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!

Anyone have any tips on getting DCs helping with decluttering? I've never really taught them to tidy properly... mainly because I'm rubbish at it myself so it seemed unfair to expect them to maintain standards in their room that we weren't keeping elsewhere! (This is exactly what my mum did. Not that I'm bitter or anything. Ahem.)

Anyway, DD's party is coming up (rock climbing! :o) and DD has begged for her bestest friend to come home with us afterwards. I eventually said yes BUT with the proviso that we all work really hard to get the house, especially bedroom and living room (which is more chockablock with toys than the bedroom TBH), tidy.

I have explained that this means truly, properly tidy, not just shoving stuff in cupboards randomly etc. I told them I don't expect her to get it sorted by herself, we will do that together, and then it will be up to them to keep it that way (though of course I will help them get into good habits, like I have with laundry etc)... Or the play date will be cancelled!

So DD is desperate to start after school tonight which is fine by me! This is long overdue, my DCs have never known a tidy home :( (come to think of it, neither have I!)

I don't really know how to start though? There's not much storage in their tiny room but there's random crap all over it, I'm wondering if the best thing to do would be to get everything OUT first (apart from clothes which are perfectly sorted now) - obviously put into boxes - and then do a full clean and gradually put organised stuff in?

I have also warned DD that this tidying does mean getting rid of stuff too, and she seemed OK with it. There won't be anything worth selling, so can't use that as an incentive, but I will try to get her to donate some stuff to charity. Parents are visiting on Sunday so maybe Dad will do a chazzer run for us?

Any tips on how you go from a messy room to a tidy one...?

I know I am only a newcomer but I am a bit in love with this thread.

I love the idea of making room for music and reading.

Fuzzpig we did DD (7)'s room recently and it helped so much. She had a lot of home made crafty bits and bobs and outgrown stuff... Not many toys really but oh so much Stuff. We emptied everything out because we were also painting and changing her furniture, but I think it was a good exercise. She also has quite a lot of open shelves plus trofast and drawers now, not very minimal but mostly recycled at least. And a child's bedroom has so many functions. Now she has dedicated spaces for books, display "treasures" (mainly hama beads), secret "treasures", various pens and notebooks, craft supplies, hairthings, books currently being read, toys, cuddlies and dolls' clothes, gym/swimming kit, bags, spare bedding. Toys are divided into some to have now, and some stashed in a high trofast for rotation later. It sounds mad and OTT and I'm sure you could cut it down hugely, but it's her little world and it's gone from overwhelming jumble to calm and ordered space.

I think the best changes have been putting in some bedside drawers, so she can keep her many bedside books and hairclips etc out of sight, and the desk. While she's waiting for us to read with her at bedtime we ask her to pick up 5 things, then another 5 etc until the floor is more or less clear. She has done brilliantly at keeping it clear, I'm so proud of her! I just wish I could follow her example with the rest of the house :(! We find shoeboxes are good for in-drawer organisation of socks, hairbrushes etc, and she has a biscuit tin stashed under her bed for her secret things.

May I join please?

I have slowly come to the realisation that my house is holding me back from the life I want to lead with my children.

I'm too busy fighting fires to ever get anywhere and hate the feeling that I'm always telling the dc I'm too busy to play.

So, hello all!

Hello digger

I can empathise with I'm too busy fighting fires to ever get anywhere and hate the feeling that I'm always telling the dc I'm too busy to play.

I'm banging on a bit about this blog at the moment but take a read of this www.slowyourhome.com/?s=children&submit=Search

Oops, scroll down to the second post called 'Hide and Seek'.

Welcome digger! I know exactly what you mean by fighting fires. Our clutter totally gets in the way of family life, both physically and mentally. Slowly but surely it's starting to change, though - you're in the right place! :o

In other news I talked to DH about the possibility of Baby #3, in about a year or so... HE SAID YES!!! :o Even more reason to continue embracing minimalism.

Erin, thanks so much for your reply. That sounds like a great system! We won't be adding any more furniture, can't even move things around really - it's quite a small bedroom (84 sq ft) for one child let alone two! If we move (hoping to in the next year or so) hopefully they will have a room each, or at least a bigger one to share. We will be starting from scratch with their furniture too as current stuff is starting to fall apart - probably a cabin bed each for starters.

At the moment they have a 9-drawer (the shallowest ones) Trofast for clothes, and apart from that it's just the cabin bed storage: a small wardrobe, a couple of tiny shelves, three little drawers and a desk space. She doesn't use the desk though as any drawing or writing she does downstairs or in bed. So it just gets used as a dumping ground.

One of the shelves is used for bedtime story type books. Apart from that it's anything goes at the moment! Most toys will still need to be stored downstairs as there's just not enough room. In fact currently we have some in our bedroom too! Clearly we need to cut down further as well as organise

It's hard though, they really do play with pretty much everything. I've got a couple of things in mind that my friend (reception teacher) is very excitedly taking off my hands, but apart from that it's proving spectacularly difficult.

I like how you've organised the bedside drawers and shelves, I'll definitely take some inspiration from that. :)

Yesterday went well, we had about 90 mins of clearing EVERYTHING from the floor, threw away lots of obvious rubbish, and basically everything else, unless it already had a place, went into one of the bigger (equivalent of 3x shallowest) Trofast buckets. Organised bookshelf too. Today we will do about an hour I think.

Gosh fuzzpig, that is small for two children. An estate agent wouldn't be allowed to call that a bedroom in France, it has to be at least 9m² (96 sq ft)
I appreciate enormity of the challenge now!

Yeah it's pretty cramped! There's loads of new housing here and it all seems to be the same. In fact we are on Band B of the housing register specifically because of 'overcrowding' (if two people have to share a room less than 90 sq ft)

Had no idea they had that rule in France though!

Still, we have too much stuff and even if we move to a bigger place I'll need to reduce it somehow.

Hello everyone and welcome to digger. Making a few inroads into "stuff" - some books to go to the chazzer ( in place of some new ones bought from chazzer) and a bit of clearing in the spare doom but mainly just struggling to clear the detritus of everyday life. In fact, I think I could make great inroads if only I could stop living for a month or two!!

fuzzpig how fab about DC3! And it sounds like you're doing well with DC's room. It's hard when they are sharing, and harder still when storage is limited.

Welcome digger. Today I've just cleared the living room floor yet again. It's not much, as you say just fire fighting, but it's better than nothing.

jimmy that post is excellent, thanks for the link.

DH is away for the week which means I can ignore the daily fires and concentrate on the big stuff.

I've tidied the kitchen this morning and need to tidy the dining room, lounge and hallway. Luckily these are all smallish jobs as they are tidyish spaces as the DC don't use them.

This is the thing - the house is tidy in parts but just a tip in others and because there is SO much stuff it's impossible to easily keep tidy.

Has anyone read the KonMarie method? It is the book that finally made me realise it's the stuff that's holding me back and not my organisational skills (or lack of!)

Oh and thank you everyone for the welcome!

digger that book looks great. I've just downloaded it to my kindle.

Off to a wedding today in an old outfit with old accessories (all nice though). Feel really pleased that I haven't bought another formal outfit that will hardly ever be worn.

fuzzpig you have made me realise that I don't get my DDs to help with tidying at all I actually enjoy tidying their toys! I still check the Duplo pieces and put the books in height order (front facing book shelves). Or maybe they can do all the jobs I hate like cleaning the kitchen and the bedrooms can stay my domain ha ha!

Hello everyone! Welcome digger! Good news on DC3 fuzzpig!

We found that having the deadline of DC3 really helped - we had to get stuff moved into the right place and that naturally made us declutter stuff that has just been sat in places since we moved in 4 years ago without touching it. It did take several weekends - I think 4 from starting to being able to wash the baby clothes and put them away in the right drawer, but that did also involve decorating and 2 bedroom moves. So I'd try to set aside maybe 2 or 3 consecutive weekends (we did some other stuff at the weekends, it's just that getting straight was the priority during that time, so I might take the DCs to soft play while DH got on with stuff here etc.) and see where you get to with your jobs then. Our house is looking so much better, and much easier for me to control. Plus I have had the headspace to relax in my home as I haven't been faced with jobs for the first time in ages (it wasn't badly cluttered but things were in the wrong place and we had stuff we really didn't need, and it just wasn't how we wanted it).

DS's room was a tip because we didn't have enough storage - drawers for clothes and one bookshelf was all, but he has loads of lego and jigsaws and then all the trinkety, crafty bits and bobs that children love. In his new room we have invested in a cabin bed so there are drawers and cupboards underneath for his board games and jigsaws, and then two of the 2x2 Ikea Expedit. We got the drawers for 4 of the holes which are used for Lego to keep that tidy and then 4 are left as shelves for books and he can display his models on top. It is so much neater and lovelier!

We also have Trofast in the playroom/conservatory as that is a brilliant way of tidying toys quickly. We have the small drawers for colouring books and paper, and the deeper ones for other toys.

I think with children I've learned to accept that they will have clutter (well, I see it as clutter - for them it is very precious belongings!) but that they and you need to manage it. So we have a purge about once a month where everything that is broken (cars, hama bead constructions, ripped pictures) has to go and old crafty stuff gets thrown out and replaced by new, apart from particularly important pieces which we keep. And the DCs are involved in this. They actually seem to quite enjoy it, and if they are a bit reluctant then we might set a timer and get them to beat the buzzer, or offer a small reward afterwards.

Jimmy I've just re arranged all the DC's clothing (and ditched everything that is too small which frankly wasn't a lot) and put it all away according to her folding method.

I skipped over all the stuff about folding clothes in the book but my mum was evangelical and told me to go back and read it. It's brilliant - all the DCs clothes now fit into one tall boy style chest of drawers instead of the tall boy, a trunk and various other locations around the house.

Pleased with today's progress. Kids' room is about 30 mins away from totally done and the lounge, hall, kitchen and dining room are guest ready. Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the storage room spare room while DS is asleep and the study when he is awake.

I've reserved that Marie Kondo book from the library, thanks :)

Do the magically folded clothes take less space than normally folded clothes? (Or were you not a folder before?)

It's baking hot here today but around playing board games under the parasol with the kids DH has put up some shelves and I've organised the medicine/first aid stuff while putting it onto the new shelves so there's a bag of expired things to take to the pharmacy. We've also managed to give away a small box of IT odds and ends (more effort required from the people who came to collect). So certain spaces are looking more streamlined.

Unfortunately I missed the deadline for reserving a spot in the June street sale we did last year so we have to wait until August now.

Ooh Digger my Kindle is charging now. I'm so excited!! I am fascinated to know what this folding method is.

Got lots of compliments on my old formal dress this weekend! My MIL looked fab but I was very pleased that I had spent 100% less than her!!

Urrrrm... I'm worried I leading you all down a dark path and you'll think it's rubbish!

is the folding method. I did fold before clear but in the same way they do in shops so you get piles of clothing. Now I can see all the DCs clothing in one glance.

I've just finished the book for the first time. The last chapter is a bit of mumbo jumbo and about "thanking" your house whenever you enter and leave.

I'm worried I shouldn't have suggested it now but the folding method and the beginning chapters about how it's impossible to keep clean and tidy with so much stuff is excellent.

Read it in one sitting last night. about all the talking to and caressing your belongings!! But, she makes a lot of really good points. I like how she addresses the clutter of other family members too, I'm guilty of trying to control it all. I am raring to go today, our house is a tip after a weekend away (how is that possible?!!) I am going to fold my clothes then attack the books. I really enjoyed the book digger and it has renewed my desire to declutter, thanks

oooh - just procrastinated proper work and wnet and re-folded stuff in one of my drawers. Very therapeutic and it's amazing how I can fit more stuff in that way whilst seeing exactly what is in there. Thank you Digger! I've ordered the book from Amazon - hoping it will be an inspiring read when I'm off work following surgery next week. Can't see me caressing my belongings though!

PS - Thanks digger!

I must be missing something. To me that's just normal folding with an extra fold at the end. I'm not gaining any space in DS's T shirt drawer this way.

clearsommespace once folded are you putting the tshirts on top of each other or vertical (like a filing cabinet)? She recommends vertical for maximising the space.

digger I have a dining table covered in carrier bags of books, DVDs and CDs. I thought I had already decluttered these! My DH saw me and joined in - that's EXACTLY what the lasy in the book said would happen

....are you the lady in the book?

Oh I missed the vertical bit. I can see that you could see what you have more easily that way, but if the drawer isn't full because some are in the wash/drying, don't they all fall down?