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!

Buying stuff here too... Start of term argh! Writing lists for next week is a great idea. Me, I'm drowning in nametapes. And I am resolving to throw away all outgrown uniform and not hang onto it "just in case".

Hello again.

I've realised that DS's itchy, swollen eyes at night probably aren't pollen, but dust-related, which needs I need to be more assiduous about hoovering and changing his sheets. (Yep, I'm a slattern).

I've been culling for 2 years now and he still only plays with a tiny fraction of what's in his room, but it's still full and difficult to clean/keep dust free. Maybe this will convince stbx that we should properly go minimalist...

Hi harriet, weirdly with dust allergy too much hoovering can make it worse... Maybe hoovering less is the answer...? (I'm only partly joking.)

How is the time share house thing going with your DC and stbx? The logistics on housework and culling must be complicated.

Ooh, Erin, that's great news re hoovering! Thanks for asking about house share. Early days, but ok so far... We see things so differently re physical stuff, but I think that's partly because I've always been the one who tidies up. (He's done other stuff, so it's not like he didn't pull his weight).

Kids seem to be doing fine, though, which was the reason for doing things this way.

It sounds like a brillant idea for them, glad to hear it is working ok.

Glad it's working out Harriet :)

I'm the same with dust in our room, it makes me cough at night - it's definitely too much dust in our case rather than too much hoovering - can't actually remember the last time we hoovered in there because you can't see the floor

I totally agree that summer holidays aren't exactly conducive to minimalism

I have been a bit better in the last week or so though. Instead of doing my usual all-or-nothing "I will start on such and such day" (in other words doing sweet FA til then) I have actually managed tiny things here and there which add up to making a difference! This is an achievement for me not just for the house but also for my MH issues (my "all-or-nothing" is an aspect of these) so am pleased with myself.

Still it can't be denied I can and will ramp it up once DCs are back in school! Roll on Friday! Well, they are back on Thursday, but DH has a rare day off - it's our first day alone together for a while so we are damn well going on a date instead of doing housework :o

We managed to clear our table (something we do manage occasionally but it never lasts - and this time it was worse than ever) but this time DH and the DCs sanded it down because it was in a horrendous state, and he's varnished it. Actually looks great and I'm looking forward to all eating together again. Except we can't when DH is home as we only have 3 chairs left. Turns out Ercol chairs aren't so hardy as the tables/chests/cupboards my mum is passing on some different chairs but they need covers first as she got rid of the old ones. Anyway til then I'll try and go back to at least eating round the table on week nights when it's just me and DCs. Remembering the principles of Simplicity Parenting and WHY I want to achieve this.

I am also trying to be good and take all the library books back... because I work there it's easy to take out endless books but when we have too many they don't get used anyway! I must apply the Less Is More principle to my borrowing and only borrow stuff when I will use it, not for some arbitrary point in the future! I want to basically take everything back during September - I've bought 12 books I need to read this month for a training day and they must be my focus.

Some dear friends have asked to visit next month - I'm so happy as I haven't seen them since I got ill and I've missed them so much. I know they don't judge at all but I'd like to make the house a bit nicer by then :)

Sorry for the epic waffle

I have an achievement. A tidy shed! Now what am I doing tidying the shed when the house needs tidying too? Well I shoved loads of stuff in there a few weeks back when we had friends visit and they came earlier than I was expecting. Of course I needed to get the mower out, the whole precarious tower collapsed and then we had bad weather so the mower had to be covered to keep it safe. So I decided to haul all those boxes back in and tidy. Two Tesco crates and 3 boxes (twice at least the size of the crates) have been culled to just 2 Tesco crates. Just have to find homes for the things which need to be kept now.

But I can get all our bikes in and our now without tools and things falling all over.

Am watching hoarding:buried alive too. One of the people on it has said something which is exactly how I feel. I get compelled to do all or nothing. And if it's not done perfectly I give up and it doesn't get finished. I swear if it wasn't for having dh and the dc I could so easily and up buried in stuff. I have an aunt who is a major hoarder. She has a one bed flat (full), a bungalow (full) and is now moving on to her mother's house - stuff in all but nan's front room and the kitchen - she even has boxes in my nan's bedroom!! Perhaps it's in my genes

So 'back to school, back to minimalising' it is.

Tomorrow, I'm donating a piece of furniture to a charity which helps victims of domestic violence set up new homes. It's already loaded in the car along with our buggy. DS is in secondary school now and said buggy has been lent out to various friends in the last 7 yrs and came back recently. I suspect will end up in the tip tomorrow but I'll show it to the people at the charity just in case. These items were both in our basement so it isn't going to make the house any clearer but it'll make going into the basement less scarey!

Hurrah for tidy sheds, cleared dining tables and all the other achievements.

Was anyone else ever constantly told "You can never have too many baking trays/pens/whatever"? I just thought of this tonight. Well actually you can!

It's scary isn't it. I see those sorts of programmes and think "there but for the grace of god go I"

Oh god I could cry! Achieved lots this morning (bag of recycling, bag of rubbish, cleaned and organised a big drawer) while DD disappeared to neighbour's house... She has come back with a bin bag full of cast off toys and clothes!!! NOOOOOOO!

Going to have to subtly weed it out while she's back at school... Argh :(

And yes clear I was brought up with "you can't have too many..." and it's a hard mindset to get out of. Funny you mention pens, I keep finding heaps of the bloody things, need to gather them into one box and let them run down from there.

Now I have to go and clean our lovely shiny table :o

First day to myself now the DCs are back at school!

Just wanted to share this blog post I just read - a good dose of inspiration

www.livingwellspendingless.com/2012/09/14/why-i-took-all-my-kids-toys-away-why-they-wont-get-them-back/

Hope you had a good day with your DH yesterday fuzzpig.

That blog post is a bit drastic for me. I think the bare children's room looks a bit sad. But my DCs definitely play with their toys for longer when we've had a tidy up/clear out.

What are you all decluttering/minimalising this weekend?

Thanks clear :) Both of us felt rubbish yesterday so didn't really make the most of the day together :( but still managed a nice meal for two so that was good.

I don't think I could go quite as drastic as that either but I do need to continue reducing the toys. I would kill for that space TBH, even our living room is smaller than that bedroom!

I'm not sure what I'm doing this weekend though! I think weekdays are better for me. How about you?

Oh but my parents are hopefully coming up on 14th so I might try and grab the opportunity for a tip run or two :o

I didn't get rid of anything this weekend. Our house has wooden shutters which require quite a lot of maintenance so I have been sanding and varnishing in my free time.

Fallen off thread! I have actually started to attack my office/work room - albeit in a rather superficial way. Cleared quite a lot off work surfaces and wiped them down and cleared out loads of paperwork from a file for a student I am no longer working with.

I have paperwork I'm not sure what to do with - anyone else have this? Do you just file everything? I think I need some sort of system. I have probably about 3 or 4 "part systems" which is probably the problem!

Hi everyone. Just popping by as done my first decluttering since the baby arrived: offloaded 2 bags of maternity clothes via the local buy/sell/free Facebook site today. I also binned some old clothes of mine that are too stained or ill fitting for charity shop. A whole
Corner of my bedroom is now much neater

Arti I file all paperwork that needs to be kept. I think you definitely need a full system that works for you other wose it's a PITA filing.. I remember a thread on here where people were talking about their systems in detail. I think it was called ' those of you who are really organised'.

One outgrown spacehopper rehomed. Kids bookshelves thinned out. Where is everyone?

Clear - I'm here but drowning under laundry (holiday stuff plus newborn plus threadworm induced (bleugh!) bed linen and towel overload...

I loved that blogpost fuzzpig. It's been bugging me for a while, the amount they have versus what they play with, and the lack of gratitude. I'm in a post-holiday/newborn phase overhaul - the house is sadly in a "looks worse before it gets better" phase and I'm filtering out lots of stuff. DS just used Lego and cars, DD just uses pencils, paper and den-building equipment. And everything else is sitting there untouched. I've offloaded a lot, I rarely buy for them myself, but there is more to be done!

I'm here

Felt like we went backwards over the summer hols, didn't realise how crucial the daily 3hrs of preschool was to me.

2 bags to the chazzer yesterday. 2 bags of baby stuff waiting in the wardrobe to pass on to a friend.

We have finally swapped bedrooms with the DDs. I am really excited to be making their curtains next week. DD1 will be in school full time and I am hoping that I can get them done and dusted during DD2's naptimes. Our new smaller bedroom is lovely but...DH is self employed. He usually rents office space but due to both cash flow and an irritating man in his open office space he has decided to work from home...in our bedroom. So my oasis is still out of reach. The room is full of post it notes and has a whiteboard hung on the wall

Loving the Marie Kondo thread on good housekeeping at the moment - I must read it again.

The book that is, not the thread

Still here! Jimmy - I think I went downhill over the summer too (and no children on holiday to blame)! But being on crutches for 4 weeks didn't really help. I've made some inroads into general tidying/cleaning this week, but how much I get to do with a full workload remains to be seen.

Achievements this week - clearing out paperwork from student files where I have stopped tutoring the student - done some and some ongoing but is creating it's own filing piles!

Done some sorting/tidying decluttering on my overflowing work/desk space, but still a load more to be done!

The spare doom is a nightmare though! Mostly just stuff that needs putting away though.

I have a student who is going to be coming to me for lessons - strange how that is inspiring some cleaning/sorting tidying!

Hello all I had my colours done and it's been a real help in de-cluttering clothes - more importantly, I am now v much more reluctant to buy clothes, especially online, as I have seen how important getting the right colour is.
It is expensive, but I've rationalised it as the cost of several items wrongly purchased, or a pair of shoes I wouldn't wear.