But once I started blogging I got away from visiting the Flylady website daily and my house has crumbled... or maybe better said, jumbled. Stuff, stuff, stuff.
One major problem is that I don't know where the dump is in our town. Taking things to the dump has always been Tetsu's job and HE only gets there once every 4 or 5 years.
Another problem is that there are no thrift shops in Japan. There are recycle shops where the shop offers a piddling for the few things you bring in but more often than not the shop tells you that you don't have anything that anyone would want (that's why I'm bringing it to the recycle shop!) and send you home with your box. It hardly seems worth the trouble.
And thirdly, garbage is set out in a community trash area... not in front of the house, so if you put your trash out on the wrong day then you get an angry block head (that's Block-head as in neighborhood block, not blockhead...) confronting you. What with paper going out on one day, burnables going out on another, cans and glass on another day and plastics on still another day, I am confused about when to throw away the old picture frame (wooden) that has metal tabs on the back (dangerous) and glass on the front (glass). And I am at my wits end about what to do with an old TV and computer printer and old carpets! So there they sit littering my bedroom.
I've asked Tetsu to go to the dump. He said it costs money to take things to the dump. WELL??? Does he want to start his own dump in our bedroom (and storage room and back kitchen cupboard?)
The other day Tetsu invited me to come to his convalescent home's bazaar. Bazaars are great places for people to get rid of their UNUSED stuff. It has to be unused though... Pretty dishes that were given as a wedding present (wedding presents are given to the guests at weddings), towels that your mother-in-law bought but you don't like... Those sort of things. I went to the bazaar and bought a bag of rice and a sturdy serving tray. Also a pair of bead earrings that a group made. I ate some fried noodles and fried chicken and had good time.
BUT!!! That night Tetsu came home with a box!
"Left-over stuff from the bazaar. I just bought it all for a few thousand yen as a donation to the convalescent home."
Bear chopstick holders. A bowl without a lid. Pretty plastic dishes. A wooden trivet. Candles holders, hand towels, a cow cup, a single portion size pot. A set of white dessert dishes.So much for being a minimalist. I frowned at all of the stuff poking out of the box.
"So, what are we going to do with all this?"
"The ladies in the office predicted that you wouldn't be happy about all this stuff. They said, "Oh, your wife is going to be angry at you!" I'll put it in the back closet."
The office ladies know me better than Tetsu does. I guess the box will stay in the back closet until another bazaar someday.
14 comments:
Why can't you just ask people in the neighborhood where the dump is until you find someone who can tell you? Then you can load up all that excess junk and haul it away. I'm about ready to go on a "simplify" crusade myself...can hardly walk through the basement any more.
I so understand. Stuff just grows to fill the space, doesn't it. I do have an area where all of my yarn, etc., is stashed. Well, it's not exactly and "area" it is a whole room. In the rest of the house I sort and pitch like crazy to keep things down to a low pile.
Good for you for being sweet to Tetsu for making the donation. It's a shame he couldn't make the donation and leave the box there. ;)
Ouch! Cleaning out and clearing up is part of basic survival for me. We are lucky to have craigslist, freecycle, many thrift shops, and the county and city dumps and recycling centers. I hope you find some places where you can "share" your "junk"! :-)
Feeling overwhelmed with stuff stuff stuff here too, Tanya! Having no sewing room means my stuff is in three rooms of the house. And every.single.closet and cupboard and drawer is maxed out at present. It is too bad that resale shops are so poor there. Throwing perfectly good used items seems such a waste.
ROFL!!! I'm a minimalist married to a hoarder - it is not a match made in heaven, lol! I'd go nuts with the garbage and recycling system in Japan, Tanya!
In that way, Nikko isn't much different than Tokyo except that we don't have a dump. We have to buy a sticker and call sorai-gomi. They will eventually come and get it but you have to be there when they do. (two big hulking guys stand at the street while this old lady wrestles a huge massage chair out the front door and down the walk and through the gate) (pick-up is at the curb but if put out early it blocks the road). We lived near a park where people came in the dead of night and dumped their big stuff. It was not nice but I certainly can sympathize with people who have to get rid of things in a hurry. And hey, I picked up two lovely flower pots that someone had set out at their gate with a sign saying "dozo".
Tanya, do you have your own car?
Collect up your unwanted stuff, Find out where the dump is, and go dump it, you will be so happy when that Stuff is out of your house and your hair.
A few other ways to deal with 'stuff'
Do you have anything like Gumtree in Japan, you can list stuff on Gumtree and people who want it contact you via email or phone or however YOU choose and they either buy it or you give it away. We do that a lot here in Australia. There is also something called Freecycle where people just pass on stuff they don't want to others who want it or need it.
We have regular waste collections where unwanted stuff is stacked on the verge and the number of people who drop by and collect our unwanted 'stuff' is amazing. What is left is picled up by the council on the collection day. They never seem to get much from our house but some people seem to change their furniture and white goods every year! If we have anything we do not want we often just put it on the verge and viola, an hour or so later it has gone. Goes quicker if you put a 'for free' sign with it!
Does your little Church have regular jumble sales?some of those things might sell for a few yen there.
We have our house on the market so I have had to do some serious decluttering and downsizing and you do feel good when the 'stuff' goes out the door!
Cherio from Marie in R'ham W.Aust.
Oh my-no thrift stores! Maybe a 'free stuff' box in town, like in hippee days? I completely understand what you mean about stuff accumulating!
DH is much more of a hoarder than I am and often comes back from the charity shops with something else, either another shirt, or some piece of bric-a-brac. Every few months or so I dig out some shirts from the bottom of the ironing pile that haven't been worn for ages and return them to the charity shop. He never seems to notice! I do the same with CDs too and he's never noticed any of those missing either.
Good luck on getting rid of stuff. I sure wish the people who used to go door to door collecting stuff would take up the practice again. I've got oodles of stuff to give him.
Surely some of the charities/agencies dealing with the earthquake victims could use *some* of it? Maybe contact churches in that area?
You have my sympathy: my closest charity shop is an hour and a half away, so it takes me a whole lot of time and effort to sort, cart to the car, and drive it there. Flip side, they're wonderfully grateful! (Me, too!)
I think decluttering should be high on my to-do list but there's so much stuff and I haven't the time or energy to deal with it. When I do manage to get rid of something and clear some space, someone else comes along, sees the opening and manages to fill it back up. It's a never ending battle.
How does your block leader feel about free stuff left at the curb for anyone to pick up? I do that all the time in the summer and it never lasts through the day before someone claims it. Just put a big "FREE" sign on it and walk away - and the junk seems to walk away too. One time I didn't even get all the way back in the house before a guy stopped his truck and asked if I was actually giving that (really beat up) computer desk away. (Yes, yes I was. Take it, pretty please!) He was really pleased with his find.
Have you heard of Freecycle? I googled "freecycle Japan" and it does exist there. I just got rid of two boxes of Christmas decorations and an artificial tree. If something is not quite good enough to sell or if I don't want to bother, I post it on Freecycle and it's usually gone in a day.
Sarah in California
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