The KonMarie method

jinny

TO MUCH IN DEBT
Hi and welcome please keep coming on here for support
I love this thread everyone is respectful
Some only have a tiny place and live alone or like you kids, pets, jobs it aint easy I brought 2 lads up on my own
They ate and still do eat for england. I do the main laundry and cleaning. However they do their own sports kit and some cooking. I taught them to safely cook after finding my oldest making himself a plate of egg n chips when he was quite young:eek:
They arent big on cleaning up or washing up after cooking but hey thats an on ongoing nag im slowly winning. When mama is happy the house is happ


First of all I dont know how old your kids are I presume school age. You may already do these so apologies if telling you how to suck eggs!!! So with help from everyone even the youngest
1. pick a day for menu planning then make a shopping list
2. Sometime over the weekend sort out clothes for everyone for the week get them washed hung up
3. Every night all laundry in a basket that everyone has each
4. Basket near the door where post and letters from school are placed. Ive said earlier I used to find unreadable letters covered in grass ect underneath muddy football boots in school bags.
im sure others who have kids will come on and add tricks and tips for you
but please remember these days will be over all to soon
whats a bit mess if you are all happy n healthy if people dont like it they know where the door i
youre doing fine
we all cant live like the waltons

Start with a small drawer in your bedroom and you will see how that keeps nicely tidy. That will spur you on
out of all of you some will be naturally tidy and some will be messies. You arent going to change their natures and you will fail anyway.
Please keep reading the thread getting rid of stuff does make life easier
Best wishes.

jinny

PS
I only wish I could come and help you
x

GreyQueen

Morning all.

Toomuchdebt, wow, five kids at home plus you, OH and pets, that's a full-on household. No wonder you feel overwhelmed, you're only human.

Could you start with kids' clothes, I imagine there would be a lot of them, getting into the stuff which is already too small for the littlest household members and then moving up through the stuff which may being stored to hand-down to the youngest. On closer insepection, some of this may have already become too small/ be too damaged/ just plain unsuitable. There are probably fleets of shoes around, too, and backpacks, and semi-broken plastic lunchboxes, and roller skates.......

Then, maybe, with close co-operation of the kids, you could work through their toys and books, you could get quick gains with outdoor stuff like pushbikes which no one uses becuase they're outgrown and any of those humungous ride-on plastic toys. If they're decent enough, you might want to try selling them and give the relevent child the proceeds?

In the kitchen, it's likely that there will be stuff which is obsolete due to their ages. Baby bottles? Shoals of plastic beakers/ sippy cups? Have you got second-class crocks or pans, ones you're replaced because they were unsatisfactory, but you've kept hold of 'just in case'. Do you have cupboards full of plastic containers and do they all have their lids?

If you're holding onto bales of childrens' artwork, bushels of their craft projects and all their baby memorabilia, perhaps you could choose one attractive box for each child as a keepsake box, and only keep the best-of-the-best stuff there? Odds are they'll want nothing that you've been keeping for them, but if you're not comfortable with the idea of ditching everything, at least limit and contain the items. I've never encountered any adult who was anything other than incredulous that a parent had kept their wristband from the hospital where they were born and various other ephermera. And, no, they didn't want them and binned them.

If you have anything in your home belonging to people who don't actually live there, you need to contact them and give them a reasonable deadline for its removal (a month? two months?). They either should have it in their homes or, if it's that important to them, put it in paid storage. You haven't the space and you need all you have and more.

If you're thinking about moving shortly, sit with a cuppa and a notebook and make a Pretend Packing List. As in, what would you pack away first, because it isn't in regular use, and what would have to stay until the very last minute, even stay unpacked until the evening before moving day? The things which you have to leave out are the things which are important to your household. The things which you could pack now for a move in 6 months' time probably don't even need to come with you. HTH.

jinny

Greyqueen
your post is fab to the lovely lady with five kids
its what I wanted to say but you put it better

I found and do it to this day as I still live with my two sons
is. I only have 4 sets of cutlery and four cups 4 plates ect in the cubby. The rest are well out of reach in case of breakages.
that alone cuts down on washing up.

you are also right there is potential for selling toys ect bringing in money.

turtlemoose

It has taken me a week to read this thread but finally I am done!

I devoured the book, and love it.

I've samosad my carriers, ranger rolled my teatowels, and have mounds of stuff for the CS....and I haven't even started properly!

I am a hoarder, and I find it incredibly hard to get rid of anything that "might come in handy". I've tried to declutter so many times over the years, and each time has been a stressful, emotional and ultimately unsuccessful attempt.

I've always tackled my stuff thinking "what should I get rid of?", which didn't work. Now I think "what do I want to keep?" And I set the rest free.

Konmari has made me understand the difference.

GreyQueen

That bit in the book was a LBM for me, too. We tend to go about sorting out our homes arris-backwards, don't we? A lot of the stuff we have is a as a result of happenstance, random decisions, random gifts etc, but once it's in here, it gets it's hooks into us and we fret that if we don't have it, we will be in desperate straits.

Once you start from the opposite perspective, about what you NEED, you are already winning the decluttering stakes.

jinny, thank you for the compliment, but I really must get off this pooter for a little while as my home is a muddle and I'll get excommunicated from the Kult if I don't sort a few things here at the homestead. I blame it on being very busy on Friday and Saturday - I'd blame it on someone else but I live alone.

Will be checking on and off during the day.

jinny

Me too GQ
I love Sundays......my sons are out most of the day and evening
Coaching, playing then watching sports.. day to myself for
Archers....kondoing or talking about it on here! Lol
Then bubble bath then Call the midwife and Mr Selfrdge
doesnt get any better

katsu

snoozer wrote: »

I have lots of pens and pencils as well but they have been sitting in a drawer for the last 6 years at least because DH gave me a beautiful Mont Blanc set which includes pencil, ballpoint, rollerball and fountain pen. They are a joy to write with so I shall be getting rid of all the cheap plastic pens I've been keeping just in case.

I decided to clear our massive heap of pens and pencils. I remembered once donating them overseas. I thought people might be interested in one of these projects as an option to use unwanted stationary etc to help kids get an education:


http://www.pensforkids.co.uk/how_you_can_help.html gives details of where you can send pens and pencils. You can click through on the list of ambassadors and select someone to send them to overseas, or just send them to the UK charity office.

or there is a food charity that takes backpacks with pencils, pens, soap and clothes etc for African children if you have other things to pass on might beworth a look? http://www.marysmeals.org.uk/what-you-can-do/backpack-project/

I hope these links help share some joy in our clearing out!

GreyQueen

Ooof, I could just lie on the couch until late afternoon, when I'm heading out with friends, but that won't get the baby a bonnet, and will see me in a muddle at the start of the workweek. And if I start in a muddle, I will end in a muddle.

OK, I went away and put the dishes into a bowl of scalding hot water to soak whilst I washed my hair. Came back, water hot enough to be manageble, washed and dried and did a second bowlful.

Picked up the several items which were lying on the bedroom floor, or that small section of floor not under the bed or c-of-d (33 inches x 50 inches). They were from the toolbag which lives under the bed and were left out because I needed to do something to them. That something was to make a safe edge for the sawblade, fashion a scabbard from a 4 pinter placcy milk bottle and gaffer tape for the wire brush, as I've had far too many abrasive encounters with the latter when delving for other things, and to put a stray screwdriver in the screwdriver roll. All done and put away.

I also hiffed out to random items, one for the bin and one to c.s. as I can't see them ever being used and they're awkward shapes. There was also a strange bit of metal which looks like it came off the steel tool box I recycled a couple of years back.

I've also rounded up the last of the new washer paperwork off the freezer, added it to the warranty folder, shredded to stuff relating to the old washer and binned its instructions, and picked up what I thought was a folder of photos and negs, but which turned out to be just one photo of my Nan, which my aunt gave me a few months ago. Have albumed that, plus a couple of stray pix, plus decided two others don't need to be kept but that one of them will make an amusing photo for a pal's birthday card in April, so that will see that gone.

Am still weary, having a refuel of tea, and readying myself for the next go-round. Keep on keeping on, lovely peeps.

WeeMidgie

I've started on books - specific subsection for today, cookery books. Anything I haven't used in the past 3 years is on its way out of the house.

I'm only cooking for me these days, and what I cook gets simpler all the time - and as I no longer eat grains, I no longer bake, so life in the kitchen is full of joy these days, so many recipes decluttered! And the great bonus is, my health is going from strength to strength!