Tag: Simplify

Packing party – Bedroom!

As you probably know I’ve started on a small pseudo packing party challenge. I started out last weekend with my bathroom, as I thought that would be an easy place to start, since there is a limit to how much I can actually fit in my tiny bathroom 😉

This weekend my bedroom was up. My rules stipulate that I pack up on Fridays, and unpack on Mondays. Just like with the bathroom, I started up a day or two early, to give me a few more days with an “empty” bedroom.

I boxed up everything in the bedroom with the exception of my medical drawer and my clothes.

Why didn’t I pack up my wardrobe? Well, I’ve been chipping away at my clothing for the last couple of years, and the result is that I have gotten rid of at least half of what’s in my closet. And since I’m pretty happy with where my closet is right now, I didn’t feel the need to remove it all, and then just hang it right back up. So there.. I kinda figured since it’s my party, I get to do what I want to 😉

Turn’s out, that not packing my clothing and shoes, there wasn’t much left. I emptied all the drawers and it still only amounted to one box, as I actually managed to clear out a few more items from what have survived earlier culling. I couldn’t believe there was anything left to get rid off.. but obviously there was.. guess that was the reason for this packing party after all.. to really get down to the nitty grittys 😉

Below are a few pictures of my bedroom “decluttered”! Having it empty have made me realise I need to get some art up on the walls, as the room is quite bare. I have in general been extremely slow at decorating my walls. Maybe that can be a small project, for when I’m done with my packing party.

Now for my partners “in crime”!

  • Moving Forward is doing her cupboards. So far she’s done her bathroom.
  • All-Round Better me – is back from travel and seems to be deep into some decluttering tasks again!
  • Every Week Is Green – just mentioned she might join us..  it will be fun to see if she does…

Next room – Hmm.. let’s see…. I think… living room! Anyone?

You are wondering about the stuff going out-the-door? Well… for the time being I’m piling it all in a heap in my guest room. I will write it all up in a post, when I’m through with my packing party… it’s going to be fun to see how much it actually amounts to by the time I’m done 😉

2015-03-30 21.13.052015-03-30 21.18.51

Packing party – Bathroom time!

As I mentioned last weekend I would start my pseudo packing party in my bathroom. Following the rules of my version of the packing party, I would pack up on Fridays, and unpack on Mondays. Well, I have to admit, I’ve cheated (yes already)… I was so antsy to get started I packed up my bathroom Tuesday this week 😉

I boxed up most of everything, with the exception of items like hair dryer, laundry bin, trash bin, weight scale, toilet brush holder, floor mat as these are things I knew I would use during the week.

I kept out one towel for me, one guest towel, toothbrush and paste, hand soap, my home made shampoo and conditioner, body oil and face oil (also home made), contact lenses, vitamins I take daily, one bottle of liquid bubbly bath soap (which I have used up already) and one bottle of body lotion I’m trying to use up.  Oh yeah, and the jar I collect plastic in, since I now recycle this after my plastic challenge.

I never really had all that much in my bathroom to start out (as you can see from my packed away stuff below), but I have to say… it’s been freeing living with just about nothing in my bathroom. So much so, that I have decided that I most likely will not unpack all my stuff tomorrow. There are a couple of things I will add back, like a few towels, the basket I keep all my laundry stuff and soap in, a couple of small grooming items and a small jewellery box.

Everything else I will keep packet away and only pull out as I need them over the next few months. I already know a few items that I have decided will not make it through this round, so that will go out-the-door within the next days.

Below are a few pictures of a cleared out bathroom.. unfortunately I forgot to do a before picture. I could off course pull everything out, just to take a “before” picture… but nope, that’s not going to happen 😉 You will just have to make do.

Now for my partners “in crime” 🙂

Next room – bedroom anyone?

2015-03-22 18.52.322015-03-22 18.33.41

Closet time again!

The last few weeks, I’ve been chipping at my closet again.

One of our fellow bloggers, Becoming a minimalist is impressing the heck out of me. She has her closet under iron control, being down to a couple of shoes (shucks, I have about 24 pairs if I count all including flip-flops) and about 30? items of clothing. She follows a rule of three! 3 pair of pants, 3 cardigans, 3 t-shirts, 3 jackets and so on.

In my heart, I wish I could be on her level, but in my head, I realise that it’s not going to happen 🙂 It’s also not really practical, considering how I do my laundry.

Living on my own, it takes a bit of clothing to fill up my washing machine. As I separate my clothing into dark and light, my machine don’t run very often, since towels, and bedding is done separately from my everyday clothing. Now that I’m home a lot, I live in the same stuff all the time.. and the machine runs even more seldom than normal.. which means that I need enough underwear, socks, t-shirts and pants to last me at least a fortnight.. no rule of 3 for me.. no siree…

Like most people, I tend to use the same items of clothing over, and over again, and I’m your typical t-shirt and jeans kinda girl! Now, girl, might not be “politicly” correct as I just turned 50, but never mind, I’m sticking to my original statement,  I’m your typical t-shirt and jeans kinda girl 😉

But even for me, there are occasions where I need to dress up a little better. A meeting at work with vendors, a birthday or Christmas… you know what I’m talking about. So there are a few staple items I have no choice but to keep in my closet – unless I want the wrath of my mothers (yes both mum’s) to fall on me – even at 50…. Hey, don’t laugh at me.. you all know how mothers can be 😉

So with that in mind, T-shirt and jeans for me, pretty clothing for those couple (or ten) occasions a year, and having enough to fill up my machines, I’ve been attacking my closet, weeding a few more items out of my pile…

Last year I got rid of around 100 pieces of clothing and about 14 pairs of shoes, you’d think there wouldn’t be anything left for me to find! But there is! Even with my goal in mind, I still end up with 7 pants, 10 shirts and enough t-shirts and undies to start my own store… not to mention the sweaters, tops, sports attire, sleepwear, socks, belts…. and shoes… those darn shoes…

There is obviously no hope for me as I still have ways to go 😦

But here at least, is my latest instalment of clothing out-the-door! 72 items

  • 1 dress jacket
  • 1 green dress
  • 1 jacket for the green dress
  • 1 long summer dress
  • 5 shirts
  • 1 thin sweater
  • 1 thick jacket (my dads)
  • 1 thick fleece (my dads)
  • 2 shorts
  • 4 decorative scarf
  • 3 t-shirts
  • 2 sweaters
  • 1 fleece
  • 3 tank tops
  • 1 pink top
  • 1 workout top
  • 1 scarf (dads)
  • 1 pair of gloves
  • 1 pair of Welly warmers (which just didn’t ever work, as they came out with my feet when taking the boots off)
  • 1 cap
  • 1 rain jacket
  • 6 hankies
  • 1 pair of cosy socks/indoor “shoes”
  • 2 golf gloves
  • 2 belts
  • 8 bras (which I will save you from – picture wise – together with the other unmentionables 😉 )
  • 2 sleepwear shorts
  • 12 undies (Some with tags on. I’m sure I still have enough for the next 30 years, so I really needed to get rid of some 😉 )
  • 1 pair of flip flops
  • 4 pairs of shoes – bicycle, everyday, dancing and office shoes

2015-02-16 17.04.112015-02-16 16.00.11 2015-02-16 15.57.17 2015-02-16 16.03.03

My 2014 goals – how did I do?

In 2009, after having lived in the US for two years, I came home with enough stuff to fill up a entire house (after having furnished an empty condo in Houston), and I already had a house full. Since then I have slowly but surely gotten rid of stuff, and I’ve dwindled it down to one household again. But as good as I had been at it, I felt that there was still more that could go out of the house. Which is why I decided a year ago that I would make 2014 a year to declutter and living with less.

And to be accountable – I started this blog 🙂

I decided my main goal, would be to get rid of an average of at least one item a day, all through 2014 – yepp, 365 items!

I also made a second goal, a promise in my post I want. I want – I want it now!!! – to make an effort to buy only necessities, needs rather than wants.

Have I managed what I set out to do? The short answer – YES!

So here it is – my MAIN goal;

2014 tally of items out-the-door  – 634 items, 2200 bookmarks and 14485 emails 🙂

Curious about what items I shed? Check it out;

  1. January tally – 63 items
  2. February tally – 45 items, 2200 bookmarks and 2450 emails
  3. March tally – 12 items and 7535 emails
  4. April tally – 58 items and about 4500 emails
  5. May tally – 126 items
  6. June tally – 22 items
  7. July tally – 22 items
  8. August tally – 45 items
  9. September tally – 103 items
  10. October tally – 7 items
  11. November tally – 23 items
  12. December tally – 108 items

My second goal – only buying necessities; 

I did better on this during 2014 than I did in 2013 (which was the first time I tried this). I replaced broken items, only if I had too. I used up before replacing or even did not replaced at all.

I did really good at not buying anything but necessities, until my trip to US in September, when I ended up buying some clothing I didn’t really strictly “need”. I do however have an excuse as my luggage was lost for several days, and I got sick of walking around in oversized men’s clothing that I had borrowed. So I caved and bought some ladies things 😉 And it’s not like the clothing won’t come in handy, when I wear out my older stuff…

Other than that, as far as I know, there are only a few other items I got, that were strictly not a necessity. 1 small box set I thought was really cute, that I really haven’t found a use for, yet! And then I got a a few cheap IKEA wine glasses for my birthday grill party, as I did not have enough glasses for the champagne toast! (thinking about it, I believe this could be considered a necessity 😉 )

I did have some allowances for the year! Things I could do and things I could get that aren’t really necessities;

Books – I could buy up to 10 books/magazines – I bought one physical book, and two or three e-books

Eating out – the goal was to cut down to half the amount of times we (a friend and I) eat out compared to 2013 – we didn’t quite manage, as we only cut 39% on times. But what we did manage was to cut the amount we spent, with more than 50%, which was ultimately the goal.

Flowers and plants – The goal for 2014 was to cut down to procuring less than half of what I normally would – Done 🙂 I did even better than half as I cut my procurement of plants for the garden closer to 70% compared to any other years.

So all in all, I would say that I passed my goals for 2014!

Did I pass with flying colours? Hmmm, probably not, I’m sure I could have done better, but I’m pretty happy 🙂