Hey Shawna, how is minimalism going? Since you started in January I bet your house is empty of all your useless, unnecessary items and you are just breathing fresher air and using the new-found space previously held hostage by all of those items cluttering your life and space!
Well…….
The basement quickly became the sorting pen for everything we wanted to be getting rid of. Mainly because I wanted things to go to people who could use them and had to take time making elaborate piles of baby items to pass on to them.
This basement has quickly become a lesson in how easy it is to move stuff from one place to another and feel a faux sense of accomplishment. From the kids rooms to the basement where only spiders and laundry live. The kids rooms seemed clearer but now I had to tackle this mountain.
So this weekend, I got a chance to do that….
We said goodbye to lots of baby items, but mostly some big furniture pieces – a matching TV cabinet, coffee table and end table. They all went to my niece’s new house and she send me a pic of everything set up in her new place. When I showed my husband and we laughed because it was how we started out. We planned those purchases, spent the extra money on what we wanted and it was all we had for so many years – just those items in our small little space that was more than enough. Then our houses got bigger, new furniture replaced it, and the old was banished to the basement.
Our basement has become a version of our past homes. It seems full of everything we own that is still useful, things we still like but don’t need, lots of stuff we thought represented us but we have changed over the years. And lots and lots and lots of shoes and kids clothes. Long story short, we have enough in our basement to furnish a whole other house. Another long story short, it makes all of our basement space totally unusable.
Minimalism is a slow, slow journey. I feel like I’m constantly fighting what is brought IN to the home as much as struggling to usher out what needs to go. Either way, this basement purge is slowly getting closer to basement reno-ready. I know you might be thinking we are crazy to get rid of the panelling and plaster feature walls, but I’m pretty sure there are many air molecules that met untimely deaths in these materials, they need to go.
Even more so, we need to take back ownership of our square footage. I have a whole Pinterest boards dedicated to what we want to DO in this space, rather than what we want to STORE in this space. This basement rec room will one day be a great space for our kids to be active in the cabin fever season. I just need to keep plugging away at purging and warming up my husband to all my elaborate reno plans. He totally loves hearing the words, “so…I saw this thing on Pinterest……”
Follow Simple on Purpose’s board Playroom Pinspiration on Pinterest.
Is there a room in your house that needs purging?
Make sure to visit Sarah from Sarah on Purpose, this week she is talking about no clutter gifts for Mother’s Day!
My school room needs a good once over. And then there’s upstairs… Renos start soon up there, but right now it’s the place where old hobbies and keepsakes go the die.
We all have that ‘room’ that is a catch all eh.
Living in a condo downtown we have no choice but to be minimalist! Family of 5 and a dog…and my husband works from home all in our 1200 sqf condo. It’s not a super tiny space but there isn’t much room for storage or keeping things that we don’t use. Everything must have a purpose and must be used regularly. We do have an off site storage locker for luggage and Christmas decor but other than we purge all the time!
Wow! That is an impressive feat to have a family of five in 1200. Have any tips? haha