clear space
For well over a year now my daughter has have lost interest in dressing up in princess dresses. For sentimental reasons I’ve been holding on to them but she has clearly moved on from that stage so the dresses are being passed on. When she was a toddler we tried to keep her away from too much pink, frills and glitter. Of course, that didn’t work but we were fine with it. Continue reading “memory archive — day 90”
This clock has been part of the household for a long time (when I moved in, it was already there). Initially still being used as a regular clock, diligently turning over the months and date flaps, we had to acknowledge after a while that it was in need of way too many batteries. So it went dormant, turning into a decorative piece on top of the fridge. To make sure it still had some sort of meaning, we turned the month, date and day flaps to birthdays of family members, a sort of ongoing celebration of those dates, I guess. A recent fridge climbing attempt of our daughter, however, resulted in a fall of the clock which broke the city flaps. It was the cue that it was probably time to let go of this dust collector.
As I’ve mentioned many times, I am longing for a complete clutter free home. It is a challenge, for some rooms in the house more so than for others. The kitchen is a good example for one of the more difficult rooms. A space with nearly never–ending activity; it is the perfect space for clutter to pile up. I am not sure you can officially call food ‘clutter’, however, I feel if it ends up not being eaten and just taking up space, I can refer to it as just that. Continue reading “memory archive — day 88”
Despite people believing the opposite, I am not a crafty person. Exactly three times per year, I do a crafts activity with the kids: At the very start of the long summer break and for their birthday parties. On the few occasions we manage to make something, I am extremely pleased with myself, more so than the kids who did it (mostly, as I am a little bit of a perfectionist). And this makes me keep our rare crafts projects far longer than anyone even bothers looking at them. For example, this egg carton aquarium was displayed at random locations within the house for 1.5 years.
As much as I’ve gotten used to throwing out clutter by now, I still make sure I re-use parts if possible. So the shells of the aquarium have been kept, naturally.
Exactly one year ago the National Art Center Tokyo was holding the exhibition こいのぼりなう！— Koinobori Now! which I enjoyed so much that I kept on to the do-it-yourself work the whole family did at the exhibition until now. Continue reading “memory archive — day 86”
In hindsight I regret getting rid of this scarf. I had kept it and worn for about nine years for a good reason after all. Looking at the image of its cross pattern now, I realise that it does remind me of Japanese traditional pattern designs; two-tone and minimalistic repetition. So even long before I knew that I’d be going to live in Japan, I was, subconsciously, drawn to the country’s design aesthetics.
Today I’d like to add two items that don’t hold much of a memory at all, rather the opposite. After all most of the clutter people live with fall under this category, I suppose. I found those on top of the bedroom cupboard, covered in dust and completely forgotten. The bag had already started to disintegrate — I only partly blame this on age. Another key reason, I feel, is the extreme conditions of Japanese climate that the bag was exposed to in our hardly heated or cooled bedroom: total dryness in winter vs a very humid and hot summer.
The denim cut-offs left me a bit speechless. No one in the family is any good with crafts, however, keeping small pieces of fabric would only make sense if you were thinking of making anything out of those. For once I can point my finger at another family member though as I am not the one who kept the cut-offs; that I really wouldn’t have even considered.
