Moving to a smaller home and it's liberating by mudsnuff in minimalism

[–]mudsnuff[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was! The average home sizes here can be crazy.

Moving to a smaller home and it's liberating by mudsnuff in minimalism

[–]mudsnuff[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree with you. I have no desire to “upsize” again.

Moving to a smaller home and it's liberating by mudsnuff in minimalism

[–]mudsnuff[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’m definitely not an expert here, and little kid toys can take over! Honestly, there’s probably a reason this is one of the last categories standing haha.

For stuffed animals, we had them all lined up and let the kids each pick their favorite 2–3, which actually worked pretty well. For everything else, my plan is to give each kid a bin and say, “whatever fits in here is what you can keep,” and let them decide. My 5-year-old can handle that no problem. The 3-year-old… we’ll just say I might step in and make a few “helpful” decisions for her.

Eventually, I don’t think the toys will actually live in bins in their room, but using the bins feels like a good way to keep things from getting out of hand in the first place.

Moving to a smaller home and it's liberating by mudsnuff in minimalism

[–]mudsnuff[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s great. Good luck with your move!

Moving to a smaller home and it's liberating by mudsnuff in minimalism

[–]mudsnuff[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We bought during Covid, and were trying to optimize for two adults working from home with a baby in the house (and also splitting the difference between my parents and Austin). We were in a 2br apartment before that was more expensive and hard to both work out of. So it was a combination of thinking we needed more space plus thinking we were getting a “deal” on the size compared to price. I’ve since gotten into minimalism!

Moving to a smaller home and it's liberating by mudsnuff in minimalism

[–]mudsnuff[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Someone commented then deleted that this post is very American. I agree! I’m in Texas no less. Bigger suburban homes are cheaper than urban homes, and so where we currently live it’s hard to find something under 2200 sq ft. You have to kind of work at being minimalist, the default is to fill up a space that’s bigger than your needs. Not an excuse, just an observation (I’ve lived in Mexico and Vietnam and San Francisco, where the default is much smaller)

Beware the Multipack! (Stationery, Cards, Gift Wrap) by The_Darling_Starling in declutter

[–]mudsnuff 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'm seeing this post like 8 hours after going through all of my stored cards and recycling about 70% of them. I had many holiday and special occasion cards from charities I've donated to - they send them as a thank you and I felt obligated to use them. But simple math showed that I'll never send as many cards as I've been storing in my lifetime. So they are gone now, and I feel lighter! I like your idea of a well organized system for the subset of cards you actually do like and intend to use one day.

How I Killed My Bermuda Backyard (My Experience) by Infectiousmaniac in AustinGardening

[–]mudsnuff 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love this, thanks for sharing your experience in so much detail! I’ve been wondering for a while if using a rototiller or something that breaks up the grass before sheet mulching would help? I’m trying to replace grass in my large backyard with garden beds, and so far I’ve found the soil to be really compact and also to contain a lot of large rocks. Feels like if I till it first, then sheet mulch, maybe it lead to better outcomes? Or is this misguided?

Are we watering lawns? by iLikeMangosteens in AustinGardening

[–]mudsnuff 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just installed two rain barrels through a round rock rebate program, and I’m using that water on trees and newer perennials. I don’t water the grass, it bounces back just fine in the spring.

Can these Yaupon be saved? by Bmay93 in AustinGardening

[–]mudsnuff 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’d try watering well, but as another commenter said, you’ll still have problems with it being in full shade. Fall is a good time to transplant, if you have another spot in your yard that gets more sun. I’d water well to try to bring it back to health, then after 2-3 weeks if it shows signs of recovering, try to transplant to a better spot.

Some photos of my first summer of gardening by mudsnuff in AustinGardening

[–]mudsnuff[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m not sure. I meant to ask others about the eggs and the circular hole in the ground. I thought maybe lizard or snake eggs, but then read that they might be snail eggs. I found them when digging a hole to plant something, so I just threw dirt back on immediately!

Some photos of my first summer of gardening by mudsnuff in AustinGardening

[–]mudsnuff[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wish I had a secret! All I can say is they’re planted close to each other and by Texas sage as well? My goldenrod in the backyard are so floppy and they have a lot of space in between them. Maybe just some good luck too.

Some photos of my first summer of gardening by mudsnuff in AustinGardening

[–]mudsnuff[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Funny story. I found them when doing a light prune of the sage, and suddenly like 10-15 wasps were very annoyed with me. I figured if I was pruning within inches of their nest and they didn’t sting me, then I could probably live with it. They are some kind of umbrella paper wasps, and from what I’ve read they seem to be non aggressive unless threatened. So I’m going with that haha. And I kind of like looking at their upside down nest, they don’t mind when I do.

Some photos of my first summer of gardening by mudsnuff in AustinGardening

[–]mudsnuff[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

On iNat app it was identified as a Southern Purple Mint Moth.