by Hope
I am so grateful for all the support and advice during this time of transition as we downsize from 1800 sq ft to 900 sq ft. I am fully embracing this change and ask I mentioned earlier this week I have already begun downsizing in regards to our furniture and planning what will go with us to the apartment in that regards.
Someone mentioned “minimalist blogs” and another zenhabits.net. Since then I have been reading voraciously on this ideal. And I am convinced that this is the way for us to go. So now I have to get the kids to buy in because let’s face it, the majority of our day to day clutter…it’s theirs! So here is what I’ve done so far in this regards and if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them…
- We discussed the space issue in the apartment and how it feels when a room in our house is full of stuff vs just a few usable items. This was easy to demonstrate this week as we have cleared out rooms and seen them go from crowded feeling to really big and open, free.
- I sent the three oldest a link to this article: http://zenhabits.net/a-guide-to-creating-a-minimalist-home/ and asked them to read it so they would understand where my mind was.
- And then I went all in, dragging them with me…I gave them a list of clothing items they could bring on this move. Everything else must either be trashed or donated. And the twins were assigned the task of getting their closets in order yesterday.
For those of your interested, this is the list I gave my teenagers:
| Underwear | 7+ | Socks | 10+ |
| Undershirts | 7+ | Pajamas | 3 |
| Jeans | 2 | Dress Pants | 1 |
| Cargoes | 1 | Nice Shorts | 2 |
| Athletic Shorts | 1 | Pant of choice | 2 |
| T-shirts | 7 | Dress shirt | 2 |
| Hoodie | 3 | Winter Jacket | 1 |
| Polo | 2 | Suit | 1 |
| Athletic Shoes | 2 | Dress Shoes | 2 |
| Slides | 1 | Sandal | 1 |
| Boots | 1 |
I did make some exemptions from this list: 1) Sea Cadet does not have to count his Navy uniforms, etc in these numbers, but all Sea Cadet paraphernalia must fit into the tubs we previously purchased to keep them in; and 2) History Buff does not have to count his additional number of dress clothes he has for his TeenPact participation, but they must fit in one hanging bag which he takes when he goes to conferences.
I realize that this could not be a universal list, and I still think the numbers are a bit high, but I think it’s a good start. And I am going to try really hard to enforce a 1 in – 1 out type of philosophy with new items.
I will be taking this same philosophy with the younger two, but since they out grow their clothes almost every season still they don’t typically have a cross season wardrobe so it will be limited by number of outfits I think rather than particular items. Make sense?
