If you are very tidy to the point of being minimalist - how do you do it?

[drspouse]

We are probably getting our house ready to sell and it really, really needs a complete declutter (we do have too much stuff) and needs us to keep it tidy (many of our things do have a place to go but never get put back there!) but also I feel like there are a lot of things that I cannot actually think what we could do with them.

So for example:
Our bedroom is not too bad. I need to keep an eye on the top of our dresser (random stuff out of DH's pockets) and my own bedside table (discarding one book and starting another) but I've recently cleared ALL the junk off the window sill. Our wardrobe is very full (we share one) and it has irritating open shelves beside and on top (so you can always see badly folded clothes) but we could actually get doors installed, and I could slim down my wardrobe, and it would be a place of peace and harmony.

But our hallway for example - we have a hat rack, a standing coat rack, a wall coat rack, a DC/DH shoe rack, a DC standing coat rack, and some quite nice looking boxes on a high shelf and it is still rammed full to the point where we cannot hang up guests' coats and our coats fall off the racks.

And another difficult point is our big living room which is also a play room. We gave away about 75% of our books and 50% of our CDs a few years ago but they always seem to be overflowing the shelves. I usually give a book to the charity shop as soon as I've read it. There are also boxes of photos, maps etc. on the shelves and they just look a mess.

We have a consistent type of toy storage (stackable wooden boxes that we only stack 2 high) and the DCs are pretty good at putting back their Lego, but puzzles etc. don't fit in the boxes so stick out, the DCs have a bookshelf but everything is always falling off, and there are an awful lot of things that just don't seem to have an "away" to go to, e.g. we have some Fisher Price Little People houses/barns that won't fit in boxes, a couple of ride on toys etc.

And the kitchen - not only are there loads of jars etc. lining up on the worktops, food processor and biscuit barrel on top of the microwave, but the tops of all the cupboards always seem to be full of spare food, big bag of rice, boxes of cereal, picnic cooler etc. etc.

It's doing my head in! And of course it looks bad for potential viewers.

So for the meantime we could easily get a storage facility and put loads of the kids toys in there - but coats for example - I feel like we wear all of them! And they just look messy all hung up.

irregular All the non-seasonal coats are in the attic. No possibility in this house of a built in cupboard anywhere near the front door for coats.

Some of my photos are me as a baby in the 1960s, some are my mother as a baby in the 1940s. Scanned is not really the same (again, they are items that make me happy but look messy). Some could be culled/scanned.

Maps/walking books could easily be culled (again, I've said we do have too much stuff) but some are e.g. for teaching the Guides to mapread or from areas with no internet access (really not recommended to climb a peak in the Lakes with just your smart phone!)

Eolian that's me to a tee.
I just want to learn how not to be like that!

Yup - if you find out how, let me know! There have been a couple of threads in the past, I think, with titles like "Are there any formerly untidy people who have become super-organised minimalist types" or something. The answer is usually 'I developed systems and stuck to them'.

I'm a bit better than I used to be, largely thanks to using a Bullet Journal. But I waste far too much time on MN and my systems are not yet habit, so they fall apart unless I am ruthless with myself. And anyway, even in my most organised phases, my house is still only 'fairly tidy' rather than a minimalist haven of tranquility.

Chipmunk while it's definitely true that we have a lot of "just in case" stuff we also have stuff that as I say is useful, gets used, is nice to have around except for the fact that it makes a mess!

We're actually OK on seasonal/rarely used items - the loft for things DCs are yet to grow into, the attic for seasonal things, or vacuum bags under the bed. Sometimes the not-tidying-up inertia gets us (the ski clothes suitcase has been poised outside the loft hatch for a few days following a week or so of post-holiday washing and drying) but generally we are quite ruthless.

It's the things that either we definitely use often (like coats that I use once or twice a week) or will use next (like the next big box of Weetabix) or that we really like to have around but look messy (like my mum's baby photos in original but not very well preserved albums).

Eolian let's go off an form a support group for those who are not yet ready to be super-organised and who just feel inadequate when told "you just need to declutter and get better storage".

I think there is a trade off between having all the stuff you want (but lots of clutter) and a tidier house (but compromising on stuff or how easily it is to hand).

For example in your shoes I would compromise by not having much kitchen equipment, so that I could fit all the food into the cupboards. I would hate having food out of cupboards, so I would accept that I couldn't have a mixer, breadmaker, multiple baking or mixing dishes, loads of mugs/glasses (whatever it is that's taking up your kitchen cupboards). I wouldn't buy a picnic cooler if I didn't have a place (like a cellar) to keep it. I'd get rid of the cookbooks if they didn't have a tidy place to live (photo the recipes you like and use them on an iPad).

And yes, some people do nip up to the wardrobe to get a different coat while the DC are waiting in the hall. DH does this, it drives me mad actually!

It's about priorities, you can't have all the stuff you might ideally want, and all of it conveniently available, and minimalism. Not in a smallish/normal sized house anyway. So it's up to you which is more important...

Toys though - I don't think there is an answer other than massive storage units and even then there will be ride ons etc. We are just waiting till the DC are older!

We started the Kondo process about a year ago. Before doing it we were constantly shifting things around to create space and bemoaning our lack of storage. One year on the house is tidy, clear, and I can clean it top to bottom in an hour whereas before it would take a whole day because of the things that needed putting away/moving.

We were not tidy and clean before doing it but the way the process works really did help us think about what things we needed and wanted. Get the book and just start. If it works for you, great. If it doesn't after a while then try another approach.

I kondo-ed 2-3 years ago and I am stunned to say that it hasn't backslid. The house still looks pretty good and it's so quick to clean, I wish I'd done it before. I haven't regretted anything I've let go of, which surprised me. I need to re-do one area, which is stragglers of DIY stuff now that we've finished loads of decorating, but I'll get to that.

So for some of the examples:

Coats - DC and I each have: 1 warm coat, 1 waterproof coat. Those hang in the hall beside book bag and school bag - we have two short rows of coathooks above each other, one at adult eye height, one at DCs. In bedrooms we have: summerweight coat each, and skiwear stored in suitcases/under-bed drawers as needed very rarely. The cycling high-vis for everyone are stored in the hall cupboard, folded up (the Kondo way...) in a box with other cycling bits like lights, etc. This means the coat hooks hold everything we need but there are spare empty ones and it doesn't look crammed. We have a TINY hallway so it looks cluttered pretty much as soon as you put something down otherwise. Shoe rack in each bedroom.

(Hats, gloves and scarves are in owner's wardrobes, in a labelled open shoebox in DCs case, so they can find them independently.)

Food stores - small kitchen here, and I hear what you're saying about financial benefits of bulk-buying but then where to put it. Do you have a garage or shed? We keep a large plastic (very securely) lidded crate in the shed with the excess dry or canned goods, and retrieve as necessary.

What astonished us was how neatly they suddenly fitted into our space once we'd chased out the other things.

That is actually very encouraging, thanks.

It really does sound like many of you have much more in the way of storage - things like wardrobes in the DCs' rooms (none), a wardrobe each (we have a very small one between us), a wardrobe in the spare room (we don't really have a spare room), fitted cupboards, porches, garage... nope!

We have two small sheds. One is crammed full of bikes (3 bikes, one is on a hook on the wall) and one has gardening stuff (well I say gardening, we have a yard but still need a few bits e.g. bags of lime/compost), and paint/chemicals that we don't want to keep in the house plus ladders - and is full.

Hats, gloves and scarves are in owner's wardrobes
I am just fainting at the thought of trying to get my 5yo and my 2yo to put away their hats and gloves in the same place every day and then remember where they've put them and find them when we are late for school...

Eolian let's go off an form a support group for those who are not yet ready to be super-organised and who just feel inadequate when told "you just need to declutter and get better storage".

Sounds good. I did a kind of Kondo-lite on my house but I don't think I went far enough, so I haven't got to the tipping point where I have little enough stuff to be able to store it easily. My coat cupboard (which has all the family coats, plus assorted other crap, like about a million Bags for Life and umbrellas) and the study are major sticking points.

My "spare room wardrobe" is actually a weird space left over from the loft conversion - at the bottom of the stairs up to the conversion. We don't have a loft... we have ski coats, riding kit, branded jackets for bands that are very specific but can't disappear. My wool coats live in our shared wardrobe - I'm pretty ruthless with clothes so there's space for 2 wool coats for me in my share.

Kitchen - could the big bags be decanted into stuff that's easier to store/stack? Again, it's not the things you need to keep that are the problem - it's the stuff you don't need that's in the way of storing the stuff you do.

Kitchen is a nightmare - if there's stuff you need once a year (Christmas or whatever) packing it up and putting into storage could be a short term solution. I haven't won with the kitchen yet - DH just leaves stuff on the side as 'too hard!'

There's a fair bit of supervision involved, but no witchcraft Five year old manages OK with the putting them away because it's the very first thing everyone does when we come in, but needs help remembering to get them out again and lob them in general direction of schoolbag. Possibly helps that we live all on one level so the bedroom doesn't feel far away from the front door? Sure there is another solution that would fit your house and family, it was just one example.

I am both a moderate hoarder and have a very tidy house... but unfortunately my solution is lots of storage (and no kids). So can't help you really!

DH just leaves stuff on the side as 'too hard!'

One of my DH's few failings is doing this!

Big bags decanted would still need to go somewhere though I suppose if the containers were more attractive than the original container they would annoy me less!

B1rd my 5yo does that with his shoes but it's the going upstairs bit... there's a memory field you know... Every morning he gets dressed, picks up his jumper and walks downstairs (he is rather jumper-averse so I don't push him to put it on straight away). 90% of the time the jumper doesn't make it down stairs. Back you go I say, 80% of the time he forgets what he went for.

I am wondering if some of the other people who keep all their coats but one in wardrobes also live on one level. Oh, and have wardrobes bigger than a postage stamp. I could keep maybe 5 coats OR the current contents in my wardrobe.

While the coats are a.minor issue, I am thinking of that woman on 'a new life in oz' who had about thirty coats all with fur hoods and trims. Which she had shipped to the gold coast....

I would think you need the cycling jacket, a decent waterproof job for most occasions, a ski jacket if you ski (packed in the attic in a plastic crate for the other 51 weeks) and a smart one for funerals. Smart wool coats are of very little use in the British climate - even if you are doing town errands on a cold day the gross overheating of shops means it is a nuisance.

Kids need one coat each.

Yes, it does sound like you have a small house for a family of 4. Or a normal size house but with very little storage. Is there space for a wardrobe in your DCs' rooms, or another wardrobe in your and DH room? If so buy them asap! If not.... well I can see why you are moving...

Are you moving to get more space? If so, there's your answer - put stuff in storage for now and reclaim it when you have the bigger place. If not, I think you'll need to get by with less kit and no bulk buying and accept that as the price of having a smaller house.

I know children who have ridiculous amounts of coats but my DCs need one to wear, and one to wash when they roll in mud... so that's what they have. And waterproof trousers.

I wear my smart wool coat for more work days than any other coat - I find it really useful. It has been a slightly drier winter this year I think but for any work day it's not raining it's my go to coat.

Chipmunk short of covering entire walls with built in cupboards rather than the existing furniture, no there really isn't. The DCs' room has a hanging rail with shelves above, so they do have somewhere to hang stuff but it's not away if you see what I mean. The shelves have all their out of season/to grow into clothes. That takes up one wall, each bed takes one wall (not old enough for bunk beds yet) and they have a chest of drawers on another wall.

I'm actually astonished by how many clothes some other DCs have - though possibly this is a baby thing - when we were at the stage of getting baby hand me downs every 3 months we would get about 3 Ikea bags, one full of vests entirely, from one family. So I don't think we do too badly but it still feels overwhelming!

We have the 'damn coats' problem too. Our solution is most of the coats, scarves, gloves, etc live in a box in the boot of the car. We have a peg each for our nice coat, and for when the coats 'drift' back into the house.

Yes there is the argument to be had that surely we need to wear our coats on a cold/wet morning but there is a large umbrella by the door and the car is literally a 2 second walk. We just put coats on as we get out of the car (at our destination) rather than when we get into the car, as coats aren't comfortable or advisable in cars, especially for children in a carseat.

Now its really time you moved on to consider something else, as it sounds like there is a lot of decluttering to do. I recommend doing it on a room by room basis (or even smaller area if the clutter is overwhelming) It took me about 9 months to declutter our house the first time (it was really really bad) but now it just takes an afternoon once a month and we are back to order. However, we did discover whilst decluttering that we aren't the kind of people who can be completely minimalist. Especially in our kitchen and the bedrooms. The living room is our minimalist haven.

mini no space in DCs' room and definitely not in ours! We really do need more storage space. It's not a tiny house but I'm coming to realise it doesn't work for us, now we've thought about moving!

The house we are hoping to get also has no built in storage at all but at least has rooms that will have space for it e.g. chimney breast spaces. We have a couple of those but e.g. one has a short cupboard already built in, four of ours are under windows (and TBF do have cupboards/chests in the alcove but that's not a big space).

Some of our rooms are also a little small so if you put in a built in cupboard it would make the room feel really oppressive (light coloured paint already done etc. etc.)

"Your home is a living space, not a storage space."

I read this in a minimalist blog recently and it really stuck with me. I have found that getting rid of things gets easier and easier and you start to see that you don't actually 'need' a lot of stuff.

I am naturally very untidy but it's getting harder to be untidy as I've emptied our house!

I started by clearing out each room ( this is not Marie Kondo's way at all) being pretty ruthless. I was keeping quite a lot of stuff because of sentimentality. I've allowed myself to let go of this excess baggage.

Once you go through everything and see how much nicer your house looks you'll find it easier to clear out even more.

Toys are tricky because they don't belong to you and my children are very keen to hang on to most of them. I did go through all of the toys and throw away all the little fiddly bits that were never played with but that I was constantly picking up.

Why don't you sell all your coats and buy one that's better suited to your needs?

Honestly once you let go of your need for stuff it's quite liberating.