Wordless Wednesday, December 30th 2015

More Stuff Is Gone…!

I don’t know what’s going on right now but decluttering happens so quick these past few weeks as I mentioned in this post here before. I can only agree to the assumptions I wrote down there, plus repeat and say that it’s holiday season and therefore lot’s of holiday decorations wandered into the charity bags. Bag no. 18 also filled up within a day, bag no.19 within a week! I brought them over to the Brocki (goodwill store) last weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since it was Holiday Season I was wrapping and preparing a lot of presents. I even wrapped stuff I gave away to people because they wanted to have it 😀 It made me happy to use my wrapping stuff and it was lovely to see them being even more happy to be getting their item packed in a lovely way 🙂 That must have been the best part of it all for me 😉

I keep my wrapping stuff such as ribbons and decorations in boxes (I need to replace those, yes…). I used to have two – after decluttering it with the help of the Konmari Method I managed to have just one box left. Awesome!

I’m currently working on bag no.20 – I can’t believe so many bags are already gone! So much stuff was cluttering up my life! Just before I came across some old pictures from when I left my childhood room to move out for good – So.Much.Stuff!!! Most of it is gone and as I recognize the items on the picture I realize how happy I am that they’re gone and how I don’t miss them at all! It’s not that I didn’t like them, not at all, but just the amount of things that you end up gathering throughout your childhood and teenage years is unbearable… I can’t explain that phenomenon but it surely must be a western one! And it somewhat just shows that things can’t make you happy, as I dare assuming very few of us are actually happy surrounded by piles of stuff…

I came across this YouTube video of a lady that had a hoarding problem – it put my own problems a bit into perspective, but I still found it fascinating to look at the amount of items she’s been keeping in her house for all those years… It surely made me think… I felt for this lady – although I’m nowhere near a hoarder (says me! *g*), I really felt for her. And I’m happy to see she managed to let it all go and start over! Check it out:

Are you a bit of a hoarder yourself or do you tend to be a minimalist? Or something in between? Do you also struggle with the amount of things you keep at home?

 

 

Follow My Instagram! Or Whatever…

I must say I still don’t have one of those new phone thingies with a touch screen. I still use (two…!) very very (VERY) very old Nokia phones – they do their job. Just before my last trip to Ireland in spring I brought myself to buy a tablet – for pure logistic reasons of booking and searching transport & hostel information and communication purposes.

Well, of course after a few months I started using it for much more than that. Games I hoped I’d never start playing ended up as App’s on my tablet, and more junk I hoped I’d never add and use…^^

The thing is that the Instagram thing I kept seeing on the facebook sites of my friends kept intriguing me 😉 … For many years now! For some weird reason (to me at least!) you cannot use the App on a computer… The other day I tried to install it on my tablet and – tadaaah – it worked 😀

Of course I am still quite helpless with it and don’t quite get it – just managed to figure out how to re-post good quality pictures of my blog to it (instead – now don’t laugh! – trying to take a good picture with the tablet of the picture on the computer screen…^^)

Well anyhow yes – I added the Instagram icon to the side bar and you can follow me here:

https://www.instagram.com/_my_messy_world_/

I intend to make it a mixture of unfeatured photographs taken with the tablet and blog photographs. Hope you like it 🙂

How Am I Keeping Up After My Big Closet Purge? 6 months into KM…

Half a year ago in June I posted my very first experience with the Konmari Method and talked about my big closet purge. So how am I keeping with my closet now, you might wonder? Does the Konmari Method really help or is my closet filled to the brim again? Is it easy to keep up managing the closet in a tidy way? In this post I will answer all of those questions and tell you about what it’s been like for me to live after the Konmari Method these past six months.

First of all – and I will not lie to you –  yes, it does need discipline to keep up with the tidy closet… a lot of discipline… Folding my clothes, specially my tights, I often feel like going back to the old way, back into rolling them up in a ball and just tossing them into the basket. But I keep reminding myself that it is worth it, and that it’s easier to find what I need, and that they surely do look “happier” (you know what I mean if you’ve read the book… 😉 ), and that I surely feel happier when looking into my tights basket. It’s way easier to keep up with the sock folding as they are of course smaller and look tidy and neat straight away after folding.

After my closet purge post I still had to figure out a way to store my T-Shirts nicely somehow. I looked around in many stores but was never quite happy with any of the storage containers. I also didn’t want to use shoe boxes, I wanted the Tee’s to be stored away in similar looking boxes. After searching for a very long time and slowly getting sick of the process, I came across these storage containers:

I like the sturdy plastic material and the creamish colour of the light ones. Alas, there were not enough of those left so I took two dark ones as well which didn’t make me 100% happy but happy enough to finally start sorting out my Tee’s. Also, I wasn’t too happy about the round edges but I got used to them and it makes them look smooth and nice I figured.

I then went on and sorted out my shirts, divided by colours – dark ones and brighter ones, and by undershirts or summer shirts that might be used as undershirts as well.

Now the shirts are just so much more easy to access to as the containers are easy to grab and lift and move around to get to the box I need. It is also very easy to store the shirts and fold them into place, no problem with that at all.

…oooh, the joy every time I look at them now ❤

This method also helped me keep track of my shirts – I see them all at a glance and remember much better which ones I haven’t been using for a while (or at all…) Ever since, I was able to pick out those particular ones and put them in a Brocki bag for donation. Also, I just kept to the fact that if the Tee’s do not fit into the container anymore, then it’s time to get rid of another one or two for the sake of the new ones fitting in there nicely again. That works pretty good for me and has taught me to keep an eye out on what I do actually need and what needs to be replaced.

A few weeks ago it was also time to change my summer wardrobe into my winter wardrobe, as alas, it is impossible here to keep the same wardrobe throughout the year in this country.

I took the winter box (remember – the one that was initially two boxes and now fit into one?) down from the top of my closet and was just so happy and relieved I didn’t need to wash all those clothes before storing them into my closet again. Before, the two winter boxes were stored in the attic where the clothes gathered a weirdish attic smell and needed to be washed after every wardrobe seasonal change.

I took the winter clothes out of the plastic container, shook them out and filled the container up with the summer clothes which I found out were way many more than the winter clothes! As I wanted everything to fill up that same plastic box (I didn’t want to have two boxes again!!!) it was a good opportunity to go through the clothes as I was storing them and see what I haven’t used much or what didn’t actually bring me that much joy after all, and sort out to the Brocki bag as well.

Up on the top of my closet now is my full summer box, waiting for me to be taken down again next spring and fill me with joy as I discover all of the nice clothes again (doesn’t it always feel a bit like Christmas when doing so 🙂 ? ).

All in all, and also when looking back at my old closet pictures, I feel an utter rush of relief whenever I open my closet and it’s just so nice and tidy. The work and discipline put into that is really yielding its fruits and makes me feel happy and light whenever I open those closet doors ❤

This whole experience surely grew some antennas in my head to detect and decide what I truly do need and what better leaves after all, even though I had not decided against it after the big closet purge. Sometimes, you know you have to let go of things, but you just need a little bit more time to feel comfortable with the thought and then act upon it.

What I’ve also been learning to do is to replace the things that I needed with those that I needed but brought me even more joy. As I wrote about it in this post here, it also applies to replacing clothes. Replacing my gym clothes. Replacing underwear that is nice, but that I have been having for many, many years. It feels good to have new things that are beautiful and spark a whole lot more joy ❤

This was a hard process as it is absolutely not the way I grew up like and a thought that does not apply to my way of thinking at all. My way of thinking always was: if you have something that is still good and not broken, there’s no need at all to replace it.

So I’ve been keeping loads of clothes as well that were still in good shape and ok (as, for example socks or underwear) but I’ve been having since the felt stone age. Nothing wrong with that at all. But I finally brought myself to accept that something that brings me more joy and is beautiful will fulfill me more than what I kept because it was still good and handy.

Adapting to this thought was probably the hardest thing as I’m absolutely against unnecessary waste of things, but I can console myself by knowing that the Brocki (charity shop) around the corner really takes everything and that there are people buying everything and anything there. I would never put something in a Brocki bag that is broken or in a horrible state, but for all the rest, I’m happy to know that the things I bring there (yes, even underwear, imagine that!) will be appreciated by others who don’t have enough money to buy new things at the regular stores.

I hope this post has given you a bit of an insight and inspiration into using the Konmari Method. I’ve also been there when I read the title of the book and thought “…life-changing? Come on…” but it’s truly not exaggerated at all, and if you browse the internet for a while about it you’ll see that I’m not the only one vouching for that method and telling you it’s really true 😉

I’m still in the process of learning here. And still have a long path ahead of me. But by walking step by step, I’ll eventually get to my vision of how I’d like to have my home look like ❤

Tell me about your own journey and experiences with the Konmari Method – I’d love to hear all about it!

Silent Sunday, December 27th 2015

The Idea Of Replacing Things (KM Method)

As most of you might know, I read “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo and have been studying it thoroughly, trying to get a hold of my messy room here back home. The main thing she’s suggesting to get a more happy lifestyle is to only keep things that truly spark joy and let go of everything else.

I was mainly brought up in western countries. We were not super rich, but we were not poor either. We just learned to take care of our things to make them last longer, keep them nicer and use them with care. We learned how to save money and not to waste things. We’ve also lived in very poor countries where not everyone had enough, and saw what that was like. When traveling in non-western countries I come across poverty many times and it is always a very enriching experience to see how happy these people are despite not having much. It also makes you really think about them, about our planet and its ressources and our waste. In the end – my thought so far has always been the following:

If you have something that is not broken and still does its purpose, there’s no need to replace it.

Until I read that book by Marie Kondo… Her idea and mine clashed as hard as two stones ever could… My oh my – have I put lots of thought into this one! Why would you get rid of something that is still good and usable? The cute mug with a little split corner? I can still drink my tea in it alright, the broken part does not keep me from enjoying my cuppa, right? And it’s so cute anyhow that it’s really still sparking joy. So why would I replace it?

Exactly – why would I… I don’t! That’s the point. It get’s interesting though when you ask yourself the question does it spark joy ?

And that’s when I realized that many things that were well used or a bit broken actually didn’t anymore. Not my mug 😉 but other things!

Just recently I was in a bookstore and saw this gorgeous, but I mean gorgeous shopping bag. I looked at it and my heart melted <3. And then I put it back… Why? Because I already had one that was handy enough.

Luckily, I was standing in line for another while and waiting for a friend and had time to ponder about it. I then asked myself THE question… And I realized that my old shopping bag didn’t spark me much joy at all anymore! It was big enough and handy, yes, but that new one…?

That’s when I understood what Marie Kondo meant. How that simple question changes your life and brings you joy – every day – because you’re, in the end, only surrounded by lovely items that spark joy to you…

 

Isn’t it just adorable 🙂 ? I come across my new shopping bag nearly every day. And guess what – every time I see it, it sparks so much joy and makes me feel good and happy!

The good thing is that I’m lucky enough to live in a city where there are plenty of Brockis (charity shops) and so the old shopping bag went into my last Brocki bag.

Once again – thank you, Marie Kondo! ❤

Friday Flow #46: Getting Lost

It’s a bit difficult for me to stay focused at the moment and I feel I’m so much behind everything that has to do with this blog, but I don’t have the energy to change it at the moment. I’m going through quite a rough patch right now.

My way to deal with it is to just disappear for days or hours – anywhere. Usually into town strolling around and in good company of my book and camera. What else would you want?

Sometimes it feels really good to “get lost” anywhere and not tell anyone. It’s sort of like a wounded animal that falls back into a hidden cave to lick its wounds. Well, I’m hiding because I can’t take much more anymore, and I have a big urge to lick my wounds before I can tackle anything else. I need to hide in order to gain more energy.

It turns out Me Man doesn’t feel the same for me anymore and therefore does not intend on staying together with me.

Ouch.

After feeling smacked on my face I am just struggling with keeping myself sane and together at the moment. But this isn’t the main thing I want to write about in this Friday Flow issue, the most important thing I want to share with you today is how I feel that maybe every single one of us shall hopefully be able to take some time off everything and just get lost. I’m persuaded that spending time on your own helps you focus. Regain energy. Makes you think about where you are in life and what you want (or even what you don’t want!).

Sometimes it’s just good to get off that Merry-Go-Round called “life” and listen deep inside yourself, before you have the energy to go back on (and maybe don’t feel that nauseous anymore, too 😉 ).

So I just wanted to share these thoughts with you and hope that you all get the chance to do so every once in a while. To go back into a hidden cave and lick your wounds when you need to. There’s no shame of that and it’s far healthier than trying to keep up a facade and straight face – anyone would crack at that point…

I hope your Holidays were as lovely as mine were 😀 (Just kiddin’… 😉 )

Tell me, how do you deal when you’re down? What helps you overcome the worst? Thank you for sharing ❤

 

 

Happy Holidays !

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Good Jul

to all of you dear bloggers out there ❤

I hope you’re surrounded by peace and love.

All the best for you!

xox

Wordless Wednesday, December 23rd 2015

Silent Sunday, December 20th 2015