We have too much!!!
Too much clothing, too much rich food, too many toys, too many distraction devices, too much "free" time, too many space holders, too many books (that go unread), too many... just too much everything!
Now... I am of course speaking from a place of privilege. As a white, middle class woman who lives in a first world country I have a lot that many people in this world lack. Though I've come to notice that most of what I have does not generate happiness or a better life for me... most of what I have just seems to collect dust and need constant organizing and maintenance!
It's important to be aware of privilege when talking about decluttering or becoming minimalist because there are so many people who's life cannot be improved by owning less socks. I also do not seek to romanticize the idea of owning less because I am aware that there are so many out there who really could use, among other things, that pair of socks.
That said, my big project currently is downsizing everything my family of four owns so that we can move in (temporarily) with my parents in an attempt to pay off our student loan debt so we can return to our lavish lifestyle in our 850 square foot house in the city ;) hint: I'm a bit frustrated that our student loan debt has made it so difficult for us to live our simple, one income life in our small house. Oh well... It is time for me to let of that and move on (I'm still working on the letting go!)
Moving on.
I do not own an insane amount of clothes... and neither do my babies. But since the four of us will be living in 1.5 rooms for the next two years we need to be very picky about what we will take with us.
Here was my pile of clothes before decluttering:
I had two bins of clothes that were either too big (left over from pregnancy), out of season, or just stuff I didn't wear. Then I had a drawer full of out of season clothes that I wasn't wearing, and a laundry basket of clothes I was wearing (because there was no room in my drawer I couldn't put stuff away.) So, you can see from this photo that it's not an insane amount of clothes. If, like most people in the USA, I had my own dresser and closet these close would all fit quite nicely. But, in our home, I share a dresser with my wife and have no closet. We will have a closet when we move to my parent's home but we will have much more than just my clothes to store there.
My method was to sort all of my clothes by type. Shirts, pants/shorts, socks, underwear, bras, exercise stuff, and pajamas. The two biggest piles were exercise stuff and shirts. I have a lot of weather specific exercise stuff... so I must be that guy who is out running in ALL the weather... nope... I do dream of being that guy, but I'm just me. I play roller derby and sometimes I cross train. I want to exercise more, but having a great big pile of exercise stuff hasn't helped me yet, so most of that got the ax!
The t-shirts were a little harder to declutter... I don't feel as though I have a specific style. I just put on a shirt and pants and move forward. But I have always wanted a style. So I've tried lots of different shirt/pant combos to find that style. It's hard to let go of a shirt that is just waiting for the perfect pair of leggings to finally unveil my style. So, here I have decided to let go of the ides of having a style.
Here is a photo of almost everything I kept. (There is a dress that's already packed away since it isn't good for breastfeeding, the clothes I was wearing, and some stuff that was dirty.) Everything in the bin is out of season clothes. The stuff on the floor fit into my 1.5 drawers in our dresser.
Here is my discard pile... which actually got bigger recently as I found a bin of more clothes from pregnancy. Since I'm back to my old size now and I'm not interested in getting pregnant again all of that stuff is moving on.
This is my big drawer. I still think I have too much exercise stuff... Most of it is roller derby jerseys. I think I have three sets of black and white scrimmage tops! I don't know why it's so hard to part with them... But I think they will find there way out in a future purge. Pants/shorts on the right. T-shirts and tank tops in the middle. Pajamas and exercise stuff on the left.
This is my little drawer. Bras and underwear on the left. Swim suit and socks on the right.
And that's it. That's everything that remains.
For me... Now on to babies!
We are VERY fortunate to have received a large amount of hand me down clothes from friends. As much as I would love to buy all of my own baby clothes (from sustainable and ethical sources of course) and create a really cute baby style for them, it just isn't in the cards for us. Babies can be expensive, and twins can be REALLY expensive. But, when you have very little money, babies can also be surprisingly simple to maintain with a minimalist approach.
Here is the vast amount of baby clothes I currently have. (And I do believe this is the third time I have culled their clothing!) I also have a TON of receiving blankets. The clothes in the foreground were all in their tiny closet. And the clothes in the back were in bins in the basement waiting for the girls to grow into them.
My process here was the same as with my clothes. I sorted everything into type. I also had a discard pile for things that are too small or just not something I want to use with them. Since they are now nine months old I've gotten a better idea of what clothes work best with our lifestyle (Our babies wear clothe diapers with wool covers, which a pretty bulky, so a lot of baby clothes just don't work well)
Here were the categories I had: long sleeve onesies, short sleeve onesies, pants, shorts, pajamas, dresses/rompers, socks, stockings, bathing suit, shirts, tank tops, jackets and hats.
I decided that if I do laundry twice a week I should need to following:
5-7 short sleeve onesies
5-7 long sleeve onesies
4 pairs of pants
0 shorts
(none of the shorts I had fit nicely over our diapers... and our diaper covers work well enough on their own as shorts)
4 pajama sets
10 dresses/rompers
5-7 socks
2 stockings (that's all we have anyway)
1 bathing suit (again, that's all we have)
6 tank tops/t-shirts
2 hats
2 hoodies
This is everything I kept for BOTH girls. And the main reason I tried to keep to those numbers was because I had so many things I loved. My mom knits beautiful things for them, and we have received some really cute things as gifts. Not to mention the fact that the hand me downs we have received were in great condition and super cute too! I honestly had a really hard time downsizing the dresses and rompers. So I have decided to keep more than 10... I think we have 16! As the girls grow out of them I will not be replacing them until I get to about 6. Then I think that will be a good number.
Here is what their closet looks like now. On the hangers are all the dresses and rompers. In the left box is onesies and tanktop/shirts. In the right box is hoodies and hats. Then there is a box you can't see that has 6 blankets and their socks.
The rest of the stuff I kept is in just one bin. I only kept a few of the long sleeve onesies and pants out since it's so warm here now. I really do look forward to downsizing this even more as they grow out of stuff.
I'm lucky to have babies that don't spit up much, so we can get away with very little. When they were super tiny they would stay in the same sleeper for 2-3 days! They are just starting to become mobile and I really hope they love to dig in the dirt and play with sticks!! Lol... so this kind of minimalist wardrobe might not work so well in a year, but we shall see.
I'd love to hear what you think about minimalist wardrobes! Do you think this could work for you? What would be the hardest part about downsizing?
Thanks for reading :)
