A Simpler Life 2018

jackieblack

Hi! :wave:
I know I'm a bit late to this party, but have only just seen this thread (I can't imagine how I haven't stumbled across it before :huh:)

My life has become much simpler over the past 3 years, after getting divorced and then a few months ago my daughter and her husband-to-be moving into their first home together, so now it is just me and my 2 grandkittens (daughter is renting and can't have them).

However, I now find myself living alone in a 3 bedroom house but have boxes and boxes and boxes of 'stuff' cluttering up both 'spare' bedrooms and garage as well as my own bedroom, so this is one area of my life which needs to simplified further!
Ex-H and daughter only took the things they wanted when they moved out and left everything else for me to sort out! Actually, to be fair, some stuff of daughter's is here because it's stuff she wants to keep but has no room for in their little rental home and there is still stuff of ex-h's here because it has taken him a while to get settled but which I have told him I want gone by the end of Jan (which will be 3 years since he left, so I don't think that's unreasonable). If I can get the 'stuff' down to just the smallest bedroom and half the garage I will be happy. (The loft will have to wait, I don't 'do' ladders and hence have never been in my loft )

Although I have to de clutter, I don't believe in getting rid of things that I can use in future. For example bedding. I have more than I need but will pack the excess away to be retrieved when the sets I keep out now need to be replaced. I don't honestly see the benefit of getting rid of perfectly good stuff now and then having to buy more in the future.

The trick, of course, will be to keep the amount of stuff I decide I want to keep and store within the limits of the space I can allocate for this. I need to only be keeping things that I consciously decide is worth sacrificing the space to keep, and not just because it's easier to shove it in a box in the spare room than it is to make a decision about the value of keeping it (IYSWIM)

Apologies for the ramblings:o

maryb

Fuddle if you are making onion bhajis, try replacing a tablespoon of gram flour with a tablespoon of rice flour. It makes a wonderful crispy batter.

My DD was very fussy about bhajis and when I first tried making them and didn't get them right first time, that was a cue for "your bhajis NEVER turn out as good as shop bought" ("never" was on the basis of one attempt of course). Then the next time I tried this trick of putting some rice flour in and now she wants home made all the time.

elmer

Jackieblack, I know how you feel, my husband has left, but I still have a lot of his stuff, he also cleared his parents house 10 years ago in a hurry and a lot of stuff came here to be sorted, its still waiting...

However every cloud etc, Ive repainted the kitchen this weekend and found dust sheets, new rollers and paintbrushes all from his parents hoard, so all I had to buy was the paint, and now Ive got them, I can use them for all the other decorating Im planning too

However the bag of 10 or 12 shoe cleaning brushes with polish still on them has gone in the bin!!

Im off to see if anything else needs to go out, but like you I am reluctant to throw away stuff that I may need especially if its still good.

elmer

Nonnadiluca

I needed gram flour for a recipe DD asked me to make before Xmas and couldn't get it in our reasonably sized town for love or money: Waitrose used to sell it but don't any more; H & B said the same, Tesco had none and the local health food shop didn't have any either. I looked on t'interweb and it said to blitz dried chick peas then sieve. This works fine but is very noisy! I only did a small amount at a time and got enough flour from a surprisingly small amount of chick peas.

Charly27

maryb wrote: »

Fuddle if you are making onion bhajis, try replacing a tablespoon of gram flour with a tablespoon of rice flour. It makes a wonderful crispy batter.

My DD was very fussy about bhajis and when I first tried making them and didn't get them right first time, that was a cue for "your bhajis NEVER turn out as good as shop bought" ("never" was on the basis of one attempt of course). Then the next time I tried this trick of putting some rice flour in and now she wants home made all the time.

Thanks for this MaryB I’ll get DH to try this - still low carb too.

Bluegreen143

I have started reading the first pages of this thread and it’s all really resonated with me ☺️

For me 2017 unofficially became a year of simplifying as I decluttered a lot of possessions and then decluttered my biggest time suck - my job 😄 - to become a stay at home mama to my just turned two year old.

I always cook from scratch, bake bread, make jam and we have a lovely big garden with veg patch, greenhouse and chickens. Planning to do much more with it this year ☺️ We do use the library and rather than expensive classes I take my son to a £2 weekly playgroup and meet friends for walks, trips round our great free museums or play dates in each other’s houses. I already knit and got crochet hooks for Christmas so I think everyone will be getting homemade presents this year when their birthdays roll round!

We do need to cut back this year now as living off one salary with a mortgage to pay isn’t easy, but it’s been so worth it to get that time at home. We ended up spending too much at Christmas and had a couple of big bills just before so have a bit of a credit card balance for the first time in years which I’m determined to clear in the next few months.

We are actively trying for another baby too so I’m trying to actively simplifying now in areas like our household routines etc to get in good habits before the inevitable disruption a new baby brings.

One thing I learned the first time though is hiw to simplify baby care - you absolutely do not need all the crap the shops try and flog you for having a baby!

Going to go back now and read all the old posts 😁

threepenny_bit

good start to our simpler life - sorted some things out this past week and put them on a fb local group, got rid of extra cups, storage jars, paper crafting items, 'books, toys etc that I was going to take to the charity shop. I thought I would give it try and if they didnt sell then they could go to the cs next week. Sold and collected the cash Now to look for more things I never use and try to make some money each month. The money I made I am using for groceries this month - we have tons of stuff in the freezers and cupboards and if I only get fresh stuff we can manage. Hopefully the freezers and cupboards will become a little more simple and not have so many unknown leftovers and boxes in them

Cottage_Economy

I'll be joining you guys this year.

For the first time ever, I couldn't think of anything I really wanted for Christmas. I already have too much stuff. Never had that happen before. Then I took a look around and realised that there is stuff stacked everywhere.

All I want to do is read books, knit and garden in my spare time so why is there so much other stuff??? I work from home and wear the same 'favourite' clothes so why do I have drawers and cupboards bursting at the seams??

Where did all this stuff come from????

I started this week and got rid of four boxes of books to go to Ziffit totaling about 40 books and I have another ~30 books to go.

Eyeing up the chest of drawers, particularly the underwear drawer, for a clear out. That is a veritable horror story.

wort

Jackie- just to say it's more than enough time for ex to move his stuff, I would have took it to cs.
I did the kondo thing, and someone on there think it was grey queen, said to bag up spares (try a vacuum bag to condense) and use up till rags a couple of bed sets for each bed. The spares need to be looked at realistically, how many have you got ?will you get through them ? Or will they perish before then. Do this with all excess, towels, underwear, even toiletries, can be put away using each 1 at a time until used up and not buying more until you are using the last.
Also make sure your daughter really does want those things, because in my case and I've heard others say the same, we keep them for children then when you offer them back they don't want them.
So make her look through it all and only let her keep the real joy giving items.

GreyQueen

Yeah, I think it was me and maybe others are also doing it; concentrating wear on one example of certain categories; one pillowcase, one tea towel, and on a few examples of others. Two towels are rotating around, one set of bedsheets, a couple of pairs of jammies etc.

The intention being to fully use an item up and then get it into textile recycling, rather than have cupboards and cupboards of part-worn things. I don't want to be too SABLE'd as there will also be the parental stash to inherit one of these days, and there's a lot over there.

In my early fifties, I have come to the conclusion that I may never need to purchase another of certain types of domestic textiles. I shan't give away what I have, but work through them one at a time.