Less is more

[flymomrn]

I am working hard to minimize stuff. I have made real progress over the last 9 months, but still have a long way to go. We have more clothes than we could possibly ever wear and that results in huge piles of laundry that we can never conquer. The same for dishes and towels. So, we are implementing a few new rules as we move into Ridge View Manor (RVM-our old house that we are moving back into after abandoning it 9 months ago).
1. All clothes must fit in the closet/drawers in the persons bedroom. If they have more clothes than that, they need to pare down to the ones they really like, that fit well and look good. Clothes that are stained, faded, torn, etc are to be thrown away. Items that do not fit or are just not liked are to go in the green donate bin and go to the thrift store on Wednesday.
2. There are only 5 of us in the house...we do not need more than 5 bowls/plates/glasses/etc. They can be washed after we use them so that we can use them for the next meal. Certainly better than having 50 bowls/plates/glasses over-flowing the sink and buying more rather than have to wade through all the dirty dishes (buying new ones wouldn't be too bad if I threw away the old dirty ones, but I just add more dishes and leave the old ones in the sink).
3. Broken toys are trash. Games with missing pieces that can't be played any more are trash.
4. I seldom get to read...why do I have thousands of books taking up space? I have read most of them...do I really need to keep them in case I want to read them again. (now, there are some books that I do like to reread and can't get rid of...like the Xanth novels). Time to thin out the RVM library and stop picking up books that I don't have time to read. I do need to find a safe spot to put the books that I do need to read so that I can read them when I have time.
5. Instead of having 30 +/- towels for 5 people, I think we can make do with 5, one for each person.
6. Instead of having 20 +/- sets of sheets for 3 beds and a crib, I think we can make do with 2 sets of sheets per bed and change them once a week, wash the dirty ones and have them clean and ready to exchange the next week.
With less stuff, we can afford to have a better quality for those items that we do have. Wouldn't that be nice...instead of tons of cheap crap to have good quality items that we can enjoy and find when we want them. I am so tired of shuffling through stuff I don't like to find what I do like. I am going to start tossing the stuff I don't like and just keep the good stuff. Life is too short to keep dealing with all that junk over and over again.
The only clothes I wear are always in the laundry basket...either needing to be washed or clean. All of the clothes in the dresser and closet are things that don't fit or that I don't like...so why are they still in the house and clogging up my space? It is time for them to go so I can put the clothes I do wear away and can find them easily.
We have 30 laundry baskets +/- and they are always full...either clean clothes that can't be put away, or dirty clothes that need to be washed...or clothes that don't fit that end up back in the laundry. It is time for this to stop. It is going to stop.

[MissABCD]

You might want to rethink the towel plan. I think you might need more than one towel per person if you have storage room for more. MissABCD

[flymomrn]

Very true MissABCD. My husband uses 3 towels at a time.

[flymomrn]

Well, we are moved back into RVM and I got 6 hours of sleep in my own bed today.
When I get off in the morning, I have to go to the farmhouse and get anything that was left there and clean the house up for the walk-through on Weds. Once it is clean, I will take a ton of photos for when we have to sue the landlady for our security deposit and relocation money.
1. The first thing I need to do today is go to RVM and clean out the fridge so that I have room to put the food from the farmhouse.

[flymomrn]

At the farmhouse today I will start on the top floor in the sunroom and then clean from room to room until I get to the kitchen.
The basement is not going to be messed with...other than when I go down there to get the dogs invisible fence system and cut the wires off outside. (I sure hope my husband grabbed everything else from down there.)
I will need to mop all the floors and fill in a couple of scratches the dog made. I want to make sure things look as good as possible for the walk-through...not that it is going to help us get our security deposit back. Actually, it will as I will take a ton of photos and we are going to fight her in court for the money we are entitled to due to her non-compliance with the lead program.
I hope I can get everything left at the house in one load and leave it good and clean today.

[maggie]

I read your post, and each thing that you said you would pare down, I kept thinking, "That's not enough, what if...". Except the sheets, because 2 sets per bed is about what I keep. I would probably keep more of each thing. Well, not probably -- certainly -- I HAVE too much stuff. But I love the idea of getting rid of the crappy stuff and only keeping the good stuff. We have a LOT of stuff, but very little of it is really good quality.

My husband used to sometimes come home and the house would be such a mess, he'd say, "Might as well take a match to it" (and other unpleasantries). I always felt that was a terribly nasty thing to say, but recently, I've been thinking that if the house burned to the ground, the only things that I would really feel awful about losing would be pictures of my kids. My kids would feel terrible about losing their favourite stuffed animals. I would be extremely inconvenienced to lose our financial records, particularly of our business. Everything else -- well, it might be stuff that we would replace in a new home, but I can't think of any other individual items that I would really grieve over losing.

[flymomrn]

I have been through a house fire and it was such a pain. They managed to "save" just about everything, but the smoke smell never went away...and I kept thinking how much easier it would have been if everything had just be completely destroyed. One good thing was that we had the important stuff in a safe place and all the photos on line...how great is it that photos can be saved in cyberspace and never really lost.

[flymomrn]

We are all moved out of the farmhouse and left it spotless. We have accepted a reasonable settlement offer from the landlady from hell. I am confident that we could have gotten more money if we took her to court, but the amount she is willing to pay us on Monday is acceptable and we need the money now, so it makes sense to accept the settlement offer.
I took 1/2 a uhaul truck of stuff to the thrift store on Tuesday. I took a van load of stuff to the thrift store today. I have also hauled off a ton of trash to the dump. The basement is stuffed with 18 gallon totes that I need to go through and donate or dump.
I went through a large tote full of baby/toddler clothes from my older daughter, and there were several cute summer outfits that will work for my toddler over the next couple of months. I donated everything else. Some of the items were stained and I am sure the thrift store will throw them out, but I still donated them...I just can't bring myself to throw some things away.
I was very proud of myself for donating a precious treasure. My toddler (and sitter) made a t-shirt with her handprints on it for Earth Day 2010. I was going to keep it, but then decided to take a photo of it and donate the actual t-shirt. It works better than keeping the item.

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[mellbutler]

May 20, 2011 17:49:47 GMT -5 flymomrn said:

We are all moved out of the farmhouse and left it spotless. We have accepted a reasonable settlement offer from the landlady from hell. I am confident that we could have gotten more money if we took her to court, but the amount she is willing to pay us on Monday is acceptable and we need the money now, so it makes sense to accept the settlement offer.
I took 1/2 a uhaul truck of stuff to the thrift store on Tuesday. I took a van load of stuff to the thrift store today. I have also hauled off a ton of trash to the dump. The basement is stuffed with 18 gallon totes that I need to go through and donate or dump.
I went through a large tote full of baby/toddler clothes from my older daughter, and there were several cute summer outfits that will work for my toddler over the next couple of months. I donated everything else. Some of the items were stained and I am sure the thrift store will throw them out, but I still donated them...I just can't bring myself to throw some things away.
I was very proud of myself for donating a precious treasure. My toddler (and sitter) made a t-shirt with her handprints on it for Earth Day 2010. I was going to keep it, but then decided to take a photo of it and donate the actual t-shirt. It works better than keeping the item.

I commend you for getting rid of it...I would have kept that one myself because I have found a fun way to incorperate those kinds of treasures into blankets for my girls. I held onto the stained clothes and have cut them up into blocks and sewing a quilt. It's actually coming along well. I have 2/3 of it pieced. It's funny how just a little swatch can trigger a memory. But a photo is good to...I'm gonna do that with some things too and bput in an album

[messymich]

That's an amazing amount of donations! Way to go! Thanks for donating so many baby clothes! I don't have much money and shop at 2nd hand stores for my son often and love to find nice baby clohtes there for him.

Glad you got a nice settlement from the LL.

[Meme]

good for you-- getting things settled and also having less-- it is amazing how less is more because it also gives us valuable peace of mind- keep on - keeping on- hugs from Meme

[joyinvirginia]

You are an inspiration! Great you got moved and got your settlement. FYI - I think 2 towels per person is just right, me and the DDs all use one for hair and one for body.

[messymich]

I like to have a few extra dish settings for when I have guests for dinner. Maybe it's something you want to consider.

[chronic]

I am amazed you were able to photograph and part with your toddler's creation. I have the hardest time with stuff from when they were little. Maybe because they are 8, 13, and 19 now..but yeah.

We manage with just one towel per person. There are five of us too. I used to insist on needing 2 per shower (one for hair, one for body) but then I got out of the habit an I just towel dry my hair really quickly while I stand in the shower, then wrap my body and get out. Just my 2 cents on the towel thing. I'd rather have more room for sheets because I can't stand being in a position where we need sheets and none are clean (like when the youngest throws up in bed, or something gets spilled).

As for clothing we have too much too! I am hoping for a long term goal of no more than ten outfits per person.

[cozza]

on my to do list this long weekend coming up is to get rid of the excess clothing i have. I think all of us have too much, its just what we do and once you have it it is very very hard to let it go. What if i need it? Anyway i will let you know how i go and good luck with your stuff