The KonMarie method

GreyQueen

:T Wow, pollywollydoodle, that is a superb testimony to the power of the KM method. Lovely to have you posting with us.

Today is a non-paid-work day for me so was up on my allotment by 8.45 am. I had a Cunning Plan which I successfully executed, which was to tidy and organsie the shed ready for my helpers coming over tomorrow to plant potatoes with me. Due to ME, I can neither plant nor harvest the spuds in one day, unaided, I would have to take two days over it. Last year, I planted unaided but harvested with help.

Dad and I will plant the spuds, but I wanted some things for Mum to do, she's very handy, just her back won't stand the bending to do gardening. Had made a mental list of some things and brought those items forward for action, even grouping them in the pink trugs, with all the accessories which will be needed to do the jobs.

Have marked up some bits of wood which need to be cut and brought the hand-saws forward. Have swept out, reorganised the seeds and familiarised myself with what I have and what I may want to buy (not much at all) so it was all good.

Also turfed out some misc rubbish which had a accumulated, put a dozen onions in a net ready to give to Mum & Dad and generally left the place looking spiffy.

Although I was outside when the eclipse happened, I can honestly say that the overcast sky was so heavy that I wasn't even aware of it happening, although my greengrocer, who I visited on the way home, said that various godbotherers were running around on the street carrying on that the end is nigh........... and here we all are, with the sun come out now and another spring day to enjoy.

In 24 hrs time, unless the weather turns vile, these seed potatoes will be in the ground a mile away and I'll get my living room surfaces back, oh, cannot wait!

CKgeordieinlondon

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

A little tip for those struggling with ephemeral stuff like cards and photos - I can't post a link as I'm a newbie but if you go to Amazon and search 'picture pocket' you'll see what I mean, it's a plastic sheet of pockets. I have one on my kitchen door, it holds not just photos but postcards, theatre tickets, invitations, newspaper cuttings, birthday cards cut down to fit - it's like a living diary and I add and remove things every so often to keep it up to date. Might help with those things you don't want to throw out just yet.

Ooh I'd never heard of them before but they look great. DH loves to keep tickets from past events so I'll get him one. In fact I think thats going to be "This years present" for everyone.

jue

Hi everyone, you lot are sooo busy, it's been a joy to read this thread now from start to finish.
This morning have been in the bathroom and gone through the toiletries, even DH joined in. He keeps buying shower gels and deodorant sprays from the pound shop saving the stuff in the drawers in the bathroom for best. Even he now agrees to use up the large amount of stuff he already has.
A bag full of unjoyful toiletries are now in the bin and just two things for the charity
shop which are still packaged.
I don't have an empty draw from this as we had spillage out from the drawers on top of them and on the floor but that is all now clear :-)
DH has even parted with a really old bottle of his favourite aftershave that now smells like fly spray after going off, a lesson about saving toiletries for best there :-) I even keep wearing perfume for bed, it makes me happy :-)

springdreams

mrs-moneypenny wrote: »

Morning all
Got 3 big bags and 2 fruit boxes full of books to take to the CS at the weekend. I'm really pleased with how much better the landing is looking it doesn't feeling choked up with stuff now.
I'm planning to kondo the towel shelf in the bathroom this morning, there are loads of towels, some are looking a bit worse for wear. A couple of years ago I did roll them and they all looked so much better but they slowly drifted back to being folded and stacked.

Have a good day all

Towels is the item I think I am going to struggle with. Although rolling them makes them look nice, the problem is that you are still grabbing the ones at the top and the whole lot rolls around and unravels if you remove the wrong ones ....

What to do, what to do ....

Although I have a while before I get there, as I'm still on books. I'm going to do one bookshelf at a time as I don't have room to put them all out in one place, plus I can't see myself getting to do them all in one go. Shoulder is still frozen and hampering my kondoing efforts.

Picklepot

Hello all


I have just managed to get through all the thread - wow! am totally inspired by all your thoughts and comments.


I have ordered the book from the library and am at pre kondoing phase

I know this sounds a strange question but I am at a big turning point in my life. Have to rethink my job/career and everything connected.( Long story I wont bore you with). Has anyone any experiences they are willing to share on whether this has helped you get out of a mental rut? I'm sure 'my stuff' stifles me and causes lots of obstacles. I don't mean that I am a hoarder that has little pathways through my boxes or anything like that. On the surface house looks ok but every cupboard drawer, loft, garage etc. is needing kondoing. Having said that I am untidy, most of my stuff doesn't have a home because the cupboards are full of...well stuff that doesn't bring me joy... Sometimes I feel stifled by the need to get it all dealt with to allow me to do spontaneous things like go away for the weekends or invite friends over or apply for that job. I don't know whether any of that makes sense and apologies if it doesn't.
Would love to hear anyone's thoughts


Today I took another step in changing my mental stuckness and that was to express and interest in volunteering.
Next month I start a taster course at college to also help me with it.

CupOfChai

Islandmaid wrote: »

Off to try and explain politics to 18 yo DD who can vote for the first time - she admitted that she doesn,t have a clue, but at least its a good sign she wants to get informed before hand and WILL vote

Not sure if you know about it already, but point her towards this site https://voteforpolicies.org.uk/. I've found it to be really useful. Basically you do a multiple choice quiz about which policies you're most in favour of, and it tells you which parties you lean towards depending on what their policies are and which ones you liked, so you can really easily see which party you might prefer to vote for.


As for Kondo-ing, I've been enjoying following the thread but don't really do any of it myself. I regularly declutter and am not a hoarding type at all so thought it didn't really apply to me, but since others say they're the same and have found it's still useful I might see if I can borrow the book from the library and see how I get on.


Edit - Picklepot I think I've an idea what you mean. If you get the mess of things dealt with you'll then be able to focus on other parts of your life. You're already starting to get out of the rut by doing the course and looking into the volunteering, those are new things. Tidy home, tidy mind and a change is as good as a rest; I feel that both those sayings are very true!

GreyQueen

Hi Picklepot, I think a lot of us will have had some experience of getting stuck in a bit of a rut in life. It's easy to do and hard to avoid, we trundle along in our little rut, getting deeper and deeper into the grooves of habit until we can barely see above the edge of the rut and it's hard to climb out of.

OK, that's probably more metaphors than are necessary, but I hope you get where I'm coming from. What I've found myself is that once you start, as you have done with your voluntary work and your course, the easier it gets to make changes, but it can feel very daunting at first, and scary and upsetting.

Re the rammed-but-tidy cupboards and stuff which floats around homeless, I think a lot of people have that going on. Y'know, the clothes you actually wear live on the chair in the bedroom/ in and out of the wash but can't ever live in the drawers or wardrobe because they're full to bursting with the clothes you don't wear............ The stuff that lives on the kitchen counters is the stuff you use, but the things in the furthermost, highermost cupboards still is priced in pre-decimal currency.......:p one of my friends IRL had this happen, despite several house moves.

I think the trick is to KM it; drag it all out into the bright light of day, even though the Stuff-critters might whimper at the exposure and leave little grooves in the woodwork as their claws are prised off. Ask them to state their business, and ask yourself if they're joyous or otherwise unjoyous but necessary to your life?

One thing I got from a blog was the Lost or Stolen Test; if this item was lost or stolen, would I re-buy or otherwise replace it?

1. Not on your life!
2. Errrm, I'd have to think about that.
3. Gawd, yes, before the insurance money came thru, it's critical.

ETA OK, have been bopping around my bedroom with the best of Abba on the player and have had everything off the hanging rail and tried everything on. Found some blouses which are a teeny bit too tight, wearable but not looking brilliant, but they are joyful and losing some weight is on the agenda, so I have grouped those five together.

I also tried on things which I'd been avoiding because I thought they'd be too tight and found they're fine, so have picked out the next 2 weeks' worth of tops and grouped them together. Had to dust (blush) the shoulders of some of my darker blouses, so they definately need to be worn and will be over the next couple of weeks.

I have also evicted 15 hangers (!) whodathunkit. And decided I definately don't need any more office-y clothes............. pretty rewarding use of a few minutes of my afternoon.

drusilla

Wise words as ever Grey Queen.

I think for me the really helpful thing about KM is that you don't have to do it all at once.

I am sitting in my living room, which has been Kondoed, thinking about this. I have a cupboard which has stuff but since it has been Kondoed the stuff has a place. There is a TV cabinet but this only has DVDs and the tv stuff. All the other stuff is pretty things that bring me joy- at the moment.

If something gets left around by any of my kombatants, it gets put back in the right place - if it has one. I am not letting the unkondoed stuff bother me. Until it is done I have not gained Kontrol of it. If you see what I mean.
I shall stop now before this starts to look a bit German with all the'Ks'.:rotfl:

iQueen

I have to say that I have bought quite a number of books on de-cluttering, while struggling over the past 15 years!

At first, I thought the clutter was due to all my children, and my being a lazy housekeeper (which I am - "boring women have tidy homes" I believed,) until it eventually got so out of hand that it was making me depressed.

None of the books, (or FlyLady) helped. They tell people how to 'become organised'. They also play on the negative view of clutter, hoarding, and even mental illness.

KM works, because she comes at the problem from a positive viewpoint... anyone can do it, if we work through easily manageable categories, first tackling the least likely to cause an emotional reaction.

We get immediate, pleasureable results, which generate increasing motivation. And, while we go through the process, we build up resistence to buying unnecessary items, and an intolerance of clutter.

From another website, where I follow the Kondo threads, the gradual clearing of one's living environment, provides space to de-clutter our minds - being surrounded by clutter, at home (or work) saps energy that can be more usefully expended.

As we physically discard non-essential excess, we start to do the same with less tangible things. Jinny and I have both admitted to discarding friendships, which no longer bring us joy. :eek: One person, on another thread, (as in The Book), has discarded a partner, and I've lost count of the people/or partners that have discarded their jobs for more joyful ones!

So, Picklepot, start kondoing your house: as you make progress, you will find your mindset changing too. This may bring you surprisingly joyful decisions, at the cross-roads!

springdreams

The alphabet thread is looking for a user whose name starts with the letter Q please so that we can continue the alphabet game ...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/67997391#Comment_67997391

Any Qs out there please pop in and say hi