Today’s inspiration is hopefully useful in your spring cleaning! It’s an Instagram account @the.minimal.mom and her YouTube channel.
Something I’ve realized since having kids is that you should schedule big, whole-house decluttering projects sometimes–like we did in the spring, when we loaded up a whole truckload to sell at Half-Price Books & donate at Goodwill. But if you really want to keep your house livable, decluttering is lifestyle, not an occasional hobby.
I usually schedule a few small decluttering/cleaning rarely-cleaned spaces per week. It sounds crazy that there could be THAT MUCH to declutter in a fairly small house with four people, but trust me… there’s always more than enough.
This week for example, I cleaned out and wiped down one freezer. That gave me two grocery bags of questionably old food to toss. I also decluttered our linen closet, which yielded another grocery bag of old hole-y sheets and a nice but unused set of cloth napkins to give away on Buy Nothing. I gave away two dresses and an old set of toddler routine cards, too. Then I cleared out the kids’ toys and came up with a whole laundry hamper of unused/broken ones, which I’ll be throwing out and giving away over the next couple of weeks.
This is where practical minimalist accounts like The Minimal Mom come in. Normal influencer culture is NOT minimalist; most influencers make a living selling things, usually lots of trendy things you’ll be throwing out in a year or two.
And minimalist influencers are out to impress you with their bare white rooms with a single chair and potted plant–not a realistic aspiration for the little kid season of life. Or ever, if you’re me… I prefer cozy spaces!
The Minimal Mom has a more balanced perspective on clutter and minimalism. She’s not aspiring to bare white rooms, but to live a better life without all the things we’re constantly told we need. She focuses on how much upkeep a maximalist lifestyle requires: the more stuff you have, the more time and energy you devote to (and waste) caring for it.
She also focuses on realistic ways to keep the clutter down and organized. Again, we’re not Marie Kondo-ing our lives here (while I do love that book!)–we’re just consistently decluttering to keep things under control, resetting spaces one by one, over and over. You can’t just declutter once with kids.
I didn’t grow up in a house that was too cluttered, but we definitely kept more stuff than we needed, after it was clear we weren’t going to use it. I did, too! Toys, art supplies, etc. It was difficult for me to part with things. Yet at the same time, I loved walking into friends’ houses that were clean, neat, and clutter-free. I envied the dust-free buffets with just a vase of flowers and a candle. I thought about how much easier it would be to clean or even redecorate if I didn’t have so much stuff I didn’t use.
A clean, airy, and decluttered home screams femininity and excellent homemaker to me–whether or not the owner is a full-time homemaker. Decluttering creates spaces people want to spend time in. And home should be a lovely oasis whether you are single, married, or raising a bunch of kids.
If you’re in the mood for some serious decluttering and cleaning inspo, check out The Minimal Mom!
xx Claire