Minimalism Phase 2 - Milk, Meat, And Playmobil

Goodbye to 7 Barbie-type dolls

This past year I played the Minimalist Game and also gave myself a personal 1000 Clutters Challenge (which included all the items from the Minimalist Game). I held back at 999 items so there could be a celebratory post featuring the 1000th clutter. Then two things happened.

1. We saw on the local fb Buy,Sell,Swap group that one of DD's friends was selling all her Playmobil. DD decided that, actually she doesn't play with hers anymore either. Within half an hour we'd arranged to pass on the Playmobil and seven Barbie-type dolls. (Easily 100 items)

Goodbye to a load of Playmobil

Then DD announced that she doesn't need the Fisher Price dolls' house and all the furniture either. So I packed that up to go back to the friend who lent it to us almost 10 years ago. We also found a load more small plastic toys from Kinder Eggs and cereal boxes, etc... which will go to the next school fair.

2. Although DD won't eat meat (apart from the occasional chicken schnitzel) she does like the chicken soup with lockshen (noodles) that we get on the kibbutz. When she asked if I could make some, it appealed to my sense of tradition.

Now, religious Jews have different sets of utensils, pots, plates, etc... in the kitchen for meals cooked and/or eaten with meat. It's "Thou shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk," blown crazy out of proportion. I don't like it, I disapprove of it in fact, and this is one of the main reasons we don't have any meat in our kitchen. Even though we are not so religious anymore, I need to be able to invite various friends and family over to eat. And, I did have a set of meaty kitchenware packed away, left over from when we did do meat, just in case I ever wanted to go back to it.

Goodbye summer and some more Playmobil

I bought a chicken, I unpacked my meat kitchenware, and I made chicken soup. DD took one look at the chicken carcass in the pot and declared, "that's disgusting! I'm not having any of that!" Then there was the whole business of washing up. I had a washing up bowl for the meat things but the sink is for milk things so how do you throw out the meaty water from the meaty washing up bowl? The answer is of course, to have a milk washing up bowl and the actual sink is only for draining the water. It was all too much bother and too many extra things cluttering up the kitchen.

Little bags of plastic toys waiting for the next school fair.

I have to say that I grew up with this meat-milk divide and it was no problem at all. We didn't even think about it. We had two bowls for the sink, we had full sets of kitchenware for both meat and milk. Even separate bowls for the magimix. Whilst most people who keep meat and milk separate today, and there are thousands who do, have two sinks in the kitchen, most people my age grew up with only one sink and we managed fine.

It's a bit like regular exercise. If you don't do it for a few years you lose the momentum and it becomes a big effort. Obviously you can get back into it if you want to but we decided that we just don't want to. All this to explain why there are a set of cutlery and a soup pot in the photo. I'm not even going to keep my meat kitchenware.

goodbye meat kitchenware and Fisher-Price dolls' house, etc...

While I was sorting I found four medicine spoons/syringes and a set of chopsticks that can also go. (Easily another 100 items including the dolls' house furniture and Kinder toys.)

1,200 items? Probably, but it's time to stop counting. Still to go are collections of dvds and cds that I can't bring myself to part with yet. Two box files of photocopied teaching materials that I know I will never use (but reduced from five box files at the beginning of the year). And my vast wardrobe of clothes I will never wear again. I'm not done yet but I'm almost there. My living room looks like a holiday apartment. I may need to get more plants.

Minimalism Phase 2 - Happy Housework

17 items + DD's outgrown bike + a big wicker basket (not shown) = 19 

I'm almost there! I've reached 999 clutters decluttered. Obviously I could have found one more and be done with it but the grand finish deserves its own blog post so I held back.

One big advantage of less stuff is the time saved in cleaning it all. When I lived in my previous apartment I could clean the whole place in 2 1/2 hours. That included dusting or wiping down all surfaces, sweeping and mopping all the tiled floors, and cleaning the bathroom. I used to time myself. This apartment is only one room and half a bathroom more than that old apartment but it used to take me over 6 hours to clean. This meant, I resisted doing it and would clean bits when they needed it but very rarely the whole place in one go. Who's got 6 hours to spare for cleaning on any given day!

There were reasons apart from the one extra room, of course. I was only one person. I have balcony furniture here whereas the old balcony was clear. The second bedroom in the old place was only for guests so it was practically empty. The kitchen was tiny. In fact all the rooms were smaller and there was no corridor so that was less floor area to clean overall. And I didn't have a carpet whereas my large area rug here, requires furniture to be moved in order to clean thoroughly.

Yesterday I cleaned the whole apartment in 3 1/2 hours! The changes made over the past year have cut out a whole 2 1/2 hours of cleaning. That's huge and life-changing in that I could get up early to clean on a Friday and be almost finished by the time DD leaves for school. (I so want to promise myself that I'll do this.)

These are the changes that brought about this happy housework situation:

1. Over the past year I've sold two chests of drawers and one display cabinet. I've swapped a big, heavy sofa, two armchairs, and a large footstool for two smaller sofas on legs. That's five big items down!

2. The new sofas on legs and a niftier vacuum cleaner means I can hoover under them without moving anything. And if I'm not moving furniture, I don't feel the need to mop under the carpet every week.

3. The corridor is completely free of furniture so extremely quick and easy to sweep and mop after I've whizzed over the pictures, mirror and tops of door frames with a [synthetic] feather duster.

4. Everything has a convenient home to go to. E.g. my shoes now fit neatly into two drawers rather than piling up in the bottom of the wardrobe and, to avoid the mess in there, usually left on the bedroom floor. This and other things that are put away and off the floor, means I can start from tidy and only have a few items to put on the beds before cleaning the floors.

5. Fewer ornaments make it much quicker to dust and wipe over surfaces. In the kitchen, the counters are uncluttered and therefore also quicker to wipe over. And in the bathroom, less stuff in the cabinets means space for things that otherwise stayed out on the sink area so that too is now easier to wipe over.

I'm loving this minimalism business. Absolutely loving it. 

  

Minimalism Phase 2 - Delayed Reaction

23 items to go out and another 6 not shown as they've already gone.

Before I start on the topic in hand, an update on The 1000 Clutter Challenge that I started last October (previously 500 before being upgraded to 1000). Having decluttered 952 clutters I had only 48 items left in order to reach the goal of 1000 unnecessaries out of my house. In the photo you can see 23 more things.

There are 7 items of DD's clothing (mostly too small and grubby school tops) to throw out. 7 books (two to pass on to friends, and the rest to donate). 3 old swimming goggles and/or their cases. A Kinder Surprise from inside a chocolate egg, a bag of dried out felt pens, an old CD, and 2 CD racks, I won't count DD's old school backpack with the dodgy zip because we bought another one to replace it.

I didn't get rid of the CDs - I'm not quite ready to do that yet, but I moved them to a book shelf that has been freed of books. So consolidated clutter rather than consigned.

One note about the Oxford Book of Quotations. I got two of these for my Bat Mitzva 43 years ago. I left one of them at my parents' house in London and the other has been with me all my adult life. I chose this one as it's inscribed from my Dad's cousin Alan. I noticed it this week as we were talking on facebook about Bar and Bat Mitzva presents that we still have. I have about 8 of mine still. And then I thought about it seriously. In these days of internet, I don't need a big bulky book of famous quotations. So thank you Barbara and Alan Miller, I really did love it and use it before the days of instant information online. But now it has to go.

I'm really into gifting well loved books that I know I won't read again. In addition to what's on the bed, another 4 books were gifted recently. A Gentleman in Moscow went to a real gentleman for his 60th birthday and Behind the Scenes at the Museum went to my colleague at school who, like the girls in the book, grew up in the north of England in the 1960s. Eleanor Oliphant also went to an English friend who will appreciate the cultural references. And a coffee table book about quilting went to a friend who quilts. Half the pleasure is finding just the right recipient for each book.

An outgrown dress and unused pencil case of DD's went to the little girl downstairs. That makes 28 clutters and a running total of 980 items.

During the summer I sold two items of furniture - a chest of drawers and a tall display cabinet that became surplus to requirements (already counted). A friend came over and exclaimed, "Wow! Your apartment really looks and feels much bigger!" Score

And here's where I'm stuck. Although much has been donated, passed on, sold, or thrown out.... much of it hasn't. I have tops of wardrobes and other assorted shelves and drawers full of stuff waiting to go to the Yedidya Bazaar. I am trying to weed it down by taking books to the park library but it's a slow process.

Until those spaces are freed up I can't move other things into them and free up other spaces. For example, I don't need to store spare cling film and foil, sponges, dish clothes, and paper towels, etc... in the actual kitchen. I buy all these things in bulk packages because it's cheaper but they could be stored in the cupboard in the study, along with the spare toilet paper, if only I could get all the unwanted stuff out.

It's a temporary stuck. A delay of you will. The Yedidya Bazaar comes round again in April so I'll keep chipping away at it until then. Any other charity sales or swaps that come up in the meantime will be gratefully embraced. The only disappointing aspect is that I don't yet feel like a minimalist as I  can still see where more space can be found and possibly one more piece of furniture eliminated.

On the other hand, I do intend to find those last 20 clutters to complete the 1000 clutters challenge within the year.

Minimalism and IKEA - R2BC

I've been very quiet on the blog for a couple of weeks. It's that time of year when teachers are writing reports, marking exams, planning and attending final parties, recitals, concerts, and presentations for everything (that goes for mothers too), and for me, setting up my summer course to start the day after school finishes. I'm finally, not finished but up to date with everything as of last night.

Today I went with two friends to IKEA. You have to understand that 1) there is no IKEA in Jerusalem. 2) I don't have a car. 3) Outside of IKEA everything in Israel is very expensive. And 4) the last time I went there with a car was five years ago! Now you see why this is my Reason 2B Cheerful this week.

We were three of us in the car so there was no big furniture buying, but boy did we stock up on other stuff. We left Jerusalem at 8 after the kids had gone to school, and arrived in Rishon at 8.50. First stop was coffee and a pastry. Apparently coffee is free between 08.30 and 09.00. I suppose because shopping only starts at 9 and the tills only open at 9.30.

We compared lists. Then, having warmed up with coffee, we went to the starting line. Two of us turned right and headed for the furniture displays. The smaller items were to the left.
"Hey, where are you going? We don't need any furniture!"
We looked at our friend in disbelief. "We want to walk round and see everything."
"But we have lists!"
I suggested she go have another coffee and meet us at the end but she threw her hands up in resignation and came with us.

Yesterday a colleague asked me how I can reconcile IKEA with minimalism. Well, most of what I bought was to replace stuff. One in - one out. You do need a new shower curtain, toilet brush and non-slip shower mat every so often. The plastic stool in the kitchen was 16 years old and looked it. The sheets for DD's bed are the sets that my mother bought me when I left home 30 years ago. There's nothing wrong with them but they're primary coloured stripes and DD wanted something pretty and flowery. (Bring back your chintz your chintz - oh the irony.) I bought nice storage boxes to replace the old plastic vegetable rack drawers I'd been using in my wardrobe. New kitchen scissors, a new frame for DD's painting, new place mats, and two rectangular storage boxes to replace the round plastic bowls in my fridge that I use for fruit and vegetables.

Entirely new things included: a big white pot for a tall plant in the now empty corner of my living room, two pyrex dishes and three plastic food containers, all with lock'n'lock lids. A small salad bowl for when I want a bigger salad than a soup bowl but smaller than a serving dish. Ice-lolly molds, And a few little presents for DD - some felt pens, paint brushes, a tablet holder, and I gave her the purse I was given for making a donation to charity.

I don't count the serviettes, the plastic straws, or the light bulbs as they will be used and thrown out. So actually I didn't buy too many new things. But if you want to nitpick, I also threw out or passed on (eventually - some items are in a holding pattern) 21 items this week in addition to the things that were replaced from Ikea.

There are 17 things in the photo but I took back the wok and one of the four broken watches. Also the scissors don't count as I replaced them. However, I gave away a book and another photo frame as gifts and put a bag and a purse in the 'donations' box. And three more serving bowls didn't make the photo. So that's 21 items which takes the 1000 Clutters Challenge to 945. Only 55 items left to find and I still have all my cds and loads of dvds.

I am very cheerfully joining the Reasons 2B cheerful linky over at Becky's Lakes Single Mum.

The Minimalist Game Days 30 & 31

This is the end of The Minimalist game. There are never more than 31 days in a month so we're done. The Minimalst Game total is 412 items removed from the house. And the renamed 1000 Clutters Challenge has reached 881. I will go on to find those remaining 119 clutters and I've decided that they will be cds and dvds which I'll find some way to store digitally.

Day 30
3 cables with obsolete connectors, 1 bag of old telephone wires, 1 door knob, 1 telephone wall socket, 2 telephone double sockets, 2 books that I like the idea of but I know I'll never read, 3 more kitchen utensils, 1 broken head-torch, 2 tubes of cleansing lotion, 1 pile of rubbish from the key dish, 3 toy d.i.y. tools, some 15 amp fuse wire from when I rented a flat with a 1950s fuse box, and 9 items of clothing from my wardrobe.

After taking the photo I decided to keep the telephone wall socket as I might be changing the position of the phone in the salon. Thus, day 31 actually has 32 items to compensate for the wall socket. 

Day 31
The Eagle of the Ninth - I read it in school, I read it again recently, and I blogged about it. It is extremely unlikely that I will ever want to read it again.

2 other pamphlets from exhibitions, 4 books of plays from the days when we had play readings, and 5 60p mini-books from Penguin Books' 60th birthday.

4 old and dried up thingies that you hang in your wardrobe to deter moths, 2 more items of clothing, and 14 hangers.

So am I now a minimalist? I don't feel like a minimalist. However, I do feel that I'm not hoarding a load of things I don't need. I've kept some ornaments and sentimental things. DD's room is not included as, though I try to keep the clutter at bay, she's not interested in getting rid of much. 

I have loads more space in my cupboards. In fact, almost every piece of furniture has an empty shelf or drawer - sometimes more than one. What's needed now is a thorough tidy with the aim of consolidating stuff to free up one whole piece of superfluous furniture. I already know which pieces I'd like to get rid of. And of course there is still that dream of a capsule wardrobe.... Maybe this summer.

The Minimalist Game Days 27, 28 and 29.

I'm stretching the rules a bit as my days now have no connection to the days of any month. However, in my game I'm up to days 27 to 29. With these hauls (or reverse hauls) The Minimalist Game total is 351 and the 500 Clutters Challenge score is 820. (Now revised to the 1000 Clutters Challenge.)

Day 27

Day 27
I went back to the towels and sheets. One bath towel and three small hand towels going out. We only have two bathrooms so I've kept four hand towels - two in use and two to switch when they go in the wash. Any more small hand towels are superfluous (not including the separate set for the kitchen). I still have too many bath and beach towels but this is a process.

In the sheet department we have nine old pillow slips. If you remember, this is the second time I've gone through sheets and towels. Like I said, it's a process.

On the right is DD's winter coat that's too small and too heavy for one week in London per winter. I promised her that the next winter coat will be lighter and with room to wear with a sweater underneath when it's really cold. For the rest of the time in a Jerusalem winter you don't need a such heavy winter coat.

On top of the coat is a jacket with a broken zip. And on the right of the picture is an old bath robe of mine that I never use. In between we have 10 items from the beauty cabinet - old nail polishes, make up and some hair accessories. Next to them, a Jewish Spiderman skull cap that my nephews gave to DD when she was little. (Girls don't usually wear them but she wanted to as they were all wearing theirs. When I was little I had one that my Grandpa gave me for the same reason.)

Lastly, the bag. What is in the bag? I have two food processors. One I bought myself and have only ever used the knife blade to chop and mix. The other was given to me by a friend and I use the blender attachment on it. I've kept the bowl and the knife blade for the second processor as a back-up. In the bag are a whole range of graters, kneaders, juicers, and goodness know what. I don't even know how they work. This could have been about 20 items but I'm not looking for shortcuts here - it's one bag.

Day 28

Day 28
Two more towels. I got these out to take to the beach with us last week. And I didn't want to take them because I didn't like the colours. If you can't even take them to the beach for the kids to use, then they have no business in your house. Also in this pile are two old face cloths and a pillow slip that I missed yesterday.

Three old and too small sunhats of DD's. A pair of white tights that she wore once - possibly. A pile of nine items of clothing from my wardrobe that I will never wear again.

Finally a bag of 10 toiletry items - creams, lotions and potions. I was keeping them because they were in their gift boxes but the truth is that I don't use masks and scrubs. I tried an anti-aging callogen cream a couple of weeks a go and my skin broke out. This may or may not have had something to do with the expirey date being 2013.

Day 29

Day 29
Today I really struggled. I was wandering around the flat looking for things to get rid of. The stained t-shirt was easy, it's not my colour anyway. Two old bras about 35 years too small. Four belts - yes one of them still has the label on it. Four kitchen utensils - wash up more often instead of having three of everything. 10 teaching English books - can you believe I'm still weeding these out? Five dvds - slowly picking out the movies we don't love. A double cd of the complete Nomi Shemer (a famous Israeli singer). An old glasses case and a glass soap dish - who uses bars of soap these days?

Add that up and you'll find it comes to 29. But it wasn't easy.

I still have some pockets of clutter that I can go through for Day 30. In an ideal world I'd do that capsule wardrobe that I yearn for but I'm waiting to be an ideal shape before I can part with much more from the wardrobe. And I'd also like to get rid of about 100 cds and 50 dvds by upgrading to a digital streaming system - Netflix and Spotify or something similar, but I'm not ready to make that jump just yet. Perhaps over the summer.

The Minimalist Game - Days 24 - 26

Day 26. (3 items missing as they were thrown out in London)

I said we were done after 23 days in March but actually I managed to squeeze two more days out before Pesach (Passover). With another day added after the holidays, the running scores are 351 for The Minimalist Game and 736 for the 500 Clutters Challenge. (Now revised to the 1000 Clutters Challenge.)

March 24th: The Day before we went to London we went through all DD's clothes and found 34 items that were too small. Mainly Tee-shirts that had been kept through the years and not even worn for the past couple of seasons. You know how it is. You pick up 5 Tee-shirts for £10 every time you pass through Primark and you never throw any out. We also got rid of three pairs of shoes from last year, some shorts that are suddenly way too short, and some short dresses that I wanted her to wear with leggings but she hates that look. I love that look but I'm not the one wearing it.  So that's Day 24 sorted and 10 items towards Day 25.

Sorry no photo as we quickly divided the piles into give to a friend, give to another friend, give to the little girl downstairs, give to the school (school shirts), give to the bazaar (wellington boots), and throw out (stained). I packed them into bags and promptly whipped them away. Job done.

March 25th: We had to clear out DD's bedroom as my guest's son would be joining her while we were away. I only had to find another 15 things to make the 25 and I found them easily. Unfortunately DD was "helping" me so I had to be quick and use slight of hand to get things into the bin bags before she realized what was happening. So no photo again. I couldn't even tell you the exact things that we found. Suffice to say it was mainly old craft projects like room plaques, pom-pom key rings, papers from school, more Kinder egg toys, old pencils, etc... Two shopping bags worth of rubbish later, reader I promise you that we fulfilled our 15 items.

Then we packed and then we went to London for two weeks. Then we came home and it was a Sunday afternoon. My house guest left so I had a week of washing sheets and towels and moving my study stuff back into the spudy. Finally Thursday afternoon came and the weekend. Hooray! I was back on the game (so to speak. 😜)

March 26th: Though actually April 12th, I picked up where I'd left off with a sweep through the whole apartment. I found the following items which you can see in the photo above: 2 place mats, an old kitchen scales (I don't bake), I finally got rid of that samovar with its teapot and matching tray (3 items), a broken tablet cover, 4 pairs of knickers bought far too small and never worn, 3 pairs of socks, a silky slip, a lacy camisole, French Women for all Seasons (Lets face it - she said all  she needed to say in the first book), another cook book that I never liked, a Chanuka menorah that is too small to take the modern candles, and 4 eye shields from aeroplane give-aways.

The photo is missing a handbag and a pair of broken shoes that were not worth having mended -  I actually chucked them out in London. Also a towel that my house guests left behind.

Now only days 27, 28, 29 and 30 to go. That's only another 114 things. Simples.

The Minimalist Game: Days 21 - 23

I think I'm done for this month with The Minimalist Game. I have a house guest who is using the spare room so some of my study stuff is in my bedroom which makes it hard to organize the bedroom. I also can't go rummaging around in the study. And it is Pesach (passover) at the end of this week which  involves all sorts of preparations that take priority over decluttering. That said, I still keep seeing things I could get rid of and I fully intend to pick up days 24 - 30 (or even 31) after the festival. 

The running scores are 276 for The Minimalist Game and 661 for the 500 Clutters Challenge. (Now revised to the 1000 Clutters Challenge.) 

March 21st: Random objects from around the house. 2 more English language textbooks, 2 youth leader handbooks (going to my nephew who is a youth leader), a game that we never opened (into the re-gifting cupboard), 6 glass fish from the Arab shuk, a Harry Potter passport from Warner Bros. Studio, some coloured metal rings from a wristwatch long gone, a box of seashells (plenty more where they came from), a bag of rubbishy bits from a collect-all dish (moral: don't have collect-all dishes), a glass vase (I hate cut flowers anyway - much rather have plants), a glass box, a bottle of bubbles, and a wine rack.

About the wine rack. I used to pride myself on having stock. I entertained a lot and for many. Each week we could go through a couple of bottles of wine and the guests would bring more as a gift. This is no longer true. I entertain much less, there are more children around my table these days, and many people no longer drink alcohol. Even I hardly ever drink alcohol anymore. I say 'even I' although I never drank much but I did like a glass of red with my dinner. So nowadays, if I ever have one bottle of wine leftover from a dinner party I tend to keep it in the fridge (yes even the red).

If numbers are your thing, you may have noticed that the items only add up to 19. That's because the other two are 200 piece jigsaw puzzles that DD never does and they're very easy for her. But she won't let me pass them on. So I have to wait until she's not around and then I'm going to put them away for at least six months to see if she even notices. Which she won't.

March 22nd: I went through all my sheets. Here is a pile of 22 mostly sheets and duvet covers in white, now dull white. I've kept a few in a high up cupboard to use as dust sheets when I next have the place painted. There is also a pile of cushion  material, some of which I am going to use to re-cover a director's chair I have waiting patiently to be re-covered. One old white skirt and another old flannel washcloth.

March 23rd: Into the kitchen. That enormous box of cereal was on sale about six months ago and it's still three-quarters full. I thought it would be a good snack as were're not breakfast people. Turns out we're not cornflakes people either.

Also in today's haul... 9 plastic syringes from children's medicine, 2 medicine measuring cups, one plastic measuring spoon, an ice-lolly mold, an icing set, a cutlery tray, 4 wooden utensils, an old candle end, a plastic separator from the juicer jug (that I forgot to include when I sold the juicer), and a pile of ice-lolly sticks.  

The Minimalist Game: Days 17 - 20

Day 17

The Minimalist game is going swimmingly. The further in I get, the easier it is to let things go. to see the Days 1 to 16 click on The Minimalist Game and up they'll pop. 

Days 17 to 20 saw another 74 items leave the apartment. (Well some of them haven't left yet but they are in high up places waiting for the next opportunity.) The running scores are 210 items in The Minimalist Game and 595 for the 500 Clutter Challenge. I think the 500 Clutters might be expanding to 1,000 Clutters. 

March 17th: The study was pretty much done so I went back to my bedroom. for another round. I cleared out the top drawer of my bedside table on day whatever. You remember it was filled with Hebrew language textbooks and dictionaries. So today I went for the drawer below it which contained all my French textbooks. I kept a lot of then but I'm letting go 4 French grammar books. And 7 French children's books are going to my colleague at school either for her own children or to lend to her French speaking pupils.

I found 3 picture frames. One has broken glass but I filled the other two with paintings that a little friend of ours did when she was visiting. She left them here to dry and she's getting them back in frames.

I also found a pair of sandals in the box, never worn. And two denim items of clothing for a little girl. DD never wore them and I don't like them enough to re-gift so they are going to a second-hand sale.

Day 18

March 18th: 10 scarves. (Don't worry, I still have another 10 that I'm keeping. Why oh why?). 2 first rubbish reading books. A bag of homemade bookmarks that are going to school for a reading lesson exercise. A pile of papers and notebooks to throw out. A picture that if you look at it cross-eyed it says Rachel. An old earpiece from an old phone. A dangerous wire bookmark. And an old flannel mitten.

Day 19

March 19th: 7 orphan or damaged parts of several matryoshka dolls. I wrote about my matryoshka collection here. Now I'm only keeping the undamaged dolls and I only have four with various numbers of babies inside them.

2 copies of The Little Prince that I never enjoyed and one copy of the same book in French. A duplicate copy of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. The Family at Red Roofs which will get a whole blog post to itself.

A poppy from Poppy Day about 30 years ago - it's an old paper one. 2 little pots, one folded paper crane made into a brooch, a strap from a suitcase I no longer own, and 2 bags.

Day 20

March 20th: 12 English language textbooks. 4 maps of Jerusalem. And 4 maps of other cities - Leningrad, Amsterdam, The New York Subway, and Milan. (After writing this I decided to keep the Leningrad map as the city is now St Petersberg again so the map has some historical value. Instead I threw out an old book of Gary Larson, Far Side cartoons.)

The Minimalist Game: Days 12 - 16 (R2BC)

Day 12

It's been a busy week and I've not had time to blog so I'm making Days 12 - 16 of The Minimalist Game my Reasons 2B Cheerful this week. What's not to be cheerful about getting rid of  70 items out of the spudy (spare room/study)? Epecially as it marks half way through the month. By the way, if you missed the previous days, just click on The Minimalist Game and all the posts will come up.



March 12th: I found the following things in one cupboard: a beach bag, a school bag, an IKEA stand (never used because the cupboard was mounted on the wall), 2 folding changing mats, the wires from the DVD player (because I used the wires from the old machine), a triple photo frame that DD brought home from nursery once, 3 wooden frames from IKEA that my nephews painted for me about 18 years ago (I took out the photos of them aged 4 and 2), a triple photo frame that someone gave me when DD was born, and the stabilizer wheels that came with her previous bicycle and we never used because she could already ride without them.

Day 13

March 13th I tackled all the filing and paperwork that should have been done in January as part of the January Project. This vastly reduced the shelf space taken up.

The photo shows 8 plastic folders. An enormous pile of bills and receipts from before 2011 (you're supposed to keep these things for seven years) together with guarantees and instructions for items I no longer own. 1 plastic receipt pouch, 1 old filofax, 1 wooden notebook holder, and a pile of old business cards.


March 14th: still in the spudy, I went through a three drawer storage unit that the printer sits on.

I got rid of 5 plastic envelopes that airline tickets used to come in, more cables for a DVD (not the same ones as on day 12, I promise), a banner saying "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew, a UK plug, an old address book, a postcard, an old computer connector, and a skull cap (yarmulke or kippa) with Spiderman on it.

I also found 2 cushions in the cupboard which I will never cover.

Day 14

Day 15

March 15th: Here are more than 20 plastic envelopes with copies of various lessons and tests that I need for school. Some of them are doubles and some have only one or two sheets of paper in them. I'm calling it 15 items and I already took them to school to be stored in the English cupboard.

Day 16

March 16th: Some small items from the drawers. 8 CDs of old Teletubbies and Sesame Street episodes that my neighbour copied for DD when she was little. 7 double connectors for the phone sockets. And an old pair of earphones that don't work.

So that makes 70 items. The running totals are 136 items for The Minimalist game and 521 items for the 500 Clutters Challenge. So I guess I've won that challenge.

I have cheerfully joined the Linky over at Michelle's place - Mummy from the Heart. Pop over for some other cheerful posts.

The Minimalist Game - Days 8 - 11

Day 10 (one magazine already donated to school for an art project)

I went into my bedroom to find clutter for days 8 and 9. I thought it was going to be a struggle but I easily found enough stuff for four days! That's 38 things! The running totals are 66 for The Minimalist Game and 451 for the 500 Clutter Challenge.

Here are The Minimalist Game posts to date:
Days 1 - 4
Days 5 - 7

Day 8: I have two bedside tables, each with two deep drawers. On my side of the bed I had my Hebrew Language textbooks in the top drawer and my French Language textbooks in the lower drawer. I cleared out the top drawer. Here are three of the books I'm passing on. To make up the 8 items there are three belts (from the other bedside table), and a jar of face cream that expired in 2013. The other item is not pictured as it was a gift and I don't want to offend.

Day 8 (one item not photographed so as not to offend)

Day 9: Hahaha, so you thought I'd only collected three Hebrew textbooks over 30 years of trying to master the language. Here are another 9! These books are over 20 years old. I worked my way through some of them when I took various language classes and kept them to go over and review. I never did go over and review anything. I will never need Hebrew grammar as in-depth as these books teach. I will never read Hebrew novels in Hebrew - I no longer even want to. If I return to language studies it will be to French. (I did keep one book of comprehension texts to read, just to see if I can still understand them, and a couple of dictionaries.)

Day 10: Magazines from various years of The Economist's yearly round up of the state of the world. I bought this for the first time in 1992 and continued, not every year, until 2008. I especially liked seeing the population changes listed for each country. However, all this information is online so out they go. (Only 9 magazines are in the photo as one already went to school with DD for an art project.)

Day 9

Day 11: Old issues of Reader's Digest and 1 old mobile phone. The Reader's Digests went to my school where the team of English teachers happily took them.

This is going so easily that I may extend it till the end of the month and do all 31 days. If I have to start resorting to throwing out, for e.g., 25 paper clips, then I know it's time to stop. But so far so easy.

Day 11

The Minimalist Game - Days 5 -7

The matttress and sheets as posted for sale on facebook.

Read this post about The Minimalist Game if you've not read it as it explains what I'm playing at. 😁

Day 5: A single sponge mattress from a child's bed and two fitted sheets to go with it. (I put these 3 items up for sale on a local facebook page.) And 2 glass jars that DD painted and gave to her friends.

The Child's bed was bought for DD when she graduated from the cot. It has undergone a couple of transformations. It originally had a trundle bed underneath for sleepovers, and two large storage drawers under the trundle. All these heavy additions have long gone and we swapped the child's mattress for a regular single suitable for an adult.

One of the things I realized a while ago is that I don't want heavy furniture. I've said it before but we live in a desert and there is a lot of dust. I don't want a load of furniture that you pull out once a year for cleaning underneath. I want to be able to get the hoover or the mop under the beds and sofas. It's cleaner and the rooms look more spacious when you can see the floor extending under them. It's a lighter, airier look and feel. (See the new sofas)

The child's mattress had been standing next to the bed, alongside the wall for a couple of years. I admit that it was a useful little shelf for putting your specs and your book on when you go to sleep but without it the room is wider. A small bedside table does the same job and is good for a lamp and a glass of water too. It's amazing how an extra 10cm of room makes so much difference.

With the old sofa that was the size of a single bed, DD's bed and the trundle, the mattress (and in fact I had another similar mattress that I gave away with the old sofa), my double bed, and another small double; I could sleep nine people in this apartment! Even when my sister brought her family of five to stay (only twice in 17 years since the 'baby' was born), we were only seven people. And although I have two toilets, I only have one full bathroom and probably not enough hot water in the tank for nine people to shower anyway.

I don't know why I kept all those bed options. I think I forgot that I'm no longer a student with whole crowds of friends descending for weekend parties. I now have sleeping accommodation for five people, including us two, and that's quite enough. My sister's family no longer all travel together as two of the kids are grown up. And if one day the whole family plus my Mum and my brother all want to come at the same time.... there is a lovely little boutique hotel around the corner. Sorted. (I'll offer to make dinner so they can book B&B),

The other 2 items to make up the 5 for the 5th of the month, are two empty Nutella jars that DD painted and gave to two of her friends as part of their Mishloah Manot for Purim. Sorry no photo but she painted a rainbow coming out of a cloud on one jar and a panda bear in a forest on the other. They were rather cute actually.

If you read the linked post about Mishloah Manot, you should know that the days of making a million of these are gone for the moment. DD made two for her best school friends and that was it this year.

Day 6

Day 6: Three ceramic bowls, one painted enamel cooking pot, one pottery planter and an old silicone loaf baker. These have been sitting on the balcony since I read one woman's account of collecting all sorts of coloured containers to plant things in on her eclectic balcony. I never got round to doing that planting and although I do plan to plant loads for April's Project, I've decided that the eclectic gypsy caravan look is not what I'm after. It doesn't really go with the minimalist style. So that's 6 wouldbe planters from the balcony.

Day 7

Day 7: A tray, two milk jugs, two teapots (I used to collect them), a loose-leaf tea strainer in the shape of a teapot, and a gift from a friend (not pictured so as not to offend but nothing to do with teatime). I bought the tray and the yellow jug in 1985 when I left home to live with two other girls. There used to be a yellow sugar bowl to match the jug and there is still a red teapot that I kept.

That's 31 things so far from The Minimalist Game making a running total of 416 clutters since October.

The Minimalist Game Days 1 - 4

Day 1 - a serving platter

I saw a couple of You Tube vlogs about The Minimalist Game and it looked like something I would enjoy. As I've been journeying towards that minimalist life but somehow have not quite arrived there yet, I decided to give it a go for three weeks.

First some background about where I'm at in the journey. After several years of major decluttering each year for the Yedidya Bazaar and for DD's School Fair, and helped by the fact that once you pass the baby/toddler stage a load of equipment and big toys become obsolete, my apartment had way less stuff than had been the case only four years previously.

In October last year I set myself a 500 Clutters Challenge to get rid of (donate, sell, or throw out) 500 items. I made it to 250 and stopped because I wasn't ready to tackle my wardrobe. Then came this year's Yedidya Bazaar (a month early) and DD's School Fair. I managed to find more stuff to go and reached a total of 360. Just recently DD's youth club announced a second hand sale (date tba) and asked for any unwanted items. I dug out 19 items and got to 379. Finally, last week I threw out 2 bulky and superfluous fridge dividers, I gave two of DD's outgrown dresses and a pink headband to a little boyfriend who needed to dress up as a girl for Purim, and I chucked the current IKEA catalogue.

Day 2 - two baking trays from a previous oven

At a running score of 385 I decided to play The Minimalist Game. You can make up your own rules. For e.g. I'm only doing 21 days instead of 30 because I'm not starting from scratch. The things that go out now are already from digging deeper than the first 10 days would be for most people. My rules are that each day you get rid of the number of items corresponding to the day of the month. So 1 item on the 1st, 2 on the 2nd, etc. 21 days of this will yield (or unyield) 231 items making a grand total of 616 items since October 2017.

The photos in this post are days 1 - 4 from March 1st until March 4th. 10 items gone and all from the same cupboard in the kitchen.

March 1st: A serving plate. I still have another 9 serving plates (not including quiche and pie plates, salad bowls and smaller serving dishes) and I never use them. Mostly I use ordinary dinner plates as serving plates as they are easier to handle and fit better on the table. I used to have big parties but I don't entertain like that anymore. When I do have people round it's usually a few people for a meal rather than a party. And if one day I do decide to have another big party here, I won't hesitate to buy a pack of disposable serving platters. (I'm not sure now why I'm keeping the other 8 serving dishes. Atm I just like them because they're pretty or have sentimental value.)

Day 3 - a serving tray and two microwave covers

March 2nd: Two baking trays from my previous oven. Yes they do fit in my present oven but I have another identical tray in this oven. I don't make batches of biscuits and when I do make a homemade pizza or bread, one baking tray is enough. I cover it in baking paper so that I can re-use it if necessary with just a wipe over and we are only two people in this household. Seriously, I'm not running a catering company.

March 3rd: A tray that came with homemade cookies as a present when friends came to stay for the weekend. I kept it to use when I want to give a platter of food for a present or take food items to a potluck meal. Again, we have disposable party-ware shops for just this type of very rare occasion. And I usually take a salad to these things as that's what I do best.

And two microwave food covers. I don't even have a microwave anymore and when I did have one, it was too small for these covers. They could also be used to keep the flies off plates of food but, like Israel itself, we tackle infiltration at the borders by having screens on the windows and doors so there are no flies in the house.

Day 4 - four pretty but never used fruit/dessert plates

March 4th (Yes I know I'm a day ahead of the game.): Four dessert plates. I've had them forever and never used them. In the days when I had a fruit bowl on display they would sit (unused... ever... ) next to it with some pretty fruit knives for a snack in front of the telly. Nowadays I keep fruit in the fridge where it keeps for much longer and it's more refreshing to eat cold fruit. I don't serve fancy desserts after a meal. I'm not a baker and I don't enjoy baking so I tend to buy a fancy ice-cream and some Danish pastries. If I ever do decide to make a fancy dessert, you can be sure that it will be for more than only two guests!

I'll be back throughout the game with updates. Play along if you like, it's fun if you're serious about getting rid of unnecessary stuff.