Too much yarn?!

Hi there!

Did you have a good start into the new year? I am sickish since Christmas but it is getting better (I think). :) I am still on holiday til next Monday and am enjoying the free days a lot. Lots of crochet and napping involved! :D

Last weekend, we tackled the office/studio. We have been talking about decluttering the rooms for ages but never got around to it. Too much on our plate and so we ended up pilling stuff into the room. You see, we basically live in the living room/kitchen anyway, so we didn't miss the room. Still, the clutter and the stuff made us both feel uneasy and unhappy. Clutter tends to to that to me.

So, we tossed, scanned (we own a document scanner now - it is wonderful! Far less paper, in fact we are heading towards a paperless office), donated and sold. Three moving boxes of paper, three boxes of books, two boxes of yarn (gasp!) and heaps of other stuff out of the room. And woah, there is still heaps of stuff in the room but it is far better than beforehand. I wonder where all the stuff came from - the office must be like a black hole which collects clutter and stuff! 

The decluttered room feels good. But I discovered that I have more yarn I can ever use (well, not ever but in the next years), even yarn I am not sure I will ever use. I bought it at some point for some project I never got around to make. Or I lost interest in the yarn because I didn't like to work with it. Oh and with some I am not even sure when I got it. Oops. I have the strong feeling that I have too much yarn.

Gasp! Yes, there seems to be something like too much yarn!

Of course I tried to declutter the yarn too and two boxes isn't too bad but boy, there is still too much. Now, my problem begins. I know there is too much, I know I should give some away but... I can't decide which! Whenever I take the yarn into my hand, my brain is full of ideas what I could make with it. Or I remember who gave it to me or the special moment I bought it. Sighs.

Any ideas what I should do?

Take care

Anne

Review of my 2015 Resolutions

Hi there!

Can you believe it is the end of July already? I most certainly can't. 2015 is passing by so quickly, it is hard to keep up! Actually I am pretty sure we skipped a few months this year... Sigh.

Anyway, it seems like a good time to review my 2015 goals, which I wrote about in this post. The following were my five resolutions.

Let's see how I have succeed so far...

(1) Open a Dawanda Shop

I finally bit the bullet last weekend. So far I have been too afraid to open a shop because I was afraid people wouldn't like my stuff. Silly, I know (they just won't buy it, if they don't like it) but I was afraid. Now I need to work on the General Terms and Conditions. Man, I thought overcoming my fear was the biggest part in the progress but no, working on these terms is a lot harder! Who would have thought?!

(2) Use a daily planner each day

Well, I didn't do too well on this so far. I tried. I really did but it didn't work for me. I wonder if I should try again or just give up?! Do you have good experience with daily planners? 

I use a planner and a to do app at work but somehow I don't seem to need (?!) one at home. Hm.

(3) Exercise daily

Eh, I tried? Again not very successful BUT I bought a fitbit charge HR last week and so far I have done 10 000 steps each day plus I started watching what I eat. Little steps, little steps...

Why did I get the fitness tracker you might ask? Well I am certainly not into self optimizing but this tracker proves itself pretty useful to get into a new habit. And I need a new habit: I am incredible unfit and I hate that status, so I need to change it. :)

I also went running with the boyfriend twice. Well, kinda - there was a lot of walking involved. I need to get fit enough for morning runs though as Kathryn, Michelle's sister, suggested that there would be kangaroos in the morning if we go running together this winter (=summer in Australia).

(4) Drink a Green Smoothie daily

We did well on that for a few weeks but in the end it took so long to prepare them. Recently I read some articles online on how people prepare all their smoothie mixes for the week ahead. Perhaps I will give that a try.

(5) Declutter the flat

Yay, finally something we are doing well with. There is still heaps of stuff in the flat but we tossed several boxes of stuff, took the good stuff to Oxfam and made sure not to bring too much new stuff in the flat. It is a long way but we are getting there. I might even declutter my yarn stash. We will see...

Did you have any new year resolutions and how did you go on them so far?

I try not to feel guilty about not reaching mine (yet). I see them more as guidelines and if they don't work out for me, I need to find new ones. :)

Take care

Anne

Why I declutter

Good Morning!

Thanks for all your kind words - we love reading your comments! It is wonderful to be connected by crochet to people all over the world!

Not too much crochet happened in this house here in Germany over the past few weeks. This has two reasons: 

 (1) I worked on a 90x90cm baby blanket with 4ply/sportsyarn. Took ages... I quite like how it looks like now though. The yarn itself is very soft but worked up with a 2,5 mm hook it turned out to be a bit stiff.I will soak and wash it and hopefully it will be softer afterwards. What is your favourite trick to soften yarn?

(2) As mentioned in my last post, a lot of decluttering is going on in our flat. We give to charity, we toss and so on. In many ways, we try to become more minimalistic. Because we want to focus what is important.

Of course there is some "clutter" which we won't give away or toss. Like the stone the boyfriend got from one of the examiners at his doctoral thesis defense. Or my Harry Potter books - they are dear to my heart! Living with less doesn't mean that we live without meaningful things. Quite the opposite: We only want to live with meaningful things; that is, things which we use or things which are very dear to us. I rather want to invest in memories and happiness than in things. I do love my yarn but not for the yarn itself but for the things I can make with it and the joy the crochet time gives me!

Many people associate minimalism with white, squeaky clean and empty flats. Our home will never be like that. Our flat shall be colorful and full of life. Just with less stuff...

 

That said: There is still a LOT of stuff in our house and I can tell you this: It will take several more months, perhaps even years before we reach the goal :P The decluttering feels pretty good though! :) 

I am dreaming of having a paperless office one day. 
Do any of you have experience with such a thing?

Take care

Anne

Decluttering and Organising the Yarn Stash

Hello all!

Guess what... I am sick with the cold again. Gosh, I am so annoyed by this. Does any of you have good ideas on how to avoid getting sick this much?! I am willing to try almost everything by now.

Anyway, back to more pleasant things. As I told you some weeks ago, I got myself a yarn winder to organize my yarn stash. It took me a lot longer to wind all the yarn balls into nice yarn cakes than I expected - lot more yarn than I thought I had. Opps.

As you can see on the pictures, I stacked the yarn cakes into IKEA shelves which seems to work really well. I get about 4x4x4 yarn cakes into one shelf. I do see the problem of getting to the yarn cakes at the back but at the moment this seems to be the best solution. I could add metal drawers but I wouldn't be able to add as much yarn to them. And let's face it: There is only so much space in my office/studio. Sighs. Perhaps one day?

If you search for "yarn storage" on Pinterest, you will find tons of wonderful ideas - this board for example has tons of ideas, tricks and hints.. I have tried some of them, like the boxes, but the yarn got tangeled up all the time. And if I put them into shelves it worked as long as the yarn was in proper balls. By the time I used half of it or more, it tended to get very messy. 

 

How do you store your stash? Send us pictures to [email protected] and I will add them to this post if you like!

 

You shall be very proud of me! I filled three bags with yarn which I won't use and will give it to charity. Wohoo, I never thought the day where I would give yarn away (willing) would arrive. Did you? At the moment, we (as in the boyfriend and I) are very busy decluttering the flat. One wouldn't believe all the stuff one collected over the years which is still in very good shape but never used. So it shall leave our flat and more somewhere else. We usually donate our things to Oxfam which will resell the stuff. There is a little store here in Dortmund and it is always a bit funny when I go in there and discover things in the selling shelves which used to belong to us. Feels good though. It is amzing how less stuff in the flat actually frees one's mind!

Have a wonderful week! Is it a long weekend for you too? It is here in Germany (well, for most people. Thursday is public holiday and most people take the friday off).

Take care

Anne