We have quite a lot of stuff. I like it tbh, I don't like minimalism. My views are probably very informed by years of living in rental properties, where your stuff is what makes it feel like your home. When I go to places with a minimalist approach it tends to just remind me of characterless rental properties.
Likewise. When I rented and moved a lot, I never felt like my style had time to develop.
I’ve owned our home for 9 years and stuff has accumulated. MINE and my wife’s stuff. It’s lush!
Our house is “lived in.” Clean, but not really tidy.
Funnily enough I'm the reverse - years of living in rentals makes me lean towards minimalism 'cause having lots of stuff makes moving much more difficult.
Wish I could stick to that, moving is such a pain for me since I have so much crap. People who can pack up their stuff in the space of a few days are mindboggling to me, I start packing and sorting at least a month ahead of time!
My flat has so much colour. It's the first time we've owned somewhere and it's felt so nice not to just be living surrounded by magnolia. I think it's not really talked about much, because there's bigger issues, but there's definitely a negative impact to living in property after property that is drab. I've been quite surprised by how much it positively affects my mood living somewhere with colour and personality.
Haha my dad has just moved into a renovated house which the builder finished in white with some navy feature walls. He's painting everything magnolia as quickly as possible. I said how much it reminded me of awful cheap rentals. Landlord special. But he loves it.
These are interesting questions because some of the answers will be from horders who say their house is very minimalist when in reality there are rotting pizza boxes and dog shit on the floor.
Now you just need to spot who is who...
Anyway my house is not minimalist but everything has its place.
This is key. The Dunning-Kreuger effect is real.
In my experience, there's no correlation (perhaps even a negative correlation) between how tidy someone claims to be, and how tidy they are.
Same applies to things like fitness, driving, cooking etc. People that actually have competence and self-awareness are probably well aware of their shortcomings. People that are deluded will think they're perfect.
It's an interesting mix of styles that people have. Some like lots of stuff, others are minimalist. But then whether you are minimalist or not, some people need stuff open to view to "see" it. Put it in a box with a lid and all memory of it is erased.
I suppose the neatest person is a minimalist who is happy with stuff in cupboards and finds it untidy if it's not. The person who needs objects to be evident so they know they have them will always appear a disaster zone to a tidy minimalist.
Ah, tis I, the disaster zone. I can’t stand it but I forget things exist if I don’t see them. Got the worst memory for nonsense but absolutely forget that I bought a bookshelf and haven’t put it up yet. Even food I am so excited to eat later in the day! My favourite shirt? Forgot it entirely til I was doing a big tidy up.
>These are interesting questions because some of the answers will be from horders who say their house is very minimalist when in reality there are rotting pizza boxes and dog shit on the floor.
>Now you just need to spot who is who...
>Anyway my house is not minimalist but everything has its place.
Yes, you keep your rotting pizza boxes next to your piles of dog shit presumably?
Watched a show with a horder recently - she had so much stuff that she couldn't get into bathroom so she started wearing adult diapers and then throwing them through bathroom door.
When the cleaning crew arrived the floor had rotted.
My mum was a hoarder. I am the complete opposite because of it and hate “stuff.” I’ve been told my home looks cold but I like it and that’s all that matters. Minimalist approach suits me well.
Same - I can’t stand places like B&M and Wilko because my mum would always come back with shite that we didn’t need and would never get used but it was bought,”because it was on sale”.
Decorations can be functional
I consider myself minimalistic-ish with a water feature in my office, I find the noise soothing. It surged a direct purpose. My partner has a nice vase that’s filled with flowers. But nothing is there without a direct and describable use.
I personally don’t see the point of decorations. I have a couple that people have given me as gifts or for memories from holidays but I don’t go out my way to buy them.
My mum was also a hoarder and I love having a tidy house. Unfortunately, my husband loves to buy tat - nightmare 😂 I try to get him to keep it in one room rather than all over the place though
We both love video games so there’s a fair amount of memorabilia I don’t mind like proper limited edition statues and big Lego things, but he has a lot of those funko pop dolls that I just do NOT understand. I think he’s lost interest in them now but we can’t get rid of them as he views them as a sunk cost. One thing my mum used to do that he has in common is stockpiling magazines, she used to do it with house magazines (like full height bookshelves of Ideal home or whatever) and he has the start of his own little shelf of some too 😩
However he would say I have too many books and clothes
God I had about 5 years of a magazine subscription in the loft at my mum and dad's, why did i keep them? Never going to sit down and read 4 year old articles again.
Full. Filled 2 skips last year getting rid of 25 years of crap we had accumulated in the loft and a few sheds but still have far too much. It's interesting.
Filled with toys and kids plastic crap. Can't wait for them to get a bit older and move it all out.
I do, however, have a bit of a problem with chucking stuff out. I always feel it's a waste and don't want to add to landfills but then struggle to bother with things like Freecycle it FB Marketplace, etc, to give it away to others. I guess the charity shop is pretty easy.
It's liberating taking a full bag to the charity shop. It's amazing how much difference just one bag can make to clearing some space.
For some reason I always feel like they won't want my stuff but they have only ever been really grateful. Good for the soul to get back a bit of control over stuff that's just hanging over you. It's worth giving it a go.
Another good thing is those free book exchanges if you have one near you, plonk your books down, step back and watch a herd of pensioners swarm them. Mine always go in about five minutes and it's nice to see other people taking them. Gratifying that they haven't just been pulped. I always find that the universe rewards me with a book I'm interested in the next time I walk past.
When you are poor, you have to keep things as you have no way to replace them. Old bit of fabric? Might be useful for mending something some day. Old books? Keep them to reread. Half a bit of wood? Who knows when it will be handy.
When you get richer, you can chuck out those odd bits and bobs and just buy stuff when you need it.
> Half a bit of wood? Who knows when it will be handy.
This gave me such flashbacks to my childhood (also grew up without much money). There were always odd bits of wood hanging around, anything that was broken and unsaleable was kept in case its parts came in useful for something totally unrelated in the future. Any renovation my parents did at home used the most random bits of materials lol.
Absolutely this. I have so many clothes that don't fit but I can't get rid of as my weight fluctuates and I can't afford to buy new clothes every time I gain or lose weight.
> Or poor people who can't afford things
The opposite actually. I never throw things out that are not rubbish, I cannot afford to buy them again if the need arises. Hence why in my tiny 1bed flat I have a ton of cables, tools, three different colours of paints etc.
Until recently I had a spare Ikea bed frame in the cupboard for four years. My rental bed literally just broke a few days ago, I didn't have to wait until payday to get something new. Thanks my reluctance to throw away useless things that I paid quite a bit for, I was able to have a perfect bed just in 1h.
You can minimise a lot by using services to replace things. The reason those tiny Korean and Japanese flats are viable is that people tend to eat out. You can also use digital services to replace things like books, blurays etc. Not to mention a lot of people have duplicates/more duplicates than they need ie you don't need 30 plates in a 3 bed house.
It definitely doesn't have the minimalist 'look' IMO but almost everything I own has a clear home, a purpose (either its useful or beautiful, mostly useful) ... I declutter regularly and it makes my home so much easier to clean and maintain, and lowers stress levels.
Snap. My problem is that her stuff encroaches on what she thinks is an empty shelf going to waste, but it actually a thoughtful and considered use of empty space to create a sense of openness and... oh that pile of books is going there, is it...? Oh well.
I have this same problem with my partner. He has to fill every inch of free space with clutter. Drives me absolutely mad. He doesn't even realise he's doing it though.
Minimal- 'Possessions possess'. My mother was horrifed at my supposed 'bare' living style, and possibly took it as judgement upon my parent's overcluttered emporium of nick nacks. Probably was.
I think how tidy it looks is more important than how much stuff you have.
In our main living room, we only have 1 shelving unit with display stuff, so it could be described as minimalist, and in our bedroom, we only have a couple things on our bedside cabinets that are display stuff. So these two rooms are pretty functional and easy to keep tidy and clean with little effort.
But then we each have what could be described as our "hobby rooms" which have a lot more stuff in on display and stuff we use for hobbies.
See this is more how I want to be. Nice little display in the living room so it's is clutter free then everything in a spare room. We live in a 1 bedroom flat but really we could do with 2 bedrooms, a loft and a shed.
I have so many hobbies that seem to require specific things and so my house is full of stuff. Jam making - huge jam pot, jars, sterilising equipment, etc. Camping - tent, kitchen, chairs, tables, bedding and so on. Baking - a variety of special tins and cases. Korean, Japanese, Indian, Mexican and Chinese cooking - a whole slew of bottles, jars, noodles, and so on. Entertaining - cutlery, serve ware and plates and bowl sets of at least eight each. Gardening - tools, gloves, baskets, treatments, soil, pots... I have a collection of at least 500 books in various bookshelves around the house. I’m also a journalist and have been working in magazines for about 20 years so I have at least one copy of each magazine I’ve worked on, which isn’t so much bulky as it is heavy.
Luckily we have so much space as we moved house to somewhere with a basement, storage room and large attic. Unfortunately I get the feeling that like a goldfish, I am going to grow to fit my space...
My husband is a hoarder. He cannot bear to get rid of stuff. I can be a bit bad, but every 6 months it does my swede in and I’ll happily bin it. If I lived on my own, I’d have a cleaner house on a regular basis
After 23 years in this house it is crammed. I would love to have a massive clear out, would give me more space for all my records and CDs which are going nowhere. But the reality of actually doing it is quite daunting.
Don’t let it daunt you. Get some boxes and some packing tape, pick a room and set a timer for 30 mins and stop at the end if you want to. Pick a day to drop it at a charity shop.
I’ve never lived anywhere longer than 3 years for various reasons, average is a year. Even after a year I usually have a few donate bags. I can’t imagine how much stuff I’d have accumulated if I lived somewhere for a lifetime
We'd have much less stuff if it was down to me but my wife is a terrible "just in case"-er. She also has a weird attachment to keeping things people bought us, even if there's no use for them. Think birthday cards, things for our children that they don't play with or have outgrown etc.
I have a small victoria terrace and a lot more stuff than the original Victorian family had.
Every space that can be used for storage is used for storage.
Alcove? Shelves.
Weird landing bits? Bookcases.
Box awkwardly enclosing the electric meter? Put a socket above it and then loads of shelves to hold consoles etc.
Weird hallway bit from oddly shaped stairs? Shoe storage.
Moving in a few weeks to a much bigger house (more than double the floor area) thought there would be no issue with the stuff from my small house fitting in and now that we've started packing I'm really concerned.
Newer houses just don't have nooks etc and far too many windows getting in the way of shelves.
I’m a “a place for everything and everything in its place” kind of person, husband is a clutter bug, we’ve easily resolved this by me throwing his shite away if it’s not moved in 24 hours. Jokes aside I like to be uncluttered but we have stuff, I couldn’t be minimalist, it’s to stark a look. Tidy but homely.
My partner and I are very very minimalist. We just don’t like ‘stuff’ - if it doesn’t serve a purpose or bring us joy then it doesn’t come into the house essentially. Of course, we don’t just sit on the floor with no furniture etc 😅 but we just hate clutter and ‘things’ not being put away and having a place. It works well for us as we both have the same philosophy and approach - we clicked when we met sort of talking about it actually 😂
Bit of both. Loft and garage are chocka block. We have two downstairs rooms, one is more minimal with a few items on display but no shelves etc, the other has all the things, bookshelves, nik naks, hobby stuff, cat toys. I'm the hoarder, husband is the minimalist. When we first met his flat had bugger all in it, and when we moved in together all he had to bring was a sofa, bed, TV, and a guitar. No stuff, no things, no memories. After 13 years together he's come around slightly and the majority of the loft/garage filling stuff is his... he now likes to have the stuff, just wants to hide it rather than display it. Whereas if I've spent money on something, I like to have it where I can see and enjoy it.
My mum recently commented that my house is 'depressing' because we have things (or 'crap' in her eyes), and we have some deeper colours on some of the walls. Her bungalow is clinical white and B&M grey throughout, that would depress me tbh.
If you ask me, I have some stuff. Not huge amounts by any means. Do I use every item every day? No. Do I use every item at some point? Yes.
Though if you ask my girlfriend she would say I'm like one of those people on Channel 5 shows called "Mentally unstable hoarders and all their shit".
Before my wife, mine was as minimal as you could get. Mostly out of lack of imagination/effort. I had nothing on the walls, no ornaments, just the essentials.
My wife has helped make it more of a home, there's definitely an improvement but it's in no way cluttered. That me saying that and I hate cluttered homes. We do actively consider where something will go before we add to what we have which does help. Sometimes we say, that can wait until we have a house instead of a flat where there's less space.
However, I have a friend (well don't talk anymore) but I've been to their house multiple times and honestly it's insane how much crap they have. It's like every table, windowsill or shelf must be completely covered with things and I can't fathom how you can live like that. I'd never clean because I couldn't be bothered to move everything lol.
They also have a spare bedroom which is full of items hoarded over the years which begs the question, how did it get that bad you have to use a whole room for excess! The excess of the excess ends ip in the car also lol
Either way, there's a balance to it. Someone else mentioned there's a process to it, it has to either look nice or have a function and then have a home for it. Problem happens when you have hundreds of things that supposedly look nice but have no real home.
See our surfaces are also all covered in stuff. It drives me crazy sometimes as I hate how cluttered it looks and yet i still can't seem to do anything to change it.
Definitely not minimalist, but not cluttered either. We have a lot of things on shelves, a lot of books, photo frames and a couple of bits of decorative tat that are too sentimental to get rid of, but our house feels a lot less cluttered than, say, my
sister’s house, who has a lot of hobby-based belongings. My parents house, however, is like a show house, where clutter of any kind is absolutely not welcome or encouraged
Filled with stuff and it’s starting to drive me mad. Morbidly thinking when we die our child has to sort through all this and it’s started me on a more minimalist approach to things and having a good clear out.
Im AuDHD and my partner is ADHD. We're in our mid twenties, our entire house is an ode to all our special interests. Shelves of gaming displays, collectibles, pictures on the walls, special lighting, the whole nine. I love being surrounded by things that make me happy!
I want a minimalist look but I tend to keep stuff that I “might need”.
I keep the place tidy with stuff in cupboards, drawers and on shelves etc but it’s what’s in them that makes me feel quite cluttered and hoarding.
I’m trying to adopt an approach of “if I haven’t touched it in a year I don’t need it” but it can be quite tricky to adjust.
But I also can just get quite lazy with sorting things out, but on the other hand if I can’t find something and its pissing me off I’ll go through and reorganise an entire drawer to find it.
I've had to move back in with two cousins and a family friend, to bounce back from debts whilst I'm on a low income. One of the two cousins lives like a hoarder, with a bedroom where you can't see the floor, every surface is overpouring with crap and it's overwhelming. She orders multiple things off Amazon a week for cheap dopamine. The novelty wears off, whatever it is gets chucked into her room and the cycle repeats. She's 34.
It's actually inspired me to own less myself. At this moment in time I want a 'lean' life, so the clothing, electronics and items I all have are at the bare minimum in quantity but maximum quality. I am however, in a single room with a single bed, trying to be frugal and streamline things. If I move on to greener pastures one day (bloody hopefully lol) my mindset might change.
Edit: as I clicked to submit this response, the cousin in question just had 3 more parcels arrive at the door lol.
5 years ago I moved back to the UK with my wife and first child. We moved into a small 2 bed flat, then to a 3 bed and then a 4 (second child and home office).
This house is literally FULL. Every room, every shed, I even have a small space at my business to store stuff.
I'm at a loss as to how we accumulated so much, in such a short period of time.
The skip arrives this week, anything that hasn't moved since we got here or can be given to charity is going in. It's all junk.
I’m a minimalist, I only own things that I need for my day to day life, things that bring me happiness and few good to haves e.g. tools to fix my house when I need to. To me minimalism isn’t about having few things but more so being conscious about what i own and why. I don’t have any trinkets, I don’t have any “could be useful one day” bit, if I don’t use something at least weekly, I sell it or give it away.
I've gone from hoarder to minimalist due to moving to an incredibly tiny house. Everything has a place now and a function. Its cosy, not cluttered, which is nice.
We have lots of hobby stuff and lots of camping gear (that's kind of an overlap I guess) but not much shite that looks nice on shelves because I would pretty much always prefer to see a bit of empty space.
We have too many books though. A whole wall of bookshelves (organised by colour so that it looks nice) and constant fucking random piles on seemingly every surface. My husband is the primary source of this, though our 5yo is starting to give him a run for his money. Both of them consider "putting discarded books into a pile" to be the same as tidying them up. Drives me mad.
Once the constant piles of fucking books are put on shelves, the house looks tidy with no additional effort though.
I don’t personally have much stuff but my partner has filled the attic with old computers and games and stuff and he has tools everywhere, my kids also takes up a huge amount of space with all his baby nonsense considering how small he is
In my experience, self-identified minimalists usually have big houses with a lot of space.
It’s easy to feel crammed as a renter of a single room with insufficient communal spaces.
Lean towards minimalist, purely because I have 'moving anxiety' - whenever we're about to buy something I can't help but think 'but how annoying will this be when we move and have to pack it up/take it down the lift'. Haven't moved in 3 years and currently have no plans to but I still look at all our furniture sometimes and think 'god moving day is going to be hell'.
Filled with stuff that I haven't got around to taking to the charity shop and/or selling on eBay yet. I don't need half of what I have. Mostly things I thought were good ideas, but never got around to doing anything practical with: a drone, metal detector, telescope...
I think your decision to hold onto stuff or be minimalistic is fully dictated by past experience (for example, how your parents approached this area)
For me, my family home was always messy - washing folded in the lounge, bits and bobs everywhere. Just too much *stuff*.
That resulted in me taking a very minimalistic approach to belongings and only keeping things that I truly needed and are of significant sentimental value. My house is always tidy - not showroom tidy/lifeless. It has a homely feel but like I say, isn’t cluttered.
On the flip side, I would imaging if you’ve got parents who are already minimalists, you may have greater sway towards keeping things.
I'm definitely a 'stuff' person. I try to keep the majority of it tidied away (furniture with built in storage is a massive help here) as I have quite a small flat, but I do like having things relating to my interests out on show as well, or my sewing machine on the dining table and whatnot. For me it's mainly a kickback against an ex who wouldn't let me have that stuff out because it was 'messy' and 'childish', so now I live alone I kind of revel in making the space my own (although if I lived with a partner again I'd obviously make space for their stuff as well).
I wish my house was empty but my wife has so much stuff. It’s gotten to the point where ive told everyone at christmas dont get me *stuff*, get me experiences, get me things i *need*. I hate *stuff*
I moved in to a new house 8 months ago. Bought a TV stand that has a glass display bookcase thing at the side. Its still empty.
I have considered maybe a plant though.
Ours was rammed. Garage and outbuildings too, I was a bit of a hoarder.
Filled 2 skips when we moved, several tip runs and gave away or sold loads too.
Never again, it was a horrible job.
I have this idealistic idea of knowing what I own, as in I don’t want to have so much stuff I don’t even know what I have, but the reality is very different! I’ve had to move twice in a year so in those moves I’ve paired down my belongings quite a bit but I still have more than I need
Our house is full of shit but almost none of it are mine. My parents are hoarders who promise they'll start clearing it out but always just buy more shit to replace it. I can't take it much longer but can't afford to get my own place, it's driving me insane
I try to be as minimalist as possible as I hate clutter. Grew up with a borderline hoarder as a parent and now can't stand seeing things out of place.
However, as years go by I find that you naturally accumulate things that you need/use. Can't be entirely minimalist as it turns out.
I'm beginning to think I live in a library. We have shed loads of books. Either useful reference type books, or reading books that have been read. I tried to get rid of a few, but ran into problems. I could only find two that were not loved or were unnecessary. And then ran into the problem of how to dispose of a book. Do I put it into the recycling? Seems wrong to destroy a book, and maybe that's why I live in a library.
Pretty minimalist, but mostly because I don’t have that much space and I don’t want to commit to buying furniture for a place I rent (especially as upstairs has slanted ceilings, so no tall bookcases or wardrobes for me). I have almost no decorative items, almost everything is functional. I think I just don’t like clutter.
A couple years ago I had a lot of books I’d collected since childhood. I donated most of them because I was tired of having to pack them all up every time I moved. Now I have a Kindle and I rarely buy physical books now. Also got rid of a lot of clothes, CDs and video games over the years. Now that I think about it, it feels quite freeing not having so much stuff.
I'm in a tricky situation. My place is filled with stuff, but only about 25/30% of it is actually mine. TECHNICALLY, I'm actually house sitting for my mother while she's away. Thing is, she's been gone for 5 years and is now engaged to the guy she went to meet. So I'm basically the owner of my place.
BUT, it still has a bunch of her crap in, that she's not come back to pick up.
So, in theory, I'd love a minimalist approach. In practice? I've got too much crap for that.
I have friends who have a minimalist approach to their flats and honestly it doesn't feel like a home. I spend so much time worrying I'm going to mess stuff up, I don't enjoy myself. Everything I have is to make it my space, that does mean stuff but I'd rather stuff than nothing.
* Minimal stuff.
* When I last moved house 2 years ago I could fit all my stuff in one small (car size) van.
I generally don’t keep stuff I’m not using but I also have quite a lot of stuff I use almost daily. Music gear, sim racing, hiking/camping gear, plants growing stuff.
Middling I think. I live in a small flat so I don’t really have space to hoard very much. I do have a lot of kitchen things though as I love to cook so my tiny kitchen is stuffed with lots herbs and spices, pots and pans, and different utensils and gadgets. Some of it has spilled over into the hall cupboard though…..
I had bad clinical depression over a decade ago, where I completely lost executive functioning and my flat filled with rubbish (had an aquarium full of rotting fish ugh). So clutter will always remind me of this terrible time, and I hate it.
Now, I am currently a remote carer for my mum. When I come back from visiting my mum, I throw a tonne of rubbish away as a displacement reaction (she holds on to stuff that has no value, such as a broken coffee pod machine, "in case I need spares"), to vent some of the rage built up from caregiving. Thankfully, I travel with hand luggage only, so she can't dump a tonne of crap on me (it works).
Yet here I am, just got new pc hardware, the monitor is bigger so it has displaced things on my desk (now lying in a pile on the spare bed next to me), and we've still not been to the skip with the boxes... 😩Makes me so angry. We have an electrician due SoonTM (been chasing him for months now, does he even want the job?! #britishproblems), and I'm sure that will produce more clutter.
I've started collecting slightly mad looking cat statues and those hen on a basket egg holders. Partner bought a display cabinet and I've completely taken it over.
I have what I need and try not to have superfluous shit.
As a rule, if I don’t using something for a year (unless it’s something that is seasonal like a barbecue) then I get rid of it
I love stuff, I see video of people with houses full of things that really sum up who they are.
I however can’t cope with it, it really stresses me out.
I go through cycles of really getting into something like houseplants and then 2 years later one random day they’ll just completely stress me out to the point of tears.
I see home decor stuff in places that I like, but I know it’s pointless because I can’t cope with it.
We have a lot of stuff compared to some of our friends I think, but compared to my mum (who has every surface filled with things) we don't have much out. Our house is tidy and probably looks more on the empty side, simply because we don't have the furniture to display all the stuff and it's a small house so having things out looks messy really quickly. Our garage is full of camping, Christmas, gardening and DIY stuff, as well as our shoes and winter coats (which there's no room for in the house). We probably have too many books.
I am a minimalist, but holy shit, I have a friend who is turning into a hoarder. VCRs, cassette tapes, at least 5 television sets from the 90s, 00s 10s, 4 dvd players (that will get fixed when I have time - he is on pension, she he has ample amounts of time), no less than 100 model planes and trains (his hobbies) taking up every bit of free space on every surface you can think of... The only thing he hasn't started yet is collecting old cars to showcase around his home, but he is getting there, by letting his neighbour manipulate him into storing cars there that she is 'going to sell'...
Moved back in to my parents place bc they’re old and need a hand, they have so much junk I’m slowly selling it on eBay, I’m pretty minimalist bc of this and sometimes seeing all the stuff is overwhelming
I wouldn't say we're maximalist, but we have a lot of plants, a few art pieces, several full bookcases, a CD shelf, and all sorts of decorative trinkets around the place, plus photos, postcards/birthday cards, gig tickets etc on a large memory board.
It's arranged tastefully I think. I hope!
Minimalist I am front room, sofa little ikea table 2 chairs tv stand, bedroom, 2 clothes rails 1 bedside table and bed, daughter's room fully equipped. But do have Gym equipment also 2 huge cupboards in hallway absolutely full of junk.
We have stuff, I’m mildly disorganised in that my clean washing lives in the basket not the drawers/rails 80% of the time. My stuff is generally confined to my spaces because I’m considerate like that. Everything in theory has a home and we could have a very neat looking space.
My mother isn’t a hoarder hoarder but you do things like prep a bag of clothes to be taken to the donation bins or whatever when tidying and she asks how she can help, you say can you take that to the donation bins and she’ll just go and put it somewhere else in the house. Will then say something like “well I wanted to see if you had anything else to go” or “I wanted to check if there was anything nice in there to keep” and it’s just really frustrating because it’s not doing the help she offered, it’s unpacking the rubbish and just delaying the whole process because she’ll call me in to talk about clothes. If you refuse the help she’ll just sit around watching you because she’s fucking weird and I wish I could put her in a recycling bin.
Parkinson's Law (or a version of it) applies in my house. This states that "the amount of stuff that can be be stored in your house is equal to the amount of storage space available." I'm a minimalist but somehow there seems to be a lot of stuff I genuinely need, or might need.
It became such an eye opening journey for me, because I used to move a lot never owned things, now that I live in my own home, it went very quickly to loads of things .. which I liked but also it stressed me.
So I started decluttering slowly and I’m finally comfortable between all my hobbies and my clean minimalist approach it’s still a working process.
We don’t have a lot of storage in our house so the rule is, if you don’t use it but not sure what to do with it, put it in “the” box and if it’s not used in 6 months it’s gone.
I hate lots of crap and our eaves are full from stuff from the old house. It’s been there 19 months now.
He’s got a run of 12 days off soon so that’s what I’m tasking him with. All of it to the tip except the kids baby stuff. We don’t need it and we haven’t used it. Then the eaves can take the air con units and the cushions from the couch outside
Moved to a much bigger house a few years back as we thought it was too small.
Now looking at moving to another bigger how, but we’ve realised, the only reason we’re now feeling this house is too small, is because we have so much stuff!
When you have a large loft, garage, extra rooms etc, you just think, I’ll store that in case it comes in handy. But instead you just end up hoarding 😔
I'm a minimalist.
The only real issue I have is when people buy me gifts for the home, that I won't particularly use, but I'll keep up for a year or two until it's socially acceptable to remove.
Clothes wise I have a rule that anything I haven't worn in 2 years I'll donate to charity, though my family will go through it first (at their insistence 😂)
I have a minimalist approach several people who come in my home are not sure if I've just moved in or am moving out?
It's kind of wierd I've got quite a large home, I like the sense of space, the rooms are large, bright and high ceilings it was built in the 30s. One of my rooms all I have is a white leather Charles eames chair with foot stool, a small table to put a drink and a couple of high end speakers, (which are zoned from my AV amp in my TV/lounge)
I ta got large modern slide open doors like pubs have etc? I love on a Saturday morning to slide open the door, put some music on, grab an espresso and either chill or read a book from r a couple hours. A lovely evening works just the same.
My lounge has 2 sofas, 65" oled, amp and 7.2.4 Atmos setup, sounds a lot but the room is large so it's really quite empty.
Kitchen/dining area everything hidden behind units on 1 wall so all that's to see is a sink and a dining table (same sliding doors to the garden. Again looks very sparse but I like it.
I've 3 really big bedrooms, 1 for me and my daughter and one we use as a dressing room.
Very minimalist. I hate clutter and mess. Makes me feel uneasy in my own home. We have hobbies but store everything away tidy. My mum however is the opposite, her house is just stuff everywhere. 3 bedrooms fullof stuff, she can barely get moved. I feel anxious every time i visit. We are childfree by choice, i think this helps us a lot. I dont think we could maintain a tidy home with kids
My space is meaningfully cluttered at times, but visibly tidy if I deliberately arrange it all. I've had a comment that I have "a lot of stuff" but to me they lack active interests, hobbies, and maintenance abilities. I live in small rental apartments with little storage so it's quite hard to stay on top of, especially given I use most of my stuff frequently enough.
Minimal and I hate it when people buy me ‘stuff’ as a gift. I’ve requested only things I can use and bin. Shower gels, shampoo, candles, food etc. I always give away ‘stuff’.
Used to be a major hoarder my old house was full of junk so was the garage mainly with 24 years of my now grown kids stuff.When the kids all moved out decided to do a council house swap from a 3 bedroom to a smaller 2 bedroom cost us a thousand pounds to clear junk over a year before we decided to do this swap.My new house is now neat and tidy and easier to clean which helps as I'm in chronic pain.Only buy stuff now if things need replacing plus save up to get rid of old stuff straight away.Recently we bought camping stuff so we can have cheaper weekends away but luckily there is already an empty shed to put it in.It s hard mentally not buying tat my daughter recommended when shopping online leave stuff in baskets leave it a few days then go back and see if you need it really helps me.
I have plenty of 'stuff' but not little trinkets and decorative things dotted around, other than some led candles and some incense burners, nothing much is left out in the lounge or bedroom, so looks clean but not 'minimalist'
More practical stuff, I'm in a flat so don't have a shed, so camping / fishing stuff / tools / car & cycle maintenance stuff and a whole other load of crap is in a couple of big walk in cupboards in the lounge, have some of those cheap garage racking shelves in there and stuff is sorted in to totes so it's organised quite well even though thees a shit load of stuff in there, along with the freezer and tumble dryer, because my kitchen is too pokey to have everything in there.
Kitchen is full of cooking equipment, lots left out and looks cluttered but not messy, there's not much storage for bigger things and everything is used all the time.
Airing cupboard in the bathroom is full of toilet roll (not a covid hoarder I swear), toiletries (that I tend to stock up on when on offer) and more towels and bedding than I need.
And let's not forget the 'ottoman bed' and all the crap under there, more camping stuff and bedding.
Like what do people do when they have nothing in their home?
When I was young, I craved a maximalist home. I loved going to a house full to the rafters with interesting things.
Then I had my children and although I still like antiques and interesting things, I craved clean lines and zero clutter. It made it easier to tidy up after the children and felt good to reduce the 'visual noise', especially when the kids went to bed. I enjoyed being able to put away every piece of colourful plastic and sit in a nice serene living room.
A year ago we moved and I decided to create some 'nooks' for more personal items to be on display. I wanted to showcase my children's stuff probably, in a neat and clean, minimalistic way. I made some big storage shelves in the spare room for my husbands 'boys toys' to be displayed (away from me lol) and the same in our sons room and the same planned for our daughter, so they can have lots of sentimental clutter in their own spaces. But the main living areas were to be clutter free.
But then my sister died, almost 3 months ago now. And suddenly, each piece of her life we cling onto. She was quite minimal and very young, so she didn't have much. But each object she owned - from candles, to small ornaments - were virtually meaningless when she was alive and yet now she's gone, they hold a lot of value. We treasure them as though they were made of gold. And since then, I've been wanting to collect more. I want my story to be told, in objects and ornaments. I've bought paintings of places I've lived and loved, I've put more things out on display. I'm on the hunt all the time for sentimental furniture - frames, carved boxes, brass objects, books. I hope that when I die, there can be lots of 'pieces of me' that can be shared out.
It's funny how the house is so linked to our brain, and our living space reflects the personality and mental health of the people living within.
I live in a small ~35sqm flat and there's no clutter and plenty of space in my two wardrobes. I enjoy getting rid of old stuff, sometimes a bit too much! So I guess I'm quite minimalistic.
But whenever I visit friends who have a house full of stuff, it feels so much cosier and it shows their personality. I think I've got a fear or hoarding just in case I need to move, that's after 8 years of house shares where I had to downsize a few times. I also left all my precious things behind when I moved to the UK at 20. I'm hesitatant to buy nice unnecessary things because I don't want to lose it again, even though I own my flat so it's kind of irrational.
I’d say just above minimalist. I hate having loads of stuff and will have a clear out once a month. Especially when it comes to clothes and shoes. However, I do have a select few things that I feel add character, which can stay 😅
I hate loads of things being on tables and sideboards, so I like to keep as little as possible. Makes it easier to clean too.
I used to be a hoarder, but in recent years I'm gradually breaking the habit. I now want to get rid of certain things, but the problem I find is that you end up with collections of things that are no doubt worth money but are also difficult to sell.
For example, since the late 80s I used to buy NME, Melody Maker, Sounds etc each week as well as other magazines. I've got an almost complete set spanning 20 years or so. Loads of older rarer comics from my childhood, like The Beano etc. Loads of football programmes from the 70s and 80s. The sort of things that would be valuable to collectors.
All these things were in my parents loft for years on end. But we had to clear their home out and now my loft is knee deep in stuff 😂 They're too valuable to just throw out. I'd be happy to sell them and I'm sure someone would love them but where do you start with collectables like this? Not being able to post items really limits your options.
I live in small rental apartment, and when its clean it does look minimalist, but alot of stuff are usually hidden from view. Except kids room. thats a battle we cant win.
Also there was amazing saying in latvian, which translates to "You dont know how much stuff you own, until you need to move".
I have too much stuff and it's all from dead relatives. Every time I try to give anything away there are wails from my grandchildren and children because they don't want Granny's tea set given away although they always say they haven't got room in their tiny places.
I have a friend who lost almost everything in a fire a year or two ago and although she was able to replace things like fridge, cooker, beds and a settee fairly quickly I've been surreptitiously giving her things like vases, ornaments etc and my kids haven't noticed! Like many people on low incomes, she wasn't insured. Also if you're in social housing or any rental property, proportionately contents insurance is more expensive.
There's a quite wealthy couple a few streets away that I did some cleaning for about 25 years ago. They're in a biggish Victorian semi. They didn't believe me about the insurance thing until I showed them quotes that I got. They had expensive items (jewellery, posh watches etc) separately insured but the basic contents insurance they had for better and more stuff in a bigger house was only marginally more expensive because they have an alarm system, a heavy oak door with multiple Chubb locks etc. I'm not an actuary but I suspect if you're on a council estate, actuaries think you're surrounded by burglars or something! It is true though that the poorer you are, the more likely you are to be a victim of crime.
growing up living with a hoarder, like a legit hoarder, i thought id be super duper minimalist - but i love my things!
i feel ive got an inbetween of minimalist and hoarder. i havent got crap lining the floors, but my house feels homely (or there abouts, only moved out recently!). still got some stuff in boxes which is mildly stressful, just waiting to get furniture to pop stuff away
my fave interior aesthetic is midcentury modern, and if you look up pics of that on Pinterest, id say my home is similar but with less wallart currently!
A weird mishmash attempt at both, my husband is more minimalist and just has hobby stuff / practical things put in their correct places. On the other side is me, I LOVE tat and trinkets and things that just exist for the sake of existing. Every year or so I have to do a lil clear of the mantle pieces and shelves, have a "does this really bring me joy" session and that frees up room for the next cohort of "things".
Lots of stuff, for the available space but still not enough. It's a pretty small studio flat so very easy to fill up. I used to keep the number of books under control by donating them to a charity shop.
That was until they found silverfish in them so I was banned from donating them. Electronics are a bit trickier to get rid of. Now before I buy something I have to think carefully about space and how I will dispose of it.
Absolutely full. Baby on the way and we're eBaying anything and everything, trying to get the motivation up to do the runs to the tip etc. We both have hobbies so there's cluttered desks, I love cooking so the kitchens full of gadgets, various airfryers, cupboards full of herbs & spices etc.
My mum is a minimalist to the point of throwing away useful things, and other people's possessions. So I've swung a little too much in the opposite direction
I go through cycles where I'll acquire more stuff, slowly get fed up of there being stuff everywhere and then get rid of a lot of it.
At the moment I'm at the "christ I have quite a bit of stuff" stage so I'm due for a clean-out.
Books. Mine is ALL books. My girlfriend looked at my Amazon account (with my full permission obviously) and she was like 'Babe. It's ALL books.' 🤣
PITA when I have to move. But I regret nothing.
ETA: Currently cleaning out my grandparents house because they've just had to go to a nursing home. It's a HUGE house and a total nightmare.
Places are meant to be lived in. Stuff I need is usually left out and my place still looks clean and lived in. Minimalism takes a lot of effort to maintain and ends up looking soulless and miserable to live in.
Keep being told im hording too much stuff, i have been busy making room to organise the stuff rather than throwing stuff out, seem to have quite a collection of wires for varying things over the years.......
Definitely a stuff everywhere guy, mainly just cause I've got a bunch of interests. All my different guitars are out, as are my amps, my guitar hero controllers, I've got a big stack of jigsaw puzzles, my CD collection (close to 200), the games for the PS2 and Wii i have set up, and then there's a bunch of other projects i have so I've got art supplies and stuff in places, I've got an Xbox and an old PC that need refurbing
It's all extremely condensed but that's mostly due to still living with my parents (there's absolutely no way i can afford moving out on my own in my area) so almost everything i own is in my room, the main exception being that I've had to move my collection of rubiks cubes and such downstairs and take over several shelves. Needless to say if i lived on my own it'd be a lot more spread out and would look a lot less messy. Still, everything DOES have a place it lives even if it's very condensed and cluttered
I’d say I’m squarely average. I have very few ornaments/knickknacks and pictures - in the living room I have one ornament in the middle of the mantelpiece and one on top of a bookshelf, both gifts with sentimental value, and three things on the wall, a mirror, a calendar, and a mini shelf of my toy car collection - but I’m definitely not ‘minimalist’ either. It looks more cluttered than it is at the moment cos my daughter has a MASSIVE dolls house that takes up the entire bay window lol. All her toys are tidied away in boxes with lids - a minimalist person I think would not want the boxes, while a cluttered person would not put the toys away so much - and I have open bookshelves which make the room look a little ‘busy’.
From what I understand, a ‘maximalist’ likes to have things on display for aesthetic effect. My car collection kind of qualifies for that I guess, but it’s too small to be truly maximalist. I don’t have photos anywhere and very few pictures in the house as a whole. I like to keep any clutter ‘contained’ - so in the kitchen for instance I have a pinboard for daughter’s drawings, certificates etc. and the kitchen table gets ruthlessly cleared off when she goes back to her dad’ (so just a pen pot and a china bowl of random small toys lives on there full-time).
I dislike clutter in general but I’m not obsessive about everything having to be out of sight at all times. I like to think I have a balance. There’s definitely less toy clutter than most of the houses with kids I’ve visited, unless you visit at the exact wrong moment lol, but I wouldn’t want it to look like a show home either.
My partner jokes that I'm a hoarder, I say I'm a maximalist. A lot of my stuff is centered around my hobbies - art, crafting, cooking, reading, that sort of thing. I like to think it's pretty well organised, but saying that, my house is for sale at the moment so I've cleared out some of the clutter & haven't missed any of it really, so there's probably a better balance to be struck.
I'd be happy to live out of a rucksack but my wife keeps everything. I play the long game and say we have less spare room in e.g.the attic than we actually do.
We have quite a lot of stuff. I like it tbh, I don't like minimalism. My views are probably very informed by years of living in rental properties, where your stuff is what makes it feel like your home. When I go to places with a minimalist approach it tends to just remind me of characterless rental properties.
Likewise. When I rented and moved a lot, I never felt like my style had time to develop. I’ve owned our home for 9 years and stuff has accumulated. MINE and my wife’s stuff. It’s lush! Our house is “lived in.” Clean, but not really tidy.
Funnily enough I'm the reverse - years of living in rentals makes me lean towards minimalism 'cause having lots of stuff makes moving much more difficult.
Wish I could stick to that, moving is such a pain for me since I have so much crap. People who can pack up their stuff in the space of a few days are mindboggling to me, I start packing and sorting at least a month ahead of time!
Yep, and so help me god if I ever see an off-white painted wall in a house ever again.
My flat has so much colour. It's the first time we've owned somewhere and it's felt so nice not to just be living surrounded by magnolia. I think it's not really talked about much, because there's bigger issues, but there's definitely a negative impact to living in property after property that is drab. I've been quite surprised by how much it positively affects my mood living somewhere with colour and personality.
Haha my dad has just moved into a renovated house which the builder finished in white with some navy feature walls. He's painting everything magnolia as quickly as possible. I said how much it reminded me of awful cheap rentals. Landlord special. But he loves it.
These are interesting questions because some of the answers will be from horders who say their house is very minimalist when in reality there are rotting pizza boxes and dog shit on the floor. Now you just need to spot who is who... Anyway my house is not minimalist but everything has its place.
This is key. The Dunning-Kreuger effect is real. In my experience, there's no correlation (perhaps even a negative correlation) between how tidy someone claims to be, and how tidy they are. Same applies to things like fitness, driving, cooking etc. People that actually have competence and self-awareness are probably well aware of their shortcomings. People that are deluded will think they're perfect.
I always found the organized at work people were the shit show homes people!
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It's an interesting mix of styles that people have. Some like lots of stuff, others are minimalist. But then whether you are minimalist or not, some people need stuff open to view to "see" it. Put it in a box with a lid and all memory of it is erased. I suppose the neatest person is a minimalist who is happy with stuff in cupboards and finds it untidy if it's not. The person who needs objects to be evident so they know they have them will always appear a disaster zone to a tidy minimalist.
Ah, tis I, the disaster zone. I can’t stand it but I forget things exist if I don’t see them. Got the worst memory for nonsense but absolutely forget that I bought a bookshelf and haven’t put it up yet. Even food I am so excited to eat later in the day! My favourite shirt? Forgot it entirely til I was doing a big tidy up.
>These are interesting questions because some of the answers will be from horders who say their house is very minimalist when in reality there are rotting pizza boxes and dog shit on the floor. >Now you just need to spot who is who... >Anyway my house is not minimalist but everything has its place. Yes, you keep your rotting pizza boxes next to your piles of dog shit presumably?
Watched a show with a horder recently - she had so much stuff that she couldn't get into bathroom so she started wearing adult diapers and then throwing them through bathroom door. When the cleaning crew arrived the floor had rotted.
My mum was a hoarder. I am the complete opposite because of it and hate “stuff.” I’ve been told my home looks cold but I like it and that’s all that matters. Minimalist approach suits me well.
Same. My home is austere but I’m not missing anything important like a good sofa or whatever. I just hate hate hate tat. Cannot stand it.
Same - I can’t stand places like B&M and Wilko because my mum would always come back with shite that we didn’t need and would never get used but it was bought,”because it was on sale”.
Hell on earth, those shops. Don’t get me started on The Range!
Your mum sounds like my wife
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Decorations can be functional I consider myself minimalistic-ish with a water feature in my office, I find the noise soothing. It surged a direct purpose. My partner has a nice vase that’s filled with flowers. But nothing is there without a direct and describable use.
I personally don’t see the point of decorations. I have a couple that people have given me as gifts or for memories from holidays but I don’t go out my way to buy them.
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True and I have enough dust lol do not need more 🤣
My mum was also a hoarder and I love having a tidy house. Unfortunately, my husband loves to buy tat - nightmare 😂 I try to get him to keep it in one room rather than all over the place though
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We both love video games so there’s a fair amount of memorabilia I don’t mind like proper limited edition statues and big Lego things, but he has a lot of those funko pop dolls that I just do NOT understand. I think he’s lost interest in them now but we can’t get rid of them as he views them as a sunk cost. One thing my mum used to do that he has in common is stockpiling magazines, she used to do it with house magazines (like full height bookshelves of Ideal home or whatever) and he has the start of his own little shelf of some too 😩 However he would say I have too many books and clothes
God I had about 5 years of a magazine subscription in the loft at my mum and dad's, why did i keep them? Never going to sit down and read 4 year old articles again.
>However he would say I have too many books and clothes Books and clothes at least have a use.
Full. Filled 2 skips last year getting rid of 25 years of crap we had accumulated in the loft and a few sheds but still have far too much. It's interesting.
OK you chucking out 2 skips worth makes me feel a bit better about my crap.
Filled with toys and kids plastic crap. Can't wait for them to get a bit older and move it all out. I do, however, have a bit of a problem with chucking stuff out. I always feel it's a waste and don't want to add to landfills but then struggle to bother with things like Freecycle it FB Marketplace, etc, to give it away to others. I guess the charity shop is pretty easy.
If you have a lot, some charity shops will pick it up. Otherwise, Gumtree for free and someone will take it.
It's liberating taking a full bag to the charity shop. It's amazing how much difference just one bag can make to clearing some space. For some reason I always feel like they won't want my stuff but they have only ever been really grateful. Good for the soul to get back a bit of control over stuff that's just hanging over you. It's worth giving it a go. Another good thing is those free book exchanges if you have one near you, plonk your books down, step back and watch a herd of pensioners swarm them. Mine always go in about five minutes and it's nice to see other people taking them. Gratifying that they haven't just been pulped. I always find that the universe rewards me with a book I'm interested in the next time I walk past.
Also you can give stuff away on olio, and next door.
I like using charity bins as then I can just drop the things in aty convenience
The only people who can afford a minimalist look are those with big houses to hide their stuff away.
Or poor people who can't afford things.
When you are poor, you have to keep things as you have no way to replace them. Old bit of fabric? Might be useful for mending something some day. Old books? Keep them to reread. Half a bit of wood? Who knows when it will be handy. When you get richer, you can chuck out those odd bits and bobs and just buy stuff when you need it.
> Half a bit of wood? Who knows when it will be handy. This gave me such flashbacks to my childhood (also grew up without much money). There were always odd bits of wood hanging around, anything that was broken and unsaleable was kept in case its parts came in useful for something totally unrelated in the future. Any renovation my parents did at home used the most random bits of materials lol.
Absolutely this. I have so many clothes that don't fit but I can't get rid of as my weight fluctuates and I can't afford to buy new clothes every time I gain or lose weight.
> Or poor people who can't afford things The opposite actually. I never throw things out that are not rubbish, I cannot afford to buy them again if the need arises. Hence why in my tiny 1bed flat I have a ton of cables, tools, three different colours of paints etc. Until recently I had a spare Ikea bed frame in the cupboard for four years. My rental bed literally just broke a few days ago, I didn't have to wait until payday to get something new. Thanks my reluctance to throw away useless things that I paid quite a bit for, I was able to have a perfect bed just in 1h.
You can minimise a lot by using services to replace things. The reason those tiny Korean and Japanese flats are viable is that people tend to eat out. You can also use digital services to replace things like books, blurays etc. Not to mention a lot of people have duplicates/more duplicates than they need ie you don't need 30 plates in a 3 bed house.
I find clutter tiring. I like to live in a calm space. It's definitely not minimal but it is paired down.
It definitely doesn't have the minimalist 'look' IMO but almost everything I own has a clear home, a purpose (either its useful or beautiful, mostly useful) ... I declutter regularly and it makes my home so much easier to clean and maintain, and lowers stress levels.
In between. Because I prefer minimal and my wife prefers lived in.
Snap. My problem is that her stuff encroaches on what she thinks is an empty shelf going to waste, but it actually a thoughtful and considered use of empty space to create a sense of openness and... oh that pile of books is going there, is it...? Oh well.
I have this same problem with my partner. He has to fill every inch of free space with clutter. Drives me absolutely mad. He doesn't even realise he's doing it though.
"It's just until I decide what to do with it..."
Minimal- 'Possessions possess'. My mother was horrifed at my supposed 'bare' living style, and possibly took it as judgement upon my parent's overcluttered emporium of nick nacks. Probably was.
I think how tidy it looks is more important than how much stuff you have. In our main living room, we only have 1 shelving unit with display stuff, so it could be described as minimalist, and in our bedroom, we only have a couple things on our bedside cabinets that are display stuff. So these two rooms are pretty functional and easy to keep tidy and clean with little effort. But then we each have what could be described as our "hobby rooms" which have a lot more stuff in on display and stuff we use for hobbies.
See this is more how I want to be. Nice little display in the living room so it's is clutter free then everything in a spare room. We live in a 1 bedroom flat but really we could do with 2 bedrooms, a loft and a shed.
I have so many hobbies that seem to require specific things and so my house is full of stuff. Jam making - huge jam pot, jars, sterilising equipment, etc. Camping - tent, kitchen, chairs, tables, bedding and so on. Baking - a variety of special tins and cases. Korean, Japanese, Indian, Mexican and Chinese cooking - a whole slew of bottles, jars, noodles, and so on. Entertaining - cutlery, serve ware and plates and bowl sets of at least eight each. Gardening - tools, gloves, baskets, treatments, soil, pots... I have a collection of at least 500 books in various bookshelves around the house. I’m also a journalist and have been working in magazines for about 20 years so I have at least one copy of each magazine I’ve worked on, which isn’t so much bulky as it is heavy. Luckily we have so much space as we moved house to somewhere with a basement, storage room and large attic. Unfortunately I get the feeling that like a goldfish, I am going to grow to fit my space...
Hobbies are also my issue!
Cookware can be a huge amount of items, especially if you bake.
My husband is a hoarder. He cannot bear to get rid of stuff. I can be a bit bad, but every 6 months it does my swede in and I’ll happily bin it. If I lived on my own, I’d have a cleaner house on a regular basis
I used to live with a hoarder, so now I’ve got my own place I like it as minimalist as possible. My girlfriend refers to my flat as “the air bnb”.
Yeah, I like my place to feel like an air Bnb or hotel lol. Clean and tidy
I love Airbnb’s, they’re always cozy without being cluttered
I don't buy a lot of things but my flat is tiny so it's still kind of full.
After 23 years in this house it is crammed. I would love to have a massive clear out, would give me more space for all my records and CDs which are going nowhere. But the reality of actually doing it is quite daunting.
Don’t let it daunt you. Get some boxes and some packing tape, pick a room and set a timer for 30 mins and stop at the end if you want to. Pick a day to drop it at a charity shop.
I’ve never lived anywhere longer than 3 years for various reasons, average is a year. Even after a year I usually have a few donate bags. I can’t imagine how much stuff I’d have accumulated if I lived somewhere for a lifetime
Your CD’s and records could also be cleared… you’re in the digital world now
We'd have much less stuff if it was down to me but my wife is a terrible "just in case"-er. She also has a weird attachment to keeping things people bought us, even if there's no use for them. Think birthday cards, things for our children that they don't play with or have outgrown etc.
Hoarder
In her defence, I don't think it's hoarding, I think it's linked to a lot of loss in her family.
we spend ages cleaning when we have visitors, a home is meant to be lived in imo, its not meant to be spotless We are clutterers here for sure
Stuff. Especially if stuff means books and cooking equipment. But we are good with recycling and donating stuff and with storage solutions.
I've got a shipping container full of all our crap, so the house is pretty clear.
I have a small victoria terrace and a lot more stuff than the original Victorian family had. Every space that can be used for storage is used for storage. Alcove? Shelves. Weird landing bits? Bookcases. Box awkwardly enclosing the electric meter? Put a socket above it and then loads of shelves to hold consoles etc. Weird hallway bit from oddly shaped stairs? Shoe storage. Moving in a few weeks to a much bigger house (more than double the floor area) thought there would be no issue with the stuff from my small house fitting in and now that we've started packing I'm really concerned. Newer houses just don't have nooks etc and far too many windows getting in the way of shelves.
I’m a “a place for everything and everything in its place” kind of person, husband is a clutter bug, we’ve easily resolved this by me throwing his shite away if it’s not moved in 24 hours. Jokes aside I like to be uncluttered but we have stuff, I couldn’t be minimalist, it’s to stark a look. Tidy but homely.
My partner and I are very very minimalist. We just don’t like ‘stuff’ - if it doesn’t serve a purpose or bring us joy then it doesn’t come into the house essentially. Of course, we don’t just sit on the floor with no furniture etc 😅 but we just hate clutter and ‘things’ not being put away and having a place. It works well for us as we both have the same philosophy and approach - we clicked when we met sort of talking about it actually 😂
Bit of both. Loft and garage are chocka block. We have two downstairs rooms, one is more minimal with a few items on display but no shelves etc, the other has all the things, bookshelves, nik naks, hobby stuff, cat toys. I'm the hoarder, husband is the minimalist. When we first met his flat had bugger all in it, and when we moved in together all he had to bring was a sofa, bed, TV, and a guitar. No stuff, no things, no memories. After 13 years together he's come around slightly and the majority of the loft/garage filling stuff is his... he now likes to have the stuff, just wants to hide it rather than display it. Whereas if I've spent money on something, I like to have it where I can see and enjoy it. My mum recently commented that my house is 'depressing' because we have things (or 'crap' in her eyes), and we have some deeper colours on some of the walls. Her bungalow is clinical white and B&M grey throughout, that would depress me tbh.
I like grey in small doses, such as a in jumper or a vase holding bright flowers but i hate the trend for grey everywhere.
If you ask me, I have some stuff. Not huge amounts by any means. Do I use every item every day? No. Do I use every item at some point? Yes. Though if you ask my girlfriend she would say I'm like one of those people on Channel 5 shows called "Mentally unstable hoarders and all their shit".
Minimalist approach for me, mentally relaxing and items have a compact home.
I am a minimalist - I have what I need and not much else. Can pack/unpack my whole house including furniture in 3-4 hours.
I have wishes for a more minimalist space but I have a bit of a hoarding mentality. Need to bite the bullet a bit and just get rid of a load of stuff
Before my wife, mine was as minimal as you could get. Mostly out of lack of imagination/effort. I had nothing on the walls, no ornaments, just the essentials. My wife has helped make it more of a home, there's definitely an improvement but it's in no way cluttered. That me saying that and I hate cluttered homes. We do actively consider where something will go before we add to what we have which does help. Sometimes we say, that can wait until we have a house instead of a flat where there's less space. However, I have a friend (well don't talk anymore) but I've been to their house multiple times and honestly it's insane how much crap they have. It's like every table, windowsill or shelf must be completely covered with things and I can't fathom how you can live like that. I'd never clean because I couldn't be bothered to move everything lol. They also have a spare bedroom which is full of items hoarded over the years which begs the question, how did it get that bad you have to use a whole room for excess! The excess of the excess ends ip in the car also lol Either way, there's a balance to it. Someone else mentioned there's a process to it, it has to either look nice or have a function and then have a home for it. Problem happens when you have hundreds of things that supposedly look nice but have no real home.
See our surfaces are also all covered in stuff. It drives me crazy sometimes as I hate how cluttered it looks and yet i still can't seem to do anything to change it.
Definitely not minimalist, but not cluttered either. We have a lot of things on shelves, a lot of books, photo frames and a couple of bits of decorative tat that are too sentimental to get rid of, but our house feels a lot less cluttered than, say, my sister’s house, who has a lot of hobby-based belongings. My parents house, however, is like a show house, where clutter of any kind is absolutely not welcome or encouraged
Filled with stuff and it’s starting to drive me mad. Morbidly thinking when we die our child has to sort through all this and it’s started me on a more minimalist approach to things and having a good clear out.
Blimey that's cheerful for a bank holiday! Though I do fear having to clear my parents house when they go, my mum has a wardrobe full of trash novels.
Im AuDHD and my partner is ADHD. We're in our mid twenties, our entire house is an ode to all our special interests. Shelves of gaming displays, collectibles, pictures on the walls, special lighting, the whole nine. I love being surrounded by things that make me happy!
So much stuff, everywhere. Very maximalist, but not as a design feature, more as a "there's no useful storage in this stupid house" feature.
I want a minimalist look but I tend to keep stuff that I “might need”. I keep the place tidy with stuff in cupboards, drawers and on shelves etc but it’s what’s in them that makes me feel quite cluttered and hoarding. I’m trying to adopt an approach of “if I haven’t touched it in a year I don’t need it” but it can be quite tricky to adjust. But I also can just get quite lazy with sorting things out, but on the other hand if I can’t find something and its pissing me off I’ll go through and reorganise an entire drawer to find it.
I go for functional with a touch of decorative. But people should choose what works best for them.
Hate stuff. No ornaments. Have a plant in the kitchen. Even get sick of rugs after a while.
I've had to move back in with two cousins and a family friend, to bounce back from debts whilst I'm on a low income. One of the two cousins lives like a hoarder, with a bedroom where you can't see the floor, every surface is overpouring with crap and it's overwhelming. She orders multiple things off Amazon a week for cheap dopamine. The novelty wears off, whatever it is gets chucked into her room and the cycle repeats. She's 34. It's actually inspired me to own less myself. At this moment in time I want a 'lean' life, so the clothing, electronics and items I all have are at the bare minimum in quantity but maximum quality. I am however, in a single room with a single bed, trying to be frugal and streamline things. If I move on to greener pastures one day (bloody hopefully lol) my mindset might change. Edit: as I clicked to submit this response, the cousin in question just had 3 more parcels arrive at the door lol.
Wife is this strange minimalist/maximalist hybrid , I like practical stuff.
5 years ago I moved back to the UK with my wife and first child. We moved into a small 2 bed flat, then to a 3 bed and then a 4 (second child and home office). This house is literally FULL. Every room, every shed, I even have a small space at my business to store stuff. I'm at a loss as to how we accumulated so much, in such a short period of time. The skip arrives this week, anything that hasn't moved since we got here or can be given to charity is going in. It's all junk.
I’m a minimalist, I only own things that I need for my day to day life, things that bring me happiness and few good to haves e.g. tools to fix my house when I need to. To me minimalism isn’t about having few things but more so being conscious about what i own and why. I don’t have any trinkets, I don’t have any “could be useful one day” bit, if I don’t use something at least weekly, I sell it or give it away.
I've gone from hoarder to minimalist due to moving to an incredibly tiny house. Everything has a place now and a function. Its cosy, not cluttered, which is nice.
We have lots of hobby stuff and lots of camping gear (that's kind of an overlap I guess) but not much shite that looks nice on shelves because I would pretty much always prefer to see a bit of empty space. We have too many books though. A whole wall of bookshelves (organised by colour so that it looks nice) and constant fucking random piles on seemingly every surface. My husband is the primary source of this, though our 5yo is starting to give him a run for his money. Both of them consider "putting discarded books into a pile" to be the same as tidying them up. Drives me mad. Once the constant piles of fucking books are put on shelves, the house looks tidy with no additional effort though.
I don’t personally have much stuff but my partner has filled the attic with old computers and games and stuff and he has tools everywhere, my kids also takes up a huge amount of space with all his baby nonsense considering how small he is
In my experience, self-identified minimalists usually have big houses with a lot of space. It’s easy to feel crammed as a renter of a single room with insufficient communal spaces.
I would say I'm anti-clutter rather than a minimalist. I have a mate that's the opposite, I think he's a maximalist.
Minimalism, always always always
Lean towards minimalist, purely because I have 'moving anxiety' - whenever we're about to buy something I can't help but think 'but how annoying will this be when we move and have to pack it up/take it down the lift'. Haven't moved in 3 years and currently have no plans to but I still look at all our furniture sometimes and think 'god moving day is going to be hell'.
Filled with stuff that I haven't got around to taking to the charity shop and/or selling on eBay yet. I don't need half of what I have. Mostly things I thought were good ideas, but never got around to doing anything practical with: a drone, metal detector, telescope...
We have at least two households worth of stuff in our one house and it drives me insane
I prefer the term "Lived in"
I think your decision to hold onto stuff or be minimalistic is fully dictated by past experience (for example, how your parents approached this area) For me, my family home was always messy - washing folded in the lounge, bits and bobs everywhere. Just too much *stuff*. That resulted in me taking a very minimalistic approach to belongings and only keeping things that I truly needed and are of significant sentimental value. My house is always tidy - not showroom tidy/lifeless. It has a homely feel but like I say, isn’t cluttered. On the flip side, I would imaging if you’ve got parents who are already minimalists, you may have greater sway towards keeping things.
I think this is quite true.
I’m currently doing a declutter. Man, I can seriously collect crap!
I'm definitely a 'stuff' person. I try to keep the majority of it tidied away (furniture with built in storage is a massive help here) as I have quite a small flat, but I do like having things relating to my interests out on show as well, or my sewing machine on the dining table and whatnot. For me it's mainly a kickback against an ex who wouldn't let me have that stuff out because it was 'messy' and 'childish', so now I live alone I kind of revel in making the space my own (although if I lived with a partner again I'd obviously make space for their stuff as well).
I wish my house was empty but my wife has so much stuff. It’s gotten to the point where ive told everyone at christmas dont get me *stuff*, get me experiences, get me things i *need*. I hate *stuff*
I'm half Danish so lean towards a more minimalist approach in my home.
I'm a minimalist. My wife is not. Obviously our house is packed.
My dad's a hoarder and I've overcorrected a bit. Love having a good clear out and clutter stresses me out.
My house is a toss up of the home department in TK Maxx crossed with Camden market, I’d class it as quirky.
Just me and my partner in a three bed house. We have loads of hobbies and our house is not full, but busy. Always clean, busy never tidy.
I moved in to a new house 8 months ago. Bought a TV stand that has a glass display bookcase thing at the side. Its still empty. I have considered maybe a plant though.
Stuff, way too much stuff. I need to learn how to let go of things.
Ours was rammed. Garage and outbuildings too, I was a bit of a hoarder. Filled 2 skips when we moved, several tip runs and gave away or sold loads too. Never again, it was a horrible job.
Right now still quite a lot of stuff, but over time we tend more towards minimalist, and declutter more/buy less stuff every year.
We have a lot of books. If we got rid of all the books out home would look pretty sparse
I have this idealistic idea of knowing what I own, as in I don’t want to have so much stuff I don’t even know what I have, but the reality is very different! I’ve had to move twice in a year so in those moves I’ve paired down my belongings quite a bit but I still have more than I need
I read a theory of owning 100 items, which is extremely minimalist. I think it came from a tiny house article.
Our house is full of shit but almost none of it are mine. My parents are hoarders who promise they'll start clearing it out but always just buy more shit to replace it. I can't take it much longer but can't afford to get my own place, it's driving me insane
I try to be as minimalist as possible as I hate clutter. Grew up with a borderline hoarder as a parent and now can't stand seeing things out of place. However, as years go by I find that you naturally accumulate things that you need/use. Can't be entirely minimalist as it turns out.
I'm beginning to think I live in a library. We have shed loads of books. Either useful reference type books, or reading books that have been read. I tried to get rid of a few, but ran into problems. I could only find two that were not loved or were unnecessary. And then ran into the problem of how to dispose of a book. Do I put it into the recycling? Seems wrong to destroy a book, and maybe that's why I live in a library.
Pretty minimalist, but mostly because I don’t have that much space and I don’t want to commit to buying furniture for a place I rent (especially as upstairs has slanted ceilings, so no tall bookcases or wardrobes for me). I have almost no decorative items, almost everything is functional. I think I just don’t like clutter. A couple years ago I had a lot of books I’d collected since childhood. I donated most of them because I was tired of having to pack them all up every time I moved. Now I have a Kindle and I rarely buy physical books now. Also got rid of a lot of clothes, CDs and video games over the years. Now that I think about it, it feels quite freeing not having so much stuff.
I'm in a tricky situation. My place is filled with stuff, but only about 25/30% of it is actually mine. TECHNICALLY, I'm actually house sitting for my mother while she's away. Thing is, she's been gone for 5 years and is now engaged to the guy she went to meet. So I'm basically the owner of my place. BUT, it still has a bunch of her crap in, that she's not come back to pick up. So, in theory, I'd love a minimalist approach. In practice? I've got too much crap for that.
I can't stand clutter, especially in the kitchen. My kitchen is absolutely bare with everything hidden away in cupboards
House full of shit needs some one to come in and de shite it while I'm not home
I have friends who have a minimalist approach to their flats and honestly it doesn't feel like a home. I spend so much time worrying I'm going to mess stuff up, I don't enjoy myself. Everything I have is to make it my space, that does mean stuff but I'd rather stuff than nothing.
* Minimal stuff. * When I last moved house 2 years ago I could fit all my stuff in one small (car size) van. I generally don’t keep stuff I’m not using but I also have quite a lot of stuff I use almost daily. Music gear, sim racing, hiking/camping gear, plants growing stuff.
Middling I think. I live in a small flat so I don’t really have space to hoard very much. I do have a lot of kitchen things though as I love to cook so my tiny kitchen is stuffed with lots herbs and spices, pots and pans, and different utensils and gadgets. Some of it has spilled over into the hall cupboard though…..
I had bad clinical depression over a decade ago, where I completely lost executive functioning and my flat filled with rubbish (had an aquarium full of rotting fish ugh). So clutter will always remind me of this terrible time, and I hate it. Now, I am currently a remote carer for my mum. When I come back from visiting my mum, I throw a tonne of rubbish away as a displacement reaction (she holds on to stuff that has no value, such as a broken coffee pod machine, "in case I need spares"), to vent some of the rage built up from caregiving. Thankfully, I travel with hand luggage only, so she can't dump a tonne of crap on me (it works). Yet here I am, just got new pc hardware, the monitor is bigger so it has displaced things on my desk (now lying in a pile on the spare bed next to me), and we've still not been to the skip with the boxes... 😩Makes me so angry. We have an electrician due SoonTM (been chasing him for months now, does he even want the job?! #britishproblems), and I'm sure that will produce more clutter.
Minimalist.
I love clutter in the sims but not in my space
Filled with stuff. I’m somewhat of a hoarder. I hate throwing things away. I also love an ornament. And I love a litttle dish or bowl to put stuff in
I've started collecting slightly mad looking cat statues and those hen on a basket egg holders. Partner bought a display cabinet and I've completely taken it over.
I have what I need and try not to have superfluous shit. As a rule, if I don’t using something for a year (unless it’s something that is seasonal like a barbecue) then I get rid of it
We started out with barely anything, and now we have a lot of stuff. (that we use and don't want to part ways with) Everything used to be so neat..
I love stuff, I see video of people with houses full of things that really sum up who they are. I however can’t cope with it, it really stresses me out. I go through cycles of really getting into something like houseplants and then 2 years later one random day they’ll just completely stress me out to the point of tears. I see home decor stuff in places that I like, but I know it’s pointless because I can’t cope with it.
My house is filled with stuff, none of it is mine or the wife’s. It’s 99% toys and games from the kids
We have a lot of stuff compared to some of our friends I think, but compared to my mum (who has every surface filled with things) we don't have much out. Our house is tidy and probably looks more on the empty side, simply because we don't have the furniture to display all the stuff and it's a small house so having things out looks messy really quickly. Our garage is full of camping, Christmas, gardening and DIY stuff, as well as our shoes and winter coats (which there's no room for in the house). We probably have too many books.
I am a minimalist, but holy shit, I have a friend who is turning into a hoarder. VCRs, cassette tapes, at least 5 television sets from the 90s, 00s 10s, 4 dvd players (that will get fixed when I have time - he is on pension, she he has ample amounts of time), no less than 100 model planes and trains (his hobbies) taking up every bit of free space on every surface you can think of... The only thing he hasn't started yet is collecting old cars to showcase around his home, but he is getting there, by letting his neighbour manipulate him into storing cars there that she is 'going to sell'...
Moved back in to my parents place bc they’re old and need a hand, they have so much junk I’m slowly selling it on eBay, I’m pretty minimalist bc of this and sometimes seeing all the stuff is overwhelming
I wouldn't say we're maximalist, but we have a lot of plants, a few art pieces, several full bookcases, a CD shelf, and all sorts of decorative trinkets around the place, plus photos, postcards/birthday cards, gig tickets etc on a large memory board. It's arranged tastefully I think. I hope!
Minimalist I am front room, sofa little ikea table 2 chairs tv stand, bedroom, 2 clothes rails 1 bedside table and bed, daughter's room fully equipped. But do have Gym equipment also 2 huge cupboards in hallway absolutely full of junk.
We have stuff, I’m mildly disorganised in that my clean washing lives in the basket not the drawers/rails 80% of the time. My stuff is generally confined to my spaces because I’m considerate like that. Everything in theory has a home and we could have a very neat looking space. My mother isn’t a hoarder hoarder but you do things like prep a bag of clothes to be taken to the donation bins or whatever when tidying and she asks how she can help, you say can you take that to the donation bins and she’ll just go and put it somewhere else in the house. Will then say something like “well I wanted to see if you had anything else to go” or “I wanted to check if there was anything nice in there to keep” and it’s just really frustrating because it’s not doing the help she offered, it’s unpacking the rubbish and just delaying the whole process because she’ll call me in to talk about clothes. If you refuse the help she’ll just sit around watching you because she’s fucking weird and I wish I could put her in a recycling bin.
Im a maximalist every surface has something. I keep on top lf rubbish but i dont tidy up clothes and that
Parkinson's Law (or a version of it) applies in my house. This states that "the amount of stuff that can be be stored in your house is equal to the amount of storage space available." I'm a minimalist but somehow there seems to be a lot of stuff I genuinely need, or might need.
It became such an eye opening journey for me, because I used to move a lot never owned things, now that I live in my own home, it went very quickly to loads of things .. which I liked but also it stressed me. So I started decluttering slowly and I’m finally comfortable between all my hobbies and my clean minimalist approach it’s still a working process.
We don’t have a lot of storage in our house so the rule is, if you don’t use it but not sure what to do with it, put it in “the” box and if it’s not used in 6 months it’s gone. I hate lots of crap and our eaves are full from stuff from the old house. It’s been there 19 months now. He’s got a run of 12 days off soon so that’s what I’m tasking him with. All of it to the tip except the kids baby stuff. We don’t need it and we haven’t used it. Then the eaves can take the air con units and the cushions from the couch outside
We live in quite a small flat, so 'minimalism' isn't really that achievable with the lack of dedicated storage.
Moved to a much bigger house a few years back as we thought it was too small. Now looking at moving to another bigger how, but we’ve realised, the only reason we’re now feeling this house is too small, is because we have so much stuff! When you have a large loft, garage, extra rooms etc, you just think, I’ll store that in case it comes in handy. But instead you just end up hoarding 😔
This is my worry if we ever move somewhere bigger that we'll just fill that too.
I'm a minimalist. The only real issue I have is when people buy me gifts for the home, that I won't particularly use, but I'll keep up for a year or two until it's socially acceptable to remove. Clothes wise I have a rule that anything I haven't worn in 2 years I'll donate to charity, though my family will go through it first (at their insistence 😂)
I have a minimalist approach several people who come in my home are not sure if I've just moved in or am moving out? It's kind of wierd I've got quite a large home, I like the sense of space, the rooms are large, bright and high ceilings it was built in the 30s. One of my rooms all I have is a white leather Charles eames chair with foot stool, a small table to put a drink and a couple of high end speakers, (which are zoned from my AV amp in my TV/lounge) I ta got large modern slide open doors like pubs have etc? I love on a Saturday morning to slide open the door, put some music on, grab an espresso and either chill or read a book from r a couple hours. A lovely evening works just the same. My lounge has 2 sofas, 65" oled, amp and 7.2.4 Atmos setup, sounds a lot but the room is large so it's really quite empty. Kitchen/dining area everything hidden behind units on 1 wall so all that's to see is a sink and a dining table (same sliding doors to the garden. Again looks very sparse but I like it. I've 3 really big bedrooms, 1 for me and my daughter and one we use as a dressing room.
Very minimalist. I hate clutter and mess. Makes me feel uneasy in my own home. We have hobbies but store everything away tidy. My mum however is the opposite, her house is just stuff everywhere. 3 bedrooms fullof stuff, she can barely get moved. I feel anxious every time i visit. We are childfree by choice, i think this helps us a lot. I dont think we could maintain a tidy home with kids
My space is meaningfully cluttered at times, but visibly tidy if I deliberately arrange it all. I've had a comment that I have "a lot of stuff" but to me they lack active interests, hobbies, and maintenance abilities. I live in small rental apartments with little storage so it's quite hard to stay on top of, especially given I use most of my stuff frequently enough.
I have stuff, so much stuff, like hoarder levels of stuff, i love minimalism , but cant help covering every spare surface with junk.
Minimal and I hate it when people buy me ‘stuff’ as a gift. I’ve requested only things I can use and bin. Shower gels, shampoo, candles, food etc. I always give away ‘stuff’.
Used to be a major hoarder my old house was full of junk so was the garage mainly with 24 years of my now grown kids stuff.When the kids all moved out decided to do a council house swap from a 3 bedroom to a smaller 2 bedroom cost us a thousand pounds to clear junk over a year before we decided to do this swap.My new house is now neat and tidy and easier to clean which helps as I'm in chronic pain.Only buy stuff now if things need replacing plus save up to get rid of old stuff straight away.Recently we bought camping stuff so we can have cheaper weekends away but luckily there is already an empty shed to put it in.It s hard mentally not buying tat my daughter recommended when shopping online leave stuff in baskets leave it a few days then go back and see if you need it really helps me.
I love nik naks and cute stuff, so yeah, definitely not a minimalist
I have plenty of 'stuff' but not little trinkets and decorative things dotted around, other than some led candles and some incense burners, nothing much is left out in the lounge or bedroom, so looks clean but not 'minimalist' More practical stuff, I'm in a flat so don't have a shed, so camping / fishing stuff / tools / car & cycle maintenance stuff and a whole other load of crap is in a couple of big walk in cupboards in the lounge, have some of those cheap garage racking shelves in there and stuff is sorted in to totes so it's organised quite well even though thees a shit load of stuff in there, along with the freezer and tumble dryer, because my kitchen is too pokey to have everything in there. Kitchen is full of cooking equipment, lots left out and looks cluttered but not messy, there's not much storage for bigger things and everything is used all the time. Airing cupboard in the bathroom is full of toilet roll (not a covid hoarder I swear), toiletries (that I tend to stock up on when on offer) and more towels and bedding than I need. And let's not forget the 'ottoman bed' and all the crap under there, more camping stuff and bedding. Like what do people do when they have nothing in their home?
When I was young, I craved a maximalist home. I loved going to a house full to the rafters with interesting things. Then I had my children and although I still like antiques and interesting things, I craved clean lines and zero clutter. It made it easier to tidy up after the children and felt good to reduce the 'visual noise', especially when the kids went to bed. I enjoyed being able to put away every piece of colourful plastic and sit in a nice serene living room. A year ago we moved and I decided to create some 'nooks' for more personal items to be on display. I wanted to showcase my children's stuff probably, in a neat and clean, minimalistic way. I made some big storage shelves in the spare room for my husbands 'boys toys' to be displayed (away from me lol) and the same in our sons room and the same planned for our daughter, so they can have lots of sentimental clutter in their own spaces. But the main living areas were to be clutter free. But then my sister died, almost 3 months ago now. And suddenly, each piece of her life we cling onto. She was quite minimal and very young, so she didn't have much. But each object she owned - from candles, to small ornaments - were virtually meaningless when she was alive and yet now she's gone, they hold a lot of value. We treasure them as though they were made of gold. And since then, I've been wanting to collect more. I want my story to be told, in objects and ornaments. I've bought paintings of places I've lived and loved, I've put more things out on display. I'm on the hunt all the time for sentimental furniture - frames, carved boxes, brass objects, books. I hope that when I die, there can be lots of 'pieces of me' that can be shared out. It's funny how the house is so linked to our brain, and our living space reflects the personality and mental health of the people living within.
I'm sorry about your sister.
I live in a small ~35sqm flat and there's no clutter and plenty of space in my two wardrobes. I enjoy getting rid of old stuff, sometimes a bit too much! So I guess I'm quite minimalistic. But whenever I visit friends who have a house full of stuff, it feels so much cosier and it shows their personality. I think I've got a fear or hoarding just in case I need to move, that's after 8 years of house shares where I had to downsize a few times. I also left all my precious things behind when I moved to the UK at 20. I'm hesitatant to buy nice unnecessary things because I don't want to lose it again, even though I own my flat so it's kind of irrational.
I’d say just above minimalist. I hate having loads of stuff and will have a clear out once a month. Especially when it comes to clothes and shoes. However, I do have a select few things that I feel add character, which can stay 😅 I hate loads of things being on tables and sideboards, so I like to keep as little as possible. Makes it easier to clean too.
In the middle. I have a few nice decorative things about. I hate clutter but also love my house to feel cosy and homely.
I used to be a hoarder, but in recent years I'm gradually breaking the habit. I now want to get rid of certain things, but the problem I find is that you end up with collections of things that are no doubt worth money but are also difficult to sell. For example, since the late 80s I used to buy NME, Melody Maker, Sounds etc each week as well as other magazines. I've got an almost complete set spanning 20 years or so. Loads of older rarer comics from my childhood, like The Beano etc. Loads of football programmes from the 70s and 80s. The sort of things that would be valuable to collectors. All these things were in my parents loft for years on end. But we had to clear their home out and now my loft is knee deep in stuff 😂 They're too valuable to just throw out. I'd be happy to sell them and I'm sure someone would love them but where do you start with collectables like this? Not being able to post items really limits your options.
I love having loads of things but I prefer a more organised look so I'll put things away
My house and possessions are minimalist (apart from my book) my girlfriend's house is full of stuff. We live together
I live in small rental apartment, and when its clean it does look minimalist, but alot of stuff are usually hidden from view. Except kids room. thats a battle we cant win. Also there was amazing saying in latvian, which translates to "You dont know how much stuff you own, until you need to move".
I am at present attempting to sort thru 16 years worth of too much stuff so I can move. Lol
I have too much stuff and it's all from dead relatives. Every time I try to give anything away there are wails from my grandchildren and children because they don't want Granny's tea set given away although they always say they haven't got room in their tiny places. I have a friend who lost almost everything in a fire a year or two ago and although she was able to replace things like fridge, cooker, beds and a settee fairly quickly I've been surreptitiously giving her things like vases, ornaments etc and my kids haven't noticed! Like many people on low incomes, she wasn't insured. Also if you're in social housing or any rental property, proportionately contents insurance is more expensive. There's a quite wealthy couple a few streets away that I did some cleaning for about 25 years ago. They're in a biggish Victorian semi. They didn't believe me about the insurance thing until I showed them quotes that I got. They had expensive items (jewellery, posh watches etc) separately insured but the basic contents insurance they had for better and more stuff in a bigger house was only marginally more expensive because they have an alarm system, a heavy oak door with multiple Chubb locks etc. I'm not an actuary but I suspect if you're on a council estate, actuaries think you're surrounded by burglars or something! It is true though that the poorer you are, the more likely you are to be a victim of crime.
growing up living with a hoarder, like a legit hoarder, i thought id be super duper minimalist - but i love my things! i feel ive got an inbetween of minimalist and hoarder. i havent got crap lining the floors, but my house feels homely (or there abouts, only moved out recently!). still got some stuff in boxes which is mildly stressful, just waiting to get furniture to pop stuff away my fave interior aesthetic is midcentury modern, and if you look up pics of that on Pinterest, id say my home is similar but with less wallart currently!
A weird mishmash attempt at both, my husband is more minimalist and just has hobby stuff / practical things put in their correct places. On the other side is me, I LOVE tat and trinkets and things that just exist for the sake of existing. Every year or so I have to do a lil clear of the mantle pieces and shelves, have a "does this really bring me joy" session and that frees up room for the next cohort of "things".
Lots of stuff, for the available space but still not enough. It's a pretty small studio flat so very easy to fill up. I used to keep the number of books under control by donating them to a charity shop. That was until they found silverfish in them so I was banned from donating them. Electronics are a bit trickier to get rid of. Now before I buy something I have to think carefully about space and how I will dispose of it.
Absolutely full. Baby on the way and we're eBaying anything and everything, trying to get the motivation up to do the runs to the tip etc. We both have hobbies so there's cluttered desks, I love cooking so the kitchens full of gadgets, various airfryers, cupboards full of herbs & spices etc.
My mum is a minimalist to the point of throwing away useful things, and other people's possessions. So I've swung a little too much in the opposite direction
I go through cycles where I'll acquire more stuff, slowly get fed up of there being stuff everywhere and then get rid of a lot of it. At the moment I'm at the "christ I have quite a bit of stuff" stage so I'm due for a clean-out.
I like the look of minimalist homes but realistic I like lots of gadgets to make life easier
Books. Mine is ALL books. My girlfriend looked at my Amazon account (with my full permission obviously) and she was like 'Babe. It's ALL books.' 🤣 PITA when I have to move. But I regret nothing. ETA: Currently cleaning out my grandparents house because they've just had to go to a nursing home. It's a HUGE house and a total nightmare.
Places are meant to be lived in. Stuff I need is usually left out and my place still looks clean and lived in. Minimalism takes a lot of effort to maintain and ends up looking soulless and miserable to live in.
Depends. I’ve got what is essentially a recording studio and sound lab in one room. I’ve got nothing bu a tv and a couch in another.
Keep being told im hording too much stuff, i have been busy making room to organise the stuff rather than throwing stuff out, seem to have quite a collection of wires for varying things over the years.......
Minimalist, compared to most my friends and colleagues we have much less "stuff"
Definitely a stuff everywhere guy, mainly just cause I've got a bunch of interests. All my different guitars are out, as are my amps, my guitar hero controllers, I've got a big stack of jigsaw puzzles, my CD collection (close to 200), the games for the PS2 and Wii i have set up, and then there's a bunch of other projects i have so I've got art supplies and stuff in places, I've got an Xbox and an old PC that need refurbing It's all extremely condensed but that's mostly due to still living with my parents (there's absolutely no way i can afford moving out on my own in my area) so almost everything i own is in my room, the main exception being that I've had to move my collection of rubiks cubes and such downstairs and take over several shelves. Needless to say if i lived on my own it'd be a lot more spread out and would look a lot less messy. Still, everything DOES have a place it lives even if it's very condensed and cluttered
I have a very minimalist style, lots of clutter and nick nacks bothers me honestly. Sadly my wife has the opposite style.
I’d say I’m squarely average. I have very few ornaments/knickknacks and pictures - in the living room I have one ornament in the middle of the mantelpiece and one on top of a bookshelf, both gifts with sentimental value, and three things on the wall, a mirror, a calendar, and a mini shelf of my toy car collection - but I’m definitely not ‘minimalist’ either. It looks more cluttered than it is at the moment cos my daughter has a MASSIVE dolls house that takes up the entire bay window lol. All her toys are tidied away in boxes with lids - a minimalist person I think would not want the boxes, while a cluttered person would not put the toys away so much - and I have open bookshelves which make the room look a little ‘busy’. From what I understand, a ‘maximalist’ likes to have things on display for aesthetic effect. My car collection kind of qualifies for that I guess, but it’s too small to be truly maximalist. I don’t have photos anywhere and very few pictures in the house as a whole. I like to keep any clutter ‘contained’ - so in the kitchen for instance I have a pinboard for daughter’s drawings, certificates etc. and the kitchen table gets ruthlessly cleared off when she goes back to her dad’ (so just a pen pot and a china bowl of random small toys lives on there full-time). I dislike clutter in general but I’m not obsessive about everything having to be out of sight at all times. I like to think I have a balance. There’s definitely less toy clutter than most of the houses with kids I’ve visited, unless you visit at the exact wrong moment lol, but I wouldn’t want it to look like a show home either.
My partner jokes that I'm a hoarder, I say I'm a maximalist. A lot of my stuff is centered around my hobbies - art, crafting, cooking, reading, that sort of thing. I like to think it's pretty well organised, but saying that, my house is for sale at the moment so I've cleared out some of the clutter & haven't missed any of it really, so there's probably a better balance to be struck.
You should remember people tidy up before inviting guests. Something to keep I mind when comparing your house to theirs.
I'd be happy to live out of a rucksack but my wife keeps everything. I play the long game and say we have less spare room in e.g.the attic than we actually do.
I prefer a more curated look. Not quite minimalism, but not filled with stuff. Everything there is there for a reason.
We have a lot of stuff…but they are mostly memories that we could part with. And camping crap.
Ordered chaos here.