1 Month of no buying…

I did it…mostly.
In the last month I haven’t bought anything at all.
Well, except for some baby clothes for my child. I feel half accomplished because of it. But truth be told, small children grow faster than weed, so it had to be done.

Other than that, I’m extremely happy with my new lifestyle.
The constant decluttering and living a more minimalistic life is great and I can only recommend it.

No matter if you only want to save up money for something bigger or really change your life.
It’s so cleansing.

One month in and it’s getting a bit harder to find things to declutter.
But thanks to relatives, we always end up with new clutter (no one seems to take my new lifestyle serious, except for my husband).
I hope eventually they realise that

Less buying, more saving…

I’m a black or white person in my approach to pretty much anything. For me there are no grey areas. I either love or hate, I either spend a lot or nothing at all.
That’s why I have decided for myself not to spend any money at all this year. The only exclusions are food and if something I need breaks.

As you might know from reading some of last weeks posts, I went through my DVD collection and sold some of my DVDs.
I really wanted to sell my entire collection, because I just don’t need it anymore, but unfortunately I don’t have a whole lot of the boxes left. So, I will have to hang onto the discs for a bit longer and then decide what to do with them.

Anyways, while I have given away most of my clutter to charity (over 25 bags) I do find, that all of a sudden

The law of attraction…

In yesterday’s post I’ve mentioned the huge amount of Allen Keys that I’ve found in our toolbox.

Surely, this not so unusual collection must have started with just one tiny Allen key.
And surely we didn’t plan to have that many and give them a home for years without reuse.

But it happened. We’re guilty as charged.

Allen keys, like any other clutter, enter your home and that’s where  the law of attraction comes in and gives you more and more…and more.
If you’re not on the case, you end up with enough Allen keys to start a job at IKEA.

Jokes aside, it’s funny how we bring one item into our home, Allen key or not, and if we’re not constantly keeping an eye on it, they just

Mr. Justin Case’s Clutter…

I’ve been doing this decluttering thing for almost a month now and I would like to believe that I’m already living a minimalist life (mentally anyways), but sometimes, when I’m looking for more clutter to part with, I come across Mr. Justin Case.

Mr. Justin Case always wants to “help”.
His specialities are (but not limited to):

• expensive clutter (the kind that never or hardly got used),
• 4 pairs of scissors,
• 17 Allen Keys,
• and any other sort of clutter,

Mr. Justin Case steps right in to tell you that you have to keep it just in case.
Oh, what a little bugger.

I find it especially hard to get rid of

Cleaning out my closet…

My closet has never been that bad, but there was definitely too much clutter in it. Too much clutter, that I never or hardly wore. I always seemed to pick the same items to wear. It’s the typical ‘We wear 20% of our clothes, 80% of the time’-situation.

As I mentioned in my post yesterday (Shopping for happiness), I used to go shopping for all kinds of reasons, so of course, I ended up with lots of clutter in my closet.

Now, I don’t have a photo of the before, because when I started this journey, I just didn’t think of taking photos or of starting a blog. There was just too much of everything.

I kinda regret that now, but I can assure you, that you’re not missing out on anything (it was just clutter after all).

I also regret, spending thousands of pounds (not that I counted) on

Shopping for happiness…

Reasons why I needed to go shopping:

• It’s a sunny day
• It’s a rainy day
• I had a great hair day
• It’s date night
• There’s a sale on
• There’s a sale with further reductions on
• I was bored
• I was stressed
• I needed something (that I didn’t really need)
• I needed to treat myself
• I had a 10% off voucher
• I haven’t been shopping in a few days
• I got paid
• It’s the weekend
• I was invited to a party, wedding, etc.

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

That was me then (over a month ago now)
I’ve had that many reasons and more to go into town to buy something.

Looking back on it now makes me a bit sad.
Not only, did I spent lots of money on things I didn’t really need, but I also wasted

It’s playtime…

I mentioned my “List of things to sort through” on yesterday’s blog entry and would like to use it as an example today.

Alot of people have kids, who happen to have toys…LOTS OF TOYS.

Let’s face it, going through your child’s mountain of toys can be daunting.

So, how do you decide which or how many toys should stay or go?

As a good rule of thumb,

Make a list…

“Should I keep it? Should I get rid of it? Do I love it? WHY do I have it? Is it mine? Is it someone else’s?”

These are a few of the questions that keep circling in my mind, when I look at an item.

You should try to always ask yourself these or similar questions, because

Actions speak louder than words…

My husband started saying that, “One day, I’ll come home and there won’t be anything left”.
I know he’s joking, but it’s interesting to see, that after I got rid of huge amounts of stuff in the last few weeks, he felt like going through his own stuff.

He’s never been unorganised or hoarder-like in the first place, but

Okay, bye-bye…

“WHEN does the decluttering stop?” and “WHEN will you be a full minimalist?” are a couple of the questions that I get asked.

The answers to those questions:

The journey of decluttering and staying decluttered