The X-hundred things challenge

It's been 6 months since I last wrote and it seems like I'm still on this journey of trying to springcleanmylife. Discipline is clearly still not quite my top trait... but I'm still working on it.

Today, after a week of spending time with some of the most inspiring of young entrepreneurs, and spending about a day and a half in bed about what exactly I am doing with my life, I decided to reboot this process... except that I realized that I probably needed a measurable goal - more than an emotional one. 

Thus, amongst all the other decluttering methods, I've decided to take stock of exactly what I own and then have a plan to downsize from there.

The logic is pretty simple. Just like in a computer game where you have an inventory bag (you know... like PotionX100, RazzberryX23, PokeballX200 :)) that you manage and are fully aware of, I reckon life should be similar by simplifying it within that structure. It's the same with financial management - it's important to know exactly what is coming in and going out and where it's going. Without that balance sheet, it's pretty hard to control and optimize that part of your life.

I'm guessing that I probably own about 2000 things (home and office inclusive) now...and we're going to bring that down to 700 (I think? For a start at least?). This non-transparency of exactly what I own is the reason for the title. I actually totally don't know how many items I have, and how many I can get rid of. But whatever it is, the final goal is probably to own just 300 items, but hey, let's be a little more conservative for a start. :)

Considering that I live in a room with my two sisters, I figured part of my strategy would need to be segmenting my stuff away from the sisters. That'd make things a little clearer of exactly what I own. 

Today I focused on the wardrobe and shoes and simply concentrated on 
1. Segmenting my stuff away from the sisters
2. Throwing away/Setting aside items that have past their expiry/don't "spark joy"
3. Putting aside things that require fixing
4. Tidying as I go

And this was the fruit of about 4 hours of work:

Wardrobe 1
All the hung dresses belong to my older sister. I moved out one of mine into my drawer.
I tried arranging them by colour.
Neatened the first drawer (which is shared by my two other sisters),
and tidied up my other two drawers.

Wardrobe 1 Drawer 1
This is the first shared drawer (between my two other sisters) that I tidied.
Cleared a whole load of crap that was hiding under those dresses.
None of my stuff is in this drawer anymore.

Wardrobe 1 Drawer 2 & 3
My stuff. I haven't taken stock yet...
but I have a whole load of batik skirts and dresses.
These drawers pretty much kept their neatness from the last post. :)

Wardrobe 2
Other than 3 shirts from here (which I've moved),
what's left in this wardrobe all belongs to my other two sisters.
I mainly made it a little neater...
They'll have to go through them themselves.
 I have learned that I have no right to control things that belong to others.
I can only control what's in mine. And I have FULL control of that.

Wardrobe 3
Everything that belongs to me is now shifted to the left.
Cleared all that rubbish at the bottom. :)
Clearing this cabinet made me happy.
I'm proud to say that I have a lot less items than I expected here. 

Wardrobe 3 Belt Drawer
Tidied the super messy belt pull-out.
Surprisingly, only that first left column belongs to me. Yes, all of 3 caps,
2 or 3 belts, and one fencing blade wire. :)

Bookshelves
If you've been reading here for a while, you'd know that
I've been in constant battle with these bookshelves.
I just did some simple tidying today.
Unfortunately, I can only control my own cubbies (which is that third column).
I'll eventually come back to this when it's time to work on the paperwork & memorabilia
(I've decided to follow Marie Kondo's structure).
Hopefully some of my decluttering will rub off on my younger sister who owns that first free standing column shelf (and everything on it).

My Shoe DrawerI'm ashamed to say that I allowed my little shoe drawer
to fall into a somewhat disarray for the past couple of weeks... but it's much better now.
I threw out 3 pairs of shoes today. :))

I'll prolly do a inventory count at the end of this week. I know I have a couple of items that I'm having a little trouble letting go off, but I know they will eventually go when I'm limited to only the very few things I REALLY love.

My goal is to finish this process in the next 30 days (before my birthday on the 30th of October :)).
I'll have to work out a strategy for this process though. I think I'll throw the "throw" things as I go, donate the "donate" things every weekend, and post up the "sell" items at the end of this 30-day process.

This week I will tackle
1. @home: Jewelry
2. @home: Toiletries
3. @home: Bookshelves
4. @home: Stationery and random electronics (on my desk and in my office)
5. @home: Photos on my iPhone (because they are just taking up too much space)
6. @work: Work Emails (WAY too many), Desk, and some packaging stuff which has been cluttering up everywhere.
7. @home: Personal Administration and filing of bills.

I have no idea why I put all the work stuff in one category, but I think I'd like to just have 7 items instead of 9. Haha.

Thrown out (other than random scraps of rubbish):
Belt x1
Old fencing mask (which I need a replacement for) x1
Shoes x3
Misshapen underwear x2 (Why in the world did I keep these when they make my boobs look dented! #keepingitreal)

My "Donate" Stash
Belt x2
Trousers x1
Toiletries x1

My "Sell" Stash

Blouse x1

Leather Jacket x1

Necklace x2

New bottle of Perfume x1
Cap x1

Simplify and Clarify

"Simplify and Clarify"
that's the theme of the year.

It seems like every year is a new phase of organizing and getting minimal. I'm expecting this year to be one of even more fantastic results - especially that I'm armed with Marie Kondo's strategy.

So far, in the past month, at home, I've gone through my clothes, shoes, books, and now I'm tackling papers. At the office, it has mainly been papers - ALOT, as in the thousands, of papers. Gosh how a company can really get through and store SO MUCH paper.

The process so far has taken a lot of self-awareness, patience and discipline. It does take a lot of discipline to stick to the category - and not get caught up in jumping to other categories... not to mention that I live in a house with a lot of other people... but I'm thankful for this process.

Just yesterday, however, I cleared out a whole landing dumped with the mother's, my sister in law's and brother's stuff.

As so:

It's amazing how derelict an area can get when there is a lack of discipline and respect.
It's not finished yet, but I will get to those boxes when I get to the books and papers part.

And here was my attempt at KonMari-ing my clothes

I didn't quite do the "special folding", but it worked out somewhat. :)
I was just glad to get rid of the extra non-joy items i think.

Today, surprise-surprise, my awesome mother started on her books...

We are knowledge hoarders... Yes, those bookshelves are ALL books.
The table is messy because I've been trying to group all the books and family paperwork together.

I really had to bite my tongue to not tell her she was doing it the "wrong" way. The "proper" way, as I agree with Marie Kondo, is to really take everything off the shelves and go through them one by one. This part of the process is crucial as it will trigger of something in one's brain of the weight of ALL the things that you have been holding on to, and subconsciously make one think of how much you are willing to carry with you into the future. Honestly, once one has gone through all that carrying and seeing just how much there is, a certain emotion wells up. Sometimes it's shock, sometimes it's sadness, sometimes it's anger... and this is the emotional energy you need to push you through to really decide what things that "spark joy" for you, that you definitely want to put back onto the shelves and bring with you into the future. Randomly touching books on the shelves will not give one that impact...

And yet, this is her process, I cannot force a process, or standard of cleanliness and minimalism on her. She has own journey too. I can only equip her with the tools. And even if she accomplishes just a little bit today, at least it is a little bit. It isn't exactly the "correct" way of doing it as quickly and thoroughly as it "should" be, but hey, be thankful for the little things.

It's going to be tiring (my legs and arms are still aching from all the carrying and walking up and down the stairs from clearing the landing), but in the meantime, I'm enjoying the journey. :)

I love cleaning!! :)

I'm back! With a two hour clean up.

I'm back. After a year of hiding away, I'm back.

I had a major surgery in June last year and that was pretty much how long it has been since I have kept my life on track. My mail and room have been a total mess since and I have barely touched my house - which has been becoming a blackhole of STUFF (which things coming in from all the purchases of different members of the family). Not to mention that the size of my inbox which used to be something below a thousand has now ballooned to a monsterous 3000 mails. And that's only for ONE inbox. :(

Yesterday, after almost 6 months of this whirlwind, I told myself, "ENOUGH. Time to get life back in order."

So yesterday I started cleaning.

It started with deleting emails, then I moved on to the closet - one of the easier places to get in order. I went through the clothes I had and made some tough decisions to clear away items that just triggered bad memories with them - embarrassing/awkward situations (which I happen to have a lot of), memories with the ex, and just some clothes which I've been having love/hate type of relationships with. Then there are all these shirts/jackets which hold memories of times that I treasured - including extra curricular activities and past glories in my varsity days. It's time to just throw away all this negative energy in my room. It's time to LET GO and make room for new things. My bedroom should really be my sacred place. It's time to MOVE ON.

And this was the result of my two hour clean up. :)

There are some things that I realized I needed a little more time to really part with so I gave myself some grace to make those calls at a later time. But hopefully, by the end of the year, I would have been able to part with most of them that just don't add value to my life anymore.


Today I'm tackling paperwork. Going back 6 months and conquering the mountain of paperwork is going to be an uphill battle. It's tough, but not impossible.

From now onwards, I'm committing to half an hour of decluttering every day - no matter how small the area is. :) Wish me luck!