Minimalism has become a popular way of living. It is essentially, limiting the amount of items you have and finding the best use and value in those items.
I came across a blog post last week from Shop My Closet Project about challenging yourself to create new habits. I love to challenge myself and haven’t taken on any new challenges recently so I began to ponder what I could do. It didn’t take long before I decided that I was going to weed through all of my items, get rid of the non-essentials, and try to live a more minimalist life.
Why Minimalism?
Living in a 900 sq. ft. trailer and having two daughters who have a gigantic toy selection I often find myself tripping over toys. Aside from that frustration the girls simply don’t play with many of the toys. They just sit around taking up space and making the house look cluttered.
Toys aren’t the only problem we also have an influx of clothing. A lot of it is too small, some has stains or holes, and some of it I just plain old don’t like. The clothing has pretty much consumed my bedroom. My girls are constantly pulling stuff out of drawers and trying it on and the end result is a pile of wrinkly clothes being thrown on my bed.
It’s all simply too much to keep up with on a daily basis.
Weeding Out the Unwanted
Every day this month I am going to pick an area of my house to go through and evaluate every item. I don’t hold much sentimental value to material possessions so I can foresee myself getting rid of a lot. I will sell any larger ticket items on the Facebook Yard Sale, (I might even do bundles, with clothes, shoes, or any other similar items) and hope for a quick sale.
Any broken toys, toys that have missing parts, holey clothes, or anything else that I consider to be junk will be pitched. Any items that don’t sell quickly will be donated or pitch.
I just want to be rid of it.
Adopting the Habit
Getting rid of items is only half the battle. The other half is not bringing unnecessary items back in the house. While I try to combat clutter as much as I can now, it sometimes isn’t possible while trying to entertain to young girls.
This will be an ongoing challenge and I hope that within the next few months I can really get a grasp on this and make it an automatic part of my life. Living a more minimalist life is great for the mind – no clutter, clear thoughts, and increased productivity. It is also great on the pocket book. Adopting the minimalist habit challenges you to evaluate your purchases and live a more simple life.
Keeping up with kids clothes is really hard. I reccomend Space Bags, those plastic bags that hook up to the vaccumn. They will shrink little clothes down to nothing ! As for toys, the best thing I ever did was to get 3 toy bins. Divide the toys you are keeping between bins. Each week they get to play with ONE bin. Bin # 1 goes back to the closet before Bin #2 can come out. The toys seem to keep their attention much longer when they haven’t seen them for awhile. 😉 ~ Christie
That’s a really good idea. I am sure that they would be much more interested in toys if they don’t see them daily. And it would definitely help keep the mess under control.
Whoa ! I just noticed that you are reallly close to your $5,000 fund. Congrats.
Thank You! 🙂
We’re not minimalists, though I wonder if we should be. Having three little ones means the stuff just grows exponentially around the house. We’re actually going to be cleaning out a bunch of it once the weather starts to warm up and sell a lot of it or give it away.
Yes I know the feeling. I have two little ones running around so I am constantly picking things up. This is why I want to get rid of everything that is not played with on a frequent basis, missing parts etc.
I’m no where near a minimalist. It is something that I’m working on though!
To a certain extent we are yes. We don’t keep buying items unless we need to. Our closet is not overflowing and we donate clothes we no longer fit in our that suit us which is not often. We will wear our clothes until we have no use for them. Everything in our house pretty much has a place and the wife can’t stand things out of place. Less is more, it’s true and it’s less cleaning. We don’t need near as much as we all think we do. My home in the UK was small and I made use of storage where I could but I simply led a minimalist life and survived it. 🙂
My goal is to evaluate my purchase a little better. I need to stop buying stuff unless I really need it, not just because it’s a good deal, or cute, etc.
I wouldn’t call myself a minimalist, but we live in a condo and I have a low tolerance for clutter. I always have a bag in my closet of stuff to donate. When the bag is full, I drop it off. I also have a bag in the girls’ room for hand me down clothes – if it’s too small, it goes to my friend who has 2 girls younger than mine. On the weekends I don’t have the girls, I take a large garbage bag & declutter. Usually I can fill the bag – in go the happy meal toys, pieces of toys, broken stuff, junk from the birthday party goodie bags, etc. It’s just amazing how much “stuff” I can find & get rid of. The girls never really notice. It feels SO empowering to throw out a bag of junk!
Thats how I am. It’s amazing how often I can fill a bag full of junk. It’s like McDonald toys pop up out of nowhere lol. And they never notice that any of its gone. I just don’t know where it all comes from!
I used to have way, way too much stuff, but I’ve begun to purge and simplify over the past few years. I think your plan to weed out is a great one–you’ll feel so much better without all those things weighing you down!
We are and we are not minimalists. We try very hard to make sure everything we buy is something we need and truly want. And my husband is not a fan of clutter, so we don’t have a lot of stuff. 🙂 At the beginning of the school year, the girls went through their closets and we removed everything that didn’t fit, was too worn or never worn. The didn’t fit and too worn clothes weren’t an issue, but we did talk about the clothes they never wore and why — without pointing fingers but to help them understand the money we used to buy those clothes could have gone for other things. I think it was eye-opening for them. Being surrounded by the things you love, rather than stuff, is a great way to live.
We were minimalists…then we grew older and had a child. Actually it was not moving every 3-4 years that changed us the most. When you stay put your stuff multiplies, or so it seems.
There is no way I could consider us minimalists, but I do try to keep up with getting rid of old clothes and toys. If new stuff comes in, old stuff had to go out.
Every few months I get the minimalist bug inside me. This usually leads to me cleaning up my closet, the tools downstairs, the garage, etc. Its a really good feeling, and refreshing for whatever reason. Good idea trying to sell some it on Facebook. I’m always surprised at what I can fetch for old stuff when I post it on Craigslist.
Thank you so much for the mention! The spring cleaning bug has officially arrived and I am trying to decide what I should get rid of. Books are really difficult for me to get rid of. Right now I live in a 495 sqf. condo. I love it, but a little bit of stuff goes a long way. I love the fresh energy that sweeps through the home after a good deep clean. I lean towards being a minimalist…except when dealing with fashion related purchases 🙂 Congrats on rocking your er fund!