Cut your sentimental crap and start decluttering | Part 2

Returning back from my rants in part 1

Chapter 4: The Wedding Gift

You read it correctly. but it's not mine.  It's mom's wedding present from more than 20 years ago that have never been used yet and she had kept this burden in it's original box due to appreciation and thinking any of us might use it for special occasions.  Here's what I'm gonna tell ya, 20 years of keeping them in this house, not a single day the gifts were being used, not even during Eid.

In my culture, during weddings guests would either bring gifts or money packets for the newly weds.  In my head as a person who ended up as the victim to de clutter my mom's old gifts, I'm sorry to say random wedding presents are no longer relevant. 

Appreciations aside, here's why I mentioned it as a non-relevant approach;

1) More than 1 guests may bring the same concept of present, in my experience my mom received 2 huge punch bowls as I said had never ever being used before EVER.

2) Take it as a positive way.  Why spent 80 dollars for a punch bowl, instead just give the newly weds the same amount in cash (we call it here "angpau salam pengantin").  You have helped them from hoarding unnecessary item and at the same time they would have extra cash to start out their new life. Kita anggap je la sadaqah.

3) If you yourself are not comfortable in presenting them with cash/money packet, well it is never wrong for gifting but ask first what the newly weds actually need in their household. 

4) The only relevant idea of a random gift is decorated box, gift basket or wooden crate filled with dry groceries, ingredients or fruits.  At least it is sharable among family members of the newly weds.

Why don't we change our mindset.  Kita ambil practical approach, instead of nak keeping up to the standard lepas tu ended up jadi suatu pembaziran.

So wanna see what I had to get rid of on behalf?

 Left: Glass fruit bowl | Right: First punch bowl

Left: Frying pan | Right: Punch bowl no. 2

I told mom I'm stealing the modern red pan, at least I'll be using it for my house after I get married. So if you think gifting is a bright idea, think again for the unfortunate kid that have to do all the de cluttering in 20 years time.

Chapter 5: There Are No Monsters Under The Bed, Only Junks

Underside of the bed is actually one of the best storage space that is very helpful to tidy up your room.  However, sketch your organization plan to the things you are keeping under the bed space.  I have measured the height between the flooring and the bed frame, measurement is 30cm maximum.  I was lucky because I found an Ikea bin that have the exact height fitting under my bed.  This is why I love the Ikea Samla bins; #notspons

•  I'm an Ikea fan
• They are see through so you can view the things you kept inside the bins in a glance
• Can fit through almost all bed frame height
• Protect from dust (all bins do that though)

Basically after I clean up almost everything under my bed, I was left with only 5% items that I chose to keep, basically my board games.  So put them all inside a large bin together with my vintage toys & entertainment related items, my ukulele.

Keeping your stuff in bins actually helps for free air flow inside your bedroom because of the modular arrangements you can do for it compared to compressing your stuff like playing tetris .  I can actually feel the air flow differences even though it only involves storage under the bed.  My cats do enjoy more nap times in my room after this de cluttering adventure.

Chapter 6: The Beauty Guru

As the pioneering beauty guru among my friends, I had A LOT of makeup products laying inside my room and I don't have a vanity.  I bought this acrylic drawer from the local MR DIY store to keep all beauty tools and makeup.  As per 2019 this is my 4th or 5th makeup de cluttering because I ended up collecting instead of actually using the products.  The 1st one was the hardest, getting to the 5th is no longer affecting my sentiments. I ain't using 4 year old expired liquid lipstick!  

I have two makeup drawers, one in my room and the other is in my office drawer, which I also did a mini reorganization using Daiso's utensils tray similarly to this pin.  Having less products and seeing only the things I actually use on daily basis finally makes me happier compared to my old lifestyle where I'm collecting makeup but leaving them out to expire.  Still this doesn't mean I'll never buying makeup, I mean hey I'mma gal, makeup is my holy grail so I'll keep on urging to get new releases but a constant reminder to keep it minimal would help my to save me a space or two.

Left: My latest bin stash | Right: My vanity settings where I'm using mirror from Swamp Queen palette where my face direction facing the window for maximum natural lighting.

Apart from makeup, I also have nail polish collection because I was obsessed on doing nail art after finding out Cristine's channel, SimplyNailogical.  Thus, I have a few stamping plates, stampers and of course nail polishes which I have transformed my lipstick holder into nail polish organizer.  Not to forget, I have 2 mini drawers used to keep my jewelries but I took them out and keep all nail art tools inside them instead.  Organizing is basically improvise your storage and make it work to your preference and not what the internet told you to do.  

Left: Now I have a neat drawer for my nail stuff, I'm so proud of the outcome | Right: Previously my nail tools sat on the corner of this table inside a shoe box and polishes on top of it collecting dust and hair. 

Chapter 7: Who Needs A Table If You Do Everything On The Bed Anyways

This brings back to my college days where I even eat on my bed because I'm crazy.  Sadly I have two huge tables in my extremely small bedroom because why not.  Well 2019 me saying, this bullshit gotta end!  So my first approach is to get rid of this large, annoying, bump-bruising furniture, my morbid square table.  I tried using it for purposes other than becoming a mountain building junk pile but it was never it.  Therefore my plan was using drawers functioned as my night stand and storage.  

So I bought another Lennart drawer from the holy sanctuary, Ikea.

I already owned one from 2-3 years back but I never planned on an extreme organization so it didn't help much.  This time around my aim was getting another one, arrange them together and make full use out of it.  Maybe putting a white wooden plank on top will emphasize a finish look for the twins but as far as I've done, I'm quite satisfied especially out of 6 available drawers, I've only used 3 of them that is to keep my:

• Nail stuff
• Female essentials 
• Hair tools

Yes it is crazy to see how much storage space I have now.  On top of the drawers I placed my night lamp, perfume, display books and jewelry box.  

I know this corner is not as fancy compared to spaces you see on pinterest, considering the walls having stains from redoing the parquet flooring 20 years ago and we never get to repaint them again, but I'm super happy to get a spacious zen corner that doesn't hurt my sight.  My stuff are now simplified and more accessible and maybe getting a white plank to sit on top of the drawers is a genius idea for the finish look.

My current progress: 

• Historical junks are gone
• Morbidly huge table is out
• I have more storage space under my bed 

Next goal:

• Taking out another annoying desk
• Marie Kondo-ing my clothes drawer.

Well this is part 2 of my adventure, hopefully to see you guys in part 3 soon.  Not sure how soon as I'm waiting for mom to get rid of her bedroom furniture and take back the PC desk which is currently in my bedroom.  Trust me I have convinced her to let me get rid of the desk but it's too sentimental for her so (awkward) yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh...

Bye!

Cut your sentimental crap and start decluttering | Part 1

..well firstly, from the title and my attitude hopefully there's part 2.

Hey there! I'm back from the 900 B.C into writing again but this time I'm gonna make it a little bit adventurous for you guys.  So....life update: I'm 26 now, still not married, I have 14 cats and counting, contemplating about how to get my shit together, trying not to have series of mental breakdown and redoing my bedroom.

As you can read from the title, I'm starting a Marie Kondo de cluttering revolution in my house.  Yes the revolution has begun like more than a month ago and still ongoing hopefully until both me and my mom are satisfied with as much storage spaces we can achieved.  I haven't watched any Marie Kondo series officially but I knew her and her organizing hues from Safiya's youtube channel. 

Chapter 1: Death cleaning

Basically the first area we have triggered is my grandparent's bedroom.  Since my late grandpa's passing, we never actually got a chance to clear up all his stuff (death cleaning like the Swedish said) and later my grandma started showing symptoms of depression from losing my grandpa and holding on to things from their old house (which they brought to ours).  Month's after we sent her to a medical treatment care home we decided that we should no longer kept things that is no longer necessary and unusable inside the house.  Eliminate as much material baggage as we can to achieve a territorial zen.

Read; ini bukan kes anak dehaka, buang mak bapak etc. We gotta sent her because me and my mom, who is also a single parent are working and grandma's health is at a point where she needs constant medical care & medication for tantrums from the later developed dementia. Considering her safety and security as well. I'm not ready to open up about my grandma's story to lets just move on to the main focus here, de clutter!

Here's the outcome photos I've documented via IG story;

Late gramp's clothes and some of grandma's clothing that she'll never ever wear EVER.

It seems hard because you are de cluttering belongings that are not yours but with focus, it would be easy. It was frustrating at first when we take out all stuff that they kept inside the room but it gets better right after L-sized trash bag number 5. Yep it was a lot of junk, not clothes but junk. I wished I still have the photos of the final outcome but sadly I've de clutter it from my phone as well.

I planned to drop them off at the donation box but it was too impossible because the cavity is too small and I'm definitely not leaving the bags outside the box because of stray manure, so we kept the pile downstairs until we are finally done with both of our de cluttering adventure.

Chapter 2: De cluttering Failure

To be honest, I have a hard time of letting go of my clothes.  The only sole reason is that during my baby bat year's, finding Goth clothes was so hard in my country, so any of my Goth-inspired findings are highly valued and I kept them for so long because of sentiment and hard work of finding them.  

But, right after graduating and legal to activate my card's international transfer settings, I became least attached to them because psychologically I know if I let go of the outdated fash, I can always check out for new ones from international sites.  

Thus, the origin story of my first de cluttering journey years ago began.  My plan was de clutter and sell it off on Carousell (our version of Ebay) but it didn't turned out well as the site is already extremely saturated with thrift items and preloved is no longer a popular demand from the community.  So I kept them back in the box. Problem never solved but compressed into a dark corner of a room.

Chapter 3: The Revolution

A month ago, I saw a lot of organization inspo from the internet and thought it was cool.  BUT with my baggage I won't be able to commit to any of the inspo because my room is lacking of space.  They are not redundant surface because I have a lot of junk I placed on them as well but I know those junks better be in the trash rather than me trashing about my hoard. 

Here's my bedroom structure graphically emphasized via The Sims 3;

So here's a list of bedroom baggage I've been holding on for years due to sentiments or just in case bullshit;

1. PC desk at the window
2. Huge square table next to the bed
3. Sentiment treasures under my bed
4. Random stuff under both tables

2019 is the year of myself convinced that keeping all these crap thing are no longer funny because not a single person in the house had used any of the so called "just in case" items for the past 5 years.  So, THEY GOTTA GO!

I start off with sorting clothes from the drawer,  some people might need a "maybe" pile, but I have been living with maybes my whole life so I just went for it.  TO THE DUMP!  Also a great and organized idea,  dump all clothes into a clean bin layered with plastic and compressed as much as you can until it cannot fit anymore, later seal with tape as photo above.

Why considering this emotional roller coaster?

Because;

1) Initially you would think you haven't de clutter enough because of only completing 1 trash bag, so you would go for 2nd & 3rd bag just to make yourself feel better.

2) The idea of compressing the items actually will make you literally realized the burden you have been holding on right after you have sealed the trash bag and take it out.  The more it weighs per trash bag, the more you would feel better of how much you have get rid off.

3) Optionally a rectangular bin acted as a rectangular mold for easy arrangement of your compressed junk because they look like rectangular blocks.

 

Next adventure is to get rid of paper junks.  I've already graduated college years ago and still kept my study papers because of this just in case bull shit.  The worst part was I found some exam papers from my primary education (10 y.o) and I'm now 26.  Dude why the f*ck does these papers still exists?  

And here's the poison in vein;

I'm the only child with divorced parents so definitely I ain't having siblings, so I became the one shot experiment kid.  To be taken into account, living together with my grandma had accord where everything from my preschool until my college education were kept just in case I'm gonna need it somehow or it's a sentiment of me getting my education and my future kids would see how it was schooling during my years.  

Also our generation had been thought with minimalism approach however the older generations valued more on memories, emotionalism and softheartedness where they prefer to keep everything due to appreciation and hey honestly not to blame them, during their years getting something is not easy as a single click on Amazon.  Thus I theorized this generation differences had contributed a number of influence of my hoarding problem.

Note: This is just my theory which I might be wrong.

 

Here's a tip for you guys or maybe parents who are reading this (also refer to my rant on the right image)

1. You left preschool, discard 
2. You left primary school / UPSR/ PSRA, discard
3. You left middle school / PT3, discard 
4. You left high school / SPM / STPM, discard
5. You graduated diploma, discard
6. You graduated degree, discard

What to discard (optional)

• Exam papers
• Arts & craft stuff you did in art class
• Folios & scrapbooks
• Lecture slides
• Project paper drafts
• Notes
• Exercises, books or sheets

TRUST ME YOU ARE NEVER GONNA USE THEM.

What to sell / donate / pass it on to younger siblings

• Textbooks
• Empty folders/binders

What to keep

• Report cards
• Certificates
• Published research thesis

Proven in the right image where I manage to clear everything out from under the desk, the only documents that's worth keeping had been safely kept in my Ikea Samla bins (victoriously they only accommodate in a single bin) that I bought prior to my de clutter adventure. Prior meaning is placing them in the living room for a week as a feline battleground.

Hopefully you guys find this article helpful to lift of your burden. Since this adventure is too long, I'll be posting another entry in part 2.