January 2019

Since it’s been a while I thought a little life update would be in order.

First up..

We have moved! 

We’ve now been in our new home for almost 6 months and in that time we’ve been giving the place a complete overhaul. Well… we’re still in the process. We’ve created a brand new bathroom and ripped out the old one – leaving a now empty room that’s ready to be knocked into the teeny weeny kitchen.

We’ve rewired the place, new windows, plumbing, radiators, walls – the whole works.

We’re on the cusp of finishing off the two bedrooms that remain (we lost one when we moved the bathroom but we’ll add one back again in the future). And our living room is a kind of halfway done space that we’re using as a refuge from the chaos. The kitchen is still untouched as we gear up to start knocking down walls and building an extension to create a lovely open family space (free from clutter if you please), and the utility is currently our walk in wardrobe/store room/utility/a corridor that it the only way to access the kitchen for now.

All this to say, we’ve been so busy that the boxes we moved with remain largely unpacked! All that stuff (I say this we only have about 4 large boxes bearing in mind we unpacked kitchen, bathroom and clothing as necessities…). Clearly it’s stuff we don’t value or need as we haven’t missed much of it. With some exceptions such as my books and craft supplies which I miss desperately but given the DIY haven’t had time for anyway.

But I’m truly excited to get some rooms back up and running so that we can start the process of unpacking and purging the excess as we finally fill our new home!

And second up…

We’re having a baby!

In around 7 weeks time. Eek! So the DIY race has all been for a good reason, we’re getting the place ready to welcome our first child (of the non furry variety). And getting ready to be parents has presented a whole new heap of reasons to be a minimalist. The baby bits market is HUGE! There is so much stuff that they try and sell you, and so much stuff that well meaning friends and family want to gift to you, and so much stuff that you feel obliged to buy in order to be good parents. It’s been a minefield and is definitely a topic I will be talking about more in the near future.

Maintaining minimalism as a mum.. my challenge for 2019!

Moving as a Minimalist

Quick life update: I’ve finished the degree, so of course I’ve decided to keep busy and sell our house!

We’ve just begun the house selling and buying process, ours is sold and our offer on our future home is accepted. We have the average 12 weeks ahead of us now where you conduct searches and surveys, secure your mortgage and sort all the legalities.

I am honestly so excited for this move, not just because I think we’ve found our forever home, but because of the opportunity it gives us to reevaluate our current possessions and do another huge declutter.

As I mentioned back in March we seem to have built up on the clutter yet again and I’ve been struggling to get it under control. I’m at the stage where I know I’m not using certain things but they’re the things that have survived about 5 rounds of severe decluttering already and something is holding me back.

However, when it comes to packing these items into boxes and then unpacking them at the other end I think I’ll be able to be much more objective. Who wants to spend the time on things they don’t need or care about?!

Plus I know how disheartening I will find it to watch the big empty rooms of the new house get slowly filled up with stuff. And the only way to reduce the distress of that it to make sure that every item that enters our new home is one that we love and value.

I’ll be sharing my top tips for moving as a minimalist once we reach the packing/unpacking stage of the game, in the meantime if you’ve recently moved share your tips with me in the comments!

What life event has given you the kick up the behind to get your decluttering hat on?