Any (aspiring) minimalists about?

[HereticFanjo]

I am a natural clutterbug but aspiring minimalist! I'm about to have a couple of months off work between jobs and with no holidays planned this feels like the time to really go for it on the minimalism front! My income will be dropping substantially so I may need to sell some stuff rather than just donate.

How did you get there if you made the leap to minimalism? I find books and household stuff especially difficult to part with.

@freezerdinners - you could try saying to yourself that if one new wotsit comes in, 3 (or 4, or 5) old wotsits must go. Now wotsits can be anything! A new mug comes in, out go some old towels, sheets, cracked or broken ornaments - they're all wotsits in our house.

I've been on this a few years and still haven't finished but... I find life is far more relaxed and happy with less stuff. That's a reward I wasn't expecting, and it spurs me on to keep going. Also, I've been able to 'do' rooms once, live with that a year or so, and do it again. So I get less and less 'stuff' all the time. Love it.

I would love to try this too. For me it's the sentimental stuff that I find hard to deal with. So the handbag I bought in Thailand from my honeymoon 20 years ago.. I never wear it and it's got so dusty sitting at the bottom of a cupboard. I felt so good organising and decluttering one drawer of my son's clothes yesterday. I went to do a 2nd drawer and gave up so I will tackle one drawer a day when I have spare time (but also I want spare time to do other things too but priorities I guess!)

Its best to leave sentimental stuff til the end, where you've already built up your minimising muscle.

I found my clothes and the DC clothes easy. Also going through the kitchen and being realistic that I don't need so many saucepans when I only have 3 hobs. Mugs and glasses were easy too - theres a limit to how many you need.

Stationery was easy too (had so many pens that either didnt work or I hated writing with - why keep them?)

Books were harder but im working through them

So, this minimilising muscle that people talk about - how do I build it up?

I have got rid of some low hanging fruit, but am now stuck on more stubborn boxes of stuff. Basically confusing things that I can't work out whether i need them, how they should be organised, and if I get rid of them, where would take them (or whether to just bin 'em)

Is it more skills i need? Or more rewards?...

@MMMarmite I like Dana K White for that sort of thing. She's a self described slob and struggled to let go of things so she has 2 simple rules;

Where would I look for this if I needed it? And if I don't know where I would look for it do I really need to keep it?

I listen to her podcast while I do other things to sort of hypnotise myself into decluttering.

From the Minimal Mom I figured out how I like to store things and then bought baskets and labelled them, I've gone labelling mad!

My family are resistant but the house is much tidier and when someone came over unexpectedly just a quick tidy and bathroom wipe over and I was done.

I only had to hide a couple of unused containers in my wardrobe rather than just chucking everything in there to hide the clutter.

This cupboard isn't completely done but it's so much better than it was and the baskets fitting so nicely gave me a little visceral shudder of pleasure.

The baskets are now labelled too!

Thanks @CornedBeef451!

The muscle is built by getting rid of stuff and learning what you actually NEED. Kitchen is a good place for this - nothing sentimental.

Check out joshua becker videos on youtube. Very short and to the point.

I am totally cream-crackered. My fantastic dil came round for the morning and together with sorted out 12 of the humungous bin bags full of stuff to go. Three sets of drawers are ready to go (popped outside with "Free - help yourself" signs stuck to them).

The room looks soooo much bigger. Now all I have to do is clean it from top to bottom, and carry on chucking stuff out as I go.

All the bags are stuffed in the spare room waiting for a recycling run, and the landing is a bit of nightmare but I'll sort that out tomorrow. I am so chuffed and so grateful for dil's help.

She's coming back next weekend so we can do DH's computer/junk room.

I can almost feel the house sighing with relief at the clutter leaving it. I've lived in this house 36 years now and in many ways it is alive to me, and I know it feels better for the efforts being made.

It certainly feels happier to walk into, and coming downstairs into the sitting room is a pleasure. So is going into the kitchen or bathroom. Now our bedroom joins the rollcall of happy rooms!

^^ inspiring

@FlipFlops4Me

Thats fantastic well done! So nice to read this. You must feel a lot light and like youve renewed your house. How is your DH?

@InvincibleInvisibility - He can see things on surfaces now, provided I tell him which surface to look on ie. the biscuit tin, the kettle and the toaster are each the only object on their kitchen surface and now he can go to them and use them. This is huge for him - he can make coffee and get a biccie for himself instead of having to ask.

Just turfed out the linen chest - a binbag full of bedding and towels all ready to recycle. And two more bags of books (culled from the bookshelves by the linen chest).

I am totally loving this!!

I know the feeling - its addictive.

Great that you've given him the priceless gift of a bit of independence

DH is afraid I'm going to finish by decluttering him. He found an old towel in his martial arts sports bag that hasn't been used in 3 years. I said that he could use his other sport towel and we could get rid of the newfound one seeing as it was forgotten for years...he's now tidied it in a cupboard out of my reach

Heh - I agre - definitely addictive and the house just looks better and better. Laugh at your DH and his towel! Tell him to tidy all his precioussss things, before they accidentally leave home

The pace @FlipFlops4Me is incredible.

I know, but I have a very good reason. My DH needs clear surfaces, and drawers and cupboards with as few items as possible in them. That way he can see individual things and find them. It's a really good motivator and I've been a wannabe minimalist for years!

I want my DH to be able to be as independent as possible - get his own clothes out, rather than have me do it - things like that.

I tackled our mountain of soft toys the other day. DS2 chose those he wanted to keep. Out of the ones left DS1 picked a few to save. The rest I put to one side to get rid of. The next day I discover that DH has rescued 3 of his old soft toys! Toys that have no name, he has no idea when/where he got them and if MIL hadn't kept them he would have no memory of them. But he still wants to keep them

We both have a couple of soft toys close to our hearts and that's ok. But keeping random ones is a bit much.

Problem is that MIL keeps everything. Every time we visit we come back with more of DH'S old toys which are mostly in brilliant condition and good quality grrrr. However I have managed to throw out dozens of broken old toys. DS2 asks to go to MIL "so we can look in the cellar for toys"

@InvincibleInvisibility - oh god - my MIL has stacks of my DS's toys. Thank goodness he has a place of his own now so that when she hands them over they'll not be in our house!

There is soooo much stuff in her house. And one day it'll all need to be sorted out. My heart quails!

Snap! She has bookcases and piles of books on the floor. Hundreds of ornaments. Plates and pictures all over the walls. Even a grandgather clock. Loads of little shelves with little ornaments on them...and tonnes of big heavy wooden furniture.

DH has gently tried to get her to sort through some stuff which is why they started emptying the cellars. I say cellars cos she has fillednher cellar and her neighbour's cellar with STUFF.

Nightmare. She holds onto everything. So does DH but he doesn't buy a lot so its not so bad.

@FlipFlops4Me

I know, but I have a very good reason. My DH needs clear surfaces, and drawers and cupboards with as few items as possible in them. That way he can see individual things and find them. It's a really good motivator and I've been a wannabe minimalist for years!

I want my DH to be able to be as independent as possible - get his own clothes out, rather than have me do it - things like that.

A brilliant aim And you’ve achieved wonders

Just reading through this brilliant thread!

@FlipFlops4Me I hope your husband is improving. Inspiring stuff going on in your house!

My DH is away with work next week so I am taking the week off to do a big decluttering push.

I am self employed and now wfh permanently as the old studio complex I used to be in was closed down just before Covid hit. (it's been redeveloped as "luxury flats" of course). So I've ended up with stock and equipment in the house plus all the time my kids were home schooled plus DH wfh for all of 2020.

Everything got very crowded and disorganised last year and I am on a mission to sort it out by the end of this year.

My DD's are now teens and have different needs from their rooms. DD2 though isn't ready to let go of things like her barbies and sylvanian families (she has anxiety) so I have cleared a space in the loft to store all this.

I want a calm environment where everything has it's place and it's easy to tidy and to find things. I don't have a lot of storage space and most rooms have awkward windows/radiators/very few sockets so I am trying to work round this.

I understand about your DD - there are things I'm having to keep because they mean a lot to my DH and although he doesn't know why they mean a lot he wants to keep them. I'm putting them in a couple of those flat Really Useful boxes under his side of the bed.

My side of the bed is empty, and I know that during the coming week as I clean our bedroom I'll find more of my inventory that can go, and a bunch of "our" things that have no real meaning and which my fingers twitch to chuck in bin bags.

I refuse to own so many things that I have to organise them! If I can't see the bottom of the drawer there's too much in it, and something can go....