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!

[MiniSoksMakeHardWork]

Am watching Hoarding: Buried Alive. It's certainly enough to spur a person on. Am sat watching while I sew badges on rainbow uniform, and eyeing up my own old badges, thinking I really must sew them on a camp blanket.

[MissAnnersleyismyhero]

I started clearing stuff for the 365 fewer things project - already listed 70 items which have gone via eBay, car boot or charity shop/bin since Jan 1st.
This is after I already did what I thought was a ruthless clear out in August ...

[fuzzpig]

So, back to school here! Saw DH off to work this morning and have enjoyed a quiet and reasonably productive day so far.

Productive for me anyway considering I often do absolutely nothing on my days off! But I've managed a bit of regular housework, made a few phonecalls and made a big batch of soup and prepared part of the DCs' dinner (DH cooking for us when DCs are in bed). Also did my digital 15 mins by getting more of my CDs loaded into iTunes, and have been sorting through a big drawer of games stuff which is taking much longer! But at least I'm sitting down so it's not too bad :o

[MissAnnersleyismyhero]

Are you ditching the CDs once they are on itunes, fuzzpig? I tried to persuade DH to do this, to no avail!

[fuzzpig]

I think a lot of them I will, yes, especially as my CD player/radio broke a while back and we haven't replaced it (we use a radio app instead). A lot of them are things like free CDs that came with magazines so yes they will go, but I do have a few rarer CDs that I will keep. They are in the CD holder along with DVDs so don't take up too much room :)

I managed a little more decluttering yesterday although the school runs are already catching up with me. Goodness knows how I'll cope next week when I'm back to work as well :(

But I managed to fill a carrier bag of random stuff to throw out while waiting for my bath to run, and also got rid of a load of crappy pens/pencils so DCs will just be left with decent ones - will finish that today, they are really into drawing ATM. Amazing as DS wouldn't even pick up a pen before starting reception a few months ago!

[BeCool]

not so long ago I brought the DD's a lovely coat stand from IKEA - it also serves as a door stop. But it is driving me crazy - it gets loaded up, gets in the way etc. So I have decided to donate it to our local playgroup if they want it and we will use the new hooks in the hall for a streamlined number of coats.

Less is more.
We are all ongoing works in progress.

[BeCool]

Pixie have you take photos of the sentimental items?

[JimmyCorkhill]

Just put some items on ebay. They didn't sell on Gumtree or netmums so this is my last attempt before I accept that no one wants them!!

On a filing mission. We are losing so many important documents constantly. We aren't putting things away properly then when we have visitors I sweep all the loose crap off tables/shelves into carrier bags and fling them into the bedroom!

Stage 1, I gathered all the bags of crap and sieved out non paperwork items.

Stage 2, i have put all paperwork into plastic wallets and put them into relevant files.

Next stage is to actually go through each plastic wallet and organise the paperwork properly! Also, sort the bags of random things that I sieved out initially....and actually shred the papers in the overflowing shredder.

I was soooo organised pre children

[fuzzpig]

That's great jimmy. We do exactly the same re: bags of random crap! And shelves of random crap, drawers of random crap... yeah, we have quite a way to go...

[JimmyCorkhill]

I swear it breeds!

I have just bought 3 packs of file dividers. I'm on a mission

One buggy toy bar thing to the chazzer on the way to pre school pick up. Might get DD1 to do my shredding 'as a treat' ha ha!

[fuzzpig]

I am all out of motivation :( so tired. I was really hoping to get lots done this week as I'm on leave but it was just bad timing coinciding with DH starting his job. Grrrr.

[educatingarti]

Fuzzpig, I'm tired too. Maybe we can have a sit down and rest together. I'm struggling to do more than the minimum while I seem to get one bug after another. Currently have cough and catarrh although not a cold as it seems to have by passed the sore throat and runny nose bit! . going to try and get a bit of work done slowly and gently this afternoon!

[fuzzpig]

Sorry you feel crap as well arti. I am really dreading the next time I get a cold as there won't be any respite. I have to look after myself and my crappy immune system as much as possible. Trying to eat better and sleep better.

I am actually managing the extra walking better than I thought, but just feel generally achy.

I'm so tempted to just chuck pretty much everything out. But I just can't quite do it. I am going to be a lot more ruthless though!

I've started reading Minimalist Parenting. So far it's not all that relevant as it's about schedules and we are already very minimal in that sense (we've never been running around fitting everything in type people) but the next bit is about physical decluttering which I hope will give me a kick up the proverbial :)

[fuzzpig]

Well I managed a bit of kitchen decluttering by getting rid of any food stuff that we aren't likely to use. Our shopping is getting much more minimal recently, as much of it as possible is whole food as I want us as a family to eat better.

[evertonmint]

There must be something in the air fuzzpig: I just logged on over my cuppa before I attack the pantry cupboards to get rid of ancient homemade chutney and such like :). Also going to do things like combine the 4 (!) bottles of nearly finished white wine vinegar into one.

We've been minimising food shopping too. This is partly through setting a monthly food budget which we stick to very very closely, and partly by not topping up in the week (other than milk). So if we're out of bananas by Wednesday then the kids have to eat something else until Saturday when we shop again. And usually the last week of the month like this one is a store cupboard/freezer/frugal week. Having said that the food we have is still really nice, just put together more thoughtfully (I cobbled together a yummy chicken, feta and spinach salad today with a bit of leftover Moroccan dressing, some roast chicken from Tuesday and a bag of wilting spinach that I might have tossed 6 months ago but today just picked out the dodgy few leaves and ate the rest!)

And I've been minimising laundry by only throwing pants and socks in the wash by default and properly checking things are dirty before they go in. I'm now regularly getting 2 days out of my tops (not always consecutive - I rehang them and air them for another day in the week) and even DS's uniform is getting a bit of a sponge down if it's not too horrendously dirty. I've gone from at least a load a day to about 4-5 loads a week with just a bit of care - minimising washing powder, water, drying space and workload!

[MiniSoksMakeHardWork]

2 car seats and a baby walker gone via freecycle. No one wanted to pay for them (eBay or fb selling pages) lol. I was quite pleased to realise that the person who wanted them all is another twin mum who had one of my Moses baskets when my dts outgrew them.

I've completely stalled again. I just keep looking at the piles everywhere and they just seem so daunting again. Although people don't think I'm a perfectionist, I learnt when I was having counselling that because I do want things to be perfect, if I can't achieve it I don't do it. And both the feelings and subsequent non-action are at their worst when my depression is rearing it's ugly head. I can't even see how 5 minutes can make a difference as I want the whole thing done.

So I'm trying to bury those feelings and work on 5 minutes at a time, just clearing clutter and things to make those piles smaller. Wish me luck!

[BeCool]

Someone has bid on my toddler bed on ebay - it could be gone from the hall tomorrow!

My hallway is the last blockage - there are a few bits that need to go there, toddler bed, set of shelves and some random stuff on the shelves.

[TeacakeMax]

Slow progress in the Teacake household. Has been half term this week and I'm still suffering with a really bad head cold (hope you're feeling better fuzzpig and arti).

I did manage to get rid of a car boot full of stuff to the charity shop just over a week ago and other than food/toiletries etc there's very little coming into the house other than paperwork. But we too seem to have bags/drawers and even a garage full of random crap. DC2 (aged 2) requires almost constant watching (think 'natural inquisitiveness coupled with ever more inventive ways of climbing') so my opportunities for getting anything done are very limited, other than trying to keep up with the bare minimum of general housework.

I know we have made huge strides if I compare how we are now with this time last year and maybe when I'm feeling a bit better and less tired then I'll be more energised for decluttering.

MiniSoks - I can really relate to how you feel regarding perfectionism and not wanting to start things if I know I won't be able to achieve it. Eg our spare room will take a full weekend to sort/tidy/declutter/arrange it how I want it. I don't have a free weekend and probably won't for the foreseeable future. There are lots of individual components that would only take half an hour or so but I never get them done because I'm a bit of an 'all or nothing' person. And so the spare room stays the same. Or rather it gets worse because any new paperwork gets shoved into a carrier bag and plonked on the floor ready for when I've got time to sort it. Which hasn't happened yet...so every time I go in that room I get a sinking feeling about an ever-growing chore waiting for me to do.

One good thing happened today though. It's DC1's birthday in a few weeks and I broached the subject of getting rid of some toys/books and rather than the usual "no, I need and play with every single item that I own" I got "well there's a few books that I don't read anymore and they can go to the charity shop" . There is hope for us yet!!

[fuzzpig]

Ah Teacake hope you feel better soon!

Another perfectionist here. It's paralysing really isn't it.

I'm onto the physical clutter section of the book now so will be reading more tonight as I have the evening to myself once the DCs are asleep.

I'm through the worst of last week - by Wednesday I frankly wanted to cry with exhaustion but I think I'm more used to the extra walking now, and by Friday I was enjoying it. Hopefully next week will be ok, I'm nervous about going back to work on top of all the other stuff, but I hope to still achieve a bit of decluttering on my days off.

[LizLemonOut]

Regular poster, recently namechanged here :)

I can also relate to not wanting to start something unless it can be done right and just thinking what's the point. It's overwhelming at times. I want to swap bedrooms around but I just can't think where to start, it seems like too much.

I'm doing ok with getting rid of things, I'm selling a lot on eBay ATM so happy with that

[evertonmint]

The paralysis of perfectionism: another sufferer here! I will only attack things with gusto to get them done. Consequently I don't often attack things as I have neither the time nor energy, or if I do I find that I can't move one thing because it is dependent on something else so don't do anything :)

I am trying hard to set my sights lower and break things down into manageable chunks so that I can perfect a few small and easy to achieve tasks rather than ignore the whole lot. It's slowly working: off to tidy the fridge now before my grocery order arrives!

An interesting week thinking about minimalism here. DH's parents have just moved and we've been helping them unpack. They have 34 years of clutter - while their house was clean, had space and surfaces were tidy, they had so much unnecessary stuff and the amount of boxes has terrified them, let alone us. For example, I unpacked 4 boxes of china yesterday (and there are still another 3 to go - and this is for 2 people!) to discover two beautiful 6 cup espresso sets. They don't drink coffee, never have, never have it in the house even for guests. And yet they have kept hold of these espresso sets, totally unused, since their wedding over 40 years ago. And they have just been in a cupboard all that time, with the excuse that a) my mum's cousin gave us one so it would feel wrong getting rid of it and b) they're worth some money so we can't just charity shop them. I managed to convince them to try to sell the one that wasn't from mum's cousin (it has gone into a box by the door rather than straight into the loft where they said they would put it - although I suspect it will make its way into the loft when I'm not looking) and ensure they find a display space for the other so at least they are actually reminded of mum's cousin rather than just leaving it in a box for another 40 years. And there is stuff like this everywhere.

Made me realise that my family is much less attached to objects, living a fairly utilitarian life (although it drives me insane how my dad won't replace things that are well past their natural life, preferring to work around half broken stuff than actually replace his few things with new and functional!) and it's occurred that this is the reason why I am driving our minimalist project, dragging my clean-lines-loving-but-struggling-with-actually-getting-rid-of-stuff DH along with me. We are both so the products of our families. Has anyone else thought about whether they are like their parents in this regard, or are you the complete opposite?

[fuzzpig]

Oh god yes. Absolutely.

My parents are hoarders. Not quite to the extent you see on Channel 4 documentaries, but still bad enough for me to be embarrassed. The house was a mess too. I never really learnt to run a house effectively and am only learning now.

They are both anxious people although they don't appear it on the outside. But there was a lot of "what if we need it" and also not replacing things that were broken (I lived for about 4 years with a broken window in my bedroom :(). My mum always used to have a go at me about the state of my room... but whenever I cleared it out she would go through the bin bags to check I hadn't thrown anything away that I shouldn't.

Sorry, waffling now, this is like therapy! Anyway yes I definitely picked up a lot from them, I have anxiety that gets extreme at times, I have a preliminary diagnosis of OCD. DD is very anxious too even though I try so hard not to expose her to my craziness :( there must be a genetic element to that. It is heartbreaking to see her worry like I do, she's only 6 FFS.

I am going through a massive shift in mindset thanks in no small part to this support thread. The reason I joined a couple of threads back is that I finally accepted how all the clutter is a problem, because I became ill and disabled a couple of years ago, and I realised how the clutter is making it even harder to cope physically. Due to my illness I get occupational therapy and CBT which I've now finished, and it's all happened at the same time, so basically I am changing my whole life and outlook as I look at my environment and my anxiety.

Baby steps but I'm getting there :)

[JimmyCorkhill]

Hope everyone is feeling better [tea]

Yes,yes, yes to the perfectionism. I am trying so hard to change my mindset to realise that 15 mins here and there will add up to mean something worthwhile.

My Ebay items run out tonight. It's been so much hassle trying to get rid of these items that no one blatantly wants! I think I will just charity shop the rest of my clutter unless it's exceptionally good quality.

I feel all inspired again since the sun has come out. Have bagged up a lot of plastic baby plates/bowls/beakers. I only have 2 DC but have kept lots of things 'in case of visitors' sigh. And on the subject of visitors, I am going to limit them for the foreseeable future because I do a marathon superficial tidy prior to the visit resulting in lots of bags of crap being hidden in my bedroom. I want to sort things properly .

[JimmyCorkhill]

Ooops !