How I Survived Buy Nothing Day

I’ve come across that idea a few years ago and loved it from the beginning! This was the first time I was able to mindfully participate in it. And you can’t imagine what I did to survive it…

The answer is simple.

It was so easy…

I wasn’t even tempted to go out and buy anything! Luckily, even without being organized, I had enough food to get by. Enough to take for lunch at work. Something was missing for my small break in between but hey, I improvised and got by.

Of course, commuting to work costs – I’d need a ticket. But I had already bought that, so I didn’t spend any money on transport either.

But the best part of it was to go through the day with that exact thought – not to buy anything – and keep that thought aside you. It’s not that it would be super hard for me now anyway since learning so much with the Konmari Method, but it was still very good to do this challenge mindfully.

I don’t understand all of these “Black Friday” sales that kept coming up all the time as ads all over the internet today (yes, even here in Europe… We don’t even have that!!!). I mean – it must come from across the Big Pond. And that’s something I find pretty strange – to celebrate Thanksgiving and be grateful for what you have – but then what, run out to the store the following day to buy more crap you don’t even need?!

Slow down, everybody, slow down… and please think twice before you buy something: do you really need that? Ask yourself again…

Do.You.Really.Need.That.Now?

If the answer is still yes, well, then by all means, buy it. But trust me: most of the time, after holding it in your hand for a while and asking yourself that same question a few times – you smile and put it back. And the fact that it sparked joy for the time you held it in your hands is enough to keep you happy and satisfied, and even more proud because you didn’t spend money on something that you, if you’re truly honest with yourself, don’t really need…

Did you ever participate in the Buy Nothing Day Challenge? How was it for you? Or are you a Black Friday Sale lover? Tell me all about it, let’s share opinions  ❤

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Or many Samhain Blessings, rather, if you – like me, like it the old traditional way.

I hope you’re enjoying autumn and all the good things it brings with it (yes, let’s keep the good things in mind like the cozy couchpotato-evenings curled up with a good book, candles and tea – lots of tea!). It’s been rather quiet around my messy world. Work has been very demanding and strange lately, and many things currently going on in my life need a bit of thinking. I try to keep track of everything and brace myself for the upcoming load of work usually crushing down on me from mid-November on. But my Konmari journey is on good tracks, as well – there are many new insights I just haven’t gotten time to sit and write down for you, so you’ll have to bear with me. I hope your summer season has been good for you though, and wish you a great start into the winter season!

Take care!

Kitchen Towels (Konmari Method)

I keep seeing all these before-after posts about the newly organized kitchen towels with the Konmari method and remembered I had done that as well but never shared it in a post with you. Since that moment made me so happy back then I still feel the urge to share it here, even though I don’t live there anymore 😉 So, here is my personal achievement: ta-daaah!

In hindsight I realized I should’ve taken a picture from the side to show how crammed the towels were piling up in a messy tower on the “before” picture. Meanwhile, I got rid of so many more towels and napkins, have an own spot for napkins (even a separate spot for seasonal napkins not often used) and I can keep my kitchen towel cabinet nice and tidy without anyone not supporting me in my Konmari journey. And again, dear Marie Kondo – it SPARKS JOY!!! Thank you so much for it  ❤ !

Joy in my new kitchen ❤

Feeling Like The Recycling Queen

Living on my own means I can now take control over all the recycling procedures in this household. What. A. Joy!!!

I don’t know how I ever got to be like this, but from a very early age I took recycling very seriously. I remember discussing these issues in primary school and later high school, and looking back, I know my teachers were pretty “green”, as we like to call them here (people who take great care of the environment). I never remember them waving their fingers at us though or moralising about recycling issues. But I think it has impacted me – seeing all the waste we had here, and also experiencing places with people who barely had something. Seeing my world collide with those worlds I saw when we went abroad to so-called “Third World” countries made me want to do something about the waste we had in our own lives and try to recycle as much as possible. I think that also the stories I heard from my parents back in their days, growing up with very little or living in rather poor countries made me sensitive to the whole topic.

Growing up I then encountered many situations that just plainly shocked me. Once I was living with another family as an exchange student. We’d get food ordered for every single day of the week. Spare food was put into the fridge, which was good. Until I realized that every Friday was clean-out-the-refrigerator-day where just all the spare food, no matter if wrapped in plastic, paper, glass or tins, and no matter if it was still good, went into a big trash bag which wasn’t even filled to the brim in order to be taken out (waste of plastic bag – hello!). I asked them about it and they were taken aback, mumbling that the people would recycle everything from the trash bags at the trash center… really?!

Three big stacks of paper used for the move are now gone. About same amount was taken directly to the recycling center by my brother right after my move (bless him!). And yes, they have to be folded and tied together or the recycling companies won’t collect them 😉 Hello Swissness… 😀

Another time in my life I lived abroad for a while in a not-so-rich European country. The locals would give back work sheet to the teachers and copy the exercises into their notebooks, because in most schools students couldn’t afford to keep the sheets and it was common for them to return them. In the office where I worked we were several people from all sorts of nationalities. Our trainers had set up cardboard containers for us to put unused paper for recycling. Very glad about it I happily used it whenever I printed out something wrong. It was with shock I then often witnessed people from other “richer” countries print forms in very inefficient ways using only 1/4 of the whole sheet and copy these several times, and when doing wrong copies or prints, tossing them into the regular bin which was right next  to the paper recycle bin… The lack of awareness really, really shocked me!

When I moved in together with The Man we had discussed this issue thoroughly. He wasn’t as much of a recycling freak, neither was his whole family… I’d been over to dinners when they would throw away spare salad and I’d jump up to finish it – I couldn’t believe it since we’d never do such things in my own family. We’d always eat up everything that was on the table and spare salad always found room in a tummy. They were not that bad, but The Man surely didn’t care much about recycling. He would throw away perfect envelopes and brochures into the regular bin instead of the recycling bin… He would put cardboard in the paper bin and not remove plastics from the cardboard containers for the cardboard bin… He would throw away perfect plastic and paper shopping bags instead of putting them aside for another use and stop buying new ones all the time. Hell, even Brocki’s are happy to have bags to pack the goods sold for the people!

So when I’d see these things, it was very hard for me to ignore them… We agreed on the fact that he’d leave me do my recycling and that he’d do his – if he ever thought about it, which – to be honest – happened very seldom… Until the very end of our relationship he’d sometimes offer me plastic bags with a grin for me to give away to the Brockis (thinking about it – I should’ve brought him over to the Brocki, but that’s another story…^^). I never felt supported or taken seriously and seeing those and other good things in perfect condition been thrown away always broke my heart…

Green food waste? That wasn’t a topic for many years since our flats had no green waste container. Way too late the landlord finally got one for our neighbourhood which I was more than happy to start using. But it somehow wears off when you realize you’re the only one actually using it at home and you see freshly cut fruit and vegetable pieces in the regular bin which is right next to the compost bin… I now wonder if he did that on purpose…

recycling-home in my new cupboard in the kitchen: left is the cardboard box being filled with cardboard and future Brocki bags alongside it. On the right is a plastic container collecting glass, toiletrie-containers, tins and aluminium. To be taken out to the recycling points whenever I feel like it 🙂 It’s so handy and out of sight unlike the home I used to live in where there was simply no room for such things.

tea lights, chocolate wrappers and oven-foils collected in plastic container, handy and easy to take to the recycling points whenever I feel like it 🙂

Anyhow – now I am the head master of my flat and can decide how to handle things, and let me tell you: I – pardon me – feckin’ love it!!! I can now fully recycle everything I feel can be recycled and am in full control of it all and boy does that feel good! I’ve even started recycling tea lights since I’ve learned that you can also recycle them! I am very proud of my little recycling container hidden (…yes!!!) in a cupboard in the kitchen – Marie Kondo says hello here!!! I collect the glass, plastic containers of toiletries (which is a new thing here to be recycled – unlike, say, Ireland!) and tins in there and there’s an additional plastic container where I collect the tealights, aluminium foils and chocolate wraps. It sparks joy and makes me feel good about it.

I don’t want to moralize here or say what’s right or wrong but merely explain how happy this all makes me feel because of my experience that with just a tiny little effort I can contribute so much to our environment. Being able to now fully do so in my own liking just sparks utter joy living here in this new home of mine ❤

How about you – what are your thoughts on recycling? Do you recycle a lot or not at all? I’d love to hear about it, specially if you’re from different countries 🙂 !!!

 

The Curse Of Having Too Many Things…

It’s been 5 1/2 weeks since I moved into this flat. Take away the first week because I couldn’t really do much since the walls had to be painted and everything had to be stacked in the middle of the room. Take away two more weeks because I was on holidays. Take away another 1/2 week because I was barely home and very, very busy at work. That makes two weeks of being here trying to get organized. Sometimes I feel I’m getting there and it starts to look lovely – the kitchen and the bathroom are tidy most of the time 🙂 . But sometimes I feel like booking my next holiday and walk right out this door, forgetting about everything that is piled in my flat…

Like today. The mere look at the amount of boxes and things overwhelms me at times. It makes me want to sit down and cry (well, you get the picture^^). This weekend I told myself to clear the rooms of all the boxes. I didn’t quite manage yesterday. Today was just like, hmmmmm… I’m getting there, but hmmmmmmm……… ^^ Sometimes I open up boxes, take a peek in there and close them again, shoving them to a corner to deal with later…

It just takes so.much.energy!  to think of a new place for each item! It was so clear (well, for most of the things anyhow) in my last flat, and I should think that organizing a new flat would be so much fun! It actually really can be! But not if you’ve got so many things you barely can deal with them… It drains your energy and makes you want to sit down amongst the mess and just flick through a magazine instead (which I sometimes do, just because I can’t deal with it and need my break from it!).

Part of the problem is that I had to pack and leave in a rush. I had no time left to declutter properly before moving, so lots of the clutter just ended up in a box and happily followed me here. I’ve already started to fill my 4th Brocki bag with things I decided I didn’t want or need anymore after all…^^ And still I sometimes ask myself where all this stuff came from!

The good thing about moving is that you go through everything and have your belongings freshly in mind. I moved into my last flat about 3 years ago, so when packing, I kinda knew which items I had used and which I hadn’t during that span of time. It was easy to let go of things I knew I hadn’t used in the past three years and admit that there was no point in moving them along.

Another good thing that has helped me let go of items is the break up. I felt as if I needed a more severe new chapter in my life, which made it easier for me to let go of things that

a) The Man had given to me and I had kept just because of that reason

b) The Man’s family had given to me and I had kept just because of that same reason

c) reason a + b, adding the fact that I didn’t really like the item anyhow

d) we had bought together which I now feel though need to be replaced in order to feel more like a fresh start

e) I had kept long enough and belong more to a former “me” than the current “me” and need to go in order to let the new “me” fully grow and start from scratch

It is a very nerve wrecking process but I go with anything as long as it helps me fill the Brocki bags and declutter my flat.

Sometimes though when I feel overwhelmed with my stuff, it blocks me from continuing the decluttering process. Specially when my furniture wasn’t all here yet and I couldn’t empty some boxes with clothes because I couldn’t store them, and so on, and I kept going round and round not really putting anything away… It nearly felt like before in my last flat when I tried to get hold of my mess…

What a curse!

And then I wish I was brave enough to just donate everything and take it out my door… Click point (Konmari Method) here or there, I have only ever heard it a few times but apparently more like a tiny bell than like a bomb…

I am in the process of detaching myself from my things. I don’t want my things to have a hold of me, rather me to have a hold of them. I want to be the one deciding when they need to go, not the other way around. If I don’t act soon enough, the things will keep me here in this flat for the next century, and that thought is pretty scary… I don’t want things to hold me down from flying away wherever I want to!

I am learning to deal with this curse and am slowly pushing it out of my life. Step by step. Maybe some day I’ll defeat it, and I’ll be free ❤

A Daily Piece Of Peace

Yesterday was the first day in felt ages that I could actually really sleep in. Sleeping in the sense of – sleeping until you just can’t take it no more… I was in a desperate need of that and wasn’t able to due to my recent situation I was going through and due to illness during vacation (who wants to sleep in during vacation anyhow if there are so many nice places to explore?! But that’s another story…). I thoroughly enjoyed it and it just did so good! I feel peaceful at home, safe, happy…

This is my little quiet haven I am creating for myself and can do whatever I feel like. This feels like home again… I nearly got all of my furniture and can finally start unpacking and organizing. I bought myself a massive closet which cost me a whole lot of money but I felt like treating me to this massive monster in order to have everything fit in there and nothing on the floor anymore. I decided I’d stick with the loving term of “Monster” for a name for it 😉 So there are still a few pieces missing but it will eventually be delivered and finished. I am slowly filling it, trying to assign a “home” for every item and piece of clothing. Sometimes I feel like bumming around though. And I just do… Without hesitation. I have no stress and urge to get everything done, I’ve had enough stress during these past few months, so if I feel like flicking through a magazine or just sitting around on my new bed contemplating my new home, I just go for it. No excuses needed. No justifications either. And just the feeling of utter joy for having the luxury of doing so.

Another thing that has brought me a massive amount of joy is my new big bed, not crammed in a corner anymore. It literally urges me to shake those blankets every morning and let them slowly fall onto the mattress. I haven’t been doing my bed regularly since I was forced to during my exchange year nearly 20 years ago. But the difference is that now I do it with love and now it gives me a great feeling of welcomeness when coming home and seeing my white and broad new beautiful bed. I’ve read and talked quite a lot with people about making your bed in the morning and what feeling that brings with it and now can only understand and agree. Which is why I wouldn’t consider putting a bed in a corner anymore – somehow that position blocks me from wanting to do the bed. As for in my teens – well I was just lazy back then 😉

So yes, I’m creating my lovely new home around myself, with light and bright colours, open and ready for the new and happy to feel a peaceful calmness every day when I get home from work. And I am utterly grateful for that ❤

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?

 

 

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! ❤

How I Managed To Fill Two Bags In A Week And Another In A Day For Goodwill

A mere week after I took Brocki bag #14 to the Brocki (Goodwill store) I filled another two bags, imagine that!!! And not only that but after I finished filling them, drank a coffee and brought them over to the Brocki (which, I love repeating, I know, so sorry, but it’s too cool that I live so close to it!!!) I managed to fill another one!!! Can you believe that?!

full bag #16…

…and 17 filled within a week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After I got back home I went to the attic to take down some more stuff for Christmas – and ended up rooting through another box I had upstairs with household decor and such. I took down so many things to pass on that it was enough to fill another Brocki bag! Now it’s sitting there and I was almost miffed I have to wait until the following week to discard completely as the Brocki is closed over the weekend… And the thing is – bag #18 is filling up fast as well…^^

Guys – I’m definitely hearing that click point Marie Kondo is talking about… But let me tell you how I managed to fill those bags so quickly as I’m sort of mixing techniques here 😉 :

• I surely opted for the Konmari method most of the time, asking myself whether that item brings me joy or not.
• I also looked at many items I found and asked myself if I really needed it at the moment or if it was fine to pass it on to make someone else happy. Some of it still sparked joy, but was stored away for so many years that I was ready to let go eventually.
• I came across a few things twice – sometimes you need an extra push to let something go 😉 . I think I need several pushes to let my things go.
• Christmas is on the doormat! And with it all the Christmas decorations and knick knacks. As I was using them (up) I also looked over through them and asked myself whether or not I would actually use that for decorating the parcels this year – I know I won’t be decorating and wrapping over 50 presents, so it was time to let many of those things go as well and the sooner the better as people would find it and be able to use it before Christmas too 🙂
• Every time I visited the attic or cellar to do random stuff, I took the time to look over the things. As mentioned before – sometimes it takes several go’s to be able to discard something. It was the same for me, and I gathered quite a few things on my trips upstairs and downstairs 😉
• I’m getting sick of my lifestyle accumulating things. I want to get closer to my vision of my lifestyle and home from when I first started working with the Konmari method this late spring.
• After several months into this topic of discarding things I am much more able to detect what needs to go and what doesn’t.
• I am going through some massive struggles at the moment in my life and that makes me want to get rid of things, change things, start afresh with things… That helps this process big time 😉

I believe all of these things merging together plus tiny bits I’ve mentioned before here are developing and pointing me into the right direction. I feel like I’m doing massive progress here.I’m also aware that this is all part of a process and that I still have a very long way to go, but I’m positive I’ll be getting there, eventually…

 

Temporarily Giving Up On “Paper” Category (Konmari Method)

After all my struggles trying to finish up with the category “paper” (see these posts here and here, and even a little bit here as well) I had enough of it all! I’m sorry but I have to admit that I had no strength to tackle it all the way the Konmari method suggests. I wasn’t seeing any progress besides all of the rest that’s going on. And I just needed an uplifting experience again…

With the Christmas stuff being out for crafting and wrapping presents my room looks even more untidy now. I had the feeling I was drowning in my own stuff and so I just tackled three of my desk drawers, two of which I couldn’t even close properly anymore because it was way too packed with stuff.

The drawers consisted mostly of paper, too. Not the boring kind of paper, but the interesting, crafty sort of scrapbook paper and letter sets. And some sticker sheets that were too big for my sticker box. And some notebooks. And anything else random I couldn’t find a place for either…

I took all of the contents out and went through each item. And it was quite easy deciding what brought joy to me and what didn’t anymore. I sorted out quite a lot of paper and some other things as you can see on the picture below.

I can’t believe how much paper stuff I had!!! And letter sets! I must admit I didn’t get rid of an awful lot of scrapbook paper (I think, none even…^^) but I got rid of lots of notebooks and letter sets. I used to have lots of penfriends back in those days and wrote letters daily, and got letters back on a daily basis also. It was a fantastic time! Thinking back, I feel very sorry I didn’t use some of the beautiful letter sets (I still had some sheets left from when I was a wee teenager!!! How embarrassing!!!). Back then, I was saving up all those letter sets because they brought me joy. I loved having them, looking at them, and very rarely, using some for some very special letters. Most of the time for most of the penfriends I just used plain notepads which I decorated with stickers or drawings or such. What a shame really, it would have brought me so much more joy to write those letters in beautiful sheets… But how was I to know back then? Letter sets are very, very expensive here as well and I only used them for my favourite penfriends. Too bad…

The notebooks will be passed on for donation – a program called “2 x Weihnachten” which I’ve been participating in these past several years. They shall go and make some school children happy 🙂

The other letter sets will be shown to my penpalling friends and given to them if they want them, and everything else will go to the Brocki bag.

What a relief!!! And my drawers look beautiful again and I feel as if it’s a bit easier now to breathe…

Now I have two drawers that can close perfectly and give me such a nice feeling whenever I open them and look inside ❤

But that wasn’t enough for today! I had this pink plastic box filled with knick knacks and presents I bought for certain people or “ready-to-have-presents” for whenever you’d need something for someone. I was dreading it, it didn’t bring me joy and was standing in the way all the time – now even more since I still have no room for my electric speaker. To clean it up a bit and make more room I decided to go over that plastic box, too. Might as well, right 😉 ?

I sorted out lots of things from in there about two weeks ago and sent out stuff that was “on hold” for quite a while – happy it was finally done and out of my room! (hello, procrastination…). I went over the rest of the pressies today and decided that everything I would keep now just had to fit in this black cardboard box, and whatever didn’t fit had to go.

So I took out many things which I knew I was keeping for certain people and put them aside to make them ready to be forwarded to them. Lots of things went right into the Brocki bag. And other things I decided I’d just be using up myself instead, like beautiful candles (which is quite handy as I’m using many candles now in winter time).

And I’m happy to announce that all of my presents fit in that little box 🙂 Ok, there are about 3 little boxes that didn’t fit which I’ll keep as wrapping boxes – I’ll find a home for them soon. But I’m so, so happy that everything else is gone!!! I even found a new home for that pink plastic box – a friend of mine was willing to take it for her daughter. I’m sure the daughter will love that box as much as I did as a child (yes, it’s incredible but yes – I’ve had that box since I was a child… it was my toy box…).

So yeah, the space in front of the window is more open now, I feel lighter, better, happier and this experience gave me more inspiration and energy to keep going!

Off the Konmari track but hey – still a winner for me here 🙂 !!!

How about you – do you also work with the Konmari method and if so, do you strictly keep her order of tackling things or swap it around every once in a while?