my overconsumption

[myoverconsumption]

How long has it been?

Crikey. My last post in here was from January 2019. A lot has happened since then. I don’t even live in the same place anymore - I moved out of home! And not having a lot of money to kickstart living out of home has been a blessing in disguise. 

It’s been a year since I moved out and I’m still very slowly gathering pieces that I need for our little unit but I am quite enjoying how minimal it looks. I particularly LOVED how bare it was at the very start. We had a fridge, a microwave, our clothes and no seating! It was close to a year before we finally bought a lounge. It truly makes you realise how little you can live with but it also made me realise that there are just some things that need to be bought to make your house feel like a home. When we brought that lounge home I gushed and gushed over how much more homely and warm our unit looked and felt. So although I am still trying to be minimal, I do still want to find sleek pieces that will refine our space, giving functionality and warmth. It’s a hard balance. 

We have two bedrooms in our unit and just like last time I have dedicated the spare to decluttering. My motivation is to get the spare room as empty as it was when we first moved in with our bare essentials.

 I was out shopping at H&M Home for pieces for our unit when I saw they had a donation bin similar to the one at Zara (see previous post). I very much like the idea that my donated clothes will either be used or recycled into new clothing rather than donating them and them ending up in landfill. Bonus points to H&M - when you donate a bag they then give you a 15% off voucher. This is the perfect motivation. I can get discounted pieces for around the home in exchange for my unwanted goods. I got my voucher today but I didn’t use it as I am being very particular with what I bring home. The vouchers don’t seem to expire so I think I’ll wait for the right pieces to come along and in the meantime, I’m going to keep filling up bags of clothes and collecting these discounts.  

[myoverconsumption]

I got a little restless the other day and found some old uniforms and other clothing to donate. I also found a new place to donate at. The donation bin pictured is at Zara. I kinda like knowing what will happen to my donations. I always fear that the other places I donate to just throw the stuff out.

[myoverconsumption]

I swear I have had this bag of donations sitting my lounge room for about a year. I don’t even remember what was inside but for once I did remember to put it in the car for when I would drive past the op shop.

I think that’s a big mistake for decluttering- not getting rid of your stuff fast enough. I will definitely put my next bag straight into the car so I don’t forget.

[myoverconsumption]

Sixteen/thirty.

I forgot I had this one. An old friend lent this to me a year ago and it has taken me forever to read it. It’s the biggest book I’ve read, now that I think about it, and the storyline didn’t flow very smoothly which made it difficult to read. You’d be reading the story and skimming through the timeline and then suddenly come to a halt where a certain part of the story was told in intricate detail and then you’d hurtle forwards again. It just didn’t transition well. 

Anyway, since this was leant to me we fell out. We hadn’t been friends for very long and we were both being idiots. I messaged him today to ask if he wanted it back and to suss out if he still hated me. It was the first time we had made contact with each other in 8 months. He does want it back and his response was rather friendly so that put me in good spirits today. 

I hope we make amends. I feel like returning this book is my only chance to do this.  

[myoverconsumption]

So this never happened. We never met up and I stopped messaging him.

I listed his book on my eBay but no one has been interested.

So today I donated it to a little public library instead.

[myoverconsumption]

Paper clutter. I kept these mugs boxes for when I move out again but then I realised I probably won’t be moving for a while so out they’re going. Also going is an old phone book which I somehow overlooked.

[myoverconsumption]

I threw these padded postage bags out today. I usually collect them as I use them quite a lot. I keep all of my portable hard drives in their own individual padded bag for a bit of extra protection for when I transport them around the house. I also use them to house camera gear. If I decide not to use my camera bag and use my ordinary handbag, I’ll put whatever camera I’m using in one of these before it goes in my handbag. These are extras/awkward in size for anything I have so out they go.

[myoverconsumption]

Thirty/thirty. 

Even though I didn’t get rid of 30 things in 30 days, I still got rid of thirty things. This jacket sold on eBay today. I remember I purchased it a while ago while it was on sale. I never loved it and I only really used it to store one $20 note which I would occasionally dig out in emergencies. I always replaced it once I spent it. And now I am going to have to find somewhere else to stash my emergency $20 note. 

[myoverconsumption]

Twenty nine/thirty.

Scented lotions. I snagged these from an air bnb that I was cleaning. The owner of the air bnb travels a lot and has a hoard of hotel toiletries stocked in baskets in the bathroom of the house. I was using them but have recently been put off after learning scented lotions aren’t all that good for you.

[myoverconsumption]

Twenty eight/thirty.

It’s nice that they give out reusable bags instead of plastic ones but there’s only so many reusable bags one can use! This came with an online order. If it were in-store of course I would have refused the bag. 

[myoverconsumption]

Update on my faulty Rolla’s Overalls

For those of you not playing at home I’ve been figuring out what to do with an expensive and faulty pair of overalls I purchased 👉🏽see here! 

After I photographed them and sent the photos to Rollas I had to wait a few weeks until the emailer came back from holidays. They got back to me yesterday and said that there was nothing I could do other than to take them back to the place where I purchased them from. I was reluctant to do this from the start as I bought them from a small local business who are very strict on their refunds policy. I purchased a t-shirt from this shop once (before my overalls had ripped) and they wouldn’t refund for change of mind even though I brought back the t-shirt the very next day with tags in tact and proof of purchase. 

As the last resort, I went into the shop today with not much hope and they said they could ask for some sort of reimbursement or I might get a store credit but it will be a few weeks until I find out. Hopefully my efforts won’t go to waste and hopefully this won’t turn sour as I have left my paid, yet faulty, goods with them along with my proof of purchase. 

[myoverconsumption]

I know it seems like I’m being massively weak with the stuff that I’ve been decluttering but I guess I’m still working up to the bigger, more sentimental stuff. My process for getting rid of the more valuable items involves a photoshoot and then an ebay listing. Once it’s sold, it’s officially decluttered and then I post it on here but I haven’t been making sales lately. I’ll probably crack soon and just donate all the items that I’ve listed

In the mean time, this video has been helpful with perspective.   

[myoverconsumption]

Twenty seven/thirty.

Old film photography notes and packaging. 

[myoverconsumption]

Twenty six/thirty.

At my work, when the Hallmark stock gets refreshed the old stock gets thrown into the compactor. These cards didn’t quite make it into the compactor as I found them on the floor so I collected them and took them home. I had realised I have been holding onto them for a few years now as there hasn’t been an appropriate opportunity for me to use these so out they go. It’s always the free stuff that we collect that we never really seem to need.  

[myoverconsumption]

Twenty five/thirty.

Old and probably out of date makeup. 

[myoverconsumption]

Twenty four/thirty.

An old puzzle book decluttered from my work locker. 

I’m still sick. I caught a stomach bug on Sunday which hit me hard at all hours of yesterday morning. I’m still unwell but I had some energy to get out of bed today so catching up on the decluttering!

[myoverconsumption]

I’ve been sick lately

so I haven’t been able to do any physical rummaging or decluttering. 

But what I have been doing is sorting through my files on my macbook pro and my 5 hard drives. I hate that I even have 5 hard drives. 

Maybe a month ago I realised I needed a better way to store my photos for work. I was hoping to delete enough files on the 3 hard drives I already had but I knew this was never going to be a permanent solution and I also came to the realisation that I didn’t want my work mixed in with everything else so I bought 2 drives to keep them separate. 

So I have been organising and deleting old files and this is my current set-up:

Drive 1 - backs up the macbook pro

Drive 2 - extra space for personal and non-work related files

Drive 3 - backs up drive 2

Drive 4 - work photos and files

Drive 5 - backs up drive 4

It’s the same principle with decluttering and minimising, everything needs a home and everything needs to be organised. It’s so much easier when you have room and space to organise whether it’s physical items or digital files. 

[myoverconsumption]

Twenty three/thirty. 

Someone at work puts old books on a bench in the locker room for anyone that wants to read them which is where I picked this one up from. I’ve had it for ages and I decided to finally start it the other day but I’m so bored with it. I really wanted to push through because I wanted to have a handful of books read by the end of the year but I decided I would just return this one and research a book that would be more up my alley. Going back to the locker room tomorrow.