Realisation

I am planning to relax next week because I haven't gotten the time to do that in a while. I have chosen some movies that I might wanna watch. I also need to get the stuff out of the house. The glass bottles are starting to pile up and I want that gone before I relax. The fact that I know it's there will bother me. The thing about being consious about things has always made me restless. 

The fact that I started my path on minimalism I had less headaches. I know it was something bothering me but I couldn't put a finger on it. Like starting to organize and all was the beginning of it. Tomorrow is the day that a huge pile of stuff is leaving the house because this week I have done so much that the donation pile takes too much space. 

Like in the night when I got the energy to lessen one box in the attic and recycled paper. And after writing about my dumping pile I even took the time to stick everything in an old travel bag. It looks really clean and organized. I realize that minimalism has given myself a purpose in life. Someting untangble but still important; clearance. 

Because I have less things around my mind becomes clearer, things and thoughts become more understandable. I always had a nack for empathy and after starting with minimalism it has become stronger. Perhaps writing more has also helped. 

Dumping places

Throughout the house I have spots where I gather trash. I use the plastic shopping bags for small sharp things or napkins used during the day. But for stuff I have dumping places where I just dump it until it got cluttered. I have those to trow huge things away in one time. For example I sit behind my desk and I find that holder not useful and there it goes in that one spot with more recycle items.

I do it so it doesn't take space in my living area. As a green person, I find recycling stuff very important that's why I don't just trow it in the trash bin. Giving stuff a second life is good for my karma and another person who use it means using less of the natural resources are all reasons to donate/recycle.

There is one spot in the attic just where there are books and stuff together ready to be donated. Last year I moved almost all my stuff into the attic and now I regularly go trough my stuff and lessen my belongings. I already set up a goal to reduce my bags last month and it works. I think that I will even lessen one box in the attic by going through things again. 

By doing that, I have less and less excuses not to trow away. I haven't used the spark of joy method for a lot of my stuff. Who knows it will works on my most beloved stuff. The other spot is in the kitchen where a lot of things goes for donation. Very easy but it looks very messy in no time. I don't know why but we easily donate things when it doesn't have a place where we store it. And if things are in the common spaces too long it becomes clutter and it easy to donate that. 

These dumping places look very huge but aren't spaces with activities that it bothers the family. I don't recommend anyone who lives small to do this, especially if you're the kind that goes through it and pick things from it to keep or indecisive persons. 

Tidy up session

Today, I wanted to do just a little bit of spark of joy. Honestly, when it came to my hair accessories I was a bit nervous. This year I purchased two new -bundle of stay in hair elastic. As you can see my bedpost looks like this normally. I stack my elastics, bracelets and even my watch sometimes. Currently there are just 11 things on it, which is not much by my normal standards.

But after getting rid of elastic not for hair and my worn out headband it looks like this. Less stuff but still a bit strange. Of course I put my two bracelets on immediatly. I wear those white and blue almost daily and it fits with almost all my clothing.

My bedroom doesn't really need a spark of joy session cause it's all the bare minimum what I daily use. But sometimes things like trinkets tends to clutter up. One of the reason why I haven't thrown my headband is because I didn't have a replacement but now I have two.

The thing that did need to get out of the room is this small heater. The spring isn't that cold anymore and I don't need the fan option so, I store it up back in the attic. It's ready to use after the summer. I love the fact that it use less electric than my central heating.

I did all this within ten minutes. After making my bed I pulled the plug and set it out my room and started with tackling the bedpost. Such session doesn't need to take a lot of time but makes a huge different when done daily.

Destination

Functional stuff like earphones with bad quality and bad comfort just went out the house. Yes, the new method helped me in getting rid of those things that are difficult to part. I use the thing once more and find them just not fitting. It really doesn't bring me happiness like my Senheiser earphones. So what else went away?

Well not everything went, there was also a tip for storing bags. Putting bags in bags to make sure the form doesn't change. I was kind of septic about it but in the end it turnout well. I even said goodbye to my old red shoulder bag. I also want to sell a lot of my old bags for a small price. They are just laying around and doing nothing.

The few things I can't part with are my books. Last week I already set aside a few titles to be donated. So even in my box of sell items there are beautiful items that I once got as a gift and want to sell. So I should be more active on my selling page. The next few days will be spend for selling stuff online.

It's nice to decide to part with it having a clear destination for stuff.

New Methods

In January I came across an online seminar from Kondo Marie, the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. At that moment I didn't had much time so yesterday I decided to read the book. I read trough in one day. There where some pretty nice things I could relate to my own situation. I find it nice to see, I am not the only one coping with tidying up and all.

Now that I have read her book it becomes clear that there can be an end, which is almost the same as my bedroom. The choices are yours to make and that hits the spot. It has to be your decision and yours only. It's your own home and you should decide how you want it to be. You have to be conscious that your decisions have impact on your own home and living situation.

The rule of everything having a home is something that I adore and use too. There are a lot of similarities but also differences from my own method. Finding sparks of joy in things is something I want to try just because I am open to anything that can help in freeing myself from stuff.

Even though I love the way it is in my house and my methods keeps buying's  from becoming clutter. I want to part with the emotional stuff like trinkets and all which are still in my possession. If it helps or not it doesn't really matter. I just want to try.

Enjoy & Work

Yeah, today I got my sticker residue of my soap dispenser. This one is special because the pomp makes foam. So I tried to make the sticker get off with just my hairdryer. It's a shame but with some help of the internet and thinking, I grabbed my nail polish remover. So after that I got a nice clean soap dispenser.

Now today, I didn't had any plans to make or do something special but considering the good weather. It's too good to be sitting inside. So what I am going to do is spend my afternoon in the garden, sketching my interior and working on points of improvement.

I have so many stuff that can be made and I am thrilled to finish a project. I just started an online course. I have learned a lot these past few days and I want to bring that into action. I can only truely learn when doing the learned.

So time to pack up and enjoy the afternoon sun.

Small shift in plans

I have been shifting my focus from minimalism into purchasing new furniture. The reason for it is simple; by spending less on product I have a bigger budget to buy something nice. I was moving stuff around the house and little by little it got less cluttered and I saved spaces.

Two weeks ago, I finally ditched all my reusable and recyclable stuff to the thrift/recycle shop. I had an old huge desk monitor laying around and don't forget my printer. And the one thing I forgot to recycle is our VHS player. So with the printer out of the way I wanted to clear away the green shoe box.

I placed it into the kitchen and put some shoe in it. We have a habit to take our shoes off right in the kitchen so it's an excellent idea to use put the object there. I had those really cheap clothing closet for dormitory that I don't use anymore. I got it out of the storage and put 4 wheels on it and used it for lightweight storage underneath the computer table. It looks really nice and it's very easy to clean that spot.

The process to a minimalism lifestyle still continues in my everyday life but because of the decluttering, less stuff and more space, I get the change to improve the layout of the house. It's nice and remarkable what I have achieved these past two years.

Like yesterday while switching my winter clothing I had freed myself from two undergarment that I don't use anymore. Today while ironing I also donated an old pants where some threads are coming loose. There aren't mayor things happening in my life but I think that's alright cause sometimes no news is good news.