Clutter & Minimalism

[Jess]

I have OCD. I hate stuff that doesn't have a "place" in our home. Unfortunately, we simply don't have enough storage or room for everything to be hidden away. One of the main reasons I wanted a kindle was to get rid of my books. Books are dust magnets.

At the moment, our spare room has a few bags of clothes to be donated, and a few other bags of stuff that needs to be disposed of after Christmas. It's also where we store our DVDs, ironing board, washing basket and various other items that take up more space than I'd like. Every time I walk in there I instantly feel grumpy & that I need to clear and clean other rooms, to make myself feel better! And it's not even half full!

Re handbags, coats, hats & shoes. I don't wear hats. I have a few handbags, but only use 4 of them (black, grey, tan & black&white). I will be getting rid of the others.

I have 4 coats; black leather jacket, brown fur (faux, of course), 2 x long black. One of the black ones is new, and I'll be donating the old one.

Shoes: brown boots, black boots, converse, few pairs of pumps & flipflops. A few pairs of heels. But I have a lovely shoe cabinet which keeps them all hidden away!

[Calliope]

I tried to reorganize my art supplies today - I probably have about five printer boxes full of manuscripts, collage supplies, paints, different kinds of paper/sketchpads, found objects - it's a lot, and that doesn't even include any camera gear. I think my solution to this is going to be to host an all-day art party, where I am just going to sit in my house and make art, and other people are welcome to come join in if they want to. Until then...boxes!

Tomorrow I will be getting rid of about forty books, so that's some progress, I guess.

[Parker]

I am pretty bad with clutter but it's not like gross clutter. Right now I have a empty juice carton that has been on my desk for two days and a candy wrapper that has been there about 5 hours. That's about as worse as it gets.

Books though. And papers and documents. Anywhere they land. Also I just moved in and I havent unpacked because I am smurfing lazy.

[fire_of_avalon]

Oh I forgot, I decided a few years ago I needed a collection that was an actual collection, so I started collecting sugar skulls. I have an elephant my friend painted, a glitterbomb green Christmas ornament, a candy tin and a necklace my friend got me.

There's a hippie store in the city that I go in sometimes that has this awesome canvas print of a sugar skull owl that I want so bad.

[Night Fury]

I am pretty minimalist, but I do also hoard. I like our rooms to be clear of clutter - everything has a place. Except in HNB's man cave. I don't even try to organise that place. To me it looks like chaos but he likes it and it's his room so what can I do?

I don't like to leave things out, I like them to be where they should be. I have next to nothing on my bedside table, just a picture frame, my moisturiser and a couple of candles. Occasionally my kindle gets left there if I was reading in bed. HNB's side is tidy too except for the clothes he leaves. It's a good job his side is against the wall and out of my line of sight.

I hoard clothes. I have about 10 pairs of shoes here, but I had to leave behind about 20 pairs. I have 3 handbags here but I had to leave behind about 15. I love handbags and shoes and clothes, I'm very into fashion, but I do tend to buy more classic pieces now instead of the latest fad. I recently bought this gorgeous loose fit midi dress that is just to die for omg.

One of my dreams in life is to have a room that is basically a walk-in closet with all of my shoes, clothes, and jewellery all organised into sections. Thinking about it is like heaven to me. I'd also make it like a dressing room with all of my make up too.

[Jiro]

One of my dreams in life is to have a room that is basically a walk-in closet with all of my shoes, clothes, and jewellery all organised into sections. Thinking about it is like heaven to me.

Believe it or not I would also really like this.

[escobert]

I do tend to hoard stupid things but after it starts getting crazy I start throwing stuff out. It's hard because I feel like I may need it or as soon as I chuck it I'll find a use for it.

[Ayen]

I mainly collect DVDs of television programs. I have the entire series of Xena: Warrior Prince, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed and Emily of New Moon. I still need to get my hands on Hercules, Angel, the final season of Star Trek The Original Series and the rest of That 70's Show and WrestleMania.

Not to mention I still have all the old toys I collected over the year either buried somewhere here or in the basement and refuse to get rid of any of them.

[Shiny]

I use to collect state coins or rare kinds of rocks. I had one that I got from a cave that would glow in the dark. Don't worry, it wasn't radioactive (I think). I am not in to clutter at all. I actually just took something downstairs because I felt like it was taking up too much space in my bedroom. I have a small closet where I will store stuff I don't know what to do with or keepsakes like cards I get from people and letters. If I had a smaller bedroom I'd probably trash all of those things so it wouldn't be bunched up some where or get a chest for it to put under my bed.

[Cloudane]

I live with my parents

a) They're massive hoarders. Massive. There are TV shows about households like ours (thankfully, not in the icky way, just piles and piles of clutter)

b) My room is approximately 10x6ft and I have a tiny little corner of another room.

c) Because of a) it's very unwise to put anything of mine anywhere else in the house, as it'll get lost/buried very quickly and I'll probably end up having to buy another.

By necessity, I've become pretty darn efficient with my space and ensuring that if there's anything I no longer use (unless it's something 'unnecessary' that I really like), it goes.

I also like to tidy and love it when my room is neat as it's a little oasis of calm in a sea of chaos. Sadly because it's so small it takes just a couple of items left out and a couple of shirts on the floor to turn it into a complete and utter pig sty, on the other hand it's just as quick to tidy it up and make it spotless.

In the category of unnecessary things that I really like though, I've amassed quite the collection of ponies. There's a herd in front of my TV, a herd in front of my computer, and an increasing herd of plushies in the corner of my bed.

Oh and a habit I picked up from my dad, I keep hoarding the boxes that things came in "just in case I want to sell it one day". I am slowly teaching myself that the extra tenner you might get between "no box sorry" and "in original packaging" on eBay is not worth all that space, but then you get things like the pretty packaging Apple gear comes in that I have a hard time parting with. Well, I'm learning day by day.

[Calliope]

I got rid of about fifty books today. We have a lot of books, still too many for our one bookshelf. I'm going to go through my clothing again right now, BRB ;_;

My other project for this weekend is to attempt to sort my papers - we're pretty good about getting rid of junk mail, etc; but I'm always making to-do lists on random scraps of paper, and I've piling up a lot of school/medical related stuff. What do you guys do with the more important paper stuff? Scan it? Shred it? Biff it? File it?

[kotora]

After travelling around for almost a year I don't see why I would ever want to own anything more than would fit into a backpack. Except a desk with a nice big monitor, keyboard and mouse, because it makes work easier.

[fire_of_avalon]

So to update from January I moved everything out of that storage unit I mentioned into our basement and then I sorted things out for a while. I ended up donating an enormous box of clothes, and three file-sized boxes of books and kitchenware. But I had like six boxes of books and sundry things and two of those enormous boxes of clothes so I'm pretty pleased. I think I can find a way to organize what remains with what I heve now... but I might need to get another bookshelf.

I do have a goal to get rid of all my CDs before the end of the year. I got rid of the cases years ago and put them all in sleeves and binders, but now the binders need to go.

[Jiro]

Sounds like one hell of a spring clean. Get stuck in, foa!

[noxious.sunshine]

Being in this small ass apartment is making me realize that I have more than I thought.

But I have some kind of attachment to most of it. Things from my childhood, etc. It's just a matter of organizing it all... Which I still have yet to completely figure out.