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Goodbye, Bunkyo-ku
In the living room at 3:30, 4:30, and 6:30. It was a long day scrambling to get the last of the gear and materials packed. We did get to the stage of putting things in boxes marks “stuff” and “random” when the movers arrived half an hour early. But I’m sure it will all be…
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Bittersweet Goodbyes
The kids’ chalk drawings at this house have gone from Anpanman scribbles to train schematics. Me: We’ve only got a couple of days left; we should plan to eat at our favorite restaurants and say goodbye to the neighbors we like. Tod: Yeah, we should but we’ll come back. Me: Did we go back to…
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Boxes & Kanji
Preparations for moving are definitely underway. We have piles of boxes where the sofa used to be. Ultra Bob collected the sofa last weekend and traded me an electric bass for it – a trade I am very happy about. If it all works out, our unwanted furniture will have a happy new home: the…
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Midlife Lifestyle Style Change
Our current home and our soon-to-be home. So many personal plans have been happening behind the scenes and now that dates are set and everything is moving forward at a brisk clip, I can finally tell you about them. Long story made short: We are permanent residents of Japan; Tod’s quit his job; We are…
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Reasonably Tidy
The living room circa 1978 “What sort of home did you grow up in?” a #minsgame friend asked me after describing her mother’s hoarding tendencies and the clutter she lived with as a child. A phrase popped into my head immediately. Mom described our house as “reasonably tidy” and I remember her making sure that…
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We won the #minsgame
Tod & I both played through the Minimalism Game this month with great success. 1576 items left our apartment in 31 days. What?! I started the game thinking I didn’t really have that much clutter and that reaching the goal – 496 items – was going to clear out my spaces very well. As it…
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Minimal Wardrobe Experiment
I am trying out the idea of a very minimal wardrobe. I put away all of my clothes except five layered outfits, two pairs of pyjamas, and four each of socks and underwear. I’ve got one sweater, one fleece, one coat. Four pairs of shoes. It’s been a week since I started and I am…
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Minimalism Game
Tod & I are planning to move house this spring and we are also striving to simplify and downsize. We’ve been in our current apartment for over 13 years, so even though I frequently purge things, moving is going to be painful. So I was sort of delighted when Tod agreed to play the Minimalism…
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Anti-Hoarding
I am reading the book Stuff, Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy Frost and Gail Steketee. It’s a fascinating and sympathetic book about hoarders, who are often intelligent, kind and lovely people who attach a depth of meaning to their possessions that means they can’t let go of them. Cleaning the house…
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Building a Geiger Counter
Meet bGeigie #2209. We built her yesterday. Tod soldered 179 points. I did the non-soldering bits. The build took us most of the day, but it wasn’t too hard. I think some of the time was taken up awe, making comments like “Wow, we’re adding the smallest disk drive ever” and “This tiny thing is a…
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