***BONUS VIDEO!*** HEY EVERYONE! I had a lot of people notice something under the dresser at the end - so if you want to see what was under there, I just made a bonus video that can be seen on my facebook page: facebook.com/messyminimalist
Hey girl, I have a question. As a minimalist how do you deal with gifts during the holidays or birthdays? I mean let's be real we have all gotten that strange kitchen utensil we never use or a weird tech gadget lol. I feel like it's hard for me to say no to them but I also don't want my family to buy things I am never ever going to use. Plus I feel guilty letting the item go so they just stack in my house! Would it be to bossy for me to give them a list? They don't necessarily need to buy me that product on the list but something close to it etc. Many thanks!
Hey Lesly! Well first - I'm not a very 'textbook' minimalist...I'm still very much finding my groove ;-) But that aside, since we've begun our journey, we've been VERY vocal anytime a gift-giving opportunity comes up (xmas, daughter birthday, hubby's, and now Easter). When others ask what we want, we say, "nothing! Your love, or some baked goods please!...seriously, we DO NOT need gifts!" Or for birthdays, we've started saying, "we are buying this one big gift of _______, and it costs $_____. Want to pitch in on it?" This helps a lot. Everyone seems pretty willing to pitch in on big ticket items, and it insures what we don't collect a bunch of unnecessary stuff. An example was my hubby's birthday this march -- we all pitched in on a nice composter. ...:) reality is we were going to buy one anyway, but family members still felt like they were able to give. Hope this helps a little? Good luck!!
Lesly, My family makes it almost mandatory to bring Xmas lists to thanksgiving dinner. List, or you don't eat until you write one up! Lol! You could always do a wish list online and ask them to refer to that if they wanted helpful ideas! We still get stuff that I don't want in our house anyways, so I've just asked ahead of time for gift receipts. For everything.. It might sound over the top, but sometimes clothes don't fit, sometimes they already have it, and other times you just really don't like it.. so gift receipts defiantly opens up that option for returns! plus then you can get that other thing you needed instead! We donate the gifts sometimes, ReGift them, or I might even post them on a garage sale site for a bit lower then stores sell them for, if they are worth the time. I don't like throwing stuff away and adding to the landfill piles, so I make it a point to set boundaries for myself and my family. Hope I could help a bit too!!
Hey, thanks! That would bug me forever :-) Also, It's kinda hard to browse back through 3 months of posts. My tip for you is to make an unlisted youtube video and link it to this one in a notification or description or in the (i) icon in the corner.
one of the things that worked well with my girls is that we did declutter before Christmas and birthdays. We told them that we needed to make space for the new stuff coming in, so that they would learn the link between making space before getting more stuff. Then we would take them with their box to a local children's hospital to give the donation personally. The hospital always followed up with a written thank you that we would frame and put on their wall. By the time they got to school age, they were always excited for declutter time and the focus became about what would the sick children like, more than I have to give away my stuff.
My 2 year old son, Bentley, loves cleaning his room with me. When I get rid of his toys I tell him that they will go to kids that don't have these toys. He feels so good giving away his toys that he NEVER plays with. He even puts them in a bag and tells me he doesn't want it. I'm so proud every time we do it. 😁😁 New subscriber by the way. Loving your videos so far, especially the organization videos. 😁 That is my biggest issue, organization. 🙄 can't wait to watch more. God bless. 😊
I love her mountain wall!! I also don't personally mind having beds straight on the ground, cool for her too so she doesn't roll and fall off her bed overnight.
Thank you! I did that a couple months ago (and didn't quite finish it... whoops!). And yeah, our kiddo is a 'roller' at night so the floor bed really works for her!
I've heard that having a mattress straight on the floor can lead to mould, so for a long term solution you can put them on pallets? just so there is some air circulating
Messy Minimalist, do tell - what was the dresser hiding from you? Please don't take our comments about this "personally". You are so wonderful and I hate it if you took these comments badly. You give great advice that inspires me - and I feel really motivated to do some area of declutter when I watch your videos. Great mix of friendly discussion "thought experiment"-> quick video declutter -> closing comments. Works for me!! Thanks and keep these videos coming.
Her room looks like such a lovely place to play and imagine and grow. Apologies for the barrage of comments. I'm an unabashed binger when I stumble upon a new fantastic channel!
I don't have kids, but I work in childcare. lol. Today I started helping the preschool room staff to get rid of stuff. My minimalist mind was screaming the entire time and I just kept asking staff...Why ...why do you have this?. lol. I am the cook at the centre (and I keep things so clean that I just usually toddle along waiting for dishes to come back to the kitchen to be washed) and I plan to now help out every minute I can. I even gave up my breaks to help, because I was having so much fun doing it. lol. I've always been a minimalist when it comes to work. When I was a room leader my preschool room was minimal. I kept only what I needed out. Everything else was put away all neat in storage, and I would rotate the toys and books, so that each week it seemed like there was something new (even though that centre was stingy and the 2 years I worked there we didn't get anything new). But I learnt to make do with what we had. At this centre there is excess of stuff. The centre has been open for almost 30 years. There is a lot of stuff. I was finding old artwork from 1998. That's just stupid to keep.
I'm definitely trying to teach my son (14 months) to appreciate and take care of his things. I use a Montessori-inspired method: only part of his toys is out and "displayed" on an open shelf (one toy per section and small alike things in bins on that same shelf) where he can get to it. He will put lot of it back by himself with or without being prompted and he actually enjoys it a lot because it's clear where everything belongs!
Nice - I'd like to try to do this a little more. Our kiddo's daycare does a similar method (not montessori, but has some cross-over). That's really cool to hear a 14 month old putting away his toys. Good job!
I do the same in regards to doing a first sweep. Sometimes we don't know for sure what our kids really find value in. To have that test period is a lifesaver. It has saved me from being the villain a few times. To make decisions on what to keep, I observe my child before a big purge to see what toys are bringing out her most imaginative side. Currently she is playing with her older sisters old My Little Pony figures. Yes, they are plastic and have crazy rainbow hair and cartoony faces, but she is creating stories and spending lots of playtime with them. Things that sit untouched or get very little attention- that goes into bags for about a week, then off to charity if she doesn't notice. Great video!
ah, cute :) I love hearing them make up stories! And yes, I love your term 'being the villain' because that's SO right! It has also saved my butt on more than one occasion. Sometimes it takes you off guard to even hear the request for something they haven't seen in a week... I'm like, "Uhhh, you want...THAT toy??" ;-) lol
I agree that it helps to plan at least the night before. I make a list of tasks I want to do at the beginning of each week and break it up by days and that seems to be helping. Watching videos on people de-cluttering similar spaces also helps me. I don't have kids but I think it's great to at least give them the option of learning to have a more minimalist environment. Less chaos is always better and I wish my family had done so. Instead I learned to develop unhealthy attachments to objects. Especially as my grandmother was a hoarder, so bad I grew up thinking a room in the house was a hallway. I used to help my little sister clean her room and she had that "mine" attachment so bad I couldn't throw away certain wrappers because she had developed sentimental value to it! Wish I had known these methods then, so smart! Love the mural on the wall. Great job, it looks so nice after! As for the clothes that don't fit, what about a box or basket you can throw those in at the moment so you will know it can be donated?
I really appreciate that you show it like it is. That room was messy! I wish I could say my house has never been that messy, but it TOTALLY has. Lol. Thanks for keeping it real. I hate seeing cleaning videos where the house is spotless and the you tuber is like "Oh I'm so embarrassed! My house is so messy!"
I too am going through my own messy to "minimalist" rebirth. Recently I had my husband take the kids out and did a huge purge. The books and toys that remained I divided into 4 bins and my plans is to rotate the toys with the season. We moved recently and left a box of toys in the garage for 3 months, when we brought it out it was like Christmas, you'd think they were brand new! They were so excited. Well done on her room!
Another awesome video! Love your end clips!!! We have toys downstairs and a toy box upstairs in a cupboard and alternate between them and the enjoyment of "new" toys is wonderful to see but we still don't have many and they are all learning toys or ones to get the imagination going. Every now and then as we switch them over we give some to charity shops or trade with friends. We've even turned some into plant pots for outside so they can grow there own vegetables, flowers and build homes for little animals. As they both get older we are going to have a sack for them both at Christmas so they can choose for themselves which toys they want to give other children to enjoy. We have a bit if a problem with clothes (a lot still have tags on) but sizes vary so much from shop to shop the only way you can tell is by putting them on. We've started to let our kitties ones choose what they want to wear this way we can see what they actually want to wear and what they kinda skip on each time (helps cut them down too and helps you decided on what to buy in the future).
Great! Love your videos and your personality. As a mother myself I have 2 tips for your regarding kids clothing: keep an empty box on the shelf in the closet to toss in "too small" clothes. And if you put cute picture labels on the drawers of shirts/pants/socks etc. your kid can start to dress herself a little easier. I use labeled bins and never fold little kids clothes :X
So satisfying to watch this transformation in warp speed! Thanks for another fabulous video!I love your animals, who are just as interested in this as I am!
I worked as a nanny for many years, and can definitely attest to most kids having way too many toys, most of which go unplayed with. Also, way too many soft stuffed animals (like, mountains of stuffed animals), when they only like to hold or play with one of them, usually their favourite! If you must have lots of toys, I like the concept of putting some away in a box, and swapping them out each month. That way, it feels like you just got a bunch of new toys!
Kirsty H this is what I came to comment - when I was a kid my parents would take half of our toys and hide them away, then every 3-6 months or so they would switch them out and it was like having brand new toys! it saves money on new toys. If they are asking for new toys you can even let them "shop" the stash of toys
jennananabatman I think I'm going to try this. I've gotten rid of so many toys, like a huge bag full of them and it's still Never ending. I just had my kid pull out some more the other day that he doesn't use. I think I'm going to try this out.
I don't have kids yet, but I am a household personal assistant for a couple that has two messy kids under 4. Your videos are so satisfying to watch because I obviously love to organize and clean (since it's my job) and I love seeing that you're getting that satisfaction too. :)
Love your tips about having a plan the night before, and having a period of two weeks when you have removed stuff they might notice. Keep up the great work, you are inspiring lots of people! 💕
Haha the cute kitty in the drawer at end gave me a chuckle. I have a cat, too. Wonderful as always, Rachel! I'd love it if you'd recap at end with before-&-after photos, or slow camera pans.
I'm a mum of 9 and my youngest is 2, I totally agree that you should do it behind their back, you are usually aware of your kids favourite toys and keep those so I feel its fine. to encourage them to tidy I would say teach them to make the bed, throw laundry where it needs to go and put toys away b4 bed. my 2yr old daughter loves to help and loves the praise she gets,you did a great job, love the long curtain/ fort.
girl, i live about 20 minute drive from the ocean (the Pacific) let me tell you, dust is nothing when you have sand. We've gone through about 20+ vacuums trying to find one that won't die from all of the collection of wet and dry sands from outside. It's in the soil and the air and there's no way to get away from it. Carpet is not at all advised when leaving near a beach! I don't have kids (i can't but it's cool cuz i helped raise all of my nieces and my nephew and i was a nurse so that's totally almost the same thing!) but i did stay till the end because i love before and afters :D
We just now got my kids room officially set up for them. I live in a really nice 2 bedroom single wide trailer house. My kids are 3 and 1 1/2. I'm embarrassed to say we have lived in this house for two years and our kids slept in pack n plays in our room. The other room was a catch all. I had enough and my beautiful amazing mom came over for 3 days and brought dressers over and dejunked my entire house. We set them up in the other room my oldest with a toddler bed and my youngest in a pack n play. They are loving it. They each have there own dresser of clothes that is organized similar to konmarie method and toys are on a set of shelves with bins that they can access. It is staying pretty well organized and I feel like I can breathe :)
Hi Rachel i just wanted to thank you, you have been my constant pal while i went through this process. i pop your videos on and feel encouraged hearing you in the back ground making your donate decisions. if you can, i can is my thought process I'm about half way through. its really changed how i feel about my possessions anyway THANKS Sammy, Wales , Uk
Great video, just a thought, a 2 year old may not remember stuff after 2 weeks, but older kids need a much longer 'grace period' - about 2-6 months. I got rid of a big box that had been in limbo for about a year, the other day, she asked me for something that had been donated -she's 8 years old... 😓 guilty! Felt really bad about it. Kids have long memories. Mine gets attached to clothes, I keep it mostly in check by saying that these stretchy clothes won't last long and need to be worn before they lose their elastic. Cotton clothes are all stored in one big box for her future 'baby' haha.
Paper Kawaii - Origami Tutorials my kid is also 8. I have him go though his toys and fill a laundry basket up. He started making piles of "maybe's" all on his own. I tell him that when he has less stuff there's more room to play. The maybe stuff stays and a while later I ask again. He typically lets it go then. I also give him a limit on how many of the same items he can keep. For instance, he writes a lot. He has a bin with papers, notebooks, and other writing stuff. He can fill one pencil case with pencils/pens and the bin with paper type stuff. What he can't make fit must go. He has become very good at this since I've had him help me with it.
I agree, not that every kid is like this but I can remember my mom doing this to my brother and I when we were little and we would be very upset when a few weeks went by and it was just gone out of the blue. Obviously we were older that 2 or 3 because we could remember it, but I definitely think they needs some additional time to be able to go through it with them, maybe once or twice in a years time and then that should give them enough time to be ready to part with it. Also be sure to involve them as it wasn't so much an issue for me but I know it did bother my brother quite a lot.
I think it really depends on age and maybe also on your child. For a 2 year old the method mentioned in the video seems fine but for an older child I would definitely involve the child more. That way, the child will learn to be organised on its own eventually.
In that case, you either say, “ I dunno what happened to it, probably got lost somewhere along the way.” Or be up front and say “You haven’t thought about that toy for an entire year. So it sat and sat and sat when the toy could’ve been enjoyed by someone else that whole time. And our house isn’t a storage unit. Sorry!”
I’ve been watching your videos while I do small tasks (I can’t clean a whole room and watch 😂) and it’s so satisfying! It’s like we’re cleaning together. I’m tackling a kitchen drawer now!
i have been binge watching your videos and love them. i think the same thing about young kids. im lucky my 6 year old helps me declutter and tells me what toys he doesn't want anymore, but my younger kids are not as easy. i always tell them we are going to give them to other kids. i enjoy watching your videos so much because i have never been a hoarder and never had a lot of stuff and now i dont have very much at all so i watch you clean and think how freeing that must feel. i almost wish i had more stuff so that i could purge again lol.
I had a similar problem with my mother and her boyfriend, who served time in the military. He had a bunch of friends who passed away. Being that, he also accumulated a lot of memorabilia from his fallen comrades. I suggested that he clean the place once, but gave me a look that I won’t forget. Shortly thereafter, during a small stint at a reunion for fallen soldiers, I called for the services of Jux Los Angeles, a garage and attic cleaning / reorganization company, based in southern a California. My mother’s boyfriend wasn’t pleased with what I had done at first. As a week passed by since the renovation, much to his chagrin, he had to tell me that the place looked so different and that now, he has a place where he can honor his brothers and sisters; in his garage ( I made it extra special and hung up some uniforms his comrades wore on the garage walls…)
I love your channel! You always motivate me! My husband saw me watching this and said we need a master bedroom declutter video to watch lol. Our bedroom is the dumping ground for when I don't know where to put something. As far as kids rooms less toys are key for our kids' rooms. When they have too many toys they forget what they have and everything is just a big mess. Thanks for the great tips!
Great job Mama! I just tackled the nursery on Sunday. It felt so good getting all the clothes that no longer fit properly and all the baby junk we didn't use this time around packed away!
We use clear totes that stack well in the garage to store their different sizes of clothing. Labeled with either pink or blue tape, as we have a daughter 2 1/2 years and a son 1 1/2 years old, with the sizes written on the tape. I really dread going through their dresser and closest when they move up a size. Taking all the small clothes and deciding which clothes I want to keep and put away in the totes, as we want more kids and the clothes I love I want our future children to wear. Deciding what clothes to give away, and then getting the new sizes down...... its a lot of work. We also have a new rule about toys. Recently I went through and donated five boxes of toys that they just never played with. After this, and knowing that my family will not stop buying toys for them for every occasion, I decided we needed a rule. When ever we get a new toy: A) We do not have to keep that toy, if we do not like it, we do not have to keep it just because it was a gift and might hurt some ones feelings. B) If we want to keep a new toy, we MUST go through all of our existing toys and donate one of equal or larger size.
I'm happy to say my three year olds room is the only room with a spotless floor. Possibly guilty of one too many stuffies and a few smaller clothes but I'm trying so hard not to encourage my daughter to have a room like I did when I was young where I had stepping stones though the covered in junk floor. Great video.
So inspiring! I have been tidying my son's playroom spending an hour or so a day. So, it's great to watch this video just before today's session. Now I'm pumped to do it!!
I am new to your channel and have been watching your videos all day as I finally start to clean my house that has gotten out of control. I love them all and will probably watch again... The music during the time lapse had kept me motivated lol. I also love that wall!!! We will probably be moving in the next year and I want to do that for my oldest daughter (younger one wouldn't notice yet). I agree that I want them not to be oblivious to clutter. I realize that I have been starting bad habits in my 10 yr old... Thank you so much. Your channel is fantastic
No kids but I do love your channel. My mom used to do the same thing with our stuff but it sort of reached an unhealthy level because she never started including us in getting rid of our stuff (which only really worked because we went to boarding school). It took me far to long to realize how much clutter I had because I never really learned to transition from that little kid who wants to keep everything to someone who could keep stuff based on a logical evaluation of it.
One of the things I did was sort the items into categories ( my little pony, dolls, dress up, Legos etc) put each in a bin and put the bins in the top of the closet. They can have on bin at a time. This makes clean up a lot easier and we could keep favorite things without feeling like toys were taking over!
Great job! I bet your daughter loved her room. My daughter has just turned 5 and for the past couple of years I've been talking to her about how some children don't have a lot of things (clothes, toys) so whenever she grows out of clothes or when she gets new toys we go through her old toys and she will say "you can give these to the children with no clothes and no toys".☺
Not a parent and I am not planning to be one anytime soon (but I would love to have a kid) but I still watched this video. I cannot believe how much clothes your kid has... well, had. But it's true, they grow up so fast. One minute a certain piece fits and the next minute it doesn't. Oh and toys. Good thing to have done the cleanup without showing anything to her or you know she would want all of it back and actually use it for a while and then stop. Love her room; the mountains on the wall and all. As she grows up, she'll have an awesome space to be in, too :)
It made me smile because I also painted the walls of my sons' bedroom when they were children, with hills, the sun, balloons and more, and I also had a cat and a dog then. I was unable to get rid of one things though except their too small outfits. They did their declutter themselves later. I still have some stuff that I am going to give away now, they are both adults... I gave a few things to my grandsons. I am too sentimental...
hehe, thanks! I have a feeling I'm not always going to be able to transform it all in a video.. I'm looking at some pretty daunting rooms coming up soon!
Omg! Your lamp is gorgeous!! You should try picking up some microfiber rags! I rinse them in my sink and wash them with dish soap and just hang to dry. they can be machine washed without fabric softener, but don't put them in the dryer. They will pick up everything and are the best! I have the rags for polishing, window(use with NO sprays!), screens..!! I'm addicted to microfiber rags.. AND the dollar stores 'magic erasers'. I cut those into tiny squares before i use them, they last so much longer that way! Lol!!
Another great video! :) I have 3 kids (6, 4, & 1) and I totally understand & agree with your method for managing your daughter's clutter. I'm finding that they're able to start participating in decluttering sessions (aka 'giving to others who need it more than we do') around age 4-5, but it's best to just do it without them before that point. I also agree that too much clutter around kids may set them up for clutter blindness later in life.
Ah - nice. it's always helpful to hear the ages that other people started involving their children. I think 4-5 sounds like an appropriate time as well. So far, my kiddo doesn't think anyone else could possibly 'NEED' anything more than her. ;-) haha
OMG! Dusting your Tiffany Style Dragonfly Lamp... My husband has one on his bedside table and that's exactly what his looks like before I notice and get to dusting it!! : )
we emptied the floor of my child's closet and put 2 large white cubbie units and there are 18 large cubes in total. there are colorful fabric bins in more than half and my daughter's room has no closet doors to help open the space so you can see this and it needs to look nice. for the family that wants to give us things constantly i fill the empty cubbies overfull of stuffed animals to display we have plenty and when my more tidy friends visit I keep the non-colorful bin cubbies totally empty. there is a small hamper to the side of the cubby unit and that covers all the space in the closet floor. on top are her shoes all across the 3 high 6 across cubbies. it works great for us. we also have a large barbie doll house nailed to the wall in the room for more storage if she needs another place to put her stuffed animals. . . those things mulitply1!!!!
Not a parent either but love your videos & get decluttering-inspired from watching this too! :) Went ahead and did some decluttering myself while watching! :D
I'm not a parent but I did work with little kids at a daycare. I've noticed that kids clean up less begrudgingly when they are praised for doing it. If you mention "wow cindy you did such a good job cleaning up so fast you can go get a snack now" or "good job sorting out the toys tyler now you'll know where they are next time you look for them", basically telling them the good thing that'll come out of doing that little chore they don't complain as much. I couldn't declutter the classroom/daycare because those weren't my toys to throw away but it was pure and utter hell tripping over them and stepping on something that would somehow cause swelling in my ankle. Also just making organizing easier too. They don't need a complex system. Blue toys in the blue bin, red toys in the red bin, dolls in the doll bin, cars in the bin with the car stickers, those markers just made it easier for them to look for the toy they wanted but also toss them back in when play time was over.
I love seeing your subscriber count go up!! Great job:) Also, I will be including children in the purging process.. reason being because I want them to understand that we only have a few things and that is great, if it goes above a few things we donate items!! I want them to be involved in donating because giving to people is a great way to teach children compassion. Giving up something they don't play with is such a wonderful stepping stone to their development. Perhaps you will try it when your daughter gets older. I will be doing this purging every time my children have 10 or more toys. That might sound crazy, but our culture, as you state, is consumed with belongings and items (aka materialistic). I would rather them play outside with a couple of toys they love then have a million and be "bored" (I am a babysitter and I babysit for very privileged children that are more involved with the ipad than their own toys that are taking over the house). I want my children to appreciate everything they own because I didn't at all.
I think including them is a good idea. Maybe I'm wrong to keep her so in the dark right now, but when she gets a little older I would like to explain it to her a little more so she can help pick. I love the idea of letting your kiddo 'keep' 10 or so items. I would imagine that also makes it easier for them to decide what to part with and what they still get value/enjoyment/fun of out. Thanks for the comment!
I'll share from personal experience that I remember years later toys "disappearing" and then wondering where'd they'd gone to. My mom would just pitch things on a whim. I was kind of a spacey kid, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have missed them in a two week grace period, but I eventually did miss them. I'm 55 and still lamenting the loss of a favorite stuffed bear. Okay...maybe that's just my weird take on things :)
That's so sad! I have never missed a toy like that.. I'm sorry you're going through that. It does kind of seem like your mom just got rid of things whether or not you actually liked them, which I don't think Racheal's doing. She plans on including them at least somewhat. Even if she doesn't I think the two week period could really work, just incase one toy was a mistake. Hopefully her daughter will speak up if she does miss something.
One thing that has worked with my son who is now 11, that I started at age 2, is going through bins of a category of stuff. I just say, this bin is a little too full, and it is too much work to clean up. Also do this before Birthday and Christmas so that we can say, we need to make more room for new toys and to give these to "kids who don't have toys". We dump it out and have him put in keep, go, maybe piles. Then we add the keeps back into the bin. I say, "it is almost full enough! Can you choose your 3 favorites to keep from the maybe pile?". Once he chooses three is usually more like five, and I say "Okay, we can make room for those...." I then quickly put the other maybes into the go bag and out of site. He is pretty good at this after a bunch of years and while he still has a messy room, he is stellar at dejunking, I never make him get rid of stuff he really doesn't want to. I just tell him.....there is too much in your room and we have to find SOME stuff to let go of. Works pretty well. My other trick is to have four boxes of big sets of many part toys that are "special toys". (Marble Run, A Car and Track Set with tons of little parts, Space Marbles and Vintage Transformers. I get these out to play with in the living room when a friend is over. The room has to be clear first, and the set gets cleaned up after. It is great for bored kiddos and doesn't have to be a part of the daily toy pile.
I LOVE your daughter's room! so cute! The floor bed and the mountains on the wall are so sweet! Sweet as in little kid sweet and also as in AWESOME. So much fun going through these videos again all in one of my cleaning/decluttering sessions and watching your progress! I feel like we have grown together so I am remembering my AHA! moments from these videos and having a few new ones too :) BTW, any chance we could see your vintage trailer that you mentioned in one of your early videos? Maybe before winter hits hard?
Love your videos ., love your talks before so we know where you are coming from and it helps us too .., love your 2 week grace period... I don't have kids .. but still I enjoyed it and looking forward to more
I will have to apply your "incubation " time on my daughters stuff.......and she's 17!! A teenagers room is a nightmare , I don't like to go in there too often!! Xx
Thanks for the video. My daughter is roughly your daughter's age but has twice to thrice the clothes. We do pull out the clothes that she has outgrown and donate to a health clinic that serves the poor that struggle to have everyday items; clothes, shoes, kitchen ware, household products that we decide not to use, toys, books, electronics that are still work, strollers, etc. and also medication that my mother-in-law used when she was in hospice. I do go through and make sure that the batteries in toys, are still good with a voltmeter.
nice - sounds like you've been doing a lot of minimizing! I keep finding that the donation centers we use reject quite a bit of items, which always bums us out a little. I never thought to check with health clinics to see if they have programs like that!
Toy rotation has always worked for us. A bin of toys in the bedroom and one in the living room. Then every month or so they get stored away and two different bins are brought out. That way there's never an overwhelming amount around and my boys were excited by the "new" toys.
I love this - we do them same on a smaller scale. :) And the toys that were put up on the closet shelf are ones she can request when she's ready to play (or notices them again). So we switch those up periodically.
I started my boys at age 2 to think of a toy, book, clothing that doesn't fit to donate to another less fortunate child. We would talk about which toys are not played with and that another child would love a chance to have something to play with or nice clothes to wear. I did not expect them to understand much at the time but now the boys will put toys, clothes aside for donating on their own (they are 5 and 6 now)
Lol the dusty lamp! I know need to dust but I still have too much stuff on all my surfaces. In fact I really need to do an other clothes purge but I'm swamped in schoolwork till May. Also the people at Goodwill probably think there are 20 ladies living in my house
***BONUS VIDEO!*** HEY EVERYONE! I had a lot of people notice something under the dresser at the end - so if you want to see what was under there, I just made a bonus video that can be seen on my facebook page: facebook.com/messyminimalist
Hey girl, I have a question. As a minimalist how do you deal with gifts during the holidays or birthdays? I mean let's be real we have all gotten that strange kitchen utensil we never use or a weird tech gadget lol. I feel like it's hard for me to say no to them but I also don't want my family to buy things I am never ever going to use. Plus I feel guilty letting the item go so they just stack in my house! Would it be to bossy for me to give them a list? They don't necessarily need to buy me that product on the list but something close to it etc. Many thanks!
Hey Lesly! Well first - I'm not a very 'textbook' minimalist...I'm still very much finding my groove ;-) But that aside, since we've begun our journey, we've been VERY vocal anytime a gift-giving opportunity comes up (xmas, daughter birthday, hubby's, and now Easter). When others ask what we want, we say, "nothing! Your love, or some baked goods please!...seriously, we DO NOT need gifts!" Or for birthdays, we've started saying, "we are buying this one big gift of _______, and it costs $_____. Want to pitch in on it?" This helps a lot. Everyone seems pretty willing to pitch in on big ticket items, and it insures what we don't collect a bunch of unnecessary stuff. An example was my hubby's birthday this march -- we all pitched in on a nice composter. ...:) reality is we were going to buy one anyway, but family members still felt like they were able to give. Hope this helps a little? Good luck!!
Messy Minimalist LOL 😂 I was wondering what that was.
Lesly, My family makes it almost mandatory to bring Xmas lists to thanksgiving dinner. List, or you don't eat until you write one up! Lol! You could always do a wish list online and ask them to refer to that if they wanted helpful ideas! We still get stuff that I don't want in our house anyways, so I've just asked ahead of time for gift receipts. For everything.. It might sound over the top, but sometimes clothes don't fit, sometimes they already have it, and other times you just really don't like it.. so gift receipts defiantly opens up that option for returns! plus then you can get that other thing you needed instead! We donate the gifts sometimes, ReGift them, or I might even post them on a garage sale site for a bit lower then stores sell them for, if they are worth the time. I don't like throwing stuff away and adding to the landfill piles, so I make it a point to set boundaries for myself and my family. Hope I could help a bit too!!
Hey, thanks! That would bug me forever :-)
Also, It's kinda hard to browse back through 3 months of posts. My tip for you is to make an unlisted youtube video and link it to this one in a notification or description or in the (i) icon in the corner.
one of the things that worked well with my girls is that we did declutter before Christmas and birthdays. We told them that we needed to make space for the new stuff coming in, so that they would learn the link between making space before getting more stuff. Then we would take them with their box to a local children's hospital to give the donation personally. The hospital always followed up with a written thank you that we would frame and put on their wall. By the time they got to school age, they were always excited for declutter time and the focus became about what would the sick children like, more than I have to give away my stuff.
Ahh, I love this. All of it! Super inspiring and I would like to start doing the same :)
My 2 year old son, Bentley, loves cleaning his room with me. When I get rid of his toys I tell him that they will go to kids that don't have these toys. He feels so good giving away his toys that he NEVER plays with. He even puts them in a bag and tells me he doesn't want it. I'm so proud every time we do it. 😁😁 New subscriber by the way. Loving your videos so far, especially the organization videos. 😁 That is my biggest issue, organization. 🙄 can't wait to watch more. God bless. 😊
aw, that's amazing :) What a sweet guy. I wish my kiddo felt that way too, but she'd like to just keep everything for herself ;-)
I love her mountain wall!! I also don't personally mind having beds straight on the ground, cool for her too so she doesn't roll and fall off her bed overnight.
Thank you! I did that a couple months ago (and didn't quite finish it... whoops!). And yeah, our kiddo is a 'roller' at night so the floor bed really works for her!
When I saw the bed on the floor I thought to myself "that is a cleaver idea" saves bumps and jumps.
It also prevents a lot of junk from getting stashed under the bed
I've heard that having a mattress straight on the floor can lead to mould, so for a long term solution you can put them on pallets? just so there is some air circulating
We had our bed on the ground for a few years and we are adults. My fiancees parents then bought us a bed frame cuz they thought it was weird xD
I don't have kids but I made it until the end because I live for your videos!!!
haha - I'm glad!! Thank you!!
I think I peep a cute pink sock hiding under the dresser. hehe wants to stick around! (:
I too saw it. Maybe she has started to put little 'Easter Eggs' in her videos to see who actually watches haha.
lol! Yep there sure is something there! I'm not sure what it is, but after I get to a few of these comments, I'm going to go look! :)
Kristal E isn't funny how we pick up on things when we watch videos on TH-cam.lol I seen it to .lol
Kristal E you made me look at it all the time :p
Messy Minimalist, do tell - what was the dresser hiding from you? Please don't take our comments about this "personally". You are so wonderful and I hate it if you took these comments badly. You give great advice that inspires me - and I feel really motivated to do some area of declutter when I watch your videos. Great mix of friendly discussion "thought experiment"-> quick video declutter -> closing comments. Works for me!! Thanks and keep these videos coming.
Her room looks like such a lovely place to play and imagine and grow. Apologies for the barrage of comments. I'm an unabashed binger when I stumble upon a new fantastic channel!
I don't have kids, but I work in childcare. lol. Today I started helping the preschool room staff to get rid of stuff. My minimalist mind was screaming the entire time and I just kept asking staff...Why ...why do you have this?. lol. I am the cook at the centre (and I keep things so clean that I just usually toddle along waiting for dishes to come back to the kitchen to be washed) and I plan to now help out every minute I can. I even gave up my breaks to help, because I was having so much fun doing it. lol. I've always been a minimalist when it comes to work. When I was a room leader my preschool room was minimal. I kept only what I needed out. Everything else was put away all neat in storage, and I would rotate the toys and books, so that each week it seemed like there was something new (even though that centre was stingy and the 2 years I worked there we didn't get anything new). But I learnt to make do with what we had. At this centre there is excess of stuff. The centre has been open for almost 30 years. There is a lot of stuff. I was finding old artwork from 1998. That's just stupid to keep.
haha, artwork from a decade ago! That is bad ;-) They needed your help!
Don't underestimate yourself, sista :) You give great advice!
I'm definitely trying to teach my son (14 months) to appreciate and take care of his things. I use a Montessori-inspired method: only part of his toys is out and "displayed" on an open shelf (one toy per section and small alike things in bins on that same shelf) where he can get to it.
He will put lot of it back by himself with or without being prompted and he actually enjoys it a lot because it's clear where everything belongs!
Nice - I'd like to try to do this a little more. Our kiddo's daycare does a similar method (not montessori, but has some cross-over). That's really cool to hear a 14 month old putting away his toys. Good job!
I'm not a parent, but this still was fun to watch XD I love your channel
Oh, good! I'm glad :) (and thanks!)
God I wish i could come over to help you, your house is sooo satisfiying to clean 😱
I do the same in regards to doing a first sweep. Sometimes we don't know for sure what our kids really find value in. To have that test period is a lifesaver. It has saved me from being the villain a few times. To make decisions on what to keep, I observe my child before a big purge to see what toys are bringing out her most imaginative side. Currently she is playing with her older sisters old My Little Pony figures. Yes, they are plastic and have crazy rainbow hair and cartoony faces, but she is creating stories and spending lots of playtime with them. Things that sit untouched or get very little attention- that goes into bags for about a week, then off to charity if she doesn't notice. Great video!
ah, cute :) I love hearing them make up stories! And yes, I love your term 'being the villain' because that's SO right! It has also saved my butt on more than one occasion. Sometimes it takes you off guard to even hear the request for something they haven't seen in a week... I'm like, "Uhhh, you want...THAT toy??" ;-) lol
I agree that it helps to plan at least the night before. I make a list of tasks I want to do at the beginning of each week and break it up by days and that seems to be helping. Watching videos on people de-cluttering similar spaces also helps me.
I don't have kids but I think it's great to at least give them the option of learning to have a more minimalist environment. Less chaos is always better and I wish my family had done so. Instead I learned to develop unhealthy attachments to objects. Especially as my grandmother was a hoarder, so bad I grew up thinking a room in the house was a hallway.
I used to help my little sister clean her room and she had that "mine" attachment so bad I couldn't throw away certain wrappers because she had developed sentimental value to it! Wish I had known these methods then, so smart!
Love the mural on the wall. Great job, it looks so nice after! As for the clothes that don't fit, what about a box or basket you can throw those in at the moment so you will know it can be donated?
I was in the middle of watching a closet purging video when I got the alert for this one and immediately clicked it! love your videos!
:) well you gotta go back and watch the other one now! ;-)
Toy rotation is something I have done and has made a huge difference. One bin and I do it as you said when there not around!
I really appreciate that you show it like it is. That room was messy! I wish I could say my house has never been that messy, but it TOTALLY has. Lol. Thanks for keeping it real. I hate seeing cleaning videos where the house is spotless and the you tuber is like "Oh I'm so embarrassed! My house is so messy!"
I too am going through my own messy to "minimalist" rebirth. Recently I had my husband take the kids out and did a huge purge. The books and toys that remained I divided into 4 bins and my plans is to rotate the toys with the season. We moved recently and left a box of toys in the garage for 3 months, when we brought it out it was like Christmas, you'd think they were brand new! They were so excited. Well done on her room!
Another awesome video! Love your end clips!!!
We have toys downstairs and a toy box upstairs in a cupboard and alternate between them and the enjoyment of "new" toys is wonderful to see but we still don't have many and they are all learning toys or ones to get the imagination going. Every now and then as we switch them over we give some to charity shops or trade with friends. We've even turned some into plant pots for outside so they can grow there own vegetables, flowers and build homes for little animals.
As they both get older we are going to have a sack for them both at Christmas so they can choose for themselves which toys they want to give other children to enjoy.
We have a bit if a problem with clothes (a lot still have tags on) but sizes vary so much from shop to shop the only way you can tell is by putting them on. We've started to let our kitties ones choose what they want to wear this way we can see what they actually want to wear and what they kinda skip on each time (helps cut them down too and helps you decided on what to buy in the future).
Amazing how you do these tasks all alone. Somebody should be very proud of you.
Yes ! My kids are grown and have their own homes, but I still enjoyed watching this.
The little sounds as you're speed cleaning are very satisfying for some reason. And the bandana going onto your dog. Love it
Great! Love your videos and your personality. As a mother myself I have 2 tips for your regarding kids clothing: keep an empty box on the shelf in the closet to toss in "too small" clothes. And if you put cute picture labels on the drawers of shirts/pants/socks etc. your kid can start to dress herself a little easier. I use labeled bins and never fold little kids clothes :X
Your videos are seriously so satisfying to watch!..I don't know what it is, maybe the sped up camera? Anyway, Good job completing the task!
haha, I'm glad you think so! :)
So satisfying to watch this transformation in warp speed! Thanks for another fabulous video!I love your animals, who are just as interested in this as I am!
I worked as a nanny for many years, and can definitely attest to most kids having way too many toys, most of which go unplayed with. Also, way too many soft stuffed animals (like, mountains of stuffed animals), when they only like to hold or play with one of them, usually their favourite! If you must have lots of toys, I like the concept of putting some away in a box, and swapping them out each month. That way, it feels like you just got a bunch of new toys!
Great idea!! That really makes things exciting.
Kirsty H this is what I came to comment - when I was a kid my parents would take half of our toys and hide them away, then every 3-6 months or so they would switch them out and it was like having brand new toys! it saves money on new toys. If they are asking for new toys you can even let them "shop" the stash of toys
jennananabatman I think I'm going to try this. I've gotten rid of so many toys, like a huge bag full of them and it's still Never ending. I just had my kid pull out some more the other day that he doesn't use. I think I'm going to try this out.
I don't have kids yet, but I am a household personal assistant for a couple that has two messy kids under 4. Your videos are so satisfying to watch because I obviously love to organize and clean (since it's my job) and I love seeing that you're getting that satisfaction too. :)
I love your "bloopers" at the end of your videos! :) Btw there's something under the dresser. LOL!
Love your tips about having a plan the night before, and having a period of two weeks when you have removed stuff they might notice. Keep up the great work, you are inspiring lots of people! 💕
Thank you! :)
Haha the cute kitty in the drawer at end gave me a chuckle. I have a cat, too. Wonderful as always, Rachel! I'd love it if you'd recap at end with before-&-after photos, or slow camera pans.
Ohh, I never thought about having the before flash again at the end, yes, I will start doing that! :)
I'm a mum of 9 and my youngest is 2, I totally agree that you should do it behind their back, you are usually aware of your kids favourite toys and keep those so I feel its fine. to encourage them to tidy I would say teach them to make the bed, throw laundry where it needs to go and put toys away b4 bed. my 2yr old daughter loves to help and loves the praise she gets,you did a great job, love the long curtain/ fort.
Your videos are improving a lot in my opinion! The detail shots are really nice.
I love this series, thank you for uploading!! This is inspirational to start decluttering my own place
you are brutally honest - I love it. Your home do not look perfect as of other youtubers, that show their viewers how to get everthing 100% perfect...
Thank you :)
girl, i live about 20 minute drive from the ocean (the Pacific) let me tell you, dust is nothing when you have sand. We've gone through about 20+ vacuums trying to find one that won't die from all of the collection of wet and dry sands from outside. It's in the soil and the air and there's no way to get away from it. Carpet is not at all advised when leaving near a beach!
I don't have kids (i can't but it's cool cuz i helped raise all of my nieces and my nephew and i was a nurse so that's totally almost the same thing!) but i did stay till the end because i love before and afters :D
We just now got my kids room officially set up for them. I live in a really nice 2 bedroom single wide trailer house. My kids are 3 and 1 1/2. I'm embarrassed to say we have lived in this house for two years and our kids slept in pack n plays in our room. The other room was a catch all. I had enough and my beautiful amazing mom came over for 3 days and brought dressers over and dejunked my entire house. We set them up in the other room my oldest with a toddler bed and my youngest in a pack n play. They are loving it. They each have there own dresser of clothes that is organized similar to konmarie method and toys are on a set of shelves with bins that they can access. It is staying pretty well organized and I feel like I can breathe :)
Hi Rachel i just wanted to thank you, you have been my constant pal while i went through this process. i pop your videos on and feel encouraged hearing you in the back ground making your donate decisions. if you can, i can is my thought process
I'm about half way through. its really changed how i feel about my possessions
anyway THANKS
Sammy, Wales , Uk
I don't have kids but enjoyed watching this. It's kind of relaxing watching somebody else tidying up :-)
hehe, good - I'm glad :)
Great video, just a thought, a 2 year old may not remember stuff after 2 weeks, but older kids need a much longer 'grace period' - about 2-6 months. I got rid of a big box that had been in limbo for about a year, the other day, she asked me for something that had been donated -she's 8 years old... 😓 guilty! Felt really bad about it. Kids have long memories. Mine gets attached to clothes, I keep it mostly in check by saying that these stretchy clothes won't last long and need to be worn before they lose their elastic. Cotton clothes are all stored in one big box for her future 'baby' haha.
Paper Kawaii - Origami Tutorials my kid is also 8. I have him go though his toys and fill a laundry basket up. He started making piles of "maybe's" all on his own. I tell him that when he has less stuff there's more room to play. The maybe stuff stays and a while later I ask again. He typically lets it go then. I also give him a limit on how many of the same items he can keep. For instance, he writes a lot. He has a bin with papers, notebooks, and other writing stuff. He can fill one pencil case with pencils/pens and the bin with paper type stuff. What he can't make fit must go. He has become very good at this since I've had him help me with it.
Ah, yes makes sense, thanks for the insight! And sorry you had to learn the hard way!
I agree, not that every kid is like this but I can remember my mom doing this to my brother and I when we were little and we would be very upset when a few weeks went by and it was just gone out of the blue. Obviously we were older that 2 or 3 because we could remember it, but I definitely think they needs some additional time to be able to go through it with them, maybe once or twice in a years time and then that should give them enough time to be ready to part with it. Also be sure to involve them as it wasn't so much an issue for me but I know it did bother my brother quite a lot.
I think it really depends on age and maybe also on your child. For a 2 year old the method mentioned in the video seems fine but for an older child I would definitely involve the child more. That way, the child will learn to be organised on its own eventually.
In that case, you either say, “ I dunno what happened to it, probably got lost somewhere along the way.” Or be up front and say “You haven’t thought about that toy for an entire year. So it sat and sat and sat when the toy could’ve been enjoyed by someone else that whole time. And our house isn’t a storage unit. Sorry!”
I’ve been watching your videos while I do small tasks (I can’t clean a whole room and watch 😂) and it’s so satisfying! It’s like we’re cleaning together. I’m tackling a kitchen drawer now!
i have been binge watching your videos and love them. i think the same thing about young kids. im lucky my 6 year old helps me declutter and tells me what toys he doesn't want anymore, but my younger kids are not as easy. i always tell them we are going to give them to other kids. i enjoy watching your videos so much because i have never been a hoarder and never had a lot of stuff and now i dont have very much at all so i watch you clean and think how freeing that must feel. i almost wish i had more stuff so that i could purge again lol.
I had a similar problem with my mother and her boyfriend, who served time in the military. He had a bunch of friends who passed away. Being that, he also accumulated a lot of memorabilia from his fallen comrades. I suggested that he clean the place once, but gave me a look that I won’t forget.
Shortly thereafter, during a small stint at a reunion for fallen soldiers, I called for the services of Jux Los Angeles, a garage and attic cleaning / reorganization company, based in southern a California. My mother’s boyfriend wasn’t pleased with what I had done at first. As a week passed by since the renovation, much to his chagrin, he had to tell me that the place looked so different and that now, he has a place where he can honor his brothers and sisters; in his garage ( I made it extra special and hung up some uniforms his comrades wore on the garage walls…)
I love your channel! You always motivate me! My husband saw me watching this and said we need a master bedroom declutter video to watch lol. Our bedroom is the dumping ground for when I don't know where to put something. As far as kids rooms less toys are key for our kids' rooms. When they have too many toys they forget what they have and everything is just a big mess. Thanks for the great tips!
haha - yeah I probably could use to do another pass of our master bedroom! It goes through cycles.... but usually it's a disaster! haha
I love how your animals can open the door and come in on their own.
Great job Mama! I just tackled the nursery on Sunday. It felt so good getting all the clothes that no longer fit properly and all the baby junk we didn't use this time around packed away!
We use clear totes that stack well in the garage to store their different sizes of clothing. Labeled with either pink or blue tape, as we have a daughter 2 1/2 years and a son 1 1/2 years old, with the sizes written on the tape. I really dread going through their dresser and closest when they move up a size. Taking all the small clothes and deciding which clothes I want to keep and put away in the totes, as we want more kids and the clothes I love I want our future children to wear. Deciding what clothes to give away, and then getting the new sizes down...... its a lot of work. We also have a new rule about toys. Recently I went through and donated five boxes of toys that they just never played with. After this, and knowing that my family will not stop buying toys for them for every occasion, I decided we needed a rule. When ever we get a new toy:
A) We do not have to keep that toy, if we do not like it, we do not have to keep it just because it was a gift and might hurt some ones feelings.
B) If we want to keep a new toy, we MUST go through all of our existing toys and donate one of equal or larger size.
I'm happy to say my three year olds room is the only room with a spotless floor. Possibly guilty of one too many stuffies and a few smaller clothes but I'm trying so hard not to encourage my daughter to have a room like I did when I was young where I had stepping stones though the covered in junk floor. Great video.
another awesome video ... Thanks for sharing ... your daughter's room is really neat.
Also, the in and out of the cat and dog was cute :)
Thanks! Glad you like it :)
So inspiring! I have been tidying my son's playroom spending an hour or so a day. So, it's great to watch this video just before today's session. Now I'm pumped to do it!!
Good luck on his room!! :)
I love the declutter videos so much!!! I always stop what I'm doing and watch.
Thank you! I'm glad you like them :)
You did a great job on her room! I love the mountains painted on the wall too
This is such an adorable room. I love the style of your home
I am new to your channel and have been watching your videos all day as I finally start to clean my house that has gotten out of control. I love them all and will probably watch again... The music during the time lapse had kept me motivated lol. I also love that wall!!! We will probably be moving in the next year and I want to do that for my oldest daughter (younger one wouldn't notice yet). I agree that I want them not to be oblivious to clutter. I realize that I have been starting bad habits in my 10 yr old... Thank you so much. Your channel is fantastic
Yes! Thanks loved seeing you declutter your daughter's room! I'm a mama too so of course I relate to ALL that you said. 😅have a great weekend!
Glad you liked it! :)
I've been looking forward to this all day! :) Settling in :)
love your channel, love your personality, love your house!
Thank you!!
No kids but I do love your channel. My mom used to do the same thing with our stuff but it sort of reached an unhealthy level because she never started including us in getting rid of our stuff (which only really worked because we went to boarding school). It took me far to long to realize how much clutter I had because I never really learned to transition from that little kid who wants to keep everything to someone who could keep stuff based on a logical evaluation of it.
I love watching you declutter! I think I'm going up to my son's room now..... I love your Pugles!
Timely! With my daughter's birthday over and my son's coming up, we are doing a toy purge/clean-up this weekend!
Nice! Good luck! :)
A+Mazing!!!! Beautiful room now!
It looks so nice now! Super awesome job!
One of the things I did was sort the items into categories ( my little pony, dolls, dress up, Legos etc) put each in a bin and put the bins in the top of the closet. They can have on bin at a time. This makes clean up a lot easier and we could keep favorite things without feeling like toys were taking over!
I love this idea. A LOT. thanks for sharing!
Great job! I bet your daughter loved her room. My daughter has just turned 5 and for the past couple of years I've been talking to her about how some children don't have a lot of things (clothes, toys) so whenever she grows out of clothes or when she gets new toys we go through her old toys and she will say "you can give these to the children with no clothes and no toys".☺
I love that :)
Ugh...this was so satisfying!! And your dogs are such a hoot!
haha, thanks! ;-)
Not a parent and I am not planning to be one anytime soon (but I would love to have a kid) but I still watched this video.
I cannot believe how much clothes your kid has... well, had. But it's true, they grow up so fast. One minute a certain piece fits and the next minute it doesn't. Oh and toys. Good thing to have done the cleanup without showing anything to her or you know she would want all of it back and actually use it for a while and then stop.
Love her room; the mountains on the wall and all. As she grows up, she'll have an awesome space to be in, too :)
Glad you still liked the video :) I'm a bit surprised about the clothes as well! Might be more than I have, hah ;-)
It made me smile because I also painted the walls of my sons' bedroom when they were children, with hills, the sun, balloons and more, and I also had a cat and a dog then. I was unable to get rid of one things though except their too small outfits. They did their declutter themselves later. I still have some stuff that I am going to give away now, they are both adults... I gave a few things to my grandsons. I am too sentimental...
The room looks really nice.
I'm not a parent but I still enjoyed watching this and you gave good tips for me to try to help my sister to declutter her kid's rooms haha
Great job on your daughter's room! Lve the netting thng from the ceiling, so cozy 👏🏻😘
I'm amazed with how you take a room from disaster to organized...you do a great job! You help motivate me...thanks :)
hehe, thanks! I have a feeling I'm not always going to be able to transform it all in a video.. I'm looking at some pretty daunting rooms coming up soon!
It looks wonderful. Great job! It was enjoyable to watch the transformation.
Thank you!
Omg! Your lamp is gorgeous!! You should try picking up some microfiber rags! I rinse them in my sink and wash them with dish soap and just hang to dry. they can be machine washed without fabric softener, but don't put them in the dryer. They will pick up everything and are the best! I have the rags for polishing, window(use with NO sprays!), screens..!! I'm addicted to microfiber rags.. AND the dollar stores 'magic erasers'. I cut those into tiny squares before i use them, they last so much longer that way! Lol!!
Beautiful floors
Oh, thank you!
Nice job! I have rooms to do too and know I'll feel better when it's decluttered and cleaned!
I'm sure you will! Good luck!
I don't have kids but I liked your video. The concepts are ones that can be used in many rooms.
Love your videos! Keep them coming, they're really enjoyable to watch
Thank you! Glad you think so :)
Rachel, when can we get a home tour? Love your videos, it's a real inspiration to declutter my own life & home! 😊
Another great video! :) I have 3 kids (6, 4, & 1) and I totally understand & agree with your method for managing your daughter's clutter. I'm finding that they're able to start participating in decluttering sessions (aka 'giving to others who need it more than we do') around age 4-5, but it's best to just do it without them before that point. I also agree that too much clutter around kids may set them up for clutter blindness later in life.
Ah - nice. it's always helpful to hear the ages that other people started involving their children. I think 4-5 sounds like an appropriate time as well. So far, my kiddo doesn't think anyone else could possibly 'NEED' anything more than her. ;-) haha
OMG! Dusting your Tiffany Style Dragonfly Lamp... My husband has one on his bedside table and that's exactly what his looks like before I notice and get to dusting it!! : )
we emptied the floor of my child's closet and put 2 large white cubbie units and there are 18 large cubes in total. there are colorful fabric bins in more than half and my daughter's room has no closet doors to help open the space so you can see this and it needs to look nice. for the family that wants to give us things constantly i fill the empty cubbies overfull of stuffed animals to display we have plenty and when my more tidy friends visit I keep the non-colorful bin cubbies totally empty. there is a small hamper to the side of the cubby unit and that covers all the space in the closet floor. on top are her shoes all across the 3 high 6 across cubbies. it works great for us. we also have a large barbie doll house nailed to the wall in the room for more storage if she needs another place to put her stuffed animals. . . those things mulitply1!!!!
Not a parent either but love your videos & get decluttering-inspired from watching this too! :) Went ahead and did some decluttering myself while watching! :D
I'm not a parent but I did work with little kids at a daycare. I've noticed that kids clean up less begrudgingly when they are praised for doing it. If you mention "wow cindy you did such a good job cleaning up so fast you can go get a snack now" or "good job sorting out the toys tyler now you'll know where they are next time you look for them", basically telling them the good thing that'll come out of doing that little chore they don't complain as much. I couldn't declutter the classroom/daycare because those weren't my toys to throw away but it was pure and utter hell tripping over them and stepping on something that would somehow cause swelling in my ankle. Also just making organizing easier too. They don't need a complex system. Blue toys in the blue bin, red toys in the red bin, dolls in the doll bin, cars in the bin with the car stickers, those markers just made it easier for them to look for the toy they wanted but also toss them back in when play time was over.
I love seeing your subscriber count go up!! Great job:) Also, I will be including children in the purging process.. reason being because I want them to understand that we only have a few things and that is great, if it goes above a few things we donate items!! I want them to be involved in donating because giving to people is a great way to teach children compassion. Giving up something they don't play with is such a wonderful stepping stone to their development. Perhaps you will try it when your daughter gets older. I will be doing this purging every time my children have 10 or more toys. That might sound crazy, but our culture, as you state, is consumed with belongings and items (aka materialistic). I would rather them play outside with a couple of toys they love then have a million and be "bored" (I am a babysitter and I babysit for very privileged children that are more involved with the ipad than their own toys that are taking over the house). I want my children to appreciate everything they own because I didn't at all.
I think including them is a good idea. Maybe I'm wrong to keep her so in the dark right now, but when she gets a little older I would like to explain it to her a little more so she can help pick. I love the idea of letting your kiddo 'keep' 10 or so items. I would imagine that also makes it easier for them to decide what to part with and what they still get value/enjoyment/fun of out. Thanks for the comment!
I'll share from personal experience that I remember years later toys "disappearing" and then wondering where'd they'd gone to. My mom would just pitch things on a whim. I was kind of a spacey kid, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have missed them in a two week grace period, but I eventually did miss them. I'm 55 and still lamenting the loss of a favorite stuffed bear. Okay...maybe that's just my weird take on things :)
That's so sad! I have never missed a toy like that.. I'm sorry you're going through that. It does kind of seem like your mom just got rid of things whether or not you actually liked them, which I don't think Racheal's doing. She plans on including them at least somewhat. Even if she doesn't I think the two week period could really work, just incase one toy was a mistake. Hopefully her daughter will speak up if she does miss something.
Oh, not implying Rachel's just tossing stuff. Rachel and my mom approach cleaning from two totally different ends of the spectrum. :)
One thing that has worked with my son who is now 11, that I started at age 2, is going through bins of a category of stuff. I just say, this bin is a little too full, and it is too much work to clean up. Also do this before Birthday and Christmas so that we can say, we need to make more room for new toys and to give these to "kids who don't have toys". We dump it out and have him put in keep, go, maybe piles. Then we add the keeps back into the bin. I say, "it is almost full enough! Can you choose your 3 favorites to keep from the maybe pile?". Once he chooses three is usually more like five, and I say "Okay, we can make room for those...." I then quickly put the other maybes into the go bag and out of site. He is pretty good at this after a bunch of years and while he still has a messy room, he is stellar at dejunking, I never make him get rid of stuff he really doesn't want to. I just tell him.....there is too much in your room and we have to find SOME stuff to let go of. Works pretty well.
My other trick is to have four boxes of big sets of many part toys that are "special toys". (Marble Run, A Car and Track Set with tons of little parts, Space Marbles and Vintage Transformers. I get these out to play with in the living room when a friend is over. The room has to be clear first, and the set gets cleaned up after. It is great for bored kiddos and doesn't have to be a part of the daily toy pile.
Yes.. Outside Playing~best place ever!!
I LOVE your daughter's room! so cute! The floor bed and the mountains on the wall are so sweet! Sweet as in little kid sweet and also as in AWESOME. So much fun going through these videos again all in one of my cleaning/decluttering sessions and watching your progress! I feel like we have grown together so I am remembering my AHA! moments from these videos and having a few new ones too :) BTW, any chance we could see your vintage trailer that you mentioned in one of your early videos? Maybe before winter hits hard?
Looked so good after!! Inspired me to go through my daughters toys
Good luck! :)
You do a great job with your videos
Your the only one who keep it rrelly REAL. THANKS🎃
Love your videos ., love your talks before so we know where you are coming from and it helps us too .., love your 2 week grace period... I don't have kids .. but still I enjoyed it and looking forward to more
:) Glad you're enjoying them!
Messy Minimalist ❤️❤️❤️❤️
I will have to apply your "incubation " time on my daughters stuff.......and she's 17!! A teenagers room is a nightmare , I don't like to go in there too often!! Xx
I love that dresser! Where is it from? And the wall mural is beautiful!
Where are your lamps from they are beautiful! Great video!
amen to decluttering without your kids present! I tried once to get 'em to do it and maybe three items left the house!
Thanks for the video. My daughter is roughly your daughter's age but has twice to thrice the clothes. We do pull out the clothes that she has outgrown and donate to a health clinic that serves the poor that struggle to have everyday items; clothes, shoes, kitchen ware, household products that we decide not to use, toys, books, electronics that are still work, strollers, etc. and also medication that my mother-in-law used when she was in hospice. I do go through and make sure that the batteries in toys, are still good with a voltmeter.
nice - sounds like you've been doing a lot of minimizing! I keep finding that the donation centers we use reject quite a bit of items, which always bums us out a little. I never thought to check with health clinics to see if they have programs like that!
I don't have any kids, but good video :) I wish my Mom could have watched this, she would have laughed so hard at the memory of us messy kids lol.
Toy rotation has always worked for us. A bin of toys in the bedroom and one in the living room. Then every month or so they get stored away and two different bins are brought out. That way there's never an overwhelming amount around and my boys were excited by the "new" toys.
I love this - we do them same on a smaller scale. :) And the toys that were put up on the closet shelf are ones she can request when she's ready to play (or notices them again). So we switch those up periodically.
+Messy Minimalist 💜💕💜
I started my boys at age 2 to think of a toy, book, clothing that doesn't fit to donate to another less fortunate child. We would talk about which toys are not played with and that another child would love a chance to have something to play with or nice clothes to wear. I did not expect them to understand much at the time but now the boys will put toys, clothes aside for donating on their own (they are 5 and 6 now)
Lol the dusty lamp! I know need to dust but I still have too much stuff on all my surfaces. In fact I really need to do an other clothes purge but I'm swamped in schoolwork till May. Also the people at Goodwill probably think there are 20 ladies living in my house
lol - too funny :) Maybe next time you're procrastinating schoolwork, you can go purge some more -- or dust. ;-) Good luck!
dont have kids. still enjoyed the tidy haha! the canopy is so cute! i would have loved when i was a little girl
Glad you still liked it! :) I also wish my younger self had one of those - it's great
A big fan of your steps and channel 👍🏻🌹
thank you! :)