30 Bags in 30 Days - Bags 28, 29 and 30 Trash and Recycleable

Welcome to my blog and my update on decluttering. After my therapy, I really decided to take a good break from major cleaning, decluttering and organizing. Instead, I spent more and more time on my crochet as I really need to rejuvenate my mind. This decluttering task is really taking its toll on me, actually.

Today I decided to pick up where I had left off and I decided to complete all three bags while I am in the mood. Gladly, I managed to gather more items to trash. Surprisingly, I also find more items to shred that can actually be sold to the junkyard.  My next step will be to reorganize so that I can see how much reduction had actually taken place. As is, I am not seeing any reduction at all. It looks like I have not done anything at all.

 I am hoping that after I am done I will not stop reducing my stuffs. My goal is to merely simplify my life a bit more and focus on what I really love doing - crafts and crochet.

Bag 28 - Trash

Bag 29 - Recycleable

Bag 30 - Trash

While clearing stuffs, in between I did a reduction of my potted plants, too. I had way too many snake plants, ten pots altogether, and this one I had to let go because they are yellowing badly.

Saved that to replant.

Guess this is all for today. Tomorrow  shall start on another project. The theme is reduction, too, but of a different kind. 

Till then. Good night. Stay safe everyone.

Therapy Day

  Hello. Yesterday was my therapy day at Ampang Hospital. Then followed with Facial at Esthetika. And lastly to the Post Office. A much needed break especially for facial. My face has really dulled very much and I really need to give it the care it really deserves.

At the hospital we were taught a few exercises to strenghten our knee and ankle. Then we were given a QR code for us to scan and download the exercise for us to do at home on a daily basis. No skipping, not even for a day. For the therapy today was my last day. I just need to discipline myself to do it everyday without fail.

I managed to bring three old magazines to donate to the coffee table of the waiting area of the therapy section. Feel good to be able to share the mag I love to others. The mags may be old but the contents are evergreen. My initial plan was to gather all these magazines and sell them to the junkyard. It was during my previous visit I had the idea of donating them to the Hospital. The magazines they had on the coffee table were equally old and some pages torn. I may drop some more during my next visit.

My favourite Malaysian Womens' Weekly magazines

The coffee table at the waiting area of the
Therapy section

Crocheted mask connectors that were ordered by a friend. Had
them packed and posted

When I posted the photo of the mask connectors at FB, one follower asked what these were for. So I decided to take a photo of myself using the mask connector to answer her question. Since I wear the hijab, it is much more convenient to wear a connector.

Rear profile

Side profile


Thank you for stopping by

30 Bags in 30 Days - Bag 27 Trash

Weekends is not really a good time for me to do decluttering. I am always sidetracked by other things to do like Grocery shopping or the likes. It is also a family time so no extra-curricular chores.

After being couped up in the house I decided to go to Mytown with hubby and daughter on Saturday, to visit my favourite stores - Daiso and Spotlight. My intention was to buy yarns but I did end up buying Scrapbooking papers, too. That means my resolution not to buy more papers was not strong enough. I just melted. After that, we had lunch at Ikea but I did not take any photos. I guess I must have taken way too many photos before I just forgo taking photos. Well, a grave mistake indeed.

I am happy to say that the bags to the junkyard did find their way there on Saturday, at last. We stopped by the yard first before making our way to Mytown. It was really good to see them gone and out of the house. Made the house look a bit more spacious.

Somehow I did manage to find some time at the end of Sunday to clear some corners of the upstairs room and filled up Bag 27. Oopsie... I have got my calculation wrong. This is to be bag 27 and not 28. Really good to go. I really am excited to complete this challenge as I have another project up my sleeve.

So here is bag 27 filled with trash. I told my sister about my progress and she was astounded at the amount of things I have in the house. I really thought I had cleared a lot or so I thought. Hmm...I really wonder! I shall be reorganizing after bag 30 and I shall see how much has actually decreased.

Bag 27

I did make progress with my crochet. This is a commissioned work and I really must be doing it diligently.

The end product will be a bedspread for my
sister.

For lunch my daughter prepared Eggplant and soy sauce side dish. A Korean dish.

Eggplant with soya sauce side dish

Thank you for stopping by. Take care. I happened to stay up and finally get my hands on the PC.

30 Bags in 30 Days - Bag 26 Trash

 I am getting excited. Another three bags to go and I would have completed this challenge. It is not as easy I thought as it would have been. Guess it will make a difference if I had just closed my eyes and trashed everything away. Only the sentimental side of me held me back. Still I had accomplished quite a lot and that is all that matters. Even though I have something going once this challenge is over, I shall wait.

Prior to this I had filled up a bag with plastics. Suffice to say those plastics were saved for various reasons. I decided to let them ago and I have space for other items. Today I filled up another bag with plastics but this will not be accounted for. Come to show how much plastics we all use in our daily lives now. Again this plastics will not fill the landfill but will be sold to the junkyard. By doing so, I hope to lessen the landfill with plastics. Just a small contribution to saving the environment.

Plastics

I have also started saving some of the bottles to create Eco-bricks. To fill the bottles I use wrappers that came with the 3in1 packs which I either buy or receive from family members. I am still halfway through my project and I am excited to see my creation takes shape. These bottles are not fully 'concrete' yet. 

Eco-bricks. Project in progress

Bag 27

Getting close to the finishing line. Will sign out now and see you all again with Bag 28. Until then take care. Thank you for stopping by.

30 Bags in 30 Days - Bags 24 and 25 Another Trash & Recycleable

 It is getting harder and harder to find more trash because the items unearthed are either good to donate or to be recycled or to sell. Or is it just me who finds it more difficult to part with my 'treasures'. I just have to get out of my nostalgic mode more. I must remember I am not leaving behind 'treasures' that may not be appreciated by my daughter or husband. Well, I shall be back.

I did pull out a box file and voila, I end up getting another bag. I find that I have way too much chipboards I decided to let these go.

Farewell Chipboards 

Bag 25 - Recycleable

What do I do with these Chipboards? These form the base of my craft projects. You can find one of the projects https://lszalil.blogspot.com/2016/02/spring.html

Bag 26 - Trash

End of project for the day. I am going to take the trash out and call it a day. 

Thank you for stopping by. Just a short post today. 

30 Bags in 30 Days - Bag 23

 Welcome to another day of Bag collection. I didn't use plastic bag this time but a box where I had collected paper items to sell to the junkyard. Usually I would go either on Saturday or Sunday to sell my wares. Last Saturday was an exception because it was a public holiday. The Hindus were celebrating Deepavali or Diwali and as the operators here are all Indians I know the yard will not be open. So I chose to go on Sunday, instead. I figured I would have all the bags ready to go and cleared the house of these junks.

Ready to to be sold to the yard

On Sunday, I was really excited to gather all the bags that I had put together and in my mind can clear the living room a bit more. These were put out onto the porch and ready to go into the car.

All the other days' bags ready now

When we reached the yard,  we were down because the yard was still closed. I guess this is their very much earned holiday after working so hard everyday except Monday. I shall give them until next Saturday, though. In the meantime I hope to gather more items to let go.

This morning I went to Ampang Hospital for my routine physiotherapy. I was excited not so much for the therapy but on the idea of depositing the books I had gathered for donate. Yes, these books finally had a new home and I do hope will have new owners, too. It was with both sadness and happiness letting the books go actually. Deep down I know it was for a good cause. It is a win-win situation. I can create more space on my bookshelves and someone may benefit from reading the books. In syaa Allah.

How nice to see them at their 'New Home'

The bookshelves at the hospital

The notice that caught my attention 
the previous month

I really love the Caption

While waiting for my name to be called, I was flipped through some magazines at the waiting room. The oldest magazine was dated 2012. Thess magazines may be dated but the contents and ideas are still evergreen. That gave me an idea. I normally would sell my magazines after reading them. This time I shall select the really best ones and leave them on the waiting room coffee table. 

To wrap up the day, I want to show the cats that have dominated our house. These cats are not mine but they are regulars at my house because we feed them everyday. Their mother was a street cat using my balcony to give birth to them. Much as I love cats, I just don't have the time to give them much tender loving care.

Sufi and Sofea. They love to sleep on the floor near the door
so husband placed the towel to make them feel more comfortable.

This is Tompok. She loves to sleep on the bed and
no amount of shooing will keep her off.

Thank you for stopping by and read my rambling. Will stop now to continue with my crochet for a while before hitting the sack. Good night everyone. Have a pleasant day and stay safe. Take care.

30 Bags in 30 Days - Bags 21 and 22

I took a long break. Yes, 6 days break from my last post. My right arm starts hurting again and I wasn't sure what is really causing the pain. It is a recurring pain and happens when I start to do more rough work continuously. I decided to give my arm a rest and just focus on mundane chores that do not require much lifting. 

Good evening everyone. I am continuing with my challenge again but in my own time. I was telling my daughter I did throw away a lot of things, donate some and sold some, yet it looks like I have not done anything at all. There is not much reduction as I had hoped for. Then I remembered, I merely pull things out to either trash or sell or donate but I didn't do any cleaning and reorganizing. The only cleaning and reorganizing I did was for the book shlef and it does make a lot of difference. Now I wonder if I should do them simultaenously or leave the cleaning and reorg later.

Well it does take quite a while for me to fill up bag 21. I realise that the items I see to throw is getting less and less. I have to really dig up from hidden areas to speed things up. This is one example where I had kept this file under the bed. After going through, I realise the plastic folders had to be discarded. Can no longer be used because some has become brittle and some has yellowed. Most of them has become hard. Probably the weather is not suitable for long term use. The file has also been removed from under the bed. How nice.

The plastic folders had to go because it is hardening
and yellowing. Some becoming brittle.

Then I went through the coffee table drawer . What a mess. After emptying all the contents I was able to segregate them into trash, to keep, to relocate and to sell.

Before

After

It was really pleasing to see the drawer rearranged after doing the necessary. So here is bag 21 which I quickly sent out to the trash bin.

Trash

The next thing I did was pull out a box file that was hidden under the stairs. I was surprised to find more P&C documents and I chose to empty the contents and start shredding them. 

Before

After. I decided to fill this up with my
Craft Mags until I am able to buy a book
case.

Bag 22 was much faster to fill up actually. I only take breaks to give time for the shredder to cool down. It means I have more items to sell to the junkyard which I didn't get to go to last Saturday.

Shredded papers to sell to the junkyard

It is drizzling a little at the time of writing this post. In all honesty, I miss going out and take nice photos. I hope I can do more photo shoots soon. I just hope this CMCO will go away.

Thank you for stopping by. Take Care and Stay Safe. Good night.

30 Bags in 30 Days - Bag 20 Trash

 Good evening.

Usually I did not reorganize and clean after emptying boxes or cupboards. I decided to leave them as is and with cleaning and reorganizing to be my next project. It was not the case with the bookshelf. I decided to clean and reorganize the shelf where I had remove the books to donate.

This was before. Notice the books on top of the books? Shows
that I really need more space for the amount of books
I have.

This was after cleaning and reorganizing. Looks much better

I decided to organize immediately after I have put away the books into the bag yesterday. Before pulling out the books I want to donate, I had to remove the books on top first. These were strewn on the floor and arranging them without cleaning the shelf first doesn't seem right.

Today I had another pile of the blue files to be discarded. Again, I remove the plastic covers and the chipboard backing was put into the bag for recycle. I don't know if I will find some more because these are mostly hidden away from view. So happy to have reduced a substantial amount of junk. 

A bag full of the trash which had been put
into the trash bin. Tomorrow is Garbage Pick-up
day. 

Since I focussed on this pile of files (I did not take photos), I decided to give the toilet sink a deep clean. This is my weekly routine.

Before. See the black spots. I really don't know how it keeps 
appearing all the time

How sudsy the sink looks. I used Multipurpose
Cream Cleaner

After. How white and spotless it is now. I always hope it will
remain this way forever. Alas no.

Normally I will spend one day in a month to deep clean the entire bathroom. I normally focus on the bathroom downstairs while I leave the upstairs bathroom to my daughter. That was how I was trained from young. 

Thank you for stopping by. Stay safe everyone. Take good care of yourselves.

30 Bags in 30 Days - Bag 19 Items to Donate

 For the past few days it has been cloudy and some evenings it will rain fairly heavily. At times it will rain for a short period of time in the morning, like it did this morning. So grateful the rain has not been causing any flooding. Hopefully it will remain that way.

The number of patients in Selangor area has not been looking good. Everyday there is an increase in number of patients and it does look grim. Yeterday the number was 225 in Selangor alone. Below is the current status of Corona pandemic in Malaysia as of 3rd November 2020. Doesn't look promising.

In the home front, I am continuing with my purging. Today I was looking at Books. As I shall be going to Ampang hospital for my next Physiotherapy, I decided to go through my shelves for books that I can donate to the Mini Library.

The setup is very simple. Anyone with books they no longer need can drop their books at the Library. Well, more of putting the books neatly on the Bookshelves provided. Anyone coming to the hospital  while waiting at the waiting area of the Physiotherapy department can either read the book there or he or she can take the book home. I did borrow one and I shall return the book during my next visit.

To me it is a good idea. It gives others a chance the benefit to read more books without buying or just loan without having to fill up their house with books. These are the books I am donating and hope someone will enjoy reading them.

The books in a haphazard manner

The Far Pavillions was my reading pleasure when I was in
University.
Twice Born was a part of my company's project of take what you want
and after reading it, can let go.
Geronimo is my daughter's favourite read and she mistakenly bought
a second copy. Letting go of one
The booklet on Stroke was given to us during an exhibition cum Talk at 
my office years ago. I discovered I had two. Letting go of one.

I bought these books during the Vampire / Changelling crazy era 
when Twilight was at its peak. After reading a few pages I lost 
interest and rather than allowing them to collect more dust, time
to let go and let someone else enjoy them

My 19th Bag. This bag will be trashed after I 
have arrange the books. Showing signs of wear and tear

The contents today. I hope to find some more books
to fill the bag before my visit to the hospital next week.