My yarn collecting journey

(Disclaimer: I don’t collect any yarn) 

Sylvia bought more yarn this week. She found 50 over balls in her delivery, but claimed she ordered only 40.

I don’t know if I should believe her. I need help. 

From time to time, Sylvia would innocently share with me memes created by yarn addicts trying to assuage their guilt and try to make me laugh with her at it. I come home and see more yarn. 

What’s wrong with me?

Why can’t I say no? 

As I watch the yarn at home pile into a mountain, I ask myself: am I really helpless? Can’t I do something about it? 

But the sad fact is that there’s nothing I can do. If I suggest projects, Sylvia will buy more yarn. If I don’t say anything, she will find deals and reasons to buy more yarn. 

I have asked her to blog.. Maybe just to distract her a little, so that her hands will stop twitching. But she hasn’t been on here for weeks. 

It’s just me. On this long journey. With all these balls of yarn surrounding me. I need help before this addiction overwhelms me. 

Muji furniture

I have a problem with yarn hoarding. It wasn’t obvious until Damon helped me to get a set of Muji drawers to organise my yarn stash (which was all over the place). That’s not all, because there was a sale online and I bought 40 more balls of yarn; they are still on their way here. I asked Damon whether he preferred this or for the house to be filled with branded bags, and he said he wasn’t sure which was better. But I’m so thankful he’s been really tolerant and supportive of my hobby. He’s a man of few possessions – all his hobbies are electronic-based – programming, gaming and watching TV. I’m the hoarder around here.

We have three of these Muji PP storage drawers in our house. At first, before the house was here, we bought two and ended up using only one for our clothes. The spare one came in useful once Meredith was here. And now we have a third one for my yarn. I like the PP series because it’s translucent and allows you to see into the drawers, but it’s not so transparent that it starts looking messy. When you have a small home, it helps that your furniture looks light and airy because it doesn’t make the room(s) feel smaller than they already are.

I really love how Muji products helped us to organise the home.
For example, we bought their laundry basket, which fits nicely in our bathroom. We had a headache where the laundry basket should go, but this was clean-looking and slim enough not to obstruct anything. What I love most about this, however, is the fact that it holds the right amount of clothes to fit one washing session for our washing machine (which holds 8kg of washing, I think). It’s great if you’re busy and can’t keep track of laundry days – the moment you see that this basket is full, you know it’s time to do the laundry. The other great thing about this is that there’s a drawstring bag at the top of the net, so if you ever have guests, you can hide your unsightly and smelly laundry by pulling the drawstrings so that you don’t need to have awkward moments when your guests need the bathroom.

I know that a common complaint about Muji is that their furniture is pricier than, say, Ikea. Having a small home did ensure that our Muji furnishing was within budget, however. We did make some Ikea purchases, but guess what? They did not last half as long as the Muji products. Overall, because of their durability, Muji furniture isn’t much more expensive than other furniture stores.

Perhaps the most attractive quality about Muji products is that they embody the idea of emptiness:

The first is the idea of “emptiness.” The idea of simplicity comes from Western contemporary design and takes a rationalistic form. But in traditional Japanese design, simplicity has a slightly different character. It is the simple form that gives users the freedom to develop their own way of handling an object. It is this depth that I call emptiness. MUJI essentially embodies this emptiness. For example, the MUJI mattress with legs can also be used as a sofa. You could also put several together to create an elevated floor. Giving users the freedom to use our products however they wish is what I mean by emptiness. We feel this is not something to be explained in words. Our visuals are designed to wake people to this emptiness so that users feel it the moment they seem them. [SOURCE]

It is this emptiness that invites you to make Muji furniture and your home your own. ❤