The MSE Forum will be undergoing some maintenance this evening. As a result, some users may experience temporary performance issues. Please use the Site Feedback board to report anything major. Thank you for your patience.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Hello Forumites! However well-intentioned, for the safety of other users we ask that you refrain from seeking or offering medical advice. This includes recommendations for medicines, procedures or over-the-counter remedies. Posts or threads found to be in breach of this rule will be removed.

KonMari 2017 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

13738404243224

Comments

  • Gosh Igamogam - things never quite go as expected, do they! Lucky DD1 that she has somewhere to return to, and can take off overseas for six months knowing her stuff will be looked after ... I feel your pain, though!
    Life is mainly froth and bubble: two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble, courage in your own.
  • flossyann
    flossyann Posts: 58 Forumite
    greent wrote: »
    Posted my wedding dress off yesterday to an 'angel baby gown' dressmaker. (and on my 22nd wedding anniversary too!) - along with a bag of tiny white/ cream/ clear/ pastel buttons. :)
    Lara wrote: »
    I did that back in January. Sent my wedding dress, my sisters wedding dress, my granddaughters bridesmaid dress. Makes you feel very joyful knowing you have done something positive with them.


    oh what a lovely thing for both of you to do :A

    when i eventually kondo my sentimental value items i really hope i can send my wedding dress off too so it can be made into angel gowns.

    beautiful idea x
  • daisy_1571
    daisy_1571 Posts: 1,161
    First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    edited 27 August 2017 at 8:59PM
    Hi all

    Just popped on to tell you about my pre-mk days when I kept everything in sight for Justin and Andy. Today it was the mk turn of the leanto shed where "my gardening stuff" has been mainly gathered. I also gathered up all the random bits from 2nd hut, garage and vestibule and i have just realiased i for got to check another hut, bother. Anyhoo, getting it all out I realised have (amongst others) 8 flatbladed hand forks (not to be confused with the 5 hand forks with curved prongs), I have 4 L shaped things for scraping weeds from between slabs, 10 pairs of secateurs (sure there is more in the hut I didn't check), 4 handles off spades etc cunningly shaped to be used as dibbers, 7 hand clippers/shears for hedge cutting, 1 dinky pair of shears presumably for topiary work, 2 single gardening gloves. As far as long handled tools - 3 plastic snow shovels and 2 homemade metal ones that make your ears ring when they scrape on the paths (we don't actually get much snow round here), 3 normal hoes, 1 open ended one I think you use pulling back towards you?, 2 flat hoe type things where the blade is at 90 degrees to the handle, 5 tiny forks on the end of huge long handles, 5 proper forks you can get your foot on to shove in the earth, 2 spring rakes and also 2 normal rakes, 5 spades and a shovel, 1 electric strimmer (which i hate and never use) and 3 lots of replacement strimmer twine/wire/blades none of which fit the said strimmer, 6 brushes of varying sizes including 1 with no handle and 1 with a broken handle so only about a third of its original size and fit only for one of the 7 dwarves should they ever pop round. All in all, over 100 items of old fashioned unelectrical gardening equipment plus the electric strimmer, lawnmower and hedge trimmers for use in one average sized back and front gardens. Now, I realise they probably all have slightly different uses however in my haphazard amateur way I can rake over grass, should I ever need to, plus rake out a bit of soil with same tool - I'm not percy thrower and don't need to choose between 6 hoes or 13 hand forks for planting spring bulbs in a window box. I could blame it on my late fil for buying all those secateurs (when we cleared the house when he died we had an open day where people came and took their pick of the 100s of items of brand new hoarded stuff from the attic and huts and loads of people were given a wee bonus of a torch, secateurs or a penknife (or all 3) as they left so gawd knows how many I wud have had otherwise), i cud blame it on us not having a lot of money when we started out and being grateful for anything and everything, I cud blame it on my love of old things simply because they are old, heck I cud blame it on the boogie but I know it was just me, me keeping hold of stuff for my possible future life where I wud be as cute as Barbara Good toiling in my veg patch, me not being able to see the true value of things by being blinded by the fact they were "old" so must have to be kept, me thinking "well we have never used it, aren't really sure what it is but we have had it all these years/moved it from our last house so I'd best keep it a while longer" etc etc etc, but now I can say "thank you but I will keep this, this and this, you can go off to our local allotments and hopefully someone there will have a storage of shared tools or there will be someone new to gardening who needs you and will use you not just store you." All I'm keeping is now on a shelf in a basket and some of the long tools that I actually understand the functions of and use beside them.

    Ah, peace, peace to hear myself think :)

    Here endeth today's mk lesson.


    Daisy xx
    2022: 3🏅 4⭐ 2023: 5🎖🏅🏅 🎖🏅6 ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion. Take hold of every moment - anon I'm a clutterbug butterfly 🦋 The difference between what you were yesterday and what you will be tomorrow is what you do today Well organised clutter is still clutter - Joshua Becker If you aren't already using something in your home, you won't start using it more by shoving it in a cupboard- AJMoney
  • allybee101
    allybee101 Posts: 736
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Visiting family this weekend and getting mildly frustrated with the amount of stuff in 'ancestral' home. Some examples- so many mugs they can't all fit in kitchen cupboards, can't expand into the cupboards either side as one has what appears to be a year's supply of hot drinks ingredients, the other side is the 'medicines and vitamins' cupboard which dispenses half of its contents on top of you as soon as you open the door.
    I tidied up the cutlery drawer and managed to get it wiped out and a new piece of wallpaper installed as a liner. Only succeeded in removing one bamboo knife and 4 kiwi spoons (the ones that come in the packet from the supermarket). There are 6 remaining kiwi spoons, for a 2 person household. Oh and some measuring spoons that don't actually tell you how much they hold...
    There was slightly more success in one of the dried goods cupboards, 4 packets of leaf gelatine removed ("too faffy") several tubs of fairy cake cases that had yellowed, which had labels from Wilko for the princely sum of 29p. A pile of cake decorations - sugar strands, orange and lemon jelly slices, silver balls etc. The winner of the vintage decorations award was the silver balls at 2002! :o
    All in all it's about a carrier bag full, and no doubt the neatness will last barely a week, but I hope it might help.
    The frustrating thing is that The Book has been read by Mum and she loves it. She has done her clothes, and we did the linen cupboard and various other bits together. But it seems to stall beyond that. Every cupboard is full of stuff, the loft is full and one spare room is barely navigable. It's nowhere near serious hoarding but the thought of having to clear all this stuff when the inevitable happens is overwhelming.
    I think they would be so much happier without so much clutter but I cannot and will not force anything. I will continue to stealth tidy so that at least the stuff is more orderly and hopefully that will help them see what they don't need.
    GQ I'm really starting to empathise with your situation at the family home. We're nowhere near that level but I can appreciate how hard it must be!
    I might tackle another kitchen cupboard before I leave tomorrow if I can sneak it in.
    One bonus is that it's giving me added impetus to sort my own carp out!
    "Does it spark joy?" - Marie Kondo

    "Do not wait; the time will never be "just right." Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along." Napoleon Hill
  • Oh, Daisy, your post above made me roar - I didn't have quite as many garden tools as that, but the secateurs were into double figures. Mainly because the cheap ones go blunt after a year or so .... So why was I keeping them?. You've summed up everything that MK is about, the hanging on to 'who I want to become' even after we've moved on from that ambition.

    Allybee I wonder why your mum is ok with clothes but not household goods. You could be describing the contents of my late mothers kitchen, right down to the yellowing cake cases. She loved baking and I don't think there was ever a point when she thought she would stop making cakes so she hung on to all those sorts of things.
    Life is mainly froth and bubble: two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble, courage in your own.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 12,492
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    edited 28 August 2017 at 9:53AM
    The angel gifting, what a wonderful heart-warming thing to do

    Ally, how old is mum? Is she unable to do these things for herself and is she living on her own? Those things, taken as a whole are probably too overwhelming for her as a whole. Personally I would resent anyone coming in to take over de-cluttering, knowing deep down the reason why ie to clear things before the inevitable. I know you are doing it by stealth and from kindness but that does not stop body language. I would leave a crate, one of those fold up cheap ones and ask her if she could fill it by your next visit. Then collect it and leave another empty one. Maybe she isn`t so well and cannot be bothered but one crate at a time might just spark her into being positive about doing this

    I am just about to tackle tights, as soon as a stockings/hold ups order arrives. I am going back decades here but want to wear my lovely skirts and dresses and am not happy in bare legs, unless at home, also the hygiene factor in that body area and the tights cr*tch that gets lower and lower during the day, while the ankles end up like nora batty ankles. So an experiment coming up, that logically will work, I have ordered the suspender belt and wide leg stockings and hold ups, one pair of each for a test. I am sure they will be good, then most tights will go and that will leave more than enough space. I am refining KM in these underwear drawers now, last KM in there :) it has taken 4 stages in all

    I don`t consciously tackle a big KM at the moment but it is evolving. Later I will open a nice large cream padded leather box, that doubles as a visitor seat in my snug. I am sure there will be a few things in there. CS trolley is getting fuller, slowly now but nice to be giving good stuff away to the hospice shop
  • Siebrie
    Siebrie Posts: 2,887
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    Forumite
    I'm reverse kondoing; aaargh! My uncle and aunt are clearing out their house of 40 years, and dh and I are collecting stuff to send to his relatives in Africa, and hopefully to sell over there for a profit, so our attic is filling up, and the really nice items I want to keep :( Lovely sets of oven dishes, nice woollen cardy (I'll definitely keep), tablecloths, skirts, towels..... We want to buy a secondhand 4x4 car with tinted glasses and airconditioner, fill it with stuff to sell, send it to dh's country by boat, and sell all, including the car.
    Are you wombling, too, in '22? € 58,96 = £ 52.09Wombling in Restrictive Times (2021) € 2.138,82 = £ 1,813.15Wombabeluba 2020! € 453,22 = £ 403.842019's wi-wa-wombles € 2.244,20 = £ 1,909.46Wombling to wealth 2018 € 972,97 = £ 879.54Still a womble 2017 #25 € 7.116,68 = £ 6,309.50Wombling Free 2016 #2 € 3.484,31 = £ 3,104.59
  • Igamogam
    Igamogam Posts: 6,024
    Debt-free and Proud! First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    Gosh Igamogam - things never quite go as expected, do they! Lucky DD1 that she has somewhere to return to, and can take off overseas for six months knowing her stuff will be looked after ... I feel your pain, though!


    Mmm......its been a bit an emotional weekend! Her room has very much become the 'spare room' over the last 5 years since she graduated. Its been hard to explain 'well yes this is your home but you havent "lived" here for a while' I managed to persuade her to part with some of the shoes she brought home -I will take to textile recycle tomorrow:(
    Be the change you want to see -with apologies to Gandhi :o
    In gardens, beauty is a by-product. The main business is sex and death. ~Sam Llewelyn
    'On the internet no one knows you are a cat' :) ;)
  • wort
    wort Posts: 1,663
    First Anniversary Name Dropper Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    Happy anniversary, Greent! And a lovely thing to donate your wedding dress by both you and Lara.
    Thank you Mmf007 ,need all the encouragement I can to get stuck back in to the garden. I was going to do some today, but yesterday saw dgson and I with my brother sister and their OH s and 2 children go for a walk, up through the plantations, stopping off on the way back for some tea. Then on to my nieces house for a few drinks sat round the fire pit. Which necessitated a shower this morning to get rid of the smoke from my hair, and a wash putting on for the clothes. Dgson here until mid afternoon, so I'll see how I feel then.
    Ali bee, would she not be more receptive if you said you knew someone who could benefit from some kitchen items as they are starting out? Then she might donate some mugs and things for them.
    Daisy, well done that sounds like a mammoth kondo :T
    Igamogam would she not sell to use the money for travelling? I think people might buy now for going to uni, or for a little drinks fridge when they have bbq s etc.
    Focus on contribution instead of the impressiveness of consumption to see the true beauty in people.
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 16,073
    Name Dropper Photogenic First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    Igamogam wrote: »
    Mmm......its been a bit an emotional weekend! Her room has very much become the 'spare room' over the last 5 years since she graduated. Its been hard to explain 'well yes this is your home but you havent "lived" here for a while' I managed to persuade her to part with some of the shoes she brought home -I will take to textile recycle tomorrow:(

    Can you offer space in the attic for anything that is boxed up? And be very clear that you are offering 'storage' not living space. It's tough, but although we all like to feel our parents are there to run back to, they have their own lives.

    Mind you, I left all sorts of rubbish at my parents' for years as they had space and I didn't. When I moved last, I hired a van and my cousin went to pick up some furniture from them - my dad put a lot of stuff in the van that I wasn't expecting ;).

    When my parents' moved, the rest of mine and my brother's stuff was sent down to our homes and their new house was very much theirs rather than 'ours' which helped. There is plenty of space for guests, a room that is very definitely for the grandchildren. But neither my brother or I can lay claim to a particular room anymore.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 342.4K Banking & Borrowing
  • 249.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 234.6K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 607K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 172.8K Life & Family
  • 247.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.8K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards