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!

Hi Harriet - i think im just about flat-lining at the moment.

It's my housework day today. Which at the moments means trying to tidy and just about keeping toilets and kitchen surfaces clean.

Im drowning now in clean clothes piled on kitchen table a montrous jumble. Ihave no where to put them.

I truely feel overwhelemed and wuite happily sat here in my procrastinatin. Its's always one more coffee!

Having my 'one more coffee' right now

Am about to start painting the bedroom walls so our hallway upstairs is rammed with various items which we have to climb over to get anywhere. DD1's current bedroom is a disaster as we have put DD2's cot in there and all the toys etc. are stuck in a much smaller space. The kitchen is housing a very muddy double bike trailer from Glasto. I just seem to be making things worse all the time!!

On the plus side my child carrier fetched a very respectable price on Ebay and the lady picked it up immediately

andsmile I'll sort your clothes for you. I find it therapeutic

Jimmy you are kind. I hope your painting is going well. I have paint picked out for DS bedroom and some new furniture (at last settled on Hemmes from ikea) I have yet to start.

I have had some news, not parrticularly bad but I have took it badly. I know I shouldnt have but I have sat and cried - full on sobbing into duvet. I dont know where it has come from really. I didnt know I would be so bothered.

The nursery sessions that (in my mind) the manager indicated she would likely have for my toddler DD, consisting of 3 x 3 hours are not available. Silly me I actually thought I was going to get some time to study. I dont know how Im going to manage next year. I have to start it as Im locked into a particular route of study with OU. I just thought I'd get some time for me to use my brain and not be in toddler land. Toddler land can be lovely but can also be dirty, smelly, frustrating and brain draining. Alternatives are too expensive.

I should just shut up, stop blubbing and fold the clothes. - Im not even hormonal fgs. I feel so down trodden, I keep welling up I cant believe it is nearly time for school run.

andsmile

Thank you once more Jimmy Funny whenever I get like this, it's the kids that pull you back up. We have been to M&S for pizza and cake! I'm ok now my DH is quite understanding. He will be in soon.

How is the painting going?

Painting is going quite well, thanks. I'm limited by only having preschool/baby nap times and the evenings (when I can't see what I'm doing) to paint. It looks good so far though.

Nearly took DH's and DD1's waterproofs to the chazzer today as they were in a bag by my other donations Only bought DD1's last Friday as well!

Glad you feel better. I've been pretty low and overwhelmed for the last month or so. Getting on with this decorating is boosting me. I still struggle with perfectionism. If I listed what I had achieved decluttering/tidying wise in the last 2 years I should be really proud but I just see what's still left to be done. I'm working on it though!

It's all comming along though isnt it I try to remind myself to be more patient. Gone are the days when you could sort through a room, full spring clean, before lunchtime.

It's hard having one room out of action with everything piled about. I think it's great you are tackling this with such young ones!

I think I make the mistake of thinking, 'right I'll have a good go of things today' and never do get the 'good go going'. I think I should try and chunk it down more and just do 30mins a day.

You should write list of everything you have done inc decluttered list/DIY/projects as a affirmation.

I have playgroup tomorrow morning so I will try and do something in the PM. I still have car full of bags n boxes of clothes from lat week that I have failed to actually drop off.

Slowly working my way through a huge pile of paperwork. Chucking/shredding most of it, with just a small amount to file. there's lots of mail I haven'teven opened ( nothing imporrtant). I think I kind of got lost a bit with paperwork after my Dad died in the autumn. I guess, being on crutches ( so I can't walk far or do anything that involves carrying stuff) is a good opportunity to start to get a grip!! Taking a lunch break right now!

Go edu my paperwork is ether in teetering piles or stashed in bags for life. The latter happens when somone is coming. But tbh my house is so bad I cant have anyone over. It has never been so bad for so long.

Arti, sounds like a great use of your enforced sitting.

Our space is looking untidy and cluttered again. It just takes a couple of busy weekends for it to all go to pot. On the up side, I'm sure it'll be quicker to put things away when I get round to it as there is space in the cupboards and drawers.

I got into a bad habit of not putting things away if I needed to leave the room to do so when DCs were tiny. I can't use them as an excuse but I do tend to make piles to deal with next time I go to the relevant room. Our kitchen has two doors so at one end there is oftena pile of bits to go away upstairs and at the other end a pile of bits to go in other downstairs rooms. When I force myself to put an item away in the correct place immediately, I have taken to counting how many seconds it takes (rarely more than 30) so I really can't use the 'haven't got time right now' excuse.

We'll be going on holiday soon so I've been testing torches and batteries this evening. We have a lot more working batteries than I thought + plenty of rechargeable ones, but I'll put a positive spin on that and be proud that this year I checked in good time rather than slinging more in the trolley on my pre-holiday supermarket visit. And thanks to previous clearouts, there is space where we keep the 'in case of a power cut' box to keep the spare batteries too.

Yay - well done somme on the batteries. I'm at the stage now where I've got to the paperwork I need/want to keep. Now I needto persuade myself to do some filing and work out what I do with the " I want to keep it but don't know what the heck to do with it" pile. I got a Heart Foundation bag throughthe letter box - to be collected on Friday so today will also seem me in a "what can I chuck from the clothes" mood. I already have asmall amount in a bag waiting for the next time I go to a chazzer, but I WILL be adding to it!!

educating snap! I am sitting shredding and/or recycling through a huge pile of papers. Had a row with Dh last night after I found he had squirrelled away loads of payslips/bank statements etc in the bottom of his bookshelf among all sorts of work books instead of just putting it in the relevant drawer where al our paperwork resides- I've even told him not to worry about filing it, just put it where I can see it and I'll sort it.

But instead, he chooses to put things anywhere that takes his fancy, crumpled up in balls etc.

Ive gone from bad to worse. I shall try to put a positive post of what ive done by bedtime.

Huuuuge bag of stuff put out for chazza collection ( though I had to ask my neighbour to carry it downstairs for me as I couldn't do it on crutches!)

I bag down 999 million still to go!

Peonies my DH does that grrrr

Right determined to get something done today

Asked my ds to pick up the stuff on the floor before he went on the Xbox earlier this week and realised that the shelves are organised in such a way that it's very hard for an eight year old to put stuff away... Still far too much on the shelves!

Good stuff Arti.
Andsmile, any progress?
Started a big tidy of DS room with him. He's chucked a couple of small bins full of stuff and found some bits to giveaway/sell which is really good going for him as he doesn't like letting go. (He still insists on keeping all his clothes in the chest of drawers he had as a baby.) At least that means we've always been minimalist on his clothes because there was never any room for excess.

Paperwork all shredded, the stuff to be filed is in a tray in the living room, DH has agreed to sit down and go through it with me tonight, it won't take more than a couple of hours.

I have a lot of stuff out in the garage for car boot, considering just bringing it all to the charity shop tomorrow.

Peonies, if you don't desperately need the spare cash, take the stuff to the charity shop. It'll be great to be rid of it and the charity benefits too.

Kids rooms done. In total we've chucked two bin bags of stuff, mostly completed activity and sticker books or old artistic creations. DS's room looks great and now he can fit his large musical instrument, chair and music stand up there rather than hogging the corner of the living room!

Does anyone know if charity shops are ok with sticker books where about 5% of the stickers/pages have been used?

Peonies we were supposed to do carboot. We postponed because of bad weather. I now have a house with heaps and Im literally stressing becuae everywhere I look I see an hours worth of listing ebay, loading up cars etc.

Ive decided to take the stance that the money has gone and as clear said We dont desperately need the cash, but the cahirty does.

If it is easier take clothes in small bags to put in chutes of them large bins next to recycling places when you goto shops/petrol station.

Im v busy with a uni deadline at the minutes but, and I hope this doesnt sound odd I visualise what stuff is about the house (cupboards etc) and mentally ticking it off to let go of it if that makes sense.

Bloomin DH has just bought two bodyboards and a huge pile of vinyl back from a trip. I just looked - I can see we need tohave a chat when I am in a position to lead by example.

We don't desperately need the money but we're paying off debt fairly aggressively at the moment and every extra bit helps! I sold a load of stuff on eBay earlier in the year and I really felt that was a boost to the debt repayment that month.
On the other hand most months I end up spending unnecessary money (e.g. can't say no to friends when they want to eat out, ended up spending £45 last month on that) and if I could do that, then I'd save more money than I am likely to make at a car boot!

It would be amazing to see the garage all tidy and empty. The house is looking much better though - especially the spare room. I need to let go of more clothes and shoes, I have a real problem with throwing those away in case I want to wear them again, even though I have clothes that I literally haven't worn in years

Good going everyone. andsmile any more news on nursery? Don't give up hope, there could well be children who just don't take up their place in Sept.

House is a bomb site and I have not made much progress on decluttering lately, but I'm not too stressed because I know we are going in the right direction. Megabusy with end of term school stuff, which doesn't help. Have decided I need more of a system for school related paperwork. What do you do with it?

Erin, on school paperwork, I put dates in the calendar straight away, and if there's any paperwork I need to refer back to, I take a photo with my tablet, file it in Evernote (an amazing free app if you don't know it) and recycle the paper.

I read this at the weekend. Incredibly challenging, like a slap in the face, but it's what I need to hear:
"Eighty per cent of your to-do list is crap. Look, the stuff of life never ends. That is life. You will never clear your plate so you can finally allow yourself to get to the good stuff. So you have to decide. What do you want to accomplish in this life?" (From 'Overwhelm' by Brigid Schulte).

To that end I'm giving myself a strict limit to how long I spend on house-stuff each day, otherwise I'll never get the really important stuff done...

Marking place