you are all having a REALLY good influence on me

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you are all having a REALLY good influence on me

(13 posts) (9 voices)

Started 2 years ago by bandicoot
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bandicoot
Member

i am travelling on business in hong kong and korea for a couple of weeks.
because i am on an uncluttering mission, i have been very deliberate about what has been purchased.
i bought a set of headphones in hong kong and they gave me vouchers for hmv.
so i went to hmv and traded in my vouchers for a cd of bizet, and a cd of spanish guitar.
i could have gone NUTS in the hmv store (i live out in the countryside at home and don't get to music stores very often at all, maybe once a year) and i just kept thinking about getting all the stuff home and unpacking it and storing it.....

ditto on the big fancy mall in causeway bay.
i eyeballed all the glossy shiny glamorous desirable stuff and you know what? it all just looked like stuff. stuff that i had to carry. stuff that i had to clean, repair, dust, organise and then....UNCLUTTER!!!!
so i decided to just skip all the steps in between and unclutter it before i even whipped out my credit card!
instead, i took everyone out for a wonderful foot massage and thai food to follow.

because i arrived here with loads of equipment and raw materials that i'll be using up over the course of my workshop demos in the next week....i will actually be coming home with ten kilos LESS luggage.
can you believe it?
i'm pretty amazed too!

Posted 2 years ago #
paperdog
Member

Loved the point "decided to just skip all the steps in between and unclutter it before I even whipped out my credit card!"
If more of us could accomplish that, we could eliminate lots of the uncluttering headaches we now face.
Thanks, Bandicoot, for the inspiration!

Posted 2 years ago #
Claycat
Member

Well done, bandicoot! Great restraint! Now I'm just so curious about what kind of workshops you are doing!

Posted 2 years ago #
themusiclivez
Member

Congrats! That is such a good point to be at: The point where you don't even want to bring the stuff into your home in the first place.

Posted 2 years ago #
CareyOkie
Member

Very nice! I love that you still treated yourself with the foot massage and dinner. My husband and I are really shifting into experience-based gifts instead of items. Make memories, not clutter! :)

Posted 2 years ago #
MsDasha
Member

Great job!

If you are in Seoul, may I recommend Insadong-gil for souvenir shopping - they have great gold-tone laser cut bookmarks that make great souvenirs and take up very little space (in your luggage, in people's homes)... I keep a small pile on my bookshelf :)

Posted 2 years ago #
AJ
Member

Welcome to Hong Kong! Glad you're enjoying it here. :)

Posted 2 years ago #
nellieb
Member

CareyOkie, "are really shifting into experience-based gifts instead of items"...perfect! I have almost persuaded the last of my friends that I prefer a good time with them rather than a gift!

bandicoot, great restraint! It's such a great feeling to look at potential purchase items and then think, how nice, but not for me, too much clutter!

Posted 2 years ago #
bandicoot
Member

i wasn't actually doing anything in hong kong apart from passing through and catching up with one of my favourite cousins and his lovely wife.
i love hong kong....such incredible energy and vibrancy.
i find it exhilarating for up to seven days....and then it kills me with exhaustion.
AJ, how do you manage to live there? did you grow up there or are you an ex-pat?

in seoul and daegu, i am teaching "advanced soapmaking workshops" to a sell-out crowd of professional soapmakers and graduated aromatherapy students.
i tell you, i am having an absolute blast!

today i bought some kimchee-flavoured toasted nori sheets and the most incredible strawberries i've ever tasted in my life....and still NO STUFF.
i think the mind shift has finally happened!

but the real test for me is in feb and march: the street markets in thailand and the shops in bali....i am a complete SUCKAHHHHH for beautiful handicrafts and cute salespeople.
i just have to keep telling myself : you have enough already.

thank you for the insadong-gil tip, ms dasha!
i'll go for a look only (NO SHOPPING, lol), if my schedule permits.

Posted 2 years ago #
Claycat
Member

It sounds wonderful, bandicoot! Nothing wrong with a few beautiful handicrafts. Craftspeople need to make a living, too. Many of the crafts are functional, such as your craft. Fortunately your craft is consumable! :)

I have some wonderful boxes and baskets and pottery pieces that are all beautiful and useful, too!

Just do the one in/one out thing.

And, have a great time!

Posted 2 years ago #
Laetitia in Australia
Member

I agree that I now look at things with a much more critical eye and ask myself: Is there a place for this? Will it collect dust? How long will it last? Will I want it for as long as it will last or will it just be a "thing" in a month's time?

This post also makes me think about prize homes. I'm on the mailing list for a number of charities that raise money with lotteries where a house/apartment is the prize. I love looking at floor plans and interior decorating ideas and can throw out the brochures easily once I'm done drooling over a clean attractive house. :-)

Lately there seem to be interior decorating trends towards wicker furniture and art installations on walls that have lots of sticking out bits. I look at both of these sorts of "features" and think, "that would have to go; just imagine the DUST it would collect".

Don't get me wrong, I think that some wicker furniture done right is great but everything apart from the beds and the odd table? And half the time it's not true wicker, it's wicker look around a frame, kind of like using wicker instead of regular fabric.

Posted 2 years ago #
AJ
Member

Bandicoot, I'm an expat who has lived here for over twenty years; my OH even longer. And we're both well past the age of heavy partying in Lan Kwai Fong every night.

Over the years, we've seen many people come here to work and completely burn themselves out. Two-year contracts are the norm and some folks barely make it to the end.

Hong Kong is a frenetic place which is why I so desperately wanted to make our home into a quiet, uncluttered sanctuary. Since we finished decluttering (all except OH's desk area) we have had visitors say how calming our home is. I remember this to keep us in check.

And we get Korean strawberries in Hong Kong. I bought some yesterday, in fact I will only buy the Korean ones. They're not available all year round but the ones from US, Oz and NZ that we also get here just cannot compare with the Korean ones and I just won't buy those.

Posted 2 years ago #
bandicoot
Member

after several visits to hong kong over the years, i can well appreciate the extra burning need for a serene quiet calm oasis to come home to!
if i lived there, an open spacious clean-lined simple home would be an absolute priority for me.
ironical of course, because there is no thing you cannot BUY in hong kong! but the most expensive thing is....space!

Posted 2 years ago #

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