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!

Today was mixed. Positive: gave DD's dolls' house and 100-odd accessories to the charity shop. A bit heart breaking for me as I had lovingly painted it for DD, but she never really played with it so no big loss. I still have the photo I took of her with it on Christmas morning.

Negative: a Home Bargains has opened in my town. This will be a challenge. I bought a game for one of the DC for christmas and a couple of party presents. Maybe we do need to start talking about christmas already!

Know the temptation Erin. A large branch of The Range has just opened right on the opposite side of the road to me! Been in there twice already and it hasn't been open 2 weeks yet. Mostly bought stuff for work though!

I suppose the Minimalist Christmas thread should be in the Christmas section? How about "Minimalist yet magical?"

Yes that's a great idea :)

I like that. It might also intrigue some of the more maximalist Christmas folk on there. I'm all for being an evangelical minimalist

Sounds good to me!

We have become pretty minimalist with regards to Christmas, mainly completely for budget reasons but I love the suggestion of magical ideas.

DH and I stopped buying each other presents years ago. It really doesn't make a difference to the day. We don't buy for any adults and only relatives' DC if they're young.

We have tons of decorations so mainly stick with what we've got. We have been letting the DC get a new bauble each year - we wanted to start a family tradition. TBH, we always have loads left over. I think I will declutter what doesn't get put on the tree this year. We only do the tree, put up any Christmas artwork the DC do and make paper chains.

Foodwise we treat Christmas as one day (as opposed to a couple of weeks) so get nice stuff for that day. We don't have cupboards bursting with food/snacks/alcohol/junk. If we do fancy any goodies the shops are always open.

We also don't rush around visiting people or entertaining visitors (hurrah - a bonus to a crappy extended family maybe that's for another thread!!) So Christmas for us is stress free and practically shop free. We still celebrate. But without panic/overspending/exhaustion.

What we need to work on is the amount of presents we buy our own DC. We are savvy and use vouchers/offers/2nd hand but I (it is me, not DH) still get them too much. And as I said in a previous post, they don't actually need anything. DD1 has had her heart set on a bike but DD2 has all DD1's toys to play with. We can get the toy car garage out of the loft and set it up with the road map mat and she'll love that...but I have to get over the fact it's not new. Will DD2 care? I doubt it.

I have just listed on my fingers all of last year's bigger presents that never got played with/rarely got played with/are currently ignored and I used all my fingers . I have binned or charity shopped lots of the smaller 'extra' presents. I just struggle with the idea of a few gifts for them on the day. Anyone cracked this?

Jimmy - I'm thinking that a few nice practical presents which will be used frequently might be the way to go in terms of trying to ensure what they receive is used. So I'm thinking personalised swimming kit bags and cosy dressing gowns for example rather than yet another piece of plastic. Also they love watching DVDs and have relatively few so that's an easy win (and they get watched over and over). And last year I bought a joint present for DH and DS of a chess set which went down well, so I'm thinking of joint presents for various combinations of people in the house to encourage playing together. Also
I'm going to do those photo books of our snapshots from the year - all the silly pics of them in fancy dress or striking a silly pose etc. I think they'll love looking at those frequently.

I get better each year and DH and I always set a budget. I'm wondering whether as well as a monetary amount we should actually set a number of presents limit.

I'm v impressed with you focusing on just one day. We always buy in way too much food! Last year we didn't plan in every day and of course had spare food to cover those days which saved money but we could still get away with less.

Everton the photo book is a brilliant idea. I gave one to DD when she was one, and to my shame I have not updated it since. She still loves it! It has pics of all her extended family, the cats, and her favourite toys (when she was a baby, obv!). I'm also targetting games - we have just started playing a game together instead of kids' tv every bedtime, and they have outgrown all the Orchard games ones.

I was also thinking along the lines of ballet bags, gym club hoody - non-essentials that they will enjoy using. But DH is reluctant to buy things that are too useful because when I was growing up I got given things like chests of drawers and duvet covers. He feels really strongly that presents should be less utilitarian.

Stockings will inevitably involve tat but I'm not too worried about that. They love party bag tat, and I'm happy to write off a tenner or so possibly deluding myself on cost. The real waste would be to buy a big £40 present that is not played with.

Thread created, please repost your ideas.

everton the photo book with pics of the toys they liked is genius! I can happily lose myself on pinterest looking at toys of the 80's going "I HAD that!!" Brilliant idea

Jimmy - I can't claim credit for the toys bit (that was Erin!) but they will definitely feature in my book. I think it needs to be more snapshots of them snorkelling in the bath or making cakes rather than the typical "here is the view from our hotel on holiday" album. Trying to decide if it needs to be personal to each of them or whether I can just get one including pictures of both of them (in which case probably still need a copy each!) The baby's will only be small if they're individualised but I think it could be a tradition worth starting!

Love the photo book idea!
Consumable stocking presents I used to love were things like new crayon and felt-tip packs as previous ones invariably used to dry up/get sharpened to death. I think if you can afford it, good quality ones are worth buying though like Staedtler. Nice quality sketch pads are also good (as long as the dc is old enough to appreciate the difference between that and the back of old computer printouts!) What about those washi paper sticky tapes for crafts. We also used to get tubes of some kind of goo that you could blow into balls/balloons with a straw like this and I loved that as we only ever had it at Christmas. I loved getting books too.
Fun Christmassy gloves are nice and may be classed as consumables if your dcs are prone to losing them and even better if it actually happens to snow! Ditto new hair slides/ribbons/bobbles if they tend to go missing over the year.
My Uncle bought my sister and I a proper wooden sledge one year and although it wasn't exactly used frequently, it came out every time it did snow and was used for decades by younger cousins as well as us two!
For years my sister and I used to buy my Dad a new umbrella for Christmas as he would have invariably have lost it by the time next Christmas came -but that perhaps is another story.

We used to have the "choose a new bauble each year" custom too and loved decorating the tree in later years and saying "do you remember when we bought decoration such and such" and of course never used to fight over what decs went where on the tree because we were making "scenes"

Not been minimising at all - trying to declutter in my head though and plan a few things.

Am in full on ME relapse at the moment.

Just popped back to share this little blog post for anyone interested in the parenting aspects of minimalism (like in Simplicity Parenting) - it's about TV. I basically did the same thing last year and oh boy did it work :)

m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5860702?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000037

Sorry to hear that fuzzpig. Hope you bounce back v soon

Thanks for that article. I'm ok with morning tv - they don't get it until they are all ready so it's usually only 20 mins and is a good incentive plus means the house is not a mess before the days even started. But I have been letting them have way too much after school/nursery. I've recently started to address this by putting something on the kitchen table for them to do before I head on school run so its ready and waiting, and then serving after school snack at the table rather than on the sofas a an extra incentive to get up to the table. The difference is noticeable - they get on happily with the activity or find something else they'd prefer and just roll nicely from there. If the tv goes on they whine when it goes off and can't busy themselves with anything else and I end up having to come up with stuff, most of which us rejected as boring! I have a 3mo so sometimes it's fraught with feeds/naps/nappy changes and I do just need to succumb to tv/iPad time, but I reckon about 3 days a week now we're not using tv as the default after school and it's a much calmer but also more energised house.

Last of the maternity clothes has gone as I handed a bag back to a friend today. That's been my only big September project - easing myself back in gently after the summer.

Enjoying following the Marie Kondo thread too, and plotting next steps in our house :)

Thanks Everton :)

I love the idea of putting something on the table. I'd like to do something like that for the mornings as they, like the boy in that blog post, are early birds. Sometimes they'll happily get on with drawing or lego but other times they are rampaging around making noise!

Sometimes on the weekends, when there's no rules regarding TV, if I offer them a DVD they actually say no thanks honestly never thought that would happen!

I need to keep up with the kondo thread too - I've lost track of it as I haven't read the book yet but hopefully I'll be able to get it soon (I've had work-related reading this month)

Hope you feel better soon fuzzpig. The minimal christmas thread's proving popular.

I do similar with toys on weekend mornings. Most of the toys are out on bookshelves so easy for DC to see, but I often put out a box of hexbugs or something on the floor to get them started, or swap some fresh toys onto the shelves. Actually the lego ( on a tablecloth) is still covering the playroom floor from last weekend! In my defence they are playing with it every day - my cunning plan worked tee hee.

Thanks for that link fuzzpig and I hope you feel better soon

I'm the guilty one with the tv as I often find it easier to occupy the DC. They would much prefer to play with me I have done a 'no tv' week a couple of times and DD1 loved it. We listened to loads of music instead. I used to put a toy/activity on the rug for the morning. Don't know why I stopped

Curtains made - hurrah! Now I can focus on more decluttering when DD2 has her nap. I am going to take the box of kitchen items I stored away to the chazzer, we haven't used any of it. I am going to clear the underbed storage too. I would love to have nothing under our bed, it feels fresher to me (is that weird?!)

Hope you've all had a good weekend. What's your plan for the week? I'm tackling DDs drawers as she's grown so much that lots doesn't fit her. I have a friends DD to give some to and the hand me downs are being returned to my friend for her you get DD. Obviously new clothes will take their place but we've bought those already and are sticking to a largely red and blue colour scheme which she loves and its 95% tops and bottoms so she has a lot more outfits than items of clothing IYSWIM.

Hope you feel better soon fuzzpig.

We've had visitors this weekend so there'll be a couple of days getting back on track with laundry etc around working and ferrying DC to activities.
Visitors were super organised family members coming from afar so they brought DC Christmas gifts with them! There was space in our wardrobe to hide them instantly.

Someone's coming to pick up DCs infant age magazines tomorrow, hopefully.
On Wednesday I should have some free time so I am going to attack the space where we keep all our DIY stuff. I suspect we have far too many paintbrushes!

Me too Jimmycorkhill. I would much rather watch Horrible Histories for 20 mins than be forced to play monopoly.

My plan for today is to sort out my fabric stash. I am not planning to get rid, just rejig it so that we no longer have piles all over the dining room. It'll take me one step closer to that empty dining table (one day...)

Clear dining table achieved! Whoop whoop!!

Oh, whoop whoop indeed Erin! I bet your clear table must give you a lot of joy as you wander past it :)

I'm being driven potty by our dishwasher. It's always full, always needs emptying, never seems to be just there waiting to receive the dirty plates! It drives us insane.

I am wondering if we need to rethink how we use kitchen utensils. Why do we need 15 mugs when there's just 2 of us drinking tea? (Bear in mind I've already decluttered out about 10!) why do we need 9 pasta/noodle type bowls when there's at most 4 of us eating? Why do the kids need separate crockery now they're 6 and 4 and not chucking plates on the floor?

I'm going to broach the idea of a week long experiment with DH. We each have a plate, side plate, bowl, mug, glass and set of cutlery. We each wash up after ourselves. Stuff is always clean. There's no dishwasher rage.

I'm also wondering if we need to get smarter with cooking. We do everything from scratch and with me at home it means there are 4 meals a day - pans, mixing bowls, utensils. Yet again they all just sit in the dishwasher taking up space and we have duplicates of popular things to account for this. We need to clean up after each meal rather than it sitting for a full dishwasher. And we probably also need to think of less pan/equipment intensive dinners and cook those more often.

I'll let you know if we take this idea anywhere and what happens!

Hurrah for your clear table erin! :o Ours lasted less than a week even though we sanded and varnished it this time

Still unwell here, ended up with a virus so I'm wheezy.

I really need to simplify our meals too. I'm trying to make them healthier with more veg etc but don't want to over complicate things when really the DCs are always happy with something chucked in the steamer (for more unusual veg, which DS is fussy about, I snaffle them into pasta sauces etc - and flaked fish too! :o)

There's so much I need to streamline but none of it compares to the desperate need to just get rid of crap.