Creativity In Lockdown - R2BC

I re-covered the sofa cushions at no expense.

Time for a Reasons 2B Cheerful. No linky this week but it's time to look on the bright side of not being struck down so far and having all this extra free time. 

1

DD's Remote Learning

We've only had a couple of days of distance or remote learning but so far she's doing it responsibly and independently. I'm reading about families with lots of younger children who require constant supervision while the parents are supposed to be working from home. And how one family computer has to accommodate zoom lessons for four children all scheduled at the same time. 

A friend wrote that the parents of her 1st grader told the teacher, "forget the zooms. Just give us the assignments and we'll do them with our kids when it's convenient during the day." I feel their pain and reward my one daughter with ice-cream. 

2

The Cushions

I had these four big sofa cushions that I bought because I got an unexpected voucher for 600 shekels when I purchased my new fridge a few years ago. These vouchers tend to expire, be forgotten, or are subject to ridiculously restrictive small print that no one reads. So I rushed upstairs in the shopping mall to Fox Home and looked for anything that I vaguely needed. 

I did need big sofa cushions but the only design included the colours orange, lime green and turquoise. I promised myself that I would re-cover the cushions in the future. How hard could it be when you already have good quality square shaped cushions? 

Reader, I am no seamstress and I don't own a sewing machine. However, I also promised myself that I wouldn't waste this lockdown as I wasted the last one. Using an old blanket with a reversible pattern, I made two slip covers for two of the cushions. I then used two pillow slips that had been gifted to me when friends left the country, to sew a panel onto the front of the other two. The strip of turquoise and the lime green backing are now perfectly acceptable with the blues. The orange is banished! 

Thank you Netflix for 31 hours of binge watching Outlander, allowing me to achieve this transformation painlessly. 

3

The Headboard

Another project on my list was do do something with the plain wooden headboard on my bed. I had already placed a quilt over it that my friend Amanda made for DD as a cot blanket when she was born. I gave away all of DD's baby things (except for some loved stuffed animals and teddies) but this quilt is too beautiful and personal. And it's about 15 cm too short on either end. 

I had an old woven floor rug (a kilim?) that I loved because of the colour but we don't use woven rugs. Unlike proper carpets, of which we have two, they can't be hoovered easily and they just get dirty and dusty on the floor. So I washed it in the washing machine, cut off the tassels, folded it in half lengthways, and sewed up the two ends. This sleeve fits perfectly over the headboard and comes down as far as the mattress. The quilt sits on top of the kilim and voila - an all washable, upholstered headboard. 

4

Coffee And Shul (Synagogue)

I had two days worth of Rosh Hashanna services without having to get dressed or leave my home. I sat on my balcony with a cup of coffee and heard the whole thing below in the street, including the blowing of the shofar (a hollowed out ram's horn). Now that's my kind of shul. 

5

Not Yet In Total Quarantine

We're in Lockdown but can leave the apartment for essentials. Quarantine is much stricter and more and more of our friends are put into quarantine at home every day. One nursery school teacher had subbed in three different kindergartens last week before testing positive. One of the families we cancelled going to for lunch over Rosh Hashanna is now in quarantine because the son had been in school with a tested-positive child. I hope none of the above will actually get sick and apparently 90% of cases are mild or asymptomatic. We're taking no chances and so far we've been lucky. 

So as Israel careers into total loss of control over the pandemic, I wish you all a good week. 

 

Downsizing

On the left are the old blanket, beach towel and a box
the same size as the erstwhile radio alarm clock.
On the right are the new downsized items.

So you declutter the clutter, you declutter the doubles and the multiples, then you declutter deeper. You declutter excess storage and newly vacated furniture, and then where do you go? I'm not aiming for a 33 item wardrobe or to fit all my belongings into a back pack, or even the boot of a car. I'm aiming for a comfortable life that's easy to maintain, light and airy, and not weighed down with excess stuff.

When you're down to everything you still need or want, the logical answer is to go smaller. I already got rid of an enormous sofa that was gifted to me many years ago, and replaced it with two love seats that much better fit the space.

The 2m x3m carpet that necessarily had to go under the front legs of the sofas, has been replaced with a smaller one that neatly sits in front of the sofa legs and is easily rolled up for sweeping and washing the floor underneath.

We exchanged the honeymoon bed in DD's bedroom for a wide twin. She doesn't need space for two to sleep (yet) and if she has a friend to stay, the spare bedroom is right next door. Although I am looking for one of those mattresses that folds up into a chair as we suddenly have loads of extra floor space in DD's bedroom.

Music and movie collections are now virtual so that saves a wall of discs and tapes. (I admit that I still have mine in a box waiting for me to upload some favourites.) And if you want to look at your photos without a screen, the books that are available are far less bulky than the old albums full of individual prints.

Talking of bulky, I donated the last of my big bulky blankets to the Yedidya Bazaar this week as we are fine with the light-weight fleeces that fold up small. Those old blankets were for the days of sheets and blankets. Nowadays we have thick duvets and the blankets are largely for decoration or to throw over the sofa for a little extra comfort while watching tv in the winter.

I used to have a radio alarm clock taking up a chunk of real estate on the bedside table. Not wanting the phone in the bedroom at night, I replaced the brick sized radio alarm with a tiny battery run alarm clock. It works just as well - I still don't want to get up in the mornings.

A trip to the pool or beach is always hindered by an enormous bag containing all the towels. Everything else is relatively small but those towels are cumbersome to say the least. Last summer I bought a micro-towel to try it out. I wouldn't use it for every day at home but in the heat of the outdoor sun it works just fine. This year I'm going to buy another one. I already donated our two beach towels to the bazaar.

What items can you think of that could go smaller? My apartment feels bigger than it ever did before but I'm open to more ideas.

A Bigger Balcony

Filling the newly created alcove

One thing you can rarely do when you live in an apartment is to build an extension onto your living space.

In Israel there have been and still are, a number of programmes whereby the whole building is encouraged to get together and build an extra room and/or a balcony for every apartment. There are a number of reasons for this: they want every home to have a reinforced-concrete room rather than the communal bomb shelters of old, every building should be up to date with earthquake regulations, and they want to create more housing by building additional floors on top.

In my building we got in early and reinforced the building according to earthquake regulations whilst acquiring an extra bedroom and a balcony. We were too early to get the bomb shelters or for the building-up programme, so in emergency situations we're still running down to the communal shelter and we didn't get it for free by selling the building rights to the roof.

When they plan these extensions they have to work with the space available. Thus, we ended up with three big bedrooms but one accessed through one of the other bedrooms, and a balcony that was just slightly too narrow for four people to sit around a big enough table and dine comfortably. The bedroom problem was easily solved by building a wall to create a corridor to the third bedroom. Luckily the doors to both bedrooms were aligned.

Starting work

The balcony situation was irritating. Had I been more savvy about things back when we did that building work almost 20 years ago, I would have fought for less bedroom and more balcony at the front. Back then I might have lost because there were strict laws about how near the property boundary one could build. Now it seems that other buildings are renovating right up to the pavement in front of them. Who knows. It was what it was and I was stuck with it. Or was I?

I needed new balcony doors. I'd decluttered so much over the past two years that I have minimal furniture in the living/dining room. I'd got rid of an enormous sofa and replaced it with two smaller love seats. By building one wall 50 cm into the room on one side of the balcony doors, I could increase the balcony space by a whole square metre (0.5 x 2 sq m). There's no getting away from the fact that that the room would be smaller. You can't have both. I chose a slightly smaller living room and a more usable balcony.

A bigger balcony (before the cabinet arrived for the alcove)

Whilst I was at it, I had the electric blinds removed. They blocked a lot of light from the room and I'd rather just have fabric roller blinds inside. You can get very thin roller blinds that take up almost no space when closed.

The newly created alcove in the corner is the perfect size for a white Billy bookcase with Oxberg glass doors from IKEA. This was by far the cheapest option for a display cabinet to fill that space and as you can only see the doors, there was no reason not to buy a cheap IKEA unit.

Obviously everyone has their own considerations and preferences. For me outside space is paramount and it was very satisfying to find a way to increase our capacity for a mini-garden, eating alfresco, and a place for drying the laundry in the sun.

Small Living

Small flat, big view

I am a bit obsessed with The Tiny House Movement. As much as I have decluttered over the past couple of years, and even got rid of a number of big furniture items, I am still fascinated by people, families even, who live in homes the size of a caravan.

I love the freedom of not being weighted down by stuff. I love the fact that with a smaller space and fewer things, you can buy better quality. I like that these homes take about 10 minutes to clean from top to bottom. I like the idea of reduced utility costs, I'm not so much into the nomadic life but I do like that they can be parked in a scenic spot and if someone comes along and builds a multi-storey car park next to you, you can move. Or, at least, rotate and turn your back on it. 

All that said, a real tiny house wouldn't do for me. I don't like the thought of a composting toilet, no thank you very much. I don't like that on most models the toilet is right off the kitchen. And I got over the fun of bunk beds at the age of 10. Obviously grown adults don't really have bunk beds but the tiny houses do tend to have loft bedrooms. Some of them have narrow stair cases so it's not all ladders, but I want to be able to stand up in my bedroom, I want to be able to walk around my bed, and I want my clothes in a hanging wardrobe in the same room.

There is also a Micro-apartment movement, but that's too murphy-bed oriented for me. I don't want to take the dining table off the wall every time I want to eat, or choose between reading on my bed and working at my desk that folds away under the bed. I like to work at my computer, go to the bed or sofa to read and make notes, then return to the desk, etc...

It's all on You Tube, you can see for yourself.

The next step up from a Tiny House is a small house. And in fact, this is what most Israelis have. Small flats rather than houses if you live in the cities. My flat is just under 100 square metres and it's considered to be one of the bigger small flats. There are many two-bedroom flats that are only 45 sq m! That's smaller than an American RV. I kid you not. And families with children live in them! It's normal even.

I love my flat. There are things I'd change if I were designing it from scratch. A slightly wider salon, a bigger bathroom, an en suite, and a better view out the back would be nice. However, I have a fantastic view from the front and the balcony is a prize that many flats, both new and old, don't have. Outside space and a view are paramount. Everything else can be changed, renovated, decorated, and designed. 

So why am I writing this now? My friend Sarah, who has a gift for seeing a gap in the face book groups market, has started a new group called: Interior Design for Regular Folks in Small Israeli Apartments.

We are bombarded with adverts for luxury penthouses overlooking the sea in Tel Aviv, 6-bedroom duplexes facing the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, and villas with private pools in Caesarea. Whilst they are all beautiful, most of us don't live like this. 

I am so looking forward to seeing and sharing ideas that are relevant to us regular folk. Thank you Sarah!

P.S. small living doesn't mean a small life. How small could you go?

Minimalism Phase 2 - Furniture

One of the best pieces of advice I read or saw on a minimalist vlog, was not to worry about the furniture until you've minimalized your stuff. Before you're almost done decluttering, it's impossible to know what you will or won't need. I actually wrote a blog post a few years ago about how I saved hundreds of shekels on new furniture by tidying up. Minimalizing is the same - you think you need a storage solution to get all that junk off the floor and neatly behind doors, when in fact you're about to get rid of most of the junk.

I got rid of most of the junk. Last count I was on 910 clutters for The 1000 Clutter Challenge. I can't seem to stop myself - I found 16 more items to go. 2 shoe boxes, 2 photo albums, 4 toilet bags, 4 plastic shelves from my old fridge that I thought I might use for planters but I won't, 1 orphan sock, 1 coffee mug (the last of 8 bought in LA, USA in 1986) that was on DD's desk as a pen holder but she told me she didn't like it and could she have a flowery one like mine? "Of course my darling, let's add this one to the donate pile." That's 14.

15 and 16 are two big items of furniture. I've been stalling on these because they are both parts of sets. It's so difficult to break up sets. It feels like a wicked bureaucrat splitting up siblings for adoption. And then you just do it and get over it surprisingly quickly.

The display cabinet goes with the sideboard and a smaller display cabinet. I don't need all three pieces and the one without the usable surface for framed photos or candlesticks, has to go. A dark bit of wall has suddenly become white again and the room seems to have grown wider.

The chest of drawers was part of the set of a five door wardrobe, and two matching chests of drawers. I bought two because my feng shui savvy friend old me that if I wanted to bring another person into my life I had to have space for his things in the bedroom. Well he turned out to be a she and DD keeps her things mostly in her own bedroom. Seriously though, if I ever do want to live with a partner, we'll buy new bedroom furniture. Not enough storage in my bedroom will not be the deal breaker.

The five door wardrobe and one chest of drawers fit snugly along one wall and by using all the drawers and shelves recently freed up, I can do away with the other chest of drawers. The room feels luxuriously spacious. I may even get a bigger bed to fill some of the space.

The 1000 clutters Challenge is now at 922. I'm not counting 4 of the items above because when I recently read back over all my decluttering blog posts, I found that four items had been counted twice. Somehow they'd made it back into circulation and come round again. That makes only 78 items left to find.

One last word about furniture. There are three or four other pieces of furniture that I'd like to change. I have an IKEA wish list. However, those pieces will eventually be replaced by more functional and/or prettier pieces. They will be sold or donated but they won't count as being decluttered as they will be replaced. Decluttering only counts if you end up with less. Decluttering should not be confused with remodelling.

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.

I Tried To Kill The Carpet But It Wouldn't Die

The carpet after 'treatment'. 

Following on from my post about the new sofas yesterday, I want to tell you about how I tried to kill the carpet but it would not die or even, despite my best efforts, get sick.

The story starts 11 years ago when I bought the carpet. when it arrived in my apartment I was surprised. I wasn't sure that this was the carpet I'd ordered. I thought I'd ordered a creamier colour, less brown. I don't like brown and I never really liked this carpet although it did look quite impressive in the room.

Last year, after 10 years of wear, in a sandy climate, with a young child, and many tv suppers, I decided to have the carpet professionally cleaned. The adverts for the cleaning company on Facebook showed miraculous results on various sofas. I was expecting miraculous too.

They took the carpet away, cleaned it, and brought it back. It looked a bit cleaner. But not much. I was disappointed. Especially as the one definite stain was still there. But I assumed that a 10 year old carpet in a desert climate, with a young child and many tv suppers, was uncleanable to 'new' condition and they did the best possible job under the circumstances. (I know now that they didn't use bleach. Probably because they didn't want to fade the colour. Hahaha.)

When I posted my old sofa and chair for free on Facebook, I included the carpet. But as the evening wore on I wasn't happy about giving the carpet away for free. The sofa was without its original cushions and the chair had a large bottom-sized dent in the seat. But there was nothing wrong with the carpet - it was just a bit grubby. Maybe another cleaning firm would do a better job?

I looked at Ikea carpets online. The one I really like is 1,700 nis. I looked again at my old carpet. Maybe it would go ok with the new sofas. I took it off the Facebook post.

After the old furniture went I had more room to consider the carpet. I'd also seen online that they make new carpets in an already faded, antiquated look - as if it has been sun-bleached. I don't hate the pattern on my carpet, I just want it lighter and less brown. So I went to work.

The carpet before.
But the whole exposure of the photo is darker so you can't really judge.

I looked online for 'how to bleach a carpet' and 'how to fade a carpet'. All the advice was for getting stains out or for restoring colour to a bleached carpet. So I used my initiative.

After, Can you see a difference?

First I found laundry bleach which I mixed with laundry detergent, dissolved the mixture in water and chucked it all over the carpet. I scrubbed it with my silicon broom. None of the colour came out. I had a bottle of cheap vinegar so I tried scrubbing with that all over the carpet. No change. So I bought a bottle of laundry whites bleach with chlorine and sprayed that all over, and scrubbed it. No colour came out. By now the carpet was beginning to smell a bit so I squeezed lemon juice all over the carpet and scrubbed again. No change.

I tell a lie. There was a change. The carpet was clean. Cleaner than when I spent 350 nis to have it cleaned last year. And the annoying stain was gone. It's a tiny bit lighter in colour - possibly? But not the bleached look I wanted. If anything the colours are brighter and more vibrant.

I finished off with a lot of water and a spray with Laura Ashley floral scent. We had the window open and the radiator on for a week to get it all dry and aired out. It looks good if you want a brownish carpet and I saved 350 nis on getting it cleaned.

It's beginning to grow on me now that the new sofas are here. I think perhaps it goes better with these sofas than it did with the old furniture. Now I'm thinking that it's the coffee table and the cushions that have to go...... It never ends does it?

This is the effect I was aiming for. LOL.

Sofa So Good - R2BC

Here are my Reasons 2B Cheerful for this week. I'm in with the linky over at Becky's Lakes Single Mum as usual.

1
The New Sofas
The New Sofas arrived. I'm very happy with them. In an ideal world I'd like to get a lighter carpet to go with them, and more sophisticated cushions, and a white sideboard, and possibly a new coffee table. But for now the room is starting to look tidier and more put together.

2
WAHM
I so need to be a work at home mum. I didn't go to school today as the new sofas were being delivered (apparently they only deliver to Jerusalem on Thursday mornings). As it happens, I only missed one lesson because of class trips and other events, so it wasn't too bad of me.

The day at home was amazing. I did two loads of laundry and finished my freelance writing work completely. Then the sofas came. Then I went to the income tax office to get my tax position forms for each of the four companies I work for. Then I went into college to give in their tax position form and fax the other three to the relevant people. While I was there I also printed out and graded the final exam to come in from one of my courses. Then I came home and paid all my utility bills by phone. I did some online grading whilst babysitting for my neighbour's two-month old baby so that she could pop out and collect her other child from nursery. I made DD a healthy salad for supper and played Rumikub with DD after supper and now I'm getting my R2BC written on Thursday (just) which is the day it's supposed to appear.

Usually on Thursday evening all I can do is throw some pasta and cheese together and go to bed before The News.

3
Second Second Hand Sale
Tonight we got a Whatsapp from DD's youth movement leader about a second hand sale they are having. It's to raise money for the 17 year olds to go on The March Of The Living in Poland. It's an important trip and it's not cheap so they want to help those who need financial assistance. I'm happy to help but we just had the Yedidya Bazaar and a sale at DD's school, and I gave a whole lot of stuff to our neighbour's daughter. I didn't have much left to give away. Nevertheless, I went round the house and found....
6 plastic cups
4 CDs
2 DVDs
2 wine glasses
1 candle holder
1 mug with a matching tea-strainer and lid.

I also threw away an empty CD box, I gave the little girl downstairs another dress, and there was something else because I counted 19 things to add to my running total of 360 clutters decluttered, now 379. Oh yes, a new scrubby thing for the shower that came as part of a gift. (I kept the liquid soap that was the other part of the gift.)

4
The Weather
The weather turned cooler again and we had some torrential rain but that's okay because we still need rain. On Saturday it's supposed to be thunder and lightning. I'm looking forward to it as we're going out for dinner on Friday Night and not putting a foot out of the door on Saturday. I love severe weather when you don't have to go out in it. I shall snuggle down in my bed and think of my friends with dogs to take out. Hee hee hee.

Have a wonderful weekend y'all.

An Empty Nest - R2BC

For a moment we wondered why we needed wanted new furniture.

When a system works it works. And this is one of my reasons to be cheerful this week. I'm on the linky over at Becky's Lakes Single Mum as usual for a round of cheerful blogs.

1
The Other Reason
The weather has been in the 20sC all week. No coats, no heating needed, windows flung open... OK, I won't rub it in and we are forecast a couple of rainy days next week.

2 
The Expensive Clarinet
The Clarinet is turning out to be extremely expensive. We walked down to the music shop to buy a packet of 10 reeds (for 85 nis) and we came home having ordered two new sofas (considerably more than 85 nis). Honestly, we just popped into the furniture shop to have a look and to check out the comfort of some of the cheap sofas I'd seen online. (The cheap ones are not comfortable btw.)

Going ....

In fairness I've been looking at sofas for a long time. My sofa was bequeathed to me by a lady who bought the wrong size for her enormous apartment. So she had it moved to my apartment and she ordered a bigger one. I'd had it for about 17 years.

It was hand-made and very good quality but nine years of children using it as a climbing frame had made the cream fabric decidedly grubby. And the down filled cushions were always slipping onto the floor and needed puffing up all the time. I took the grubby cover off and threw out the cushions. I put an old foam mattress covered in a fitted sheet, for the seat, and acquired new cushions with my free gift voucher from when I bought my fridge. I'd turned a very expensive sofa into a student couch.

... going ...

But it was still bulky to move and so I hardly ever cleaned under it. Though it was all right that it was 2 m wide, the arms flanked out taking up another 15 cm at each end. When the room is only 3 m wide this was an annoying waste of space. It was just heavy and too big. I wanted something lighter, smaller, cleaner, more practical, and less brown. We are trying to get away from the brown.

I ordered two two-seaters on legs so that you can clean underneath them. These are everywhere atm. I don't know if it's because people want lighter, airier spaces these days (to go with all the trendy decluttering and minimalizing?) or if it's because people want something that the robot can hoover under. (The Robot - that automatic disc that goes round your apartment and hoovers for you while you're out.) Anyway, they are daintier and four people can have an armrest or two people (us) can lay out on them. They arrive in two weeks.

... gone.

The sofa and the armchair had to go. As the sofa was free to  me and was bereft of cushions (I let them have the mattress and its sheet cover but not my cushions) I decided that the best way to get rid of it without the cost of paying removers to take it down three flights of stairs, was to give it away on facebook. I also offered the chair that has a big bottom-sized dent in the seat.

I tidied up and took photos of the sofa as it was offered (undressed) and also with the cushions on so people could see what it could look like when dressed. It looked really nice and cozy. We almost wondered why we had even bought new furniture.

There was a lot of interest from facebook but in the end three Filipinos turned up at 10pm with an old car. Between them they got the sofa, and the chair, downstairs and tied onto the car at no expense to anyone. They drove off at about 3 mph with all their lights flashing. The sofa on top and the chair sticking out the back.

DD cried. She hates change.

It only took five hours! Who knew?

If I'd known it would take only five hours to clear the living room I'd have waited until the new sofas were on their way. I thought it might take a couple of weeks to find someone who wanted the old furniture and then to arrange a convenient time for the removal. I know I could have given the guys who brought the new sofas some money to take the old sofa down but I was being cheap and I wanted it to go to a good home, not left by the bins. (Although people also take used furniture from by the bins).

So we'll hang out in the bedroom for a while and dream about our new living room. And hope it arrives early.

Style And The Individual: When To Turn A Blind Eye

A while ago I went to an office that was situated in a roof extension. The ceiling was the sloping roof of the building and the windows were sloping skylights. They were tall windows with the tops stretching up and inwards to be above almost the centre of the room but near enough to the bottom of the slope so you could see the wonderful view over rooftops to the mountains beyond. It was really quite stunning. And the office itself was pristine, with clean lines and fresh white paint.

However, this bright, new, efficient space was 'finished' in a most bizarre way. Some budding interior designer (not) had put curtain rods along the tops of the windows and draped beautiful turquoise curtains framing each side of each of the two windows. Except of course, the curtains didn't frame the windows at all. They hung straight down into the middle of the room.

The two female secretaries had tied a knot into each curtain so that they didn't have them in their faces all the time. And the sun beat down into the room, casting eerie shadows like hangmans' nooses on the walls obscured by the knotted curtains.

I tried not to laugh but I couldn't help it. They told me I wasn't the first to be amused. The plan, or I should say the revised plan, was to put another rail at the bottom of each window to hold the curtains in place. But they needed to order new curtains with hems or ringed holes for the curtain rods on the bottom as well as the top.

"They make blinds for these sort of windows you know," I told them. I offered to show them and we spent a few minutes browsing Velux Blinds on the computer with the lid of a cardboard box taped over the monitor to block out the direct sunlight. We even found blinds in turquoise.

Years ago a friend told me that when planning your space, have the finished room in mind. That way you can make small changes as and when you have the resources, but you are always working towards your vision of how it will look in the end. If you don't do this, you'll waste money making changes to patch up what you have rather than towards the desired end.

My new friends in the dazzling office (pun intended) weren't ready to embrace the full uncluttered effect of crisp new blinds made to measure. They wanted curtains. I noticed they had crocheted doilies under the potted plants and I let the matter rest.

This is a collaborative post.  

The Essential Emergency Fund And More Decluttering - R2BC

Some minimalizing progress and some less good events that, with a bit of Pollyanna attitude, I can turn around to be a R2BC. I'm joining the R2BC linky over with Becky on Lakes Single Mum.

1
Decluttering Books

I wrote the other day about sorting out all my books and letting go of my academic dreams. In addition to all the academic books, I got rid of 20 year old guidebooks to various cities around the world, children's books that DD has grown out of and which we didn't love, various out-of-date reference books, and a few novels that I'm never going to read. About 100 books in all.

In addition to the books in the photo which are all being given away, donated, or possibly sold; there were also a pile of magazines and the city guides that went straight in the bin.

That seems incredible as I sort and donate books every year for the Yedidya Bazaar in March. Only two years ago I got rid of 200 books (although that was the first cull in about 25 years). I think it's a process and some books it takes you longer to realize and come to terms with the fact that you don't need them anymore.

SOLD!

2
Empty Furniture

I decluttered a whole chest of drawers out of its usefulness and sold it on facebook. The guy who bought it also took an old armchair down for me and put it by the bins. Within half an hour I saw a man stop and load it into his car.

I also have one empty bookcase but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

Gone to a better home in the back of a passing car

3
Not So Wonderful

I had a blocked sink so I had to get the plumber in. It cost not a trivial amount of money. On the other hand, he changed the crappy IKEA drain set-up underneath to a much more efficient arrangement that goes straight into the wall without the long, narrow pipe, which is the part that gets blocked.

I swallowed that cost and moved on. However, I was then alerted by a neighbour that my solar heated water boiler on the roof was leaking big time. Having established that the tank that was falling apart was indeed mine, I needed to get it fixed. I bought this apartment 16 years ago and inherited all the equipment on the roof. I've never had to fix or replace any of it, so it was time.

Yesterday they came with a new boiler, two new solar panels, and a new stand as the old one was rusted through. All new. All fully guaranteed for 5 years. All costing an absolute fortune. But I chose the best and not the cheapest in the hope that I won't be dealing with this again for another 20 years.

4
Emergency Fund

This is when you fully understand how important it is to have an emergency fund. And how important it is not to dip into it for months that are a bit tight or if you want to treat yourself. It's not for an impulsive holiday, a new sofa, or even the new fridge which I had to buy only a few months ago and which could be put on 12 monthly payments without added interest.

The new solar boiler had to be fixed asap as water was dripping into my upstairs neighbour's apartment. And I had to pay all of it up front. Luckily I have been paying small monthly amounts into an emergency fund all year.

Usually I need to use some of it to get us through the summer as I don't get paid for teaching my summer courses until the end of September and I don't get paid an August salary for teaching in school. I was getting excited because we didn't go away this summer and various tax rebates came in so I thought I was going to get through the whole summer without touching the fund. I had dreams of rolling it over for another year. Man dreams and God laughs.

It still makes things very tight for September as the emergency fund won't cover the full amount of the waterworks. But it makes it doable instead of impossible. So we'll do it and be cheerful about having the foresight to save for emergencies.

The New Outside Room - Reasons 2B Cheerful

We have added a new room to our apartment. Well no we haven't actually added a new room but it feels like we have a gained a new room.

I bought the new balcony furniture. You can see below what it looked like before. I had some plastic chairs which aren't comfortable, and a small coffee table which does what it says on the box - holds your coffee - but not much else. The truth is that we didn't really use the balcony except for hanging washing. And that was a shame.

We went to ACE where they had run out of the 'bistro' sets that I thought I wanted. So we we went to Home Center where the 'bistro' chairs were 250 nis a chair (about 50 GBP) if you buy four but more if you only want two or three. In the end I decided to buy the nicer Keter (the plastics people) chairs which are still much cheaper than aluminium framed chairs. And if you're already buying Keter, it's better to go to the Keter shop for the best value.

At keter I chose a cheap but sturdy table and four of the nicer, more comfortable chairs (one is at my desk). The table is bigger than the 'bistro' tables so we can really have a meal out there and/or play Rummikub, paint pictures, etc....

Before

On the way home we stopped at Hastock (a bazaar outlet) and picked up four cushions for the chairs and the plastic table cloth. We arrived home 10 minutes before the chairs and table were delivered.

Tonight's dinner is salade sur le balcon. To drink we will have le Chateau Robinet as usual.

After

The next project is growing something pretty to look at. I said in my last post that I'm tempted to go to the nursery and buy some colourful plants but instead I'm going to try and grow from cuttings and seeds. This may take some time.

Linking up with R2BC which is back at Lakes Single Mum this month.

Thanks For The Ads Facebook

The prettiest bit of my balcony is my neighbour's flowers

Yet again, I met someone yesterday who told me, with a look of utter disdain, how she would never go on facebook because it's a frivolous waste of time.

I couldn't be bothered to go into detail about the invaluable information I get via the relevant facebook groups about parenting, single parenting, the health care system, government regulations and subsidies, tax information, food recalls, places to go/things to see, where to buy, the education system, recommendations for good services, where to donate, buying and selling second hand, new services in the area, jobs available, etc....

Not to mention support groups for people who really need support in very difficult situations, and keeping up connections with friends and family flung far and wide around the world. And down the road but why pay for a babysitter when we can chat online?

So I just told her that her comment is like saying you won't go into the library because there are a group of people who often sit on the steps and giggle about inane rubbish. Even though you know that some of those gigglers are actually Ph.D. candidates who must be doing their research somewhere in the library.

Anyway, moving on.... Today I discovered a way to make a pet hate work for you. Facebook ads are hated by most people. Who needs them cluttering up your timeline? Most comments about the ads are asking how you can get rid of them. The answer is that you can de-clutter your likes and interests in your profile so that fewer related topics are available to show up as ads.

I have been looking for balcony furniture for a few months. My balcony had become a dumping ground over the past season and the plants neglected to death. (I thought I had some before photos but I can't find them.) Once I cleared it up, I wanted to make a little outside oasis. A tiny, elevated garden in which to enjoy my morning coffee or an evening drink. The plastic chairs and the low coffee table just don't do the job.

We need comfortable table and chairs

(A note about the lack of plants. I was going to make a trip to a local nursery and buy colourful plants but then I decided to take cuttings and grow my own. I've also been watching You Tube videos about growing plants from fruit pips and sprouting vegetables. Watch this space.....)

There are a couple of shops in Jerusalem I could go to for furniture. I know because I asked friends on facebook. I'd need to ask a friend with a car to come with or pay for a delivery. Neither of these options is a problem but I've not got round to going there yet. I've looked at their websites and I've not seen exactly what I'm looking for.

I saw this on my downstairs neighbour's balcony. This is what I want

So I searched the web for garden furniture in Israel. I really wanted three bistro chairs like you get outside cafes but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted at the right price. So I gave up searching. And this where Facebook took over.

Facebook has been finding outdoor furniture shops for me and showing their ads on my timeline. The more I click on the ads the more they send. Today I found exactly the chairs I wanted. I was ready to order them to be delivered but they were temporarily out of stock. I'm happy that they are out of stock because they didn't have a suitable table to go with the chairs so I'm hanging on for another advert with the full set in one delivery.

And when I've bought my new balcony set, I'll delete all interest in outdoor furniture from my facebook settings and internet searches.

Reclaiming The Spudy

I wrote a few days ago how the time has come to stop having paying guests in our spare room. We enjoyed it while it lasted but we need our space and our privacy now. We also want the flexibility of friends and family to be able to stay over. And .... I was so fed up of working all over the salon and dining table.

Before. I had a small armchair and side table in the corner for guests. 

Step one was getting a light and white table to use as a desk. The perfect piece was in IKEA all along but when you live in a different town to the nearest branch and don't have a car it's a problem. I researched small tables and desks in local shops but even allowing for a delivery charge, the cheapest tat was double the price.

There's a guy from Jerusalem who goes to IKEA twice a week and takes orders for people with cars, or without the time to go themselves. I emailed him on Wednesday evening and my table was here ob Friday morning.

I could have paid a bit extra for him to bring up his electric drill and have the 20 screws sorted in about two minutes. I didn't because you're supposed to be able to do these things with allen keys aren't you? Big mistake.

Can you spot the screw that refused to be tightened? 

It took me all day to get those screws fully screwed. Luckily I have strong screw driver but it still took a lot of effort. I'd come back and do two or three rotations and then need to rest my aching hand. If you look carefully you'll see that one screw didn't make it all the way home - I really tried but it reached its limit and so did I.

There it is. Naughty.

So here is my reclaimed spudy. I'm loving it and still room for guests.

Probably need a proper desk chair

The bed was DD's and it came with a child's mattress - 5cm of foam and very uncomfortable - and a trundle bed and two drawers underneath. I got rid of the trundle and the drawers as the whole thing looked too heavy and it was a pain to clean underneath. Also the trundle bed mattress was only about 2cm of foam. Even DD's little friend refused to sleep on it.

Ready for friends and family
(There is space to open the cupboard doors btw)

I gave DD the small double (W1.5m) in her bigger bedroom so she can still have a friend to stay. I bought a proper mattress for the single bed which fits much better in the spudy. I kept the old mattress (you can see it at the side of the bed) for the odd occasion when we have a full house.

Still struggling with the thought of the money I've given up in order to do this but sometimes it's not about the money. Sometimes you have to put your own comfort and needs first.

P.S. The best thing is that due to the tiled floor and niche position, the office area is basically a concrete and ceramic box. Radio 2 on a Sunday morning, I'm singing along to all the old favourite love songs, and the acoustics are fantastic! I never knew I could sing so well.

Reasons 2B Cheerful 21/11/15

As has been said, there's not much to be cheerful about in the world this week. However, we are all trying to keep our own little corner of it comfortable and safe. There are more Reasons 2B cheerful posts on the linky over at Ojo's World. In that vein here are my reasons to be cheerful this week.

1. I got so into repurposing pretty dishes that live year in year out at the back of a cupboard, that I did some more.

Before 

After

2. It was International Compost Day on Friday (apparently although I can't find anything about it online). There were posters about it all over our neighbourhood and DD's school officially opened its new composter. The idea is to use the compost on the school vegetable garden next spring. We all collected our pips and peelings for a week and took them into school. In return we were given a baby lettuce to plant. So we did.

Looking a bit sorry but we're keeping it well watered and the sun's out...

3. Also at the school they had their annual Heath Robinson style flyng egg competition. Children build contraptions that are supposed to gently float an uncooked egg down to the ground when it's thrown off the roof (by a few parents and teachers - no children on the roof). Obvioulsy there are rules e.g. it has to be a flying machine or parachute style, not an egg so embedded in bubble wrap that it could survive anything. Lots of fun.

4. My shy daughter who won't speak to anyone until she's been in the same room as them for about a day, told me how you get up on the roof. "Do you know how I know that? I asked Etti." Etti is the Headmistress. I was astonished. "What, you just went up to her and asked her?" I never spoke to my Headmistress when I was in primary school unless she spoke to me first. I'm delighted that our Head is so approachable and that DD feels comfortable to go and ask her a question.

Repurposing Your Dishes

Over the years I've amassed enough dishes of all shapes and sizes to allow for any possible entertaining event. I could feed 100 people out of the serving dishes I own. The plates would have to be disposable but the serving bowls and decorative dishes would suffice.

There are pieces remaining from sets long gone, inherited pieces, dishes that came as a gift filled with homemade biscuits, dishes bought at craft fairs or on holiday, the discounted last of lines, the pretty dish in the supermarket or IKEA that was so cheap it would have been rude not to buy it....

What happens to this vast collection of lovely bowls and dishes? Nothing. They sit in the display cabinet or in kitchen cupboards and waste their infinite lives waiting for their big moment that rarely arrives. And though I do try to rotate the dishes I use on the odd occasion when I do entertain, I usually end up using the same dishes every time.

So I'm giving some of my dishes a career change.

The space on the bookcase next to the door where I throw my keys and therefore has become the official key place (even for keys I've forgotten what they were for) now has a pretty dish in which to keep the keys. This dish was always problematic as it was a gift and I never knew if it was ovenproof or not. I'd have liked to bake small pies in it but ended up only using it to serve the humus. Now it's used and seen all the time and has an altogether more fulfilling life.

Who doesn't have a corner where counters from boxed games or Lego/Playmobil bits get deposited until you have the time to put them away properly? And how many times do those things get lost again before you've got around to taking them to where they really belong? Most of the times in our house. So now a little crystal glass bowl that my parents bought for me in Malta sits in that corner in front of the television and collects Lego pieces, lone beads, buttons, counters, and any other small item making the long journey home.

Of course everything should be put away completely the moment you touch it. But we're not like that. Realistically we need the dish for lost things. In it's previous life this dish sometimes came out after dessert filled with squares of chocolate or nuts to nibble while we drank our coffee. Unfortunately, by that time in the meal I was so exhausted that I'd usually forget about the coffee completely. Now I get to appreciate the beauty of the Maltese crystal glass all the time.

A pretty dish to hold trinkets on my dressing table. I had an old wooden ring-holder and small wooden bowl but a decorative china dish is so much more sophisticated don't you think?

The thick candle in the bathroom that stood on a black candle-holder plate is now prettily dished in Armenian pottery. We almost had a disaster last week when a candle dripped off its stand and all over the toilet below the shelf it was standing on. Had it been in a dish the wax would have been contained.

Who says that pencils and paperclips have to be stood in faded cardboard pencil holders? I'm thinking of a small cream jug of the right size and shape that would look great on my desk (when I get my desk back from being the temporary dining table).

Toothbrushes and toothpaste in a china cup. Why did I buy these? Because they were in a closing down sale, they cost next to nothing and they are pretty. I have four of them but the thought of drinking water out of them is not appealing. So now DD and I use one each in the bathroom and I have spares for guests.

And finally (for now because I'm on a roll with this) what could this possibly be (below)? I received it as a gift from work about eight years ago. It's glass and they got a box of them very cheaply so they gave them out as Rosh Hashana gifts, because you have to give your employees a gift on Rosh Hashana. It's meant to be a wine cooler and was so irrelevant to the people it was given to that it was almost insulting. No one I know puts wine on ice. We take it out of the fridge and put it on the table for goodness sake.

But it's sort of attractive. I thought of putting a plant in it but you need to find a plant in a pot that's tall enough and I never got around to it. So it's been sitting around for eight years taking up space and being useless.

This week DD's school announced the grand opening of their new composter to feed their own vegetable garden. We were asked to keep our vegetable waste and bring it in to school for the composter. So inside that wine cooler is a plastic bag filling up with our vegetable peels, pips and cores. I close the bag when it's not in use to avoid any smell in the kitchen. I like composting, it makes me feel virtuous.