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minimalist manifesto Archives - Kate Emmerson

The amusement of irony – is it time for a self-weighing suitcase?

By Get organised NOW, Transformational Journeys

Have you even been so vehemently FOR or AGAINST something that it smacks you in the face? Even just a little bit?

 

Well I sure get that often. I also know that thank goodness I can see the irony and have a massive laugh about it and instantly think … ooooh there’s an interesting blog topic.

 

So – you may know from my last newsletter about my EPIC year ahead- embarking on my MINIMALIST MANIFESTO and being location free. That means simply being wherever I am and working mostly from my trusty Mac. A Mac AIR – see the irony that it’s so LIGHT it wants to travel too. If you missed that post and want to read more and watch my video, click here.

 

In a nutshell I am travelling the world for work, all belongings with me, (3 boxes and a Batisse piece in storage as my only other belongings to be shipped one day – pics in previous post!) in an aim to really take my notion and love of living clutter free, light and joyously to the N’th degree.

 

I’m working on the concept of 10X  living lighter for 10x  living larger

 

So I gallivant off to the UK to surprise my mom – whilst chilling out with her is always divine, this trip is actually to unleash my work on HER this time. I surprise her at King’s Cross station, having snuck into Heathrow unbeknownst to her, am booked on the same train up North as her with the sleuth-like help of my brother and watcher face as she walks out the lift – I announce “I’m here for a month and we are doing your house!”

 

We need to de-clutter her ready for downsizing when she moves later in 2016. I know the irony again right – she would sell and move in my busiest work period and I wouldn’t be able to come and assist her and then I’d feel super “kak” (for my overseas subscribers it’s a delightful South African word for feeling horrible/ guilty/SH%% all at once) at not being able to slip in a trip to support her big move. Well small move seeing as she’s downsizing!

For a laugh, we found pics of course – this is me at about 4 – already bossy with hand on hip, and then me at about 20, probably squirelling biscuits in my cheeks  at the height of my bulimic GLITCH I speak about in my second book DITCH YOUR GLITCH.

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So, I had a clear month in my diary because possible trips to Goa and the USA both got postponed as things weren’t lining up and I also did not need to be IN any specific place for 30 days. Which to be clear, this doesn’t mean “holiday”, it means I’m totally location free and devoid of face to face engagements for talks, workshops etc. It means time for working on my online business, looking after my writing mastermind group and doing my own writing etc. and then of course MUM’s HOUSE! You know, I just thought I’d be clear before you get green with envy, spitting into your morning coffee thinking that I’m swanning around the planet doing nothing. Pretending to LIVE LIGHT LIVE LARGE.

I’ll definitely let you know when I’m doing THAT.

Let’s go back a month…upon departing at OR TAMBO I was SO chuffed to have my baggage weigh-in at EXACTLY 21.3 kg’s. Happy dance at check in. Ok, to be honest they thankfully never weigh my hand luggage as that is always filled with some books to both read and my own for marketing purposes.

A month later, mum’s house has experienced a tornado called Kate whilst there is STORM KATIE in the UK – irony yet again which made me shriek with laughter when we saw the name of the storm – but not laugh at the terrible updates of devastation it caused. I have also sold some DVDs, offloaded books, given small gifts and only gathered some small things as gifts to me from family. And then there is a pot of special BETTY’S JAM for my man. That could be another entire post.

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To be fair to my brain trying to understand this, on travel day I do land up wearing different clothing to that which I flew to the UK in, so heck, maybe my shoes in the case are heavier after all, but to be honest I was WAY more concerned about my own excess baggage after drinking copious wine and scrummy food all month as we reveled in each day’s work we accomplished. But after packing my case ready to depart, I also thought, darn this feels heavier. Yes, yes – I don’t have one of those fancy schmancy self-weighing suitcases yet.

YET!

So thank heavens for dear friends – Not sure if you remember a few years ago an old dear school friend “B” had tracked me down on Fb and then flew me to the UK to de-clutter his entire house and look for a “court required” check worth a gazillion pounds – well the same fella is meeting me at Heathrow for a coffee and a cuddle. We walk me over the check in to get rid of one bag….

I’ll prefer not to say which airline – as dear “N” who checked me in will get into trouble! On goes my wild-coloured suitcase (pics in blog post here) and ……25.5 KG!

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Oops she says it’s overweight. We’ll have to weigh your hand luggage. Now to be fair I have a laptop bag as well which has about 4 KGs of stuff. But my HAND luggage felt as light as a feather compared to what it HAD been on earlier trips this year.

Eeeck 10 kg’s

Not doing too well here am I? Miss clutter free Katie?

So N says, it’s fine, just take a bit of stuff like books or shoes out hand luggage and pop into big suitcase and then you can pay for excess heavy luggage.

I’m mortified. The ONLY time I have ever paid for excess luggage since my first trip to Kuruman on my own at age 8, is when travelling with kitty kats, or boxes of books for functions. But NEVER for my own personal belongings.

I’m fast realizing at check-in that perhaps every time I do fly I’ve got at least 12 kg’s in hand luggage. I’m seriously mortified, embarrassed and start grumbling over my words

I can’t believe this

I’ve never been over weight before – In luggage that is!

THIS IS WHAT I DO FOR A LIVING – looking up at her then I start laughing!!!! I am moving 2 books and one shoe into suitcase and at that moment my dear friend B says- “show her your book” as I’m about to zip shut my life to go off down the conveyor belt

Me: Shut up what are you talking about

N: Yes she says, show me your book, show me your book, what do you do?

B: SHOW HER YOUR BOOK!

Back and forth we go…

Me: I organize and live light

B: Show her your book

N: Yes PLEASE show me your book

Me: This is a cool blog post to share how poor I am at living light

 

Sheepishly I haul out CLEAR YOUR CLUTTER and hand it to her

B: SIGN IT FOR HER!

Me: Yes I’ll give it to her- keep my weight down!

N: squeals and says you are my hero, I LOVE being organized.

ME: Yes it’s all other stuff too like body and emotional.

B: LAUGHING

N: Yes she squeals when I’m stressed I clear out.

Me thinking: Girl after my own heart and I ask her name and sign her the book.

Coming from SA you know this is sounding a lot like bribery right – I just wanted to pay my excess, see my suitcase go off to never land for the night, pay my fine make B buy me coffee so could go to duty free to buy more stuff for gifts!

She pops my suitcase back on the belt, quickly adds a heavy tag and whisks it off to happy Heathrow behind-the-scenes-land.

 

ME NO PAY!

 

N: Hands me a piece of paper and says – send me the link to your blog post when it’s done.

TICK

I walked away laughing and feeling totally ironic and sheepish as I’m clearly carrying way to much stuff on my MINIMALIST MANIFESTO.

So another clear out due before my next trip.

How much EXCESS BAGGAGE DO YOU HAVE?

After that long ramble – where can YOU see the delight of irony in your life? I know all too often we get ‘peed off’ when things go against what we say. I always prefer to ATTEMPT to see the hilarious side. I guess that’s what my favourite comedian Billy Connelly does – every day life through his wacky lense!

Wishing you an awesome LIGHT day

 

PS: I’m seriously going global. My books are currently being internationally published under the KEYS PRESS in the USA – so for those of you outside of South Africa, you can grab CLEAR YOUR CLUTTER here. In SA you can grab it here

 

 

The Minimalist Manifesto

By Transformational Journeys, Transformational thoughts

Hello everyone, today’s Blog also has a V-Log which means a short video done made in my Beloved Barrydale where my heart SINGS with glee. Just to share what wonderful projects I’m up to this year to 10 X my own life, business and message to help YOU shift YOUR life. I have been put on notice to blog and video more often from now on, as my two books CLEAR YOUR CLUTTER and DITCH YOUR GLITCH are about to be published internationally and I need to stay way more connected with all of you.  You are going to want to follow this journey as I find what stuff people store and hoard in different countries, the types of clutter, how people live, what their glitches are etc. Make sure you subscribe to my Blog on the feed on this page. I’ll update you as I go along…

Watch the video and then keep reading…

https://youtu.be/KuP2zTUpnMc

 

Here is the HONEST pic of what I’m travelling with as I LIVE LIGHT LIVE LARGE,  and how I pack my suitcase so I can literally dress out my case – I have 6 smart outfits, several casual, high heels, dancing salsa shoes, gym and yoga gear – And I STILL haven’t worn everything in my case and it’s been just a few days short of  a month already!

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I have the bare minimum of stuff I am keeping that in a friends storage (that in itself is a little weird).

*A Batisse piece of art wrapped that I LOVE
*The big box contains more Art, as well as two bedspread quilts my nan hand made when I was a teenager – I used to help her cut out and sew, so yes I’m still sentimental even though a minimalist, organized and travel light
*1st white box is all my SARS  tax type stuff – Half of which is my brothers!
* 2nd white box is my very precious treasured stuff. And most of that box if heart shaped ROCKS I have collected from beaches all around the world (not in pic they were being washed for storage!

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I literally sold, donated, re-gifted or ditched anything else I deemed that no longer serves me!

And my beloved Stripey boi looks so stressed in his new home – can you tell? No-one else can sit on the couch!

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SO – the real deal is what are YOU doing to live YOUR MAGNIFICENT LIFE?

Drop me a line if I can help you in ANY way – whether to get started, take stock, write a book, reconfigure your entire life, clear our your home, come and do a talk at your company or women’s group. I’m traveling the world following THE MINIMALIST MANIFESTO so no place is out of my way 🙂 and I am working online with people in every corner of the globe!

If you need to sign up for one of my programmes – do so here on www.kate-emmerson.com and come and connect with me on Facebook HERE