Minimalist Mamas take de-cluttering to the extreme! Chat about projects in progress, emotional detachment to stuff, our accomplishments and set-backs, helping people understand our lifestyle etc.
Welcome!
Welcome!
Originally Posted by mambera
I'm a minimalist from a family of (mostly) minimalists, but my husband and his family are all maximalists. Our house is what you might expect as the result
I am having an especially hard time figuring out how to handle all the giftiness. In my family we used to make deals on gifty holidays: I won't buy you anything if you don't buy me anything! Or we'd give flowers or food or tickets or something else that wouldn't hang around collecting dust.
DH's family give gifts all the time for no reason - almost always stuff I don't want and wouldn't choose for myself. I feel bad because I don't reciprocate (I WOH and do not have the time or energy to spend shopping for random gifts to give my ILs - not to mention I hate shopping) and at the same time I have a really hard time managing the influx of Stuff. I don't feel I can possibly ask them not to give us gifts any more than I have already without being rude.
My DH has come over to my way of thinking a little bit over time, but he still is one of those people who just really loves a Deal, and will buy three or four of an item if it's a good deal, even if he really only needs one. When I decide to buy something it is because I have thought about it a lot, I really need it, I have found exactly the thing I want, and at that point the cost is not a major factor. (This is another reason the gift thing is so irksome to me - because the need to store and manage all this stuff I don't want actually prevents me from buying the few things I do want, because I would have no place to put them. People who give me gifts I don't want or need are depriving me of things I do want/need! But I can't tell them that!)
Isn't there a whole Decluttering forum somewhere around here? Under the Mindful Home I think? I don't really go there much but I would think you might get more traffic there than here.
Awesome!Originally Posted by LVNTEXAS
So what have been the benefits of your minimal adventures so far?
1. More time with DS, less time cleaning.
2. I lost 15lbs already from eating healthier- time to focus on my health more. I also have been doing yoga for 2 weeks straight and doing more physical activity in general.
3. Refocused on my career and my Masters degree.
4. More money in the bank, less debt.
5. No more panic when someone rings the doorbell.