Minimize Yo Butt | The Minimalist Mom

Your Clutter Coach

May 7, 2012 By theminimalistmom 7 Comments

Source: theminimalistmom.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Sometimes you need more help than a book or a blog can give you.

Sometimes you need a friend to remind you to donate those bags of unworn clothing that are sitting in your basement.

Sometimes you need someone to make a plan for you, motivate you and keep you accountable.

Sometimes you need a Clutter Coach.

I get a lot of emails asking for help. I always respond (even it takes me a while) with advice, suggestion and encouragement.

And I always wonder, did they carve out a weekend to clean out that attic? Are they in the throes of home purging and feeling beaten by the process? Did they pull out some boxes from under their bed, lose a few hours looking through old junk, and then decide it was all too much work?

For some time I’ve wanted to help beyond the posts on this blog. Something very personal for paring down and living smaller.

A book wasn’t the answer. There are already some great books out there like Family-Sized Minimalism and Clutter Bootcamp for inspiration and how-to. A book can’t hold your hand, give you a kick in the butt or suggest another method for dealing with all that mail.

I want to do those things.

I want to see closets go from jam packed to roomy.

I want to help people get more sleep.

I want to find solutions for the mud room clutter that can be so hard to reign in.

So I’ve started something new.

Your Clutter Coach

This is for people that:

can’t make the time to declutter even after reading a lot of books and blogs on the subject
get sidetracked by old photos and trinkets every time they attempt to clean out the guest room
have pared down their stuff but it crept back quickly
need motivation and accountability to clear clutter for good

Your Clutter Coach is a personalized decluttering program. It’s tailored to your lifestyle, your needs and your schedule. It’s me kicking your butt and you kicking ass.

You can read more about the services here.

If you’re interested in the program I am currently giving away one free Four Week Clutter Coaching Program at Parenting with Crappy Pictures (if you haven’t visited this site before it is hilarious). The giveaway is open until Tuesday May 8th at 8pm PST. Head on over to read the details and enter.

PS. This will be the only time I mention Your Clutter Coach in a big post like this.

Filed Under: 2011 Challenge, Bathroom, books DVDs and media, car free, Clothing, DVDs, etc, Finances, Furniture, Getting Started, Gifts, giving, Guest Posts, Health, inspiration, Internet, Kids, Kitchen, Media: books, minimalist with kids, Minimize Yo Butt, moving overseas, Off Topic, One Simple Thing, paying it forward: wedding edition, Project 333, shopping mistakes, Storage, Technology, Travel, Uncategorized

A Rich Life with Less Stuff: Year One

September 24, 2011 By theminimalistmom 6 Comments

A quick post to let you know that I have compiled all my posts from my first year into a free e-book. If you want to read about our journey chronologically this is a great way to do it. You’ll have all of the posts, with pictures and links, in order and can read through at your leisure.

From experience, I know it can be challenging when you find a new blog and can’t easily read through previous posts. I always get a bit frustrated when I find a new writer and blog that I like and I have to slowly piece together their history through a blog archive.

So here is A Rich Life with Less Stuff: Year One free to download! You can read the PDF on an e-reader or your computer or print it out (last resort – save those trees!).

Again, thanks for reading and I appreciate all of you that share this blog with your friends and family. You’ve grown the community here exponentially over the last year and I am so grateful!

Note: you can download the book for free but there is a suggested price of $2 if you would like to donate to blog maintenance, hosting and design costs. Suggested, appreciated, but definitely not required. Please feel free to share this book as often as you like!

A Rich Life with Less Stuff: Year One

A full year of paring down, reducing, donating and ending the spending.

Read about how we:

reduced our wardrobes by 80%
became a car-free family
reduced toy clutter
ditched our ‘smart phones’ for better family time
paid off $82,000 in debt
got our possessions down to 14 boxes and 5 bins in preparation for moving overseas
forgot about the Jones’ and focused on ourselves
started living a rich life with less stuff

Filed Under: 2011 Challenge, Bathroom, books DVDs and media, car free, Clothing, DVDs, etc, Finances, Getting Started, Gifts, Guest Posts, Health, inspiration, Internet, Kids, Kitchen, Media: books, minimalist with kids, Minimize Yo Butt, moving overseas, paying it forward: wedding edition, Project 333, Storage, Technology, Travel, Uncategorized

spark finding and a request for feedback

September 6, 2011 By theminimalistmom 40 Comments

a donate/sell/get rid of pile from almost a year ago - all gone!

Paring down and living with less is hard work. If it was easy everyone would have tidy closets and clutter free shelves. But it’s not. Especially in the beginning. In the beginning the road ahead looks long and hard.

You need a spark to make big changes in your life. You need a extra motivation. Something beyond what you have most days.

Six weeks ago I signed on for Faith’s Minimize Your Butt Fitness Challenge. I had big goals: drop 5 pounds, lose some inches off my waist and get back into a consistent exercise program. Oh, and I wanted to cut out eating chocolate during the week.

I didn’t meet those goals. In fact, I only lasted the first two weeks with the no week day chocolate. My sister came for a visit, I lost some motivation and then we went on a short vacation and I pretty much threw myself off the wagon. I also didn’t meet my exercise goal of running 3 times a week and doing 3 body weight workouts a week for the entire 6 week challenge. My waist measurement is the same and the 2 pounds I lost the first week is back on.

I could look at it as a big failure. But I don’t. Signing up, writing down my goals and updating my progress here gave me a spark of motivation. Despite some setbacks that spark is still there. And because of that spark I can say that I:

ran more in those six weeks than I did in the previous six weeks
got up to running 12 km – the longest run I have done since the fall of last year
I went two weeks without chocolate during the week – something I hadn’t done in a few months

So, while I didn’t meet my goals I did make some changes. And I found a spark.

I’ve decided to join a gym and figured out a plan so I can lift weights there 2-3 times a week while Chris is on parent patrol. A half marathon isn’t in my future but I will continue to run 2-3 times a week. I’m also reading more about the effects of sugar and trying to cut it out of my diet. In the last three days I have had my coffee with just milk and, while it’s a small change, it’s a start.

Go after the spark. Don’t think ahead to every room and closet and drawer and how much crap is stuffed into them. It will send you to the couch. Or worse, out shopping.

Instead, do that one drawer in the kitchen that irritates you every time you open it. The one with all the rubber bands, unsorted mail, coins, take-out menus and pens that don’t work.

Just do that drawer today. Every time you open that drawer and feel how easily it rolls open, how nice it looks with just two working pens and a pad of paper for notes in it, every time you see that you’re fueling a spark. It may be another two weeks until you can tackle the front hall closet or finally donate that bag of outgrown clothing, but the spark is there.

Results are great but staying motivated for the long haul is invaluable.

On that note, I would love to hear more about how I can help people get started with reducing their stuff. I’ve seen a few friends get excited about minimalism and then quickly give up. Initial excitement fades and that sale at H&M beckons. It’s hard to keep going with all the paring down and at the same time change your consuming habits.

What would you like to see more of here? How can I help you? I’ve created a short survey HERE but feel free to let me know in the comments as well.

Filed Under: Getting Started, Minimize Yo Butt

Minimize Yo Butt: Week 2

August 4, 2011 By theminimalistmom 6 Comments

Portland Marathon 2007: couldn't pass up the freebee towels.

I’m participating in Faith’s Minimize Yo Butt 6 week Fitness Challenge. I’ll be updating my weekly progress here and you can read about my goals here. If you’d like to join in head on over to Faith’s Facebook page and join in.

Yeah for feeling like a runner again! I missed runner me. Not marathoner me as seen above, but the runner that used to get out three times a week, whatever the weather, for whatever the distance, because it felt good.

On Monday I ran loops on the Prom, a 3km stretch of nicely paved boardwalk right on the ocean. Henry was snoozing in the stroller and I had a new playlist on my iPod shuffle. The sun was shining and there was a strong, but manageable, ocean breeze coming at me. I felt good. My legs have kicked into memory mode and running more than 5km doesn’t bring on the burning feeling it did just a few weeks ago.

I’m still tentative about signing up for half marathon in October. It’s looking a bit more complicated for us with travel both the weekend before and after and my mom arriving the following day. I still plan to get ready for it though. For the next 4 weeks I will add 1 km each week to my long run. By September 1st I will be at 14km and have 6 weeks to get up to 18 or 19km before running the half, which is 21 km.

If I have found runner me I am still searching for Crossfit/Body Weight workout me. That’s why I took a stab at a video this week. Did it in my living room on Sunday. Confession: um, it wasn’t that bad. Kind of cheesy but I liked having someone else lead the workout. It was more cardio, less strength, than I would like but hey, I got a workout in.

Workouts

Running:

Monday: 6 x 9 min run/1 min walk
Wednesday: 4 x 9 min run/1 min walk
Friday: 10 km *took 73 minutes but I spent the first 20 minutes running through a windy neighborhood looking for For Rent signs. As always, I was pushing 26 pounds of toddler in the stroller as well.

Body Weight Workouts:

Saturday: 150 squats with Henry on my back in the carrier
Sunday: Jillian Michael Shred video

Nutrition

Um, yeah, I gotta reign it in on the weekend. An afternoon ice cream as we walk on the Prom is fine but adding profiteroles for dessert on the same day is getting me no where!

Read a great post over at Minting Nickels (which is both funny and inspiring – go take a read) about How to Successfully Not Diet. Made me realize a) my problems in the weight fluctuating are are not that unique and b) I need to examine my weak areas.

Weight

Scale says: 0 lost this week, still -2 overall.

Feeling: feeling my fitness come back and it’s exciting. I’ll need to focus on my nutrition more if I’m going to lose weight but right now I am putting my will power towards the exercise.

How was your week? Better yet, how has the summer treated you? Is summer your time for relaxing in the shade and forgetting about exercise programs or are you naturally more active with the better weather?

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Filed Under: Health, Minimize Yo Butt

Minimize Yo Butt: Week 1

July 28, 2011 By theminimalistmom 15 Comments

That's me, middle of the boat in black visor, back in 2003 at the World Champs.

I’m never going to be in the best shape of my life again.

Sometimes that’s a bit depressing.

Other times it’s liberating.

I’ll never do 18 workouts in a week again. Now I have all those hours to go out and live.

In my post-athlete reality I’ve struggled to reconcile hours for fitness and hours for the rest of my life. Before having a baby I went through bouts of marathon training and spent four hours on a Saturday morning running and then three days recovering. Sometimes I enjoyed it. Other times it was a slog.

Now that I don’t have as much leisure time I’m less inclined to give away child-free hours for long workouts. Finding Crossfit and enjoying shorter more intense workouts has been an eye opener. I don’t have to spend 13 hours a week sweating to feel in shape.

It’s been a long road of trying different classes, sports and varying hours and intensity of workouts. What I recently realized: your fitness routine will always change.

It has to. You have to be adaptable to age, injury, life upheaval and whatever else crosses your path. Recognize when you’re bored of a workout, class or activity or when it’s not working with your schedule. And change. Find something new, workout at a different time or get a workout partner involved. A change can be as good as a rest.

Week 1

Monday was a banner day. No chocolate and Henry and I pulled off a 60 minute run in the afternoon. Well, I did the running and pushing of the jogging stroller. Henry had a nap. Tuesday I woke up and felt a bit strange. My balance was off and I felt unwell. I did a lot of walking that day and put in my 150 squats while watching Henry and two of his friends (started a sitting swap – it’s going great!). That night I had intense vertigo while lying down. The room kept spinning while I was trying to nod off. I awoke the next morning and it was even worse. I spent all of Wednesday in my pajamas. No run. No exercise. Not a lot of eating.

Sometimes you have to roll with the punches. It was frustrating to be excited and motivated and then get sick. I’m still not feeling great but managed to get a few workouts in later in the week.

Workouts

Running:

Monday: 6 x 9 minute run/1 minute walk
Friday: 4 x 9 minute run/1 minute walk

Body Weight Workouts:

Tuesday: 150 air squats
Sunday: 100 jumping squats, 30 from toes full push-ups, 50 v-sit sit ups

Nutrition

Giving myself a B this week. No sweets during the week and I otherwise did okay on my nutrition. Still working on portion control and have been eating off a side plate instead of a huge dinner plate to help with that.

Yes, I indulged on the weekend. Chocolate! I also had a fantastic dessert when we were out with friends for dinner. Eaton mess with rhubarb. Really good.

Weight

Scale says: – 2 lbs

Feeling: no huge difference. Yet. Jeans still a bit snug at the waist. But, I haven’t drastically cut calories or started working out at huge volumes. I was expecting slow change over the 6 weeks so, no surprise, it’s slow.

Anyone joining in on the Fitness Challenge? How was week 1 for you?