Oh God The Garage

So - this minimalism thing. It's going really well. I'm doing a second pass on a lot of rooms.

But the biggest challenge was always going to be The Garage.

As you can see (if you're easily shocked, look away now).

Worthy of Hoarders, really. Walking through it required delicate choreography.

So much of this has been lugged from house to house, from garage to garage, for years ... decades, in some cases. And there's a reason this stuff is in the garage, and not the house — we don't use it. So much stored because it's 'special mementos', or 'just in case', or for 'one day when I get back to it' ...

So, on 1st January, I made a start. I've been working through every single box, sorting through every single piece of paper, every book, every cup — every single bloody thing. I'm scanning things like business records, and then shredding them. Scanning old letters, school reports and the kids' drawings and recycling them. Fucking mountains of stuff on Freecycle. Several loads to Salvos, and several to the tip.

It was pretty disheartening at first, I'd work for hours, and it wouldn't look any different. And the thousands of little decisions to make, never-ending. I've been bringing in boxes to the house, to sort through (and for family members to sort through), so the house still looks like we're moving. It's not surprising I've put this task off for so many years!

After a few weeks of daily work — every morning before I started work for the day, and for hours and hours every weekend — it looked like this. Look, yes, that's actual floor you can see.

I've even gone through all the boxes and albums of photos, and turned this:

... into this:

(My ongoing project is to scan them all, throw out crap and duplicate photos (which I've already started in a first pass), and redo the photo albums. The negatives have been stored in a box, too.)

And as of yesterday, the garage is looking pretty good. A few boxes of personal papers (like diaries) are stored under the table, stocks of my Canberra Puzzle Books are stored on the shelves, and empty (empty!!) plastic boxes are stacked for future use at the side. A fraction of Son's glassworking gear is to the right :

Look! Walking room! The big pile of boxes above is what Hubby has to sort through — there's a limit as to what I can do alone. Well — I'd throw it all out, to be honest, but he'd object. And the tools and scraps-of-wood collections need work. 

But all that remains is for me is to clear out the pigeon holes, and then do a final reorganisation of the few boxes and things we do need to store, and get the furniture into a better layout. We could still get rid of more, I'm sure, but for a first 'catastrophic' pass, this has been pretty successful.

Pigeons holes last week ...

And this week ... now I can actually get to them, to clean them out!

And post-cleaning ....

Son still has his glass workshop in the garage, which takes up a quarter of the space. Maybe he'll let me help him tidy that up too (or maybe not!). 

I think I deserve some champagne ... but I'll hold off til it's completely done. Then I can stop being quite so obsessed. I think.

Minimalism

Something rather surprising and unexpected happened to me in early November. I was removing the black shelving from the back of my desk, and wondering how to paint the laminate white, in accordance with my new décor goals.

And I suddenly looked at all the STUFF that I'd removed from those shelves — and was hit by the realisation that I didn't need all that stuff on my desk. I didn't want it there. I practically never used it.

Surrounded by all the gumpf on my office floor, I did what any sane person would do ... I hit the web. I read a few 'decluttering' blogs, and then stumbled upon Miss Minimalist's blog. I read. The mist descended ...

... A few hours later, I stumbled from my room. I saw everything in a new light. Minimalism was a thing I'd never heard of — frugal living, green living, all these, yes — they have similar methods, goals and outcomes, and I've worked at them in the past, but the philosophy of minimalism struck to my heart.

For years I have felt massively weighed down by our STUFF, all the belongings and clutter we haul from place to place. I used to feel envious of those nomads who could pack up everything in a few bags, hop on a camel, and head off, at a moment's notice. Well, I wasn't envious about the camels ...

I downloaded Miss Minimialist's (Frances Jay's) book The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize and Simplify Your Life to my iPad (it seemed a little weird to order a physical book about the minimalist life!). I kept reading. From Miss Minimalist I ventured to other blogs. The Minimalists is another one I like.

Image from Apartment Therapy

Several things in Frances' book really made sense to me personally. A big one for me was the relentless drive for perfection ... you buy another set of measuring cups because the ones you have aren't quite perfect enough. Once everything in your home is perfect, then will life be perfect? I know that this drive to 'find the best X' really was a problem for me. Kitchenware was especially a problem, my big weakness (not shoes or handbags, but garlic presses and cookie cutters). I would get the 'wanties', and with online buying being so easy nowadays, we had a weekly parade of delivery vans at our door ... (mind you, a lot of them are for Glass Son's glass supply deliveries).

I also found Frances' methods very effective ... tip everything out of a drawer, shelf, or cupboard, and assume it's all going. Only put back in the things you choose to keep! This is such a different mind-set from the 'throw out the stuff you don't want' tactic.

Since that epiphany, I have gone through nearly everything in the house at least once. I'm better at the process now, and am having a second go at rooms. I've done the bedroom, ensuite, office, pantry, linen cupboard, kitchen (that was a big one), the living room, dining room, books, and even my yarn stash. It's addictive, I can't stop working on it ...

I've unsubscribed from shop / sale site email lists. I've cancelled catalogue mail outs. I even deleted my lengthy 'lent to' list, where I was keeping track of who had which books or things I'd lent out ... let them keep them.

I reckon I've given away about half of our belongings now, but I'm not done yet ... 75% is my goal. I have a bit of a reputation in Freecycle Canberra. Most of my books went to Lifelife for their famous annual book fair. I donated yarn to a local nursing home. Friends have taken things off my hands. Doggy toys have been passed on to animal shelters (how many chewy toys do two chihuahuas need, after all?!). I sold some stuff (books, yarn, and designer label clothes) on eBay. There's been a few trips to the local tip. Each time something leaves, a little more weight lifts.

Image from The Minimalists

The upheaval and mess surrounding this process has been massive ... it looks like we're moving house. But I think the place is starting to look better now.

Here are a few before and after photos ...

My filing cabinet. I went from 4 drawers jam packed to only one. Papers with personal information on them were shredded before being recycled.

And the laundry ... I gave away several boxes of things we never used (duplicates of cleaners, floor wax, nappy soak, and so on). 

Because I'm not just tidying up, but getting rid of nearly everything, and only keeping what we actually use and need, the rooms aren't getting messy any more. You would not believe how much easier it is to keep the kitchen clean now, with half the amount of crockery, cutlery, cooking pots, bowls, and so on. How many knives or mixing bowls can you use at once, anyway?

Miss Minimalist's Short Guide to Consumer Disobedience really struck a chord for me, too. What is completely staggering to me is how I can now go to a shopping mall, walk around, and feel completely unaffected by the advertising and sales and all the stuff in all the shops — yes, even the kitchenware shops — I test myself by going into them. I can step into a bookshop and come out with nothing. No more wanties.

In the past six weeks I have bought about three things that weren't food, bills, postage, petrol, or medicine. A few pieces of Japanese fabric from a shop I wasn't likely to visit again, some net curtains to replace torn ones, and four teaspoons.

When I've cut back on spending before it because we had to, and were poor, or trying to be frugal. I could do it, but felt deprived. I was being strong, but fighting my desire to buy things. Now, with a minimalist view on life, I don't actually want things any more. I don't feel deprived at all.

I have been challenging myself every step of the way, and doing things like finding homes for sentimental items, like a little ceramic chipmunk from Mexico, from when I lived in Arizona as a child. I can remember living there, and I don't need to keep a knick knack to remind myself. I took a photo of it, and then let it go.

I met another minimalist, with years' experience under his belt to my weeks', on Freecycle; he and his family only replace things when they get broken. And no, he wasn't some long-haired hippy, he was a softly-spoken distinguished British gentleman.

The family has been supportive too. Hubby has halved his wardrobe, and is thrilled that I'm doing all this (especially as I'm doing it, and he doesn't have to!). Dotter has started to work on her room. Don't think Glass Son has done much, but there's only so much you can hope for, hey?

This is very much an ongoing process ... rooms need to be revisited, I'm getting better at culling and making the hard decisions as time goes on, and there's the daily battle against new stuff coming into the house. I want to digitise our whole photo collection, and remove the originals from the house.

But with each success over each area, whether a drawer or a room or an attitude, I can feel our life becoming simpler and easier. This is more than just 'decluttering', it's a philosophy of life. Lighter living on this planet. Less consumerism. Less clutter. Less housework. More time for the important stuff, like family, friends, and enjoyment of life.

Now, I just need to survive my nemesis. The Garage. Oh god, the horror ...

(If you'd like to venture into this minimalism world too, I strongly recommend reading Miss Minimalist's blog posts. Take it a little at a time!)

Freezer Meals - Obsessed? Who me?

I'm in the midst of a short stint as a magazine editor, and by the end of the day working in an office, and all the driving, I'm completely worn out — all I want to do when I get home is collapse into a chair with my knitting, in front of the telly. But there is this distressing need to ingest food every single  night (can you believe it?!), and a family of four to feed, with — ideally — nutritious meals.

I quickly discovered that I couldn't afford a Jeeves, and the realities of a family consumed by chronic illness means They are often too unwell to help in the kitchen ... so I decided to give the recent 'fad' for 'cooking in advance and freezing' a try.

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

This has made such a difference to us! Last weekend I chose eight dishes to make in double or triple quantities. Admittedly, buying all the groceries and then cooking it all is quite a feat — it took me all day, and was possibly a tad over the top. It would have been sensibler to have started with four or five dishes, not eight.

BUT.

IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT.

It is so delightfully easy to come home and just defrost something, or for someone else in the family to put the contents of a packet into the slow cooker, and turn it on.

This weekend I've made a couple more dishes to restock the freezer, but I've actually run out of room in the freezer. Ooopsies. I am seriously considering getting a small chest freezer to accommodate more meals.

While cooking all those meals at once is admittedly a lot of work, it's easier than doing one meal at a time because:

• You don't have to put all the groceries away when you get home, if you just start cooking with them right away. Make a day of it!
• You can buy in bulk if you want, which reduces your cost per meal.
• You've got all your cooking gear out, which makes it easier to do multiple meals at once.
• You're making double or triple batches of each dish, so one lot of prep leads to two or three meals.
•  You can lug out the food processor to chop veggies en masse (rather than wielding your knife or grater).
• Yes, there's a lot of washing up, but it means you have minimal washing up during the week.

Some tips I've come up with in my very limited experience so far:

• Look for family favourite recipes that can be frozen, and either fully cook them, or partially prepare them. Avoid anything too heavily creamy (or put instructions on the bag about what dairy etc to add on thawing).
• Fling the ingredients for a stew, soup, or curry into the bag, ready to cook (see pic above, of Massaman Curry in a bag). I like to fry the meat first, but all the other ingredients can just be tossed into the bag, without mixing.
• Use a food processor to make heaps of grated carrot, diced onion, chopped celery etc. I like to add finely chopped 'stealth veggies' to various dishes, where my kids won't notice them. And yes, they're in their 20s, and still aren't great at veggies  :p
• Label large ziplock bags with the name of the meal, the date, and instructions on how to finish cooking, and/or the recipe book it's from.
• Decant the cooled meals into large ziplock bags. It's important that they're not still warm when you put them in the freezer! Don't make your ice cream melt, not that I'd know anything about that at all ...
• Put a baking tray into your freezer, as a flat surface for the bags to lie on as they freeze.
• Do a large batch of meals to start with, and then top up with a few meals cooked on weekends after that, to replenish what you use during the week.

I used to do a weekly menu plan, of seven dishes, and buy everything for those dishes, but found it a massive amount of planning, which I often avoided, plus I still had to make each dish after a full work day. This is so much easier, as you only have to choose a few dishes at a time!

These are the meals I've made so far. Get inspiration from your crock pot cookbooks, and there are a bunch of other resources, a lot of other bloggers have recipes and tricks and tips. I've pinned links to some on my Pinterest Food and Drink board.

• 'Porcupine' meatballs (meatballs with rice in them - to be cooked in slow cooker)
• Massaman Beef Curry (cook in slow cooker)
• Lemon Pepper Chicken (breasts in marinade, to be fried)
• Tuna Bolognese Sauce (heat and serve over pasta)
• Veal Pizzaiola (defrost and bake)
• Pumpkin Curry (cook in slow cooker)
• Risotto (reheat and serve)
• Chilli con Carne (reheat and serve)
• Chicken-Stuffed Roast Potatoes (bake)
• Shredded meat from a roast chook (to use in other dishes as needed)