It´s hot. Like, really hot. Melting-the-tarmac hot. The tram that passes by our house is squeaking with the rails being warped by the heat, and everybody is just fighting to keep their cool.
Luckily, the hottest days were the ones over the weekend, so at least I didn´t have to work there, and the good news is that my colleague´s vacation is over, too, so I can finally concentrate on my own stuff again.
And the big electric fan- which I keep under my desk, pointing at my feet, so as to have maximum refreshment with minimum flying papers- is making things at the office almost bearable.
Still, above thirty degrees centigrade outside means my edema has come back, too, and the water I retain messes up my weigh-ins quite spectacularly. Knowing it´s just water retention makes it somewhat less frustrating, but I´d still prefer to be rid of it again, which isn´t going to happen soon as the heat wave is supposed to stay on at least for another week.
We went grocery shopping on Saturday, before things really heated up, and our fridge is now stocked with plenty of ingredients for salad dinners to last us through the next couple of days. So, on the calories-in side, I can stick below my limits, and if I do so, I can be certain that there will not be a "real" gain and it will all come off again when temperatures drop.
Being stuck inside all weekend, except that shopping excursion, als meant being able to enjoy the new arrangement in our living room. DH had been grumbling a bit when I told him on the phone what I had done, but when he saw it agreed at once that this was better. The paper embargo, too, has been working miracles. Well, not exactly, because the papers that used to clutter up our living room are now resting on the guest bed pending their being tidied up by DH, but at least the guest room is now the only place where loose papers are kept, and just maybe he´ll start filing/culling them soon.
That guest bed is actually one of the items on the decluttering schedule, too. The only time we´ve ever used it was whenever MIL came to visit. As that won´t happen again due to the fact that she doesn´t travel any more, this bed definitely is a big piece of clutter now. Were we to remove it, we´d be richer by two square meters of prime real estate in that room, which in turn might allow us to do some major rearranging in there- or, at least, to remove the laundry rack, when in use, from the living room to the former guest room, which could, then, become the official laundry drying and ironing room.
The problem being that we spent good bucks on a new mattress for that bed just three years ago, and that thing is still almost unused. But if I calculate how much it costs to rent and heat those two square meters of apartment, I guess the poor return of investment for that mattress shouldn´t keep us from doing away with it. After all, we´re still thinking about making the guest room over into a master bedroom, and then that bed would be a major obstacle, too. And the positive effect of removing things has by now been more than amply proven in the living room. If I could motivate DH to cull the contents of his den, maybe we´ll be able to do the redecorating this year, yet. We´ll see.....
Julia
Showing posts with label interior design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interior design. Show all posts
2012/08/20
2012/08/16
Diminishing surfaces
The decluttering of our apartment has, by now, progressed to a point where all of our existing possessions do have a place to put them away. Which, in turn, means that we are now officially progressing to the next stage of minimalization: finding out which items are, even if they have a home, superfluous, or even attracting clutter accumulations.
The fastest way to pick out those is doing a complete tidy-up and then just wait and see which places are the first to become untidy again.
As it is, anything that has a horizontal surface is a possible clutter magnet. It is too easy sometimes to just drop something off, and leave it there.
One of the usual suspects for that was right in our entrance area. We have had two big chests there, with flat lids that seem to attract bags, newpapers, and such like magic. The problem being that the bags were supposed to go inside the bigger one, while the smaller of the two serves as a tool chest and is only opened when there´s something to do that requires using a tool, which isn´t that often as a hammer and a screwdriver for everyday jobs are kept outside, and the power drill doesn´t see much use outside of a move in progress.
So, after emptying some bookshelves of their literary payload, I took a measuring tape to that tool chest, and voila- it now fits nicely under one of those bookshelves that I rearranged a bit for the purpose ( thumbs up to those incredibly versatile IKEA shelves).
The other chest now has a big basket on top that serves as a receptacle for bags and such, keeping them contained instead of flying all over the place.
Removing the tool chest also opened up the entrance optically, making it look a lot less cluttered.
Again, having a thing less makes for a better look. The tool chest fits under that bookshelf completely, and as it´s from the same wood as the shelf, blends in to appear almost a part of the shelf.
One other thing I have done is make an agreement with DH to make the living room a paper free zone. That means that no letters, advertising flyers, newspapers and such may be put on the horizontal surfaces of the living room, with the exception of one leather-bound file folder I keep next to the computer that holds bills and such pending their being taken care of. Anything else has to be removed. As DH is such a keeper when it comes to paper stuff, what we agreed on is that the new place for his paper stuff will be the former guest room which now has become his home office and den. Perhaps having to pick it up and take it there might even make him throw some of it out at once....
In any case, I am right now enjoying my paperless living room. And eyeing the tchotchkes on the shelves for potential evacuation candidates.
The less I have to take care of, the better I feel. And it´s rubbing off on DH, too.
Julia
The fastest way to pick out those is doing a complete tidy-up and then just wait and see which places are the first to become untidy again.
As it is, anything that has a horizontal surface is a possible clutter magnet. It is too easy sometimes to just drop something off, and leave it there.
One of the usual suspects for that was right in our entrance area. We have had two big chests there, with flat lids that seem to attract bags, newpapers, and such like magic. The problem being that the bags were supposed to go inside the bigger one, while the smaller of the two serves as a tool chest and is only opened when there´s something to do that requires using a tool, which isn´t that often as a hammer and a screwdriver for everyday jobs are kept outside, and the power drill doesn´t see much use outside of a move in progress.
So, after emptying some bookshelves of their literary payload, I took a measuring tape to that tool chest, and voila- it now fits nicely under one of those bookshelves that I rearranged a bit for the purpose ( thumbs up to those incredibly versatile IKEA shelves).
The other chest now has a big basket on top that serves as a receptacle for bags and such, keeping them contained instead of flying all over the place.
Removing the tool chest also opened up the entrance optically, making it look a lot less cluttered.
Again, having a thing less makes for a better look. The tool chest fits under that bookshelf completely, and as it´s from the same wood as the shelf, blends in to appear almost a part of the shelf.
One other thing I have done is make an agreement with DH to make the living room a paper free zone. That means that no letters, advertising flyers, newspapers and such may be put on the horizontal surfaces of the living room, with the exception of one leather-bound file folder I keep next to the computer that holds bills and such pending their being taken care of. Anything else has to be removed. As DH is such a keeper when it comes to paper stuff, what we agreed on is that the new place for his paper stuff will be the former guest room which now has become his home office and den. Perhaps having to pick it up and take it there might even make him throw some of it out at once....
In any case, I am right now enjoying my paperless living room. And eyeing the tchotchkes on the shelves for potential evacuation candidates.
The less I have to take care of, the better I feel. And it´s rubbing off on DH, too.
Julia
2012/08/13
Too many lights?
With both of us working full time outside the house, the time we spend actually inside our flat (and awake) is mainly in the evening and on weekends. As the house we live in is situated at the bottom of a valley, so, the sunlight is blocked by a mountain , and the windows of our living room are facing southwest, that means we usually have to turn on the lights rather early if we want to avoid that cavern feeling. Which, in turn, led to a proliferation of light-emitting stuff, as in lamps, more lamps, candle holders, LED lamps, and more such like occupying the better part of the available horizontal surfaces.
The thing being that several of these illuminating devices weren´t even plugged in, and thus didn´t even provide any illumination, while several others were rarely if ever switched on because the light they gave was too feeble to make a substantial contribution to the overall brightness of the room.
For some time now, that is, since the too-many-chairs epiphany, I had been feeling a vague unease about the things on top of our shelves. I think I found another culprit for the general cluttered feeling of our living room.
Thus, today was lamp reduction day. The LED lamps, which I had originally intended to be spotlighting some artwork on the wall, were the first to be removed. Then I proceeded to the unplugged lamps. One of them is DH´s, an electrified version of a petroleum lamp with a brass foot and orange glass lampshade. It looks pretty enough, but with the original arrangement (that had another narrow glass cylinder inside the lampshade) you couldn´t put fluorescent bulbs in there. I have, tentatively, removed that cylinder and inserted a fluorescent bulb- if DH agrees to that solution, that lamp will be used again. For another of his lamps, I´ll have to get a new lightbulb, too.
Of the candlesticks, I removed all of mine and left only one of DH´s which is rather decorative, too.
Then I added a stronger lightbulb to a bone china decorative lamp, which now shines a lot brighter than it used to, and replaced that where the LED lamps used to be..
The overall effect is, once more, stunning. Less visual clutter, less cables hanging around.
The only downside is that I now have those LED lamps lying around. They were outrageously expensive when we bought them because the technology was very new then, but right now, they just don´t have a home. Still, I´m not ready to throw them out. Perhaps I´ll find another use for them, but until then, they´ll rest inside a storage bin instead of cluttering up my living room.
Tonight, I´ll see what else I can do to improve the lighting and reduce clutter. But once again, it seems that removing the excess is the way to go.
Isn´t it always.
Julia
The thing being that several of these illuminating devices weren´t even plugged in, and thus didn´t even provide any illumination, while several others were rarely if ever switched on because the light they gave was too feeble to make a substantial contribution to the overall brightness of the room.
For some time now, that is, since the too-many-chairs epiphany, I had been feeling a vague unease about the things on top of our shelves. I think I found another culprit for the general cluttered feeling of our living room.
Thus, today was lamp reduction day. The LED lamps, which I had originally intended to be spotlighting some artwork on the wall, were the first to be removed. Then I proceeded to the unplugged lamps. One of them is DH´s, an electrified version of a petroleum lamp with a brass foot and orange glass lampshade. It looks pretty enough, but with the original arrangement (that had another narrow glass cylinder inside the lampshade) you couldn´t put fluorescent bulbs in there. I have, tentatively, removed that cylinder and inserted a fluorescent bulb- if DH agrees to that solution, that lamp will be used again. For another of his lamps, I´ll have to get a new lightbulb, too.
Of the candlesticks, I removed all of mine and left only one of DH´s which is rather decorative, too.
Then I added a stronger lightbulb to a bone china decorative lamp, which now shines a lot brighter than it used to, and replaced that where the LED lamps used to be..
The overall effect is, once more, stunning. Less visual clutter, less cables hanging around.
The only downside is that I now have those LED lamps lying around. They were outrageously expensive when we bought them because the technology was very new then, but right now, they just don´t have a home. Still, I´m not ready to throw them out. Perhaps I´ll find another use for them, but until then, they´ll rest inside a storage bin instead of cluttering up my living room.
Tonight, I´ll see what else I can do to improve the lighting and reduce clutter. But once again, it seems that removing the excess is the way to go.
Isn´t it always.
Julia
2012/06/11
The case for ebooks
As I mentioned before, I have to ride by train quite often.
And I am what they call a bookworm.
As our local library is, er, rather badly stocked, that used to mean buying the books I wanted to read. WHich in turn meant an ever-growing accumulation of dead tree with words on it in my living-room.
Now, some books for me are definite keepers. They get read and re-read, cherished, and kept.
Unfortunately, even if I´m careful, there´s just so much life in a pocketbook edition. The paper yellows, and at some point, the binding comes apart. Many books aren´t even sold in hardcover, and those which are sell for prohibitively high prices. It´s not unusual for a hardcover to fetch four to five times what the pocket edition might cost. So, buying the hardcover is absolutely restricted to perennial known favorites.
My book collection, therefore, is mostly pocket editions. The only way to keep these without cluttering up the look of my living room is behind closed doors, and I have just so many closed compartments in my IKEA shelf.
The answer to that is culling. Ever so often, I remove the books I no longer read, the ones that are outdated, and the ones that have become too dingy to openly display. Still, there are plenty of open shelves with books in them, making the room appear untidy. Not the leather-backed, gold-lettered books that are as decorative as they are entertaining. Just the usual cheaply-bound motley stuff.
Enter the ebook.
What kept me from embracing those earlier was that I believed you had to buy an ebook-reader to be able to enjoy them. At the prices they demand for these, I haven´t yet been ready to splurge on one. But now they (internationally operating internet book dealer whose name I won´t mention) have an application for your ordinary windows based PC that allows you to read their electronic goods, and that app´s for free!
What´s more, a lot of classic books can also be downloaded for free. Add to that the regular specials where you can buy an ebook for a steeply discounted price for a short period of time, and the fact that the ebook edition of almost any book is cheaper than the paper one, plus if I were to ever buy the ebook reader of that company my downloaded books will follow me there, too.
I´m in luuuuurve!
Plus, as those books take up no more physical space than the netbook I read them on (which is preexisting), my reading habit no longer contributes to the clutter in our living room.
I am, actually, successively acquiring the electronic editions of my favorite books- perhaps my library will be almost exclusively digital someday. And my bookcases a lot emptier. After all, as long as I d not invite visitors that I could make an impression on with overflowing bookshelves, what good are they?
I used to equate possession of books with being cultured. Owning books on many topics meant I was a person of many interests. Having a big library of the classics meant I had a good education.
In the age of digital media, that reasoning no longer cuts it. Even the textbooks of information I need on the job are available online.
The wall-high bookshelves, therefore, will probably be no longer necessary one day.
And that will be the day I am a step closer to a minimalist living rooom.
Julia
And I am what they call a bookworm.
As our local library is, er, rather badly stocked, that used to mean buying the books I wanted to read. WHich in turn meant an ever-growing accumulation of dead tree with words on it in my living-room.
Now, some books for me are definite keepers. They get read and re-read, cherished, and kept.
Unfortunately, even if I´m careful, there´s just so much life in a pocketbook edition. The paper yellows, and at some point, the binding comes apart. Many books aren´t even sold in hardcover, and those which are sell for prohibitively high prices. It´s not unusual for a hardcover to fetch four to five times what the pocket edition might cost. So, buying the hardcover is absolutely restricted to perennial known favorites.
My book collection, therefore, is mostly pocket editions. The only way to keep these without cluttering up the look of my living room is behind closed doors, and I have just so many closed compartments in my IKEA shelf.
The answer to that is culling. Ever so often, I remove the books I no longer read, the ones that are outdated, and the ones that have become too dingy to openly display. Still, there are plenty of open shelves with books in them, making the room appear untidy. Not the leather-backed, gold-lettered books that are as decorative as they are entertaining. Just the usual cheaply-bound motley stuff.
Enter the ebook.
What kept me from embracing those earlier was that I believed you had to buy an ebook-reader to be able to enjoy them. At the prices they demand for these, I haven´t yet been ready to splurge on one. But now they (internationally operating internet book dealer whose name I won´t mention) have an application for your ordinary windows based PC that allows you to read their electronic goods, and that app´s for free!
What´s more, a lot of classic books can also be downloaded for free. Add to that the regular specials where you can buy an ebook for a steeply discounted price for a short period of time, and the fact that the ebook edition of almost any book is cheaper than the paper one, plus if I were to ever buy the ebook reader of that company my downloaded books will follow me there, too.
I´m in luuuuurve!
Plus, as those books take up no more physical space than the netbook I read them on (which is preexisting), my reading habit no longer contributes to the clutter in our living room.
I am, actually, successively acquiring the electronic editions of my favorite books- perhaps my library will be almost exclusively digital someday. And my bookcases a lot emptier. After all, as long as I d not invite visitors that I could make an impression on with overflowing bookshelves, what good are they?
I used to equate possession of books with being cultured. Owning books on many topics meant I was a person of many interests. Having a big library of the classics meant I had a good education.
In the age of digital media, that reasoning no longer cuts it. Even the textbooks of information I need on the job are available online.
The wall-high bookshelves, therefore, will probably be no longer necessary one day.
And that will be the day I am a step closer to a minimalist living rooom.
Julia
2012/05/07
Flowering hot spot
Wekends, in our household, are regularly used for catching up with what Flylady likes to call Mount Washmore- the week´s laundry, and sometimes that of the week before that, too. I don´t like wasting detergent, water and energy on running half-empty loads, so I allow enough laundry to accumulate for doing full loads. While the washing machine is running, I tidy up the living room and clean the floors.
The worst clutter offender in our living room is paper, namely, DH´s papers- I have, by now, gotten into the habit of regularly filing my incoming paperwork.
That wasn´t always the case- tax day, for me, used to mean having to plough my way through a landscape of paper mounds in search of the items I needed. Finally, I gave in and purchased a filing cabinet with vertical folders which are now holding the paperwork. One side effect of this was that I did finally start to consider whether a certain piece of paper was really worth keeping- it´s a rather smallish cabinet with just one drawer, and putting everything in there without culling would fill it up pretty fast.
And that filing habit has paid off nicely several times already- when they stole our license plates, or when we had to take the bill from the radiator repair on our car to claim the guarantee, I had the pertinent documents within a matter of minutes, instead of after an hours-long search.
DH, on the other hand, is a definite keeper when it comes to paperwork. He likes to pick up catalogues, and keeps each and every piece of information that enters our place. Thus, any horizontal surface in the living room is fair game for putting papers on. In regular intervals, I try to get him to declutter those, but success, up to now, has been limited. As I don´t think he´s likely to change, I am trying to find a decorating scheme that would prevent the accumulation of paper on those flat surfaces.
And I think I found something. We have a round table that used to be the primary paper hotspot, being situated right behind the living room door and therefore the first flat surface encountered when coming home. This weekend, I took all of the papers that had accumulated on it and dumped them on DH´s desk. And then I took a pristine white tablecloth, spread it on that table, and put a vase with a single yellow silk rose in the middle.
As per today, it´s been working: no paperwork dropped there any more.
Now I am thinking about what I could do with the other flat surfaces that looks as good and keeps the papers contained.
Julia
The worst clutter offender in our living room is paper, namely, DH´s papers- I have, by now, gotten into the habit of regularly filing my incoming paperwork.
That wasn´t always the case- tax day, for me, used to mean having to plough my way through a landscape of paper mounds in search of the items I needed. Finally, I gave in and purchased a filing cabinet with vertical folders which are now holding the paperwork. One side effect of this was that I did finally start to consider whether a certain piece of paper was really worth keeping- it´s a rather smallish cabinet with just one drawer, and putting everything in there without culling would fill it up pretty fast.
And that filing habit has paid off nicely several times already- when they stole our license plates, or when we had to take the bill from the radiator repair on our car to claim the guarantee, I had the pertinent documents within a matter of minutes, instead of after an hours-long search.
DH, on the other hand, is a definite keeper when it comes to paperwork. He likes to pick up catalogues, and keeps each and every piece of information that enters our place. Thus, any horizontal surface in the living room is fair game for putting papers on. In regular intervals, I try to get him to declutter those, but success, up to now, has been limited. As I don´t think he´s likely to change, I am trying to find a decorating scheme that would prevent the accumulation of paper on those flat surfaces.
And I think I found something. We have a round table that used to be the primary paper hotspot, being situated right behind the living room door and therefore the first flat surface encountered when coming home. This weekend, I took all of the papers that had accumulated on it and dumped them on DH´s desk. And then I took a pristine white tablecloth, spread it on that table, and put a vase with a single yellow silk rose in the middle.
As per today, it´s been working: no paperwork dropped there any more.
Now I am thinking about what I could do with the other flat surfaces that looks as good and keeps the papers contained.
Julia
2012/01/13
Floral decorations, minimalist model
The big family celebration I attended this week was, of course, the occasion for giving plenty of flowers to the person being celebrated, so, at the day´s end, there were more than a dozen big floral arrangements standing in my relatives´ living room, made from beautiful flowers and some of them so full that it was difficult to find a vase big enough to hold them.
Apart from the fact that the recipient rightly pointed out that she´d rather have had one bouquet at a time for a longer period of time, instead of having the room full of flowers for a week or so and then nothing, what struck me when looking at this abundance was that the sheer amount of flowers did actually make less of an impact than a single bouquet, and that the most visually interesting arrangements, to me, were those that showcased just a few exquisite blooms, while the ones that were made from many flowers were, in comparison, looking a lot less interesting.
It´s a mistake I used to make with the floral arrangements at home, too. I used to have several silk flower bouquets that were filling their respective containers to the limit. When I started to minimalize my decor, these went out and weren´t replaced.
What I did wrong when making them was thinking that I had to have a lot of flowers for a bouquet, when really the sheer mass of blooms would be looking so cluttered that the beauty of the individual flower had no chance at all to be seen and appreciated.
Once again, it´s the question of enough versus too much.
So, when I had the chance of visiting a shop close to where my relatives live that has the most stunningly lifelike silk flowers, I decided to try a different approach this time. No more than three of the same kind, and some greenery or branches for a background. It´s not Ikebana minimalist, but the resulting arrangements look a lot better than what I used to have. And they sure brighten up our apartment in this dreary weather.
The best thing about those flowers is that they will, being made of silk, last a long time, so the investment I made when buying them is also sustainable. Real flowers are beautiful, too, but for decorating my home I prefer silk flowers- they don´t spoil, need no care except dusting from time to time, and, considering the high prices of real flowers, give you a lot more mileage for your bucks than the real ones.
And I don´t think I´ll tire of the new arrangements the way I had been visually tired by the old ones.
Julia
Apart from the fact that the recipient rightly pointed out that she´d rather have had one bouquet at a time for a longer period of time, instead of having the room full of flowers for a week or so and then nothing, what struck me when looking at this abundance was that the sheer amount of flowers did actually make less of an impact than a single bouquet, and that the most visually interesting arrangements, to me, were those that showcased just a few exquisite blooms, while the ones that were made from many flowers were, in comparison, looking a lot less interesting.
It´s a mistake I used to make with the floral arrangements at home, too. I used to have several silk flower bouquets that were filling their respective containers to the limit. When I started to minimalize my decor, these went out and weren´t replaced.
What I did wrong when making them was thinking that I had to have a lot of flowers for a bouquet, when really the sheer mass of blooms would be looking so cluttered that the beauty of the individual flower had no chance at all to be seen and appreciated.
Once again, it´s the question of enough versus too much.
So, when I had the chance of visiting a shop close to where my relatives live that has the most stunningly lifelike silk flowers, I decided to try a different approach this time. No more than three of the same kind, and some greenery or branches for a background. It´s not Ikebana minimalist, but the resulting arrangements look a lot better than what I used to have. And they sure brighten up our apartment in this dreary weather.
The best thing about those flowers is that they will, being made of silk, last a long time, so the investment I made when buying them is also sustainable. Real flowers are beautiful, too, but for decorating my home I prefer silk flowers- they don´t spoil, need no care except dusting from time to time, and, considering the high prices of real flowers, give you a lot more mileage for your bucks than the real ones.
And I don´t think I´ll tire of the new arrangements the way I had been visually tired by the old ones.
Julia
2011/12/02
Wreaths and decorations
When setting up my Advent decorations, I had been somewhat vexed by the fact that I could not find the little decorated wreaths which go over the bottom ends of candles to make them look more festive. I knew for sure that I had had one for every candle holder I put out, and I was fairly certain that I had not decluttered them, either. But they weren´t to be found in my living room cupboards, so I had already guessed I´d tossed them.
Yesterday, when taking the trash down to the cellar, I decided to look for them in the china boxes. Inside a waterproof chest, I discovered, not only the wreaths, but also a whole bunch of artificial flower decorations I hadn´t even remembered I owned.
Now, me and Christmas decorations has always been a mixed story. Christmas at home was always a bit of the "be merry, dammit" variety, my father being about the only one who insisted on there being a perfect feast, which absolutely had to include a real tree, oodles of decorations, and a multi-course dinner that kept my mother and me nailed to the kitchen most of the day, while my Grandparents and myself could have well done without all that ado.
As such things go, the likelihood of anything going wrong rises exponentially when you try to make things perfect, so, there ensued invariably some culinary or other drama which led to tears, door-slamming, and everyone feeling, not festive, but altogether lousy. The whole affair was so upsetting for me as a child, that, like clockwork, right when that gorgeous dinner was about to be served, I came down with stomach cramps so bad that I had to retreat to my room and couldn´t even eat any of the food served.
So, as soon as I could, I decided not to go there for Christmas any more. Which led to another round of drama, because visiting for Christmas was one of those "done" things my parents insist on.
For several years, I avoided Christmas by volunteering for emergency duty at the office over the holidays, that being a reason they had to accept why I couldn´t come.
I was, in those years, glad that I did not have to celebrate Christmasat all any more. One of my more memorable Christmas eves was spent at the office, listening to Gregorian chant on my computer, catching up with work, and enjoying the quiet outside. That was, actually, the first Christmas I experienced where there wasn´t any crying or door-slamming.
How my -otherwise rather intelligent- parents managed to turn the holidays into such a turn-off while claiming all the while that they should be beautiful, still escapes me.
For a while, I had become a veritable grinch. Anything to do with Christmas was, for me, taboo. That did lead to some tensions with DH, who did not have the same kind of Christmas memories I had, and would have liked to have our flat decorated for Christmas, while I flat out refused to have anything of the kind in view.
All through that time, my relatives kept sending me those decorations. Most of them, actually, came from my beloved Aunt, so, I didn´t outright throw them away, but I wasn´t ready to put them up yet. Just to humor DH, I still exchanged decorations for summer and winter, but I kept them relatively neutral, trying to avoid that christmas-y look.
Which is why all of those pretty silk flowers and wreaths were, years ago, unceremoniously dumped into that box and went down to the cellar, waiting for me to change my mind about Christmas.
When I found them again yesterday, I picked out the most beautiful ones and took them up to our flat, and spent the rest of the evening distributing wreaths to candlesticks and poinsettia bouquets to vases, all the while watched by DH who must have wondered who that woman was and what she had done with his wife.
Guess what, the flat looks good. Festive, joyful. And we are going to celebrate Christmas together, not perfectly, but perfectly our way. There won´t be any slammed doors, and there won´t be more than three courses to the Christmas dinner, but I will be able to try all of them. There won´t be mountains of unwanted presents, but the joy of being together. And that is, after all, what Christmas should really be about, isn´t it?
Julia
Yesterday, when taking the trash down to the cellar, I decided to look for them in the china boxes. Inside a waterproof chest, I discovered, not only the wreaths, but also a whole bunch of artificial flower decorations I hadn´t even remembered I owned.
Now, me and Christmas decorations has always been a mixed story. Christmas at home was always a bit of the "be merry, dammit" variety, my father being about the only one who insisted on there being a perfect feast, which absolutely had to include a real tree, oodles of decorations, and a multi-course dinner that kept my mother and me nailed to the kitchen most of the day, while my Grandparents and myself could have well done without all that ado.
As such things go, the likelihood of anything going wrong rises exponentially when you try to make things perfect, so, there ensued invariably some culinary or other drama which led to tears, door-slamming, and everyone feeling, not festive, but altogether lousy. The whole affair was so upsetting for me as a child, that, like clockwork, right when that gorgeous dinner was about to be served, I came down with stomach cramps so bad that I had to retreat to my room and couldn´t even eat any of the food served.
So, as soon as I could, I decided not to go there for Christmas any more. Which led to another round of drama, because visiting for Christmas was one of those "done" things my parents insist on.
For several years, I avoided Christmas by volunteering for emergency duty at the office over the holidays, that being a reason they had to accept why I couldn´t come.
I was, in those years, glad that I did not have to celebrate Christmasat all any more. One of my more memorable Christmas eves was spent at the office, listening to Gregorian chant on my computer, catching up with work, and enjoying the quiet outside. That was, actually, the first Christmas I experienced where there wasn´t any crying or door-slamming.
How my -otherwise rather intelligent- parents managed to turn the holidays into such a turn-off while claiming all the while that they should be beautiful, still escapes me.
For a while, I had become a veritable grinch. Anything to do with Christmas was, for me, taboo. That did lead to some tensions with DH, who did not have the same kind of Christmas memories I had, and would have liked to have our flat decorated for Christmas, while I flat out refused to have anything of the kind in view.
All through that time, my relatives kept sending me those decorations. Most of them, actually, came from my beloved Aunt, so, I didn´t outright throw them away, but I wasn´t ready to put them up yet. Just to humor DH, I still exchanged decorations for summer and winter, but I kept them relatively neutral, trying to avoid that christmas-y look.
Which is why all of those pretty silk flowers and wreaths were, years ago, unceremoniously dumped into that box and went down to the cellar, waiting for me to change my mind about Christmas.
When I found them again yesterday, I picked out the most beautiful ones and took them up to our flat, and spent the rest of the evening distributing wreaths to candlesticks and poinsettia bouquets to vases, all the while watched by DH who must have wondered who that woman was and what she had done with his wife.
Guess what, the flat looks good. Festive, joyful. And we are going to celebrate Christmas together, not perfectly, but perfectly our way. There won´t be any slammed doors, and there won´t be more than three courses to the Christmas dinner, but I will be able to try all of them. There won´t be mountains of unwanted presents, but the joy of being together. And that is, after all, what Christmas should really be about, isn´t it?
Julia
2011/11/25
Optical duh!
So, I did remove one of the two easy chairs in my living room. The second one with a matching stool is still there, as it turned out it was mostly the other one that kept getting in the way.
Space-wise, thus, the situation has been getting better. But optically, it still isn´t quite right.
You see, that easy chair has bright red cushions. DH´s couch is dark brown leather, and Grandpa´s easy chair is black. The cocktail chairs have dark green leather seats and backs. When I bought the red cushions, I thought they´d brighten up the room a bit. But now, with a more minimalist decorator´s eye, they clash with about everything else in the room, apart from having gotten a bit dingy.
As I was intending to replace the cushions anyway, I went to the IKEA website to look for new ones, and found out that they have these now in dark brown leather, matching DH´s couch exactly.
I had thought of buying white leather cushions before, but that was when the only alternative color they had in leather cushions for those chairs was black. As I don´t really like black as a color for furniture, that precluded getting another color than white, even though I knew these would be staining easily.
Seeing they have them in dark brown now, I know what I´ll put on my wish list. Having the same color upholstery for couch and easy chair will make the whole room look more styled-through and put-together.
Besides, while I really like red as a color in general, those red cushions are so dominating the room that I have to keep everything matching them color-wise, or rather, that the other chairs keep clashing with them optically.
Dark brown, dark green and black are close enough together to match, but these red cushions will have to go. Just imagining the brown ones on that chair means thinking of a room that has more optical calm than it has today.
The other problem with our living room furniture is that there are also several different kinds of wood. My furniture was mostly pine and birchwood, so, light-colored kinds of wood, while DH, being a guy, brought darker-colored kinds, like teak or walnut. Having these in the same room means even more optical noise than just the upholstery would create.
Now if I could do as I wish I´d toss all of the dark stuff and replace it with birchwood or maple shelving and matching chairs and tables. Unfortunately, DH is very attached to the walnut and teak stuff because it came from his parent´s house as a gift to him. But maybe we´ll be able to put most or even all of it into what is now our old bedroom, which will become his office and den as soon as we can exchange rooms.
It´s amazing how decluttering has made me aware of the visual clutter that our furniture is creating. While there was plenty of stuff lying around on those chairs and tables, I blamed it just on that if the place looked cluttered. Now that most things have either gone or found their permanent homes out of sight inside some cupboard, I suddenly see that the furniture mix in our living room looks cluttered enough on its own to keep the room from getting that feeling of calm that is what I wish for in interior decor. And I have discovered that it isn´t adding something new that will bring that feeling. Rather, it is removing things.
So, this weekend I´ll be once more going through our stuff, deciding what to get rid of, and enjoying the fact that we are getting ever closer to the goal of having a peaceful and calm flat.
Julia
Space-wise, thus, the situation has been getting better. But optically, it still isn´t quite right.
You see, that easy chair has bright red cushions. DH´s couch is dark brown leather, and Grandpa´s easy chair is black. The cocktail chairs have dark green leather seats and backs. When I bought the red cushions, I thought they´d brighten up the room a bit. But now, with a more minimalist decorator´s eye, they clash with about everything else in the room, apart from having gotten a bit dingy.
As I was intending to replace the cushions anyway, I went to the IKEA website to look for new ones, and found out that they have these now in dark brown leather, matching DH´s couch exactly.
I had thought of buying white leather cushions before, but that was when the only alternative color they had in leather cushions for those chairs was black. As I don´t really like black as a color for furniture, that precluded getting another color than white, even though I knew these would be staining easily.
Seeing they have them in dark brown now, I know what I´ll put on my wish list. Having the same color upholstery for couch and easy chair will make the whole room look more styled-through and put-together.
Besides, while I really like red as a color in general, those red cushions are so dominating the room that I have to keep everything matching them color-wise, or rather, that the other chairs keep clashing with them optically.
Dark brown, dark green and black are close enough together to match, but these red cushions will have to go. Just imagining the brown ones on that chair means thinking of a room that has more optical calm than it has today.
The other problem with our living room furniture is that there are also several different kinds of wood. My furniture was mostly pine and birchwood, so, light-colored kinds of wood, while DH, being a guy, brought darker-colored kinds, like teak or walnut. Having these in the same room means even more optical noise than just the upholstery would create.
Now if I could do as I wish I´d toss all of the dark stuff and replace it with birchwood or maple shelving and matching chairs and tables. Unfortunately, DH is very attached to the walnut and teak stuff because it came from his parent´s house as a gift to him. But maybe we´ll be able to put most or even all of it into what is now our old bedroom, which will become his office and den as soon as we can exchange rooms.
It´s amazing how decluttering has made me aware of the visual clutter that our furniture is creating. While there was plenty of stuff lying around on those chairs and tables, I blamed it just on that if the place looked cluttered. Now that most things have either gone or found their permanent homes out of sight inside some cupboard, I suddenly see that the furniture mix in our living room looks cluttered enough on its own to keep the room from getting that feeling of calm that is what I wish for in interior decor. And I have discovered that it isn´t adding something new that will bring that feeling. Rather, it is removing things.
So, this weekend I´ll be once more going through our stuff, deciding what to get rid of, and enjoying the fact that we are getting ever closer to the goal of having a peaceful and calm flat.
Julia
2011/11/03
Taking time
It´s been two years now that I went from dragging home stuff to trying to get rid of stuff I had dragged home.
Some twenty to thirty (I didn´t count them) bags of trash and recycling have left the flat for good, plus a similar amount of too-big clothes. Of the several boxes of books, nothing to say.
The kitchen, by now, is pretty much decluttered. In the other rooms, at first sight I still haven´t made enough of a dent in the amount of stuff to be stored to really create some empty space. What I have reduced is the number of homeless items, meaning that almost everything has, by now, a place to put it away.
But- I haven´t yet been able to reduce the amount of storage needed. What I had hoped for was being able to declutter some of our shelving, too, but that hasn´t happened yet. We still have three armchairs, a big sofa plus three cocktail chairs in a living room used only by DH and me. There´s still an IKEA shelf on every wall except the one with the windows in it, using up every inch of free space there is. Even after sorting out things, I still have those four chests of drawers in my bedroom, with those wooden IKEA drawer boxes on top, and every one of them is filled with small items.
When I see pictures in catalogues of rooms with minimalist furnishings, I become envious. Imagining a whole wall with nothing but a picture and a couch in front of it. Or a living room where you don´t have to zigzag between chairs and armchairs to clean.
Things in my living room are more difficult to keep up with because what I have is mostly open shelving, with only a few closed cabinets in between. Open shelves mean horizontal space, and that, in turn, means things being placed there, in front of the books. I have removed the greater part of my own tchotchkes long ago, but DH has immediately occupied the liberated space with an army of picture frames. As these are family pictures, and DH is a real family man, there would not be any reasoning with him over them. Even limiting the number probably wouldn´t work. If we had been able to exchange the rooms as planned, I could, at least, banish the picture frames to his office. But in order to do that, some of the shelving in the living room would have to go. So, that´s the place where the cat catches his own tail. If I could but remove some of those shelves, we could rearrange our flat.
The meaning of that is all too clear. I have to declutter even more things, in the hope of finally emptying at least one or two of these shelves. And that will take some more time, as I can start bigger decluttering projects only when DH is away, or over the weekend. Besides, I have decluttered most of the no-brainers long ago, so the speed at which I can declutter even more is necessarily slowing down.
With winter approaching, perhaps I can do this in small increments. Just 15 minutes every evening, for example. Maybe there´ll be a visible result by spring.
Until then, I must remind myself that I took several decades to accumulate all this stuff. I can´t realistically expect to get rid of it at once.
Julia
Some twenty to thirty (I didn´t count them) bags of trash and recycling have left the flat for good, plus a similar amount of too-big clothes. Of the several boxes of books, nothing to say.
The kitchen, by now, is pretty much decluttered. In the other rooms, at first sight I still haven´t made enough of a dent in the amount of stuff to be stored to really create some empty space. What I have reduced is the number of homeless items, meaning that almost everything has, by now, a place to put it away.
But- I haven´t yet been able to reduce the amount of storage needed. What I had hoped for was being able to declutter some of our shelving, too, but that hasn´t happened yet. We still have three armchairs, a big sofa plus three cocktail chairs in a living room used only by DH and me. There´s still an IKEA shelf on every wall except the one with the windows in it, using up every inch of free space there is. Even after sorting out things, I still have those four chests of drawers in my bedroom, with those wooden IKEA drawer boxes on top, and every one of them is filled with small items.
When I see pictures in catalogues of rooms with minimalist furnishings, I become envious. Imagining a whole wall with nothing but a picture and a couch in front of it. Or a living room where you don´t have to zigzag between chairs and armchairs to clean.
Things in my living room are more difficult to keep up with because what I have is mostly open shelving, with only a few closed cabinets in between. Open shelves mean horizontal space, and that, in turn, means things being placed there, in front of the books. I have removed the greater part of my own tchotchkes long ago, but DH has immediately occupied the liberated space with an army of picture frames. As these are family pictures, and DH is a real family man, there would not be any reasoning with him over them. Even limiting the number probably wouldn´t work. If we had been able to exchange the rooms as planned, I could, at least, banish the picture frames to his office. But in order to do that, some of the shelving in the living room would have to go. So, that´s the place where the cat catches his own tail. If I could but remove some of those shelves, we could rearrange our flat.
The meaning of that is all too clear. I have to declutter even more things, in the hope of finally emptying at least one or two of these shelves. And that will take some more time, as I can start bigger decluttering projects only when DH is away, or over the weekend. Besides, I have decluttered most of the no-brainers long ago, so the speed at which I can declutter even more is necessarily slowing down.
With winter approaching, perhaps I can do this in small increments. Just 15 minutes every evening, for example. Maybe there´ll be a visible result by spring.
Until then, I must remind myself that I took several decades to accumulate all this stuff. I can´t realistically expect to get rid of it at once.
Julia
2011/10/17
Sending those rolls on a roll
Autumn is here, with an abundance of golden leaves and, unfortunately, the first chilly nights with temperatures just above freezing.
So, this weekend marked the end of the balcony season. I put the spice plants into smaller containers and removed them inside, where they are now decorating the windowsills. Either they make it through winter, then I can put them back outside next year, or if they don´t, they will at least have prettied up our flat for another while instead of wilting outside. The oleander bushes are on the landing inside in front of our flat, where there´s at least some light from the staircase, and the rest (buxus and cherry laurels) is supposed to be winter-hardy and stays outside.
Talking of plants, did you know magnolia trees bear fruit? I didn´t, so, when I noticed something reddish-pink between the leaves of the big magnolia tree in our park, I thought it might be blooming for the second time this year. Only on closer inspection did the supposed blossoms reveal themselves as fruits. They are actually quite funny-looking, a bit like aliens in pink, and they contain bright red seeds which burst out when ripe. From what Wikipedia tells on the subject, it´s extremely rare for Magnolias in our climate to bear fruit, so this had not happened in the last few years. I did, of course, pick up some of the seeds that lay on the grass and am trying to get them to grow into my own little magnolia tree. Maybe there´ll be another green houseguest on my balcony next year.
The cold mornings did require another activity this weekend, namely, taking out my warm clothes for winter. In the process, I happened on the last pair of my all-time-big pants. Holding them up and imagining in three dimensions the posterior that shaped the stretched-out seat on them is a great way of visualizing just how far I have come.
Those pants, thus, remain in storage, if only as a deterrent to gaining again. Five other pants that I had kept last spring in a bigger-than-now size are awaiting to be shipped to Goodwill in a big blue bag, along with one very scratchy sweater that gave me a rash on my neck every time I wore it, but which was still kept "just in case".
The other sweaters did, for the first time in a long while, fit into the shelves in my closet. I may still have to go through them and sort out the ones that are too big, but for now, I´m satisfied to have just one zippered storage box left on top of my closet, and that one holds not clothes but blankets.
Apart from that, I´ve taken advantage of the cold weather to defrost my freezer. While it was warm, I had no way of storing the contents, but yesterday it stayed cold enough that the goods , when wrapped into an insulated bag and put outside, kept cold enough to prevent thawing. The amount of ice that came off the freezer was quite impressive, so I´ll definitely have to do this more often.
The added advantage of being able to take an inventory of what we have in there isn´t something to sneeze on, either. Perhaps I´ll make a list to hang on the outside, laminated, to cross off what I use up. That way I´ll save myself any double purchases (like the two opened bags of leeks that I discovered) and make sure nothing gets spoiled.
Oh, and today- I am officially a full 25 kilos down from my heighest ever weight. The trying on of those too-big pants revealed that a lot of the fat rolls I still had last winter have gone. Never to return, I hope.
And on the ones that are still there, I keep working.
Julia
So, this weekend marked the end of the balcony season. I put the spice plants into smaller containers and removed them inside, where they are now decorating the windowsills. Either they make it through winter, then I can put them back outside next year, or if they don´t, they will at least have prettied up our flat for another while instead of wilting outside. The oleander bushes are on the landing inside in front of our flat, where there´s at least some light from the staircase, and the rest (buxus and cherry laurels) is supposed to be winter-hardy and stays outside.
Talking of plants, did you know magnolia trees bear fruit? I didn´t, so, when I noticed something reddish-pink between the leaves of the big magnolia tree in our park, I thought it might be blooming for the second time this year. Only on closer inspection did the supposed blossoms reveal themselves as fruits. They are actually quite funny-looking, a bit like aliens in pink, and they contain bright red seeds which burst out when ripe. From what Wikipedia tells on the subject, it´s extremely rare for Magnolias in our climate to bear fruit, so this had not happened in the last few years. I did, of course, pick up some of the seeds that lay on the grass and am trying to get them to grow into my own little magnolia tree. Maybe there´ll be another green houseguest on my balcony next year.
The cold mornings did require another activity this weekend, namely, taking out my warm clothes for winter. In the process, I happened on the last pair of my all-time-big pants. Holding them up and imagining in three dimensions the posterior that shaped the stretched-out seat on them is a great way of visualizing just how far I have come.
Those pants, thus, remain in storage, if only as a deterrent to gaining again. Five other pants that I had kept last spring in a bigger-than-now size are awaiting to be shipped to Goodwill in a big blue bag, along with one very scratchy sweater that gave me a rash on my neck every time I wore it, but which was still kept "just in case".
The other sweaters did, for the first time in a long while, fit into the shelves in my closet. I may still have to go through them and sort out the ones that are too big, but for now, I´m satisfied to have just one zippered storage box left on top of my closet, and that one holds not clothes but blankets.
Apart from that, I´ve taken advantage of the cold weather to defrost my freezer. While it was warm, I had no way of storing the contents, but yesterday it stayed cold enough that the goods , when wrapped into an insulated bag and put outside, kept cold enough to prevent thawing. The amount of ice that came off the freezer was quite impressive, so I´ll definitely have to do this more often.
The added advantage of being able to take an inventory of what we have in there isn´t something to sneeze on, either. Perhaps I´ll make a list to hang on the outside, laminated, to cross off what I use up. That way I´ll save myself any double purchases (like the two opened bags of leeks that I discovered) and make sure nothing gets spoiled.
Oh, and today- I am officially a full 25 kilos down from my heighest ever weight. The trying on of those too-big pants revealed that a lot of the fat rolls I still had last winter have gone. Never to return, I hope.
And on the ones that are still there, I keep working.
Julia
2011/07/14
The balcony still does it
..make me smile, that is.
The warm weather during the last days, plus sky-high humidity, wasn´t exactly my kind of climate, so, we stayed mostly at home waiting for things to cool down in the evenings.
Now,we are lucky to have our balcony pointing to the east, which means getting the most of the morning sunshine as a special breakfast treat, and getting into the shade by noon before it gets really hot. The only thing we can´t do from there is watch the sun set. But that´s something I can live with. DMIL´s flat has a balcony that points to the southwest, and she almost never gets to use it during the day because it´s just too darn hot there.
The ideal flat, then, probably would have two balconies:).
But ours is just what we can use best just as it is.
We have two chairs and a round table out there, and we´ve been having dinner out there every day unless it happened to be raining at dinnertime. I got us a big, gastronomy-style tray, with a non-slip-coating, and it´s big enough to put our place settings on, plus the smaller plates for bread or such, or the cheese platter for breakfast, and the glasses for drinks. I know that´s probably making us appear uncultivated, but we do set the table on that tray, carry it out and set the tray down on the table with the already-set place settings on it. Which saves us the old juggling act with a small tray threatening to topple over while I try to take the stacked plates off it and put them directly on the table. That was actually one of the reasons why we hadn´t used the balcony much for eating there, that it was such a hassle to get everything out there. The investment in the big tray has paid off already (it wasn´t that expensive, but we hadn´t found one that was that big sooner), and best of all, it did find a home at once in a corner besides the refrigerator when not in use.
That tray does actually show several things that I have found to help me when deciding whether I should buy something or not.
-it does allow me to do something I like to do easily that used to be a hassle
-it has, apart the cost of the initial purchase, no follow-up costs
-it is something I can use for a very long time,
-it has a home of its own in my flat and may be put away when not in use,
-and, most importantly, I did not have another almost like it already, so, it does not add clutter
Now, I don´t claim to be a perfect minimalist, but these criteria are what I apply to my purchases nowadays.
They may, of course, be applied to the existing stuff, too.
There´s a saying in German that translates roughly to "out with everything that doesn´t pay for its rent". While that may sound a bit extreme, it´s a good reminder of the fact that there really is a follow-up cost to owning stuff. You have to store it, clean it, insure it. You need apartment space to store it in, or a bigger house. Both of which must be paid for and heated.
I think it was Peter Walsh (Disclaimer: I´m not affiliated in any way with him or his company) who suggested calculating how many percent of our housing cost were spent on giving a home to things that are simply clutter. Things we do not need, use, or love. Things that perhaps even give us bad feelings every time we chance upon them.
If you haven´t tried that exercise yet, sit down before you do it, because very likely that´s what you´ll want to do afterwards anyway.
And that should be the perfect motivation to reduce. At least that´s what it was for me. Not that I want to move anytime soon, but having DH (and all of his stuff) move into an apartment that I had originally intended to be a roomy place for just myself, my books and my kitchen stuff :) pretty much filled up all of the available space in a jiffy. Which is not what I want, really.
Besides, there´s still the plan to look for nicer furniture for our living-room. Apart my somewhat eclectic tastes, whatever I put there must hold everything I store in the living-room. So, this, too, is a great chance to think about what I want to have to pay for storage room for. Now, I´m not in a hurry because I haven´t found the right bookcases or shelves or whatever yet anyway. But I have, during the last two years, gotten rid of plenty of stuff that clogged up my old cupboards and shelves.
One side effect of that is suddenly being able to find a home for a lot of things that used to be left outside on the kitchen counter or in the open shelves, which in turn does make it easier to keep some semblance of order in our flat.
And that is the other thing that makes me smile about my flat today.
Julia
The warm weather during the last days, plus sky-high humidity, wasn´t exactly my kind of climate, so, we stayed mostly at home waiting for things to cool down in the evenings.
Now,we are lucky to have our balcony pointing to the east, which means getting the most of the morning sunshine as a special breakfast treat, and getting into the shade by noon before it gets really hot. The only thing we can´t do from there is watch the sun set. But that´s something I can live with. DMIL´s flat has a balcony that points to the southwest, and she almost never gets to use it during the day because it´s just too darn hot there.
The ideal flat, then, probably would have two balconies:).
But ours is just what we can use best just as it is.
We have two chairs and a round table out there, and we´ve been having dinner out there every day unless it happened to be raining at dinnertime. I got us a big, gastronomy-style tray, with a non-slip-coating, and it´s big enough to put our place settings on, plus the smaller plates for bread or such, or the cheese platter for breakfast, and the glasses for drinks. I know that´s probably making us appear uncultivated, but we do set the table on that tray, carry it out and set the tray down on the table with the already-set place settings on it. Which saves us the old juggling act with a small tray threatening to topple over while I try to take the stacked plates off it and put them directly on the table. That was actually one of the reasons why we hadn´t used the balcony much for eating there, that it was such a hassle to get everything out there. The investment in the big tray has paid off already (it wasn´t that expensive, but we hadn´t found one that was that big sooner), and best of all, it did find a home at once in a corner besides the refrigerator when not in use.
That tray does actually show several things that I have found to help me when deciding whether I should buy something or not.
-it does allow me to do something I like to do easily that used to be a hassle
-it has, apart the cost of the initial purchase, no follow-up costs
-it is something I can use for a very long time,
-it has a home of its own in my flat and may be put away when not in use,
-and, most importantly, I did not have another almost like it already, so, it does not add clutter
Now, I don´t claim to be a perfect minimalist, but these criteria are what I apply to my purchases nowadays.
They may, of course, be applied to the existing stuff, too.
There´s a saying in German that translates roughly to "out with everything that doesn´t pay for its rent". While that may sound a bit extreme, it´s a good reminder of the fact that there really is a follow-up cost to owning stuff. You have to store it, clean it, insure it. You need apartment space to store it in, or a bigger house. Both of which must be paid for and heated.
I think it was Peter Walsh (Disclaimer: I´m not affiliated in any way with him or his company) who suggested calculating how many percent of our housing cost were spent on giving a home to things that are simply clutter. Things we do not need, use, or love. Things that perhaps even give us bad feelings every time we chance upon them.
If you haven´t tried that exercise yet, sit down before you do it, because very likely that´s what you´ll want to do afterwards anyway.
And that should be the perfect motivation to reduce. At least that´s what it was for me. Not that I want to move anytime soon, but having DH (and all of his stuff) move into an apartment that I had originally intended to be a roomy place for just myself, my books and my kitchen stuff :) pretty much filled up all of the available space in a jiffy. Which is not what I want, really.
Besides, there´s still the plan to look for nicer furniture for our living-room. Apart my somewhat eclectic tastes, whatever I put there must hold everything I store in the living-room. So, this, too, is a great chance to think about what I want to have to pay for storage room for. Now, I´m not in a hurry because I haven´t found the right bookcases or shelves or whatever yet anyway. But I have, during the last two years, gotten rid of plenty of stuff that clogged up my old cupboards and shelves.
One side effect of that is suddenly being able to find a home for a lot of things that used to be left outside on the kitchen counter or in the open shelves, which in turn does make it easier to keep some semblance of order in our flat.
And that is the other thing that makes me smile about my flat today.
Julia
2011/05/11
The home improvement kind of minimalism
"If you refuse to accept anything but the very best you will very often get it." That quote (I think it´s by Somerset Maugham) is perhaps the epitome of what minimalism is about. Accept, in your life, nothing but the very best.
But what can that mean in a world where, as my Grandma used to put it, "there´s more make-doers than well-livers"? All too often we have to make do with what we have, and then, the makeshift, suboptimal solutions we chose become permanent because we never take the time to check whether they are still appropriate, or whether there would be a way to improve on them.
This permanence of the provisory does sometimes cause us to live in surroundings we would not chose if we had to make the choice for the first time.
Case in point- both DH and I had, long before we met, built our respective households, complete with cutlery, cookware, bed linens, furniture, and what else is needed for living. And, as we were both poor students when we started our own households, we both had a fair share of hand-me-downs and extremely cheap items that were sometimes barely doing what they were supposed to do, or were just ugly. At a time when we had no alternatives, these things had to suffice. And, being extra frugal, we kept them even though their inadequacies were glaringly obvious.
About two years ago, the plastic tablecloth we used on our dinner table, which was already bleached-out and dingy, got caught on one of the chairs and ended up with a big tear on the side.
The crazy part is that I was, for a moment, tempted to do a provisory repair on it with duct tape from the underside. On a tablecloth that had been cheap when I bought it, and which would even after the repair look ugly. When I made myself realize that, I took the thing off our table, threw it away and went shopping for a new tablecloth. As luck would have it, there was a sale on table linens at a nearby store, and I found several damask tablecloths in colors that matched our interior.
These damask tablecloths turned out to be the beginning of our journey towards an improved home.
When setting the table with them, I soon found myself choosing the better china or glassware, or taking out the stainless steel design candlesticks that were a wedding present from my colleagues. A little vase with flowers appeared, too, artificial ones, certainly, but still flowers, and very soon I got myself a matching set of cloth napkins, too.
The point here is that I did not have to pay a lot of money to achieve all of this. Some of the items were already there, just not being used because they were kept for some nebulous future occasion, and others were, when compared to the things they replaced, not even so much more expensive. What made the difference was that I did decide that for ourselves, we should have the best, or at least, the best we could afford. And that meant that the crystal goblets that had for a long time slumbered in our cupboard because "that´s something for special occasions only" see the light more often today, and that the mustard glasses I had collected as a student to use as water glasses have long ago gone to recycling.
After all, if I already own something, in terms of frugality, it´s free. By finally using the things I kept for a future occasion, I could improve my surroundings for free.
And, let´s face it, if the said nebulous future occasion hasn´t arisen in the ten or twenty years I have had those goblets, it´s very likely that it may never come. And what, then, are those goblets good for except collecting dust and taking up space?
So, I use them. That may mean they might break, but until then, I have a lot more enjoyment from using them than from having them inside my cupboard.
These damask tablecloths did start a kind of chain reaction, actually. I am, since their appearance in our household, continuously looking for other ways where I can, at a relatively minor cost, improve on our surroundings. The new blinds or the dustbins are just two examples.
But I am not obsessive about it.
There are still plenty of things to improve or exchange for which we have not found a replacement yet. And these we will live with until the right replacement comes along.
What I will try to avoid is settling for less than the optimum in the things I bring into our lives.
If what I want is a leather-padded couch it´s a waste of money to bring in a cheap cloth-covered one that would get thrown out in a matter of years.
If I have a lot of books to store, replacing the plain but sturdy IKEA massive pine wood shelves I´ve had since I was a student (and kept adding to with every new flat I moved into) with MDF or plywood ones that would soon warp under the weight of the books would be plain dumb. So, the IKEA shelves will stay until I find an equally resistant shelving system that is not too expensive.
But, I will only exchange them for something that is as close as possible to my idea of what I need.
And I refuse to waste any more money on things that are just more provisory solutions.
Meanwhile, I keep reducing the things that I would not replace, had I to buy them today.
Oh, that might also mean I´m going to save on the new shelves, if I needed less of them. So, it´s the right way for me to declutter first, because only then will I be able to see how much storage I really need.
Julia
But what can that mean in a world where, as my Grandma used to put it, "there´s more make-doers than well-livers"? All too often we have to make do with what we have, and then, the makeshift, suboptimal solutions we chose become permanent because we never take the time to check whether they are still appropriate, or whether there would be a way to improve on them.
This permanence of the provisory does sometimes cause us to live in surroundings we would not chose if we had to make the choice for the first time.
Case in point- both DH and I had, long before we met, built our respective households, complete with cutlery, cookware, bed linens, furniture, and what else is needed for living. And, as we were both poor students when we started our own households, we both had a fair share of hand-me-downs and extremely cheap items that were sometimes barely doing what they were supposed to do, or were just ugly. At a time when we had no alternatives, these things had to suffice. And, being extra frugal, we kept them even though their inadequacies were glaringly obvious.
About two years ago, the plastic tablecloth we used on our dinner table, which was already bleached-out and dingy, got caught on one of the chairs and ended up with a big tear on the side.
The crazy part is that I was, for a moment, tempted to do a provisory repair on it with duct tape from the underside. On a tablecloth that had been cheap when I bought it, and which would even after the repair look ugly. When I made myself realize that, I took the thing off our table, threw it away and went shopping for a new tablecloth. As luck would have it, there was a sale on table linens at a nearby store, and I found several damask tablecloths in colors that matched our interior.
These damask tablecloths turned out to be the beginning of our journey towards an improved home.
When setting the table with them, I soon found myself choosing the better china or glassware, or taking out the stainless steel design candlesticks that were a wedding present from my colleagues. A little vase with flowers appeared, too, artificial ones, certainly, but still flowers, and very soon I got myself a matching set of cloth napkins, too.
The point here is that I did not have to pay a lot of money to achieve all of this. Some of the items were already there, just not being used because they were kept for some nebulous future occasion, and others were, when compared to the things they replaced, not even so much more expensive. What made the difference was that I did decide that for ourselves, we should have the best, or at least, the best we could afford. And that meant that the crystal goblets that had for a long time slumbered in our cupboard because "that´s something for special occasions only" see the light more often today, and that the mustard glasses I had collected as a student to use as water glasses have long ago gone to recycling.
After all, if I already own something, in terms of frugality, it´s free. By finally using the things I kept for a future occasion, I could improve my surroundings for free.
And, let´s face it, if the said nebulous future occasion hasn´t arisen in the ten or twenty years I have had those goblets, it´s very likely that it may never come. And what, then, are those goblets good for except collecting dust and taking up space?
So, I use them. That may mean they might break, but until then, I have a lot more enjoyment from using them than from having them inside my cupboard.
These damask tablecloths did start a kind of chain reaction, actually. I am, since their appearance in our household, continuously looking for other ways where I can, at a relatively minor cost, improve on our surroundings. The new blinds or the dustbins are just two examples.
But I am not obsessive about it.
There are still plenty of things to improve or exchange for which we have not found a replacement yet. And these we will live with until the right replacement comes along.
What I will try to avoid is settling for less than the optimum in the things I bring into our lives.
If what I want is a leather-padded couch it´s a waste of money to bring in a cheap cloth-covered one that would get thrown out in a matter of years.
If I have a lot of books to store, replacing the plain but sturdy IKEA massive pine wood shelves I´ve had since I was a student (and kept adding to with every new flat I moved into) with MDF or plywood ones that would soon warp under the weight of the books would be plain dumb. So, the IKEA shelves will stay until I find an equally resistant shelving system that is not too expensive.
But, I will only exchange them for something that is as close as possible to my idea of what I need.
And I refuse to waste any more money on things that are just more provisory solutions.
Meanwhile, I keep reducing the things that I would not replace, had I to buy them today.
Oh, that might also mean I´m going to save on the new shelves, if I needed less of them. So, it´s the right way for me to declutter first, because only then will I be able to see how much storage I really need.
Julia
Sunny days are here
After a period of somewhat unseasonable cold, we are right now having the most wonderful sunshine.
Which led me to the re-discovery of a forgotten space- namely, the balcony of our flat.
When I moved in there, I had started out furnishing it with flower pots and boxes hanging from the rails. I kept that up for several years, and then the pots and the boxes started to come apart (not every kind of plastic can stand several year´s exposure to summer heat and winter frost). Besides, I quit smoking, so the main reason for me to go out on the balcony was gone, too. Thus, I did declutter most of the old containers and put the other ones in the cellar instead of replanting them.
This year, I have decided to make the balcony usable again. We still had two garden chairs and a table out there, and I have gone and picked up a multi-tiered holder for spice pots, and gotten the remaining of the old pots from the cellar, too.
And I found something nifty for the rails. The old flower boxes I´d had were hung on metal holders. These were enamelled, and when the paint came off -which happened rather quickly- they started to rust and bleed orange-ey streaks down the wall. After decluttering them, I wasn´t too keen on buying replacements that would not hold out any longer (I don´t do paint jobs in our flat, apart walls).
What I discovered now at the gardening store is a style of hanging box that has the part that goes over the rail to hang the box fully integrated into the box itself, so, no more rusting metal there. Now we have a balcony framed in flowers and herbs again. Another plus is that the plants in the boxes also give at least some protection from curious eyes- I did pick plants that grow upwards instead of hanging downwards for that purpose.
We did, yesterday, take advantage of the mild weather and sat out on the balcony, by the light of a candle, enjoying the fresh air, the song of a blackbird that sat in one of the trees in our back yard, and the smell of fresh lavender and rosemary emanating from the spice pots. It could almost make you forget that we live in the middle of a rather big city.
Having to water these plants is a small price to pay for that. And the spice plants will be used in my kitchen, too. Organically grown, and in varieties that usually aren´t sold in the veggie store. So, our little paradise will even pay for its upkeep.
Julia
Which led me to the re-discovery of a forgotten space- namely, the balcony of our flat.
When I moved in there, I had started out furnishing it with flower pots and boxes hanging from the rails. I kept that up for several years, and then the pots and the boxes started to come apart (not every kind of plastic can stand several year´s exposure to summer heat and winter frost). Besides, I quit smoking, so the main reason for me to go out on the balcony was gone, too. Thus, I did declutter most of the old containers and put the other ones in the cellar instead of replanting them.
This year, I have decided to make the balcony usable again. We still had two garden chairs and a table out there, and I have gone and picked up a multi-tiered holder for spice pots, and gotten the remaining of the old pots from the cellar, too.
And I found something nifty for the rails. The old flower boxes I´d had were hung on metal holders. These were enamelled, and when the paint came off -which happened rather quickly- they started to rust and bleed orange-ey streaks down the wall. After decluttering them, I wasn´t too keen on buying replacements that would not hold out any longer (I don´t do paint jobs in our flat, apart walls).
What I discovered now at the gardening store is a style of hanging box that has the part that goes over the rail to hang the box fully integrated into the box itself, so, no more rusting metal there. Now we have a balcony framed in flowers and herbs again. Another plus is that the plants in the boxes also give at least some protection from curious eyes- I did pick plants that grow upwards instead of hanging downwards for that purpose.
We did, yesterday, take advantage of the mild weather and sat out on the balcony, by the light of a candle, enjoying the fresh air, the song of a blackbird that sat in one of the trees in our back yard, and the smell of fresh lavender and rosemary emanating from the spice pots. It could almost make you forget that we live in the middle of a rather big city.
Having to water these plants is a small price to pay for that. And the spice plants will be used in my kitchen, too. Organically grown, and in varieties that usually aren´t sold in the veggie store. So, our little paradise will even pay for its upkeep.
Julia
2011/05/09
There´s a bug in my kitchen...
...no, not of the insect kind. I´ve been bitten by the home improvement bug, and it´s been taking up residence in the kitchen. After the venetian blind operation, I have had the occasion to take a good hard look at the decor in my flat. Which led me to notice some more things that could be improved on, namely, two containers I have used for collecting waste materials for recycling (it´s obligatory to recycle where I live, and you have to separate your waste before disposing of it).
These had been in use for some fifteen years, and the plastic they were made of had started to desintegrate, making them appear stained and dirty. Besides, the hinges on them were broken, so the lids kept falling off.
This weekend, a local container store advertised a big sale in American-style enamelled metal wastebins, and I managed to secure me two fire-engine-red beauties which match my existing leftover non-recyclable waste bin exactly, coming from the same manufacturer. The old plastic bins have already gone to the waste disposal themselves, and my kitchen has another big eyesore less.
The funny thing was that after setting up the new bins (I had to raise a shelf on the wall above them because they are a bit higher than the old ones), I found myself going on decluttering my kitchen, making room in the cupboards for some cups and glasses that had until now lived on an open shelf and getting rid, finally, of a big porcelain cup. That had been a present from my Granny, but it had a jagged, chipped-off edge just in the place where you put your lips when drinking. As it was just one of three matching cups, I still have another two exactly like it to remind me of Granny, and I have realized I´ll never again use the broken one. So, to the trash it goes.
What also did get weeded out was the remains of a china set that my grandparents had used a lot. Most of the pieces had gotten chipped in their dishwasher, there are no replacements available any more, so, after realizing that I did not even have enough undamaged pieces left for two place settings, I tossed the damaged pieces. Since the biggest plates of the set had a beautiful flower motive painted on them, I kept one of these (that had miraculously survived undamaged) and, using a plate hanger I also found, I have hung this in the kitchen as a wall decoration where it makes me smile every day and reminds me of many meals I have eaten off these plates with Granny. And the other ones I let go. Not facing that stack of broken china every time I open that cupboard sure feels good.
It seems to be right that hanging on to damaged items drags your energy down. They are, after all, nothing but clutter if they will never be either repaired or used. Getting rid of them frees up space and energy.
And I sure have better uses for both.
Julia
These had been in use for some fifteen years, and the plastic they were made of had started to desintegrate, making them appear stained and dirty. Besides, the hinges on them were broken, so the lids kept falling off.
This weekend, a local container store advertised a big sale in American-style enamelled metal wastebins, and I managed to secure me two fire-engine-red beauties which match my existing leftover non-recyclable waste bin exactly, coming from the same manufacturer. The old plastic bins have already gone to the waste disposal themselves, and my kitchen has another big eyesore less.
The funny thing was that after setting up the new bins (I had to raise a shelf on the wall above them because they are a bit higher than the old ones), I found myself going on decluttering my kitchen, making room in the cupboards for some cups and glasses that had until now lived on an open shelf and getting rid, finally, of a big porcelain cup. That had been a present from my Granny, but it had a jagged, chipped-off edge just in the place where you put your lips when drinking. As it was just one of three matching cups, I still have another two exactly like it to remind me of Granny, and I have realized I´ll never again use the broken one. So, to the trash it goes.
What also did get weeded out was the remains of a china set that my grandparents had used a lot. Most of the pieces had gotten chipped in their dishwasher, there are no replacements available any more, so, after realizing that I did not even have enough undamaged pieces left for two place settings, I tossed the damaged pieces. Since the biggest plates of the set had a beautiful flower motive painted on them, I kept one of these (that had miraculously survived undamaged) and, using a plate hanger I also found, I have hung this in the kitchen as a wall decoration where it makes me smile every day and reminds me of many meals I have eaten off these plates with Granny. And the other ones I let go. Not facing that stack of broken china every time I open that cupboard sure feels good.
It seems to be right that hanging on to damaged items drags your energy down. They are, after all, nothing but clutter if they will never be either repaired or used. Getting rid of them frees up space and energy.
And I sure have better uses for both.
Julia
2011/05/06
Let there be light
Sometimes baby steps can make a big difference.
When we moved into our present flat, we re-purposed the curtains and curtain rods from the old flat. That had been in the highest level of a building, high up enough so no one could look into our windows from outside, and the curtains, consequently, were only drawn when it was very hot, to keep the heat out.
Our new place is facing several houses of equal height, so, some protection for our privacy is necessary. I am a bit obsessive about not wanting to be watched.
Which led to our keeping the curtains closed almost all of the time. I thought that didn´t matter so much because we are both full-time working out of the house. But still, the cave-like feeling of those closed curtains was not what I wanted for our place.
Yet- those curtains and curtain rods had been a housewarming present from a dear aunt who is no longer with us. Removing them somehow didn´t feel right.
Besides, we have many windows, and I feared that a complete exchange would be prohibitively expensive.
Thus, I have been sitting on the fence about this for quite a while.
Not so any more.
It started out innocently enough with a single yellow venetian-style blind I picked up to replace a door curtain that I had gotten as a cast-off from my parents a while ago,
The difference in that room was startling. And it made me see even more how worn the old curtains were by now.
So, I finally took the plunge and got myself a complete set of venetian blinds for all of our windows. They weren´t as pricey as what I had feared, either.
And I took off all of the old curtain rods and curtains. The curtains are already in the dustbin (they were, on closer inspection, not fit for donation any more) and the curtain rods are awaiting trash day, too.
Our flat is now a lot brighter and tidier-looking around the windows, and I have caught myself tidying and cleaning as if we were going to have visitors- which we don´t.
The extra light just brought out all the places where I hadn´t dusted lately, and which were now clamoring for attention.
So, attention is what I gave them. And a good scrubbing-down.
Of course, since I had to fit this in with my other duties, this has been nothing like the tear-everything-down kind of spring cleaning I witnessed as a child.
But the whole place looks better for it.
Actually, the example of how spring cleaning was done in Granny´s household has been an impediment to me when cleaning. It went like, if you want to clean the window panes you have to remove the curtains, too, wash and iron them and wipe the window frames, then re-hang the curtains, or else the windows aren´t cleaned properly. And you have to clean all of the windows on one day.
Which meant that just the cleaning of windows was a full-day occupation, at the very least, because the curtains were cotton and needed a lot of ironing.
So, more often than not, I procrastinated about it to the point where I was no longer able to avoid doing it. Suffice it to say it was a big surprise for me every time I found there were still those pieces of glass underneath the grime...:).
Now, I can just dust off the blinds, pull them up and wipe off the glass, and the frames, too, and then lower them back down.
And it takes me just minutes.
Nothing to say of how the brighter light that enters the rooms through the blinds even makes me have a better mood.
And I am already thinking about what the next microstep for improving our flat might be.
to be continued...
Julia
When we moved into our present flat, we re-purposed the curtains and curtain rods from the old flat. That had been in the highest level of a building, high up enough so no one could look into our windows from outside, and the curtains, consequently, were only drawn when it was very hot, to keep the heat out.
Our new place is facing several houses of equal height, so, some protection for our privacy is necessary. I am a bit obsessive about not wanting to be watched.
Which led to our keeping the curtains closed almost all of the time. I thought that didn´t matter so much because we are both full-time working out of the house. But still, the cave-like feeling of those closed curtains was not what I wanted for our place.
Yet- those curtains and curtain rods had been a housewarming present from a dear aunt who is no longer with us. Removing them somehow didn´t feel right.
Besides, we have many windows, and I feared that a complete exchange would be prohibitively expensive.
Thus, I have been sitting on the fence about this for quite a while.
Not so any more.
It started out innocently enough with a single yellow venetian-style blind I picked up to replace a door curtain that I had gotten as a cast-off from my parents a while ago,
The difference in that room was startling. And it made me see even more how worn the old curtains were by now.
So, I finally took the plunge and got myself a complete set of venetian blinds for all of our windows. They weren´t as pricey as what I had feared, either.
And I took off all of the old curtain rods and curtains. The curtains are already in the dustbin (they were, on closer inspection, not fit for donation any more) and the curtain rods are awaiting trash day, too.
Our flat is now a lot brighter and tidier-looking around the windows, and I have caught myself tidying and cleaning as if we were going to have visitors- which we don´t.
The extra light just brought out all the places where I hadn´t dusted lately, and which were now clamoring for attention.
So, attention is what I gave them. And a good scrubbing-down.
Of course, since I had to fit this in with my other duties, this has been nothing like the tear-everything-down kind of spring cleaning I witnessed as a child.
But the whole place looks better for it.
Actually, the example of how spring cleaning was done in Granny´s household has been an impediment to me when cleaning. It went like, if you want to clean the window panes you have to remove the curtains, too, wash and iron them and wipe the window frames, then re-hang the curtains, or else the windows aren´t cleaned properly. And you have to clean all of the windows on one day.
Which meant that just the cleaning of windows was a full-day occupation, at the very least, because the curtains were cotton and needed a lot of ironing.
So, more often than not, I procrastinated about it to the point where I was no longer able to avoid doing it. Suffice it to say it was a big surprise for me every time I found there were still those pieces of glass underneath the grime...:).
Now, I can just dust off the blinds, pull them up and wipe off the glass, and the frames, too, and then lower them back down.
And it takes me just minutes.
Nothing to say of how the brighter light that enters the rooms through the blinds even makes me have a better mood.
And I am already thinking about what the next microstep for improving our flat might be.
to be continued...
Julia
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