Souvenirs d'Enfants

I thought I need a lot of cosmetics to grow up, 

found out that if I grow up properly, 

I should be a wise woman, 

not a greedy lady. 

That's why I don't buy any mascara or eyeliner again.  

A Switch to The Cleaner

Just a small thought.

How I started to clutter the whole house (at least my zone at my family home) ? I don't know.  I used to live with limited amount of money all the time since I was a kid, so I have no reason to shop a lot and impulsively. 

Well, alright, it could happened since I lived across a fashion mall, hahaha. Or since I had my first job payment? And routinely get it?

But actually, no.  It has appeared even before I was born.  That 80s-90s capitalism culture! I live to see that people struggles for money.  Money is used to fulfill the needs (and wants) : live inside a building legally, eat everyday, clean your body and your shelter, and buy stuff. Okay, there might be some additionals: school fees, paying for bills, etc.

I realized that TO BUY STUFF is definitely a BIG thing in my generation. Maybe in my mother & father's generation, too. Happiness was called 'go to a shop and buy some toys!'.  I know, it's irresistible.  I'm keeping my Polly Pocket and Barbie collection until now.  I will never, ever, ever throw them away.  Sorry. :))

I grew up as an abundant daughter. With my brother, we were a dynamic-toys-kingdom-duo.  My father gave me dolls, fancy bags, cute stationeries, books, magazine, and all.  Beside being an illustrator, he worked in a printing business, toys and J-Culture industry, plus he's a bag designer--also a fashion designer for a dept. store brand.  My mother is a crafter.  She used to work with a lot of craft person, and she made crafts.  She brought out a crafty creation, she went back with something else. I received many crafty gifts from Mom herself, and her friends, and I made things too!

See? I'm not a rich daughter, but my life is surrounded with stuff!

Surely, I won't blame my parents.  They were growing in the capitalism era, too. 

I used to cry if I couldn't bring home what I want.  I begged a lot for stuff I want.  

Everytime we went on vacation, we has about 70% the space in the brain to think about souvenirs.
Vacation = new stuff. Okay, sometimes there WAS adorable souvenir, but most of them are useless...

The only good thing I can be thankful for now is, everything is still limited.  I got special stuff only on birthday.  No random Barbie doll purchase.  But still, when my father arrived at home with a Hello Kitty sling bag with no notification about it, I'm happy like a...porcupine (?).  But somehow, the best memory I've ever had wasn't that.  Deep down in my heart, the most lovely times in the world was these happenings:

1. Mom got home from somewhere, and she brought me a living turtle to be loved!
2. Brother won a competition in an outbond event, he received a lovely living bunny as a gift.  Surely, he doesn't pet the bunny.  I did.  I loved this bunny too much I named her Siska.
3. My friends gave me a pair of two lovely bunnies on my 21st birthday.
4. Touched a dog for the first time.  Fell in love.
5. Got bitten by a puppy for the first time.  In love.
6. Literally touched a giraffe. SUPER DUPER HAPPY.
7. Read the first email about my novel from a reader!

My best sentimental experiences are always about animals...hahaha.

Got the pattern? Happiness is now measured with belongings.  If you have more, you are happier.  If you have less, you're pathetic.

The fact is, it's killing humanity.  It directs you to greed. You forget the real meaning of satisfaction.
I don't restrict you from buying anything forever.  Not that radical! I myself, is a seller, manufacturer, whatever--to be short.  I trade.  I sell stuff !

But at least I'm trying to be wise.  Since I realized buying too much clothes is not helping.  It confuses.  Accepting many gimmicks is cluttering--not funny.  Having 1000 magazines is literally disturbing your shelf.  Yes, I'm visual.  I love eye-catching products.  But ah, now I have Pinterest to see the whole lovely things around.  I don't have to own it for real.  I love fashion, but I'm annoyed by some fashion stuff I bought with no real purpose.  Or something I thought would be nice on me but it's not.

Maybe The Sims is right.  Happiness measurement has some...deadline.  The happiness of having new stuff at home is shorter than happiness of falling in love. While the sadness of broken heart is super duper distracting for a Sim's mood.  Hahahaha.  Weird, huh? Why people is very busy about stuff, then? :D

I found that spending time to shop impulsively is less satisfying than looking at this face, dude.

Ayo Habisin! (2)

Masih berkutat di beberapa produk yang sudah pernah diobrolin.  

The Body Shop 

Deo Dry

sudah nyaris kosong, sih, tapi masih diperjuangkan! 

Innisfree

Cherry Tint 

tempo hari setengah, sekarang tinggal seperempat. yuhu! 

100% Pure

Cherry Lip Butter

dipakai tiap malam, pagi, siang bolong, pokoknya mendadak rajin :p 

Kalian sedang ngabisin produk apa? :D    

Mari Menghela Nafas

Hore, kembali ke Bahasa Indonesia! 

Sebelumnya kita bicarain tips mengurangi susuh.  Sekarang saatnya jujur.  Jumlah susuh di rumah saya...lumayan...epik.  Di berbagai divisi.

Koleksi balsem,  sabun hotel, sikat gigi hotel, cukuran hotel, obat otot, pencuci tangan, bedak, dan semuanya nggak kepake! Alhasil sekarang agak-agak nyolot kalau ke hotel sekeluarga.  Pakai peringatan, "Pokoknya sabun-sabun hotel nggak boleh dibawa pulang! Biar kata jatah, atau gratis, atau apa deh."

Nah ini urusan lain. Suka alay, beli majalah karena bonusnya, ada juga yang oleh-oleh.  

Ada yang belian Papa. Ada kacamata renang (renangnya jarang). Haha!

Mulai sekarang nggak mau beli majalah yang ada bonusnya.  Pasti nganggur. 

Ada asesoris-asesoris.  Anting-anting itu sebagian dikasih, gelang ada yang beli, ada yang oleh-oleh.  

Seneng sih lihatnya. Cantik.  Beberapa pesta dan kostum mungkin butuh perhiasan macam ini. 

Cuma kadang nggak tega kalau mubazir.  

 Sembunyikan sajaaa.  Kadang kalau bepergian, Mama pisahin krim, pencuci, dll ke wadah-wadah kecil.  Tapi habis gitu, ya di tempat pergi nggak dipake juga! Alhasil numpuk doang, terseparasi.  

Yang ini kotak saya.

*tersipu-sipu* 

 

Ini yang bikin bingung.  Pada dasarnya ada 4 orang yang hidup setiap hari di rumah dan menggosok gigi setiap hari. Papa, Mama, saya, adik sepupu.   Kalau kakak saya & pacarnya kemari, ya ada tambahan dua.   Tapi entah bagaimana ada total 9 sikat gigi dong di wastafel! Dan 4 ini misterius, nggak jelas siapa tuannya. 

 

Jumlah keresek sudah berkurang sih di rumah.  Luar biasa.  Karena ada kereseknya yang kecil, alhasil kami pun nyampahnya jadi sedikit.  Bahkan Mama nggak pakai tong sampah lagi di dapur! Biar kecil dan sedikit.  

Sampah basah biasanya dibuang ke kebun. :) 

Di bagian rumah lain...

saya dan Mama menyimpan harta karun.  

Ha! 

 

 Peranti prakarya saya.

 

Peranti prakarya saya + Mama. 

Sekian tulisan ini.  Sudah pusing belum? :)) 

Oh, I'm Trying to Write Some Tips!

As you've read previously, perhaps you've been familiar with my decluttering obsession these days. 

I realized that I don't want to be trapped with useless items in my house. I started with stop buying fancy pencils and pens.  At the beginning of the month, I declined my piano course payment gimmick.  What an achievement! I'm always excited about the monthly souvenirs, but then my house is overfilled by...kitschy plastic stationeries and...I'm not okay.  The pen is drying.  Pencils are spreaded at every corner without being used anyway. 

Whoa, so, what should I do? I'm trying to find a method.  And here's my short summary of what I've learned during the decluttering project! I asked my family to join, too.  So happy. Mom supports this effort.  She throw away a lot of stuff every single month. But ditching anything can cause a damage on Earth, too, so, not everything can be just thrown onto the landfill. So, sometimes she reuses and upcycles old stuff instead of buying a new one ( once she created a 'gayung' with old mop stick handle! Hahaha!) I sell many stuff on Huraya Garage Sale.  Well, the point is, we collaborate artistically. 

Alright.  Here's my...as-scientific-as-I-can method to decrease your piles around the house! 

Storage? Yes.  When we have empty storage / organizer / shelf / box, we get an urge to fill 'em.  How to avoid it? Don't buy or keep newbies! Be happy with available storages at home.  If you think it's not enough, try to rethink! Maybe it's not the storage that is too small, but you linger on your overloaded treasure too much? :p

Whether it's a bed that can be folded into a sofa and desk, or just some simple mind trick reduction.  You can actually use one ceramic pan to fry, stir-fry, boil, cook a soup, warm something, create a pancake, etc.  With only one regular-size ceramic pan! What about steaming and grilling? That's another case.  But with grill, use one single oven or microwave, duh.  Don't buy two cooking-boxed-shaped-appliances just to make sure it's good at single skill.  Consider everything multitalented.  

Imagine a clean kitchen with only one regular-sized pan with high quality ceramic and wooden handle, 

an oven OR microwave, a regular-sized pot, one steamer.  And you're ready to rock the minimalist effective kitchen! 

Okay it's just about the kitchen.  What about the mechanical pencil + red-blue-green ballpoint in a single wand? It does exist. And you'll love it.  But I can't afford it now because I still have...8 wooden pencils need to be functional. :D 

I usually say 'sell'.  But donating is one good act, too! Why? Some people may need what we don't use at home. Some people have no meal for days and starving.  Some people own only one dusty, thin, t-shirts and not able to buy a new one. While the wind is so freezin' out there.  Some people has no kitchen while we stuff our kitchen with greed. Some students can't buy a single pencil!

Find the nearest donation agent (make sure it's trusted!) and give away your stuff.  Clothes, school / office supplies, books you no longer read, accessories, whatever needed.  Being nice makes you happier more than anything.  Scientifically proven.  So what are you waiting for? DONATE! :D

The beginning of clutter is overconsumption. It's absolute. If we consume more and more, the global warming will walk faster and, BOOM, the Earth is destroyed.  Industries will roll around, unstoppable, the Earth is getting hot, ice melts...the first person to know the impact must be our cute polar bears and penguins! Still wanting to increase Earth's temperature? I don't.  What about you? 

So think twice or more before you consume.  Before you buy.  Do you buy something that is important? Will you throw it away immediately? Is it supporting the bad industry? Is it bear and penguin-friendly? Is it makin' your house looks like a traffic jam in busy times at the town? 

We have e-books now, and we have streaming websites.  So why buying DVDs? It's going to cost you a lot and it eats a lot of beautiful space at home! Seriously.  Someday I'll post DVDs my Dad purchased these years and it's not...aesthetically adorable.  Haha.  Download movies or TV series.  Find a rental or a friend.  :))

And books? Okay, I still need books.  Whether it's some novels or music books (off course I can't use e-books for this, sometimes we need to put notes and warnings on a music sheet, right?).  But I reduce it by only buy books in fine edition.  No more yellowish Schirmer's Library books.  No more impulsive photocopies. I select every single music sheet I need.

Some novels or nonfiction books are very sentimental you want to keep it.  But most books are not re-read-able.  You scan it once with your eyes and brains then you keep it somewhere you'll more likely to forget. Children books with amazing illustrations? Okay...I'm weak about that one.  But if it's not 150% sentimental for me, I give it away to kids or like my cousin, she sells it.  Share, share! :D

I can give up on magazine now, btw.  I only buy National Geographic for my Mom.  We used to subscribe to National Geographic & NG Traveller all at once but it causes another clutter, and anyway, travelling clues can be found on the internet. So.

Okay, Frankie is tempting, Kinfolk is photogenic.  But they have website, don't they? :D

If you want to read something, you can borrow it from THE LIBRARY.  YES.  I think library is a very lovely invention.  Our ancestors shared books with other people.  They don't believe they have to grab anything, possess everything.   Let's keep the spirit of sharing! But make sure you handle the books carefully! :D

Libraries accept books donation, too--fyi.

Last but not least, 

if you've got space, don't talk about refilling the space.  

Kosong adalah isi. 

Sometimes it's really comfortable to just stay still around an emptiness.  Or if you don't like an empty space, well, adopt a cactus and put it there.  Give it a name and love it. 

Don't you dare making excuses about 'I've sold 3 skirts, now can I buy 6 skirts?'. Hahaha! It's not helping you.  It's a trap.  

Now, are you motivated to be a selective consumer now? Do you love being surrounded with clutters? How you declutter? 

Share your thoughts with me! :)