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Housekeeping

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The march towards Minimalism continues...

793 replies

MissAnnersleyismyhero · 04/02/2014 08:29

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

OP posts:
erin99 · 13/09/2014 16:44

Hello Miss Annersley! I'm liking that approach, it fits v well with the "things that bring you joy" philosophy.

Arti how are you doing, are you fully mobile again yet?

4 bags of clothes out to recycling today. I don't think I'm winning, we have bought so much clotheswise for the start of term. But the fact that I'm trying is a help. I think I need to get everyone in the family tidying up a bit more downstairs, day to day. Maybe I can get everyone to tidy away 5 things a day or something.

evertonmint · 14/09/2014 09:18

Erin - I'm really struggling with my DCs inability to tidy. Been on the warpath the last few days. Deffo going to try your 5 things - might work as it's a manageable number for them (they're 6 and 4)

Did a big sort out of toys yesterday. Culled the broken annoying stuff and have my sights set on decluttering some other things.

erin99 · 14/09/2014 21:11

Hmph. 5yo chose to pick up 5 bits of Lego, from the several hundred he had tipped out on the floor. I may have to tweak this a bit.

We used to clear the playroom every night as part of their bedtime routine, but that went by the wayside as they so often play with one thing for days on end these days... Plus we have got lazy...

Tomorrow I will be clearing the top of a bookshelf that's had the same pointless junk on it for 4 years. Looking forward to that!

evertonmint · 14/09/2014 21:50

Erin - on Friday I picked up all the loose lego on 6yo DS's floor and hid it. I'd been asking him to tidy it for 10 days. He hasn't yet noticed!!!! It's a huge pointer that he has too much of the stuff - I left his creations and the stuff in the lego drawers and he's been happily playing with that. I suspect he thinks (assuming he's thought about it at all) that I tidied it back into the drawers.

It's a big insight for me - although they don't have a huge variety of plastic stuff, I've been thinking they have too much of the things they do have (lego, trains, jigsaws, soft toys, cars) and this kind of proves it.

I now need to decide what my next step is.

erin99 · 14/09/2014 22:25

That's interesting Everton. I definitely think less is more toywise - when you are 5 there is only so much you can take in/sort/mentally process, let alone play with.

Still, the main problem remains my stuff!

clearsommespace · 15/09/2014 09:52

Train your kids to tip the loose lego on a blanket or towel (if you haven't decluttered them all). Then at the end of the day, just grab the four corners so the lego slides to the centre and pour it into the lego storage box.

fuzzpig · 15/09/2014 09:59

Ah now I agree that there can be too much of any toy... except lego. No such thing as too much lego.

Blush

Dad took the contents of the outdoor cupboard to the tip yesterday so that was good. Hoping to find some more stuff to put in there for the next trip!

evertonmint · 15/09/2014 13:21

Fuzzpig, I always thought the same but clearly in our case there is such a thing as too much lego. Peak lego reached! Grin

I am going to try the blanket tip. It's been recommended to me, but I hadn't got round to it. Might need to now though!!

erin99 · 15/09/2014 13:36

That's a good tip clearsomme, thanks.

Well done fuzzpig. I have cleared the airing cupboard this morning, which admittedly is fire fighting rather than decluttering as such, but I am still counting it. And I now have a big pile of children's clothes for recycling.

I also have a pile of shoeboxes, which is a dilemma :). Think I have to keep the for Useful Future Purposes.

MollyBdenum · 15/09/2014 15:04

The tops of my kitchen cupboards are bare. I still have to wash up all the spidery crockery before I take it to a charity shop, but everything else is sorted. The only thing on top of a high kitchen surface is the medicine box on top of the fridge.

clearsommespace · 15/09/2014 16:26

Grown out of kids magazines rehomed today.

Harrietspy · 16/09/2014 08:06

Erin, I'm with you on the Lego. Even after all the culling, there is still too much in ds's room for him to tidy up easily... The blanket trick is one of my old faves, though.

Been too busy with work and stuff to do much of anything at home, and the same boxes for chazza have been sitting on landing for 4 months! Everything is feeling so bloated! My house is nowhere near minimalist...

I did really well at not buying things for ages but have bought new clothes and shoes recently and an unnecessary set of reduced price table mats in M&S. (Actually the ones we have are 18 years old and a bit the worse for wear, but I didn't get enough of the new ones to throw them away...)

Still craving the scrubbed wooden table with the simple bowl in the middle...

educatingarti · 16/09/2014 10:22

Hi Erin. I'm doing fine on the hip front. Pretty much fully mobile and although it can still be painful, I'm beginning to think that it is now less painful than before the op. I seem to be taking less painkillers anyway. wish my aim to tidy and declutter was going as well! very superficial stuff going on here ( which, I suppose, is better than nothing!)

JimmyCorkhill · 16/09/2014 12:02

The Lego blanket is a thing!

I've started making the curtains for the DDs bedroom. Got to recut all my wrongly measured fabric today Sad but luckily it's got to be cut smaller so no actual ruined fabric. But my knees, MY KNEES...ouch! Is this a sewer's injury? All that crawling around on the laminate floor, I have actual bruises.

Went to a newly set up council run toddler group today. It was bliss. Set in the same hall with the same toys the parent run toddler group uses, but what a difference! Less toys out and lots of space. Some mums were actually moaning about the lack of toys but the children were all engaged. DD2 spent 50 mins in the garden with a piece of chalk. Less is definitely more.

Harrietspy · 16/09/2014 13:24

I've seen that, Jimmy, but realised I was never going to make one, Grin so it's just a big old cream fleecy blanket for us - and the pieces (except the cream ones) show up really well.

Freecycled some more stuff. So much more to go...

erin99 · 18/09/2014 10:58

Liking the blanket thing. And IMO a blanket is more minimalist than a dedicated lego mat. Multifunctional is good.

Arti, glad to hear that your recovery is going well.

I unearthed some wall stickers I bought for the playroom 4 years ago, and never got round to putting up. They are now finally up on the wall, packaging in bin, and a nice empty space on top of the bookcase

erin99 · 18/09/2014 12:58

Reposted from the Konmari thread at everton's request... I'm all mouth and no trousers with this:

Re more stuff coming in, the trick with the [aspirational room sets in magazines] is there is nothing else there. It's not just the "stuff" in that picture, it's also the empty space where there isn't the pile of school paperwork, argos catalogue, kids' shoes and toys etc etc. A funky box on an otherwise empty bench is appealing. 15 of the same box in that same space, not so much. Part of the appeal is really (arguably) the empty space where the other 14 boxes are not. Buying one funky box will not create the 14 boxes' worth of empty space for you.

For everything you want to buy, balance it up against the empty space it would be filling. Most of the time, wouldn't the room (and your own sense of tranquility, or whatever you're aiming for) be more enhanced by the space than by the thing? That is the theory I'm working on anyway.

Likewise with toys, I try to buy only those whose play value really "earns" the space they take up. You can buy massive plastic castles, enormous toy hoovers etc - whatever you like - but only if you think they will be more played with and loved than some different toy you could put in that space. Do DC need 6 different happyland houses or would two, or even one and a couple of nesting cardboard boxes, do near enough the same job and take up 1/3 of the space? Think what else DC can do with the extra space created - space is such a valuable thing in play.

evertonmint · 18/09/2014 13:16

Thanks erin - I would have done it but didn't want to take any credit for it :) You articulated what I'm trying to achieve with my minimalism project but I hadn't been able to coherently describe it even in my head. It really resonates with me and thought it might with everyone else, and wanted to know it was here to refer back to :)

JimmyCorkhill · 20/09/2014 12:22

Having a garden reshuffle. Garden may be too grand a word, it's really a small yard! DH has turned one of the raised beds (made from bricks) along one wall into a seat using decking planks so we are now going to get rid of the wooden bench. I've also found a retractable washing line with 5 lines so we can get rid of the rotary drier too. Every bit of floor space is valuable.

Had a bit of a curtain disaster. I am between 5-10cm short of fabric for one panel out of 8 - grrr, bloody bay windows. I decided to suck it up and go and buy a further 2 and a bit metres of the fabric (final piece is only 2m long) but they've discontinued it Shock Now have to do some creative work adding a spare bit to the bottom and hoping no one notices!!

Did another toy cull when DD1 was at school. Rearranged the furniture in their room a bit. Result - they played in their room for hours with toys they have ignored for ages. Some decent toys that are not being used are going into the loft to be reintroduced at a later date. It got DH and me talking about Christmas. We really don't think the DC need anything. The PILS are usually very forceful generous so if that continues this year we will ask them for the main presents rather than us buying them and the PILS getting lots of extra unnecessary stuff. We can think of a bike for DD1 but DD2 doesn't need a thing!

emsyj · 21/09/2014 21:26

Can I join??? I am inspired by the Marie Kondo thread (have ordered the book from amazon but not arrived yet) and have been ruthlessly throwing away all the crap that has been filling my house, my head and my heart with the heaviness of clutter for YEARS. It feels good! I have a long way to go but I'm feeling good about it, and DH has jumped on board too.

Do you all think it is possible to transform into a minimalist/ruthless binner if you are not naturally that way inclined??

erin99 · 21/09/2014 22:39

Welcome emsy! No idea if it's possible to change but I have to live in hope.

Today was lego day in our house. On a tablecloth for easy tidy-up, of course. Fab. And school needs junk for modelling, so I have a bag of that to take in tomorrow.

erin99 · 21/09/2014 22:40

Jimmy well done on the garden. We've been thinking about christmas too... It would be good to have a minimalisers thread about that sometime. Maybe not quite yet.

evertonmint · 21/09/2014 22:45

I've been thinking about Christmas too. I really really want to minimise the excess here. Def up for a thread discussing how to do that while still making it magical and exciting for the DCs.

educatingarti · 22/09/2014 10:12

Great activities by people here. I have removed a couple of things from my living room that I have decided are not "bringing me joy". I'm finding the "does it bring me joy?" question more helpful that the "Do I really love it?" question - not sure why.

Bluecarrot · 22/09/2014 11:00

Joining in again. I started probably over a year ago. Maybe longer! I've now got a baby and associated "stuff" but as she's starting to move about its time I get to grips with our clutter.

I did lift all excess from living room and dump into boxes about two weeks ago. I have committed the ultimate sin though - I haven't emptied the boxes yet! Plus, looking around now, "stuff" has re accumulated.

We have units to go up on the wall, which will add much needed storage but until we choose paint etc and redecorate they can't be installed.

Today I'm re clearing the living room and will actually bin/put away the excess.

A lot of my hoard is aspirational. Wool, fabric, baking supplies etc and I don't have time for any of it.

Instead I go out so I can avoid my messy house!

Time to change!