A Shocking Thing Happened on My Way to Minimalism

So here I am, back in my minimalist's row house but, a shocking thing happened on my way to minimalism.... Apparently, while in the huge flip house we accumulated more stuff! I am shocked at just how much stuff! Much of it is attributed to remodeling left overs and stuff left there by our son and his crew who lived there while they remodeled. I knew it was there and we cleared out a lot but, my mistake was not clearing out enough on a weekly basis. I was so busy keeping the house looking showroom perfect, that I neglected to keep up my minimalist habits! 

Now that I'm unpacking, I'm thinking.... what was I thinking? Why do I have this much stuff? Believe me, it's not because I buy it! My sister loves to send my serving dishes for Christmas for some reason, enough that I could start a catering business! My mother in law likes to send my husband food home with him when he stops in to visit. So, those dishes and Tupperware pile up. We have all of these odd mismatched glasses... remember the gas station glasses? We inherited some of those and remember the Flintstones jelly jars people reused as juice glasses? Well, at least I didn't have any of those!

Luckily, unpacking is a great time to recognize what hasn't been used in the past year and all of those empty boxes make it easy to cart things off to charity too. So with: trash, donate, relocate, and sell boxes at the ready, we unpacked our kitchen last night and purged a good fourth of it!

Our kitchen was second only to the garage mess in sheer bulk that we had to move. Of course, the row house kitchen is about a fourth the size of the flip house kitchen. I guess we really spread out there!

So, it's back to my good habits which are: going through drawers and closets on a regular basis, keeping a box handy for items to go to charity, and going through one kitchen cupboard and one refrigerator shelf a week. If I had done more of this the six months before I moved, it would have been much easier on us!

Thankful to be a minimalist!

I apologize for neglecting this blog but it seems everything has changed rather quickly. In the past month here is how our lives have changed:

1. The substitute teaching job I described in an earlier post turned into a long term position until the end of the school year, (the third week in June.) More on that later in another post.

2. After months of the doldrums, our remodeling company has landed quite a few bids thus, my husband and son have been working their tails off for the last two weeks! Of course, the business picked up right after...

3. my husband took a job as a crisis intervention counselor.

4. We found a renter for our house that isn't selling and decided to move back to our minimalist town house next weekend.

No wonder I'm so tired. And yes I am blogging at 3:00 in the morning....

All of these changes are positive financial changes. However, they all require energy, and the hardest on the list is the move. Luckily, my little family all believes in minimalism. How else could we play musical houses when we need to? Our son will move from the townhouse to another house we own, the renters will move into the flip house and we will move to the townhouse. Here's the plan:

Will I have a garage sale before I move? No.

Will we be donating stuff before we move? You bet ya!

And although I don't really have that much stuff to get rid of, there are always things that no longer serve us. There is no point in saving this stuff because you might need it one day and you don't want to buy it again because most likely, that day will never come. So tomorrow I'll start packing and purging.

I have learned to move anything I cherish in my own car myself i.e. fancy dishes, technology stuff, art supplies, basically, breakable stuff. I have made a list of where I want everything put in the townhouse and will label each piece of furniture and box. My son and crew will likely move us while we are at work, so this is a must! Moving is no easy task no mater how organized we are, so wish me luck! Did I mention we just moved here in September?

Moving in the Future? Start packing now!

Knowing that moving again is in my near future, either because we get this house sold or rent it out, I find myself thinking about what to do to make the move easier. I know the worst thing to do is to jumble things together in hopes of sorting it all out on the other end. I also know that anything that isn't in a container is difficult to move. So, I've decided to tackle packing way in advance by getting things into containers as much as possible and planning which containers to use where. 

1. Clothes: I already got rid of our dressers in exchange for plastic drawers that are stored in our closets. These are so great when moving because they're already packed. I'll need some tall moving boxes for hanging clothes and shoes.  (This is probably a good time to pare down my shoe collection.)

2. Cosmetics and toiletries: I haven't gone through this stuff in at least six months. I'll need to do that, and then locate some large zip lock bags to pack it all in. Then it can all go in my suitcase.

3. Office supplies: I think I'll use the zip lock method here as well.

4. Filing: I am unusually behind in this department. This will be my largest task. I need more folders. I hate too keep buying file boxes. I think I'll rubber band and pack up old files in a plastic storage box and set up new ones. It's the loose papers that need to dealt with.

5. Kitchen: This is the worst stuff to pack because it is so breakable. I think this time since I'm moving such a short distance, I'll just take it in my car. Wine boxes with inserts in them are helpful too. I'll ask my local pub owner.

6. Garage: This is by far the worst area to pack. Ours is filled with our construction company's tools. I've decided to leave this to the guys!

Wow! I feel better already. Now that I have a plan, I can tackle one area at a time and then when it''s time to move, I'll be ready to go.

Keep it Simple!

The current economic conditions have created the need for me to substitute teach, but I am actually having a great time! I keep getting long term situations where I really get to know the kids and really get to experience real teaching. I just spent the last week in second grade and the kids were just so sweet! I did however, walk into quite an organizational mess, which I of course, took upon myself to sort out.

There had been another substitute for the previous two weeks.  The desk and teaching table were piled high with junk mail, notes from parents, corrected papers, uncorrected papers, and long  notes from the previous sub and the teacher in no specific order.  I spent most of the first morning sorting all of this out, I got some folders from another teacher and just put like items together - a basic organizing strategy. 

There was no way to decipher from the previous substitute's notes where the kids had left off and there were no lesson plans as the regular teacher was really sick, so I simply asked the other two teachers on the team where to go next and we were off. After school, I corrected the six inch tall pile of homework left by the previous sub and filed them in the kids' take home folders. 

I was there for a week. When I left, I pulled out all of the teachers editions and put post its where the returning teacher would likely continue, I left a one paragraph note and a grid that showed exactly what we did, when. So now, all of her systems were back in place. She could just walk in and teach without reading a long note from me or looking for things.

That's keeping things simple. It's not hard. Folders are a great way to organize a messy desk. You don't have to decide what to do with everything, but at least then you can find something if you need it.  And, short concise communication is always best in any business.  It's difficult to get important facts from a long narrative. A chart or list is always easier for the reader. 

So be a filer, not a piler and keep it simple!

When Minimalism is Really Needed!

We are now trying once again, to sell our flip house that didn't sell last summer. The difference this time is we have moved into it. So, now it is staged with our furniture. Our realtor told us that at our open house people kept saying, "Oh wow, this house has been staged," and he kept telling them, no the owners live here, this is how they live. That is what a life without clutter can do.

I have a zero tollerance for clutter. Instead of decorating with items, I try to see the beauty in a shiny stainless steel fridge or the colors I choose to paint the walls. I chose my lamps as art pieces instead of choosing plain lamps and adding nick-knacks on the tables underneath. Small everyday items can clutter a room too. A decoative box for example, is a great way to hide all of the remotes, reading glasses, etc. that get left out. Another trick is to thread a surge protector through the back of a secertary type desk. Then you can charge your cell phones, cameras, etc. out of site yet, still right at hand.

At any rate, I am happy that my minimalist philosophy is working. Now if we can just sell this house!
Here are some pictures:

It's a New Year! What will you throw away?

So we've had time to adjust to a new year. We now remember to write 2009 on our checks and are looking toward spring. What changes will you make? What will you let go of to make room in your life for new things, thoughts, ideas, people?

An easy way to start is to unburden yourself of things you no longer need. That can be as big an idea as cleaning out a storage space or garage or simply cleaning out your purse or the glove compartment of your car. Space in itself is a gift you can give yourself no matter how small a space you live in. You could actually live in a huge house but have a cluttered night stand or bathroom sink that makes your life a hassle everyday! Clear those spaces and feel the joy of a place to set a cup of tea or a book you're reading, or a candle.

If you need an emotional clean out, try going through your boxes of pictures. You don't have to save every picture of everyone you've ever known. You may find pictures of people you no longer associate with. Why do you need their picture? You were there anyway. Who needs the picture?

Isn't it time to stop beating up on yourself about your weight? Often, once we accept who we are a healthier self will follow. How about your age? Perhaps throwing out clothing that you probably won't fit into again and may be too youngish a style, ( belly shirts,) are something you should let go of. Give yourself a break! Buy something that looks great on you that you can wear today.

Then there's your health. How about a good look into your freezer. Throw out the mystery food and eat something fresh. You deserve it!

Now let go of your limitations! Enter your painting in an art show, go dancing, join a book group, sing Karaoke, whatever! Add something valuable to your life. You won't regret it.

Minimalist Mom

I was thinking back to when I was a young mom and how I was such a minimalist even then. I refused to carry a diaper bag, just a big purse. I had a car seat that doubled as a baby seat. As for a stroller, I had a lightweight umbrella stroller that I could fold up and dangle from my arm. That's how I rolled, unlike today's moms with their expensive strollers hauling tons of baby items. Here's a cute one from Target.