Hello all. Late last year, especially after watching some Youtube videos (especially The Minimal Mom and Simply This Life) and after watching Minimalist documentary on Netflix i finally resolved to make some major changes and start on a minimalism journey. I realized after all these years, the main reason why keeping home tidy was so hard and stressful for me was that , like so many , we had wayy too much stuff in the house. It was so hard to manage. Also, i've always been interested in sustainability in general and all the excess/overconsumption in our culture today was really getting to me. Plus, i realized with my kids now teens i only had a few years left with them at home and I want to maximize the time i have with them...I don't want all that time to be me constantly stressed out.
progress so far
- October, November
- listed/sold various things on Poshmark (clothing, accessories)
- cleaned up/redid my teen son's room - sold his old nursery furniture on FB marketplace , set up new elfa system ( reused what we already had for a lot of it)
- December-
-paid teen son to pressure wash/clean the back patio (i had to show him how to use it, it was kind of fun)
- sold many of the designer bags/accessories i wasn't using much to local designer bag resale shop (made about $4000)
- decluttered pantry and kitchen of unused/duplicate kitchen accessories
- January
- We got back Tuesday after midnight from holiday travel. I took this week off of work mainly to declutter the game room upstairs, since that had been a disaster for months. Also to finish decluttering since i know once i go back to work next week i will have far less time.
this week's progress so far.
- Sold ds's old wooden train storage racks on FB marketplace ($50) - we got a good ten years use out of them!
- worked with DS to completely clean/ detail inside of DH's honda ody (was bought new in April and had never been cleaned, filled one trash bag worth of stuff)
- donated a bunch of unused Tupperware and misc kitchen stuff on local buy nothing group
- decluttered game room upstairs with kids (halfway done, will finish today) - filled 3 large trash bags of trash so far
- dropped off 3 boxes of unused kids books, magazines to Half Price bookstore
- dropped off one trunk load of stuff at goodwill
What was shocking to me was that ALREADY, with my kitchen decluttered my kids (my TEENAGERS) were ACTUALLY DOING CHORES. WiLLINGLY. Without me even having to ask!! Y'all don't understand...my kids have almost no chores.. DH doesn't believe kids should be forced to do them. So I always felt keeping house tidy was always a losing battle for me.I would have to nag kids to pick up and it was never fun. They never wanted to clean up. Though this past few days after me offering incentive to pay them ($100) to help me declutter the upstairs they totally helped get the going. It went far easier when you have 3 people decluttering a space than just one! The other day i was making lunch (pasta) and my DD went and set the table! (We never set the table in our family) and DS made the pasta on the stove. The kids eagerly helped me drop off donations.
I think they are starting to see the benefit of getting decluttering/having less stuff . They also are probably seeing that with decluttered/organized home, mama is a much happier and nicer person to be around - LOL!