A Simpler Life 2018

dND

Mrs_Salad_Dodger wrote: »

:eek: dND, it took us 8 years to sell:eek: but now the papers are signed (2 hours in the notaire’s office ) I am sending selling vibes your way - you will sell up, you will find a buyer, this will happen in 2018 :)MrsSD

Thank you. :heartsmil

8 years makes my 3 look very small . Where in the UK are you heading and do you know about the FB group for people wanting to return to the UK - lots of helpful people there and lots of information?

I hope your wrist has recovered from initialling all those sheets of paper :rotfl::rotfl:

lessonlearned

Good morning everyone.

I've been awol and just been having a catch up.

Emiai. I just wanted to say want a fantastic post. I loved it.

I can relate to your Matalan Moment. I was once in one of the ASDA Walmart hyper stores. It was heaving. That's when I had my Road to Damascus Moment. All I could see was a sea of miserable faces, over stressed people grabbing, pushing and shoving. Someone rammed me with their trolly and really hurt me (no apology). There were angry parents yelling at their crying children, the noise was deafening, it was like a war zone. I started to panic a bit, shaking and sweating and felt dizzy. Like you I turned tail and fled.

We also have one of those malls, I hate it. I rarely go and never at weekends. Both the superstore and the mall seem to encapsulate all that is wrong with overconsumption and capitalism run amok. Black Friday and the greed it seems to unleash makes me despair.

Anyway glad you had your happy ending and found your happy medium.

We don't have to become extreme minimalists or live like Buddhist monks (unless of course we want to) but it's such a joy to be able to walk away from the all the madness and find our own particular sweet spot.

I am getting there. I am very happy where I am right now. I am almost 4 years into widowhood. It's been a hard journey but after having another big clear out I do feel much happier, freer and more positive about my future as a singleton.

I have started a part time college course.....just for fun ...and I have put my house on the market. I think it was the purge and the clear out that has made this possible. It gave me a fresh perspective and a real energy boost.

Happy simplifying everyone.

RicardaRacoon

Hello everyone

Went swimming this morning and renewed my subscription so there is really no excuse now to not go once a week or so. When I came home and hung my swimm suit I found that it is starting to get very thin around the edges... Well, I had it for about six or seven years and used it quite often, so it is ok, but I still hate to have to shop around for a new one now... I actually hoped it would last for a while so that I could lose some more weight and have less trouble finding one... Well, I did ordered one now and hope it will fit...
On another clothes-related note I was thinking long and hard about keeping something just because it was handmade and I worked on it for ages... I knitted myself a summer top last year and it was a mess right from the start. I intended to wear it with a skirt but made it too long, so it looked strange and I wore it with trousers instead. Also, it wasn't as tight around the hips as it should have been and there was also an issue with the neckline. Plus I never really liked the yarn, not when working on it and not when wearing.... So yesterday I wore it for the first time this spring. I have lost almost a stone since January and apparently mostly around my hip :-) So it is now waaays to wide. I thought about ways to make it wearable for a few weeks more, but then decided that I don't really want to put any more work into it and so it will have to go...
I'm pretty proud about my decision to donate something that has taken me so long to knit...

dND good luck with selling the house!

Kacie welcome! It is funny really that when you tidy and declutter things have a tendency to get worst at the beginning... I decluttered my office lately, spent an evening going through everythign and then another one just tidying after myself.... DOn't let the mess put you down!

lessonlearned great that simplifying your life gave you enough time and capacity for your course! I agree with you, we all have to find the right way of minimalism and simplicity and what works for someone might not work for someone else.

I'll spend the afternoon reading and planning my upcoming holiday. It is still seven weeks till then, but I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed with all the possiblities... We're going to Wales with the campervan, so there is so much to see and do and we somehow have to narrow it down to "places we want to see" and "places we could go to when there is time/we're near there anyway" So if anyone has tips for things to do and see in Wales; pass them on!
My sister has created a map online and we are currently at the "dumping stage" where we just add everything we might want to see and then we'll have to sit down for an afternoon and sort it and find campgrounds near the things we want to see.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone!

kacie

Not so much getting rid today, but I have been cooking to make lunches simpler this week. In between the cooking I've planted lettuce seeds and have done a little decluttering, my desk is almost usable again

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Hi from France

Life is getting simpler here in France Eleven runs to the Tip, six or more trips to the Bottle Bank, loads of furniture sold, quite a large number of household wares sold, as well as toys & games :T Still a large amount of stuff to be sorted & more furniture to be sold + a huge amount of general stuff to be sold. Paperwork has been signed & have a tentative departure date.

To a Simpler 2018
MrsSD

dND

Mrs_Salad_Dodger wrote: »

Hi from France

Life is getting simpler here in France Eleven runs to the Tip, six or more trips to the Bottle Bank, loads of furniture sold, quite a large number of household wares sold, as well as toys & games :T Still a large amount of stuff to be sorted & more furniture to be sold + a huge amount of general stuff to be sold. Paperwork has been signed & have a tentative departure date.

To a Simpler 2018
MrsSD

Fabulous news Mrs SD. I've just filed my French tax form - life will be so much simpler when I don't have to do that as well as the UK one and the agricultural PAC!!! :rotfl::rotfl:

RicardaRacoon

Evening everyone

Mrs S, glad to hear things start to look better! Hope it goes on like this!

kacie, time spent preparing food to make cooking during the week easier (and maybe also make sure that you don't reach for a take out on busy days) make life so much easier, it is just as useful as decluttering.

I decluttered some sentimental stuff earlier this week. I currently have a small box of cards and photographs upstairs and two big boxes in the basement, one with toys and baby clothes and one with school stuff, diaries and old notebooks that I don't want to bin. I had a look through the box upstairs and binned some stuff but also enjoyed rereading some lovely cards .
Plan for the weekend is having a look at the other two boxes and try to reduce the paper stuff. I'm not sure why I'm keeping all my appointment diaries back to 2001. I might keep one or two (one turned into a friendship book where my friends left me notes) but the rest will have to go.

I had a long nap when I came home and felt like new when I got up. Will still try to have an early night and go up early tomorrow. Plan is to go swimming and then to the shops in the morning plus some cleaning. In the afternoon, my sister, granny and I will go to the gardencentre and buy a car boot full of balcony plants. On the way there we'll have ice cream in a caf! by the lake and afterwards dinner at my parents. We always make an outing out of things like that. Sunday will be another swim, cleaning the camper van and some more home and admin stuff and hopefully heaps of knitting.

Have a lovely long weekend everyone! I'll be back to work on Monday but we have a holiday on Thursday and I take Friday off, so my sister and I will go away with the camper van for a few days.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

:hello: everyone

Looks like everyone is going great guns on their own paths to a Simpler Life

Every success however large or small seems like a lightening of the load. I find myself smiling more & being slower to get annoyed at trivial things

Here in France, things are going slowly but DH is chivying my DSis & me along (boot up the ‘arris really :rotfl: ) Still have way too much stuff to get rid of but we are persevering DSis has just binned a large black bag of ruined bedding from her room

We will keep plugging away & when we return to London I will have a renewed vigour as I will be able to make my own decisions about what goes out & what stays :rotfl: it is very wearying running everything past DSis - but as she knows she is in charge there should be no regrets & I must admit that with a lot of things she has been a brutal declutterer :rotfl::T
That seems to be the problem on those hoarding programmes - the hoarder gets bullied & is rarely happy or comfortable :eek:

Anyway off to do some more decluttering

To a Simpler 2018

MrsSD

kacie

The top of my desk is now clear, I've still got the shelves underneath to do but at least I can use it when needed now.

I'm trying to get into the habit of making the bed each morning,it just looks neater even if the rest of the room is a mess!

Did a bit more planting over the weekend too, my lettuces are starting up come up, beetroot seedlings have been transplanted, re done the courgette seeds as nothing was coming up from the ones I did previously.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Hi everyone :hello:

Have spent the last three days rereading this thread :rotfl: & have come to the conclusion that my Simpler Life journey will restart when we are back home :rotfl: & I am in charge :rotfl::D

We are still trying to declutter here in France but without the hordes of people turning up it is very slow going Unfortunately it means that a mahoosive amount of stuff will be going to the Tip as we are now on the final leg of the French declutter Hoping to be fully settled at home within the next two weeks :T:j:beer:

I wish everyone plain sailing on their journeys to a Simpler Life :T:)

MrsSD