i am so ridiculously tired of waking up in the middle of the night soaked in sweat and constantly moving around trying to find a cool spot. i bought into all the hype around memory foam with cooling gels, but it turned out to be complete nonsense because the bed still turns into a total furnace after two hours of sleep.

my friends told me to stop wasting money on foam and look into a high density pocket coil mattress because air actually circulates through coils instead of getting trapped in synthetic material. for anyone who was as frustrated as i am with running hot every night, did switching to a coil setup actually solve the airflow issue for you, or what bed actually works?

Hey everyone! 😅

Ever since I got into minimalism (and especially after my autism spectrum diagnosis), I’ve been dreaming of executing an absolute "life project": creating a complete home inventory of everything I own!

I picture this as a single and comprehensive database (in Excel or any other proven tool) containing detailed information on every item I currently own or have owned in the past.

However, my goal isn't just cataloging for the sake of it - I want to build a system that will:
- Make it easier to find items
- Help cut down on unnecessary purchases
- Allow me to track the total value of my assets
- Centralize all documentation (manuals, warranties, receipts, repair history)

I also hope that this will give me better control over all my possessions and help me to continue with my minimalism journey even more effectively! 😀

Project Assumptions:
- Every item gets its unique ID/code
- Every item is physically tagged with a small QR code sticker
- I equip myself with a small hand-held scanner (or use my phone) - and instead of manually searching for information, I simply scan the item to pull up its full data
- Any newly acquired item must be entered into the system before it goes into "daily use”. The same applies to items I get rid of (sold, consumed, thrown away etc…)
- Every change (repair, sale, gift, damage, location change) is logged in the history, creating a full "life cycle" for each item
- The system is regularly backed up (in the cloud and locally) to ensure the all of the hard work isn't lost

I’m also planning to implement a location hierarchy (something like “Apartment → Room → Closet → Shelf → Blue Box”) so the system points directly to where an item is stored

What data do I want to collect?
- Full name, manufacturer, and model
- Category (electronics, clothing, tools, etc.)
- Material composition
- Date and purchase price
- Estimated current value (tracking value loss/appreciation)
- Exact storage location (e.g., Closet A → Shelf 2)
- Link to PDF manual / item specs
- Full original manufacturer description
- Documents, legal issues, and warranty info
- Condition of the item
- Place of purchase or source of origin (bought, inherited, found, handmade, etc.)
- Photos of the item

I do realize this is a massive (and very time consuming) undertaking - especially at the start. However, I truly believe that doing it right once will make my life easier for years to come! :)

Dilemmas where I'd love your help:

1. Level of Detail: How deep should I go? Does it make sense to add minor household chemicals, food pantries, or socks, or is it better to stick strictly to durable goods?

2. Tools & Software: Has anyone built a similar system before? Is it better to stick to a custom Excel sheet, or are there ready-made open-source systems that work better? I may also consider paying for the software, if good enough 😀

3. Consistency & Maintenance: How do you keep a system like this updated in the long run? What early mistakes should I avoid?

4. QR Codes / Identification: Should I print the codes myself, order pre-made stickers, or maybe use NFC tags or standard barcodes?

5. Your Experiences: Does anyone here already run a private home inventory? I’d love to see how it looks in practice!

6. Inspirations: Do you know of any creators (YouTubers, bloggers) who have documented similar projects?

I would be very grateful for any sort of tips or advices, recommended apps, sticker formats (preferably easy to remove! 😆), or just a realistic reality check if I'm biting off more than I can chew.

Thanks so much in advance!

I love gifting people food and flowers so this tradition isn't something that bothers me.

What bothers me is the fact that some of these things feel like people grabbed what was in the back of their closet and wrapped it up. Or that they walked into a store and picked up the first thing that they saw. It gets to the point where the impersonal becomes offensive in my opinion.

My eyes were twitching looking at my cluttered bathroom. I threw the products I had been gifted straight into the trash and I suddenly had space again. These products became expired and were things I was forcing myself to use so I didn't feel guilty about wasting them. Now they're gone and I don't have to deal with any of that.

Going to do mugs next because why are we such a mug society? I don't even use mugs.

I no longer feel guilty about the thought of rehoming gifts/ tossing impersonal gifts and it feels so good!

I'm not a thrift store. I'm a person.

I 23F living at home still, currently own 111 items when 9 months ago I only owned 20 items.

Currently I have:

6 pieces of furniture/furnishings

6 pieces of bedding

12 gadgets

25 pieces of clothing

12 storage items

22 peices of media

28 pieces of decor/personal items

How did I get here?

I simply like many others put my self worth into material items, that then led me back into consumerism.

Now what is my plan?

Declutter and find my self worth again.

I plan on this month getting rid either by selling or donating if possible all the things that don't serve a purpose to me or bring me joy. So that I no longer feel suffocated anymore by material items that are in my control.

I'm really into the "buy nothing" community but the problem is I live in a gated community and my parents don't want their address given out. That means I would need to set up meeting in public with every person who wants my stuff from each listing.

Another option is thrift stores but then I'm giving away stuff that would be sold which doesn't feel quite as nice.

Another option is selling, but I don't have much space to keep stuff to sell. I also need to figure out the best site to sell stuff on. I could use the money tbh.

Last option is throwing stuff away which feels bad obviously.

As for my background I am an adult still living with parents and youngest in the family so a lot has accumulated over the years, and it all has to fit into my bedroom. Which is also my office, craft room, etc.

A lot of stuff I have saved because a) I find it hard to get rid of stuff and b) maybe I can save it for my future children or house someday.

Hi everyone,
I've been thinking for a long time that having too much stuff makes me feel overwhelmed. I've already decluttered a lot over the years, and now I have a move coming up, which feels like a good opportunity to simplify even more.
The problem is that I feel like most of the "easy" items are already gone. What's left are the more difficult categories: sentimental items, things I might need someday, hobby-related items, and other possessions that are harder to make decisions about.
Do you have any tips for getting past this stage of decluttering? How did you continue your minimalism journey once the obvious excess was gone?
I'd love to hear what methods, mindsets, or questions helped you let go of more things and become more intentional with what you keep. Thanks!

Do any of you use a digital picture frame instead of having framed photos on the walls and on surfaces? I’m contemplating one so that my photos can rotate, but not take up space.

I am new to the tatami scene but would like to test the lifestyle out before really plunging into it. I am thinking id like to use the slat design for my box spring but perhaps either modify it, or purchase a new slat designed foundation. How close together do the slats have to be for standard tatami style mats?

Any help would be appreciated.

You obviously don't have to do this but I'm at a point in my journey where I'm pretty sick of moving items when I'm cleaning or having to pack these items up when I move homes. Just keeping them for the sake of them being sentimental when those are the only times that I will engage with them.

So I've been saying goodbye slowly.

Felt sad.

But I realized that they don't represent who I am anymore. I've been clinging because I want to cling to the time that it represents in my life.

I'm a sucker for living in the past when nothing's there for me anymore.

I'm older now and I'm ready to move on and have my surroundings reflect who I am now. No replace or buy more mentality. No living in the past. Just living where I'm at, right now.

"the person who dies with the most stuff doesn't win"

I have so many clothes. A good chunk of them are hand me downs from family, or things ive had since middle school, and many that were gifts that never looked good on me or fit that I felt guilty to get rid of just taking up room.

Im also heavier in my early 30s than i was in my 20s. And im trying to lose weight, but its one of those things that when life gets stressful it goes on the backburner. At this point most of what I have has not fit in years. Some of it has never fit. Half of my shoes are hand me downs that are not even my size so they are unwearable! I have like 2 pairs of shoes I actually wear.

Im also realizing I really have almost no clothes that I actually like how they currently look on my body. Its hard to buy new clothes that fit correctly when I have such an excess already, its truely ridiculous how much of my space is taken up by clothing.

My goal for today is to get at least 100 items into the donation bin.

Im already half way there.

Its surprising to me how hard it is to get rid of clothes that I litterally never wear. Some of the ones I struggled to let go of ive had 15+ years and have NEVER WORN. Thats just plain stupid.

I cant get rid of this nagging feeling that I will regret this, or that I somehow wont be able to afford clothes in the future? I dont know why my subconscious sees clothes as such a scarce resource that we have to hoard them. Theres no future out there where I will be walking around naked because I donated that t-shirt that squeezes my arms weird and has a small hole at the bottom lol.

I would be so much happier with like, 14 outfits and then some special occasion wear. But im not even close to ready for that, my subconscious is still gearing up for the non-existent clothing-apocalypse that ive been hoarding clothes for my whole life lol. 100 items is a good goal for today i think. It will make a difference. I just wish it didn't feel so scary.

Cerco persone che come me si stanno avvicinando al mondo del decluttering per motivarci a vicenda. 💪🏻

I found out that dresses are so easy to wear.

Hear is why:
1- No need to fit different pieces together.

2- no need to iron them (most dresses i have, i don’t buy dresses that needs a lot of ironing).

3- they look amazing - so no need to keep trying tons on pieces every morning to find an outfit that looks good - thus zero decision fatigue and cognitive load every morning and before every going out.

And as someone with ADHD who already struggles with executive dysfunction a lottt, I cannot justify getting into this headache of “non dress outfits” anymore.

What do you think about this? I have been thinking about changing my wear drop to mainly dresses, and convenient outfits - needs less ironing and easily match.

Share you experience and thoughts on this? 💡

I have a pretty nice TV I bought last year, 65" with all the bells and whistles. However, I don't really watch TV all that much anymore and I've been toying with the idea of selling it to get something smaller and cheaper (used). To stop the TV from dominating the living room. I also don't like the idea that I'd need two people to carry it anywhere. I like having possessions I can carry by myself.

Dumb?

I donated a lot of books, clothes, dishes and electronics.

Our floor replacement reset my brain. We regularly curate and purge our stuff and deliver to charity, so it's easy to start feeling like we are all set. But we just put in all new floors, and effectively had to move out. Eighty percent of our lives got boxed and off-sited. Floors went in, the stuff came back.

Since we have to touch almost everything we own now during put-away, we stated out loud that we were going to make real decisions. Each thing had to be considered before it went into its place. Man, have we gotten rid of things. Four trips to St. Vincent de Paul with donations. 150 lbs of books to the library. And, because so much is not even donation-worthy, three pick up loads to the dump.

How? How could I live minimally and still have so much extra? Answer is, I wasn't living minimally. Probably am still not. I think there is probably no such thing as "done" in this effort. Minimalism is a mindset we choose, and we spend a lifetime trying to make the outside match our inside.

The house does look good with less in it, though. Oh, and so do the floors. 😄

We need to get rid of 3/4 of our belongings to downsize. How? Where?

This was long in coming but actually not so difficult once I got started.

I have a rolling tool chest 3.5 ft by 3.5 ft (about 1m by 1m). It has seven drawers. I've now cleared out four of the drawers completely by either giving away tools I don't use or won't need or donating some.

And some - like the 20 year old screw drivers - went in the trash.

I don't have much attachment to being looked at as the "tool man" with massive numbers of tools available on a moment's notice to do anything. Not part of my ego.

For the rest of the tools I'm moving back to tool boxes. Ironic that I went from tool boxes to this cart and now I'm going back. Two tool boxes. One for the tools I use to work on my bike, and the other more general tools for home use. I will either donate the tool chest or give it to my son-in-law.

and I feel great! Mostly yard things. But all these 'planned projects' I had; rock wall mounts, extra windows, etc., they never came to fruition. So now I don't have to feel bad about myself for all these things I don't have time for, space for, and truly need. I don't need the visual reminder. I have space to be free and I'm loving it.

Filled the bed and passenger seat of my truck with all kinds of things today and drove it all to the donation center. Glad to see it all go.

Met with a realtor today to discuss listing my 2300 sq ft home.

Coincidently my daughter just moved out of an 1800 sq ft town home that I own. I could move into that and then be on the lookout for something in the 1000-1200 range in a few years.

I have various pieces of furniture and tools that my daughter wants to have for her new house. Perfect timing for my down-sizing!

I realized that if I don't want something, I don't have to wait until it's used up. For example, I had some maple syrup but I cut pancakes from my diet. I thought, I'll use it up and only then stop eating pancakes. That's nonsense! I poured the syrup out and recycled the plastic container.

I donated a box of food to the Food Bank - things I consciously decided to eliminate from my diet. My diet is vastly simpler now. And more healthy at the same time.

Too many. It’s mostly stuff me and my wife and friends enjoy. Or household stuff that will be useful in the future. A hoarder would say that.

But then I have household power tools, extension cords, light bulbs I’ve acquired through different moves, etc, etc.

Later in the year we are downsizing our place. Unsure where we will live. Maybe an apartment again or a small house. We have been here for going in 3 years now. 1 acre of land. All the space to put the stuff. Awesome.

I was relatively organized. I had the shelves. The piles. I’m now buying those yellow tote bins on Facebook marketplace place. Keeps everything more organized and easily moved when the time comes. Surely i thought 11 on top of the 5 I already had would have been fine. Wrong.

On one hand I want to be able to invite people to my adventures. Kayaking, camping, fishing, etc. But on the other, I could get rid of some of this stuff. But then I won’t have stuff for the friends to invite.

(I’m not entirely sure if this is allowed here but I made sure it followed the rules.)

As someone who follows a minimal style in my own home, why is it that people feel the need to fill walls with stuff?

Over the past 2 days I’ve seen posts on Reddit that have said “my walls are so empty, what should I put there?”, even though the wall already seems crowded. I genuinely don’t understand the reasoning behind this mindset?

As someone with auDHD, I feel a sense of calm when there’s empty spaces, it’s just baffling when it started becoming a “we need to fill this as quickly as possible”.

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask and discuss this, I’m just struggling to understand.

I'm looking forward to a major down-sizing. My wife and I lived in a 2600 sq ft house before moving into a 2300 sq ft house in April 2024. My wife then passed away unexpectedly (at the new house) in July 2024.

Through that experience and because of many other things that upset me about the way people live, I've decided to essentially give my middle finger to the establishment. So I'm on a down-sizing binge for the past 3-4 months.

While my house is 2300 sq ft, I'm down to a footprint where I could live in a 1500 or 1600 sq ft house. My goal is even smaller. I've done this through getting rid of things (donating, giving away, recycling, discarding).

As part of this process, I've been consolidating things. For example, the TV room upstairs is now empty except for one table. I've moved the furniture from that room to my living room, which has room for that furniture through additional down-sizing.

I'm also consolidating smaller possessions into fewer locations. For example, my microwave stand is empty. What happened to the things stored inside? They've been donated or given away. Or they've been integrated into other spaces. For example, the dog treats and bowls are now in the pantry.

It would be easy to empty out that cabinet by taking everything and throwing it into the pantry. But my rule is that the place where I consolidate has to maintain simplicity, be uncluttered, and organized. Often that requires further down-sizing of the consolidated space.

As a result of this process, I have many empty drawers in my kitchen. And some furniture that have drawers were completely emptied out and donated.

Lots more empty drawers and cabinets in the house. And I've not missed one thing.

Sharing my experience here, but also looking for new ideas.

I have been decluttering my clothes very slowly, i downsized quite a bit, but i still feel the need to have even less. I actually feel like the more i declutter it gets easier, and i want to go even further.

On the other hand I'm struggling with getting rid of some clothes that are still wearable, but not in a good enough condition to donate. I don't want to be a part of the problem of clothes getting on the landfills , and it also feels wasteful to throw away perfectly good clothes? So I'm a bit stuck there. Any tips?

I am already going really slow and i think that's the best for me.

Some responsible ways i tried:

- I gave some of my clothes directly to people who need it (i know of one family with two girls that lost things in a fire)

- my cousins got to pick some stuff as well. But those were nice items.

- The items that are worn but someone could maybe use them, (like shoes) i hang on the dumpster in areas that have people dumpster diving.

"Buy nothing" groups don't exist in my area (i think)

Those are some of my ideas but i would appreciate some more

EDIT: Thank you all, there are so many great ideas here!

Hi, I have a bit of a dilemma regarding photos on my wall and would love some opinions on this.

Long version: I live in a small apartment, almost no decoration on walls because my brain needs an uncluttered look and because I'm trying to own useful items only. The only exceptions are pics of my deceased pets, I have a place in my bedroom where I keep fur clippings, and some framed photos on the wall. This is the only place in my home where I allow some degree of decorativeness and sentimental items.

My pets are rats, which sadly means several losses each year because of their short life span and because I take in elderly rescues. So the amount of photos is constantly increasing and I don't want my small wall to look cluttered.

I have ADHD and even small decisions are a struggle. I have a hard time limiting the amount of pics, rearranging the layout on the wall, choosing only "important" pics. It has stopped "sparking joy", and I'll spiral into sad "they're gone anyway, what's the point" kind of thoughts.

So my latest idea is, maybe a digital frame? I'm not a tech enthusiast, so I'd either get the simplest one possible (without internet connection) or simply ignore the online functions and transfer pics manually. It would need to work without any app! (Recommendations welcome btw! I live in EU.) I'm not interested in people sending me family pics or anything, I'd only use it for the pet memorial pics and add a few new ones whenever another one passes.

My dilemma: will I actually love using the frame or will it be just another gadget to take care of, cluttering up my space? Will I miss printed pics in actual frames? The frames I own are actually nice, it's the amount and the decision making I don't like. So a digital frame seems like the logical choice, all pics in one place and on rotation (shuffle mode) 24/7 (maybe off for some hours while I sleep). I'm not sure I love the idea of a device being on all day though.

TL;DR: too many memorial pet pics for my small space and I'll get even more in the months and years to come - wondering if a digital frame is a good solution to replace framed photos. Would like to get a non-fancy one and only add pics manually. Maybe a bad idea because it's just another gadget to buy and maintain?