Update and Plans

I haven't done much around the house the last couple of days. I have been a bit behind in my school work so have spent heaps of time catching up, and I'm spending today with my kids.

Just a quick post to say where I'm at and my plans for the next few days. I did a big clean of the house on Wednesday after myself, my partner and my baby girl being unwell. Embarrassingly, this took me almost a full day. I can't help but think how much quicker it could be done if there wasn't so much "stuff" in the house.

This weekend I'm going to tackle the filing area. This will be a HUGE job and could take a lot of my time and energy so I'm not too fussed if I don't get anything else done. If I'm feeling up to it, I plan to clean out the walk in wardrobe as well. Another big task.

Wish me luck!

Breaking Point

Today I reached breaking point in my house. It was a busy morning trying to get the kids ready and in the car to take my son to daycare. After drop off I had some shots to take for an assignment so I started the hunt for my tripod. Unfortunately my camera and tripod don't have a home so I just had to search.

It wasn't with the camera, I couldn't see it in the linen cupboard, which was where I thought I had last seen it. It wasnt in the wardrobe, or under the cot in my daughters room. After sending a very frustrated text to my partner at work I decided it HAD to be in the linen cupboard and started tearing it apart.

I found my tripod, behind a pile of towels. I also found a new level of frustration with the situation. If everything had a home this sort of thing wouldn't happen. If I didn't have so much stuff jammed into my linen cupboard and my walk-in-wardrobe I could've searched and found so much quicker and easier.

So clearly, although we don't have piles upon piles of stuff to navigate in our tiny 3 bedroom home, the fact that I spent almost 30 minutes searching for one of the most important pieces of equipment for my schooling, or that I couldnt tell you if we have received our latest credit card bill, or where the most recently paid water bill is means we have a slight problem. I can't wait to get stuck into creating a minimalist life for our family.

De-Cluttering My Inbox

I hate checking my emails. Though I rarely have to physically check my emails. I have my phone and tablet set up to "ding" every time I receive an email. The trouble is, I receive a zillion emails that I don't even read before I delete. These include emails from shops I like, though never buy from because of their prices. Emails from shops I do buy from, but because of my trying to quit my consumer addiction, I want to remove the temptation to see all of their beautiful things. These also include blogs I used to, but no longer read, sporting teams I never get time to see, and organisations that I have no recollection of signing up for emails.

I reckon it's pretty safe to say that I receive around 20-30 emails per day, to my personal email account. That may not seem like a lot, but I really don't have time to be deleting 90% of these emails each day.
So I did a clean sweep through my emails.

It took me about 10 minutes, and all I did was go through the emails, and unsubscribed from the ones that no longer interest me (or that interest me and my purse a little too much) and then delete all the emails from my inbox. I think I unsubscribed from around 20 newsletters/emails. I have folders within my inbox to store emails I need to keep, such as any correspondence from my work, anything to do with the house my fiancee and I are currently building, and anything from my school (my photo imaging diploma).

This has virtually completely emptied my inbox, apart from a few customer service surveys that I need to complete. Knowing that I'm not going to receive this amount of emails again is a huge relief. I will probably need to do this in another week to 2 weeks time, just to unsubscribe and clear out any emails that weren't in the inbox at the time of this clean sweep. This was much quicker and painless than I was expecting and I can't recommend doing it enough.

My Consumer Addiction

Ever since I was a child getting my pocket money, I have been an over-shopper. I am true example of the expression "retail therapy". I love to shop. And I can always find something that I want. I love social media. My particular favourites are Facebook and Instagram. I never really caught on to the Twitter trend. I love pictures, which I guess is a good thing considering I am studying to be a professional photographer!

The very bad thing about social media is the temptation to buy things. Instagram is particularly bad for this. I follow some very talented Mums who are excellent children's Interior Designers. I could spend hours gazing through their Instagram feeds at the rooms they are putting together for some very lucky children. I could also spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars buying all of the gorgeous wall decals, vintage furniture, hand made dolls, and felt ball rugs that I see in these pictures. 

Facebook is just as tempting. I follow many pages that buy rare vintage furniture, up cycle it and give it new life, and then re-sell at usually high prices. These particular pages do a great job at this, they put a lot of time and energy into their work, and I'm sure their selling prices are very reasonable in consideration of this. It is, however, hard on my bank account, and VERY bad for my already choc-a-block full home. 

Every time I buy something online, I somehow end up signing up for emails from this particular retailer. For example, I bought my niece a purse online from a popular surf brand for christmas recently. I have now started receiving emails from this brand, outlining their current bargains. I know there's probably a little box that I can uncheck thats says in tiny writing next to it "I wish to receive promotional mail regarding upcoming sales and events" that I missed in my rush to complete the sale and move on to the next important thing on my never-ending to-do list.

This is the way retailers get you. They make you think that you can't live without whatever item it is they happen to be promoting.

Your life won't be as easy without that huge planner, filled with mostly pages you won't use.

Your children won't be as happy without that bed-linen or doll.

Your floors won't be as clean without that super-expensive vacuum cleaner.

You won't lose any weight without that shake program or sit up machine designed to the same thing as healthy eating and regular, good-old sit ups.

Advertisers know exactly what to say to make you think you need that product, and you need it now.

And I have been sucked into this for years. It's only now, in my mid-twenties that I am sitting up and taking notice of the damage it's doing to my life, my relationships, and my home. The easiest way that I have found to stop myself from purchasing is remind myself of my goals to clear out the physical clutter in my home. Buying more is just adding to this burden, and is going to be a complete waste of money once I simply give the item away. 

This seems to be working… for now. I will keep the updates flowing about giving up my consumer addiction.

An Overview of My Main Goals for a Simple Life

I have been eyeing off the minimalist lifestyle for quite some time now. It has always been a "yeah, right!" sort of idea that I never thought would be achievable. Don't get me wrong, we aren't a family of hoarders or anything. We keep a reasonably tidy house. We (try to) limit the amount of toys come into our house. We don't keep mountains of rubbish (unless you count my paperwork, but that's a very long story for a whole other day). But I still spend hours of my time cleaning our house. I still wade through paperwork on my way to bed each night. I still have bedding and computer items fall out of my linen cupboard when I open it.

We own too much stuff. And I have a little problem that I like to call consumer addiction. I will discuss this at a later time, but basically, I'm addicted to shopping. I love the buzz I get from new things. I love looking through the various emails that come through to my inbox with "once in a life time savings", I love looking through the catalogues I find in my letterbox every Tuesday.

What I do hate though, is seeing my bank account balance at the end of my shopping sprees. And I hate trying to find somewhere to put my fantastic new purchases.

So to start my journey to a simpler life I have a few loose goals to get me started. These are by no means SMART goals. I haven't (yet) broken them down into manageable chunks. These are just general goals to get me off in the right direction.

1. To get on top of my consumer addiction.
2. To clear our house of anything that we do not use, or we don't find beautiful.
3. To have less items in our house to clean and maintain.
4. To better our financial position by cutting back on shopping habits (this is greatly tied to goal #1).
5. To teach our children to live a life full of gratitude and helping others

My goals are unique to my family and our lives. I have 2 very young children (my youngest is just 4 months old) and our goals and views for our family are completely different from our next door neighbours, or the older couple across the road. 

The importance of minimalist living, is living the life that you and your family want to. It's about what minimalist living means to you.