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.

Totally! The house feels so very different - cleaner, lighter and it sounds different too. Altogether brighter and happier, and so am I. My DH says he can see that things are different but he can't work out what's gone, and hasn't missed anything that he values so I think I got it right with his stuff.

My neighbours are getting on board as well and starting to declutter their own homes. Except for when they nab my cast-offs - one is having my merchant's chest which saves me trying to do anything else with it. I'm delighted about that. I reckon I've got one (maybe two) more estate car loads and one more council collection for bulky stuff and then I'm done, other than just my 5 a day.

Loft clearance is booked for the end of November

It’s great having a bulky collection. My council only allows a limited number a year.
Great that your dh can see the difference but not miss anything.

I was thinking about a cupboard in my kitchen that I haven’t opened in a year... I know i really ought to bin everything in there Especially as I can’t remember what’s in there- except maybe Microfibre cloths..

Easy peasy then. Open bin bag, open cupboard, sweep contents of cupboard into binbag. Tie up binbag. Clean cupboard. Stand back and be proud

😱
Now that sounds scary 😂

Tell you what then, have a huge slug of first! Or and then afterwards, you get your choice of treats

You have a way with words 😂

ALL GONE!! The Council men turned up and worked like Trojans chucking bag after bag into their truck. So fast. Mind you they did thank me for using decent bags. Apparently a lot of people use the really cheap ones that fall apart as they're being handled. I didn't point out that I buy decent ones because otherwise SuperDIL's nails go right through binbags

Congratulations!!!
Such good work x

Today I can phone the charity shop to collect two large dollshouses. One is a croft house which I built in the Arts & Crafts style and made all the furniture myself. God it took ages, and patience and I loved that house. The other is just - a dollshouse. They can both go - I don't even look at them these days and they deserve so much better.

The shop can collect the bookshelves too, and once that lot has gone the merchant's chest can go to my neighbour. I love a plan!

Excellent well done!
Ive sold an old camera and am ploughing on with the lego.
Still not got to a charity shop yet but have a pile I keep adding to...(can't donate at the weekend and I work during the week)

@FlipFlops4Me

Today I can phone the charity shop to collect two large dollshouses. One is a croft house which I built in the Arts & Crafts style and made all the furniture myself. God it took ages, and patience and I loved that house. The other is just - a dollshouse. They can both go - I don't even look at them these days and they deserve so much better.

The shop can collect the bookshelves too, and once that lot has gone the merchant's chest can go to my neighbour. I love a plan!

You made all the furniture too?? I love a dolls house. I’ve just got a baby born one made from card so I think I’ll let that go now seeing as you can get rid of one you made. That seems fair!

I made nearly everything over the years, and loved it. i bought a book of patterns of Arts & Crafts furniture and it was fantastically helpful. Modelling shops sell ultra thin wood and I bought tiny tools - jewellers screwdrivers, a 2" wood plane etc.

But it just sits there, gathering dust. Someone will love it I hope.

I love that you found a long lost carpet cleaner!
When I did a whole house Knodo about 5 years ago, I found this (slightly pretentious) quote that sums up clutter...

The truth is, if you don’t know where it is, can’t get to it because it’s buried somewhere, or have forgotten it altogether, it functionally doesn’t exist anymore. You’ve lost it. You lost it long ago. All you’re holding onto is a spacial and psychic burden

As you say, slightly pretentious but I really do like it anyway!

I have some stuff going with my neighbour to recycling on Friday, a bulky collection booked for next Thursday (bin bags) and a charity coming to collect the dollshouses and a bookshelf on the same day.

And that's everything except the loft - I can hardly believe it.

@FlipFlops4Me

I made nearly everything over the years, and loved it. i bought a book of patterns of Arts & Crafts furniture and it was fantastically helpful. Modelling shops sell ultra thin wood and I bought tiny tools - jewellers screwdrivers, a 2" wood plane etc.

But it just sits there, gathering dust. Someone will love it I hope.

That house is beautifully made! I love the chair.

@FlipFlops4Me

I made nearly everything over the years, and loved it. i bought a book of patterns of Arts & Crafts furniture and it was fantastically helpful. Modelling shops sell ultra thin wood and I bought tiny tools - jewellers screwdrivers, a 2" wood plane etc.

But it just sits there, gathering dust. Someone will love it I hope.

Someone will certainly love this. What a gift of joy.

Finally got rid of a mountain of books and dvds to the charity shop. Such a relief.

@InvincibleInvisibility

Finally got rid of a mountain of books and dvds to the charity shop. Such a relief.

Well done! Bet you feel lighter for that

My neighbour took another large estate car load to the recycling centre today and I have booked the Council to pick up another 10 bags next Thursday.

I'm hoping that next Friday will be end of it all bar the loft clearance (it's Friday that the merchant's chest goes to my neighbour).

It has been hard work - sweat dripping, muscle aching, occasionally heart tugging hard work - but oh, so very worthwhile!!

My own thread and it keeps falling off my list! 😫 I've had a lot of coming and going this month that I hadn't expected but I think next month will be more settled.

Some of you are doing so brilliantly! Flipflop your brilliance is especially noticeable!

How do you all do it with a youngish family who are not on board at all? Our communal areas are so cluttered! Toys, craft materials, paints, colouring pens. DH wants to keep them in communal areas for family time but tbh I end up leaving the room because it isn't restful! I'm thinking of discarding our alcoholic drinks from the cupboard - we rarely drink, they've been there years- and then there will at least be a space to store the craft materials etc.

I really like the Dana White stuff by the way thanks for the reminders about her. It's just hard at the minute because I need to get past the visibility clearing stage but the cupboards etc are still full.

Everything is harder when you feel like you need the money - but I really do at the minute. I used to just donate everything.

Right I've had a stern word with myself and started clearing stuff out in my bedroom. I have a drawer top of doom that always becomes a dumping ground for clothes etc. I've put 3 nice items on it - vase, picture in frame and candle but I think I need to have a strategic dumping ground too. It may mean having a box in the wardrobe for those nights when I just need to dump stuff and climb into bed, until habits of clearing stuff are better established.

@HereticFanjo - It's a start! Joshua Becker says that if you want to change things, you have to change things. Sounds so simplistic but he goes on to say that you can start changing your entire life by changing just one small thing (such as putting clothes in your box instead of just dumping them). When you do that without thinking, then it's time for another small change that you can stick to.

For the communal areas, what about decorating some cardboard boxes (let the kids help) - one for pens, one for colouring books etc so that tidy up time is quick and easy - just chuck all things in their boxes! They could really go to town on their boxes with the craft materials, and then they might be happy to use them?

When my lad was small I bought a big red dustbin and it lived in the sitting room and held all the downstairs toys. We used to have races to get all the stuff in before the kitchen timer went off. If we did - there was a prize (biscuit, apple or whatever).

I should add that DH didn't come into our lives until DS was 11 - we were a neat, fairly minimal household until DH moved in.... hadn't realised until then that he was a total, utter, absolute packrat with food hoarding tendencies.

Still - 22 years later I'm finally back to the fairly minimal home that is soothing and relaxing to both of us (and when DS pops round he visibly relaxes - home is back to being his childhood home).

That is a very good quote. If you want to change things you have to change things. That might stick in my head and make a difference.

Thank you for that quote x

It resonates on so many levels. I might put it on a sign because I've started thinking about a lot of changes that need made.

I think if you really want to become a minimalist then you need to change your mindset and try to get to the bottom of why you have hoarding tendencies.

For example me and a friend of mine both had a time in our lives where there was little financial stability and times were hard with a lot of insecurity. We both find it for this reason very difficult to throw or give away old clothes, because what if we one day get in the same situation again and we have nothing decent to wear?
There’s always an unconscious reason I think WHY we keep hanging on so much to stuff we don’t need.