The KonMarie method

rockm87

So this weekend I made a start - clothes!

I cannot believe how many clothes I have, they took up the whole room (who have to pile up ALL your clothes from around the house, all at once).

I got rid of half my stuff...wardrobe still seems full, but drawers are better as more was folded properly and put away.

...next week, making a start on my books.

Aaleigha

Everyone seems to be doing so well

GreyQueen thanks for the info on keeping the washing machine dry to stop the mould - I do the seal often or it gets full of dog hairs - but my dispenser drawer is a disgrace

so done bras this morning all tights and socks on bed so have to do the before bedtime and that includes the huge bag of orphans ( must be at least some pairs in there) will keep any remaining orphans for one month after that they can go

going to phone local refuge to see if they want some bras many new without tickets or worn once of twice - so like new

if not off to the charity bag which I hope to have full enough to take down Thursday as I am going to town to have hair done (at local college) right off to kitchen to make a cuppa then off to bedroom to match some orphans

Nix143

I work full time, do freelance, have crazy pugs and then comp and I think what has been putting me off dealing with my house was the SO MUCH TO DO! SO LITTLE TIME! syndrome.

KonMarie has changed that. I've adapted it in that i don't do all clothes/books etc at once. I do one small area at a time. This weekend was baking shelf, under the sink and kitchen surfaces (all done in little bits over the day). I'd already done some of the kitchen last couple of weeks. And I now only have one more cupboard to go.

What I am finding, like so many of you, is this
1. If you do it right - thoroughly - and you get the storage right (hurrah for Tupperware!) then it tends to stay right. I think it's that thing of really thinking about an item. Do I need it? Do I REALLY need it? No Nixy, do you REALLY REALLY need it? makes you 'aware' of it as an object. It's kinda the joy thing. So once I have decided yes I do, I really do need it and want it and it has a place then the placing of it in its new home kinda sticks in your brain.
2. Until things have a home they tend to wander. This has been a revelation. I can sort through things, throw things out, downsize etc - but if I don't find them an efficient home then they aren't done with. Everything that has been done properly and now has a designated spot in the house will now forever live there - because those are the new rules. Things now feel 'wrong' when they aren't where they are supposed to be. I mean it feels wrong and niggles me on the inside until I have moved them back into their spot and they have snuggled down and we have both heaved a sigh of relief. Weird.
3. Sometimes I will get rid of things that later come in handy - and you know what, that isn't the end of the world. The week after I got rid of all my old just in case towels my car sprung a leak and ended up full of water. And my just in case towels would have been used. But you know what? I used my one good beach towel, washed it and it's back in the airing cupboard and the world didn't come to an end. Who knew? :rotfl:
4. I am enjoying the, for me, very slow process of change. I am going slow. I think initially I expected it to all unravel and then I could say 'see, I wasn't MEANT to be tidy' but it hasn't unraveled and it just gets better. So I go slow and each little area really does fill me with joy. And it fills me with the knowledge that this whole thing is completely do-able.
5. My house looks bi-polar! Some stuff hasn't found its permanent home yet and so it gets bagged/boxed up and dumped until the place where it WILL live is done. Currently I have cardboard storage boxes in my living room that hold categories - for instance everything to do with the dogs is in one. Who knew they had so much stuff? So there is general chaos and some spots of complete calm and serentity. The kitchen is SO close to being completely done (and I've almost finished staining the floor!) and it makes me happy. Love it. What i have done is explain to people that I am mid a massive de-clutter. Normally if people were coming round I would shove half empty boxes and bags in cupboards. Now I have told them what's happening and that they have to ignore the chaos - it is controlled chaos
6. Cleaning isn't such a PITA! And should be really easily achievable once everything is done. Who knew? I'd still like a char though

Keep on posting everyone - I love reading where/what you are up to. You're all an inspiration XX

All this stuff that probably comes really easily to tidy people has been a complete revelation to me


Edit to explain - I take a big category and split it up into bitesize chunks - so kitchen became cupboard 1, 2, 3, etc - as everything was generally grouped together (baking/spices/tins/dried goods etc). And then things like tools I have had to come up with interim solutions to as there is no WAY I would be able to gather them all together at once. I am sure there is a screwdriver/hammer in every cupboard and drawer in my house! So they are being thrown in 2 toolboxes as I go along and when I have them all together they will get kondo'd properly. A lot of it has been this 2 part process of it taking me ruddy ages to find everything before I could kondo it

whitesatin

My utility room is now a lovely shade of duck egg blue which really pulls it together. I have spent time (after painting), organizing the cupboards etc. so I am quite proud of it.

Shattered now though. Luckily I don't have to cook this evening as going out for a lovely meal in Berkhamsted with my husband. I feel like I have worked off the calories.

meames_2

Remember the falling down chest of drawers, finally got around to pAinting the new one yesterday and got to kondo it today. There are more drawers but the cod has two empty drawers waiting for the wardrobe Kondo to fill them.

I do have a problem with bras. I can only wear underwire and they are a large size so have trouble fitting in drawers without the wires catching.

lilahloo

I've ground to a bit of a halt but check regularly to see how you are all getting on.

I know where I really need/want to tackle next I just need to summon the mental energy to go at it. The under stairs cupboard!!!!

Now I've stated my intention it will be done this weekend!

Islandmaid

Hi all,

DD got rid of several more black bags of 'stuff' from her room before she,s moves to her new room in a couple of weeks - at least it,s cut down on her 'floordrobe' - not sure if I am brave enough to enter her lair with full Kondo-kit just yet, may leave it till the bedroom move

JIL

My son came home for the weekend and asked if I had got a cleaner. He said he had never seen the house so tidy and organised!! I am not half way through yet.
My parents have seen the transformation and they have started on their house. My mother who hoards and buys so much from car boot sales and charity shops, all in the hope that one day it will be worth something, has thrown out some broken ornaments. I read her little extracts from the book. Maybe she is being slowly konverted?

GreyQueen

JIL wrote: »

My son came home for the weekend and asked if I had got a cleaner. He said he had never seen the house so tidy and organised!! I am not half way through yet.
My parents have seen the transformation and they have started on their house. My mother who hoards and buys so much from car boot sales and charity shops, all in the hope that one day it will be worth something, has thrown out some broken ornaments. I read her little extracts from the book. Maybe she is being slowly konverted?

Isn't it funny how life brings random things together? F'rinstance, yesterday after work, I was hanging out in my friend's small shop, where he sells curios and collecables, has been in biz since the late 1960s. He was chatting to me and another regular and the subject of hoarding stock because it might one day be a lot more valuable than it is now, came up. And, remember, this guy has nearly 50 years in 'the trade' and knows a lot of other dealers and collectors.

He described his agreement about a comment from another old hand about not keeping stuff because it might appreciate in value, but because you love it. He described some things he'd bought over the years, and decided to keep for himself, rather than sell on. About how you might get them out of their cabinet every few weeks and still feel the rush of pleasure you had when you first acquired them, even if that was decades ago. And every time you saw/ handled them, it was the same rush.

I could almost hear MK in the background about stuff giving you joy.

I decluttered another handful of scratch paper by using it and ditched another worn-down-too-small pencil at the end of yesterday's shift. I realised that I had a lot of part-worn bogstandard pencils in my possession and decided to use them up.

The skinny wall unit in the kitchen where I keep my plastic containers is thinning out due to the death from old age of various non-purposemade storage containers. The takeaway boxes and the ice-cream tubs are leaving in the recycling and I will try not to replace them, unless I see a good example of one of the four types of proper tubbywares/ lock&locks which have proved themselves the most useful when shopping in the chazzers. All 3 of my l&l came from chazzers, I was amazed.

oldtractor

love the post GreyQueen