Becoming a minimalist

[Studentnursesos12e]

I’ve come to realise how much random stuff I have, and it’s truly ridiculous.

I’m a student nurse, and at the end of every term I do a massive clean/tidy (in progress). Out of the stuff I have I use less than 10%. I have a lot of meaningless useless cr*p.

I’ve started a pile of stuff to go on the free items fb page, a pile for the charity shop, I’ve taken a ridiculous amount of rubbish out and have more to go.

In the new year when I come back I will do a full laundry and then donate a lot of clothes and linen to the charity shop.

Aside from this how do I go about becoming a minimalist? 😂 any tips. I’m hoping to phase into it. The thing is despite all the pointless cr*p I have there is some things I need but don’t have.

Aside from food, in January I’m having a purchase ban and will try use perfume, skincare, haircare products up. I have so so much that I’ll last at least January. After this I want to have a few, high quality products which I fully use.

Ta x

I think the key is to learning the difference between what you need and what you want. Also, using shopping as a form of entered or comfort is a losing battle. You will only continue to bring useless tat into your home.

It's a bit like bailing a boat out. Bailing helps, that's why we have the bucket.
If you dont plug the hole though, you'll spend your whole life bailing!

Think about why you kept/bought/accepted something in the first place, change that thinking, and you'll be able to just enjoy what you have.

I think one of the key things is reducing the amount of new stuff you get.

I read Marie Kondo’s book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying a few years ago, and while my home still has a long way to go before it’s the way I want it, it’s a book that really helped change my attitude to acquiring stuff.

I’ve moved much more towards a mindful attitude to acquiring stuff - so the aim is to only buy stuff that I actively need / want, and have carefully thought about exactly what I want in advance e.g. not going shopping for “new clothes” and buying a load of stuff that looks nice, but thinking “I need a new pair of jeans because the old ones are worn out” or “I need a new smart top that goes with this skirt for this event” and then only getting that.

I am a minimalist though do have more stuff than Marie Kondo would approve of.
I don’t have a sentimental connection to any things really so just throw everything out and never buy “things”.

I used to repeat buy because I couldn't find the original ( and subsequent) items ... so for me a good tidy and "a place for everything and everything thing in its place " helped minimise enormously. However I strongly believe that true minimal only lasts as long as the photoshoot. No one actually lives like that IRL

Have you watched The Minimalists documentary on Netflix? It's well worth a watch and the guys who are 'The Minimalists' do a podcast too which is really insightful.

I think it takes a long time to adjust your mindset!

Just place marking for tips. I don't aspire to full minimalism but I want to stop clutter building up in my house. Over the last month, I've had a pre-Christmas de-clutter and I feel much better for it, but because I have hoarder parents, I suffer from 'clutter blindness' and I often find it difficult to recognise clutter as I simply don't see it - my brain filters it out.

I really struggle with “place for everything”. My parents are/were so good at this! The gene bypassed me completely. I see or stay with mum twice a week after dad died and I feel like I just arrive as a pile of chaos.

I can’t accumulate much as I live in a small flat. But I find I wander around with stuff...I know it’s mad but so then all books end up everywhere, stuff like hand cream follows me round. It’s partly having no set routine. I don’t want a routine but I need more....order.

I had a massive clear out when I moved. It felt great!

As others have said, it is knowing the difference between what you want and what you need.

I'm also completely unsentimental about stuff. The children each have a plastic tub where they can keep treasured drawings, etc, but everything else just gets binned!!!

It really is just generally less of everything.

Having what you need at home, and not any more.

ie bedding, in our house I 'need' one lot of bedding on the bed, and one clean as a spare. So I wouldn't have more than 2 sets of bedding per bed.

Think the key aspect is identifying that wanting is suffering; don’t want. Let go of material possessions and live for life’s needs; you need a modular wardrobe for work, you need warmth, you need a roof over your head, you need a travel pass, you need nourishment from natural food, you need friendship or companionship, you need a few simple well-chosen decorations, you need to pay your bills etc. Anything you identify as a want is a trigger for more suffering; let go. Bin, donate, pass stuff on until you’re living your life surrounded only by the things that bring happiness and fulfillment (joy.) Harder said than done but worth a try. anything that’s not been used in a year can go. Anything that is added into the house can be subtracted from something else leaving. Start by removing 10 items a perhaps day?!

I think you're on the right track OP. I binned all the tiny bottles of potions that were filling up our bathroom cupboards and treated myself to one tub of a body cream I know I like. Love it. Have nearly finished it so will buy another soon. Picture the space you free up and see that as a positive thing - your home is better with that extra clear space than it was before. Space is a finite commodity. Use it wisely.

I admire the PP going down to a single fork etc. I'm a rubbish minimalist, I'll never get anywhere near that. With the family to feed, washing up 4 sets of cutlery 3 times a day would seems more "time cluttering" to me than having enough cutlery for the whole day, and using the dishwasher. However I do like having things that stack neatly, and lots of space (ie not to much stuff) in cupboards so you never have to play saucepan Tetris.

Reading the Marie Kondo book is worthwhile, even if you don't follow it to the letter. I also like following Japanese home tours etc on YouTube for inspiration.

I found changing my attitude to what I owned really helped.

Marie Kindo is good there's a Netflix series with her in it which I found very inspirational. She's very good about working out storage which I found really helps, she's all about being able to see everything so one you get joy from seeing what you have and two everything is easy to find. She's also not about maximizing storage as that just leads.to getting more stuff. I found I had to keep decluttering because I wasn't tough enough the first time and also I started to realise how little I needed as I cut down..

I have one bowl, one fork, one mug

What do you do when guests come round?