The KonMarie method

GreyQueen

VJsMum, had to grin at the lime zester. I'm so unworldly that I never imagined such a thing existed.

I came to the consclusion some time ago that, for rarely used kitchen accessories, it wasn't worth sacrificing the scarce space 24/7/365. It's possible to find a workaround for most of these items, or just forgo the activitity entirely.

There is a category of Stuff which I struggle with; useful stuff. I have to tell myself that useful and will-be-used-regularly aren't the same thing. Sometimes, they're not even within a country mile of each other. I need to keep what I use and lose the rest.

Trouble is, the world is awash with potential useful tools, supplies, equipment. It's often tantalisingly-designed, colourful, not-too-expensive and even arrives in the form of gifts. Hard to hold the line against so much temptation.

Of course, we're followers of the KM way and have the joyful benchmark to judge stuff against. More power to our collective elbows.

iQueen

juliejim wrote: »

Hi Floss

At the top of the page it says thread tools, if you click on that you can then choose to subscribe. To find unread posts, from the menu there is a little downward arrow by the thread name or if you are already on the thread, at the top of the page it says unread posts with a little arrow by the side so you can click on either of those.

HTH

Jue

Thanks for that! I've only been on MSE for 9 years and hadn't worked out how to do these things! But then, MSE has obviously done a bit of kondoing since the early days!

CKgeordieinlondon

Hi everyone,
Sorry I haven’t been on for a while. I thought with the old man being away I’d have more to time to kondo, but I think I underestimated his contribution to general household stuff.
Any way I’m back and have made a start on the chest of drawers of rubbish. When we first moved into our current home , I had a desire to do a bit of project.(Like a proper grown up homeowner) The plan was to buy a tatty old chest of drawers, sand it down, repaint it etc.

So the tatty old chest of drawers was bought …. That was 17 years ago and that’s as far as I got.

Since then it has sat on the landing and accumulated all the “bathroom stuff” that won’t fit in my tiny bathroom.(And I mean tiny, not magazine tiny, actual tiny) So it’s full of Elastoplast’s, bandages, old electric razors and for some reason a camping gas cylinder.

But mainly Sun Tan lotion. Bottles and Bottles of sun tan lotion. I heed the warnings of not using old stuff so I buy new every year, but never throw the old stuff out. You know why I never throw it out of course “It cost so much!” and then it occurred to me why not use it as general moisturiser. So that’s what I shall do. I’ll give it a good sniff, check the texture, do a patch test on my arm and if all is well just slap it on in the morning. If it’s too thick for my face I’ll bung it on my chest.

Now I no longer have that stumbling block, I can clear out the old drawers and chuck them away. I may have to replace it with something smaller and wipe clean, but that’s fine. Better than being reminded of “the project that never happened” every time I go to the loo

PollyWollyDoodle

Thanks for that link, Debsnewbudget - I have shredded a lot of stuff now but I'm happy that I've kept the essentials.

I think part of the problem is that we need our PB/inner chimp to help us make decisions - that's the bit that says 'yeah, I love that!' or 'Nah, don't really like it' when we are trying to see if something makes us feel joyful.

It's the rationalising HB bit of me that is going 'ooh, but it cost a lot/it might come in handy one day/it's hardly worn' and that's what has always held me back in the past from decluttering.
Or maybe they are both HB - I'm not sure what's in my head!

VJsmum

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/06/04/ewg-sunscreen-guide.aspx

Sorry to pee on your bonfire CKGeordie - but i would be very unhappy to slather myself in any sunscreen on a daily basis. Knowing as we now do how absorbent the skin is - think HRT and nicotine patches - I don't like the idea of putting so much chemical on myself.

I do use sunscreen if i am going to be in the sun for v. lengthy periods of time, but would baulk at a daily application.

Not meaning to preach....

CKgeordieinlondon

VJsmum wrote: »

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/06/04/ewg-sunscreen-guide.aspx

Sorry to pee on your bonfire CKGeordie - but i would be very unhappy to slather myself in any sunscreen on a daily basis. Knowing as we now do how absorbent the skin is - think HRT and nicotine patches - I don't like the idea of putting so much chemical on myself.

I do use sunscreen if i am going to be in the sun for v. lengthy periods of time, but would baulk at a daily application.

Not meaning to preach....

Fair point. I shall check the ingredients and look into it a bit more. Your link is interesting but I couldn't see a reference to any research papers on the subject

I am fair skinned and have been burnt twice so far this year by underestimating the British sun, so I do need to up my protection in this country, but maybe not every day.

Churchmouse

I quickly skimmed the link to sunscreens and many of those brands aren't available here. Would just like to say my consultant insists I wear factor 50 every day from 1st March to the end of October, as having very fair skin and already having had a malignant melanoma that metastasised, the risk of dying from a melanoma is too great. Of course not everyone runs my level of risk, but I can't see him insisting if the dangers of using sunscreen every day were high. I am supposed to use factor 20 during the other months of the year, but to be honest can't say I'm as reliable then.

GreyQueen

Gosh, Churchmouse, you must be even fairer than me. I'm sorry to hear that you had the dreadful MM and you should follow your consultant's advice.

I'm a redhead by DNA and don't tan, although I can burn pretty easily, even in the UK. Thus I keep well-covered with clothes and wear my wide-brimmed sunhat (and gloves) when gardening. It's been sunhat time for a few weeks already, even on an overcast day as you can still burn. There will be about a 2 week gap each spring and autumn between me doffing my warm fleece hat and donning the sunhat. My freckles will only come out March-October, the sun is only strong enough to trigger them at these latitudes in those months.

Today I have played on my allotment by clearing a new area, this one 5 ft x 7.5 ft and removed a lot of c*rp. More glass, nails, pottery, brick fragments, plastic and waffle rubber carpet underlay. This area is within 3 m of the top of the plot which means that the whole darn thing was once underlay-ed. If I even got my hands on the fool who did that I wouldn't be responsible for my actions.:mad:

Retrieved 3 items from the lottie shed to be washed up and sent into the recycling, two plastic containers and one very strong alu pie tray I thought I'd do something with and haven't, so they'll be outta here.

Sheds, like spare rooms and garages, are like windless zones in oceans where sailing ships used to get becalmed back in the olden times. One stuff gets into these places, it tends to sit and stagnate until we get a roundtuit or start to get enquiries from researchers on hoarding programmes............:rotfl:

Repeat after me; notgoingthere, notgoingthere, notgoingthere......

Floss

juliejim wrote: »

Hi Floss

At the top of the page it says thread tools, if you click on that you can then choose to subscribe. To find unread posts, from the menu there is a little downward arrow by the thread name or if you are already on the thread, at the top of the page it says unread posts with a little arrow by the side so you can click on either of those.

HTH

Jue

Thank you, but that doesn't show on the mobile version on my phone, and that's where I read the forum

Igamogam

GreyQueen wrote: »

VJsMum, had to grin at the lime zester. I'm so unworldly that I never imagined such a thing existed.

I came to the consclusion some time ago that, for rarely used kitchen accessories, it wasn't worth sacrificing the scarce space 24/7/365. It's possible to find a workaround for most of these items, or just forgo the activitity entirely.

I have a gadget, ok ony small but nevertheles a gadget, for making long curly/spiral ribbons out if a cucumber.................just cut off the end of a cucumber, stick this thing in the middle ( the seedy bit) then slowly turn..........amazing result but why do I have it and more to the point why am I keeping it??:eek: