Minimalist Cat, here to save the day!
July 27, 2016
Joking with Kate and Little Green Revolution on Twitter about being ingrates who give unwanted, personalized, gifts that you can’t regift, a genius brainstorm hit me. I can hire JuggerBaby out! Ze can finally earn zir keep!
Ze is a natural (two-legged) cat with the added benefit of not shedding (much). Ze has been auditioning for the role of Minimalist Cat for MONTHS. If there’s anything breakable within reach, ze makes eye contact, reaches out with a chubby paw and pushes it off the shelf. Grins for the smash. Extra giggles if you react. Extra extra cackles if you react with anger.
Foolish human.
Minimalist Cat thrives on bringing chaos.
Disclaimers: Minimalist Cat does not recycle. Minimal Cat does not dust or pick up unless you offer really good bribes and use Mom voice. Minimalist Cat is a fan of brooms but mostly for licking and wild gesticulations. Not so much for sweeping.
Got clutter? Minimalist Cat will help you!
- Is it breakable? Minimalist Cat will break it.
- Is it fabric? Minimalist Cat will pick and chew it.
- Is it paper? Minimalist Cat will shred and cheek it.
- Is it shoes? Minimal Cat will steal them.
- Is it a gift you really really didn’t want? Minimalist Cat will rend and tear it.
- Are you daunted by how much there is? Does it feel like too big a job because your shelves overflowing? Minimalist Cat will empty them and strew things EVERYWHERE. The better for you to sort it.
- Are you not unsure what’s in that one closet you don’t open the door to? Minimalist Cat fears not! Ze has your back. Services offered: pull everything out of the closet, unpack all bags and boxes so you can’t pretend you didn’t know it was there, and lick half of it. It’s marked now, throw it out.
- Is that your mouse? YOU DON’T NEED IT.
- Is that a landline? Ze can smash it.
- Is that a cell phone? Ze will use it.
- Is that your baby? No, silly, that’s Minimalist Cat’s baby now.
“‘Uh-oh’ is for accidents, Minimalist Cat,” says PiC. HAH.
No, but seriously
Clutter is a problem around here. Unwanted gifts, poorly selected clothing, snowdrifts of junk mail all make their way in and it’s a Herculean labor to shovel it all back out again. It’s an endless task but it’s gotta be done or we’ll drown in Bed Bath and Beyond coupons.
I’ve tackled the closet one 20-minute session at a time, forcing myself to make ruthless and realistic decisions. The one-year rule doesn’t work for me because I can go a whole year without touching half my closet but then need that half the following year.
Now, I’m paring down with the aim of having a week’s worth of clothing suitable for each season, casual and business. If I do it right, I’ll end up with a much slimmer and more classic wardrobe.
As for kitchen supplies, nothing new is allowed in there unless we get rid of three things for every one item. I refuse to end up with a Hoarders-level kitchen!
:: What decluttering challenges do you face? Do you discourage gifts from family or friends? Would you like to hire JuggerBaby?
I have a lot of decluttering to do. My MiL gave my daughter 2 stuffed animals last week and I thought “NOOOOO!” while I smiled and said “thanks!”
My issue is that the hubby is a packrat. Items that I see as superfluous will be pulled out of a donation bag. Attempts to declutter the toy hoard will be met with “That’s Little Bit’s. She should decide.” Even when I know it’s something that hasn’t been played with for months. Concerns that maybe we don’t need another hand me down kitchen device are met with “Always say Yes, Thanks! when someone offers you something.” I can get rid of my own stuff, but the other things in my house (including the ‘ours’) are off limits.
Emily @ JohnJaneDoe recently posted…Read My Post on Reselling…Over at Medium Sized Family
I know that reaction! 🙂
I can sort of understand that feeling that Little Bit should decide but it’s so frustrating when something hasn’t been played with can’t be gotten rid of. Maybe you can agree on a rule that you go through things monthly and set aside toys that aren’t current, then if they aren’t played with in 6 months, they get donated?
It’s hard to fight the social etiquette of “always say yes” but for your sake I hope you can develop a strategy for saying no to some things. My great aunt is so generous with toys she saves specially for JuggerBaby but we can’t keep it all either so I work on giving it away too.
Massive home office decluttering scheduled for next week. We’re taking time off to do it, because we need to do that when Baguette is not home.
How did it go?
We have been spending so much time and energy decluttering lately! It has been a huge and constant project. We are finally starting to feel some of the progress, but it has felt so slow in the meantime. According to the It’s Deductible app, we have donated over 400 items between 2015 and 2016 and we’re not done. That doesn’t count the few things I’ve sold (~10 items), given away for free (~60 items), the items I’ve lent to my mom (probably 10-15 items), or the items that BF sold/donated (another 5ish items).
I had started to feel like our two bedroom condo was too small! Decluttering has helped a lot with that. I also bought tie and belt organizers for BF’s closet so that should help with that part of his mess. I haven’t moved in 4 years and BF hadn’t moved in 3.5 when he moved in 1.5 years ago, so we had a lot of stuff that just hadn’t been dealt with. My condo was reasonably full since I’d never needed to properly organize a lot of things, so we’ve been dealing with SO MUCH STUFF. We will get to a better size point…hopefully in the next couple months.
My goal is to have 10 days of work-appropriate clothing for each season because I hate needing to do laundry every week. I’m finally almost there for summer. It was a tad depressing when I didn’t have enough clothes to get through even one week, especially since summer used to be my favorite season to dress for.
Leigh recently posted…Being financially stable doesn’t make you better
What a huge amount you’ve tackled already! Do you have a rule for things coming in, now?
10 days of seasonal clothing is great. Good luck with the next months of decluttering!
Yeah, I’m looking for specific numbers of each category and then I have to stop buying. Hopefully that works! 😉 I have a category in Remember the Milk with tasks labeled things like “Summer tops/dresses (8/10)” and then I update that when I buy more. The items I need more of have due dates and higher priority than the categories where I’m good. This seems like a better evolving way to track this than using a spreadsheet and this I can do on my phone. I wish this was built into Stylebook though!
Leigh recently posted…Being financially stable doesn’t make you better
Our biggest issue is paper clutter. I’m getting better, but for the longest time, I’d keep every single piece of paper the daycare sent home with the kids. You know, the 40 sheets of paper with a single crayon line on each one.
I have bins, upon bins, upon BINS of paper.
Add that to the fact that Hubs is not naturally near or organized, and our house is basically a disaster zone. Ooft.
Pia @ Mama Hustle recently posted…Creating Your Prosperity System
Oh my goodness you know our current battle, then! 😀 They keep sending home “art” projects and stuff. It’s cute but OMG.
I took a week to do a scan and shred fest years ago, perhaps that’s what you need?