minimalism and decluttering

After finishing university and on my move back home, I realised just how much crap I had amassed in all aspects of my life. Papers that I no longer needed, pens and other stationery, clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery (all cheap stuff from high street stores such as Whistles, Topshop, ASOS, etc) and toiletries that, if stacked from top to bottom, would probably reach the moon!

I decided, there and then, that now is as good a time as any to start afresh. I've always wanted to live a minimalist life but as a person, I'm naturally a hoarder so this would be a challenge that I would relish! Who doesn't love a challenge? And what better person to prove wrong than yourself? Right? Right.

d e c l u t t e r i n g

Decluttering is the first stage in the quest for minimalism. I have tried the Thriving on Less challenge but I didn't stick to it. I think it was because the rules weren't made by me. I didn't make it a personal challenge and for that reason, I think that, if any of you want to do something like this, you need to make things personal. By all means take the stuff that sounds good from other people's ways of decluttering, but some bits of it will work better for you than other bits.

I will now run-through each aspect of my life that I decluttered:

1) my room

My desk (it needs replacing as I've had it for, believe it not, close to eleven years!) after
decluttering!

This was one of the hardest bits. Having collected so many things just because they were 'sentimental', I had a room full of crap. First things first: to weed out this rubbish. If I hadn't looked at something in the past year or if there was no longer a use for it, it was either binned, recycled or donated to charity. Although it is tempting to hold onto something with a view of using it in the future, unless you can most likely see yourself using it, it needs to be chucked into one of those three piles (bin, recycle, charity).

Through this, my room is now such a great place to work and sleep, I actually enjoy being in here! This just means that getting out of bed is now harder than before, but I don't see that as a problem.

The trick here is to do the decluttering in stages. Do one massive one, then do a smaller one in an area previously done. Then do another area that had also been previously done. By doing each area a multiple of times, you end up finding rubbish you had not found before. Having done this myself, I believe decluttering is a process with stages, not one that can be achieved in one go.

The key is to declutter on a regular basis.

2) online

I swear I had near on 1,000 bookmarks on my laptop. Weeding through these was a tedious process and not one that I would like to replicate. I now have about 50, if that? And I look through them once a week to see which ones have been used enough to stay and which ones need to go.

With Facebook, I had several hundred friends on there. People I hadn't spoken to in over a year, people who I would probably never speak to again, all these people were deleted. Although this seems harsh, I felt this was the best thing to do. If I ever saw them again, I'd be friendly still - just cos I've deleted you as a friend on Facebook does not mean I hate/dislike you! It just means that I want less clutter in my life and for me, having so many friends is a form of clutter. Plus, the people who are my closest friends will have my email or phone number, and for me, that's all that matters.

3) clothes, accessories and shoes

After the declutter, and also after I re-arranged it so that clothes were sorted into what type they were, how formal they were and also by sleeve length, etc!

I am a bit of a shopaholic. There, I said it. But now that I don't have a reliable source of income, I have realised that this habit just has to stop. In order to do this, I had a good look at my wardrobe. I created a database (so geeky, I know) of all my clothes, shoes, bags and accessories and well, I had more than enough. As a result of this, I have sold quite a bit of it on eBay and though some of those pieces I will miss, I hadn't worn them in over a year; or I had just forgotten about them! Not good.

4) stationery

I re-assessed just how many pens and other stationery stuff I had and well, I won't be buying any for some time I don't think. Until my stocks run low, the stationery I currently possess should be enough to last me a good year or so!

5) toiletries

Having already posted about saving money by stocking up on non-perishable items, I feel this is slightly contradictory. I have so much of it, yet it would be stupid to throw it out! I think this is the one area of life where clutter is ok. After all, we all need shampoo, deodorant and toothpaste!

Overall, though I sectioned my life into these pigeon holes, you may find that other categories work better for you. Tackle each one when you're in the right frame of mind. After uni, I found that a fresh start would be ideal and so I was in the mood for a month or so! However, it might not come so easy to you, and that's ok. Minimalism isn't going to happen overnight (in fact, I'm still adjusting to it).

m i n i m a l i s m

Some of you may realise that I already tried a Minimalism challenge. My goal was to minimalise spending for a year and I think I achieved this. My wardrobe did not grow considerably in size (one new piece a month or so, and all in sales!), my weekly food budget was cut down to £30 on average (I once spent £50 on a food shop - all healthy stuff - and the week after, I only spent £10! And the week after that - £15. I found it was okay to deviate slightly from my budget as long as the average works out.

The question now is, why be a minimalist? Well, Ikea seem to have this down to the T. They have made it look fashionable but that is not why I want to be one.

For me, I have looked far too deeply in material goods as a teenager and I wanted to appreciate other things more. Having nice clothes and wearing a beautiful handbag on your shoulder is all well and good, but I realised that my family, friends and happiness matter more to me. This attitude has saw me through the past few months where I only bought one article of clothing in four months. For me, this is a bit of a miracle and although I sound quite fickle here, this is definitely progress for me. Like I said, I'm still adjusting and learning what it means for me to be a minimalist.

Overall, a simpler life with less has made me realise how 'rich' my life is without so many material goods. I feel happier, less clouded with bad thoughts and much more satisfied with everything.

That is why, this time, I feel this challenge will be a successful one.

university life: ways to save money

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to tell you what to do to save money. I thought I'd just do a post on how I saved money at university myself. Having just spent three years in London (arguably the most expensive place to live in the UK - but only after Bristol apparently!), I had to figure out, through trial and error, ways to minimise unnecessary spending.

Having now graduated, and with my plans now uncertain (I think I know where I am going but I don't want to broadcast it just yet until it materialises!), I have to continue this frugal living. To an extent, I still do quite a few of these tips as money saved means a possible new Filofax organiser, right?

So, here are my tips. Some are well-known and I don't claim for them to be my own, but some of these are things I figured out for myself :)

1) Only take £20 or £30 for your weekly shop - and only in CASH. And before you head out for your shop, write down the stuff you will buy and stick to this list. Planning your meals helps with this as it ensures you only buy what you need.

2) After your weekly shop, put any £1 and £2 coins you get into a tub, box, whatever. From my experience, these coins come in very useful for laundry and if you don't use them for that, they can be a very good surprise at the end of the year. I accumulated quite a lot at the end of my third year (though some did go towards laundry). Alternatively, they can be option if you run out of money or if you have reached your overdraft limit.

A small sample of the coins I had accumulated!

3) Continuing the topic of supermarket shopping, if you know what time the supermarket reduces food, this can be a good time to get cheap meat and then freeze them for future use. As cheap as it may sound, this actually saved me a lot of money. Most of time, I happened to do my shop at the same time as reductions (usually in the evening) and have in the past had success. An example is two lamb chops for 10p! Yes, you read that right, 10p!

4) On the subject of food again (you can see what my life centred around at university!), bulk cooking food is also a cheap way to eat. It also guarantees that on those lazy nights, you won't resort to buying expensive (and unhealthy) pre-made meals from the supermarket. Just add rice (easy if you're Oriental like me and possess a rice cooker) or pasta, or if you're feeling particularly lazy, a slice of bread.

5) Survey sites. This is a good way to save money on material goods. Here are some vouchers I have accumulated in the past twelve months:

The free Tropicana was actually from the Facebook group. I regularly scout out freebies on Money Saving Expert and in the end, shampoo, toothpaste, beauty product samples meant that at the end of term, when I unexpectedly ran out of toiletries, I wasn't stuck as I had these samples.

Basically, if you answer surveys, say a handful of times a month, you can find yourself in possession of vouchers for clothes stores and the like so clothes become a lot cheaper or even free if you have enough of these vouchers!

6) Stock up on things that can keep. Examples include shampoo, feminine hygiene products, toothpaste, other toiletries, toilet roll, etc. Here is my stash:

When I was at university, I loved to use Aussie shampoo and stocked up whenever I saw the 'two for £5' deal. Now, it is more like two for £6 or £7 so I've stopped using it since. However, I still have the stash above. I won't be buying toiletries for a long time I don't think! I probably won't be stocking up again until I have about two months' supply left (that gives time to look for a preferred shampoo brand that is on offer).

7) If you have to buy something, look out for discount codes or vouchers online. Hotdeals UK and a company's Facebook page can be good sources for active codes, as can Money Saving Expert too.

8) Not always possible, but not drinking (booze!) or smoking really saves money. I don't smoke and I rarely drink and at uni, if I did drink, it was only because it was free! People didn't buy me drinks (that's not what I'm hinting at!) but if my halls of residence had an event where there was free booze, I'd have one (never more). This also ensured that I kept any weight gain to the minimum and also kept up a somewhat healthy lifestyle.

9) Fairs! Fresher's, careers', etc. A good place to get free tumblers, pens, paper, sticky notes, etc. And every student needs those! My university had about five or six fairs in total each year and I took each as an opportunity to talk to companies, but also to stock up on things I used on a daily basis. Sneaky? Nah, I call it clever ;)

10) This applies to everyone, not just students, but try and keep basic costs to a minimum. Try and pay as little as possible for your mobile phone contract - but make sure you have enough included minutes, texts and data first! Same with internet contracts - do you need that phone line? If not, an internet-only contract may be better for you, such as Virgin Media. For me (in my second year), it was cheaper for me to get a phone and internet contract though.

Obviously, there are the usual tips, like walk everywhere instead of taking public transport; or do free things instead of going out.

thriving on less: pretty clothes tags?

I'm talking about the tags that are designed so well, you don't want to throw them away; or are so pretty, that it would be a shame to visualise them going to the rubbish dump. I have quite a lot saved from various purchases throughout the years and I have no idea what to do with them! I don't mean any old tags, I mean, the nice, luxurious looking and aesthetically pleasing tags...

So, any suggestions? At the minute, all the nicer tags are hung on my pinboard as shown:

The tags shown in the image above are all from purchases dating back to 2006! I don't want to bin them as they do look too nice but is holding onto them just the same as holding onto the equivalent of clutter?

thriving on less project: the beginning

Upon my return to the family home from London due to the end of my second academic year at university, a clearout of my room and all the clutter made me realise just how much c r a p I had amassed throughout my teenage years! With that in mind, I started looking for ways to declutter, save money and as a result thrive on less. Googling for ideas on how to achieve this goal, I came across this site: The Power of Less. On that site, there is a free e-book you can download called 'Thriving on Less' and I really do recommend it. The tips in it are good - they are mostly about living a 'simpler' life where we have to recognise that enough means enough and that being able to thrive is more important than more.

So my first stop. My wardrobe. Now, this was my wardrobe at university from a few months back:

Now, at home, I have to confess that I have a far bigger wardrobe than this (it's built in so I didn't (technically) have a big one by choice) and for that reason, I kept a lot of clothes I never wore. I kept ones that held sentimental value and even PJs went into my wardrobe! Instead, I did a clear out (afraid I have no before photos) and this was the end result:

I put clothes I hadn't worn in over half a year into a pile and then clothes that had literally had their day into another pile. I then put the first pile into a plastic box - these are the items I will be selling (an extension of this blog where I have 'listed' the items I would like to get rid of!). The second pile were put into a bag and the items will be used as cloths for washing windows with, etc.

Next, PJs and loungewear went into a chest of drawers which I already had. But, the only difference was the fact that these drawers were full of clutter! Out went the clutter and in went my loungewear and nightwear. The same applied to my sports clothing. In the summer, I tend to go out for runs instead of play netball as my local club has changed so much (in a bad way though) that I don't enjoy local netball here anymore and instead, enjoy university netball much more.

Sorting through all the clothes made me realise just how much money I had 'wasted' on clothes which I never loved for long enough to wear over and over again. As a result, I'm going to be starting a '30 day freeze' where I won't be purchasing any clothes online or offline for 30 days. After this, if I come across anything I want to buy, I'll add it to a new '30 day list' with the date I added that item onto the list. If, after 30 days, I still find myself wanting/craving that said item, I will go and purchase it. But only if I seriously can't stop thinking about it!

The key to this though, is that my wardrobe isn't completely finished yet in terms of 'decluttering' as I'm pretty sure I still have items in there which I won't wear for another six months - but that's fine. One of the philosophies of 'Thriving On Less' was doing things gradually!

Another thing with doing a wardrobe clearout was that it enabled me to see what gaps needed filling in it - hence that purchase of an Aquascutum raincoat in the previous post!

Next stop? Lifestyle decluttering. Stay tuned for that!

P.S. Hope you guys like the new layout and colour scheme. Hope you're also ready for the launch of two new pages on my blog - the money tab - soon to be renamed; and the 'happiness' tab :)