse.

Sorry that was rather negative!

Fuzz, it sounds like you want to make room for games and friends, which are both lovely things to be making room for, even if progress is slow.

I think so :o I just need to keep sight of that when I'm getting frustrated.

Cooking is another thing I want more room for. A cluttered kitchen means I'm far more likely to stick to the bare minimum!

I'm lurking, just got nothing much to add at the moment

Got a stupidly giant mug free with my online trainer order but it's gone straight into the chazzer bag. A neighbour dropped off 2 bags of clothes for my DD and I only took a couple of items, then took the rest to the chazzer. Progress eh? I would have kept it all before.

Fuzzpig any progress is progress. Even changing your mindset is a step in the right direction. FWIW we have the most fun playing at non showhome houses. A point I would do well to remember when I'm doing a late night marathon clean before visitors.

Just dropping by to keep my place on the thread - not much doing here on decluttering to be honest!. I've had some time off and spent a few days away in the Yorkshire Dales (which has gone cycling mad) with some friends. I got back last night. I'm still in my PJ's and only really got up at 2.00pm!

Since then I have decluttered a dye packet form the cupboard by using it on my hair and I'm about to declutter another teabag!

So, day 1 of 2-part house move is done, and I was v chuffed when one of the removal men said he thought the amount of stuff we had was very minimal. (I don't think it will feel minimal when we get into our much smaller house tomorrow!!!). In other news, Sport is seeing the benefit of freecycling and charity donating and says it's great to think of things not as possessions but as things which you keep while you need them and then pass on. Woop!

Jimmy, we got one of those stupidly big mugs with some trainers. Charity shops must be full of them!

Morning all. Harriet how did the move go? And evertonmint any baby news? (Bet you're fed up of people asking already)

Not much minimalising going on at Teacake Towers at the moment. It's half term and not even managing to keep the house clean as I would like. However, the kitchen table has remained clutter free for a couple of weeks now and although I haven't any time to do any major decluttering, I have lots of plans for what I could do when/if I get a spare hour or two.

For example, in the kitchen we have a cupboard with all our crockery and glassware. We barely use anything on the top shelf - it's 'posh' glasses etc some of them were presents from an ex boyfriend (DH doesn't know this or he'd have chucked them years ago ) but I've always kept them, just in case we needed them. They're crystal, I don't even like them that much and they're taking up half a shelf of room in my kitchen. So, they can go. It's getting easier to make these sorts of decisions and I quite like it

I have also decided that I really need to improve our eating habits - both myself and DH and DCs. The amount of sugary rubbish that we consume is ridiculous and I'm sure it has a major impact on my (lack of) energy. This came home to me when I opened another kitchen cupboard and was ashamed at how many packets of shop bought cakes/biscuits/chocolate were staring at me. So I need to declutter those really and replace with something healthier. Any ideas on how to wean a sweet-toothed family onto healthier food (without causing a mutiny!) gratefully received.

Hey Teacake! Can I shamelessly plug our EatBetterer thread? :) Sounds like it might be helpful. I was thinking exactly the same as you a little while ago, wanting to improve the family diet and have more energy. We are taking a really gentle, gradual approach on the thread - no banning of 'naughty' foods, no calorie counting, just starting to be more mindful and aware and making better choices. Some (including me) are aiming to lose weight but it's not the focus - nutrition is. We are very friendly too :o

Ooh, thank you fuzzpig - sounds just what I'm looking for. Will go and have a read!

Hi all. 2 weeks until due date here and this house is really benefiting from our frantic preparations and nesting! Small bits of clutter have gone after months of just sitting there in corners. I've even tidied out The Drawer. You know, the one, usually in the kitchen, where you find useful things like pens, pencils, takeaway menus hidden under useless things like an empty packet of cabbage seeds from 2 years ago, a broken hair clip and a dead battery...

This minimalist 3rd baby isn't costing us much beyond a new buggy (the Maclaren has died after 6 years continuous abuse!) I even freshened up the greying old muslins by dying some chocolate brown and some lime green. Now they look new again, and have the advantage that I'm unlikely to lose them at playgroups etc as nobody else will have the sane colour!

Re eating well, we tend not to buy shop bought sweet stuff much any more. Any we have we tend to make - I figured even though it's still sweet, homemade cake is just essentially flour, eggs, sugar and butter rather than lots of additives and hydrogenated stuff. This is also a great time of year for fruit - strawberries seem particularly yummy this year - so we tend to have those with cream or yoghurt for pudding rather than cake/pie type things. We also like fruit skewers here, with yoghurt or raspberry/strawberry purée dip. Might be worth trying to get your family weaned onto fruit while it is so yummy.

You can freeze slices of homemade cake too, which helps in rationing your sugar intake. So rather than having to eat a whole shop bought cake in a day or two before it goes stale, you can eat a slice of homemade cake each and freeze the rest. Defrosts very quickly, or most cakes are ok with 10-15 secs in the microwave. Biscuit dough can be frozen in a cylinder shape and then you just slice off however many and put in the oven, and 10 mins later you have fresh, warm biscuits. Obviously more hassle than opening a packet, but a good way to eat delicious biscuits and ration yourself at the same time.

Eeek not long now Everton! So exciting!

I want a minimalist third baby too. Not that I've mentioned this to DH yet... :o

Thanks everton - hadn't thought of freezing cake before! DC2 is a complete fruitbat so we do have quite a lot of berries etc when DC1 is at school. It's DC1 and DH who are the awkward ones when it comes to puddings. DC1 thinks they have been massively deprived if a day passes without some sort of chocolate - habit picked up from DH who sulks if there aren't any cakes in the cupboard. I kid you not. ( There's a good Peter Kay sketch about hunting round the kitchen shelves for sweet stuff when there's still a couple of days to go before the supermarket shop. That's basically what happens at Teacake Towers.)

2 more bags for the chazzer. When does it end?!! 3 pairs of knackered shoes in the bin today. We have a shoe cabinet in the hall filled with unworn shoes whilst our everyday shoes are all over the floor. Madness.

Anyone who hasn't checked out the Slow Your Home blog I strongly urge you to do so. It has really made me wake up and stop living for the mythical day when 'everything is perfect'.

I like Harriet's question about what are you making room for.

I have made room for music by setting myself the goal of using my instrument or selling it this year. (It is making decluttering slower though because if I have 15 minutes free, the priority is practise!)
I have also made room for reading. My box of books to be reread or partially reread to decide whether they are 'keepers' or 'pass-ons' is slowly but surely emptying. I'm reading more than I used to because I want to get rid of this box and to allow myself to go book shopping/borrowing again!

Fuzzpig, DH is really into board games so we always manage to find time for that. Fortunately the friends we play with aren't the kind who balk at sideboard full of piles of clutter if we've had to rapidly free the dining table!

That use your stickers post on the Slow your Home blog rings a bell. Only for me it was unused pretty pencils and rubbers or 'best' dresses I grew out of after wearing twice. I am consciously making the effort to wear my 'best clothes' before are too last decade now!

Not much out recently but I can't think of anything non-consumable in either.