The KonMarie method

Pooky

VJ's - we've got the cuddlies to do - there's 4 black sacks in the loft of the ones they couldn't bear to part with a few years ago. Hope we manage to shift as many as your DD did.

The whole KM process is slowly filtering through our house and DD2 started sorting through her draws and storage boxes under her bed - 2 bin bags of rubbish and general tatt - gone! DD1 moves out in July to her house share with Uni friends (she's spent the first year at home) so she's been spurred on to start sorting and packing - all her winter clothes are now folded and in a storage bag and all the remaining clothes are ones she wants to take with her. She's been turfing out books, DVDs and condensed her "memory box" into one box rather than the 5 it was taking.....she's getting there!

DH, in a fit of madness, decided to Kondo all (and I mean all of them!!!) of his DVD's/Bluerays, a games console and games and a few bits of techy stuff that have been sitting around too long - the resulting extra pennies were then exchanged for a lovely tablet device for me! (I'd mentioned I could do with something to work on when I'm travelling/looking after my Mum following her brain haemorrhage - no excuses now!!)

My Aunt kondo'd a brand new duvet to me for DD1 to take to Uni - they brought the wrong size (it's from ik-eya so it's the wrong size for any of our covers but I shall cut it down to fit) - they paid over £100 for it (a summer/autumn click together jobbie) Whilst cutting it down to size won't fill me with joy, it will keep DD1 warm and toasty and it's one less thing for her to buy.

Clutterfree

cpt574 wrote: »

Hi, hope no one minds me joining in. I read the book a few months ago and have been doing pretty well, but decided yesterday that I really needed to go back to the beginning and make sure each category I have already tacked is complete before moving on because some things have been niggling me. Even though I thought I had done clothes I still managed to remove two bin bags full yesterday! Today is books and I am struggling, about 90% of them are cookery books, and I love the way they all look on the shelves, and in many ways get great pleasure from them, BUT I feel guilty and not completely happy with them. I feel on the one hand because they fit in the shelves ok and look great and in some ways make me happy I should just keep them, and on the other hand know they make me feel guilty because I want to cook more but I dont, also my OH really doesn't like them. Much so I know some of it is that I am rebelling by keeping them:embarasse hope someone can help guide me because I would love to finish this today, thanks

Welcome Cpt. :T

I have just finished books but kept my cookery books as a separate section and have those still to do.
Whenever I buy a new cookery book, I now go through it immediately and with sticky tabs (like mini Post Its) I mark any recipes that take my fancy. If there are less then say 10 then I think is it worth the space it takes up? These recipes could be copied and then the book donated. I am planning on doing this with all my old recipes books too. I know it will take time and it is not really the KM method but I think we have to do what works for us.

Good luck!

cpt574

Thanks clutter free, I am currently surrounded by piles of books in the lounge, there must be 200 ish and cookery books are quite big! Ahh, will have to make some decisions quickly, normally quite good at getting rid but this is hard, hopefully I will feel the click point that she talks about and will know I have got it right....

Igamogam

Clutterfree wrote: »

Hugs Igamogam. I had my gallbladder removed 15 years ago.
Gallstone pain is like no other so I totally empathise.

Thanks for the good wishes:D I am fine at the moment agree about pain.......worst than childbirth I told doc who look at me incredulously.

iQueen

cpt574 wrote: »

Hi, hope no one minds me joining in. I read the book a few months ago and have been doing pretty well, but decided yesterday that I really needed to go back to the beginning and make sure each category I have already tacked is complete before moving on because some things have been niggling me. Even though I thought I had done clothes I still managed to remove two bin bags full yesterday! Today is books and I am struggling, about 90% of them are cookery books, and I love the way they all look on the shelves, and in many ways get great pleasure from them, BUT I feel guilty and not completely happy with them. I feel on the one hand because they fit in the shelves ok and look great and in some ways make me happy I should just keep them, and on the other hand know they make me feel guilty because I want to cook more but I dont, also my OH really doesn't like them. Much so I know some of it is that I am rebelling by keeping them:embarasse hope someone can help guide me because I would love to finish this today, thanks

Welcome in, cpt - sit n have a brew! :coffee:

I keep returning to some categories. It does seem that going back holds me up with the rest. I need to bite the bullet... if I make mistakes, I make mistakes!

With, literally thousands of books, I have been picking at mine and getting rid of a bag-full, as and when. I haven't got to the category yet, but will have to break them down into sub-categories, when I do get there.

From what you say about cooking and your cookbooks, it sounds to me that you are keeping most of yours for some unconscious reason (apart from rebellion!)

You like the look of them... but you hardly use them. Are they a signal to people that you are a 'wonderful cook' or that you want/ed to be? Do they represent an aspiration that you can't be bothered to actually pursue? Some of my books are just that, or they represent what I used to be.

Ask yourself searching questions, and answer them honestly.

I was the same about my library... they were visual proof that I am intelligent and educated! But, I already know that, and I don't need to prove it. If other people cannot recognise what I am - that's their problem!

HTH

Igamogam

GreyQueen wrote: »

Enjoy your holiday, Mrs VP. Beautiful part of the country. Be interesting if you are normally a souvenir buyer, and if that changes now you're a kondo-ite.



Anyway, I was in the 50p Chazzer last week and I saw a suitable black bag, was holding it whilst walking around seeing if there was anything else, when I had a LBM; I do not love this bag. I could hear myself thinking It'll do.

It'll do is the thinking which causes me to have un-joyful possessions which then have to be kondo'd. So I put it back, to save future kondo-ing rather than to save 50p, IYSWIM.

I feel I made a sudden leap in self-understanding in that charity shop, lol.

Think our "souvenirs" have always been edible from Cornwall.........bulk buy cornish pasties and saffron buns from our favourite shop

Do you think charity shops have been pleased to get what must seem higher Athan usual donations but are now scratching their heads wondering why it's not selling:p

MMF007

." Be interesting if you are normally a souvenir buyer, and if that changes now you're a kondo-ite. :T" GreyQueen , youare so right! I must say that i stopped buying souvenirs several years ago, with the exception of a few minor items that are functional (a beautiful vase, a pretty tea tray) - none of them have place names on but i know where i bought them and they bring double joy, happy memories and beauty in use. I often feel tempted but this is a category of potential clutter that I have weaned myself off.

"Anyway, I was in the 50p Chazzer last week and I saw a suitable black bag, was holding it whilst walking around seeing if there was anything else, when I had a LBM; I do not love this bag. I could hear myself thinking It'll do.

It'll do is the thinking which causes me to have un-joyful possessions which then have to be kondo'd. So I put it back, to save future kondo-ing rather than to save 50p, IYSWIM.:D

I feel I made a sudden leap in self-understanding in that charity shop, lol.[/QUOTE]

That's it, isn't it, we have all bought something we needed but couldn't really afford (or didn't think we could 'justify' spending more money on because it qas for us not someone else...), so we bought something cheap that would serve the purpose but did not give us joy! We probably disliked the item every occasion we used it and it bought negative feelings into our lives. It certainly is a break -through to be able to put down the do-er and look for something JOYFUL.

Clutterfree

Igamogam wrote: »

Thanks for the good wishes:D I am fine at the moment agree about pain.......worst than childbirth I told doc who look at me incredulously.

I am surprised he looked at you incredulously.
My GP told me it's well known in the medical profession that the pain is worse than childbirth! :eek:
Whilst I was at home, waiting for my operation date to come through she told me that if the pain got too bad to call them out and they would come and administer morphine.

The way I described the pain to people was it was like someone had got hold of my insides and were twisting them tighter and tighter similar to wringing the water out of a wet towel or the other pain was as if someone was drilling into my insides.

Still, you're in the best place.
Mine was removed by laparoscopy so I was only in 1 night.
I had 13 gallstones - they gave them to me in a jar! :eek:
Now, after 15 years, should I discard them or pop them in my memento box?! :rotfl: (joke everyone - I kept them for about a week and hubby said they were gross so I threw them out!)

Igamogam

Clutterfree wrote: »

I am surprised he looked at you incredulously.
My GP told me it's well known in the medical profession that the pain is worse than childbirth! :eek:
Whilst I was at home, waiting for my operation date to come through she told me that if the pain got too bad to call them out and they would come and administer morphine.

The way I described the pain to people was it was like someone had got hold of my insides and were twisting them tighter and tighter similar to wringing the water out of a wet towel or the other pain was as if someone was drilling into my insides.

Still, you're in the best place.
Mine was removed by laparoscopy so I was only in 1 night.
I had 13 gallstones - they gave them to me in a jar! :eek:
Now, after 15 years, should I discard them or pop them in my memento box?! :rotfl: (joke everyone - I kept them for about a week and hubby said they were gross so I threw them out!)

Doctor female who had not experienced childbirth:o You could have re purposed the stones, had them polished and strung as a necklace:rotfl:

MMF007

I have just spent a few days at my parents house. They are both in very poor health but have finally enlisted some outside help ( a cleaner and a gardener). They live hundreds of miles away so there is not a lot I can do most of the time. My visits often consist of several very long days doing as many jobs as I can to sort things out (phone calls, internet shopping, deep cleaning, moving furniture, etc, etc).

I have gently introduced Kondo method to some aspects of their over-full house but it is very difficult, especially with my mum. As someone said in recent post, there's' a massive resistence to letting things go. While the clutter in their home is not quite worthy of a tv show, it is very full of stuff they never look at, that is cluttering up lovely light rooms, that is a darned nuisance to clean round/under and that should be gone!

When I arrived they had been going through several large drawers and a whole cupboard full of files, trying to find paperwork relating to their car. In the process they had found my old school reports (I had no idea they had kept them - i am in my 50's!!!). They immediately gave them to me to take back with me which made me laugh. Well, I read the reports, wondered how I ever made my way in life with
marks like those, and shredded them! What on earth would I want with them cluttering up my paperwork files??

Anyway, this seemed to set the tone and soon i was up to my neck in their paperwork, including all their old passports, letters and docs going back 40 years
or more. We kept the necessaries and had a big bonfire of the 6 bin bags of crud. The ridiculous thing was they had moved all the old stuff from a prev home.....

however, once that was done, mum reverted to defensive mode and there as no way I could get near the gazillion old t-shirts she keeps on a hanging rail in the back bedroom cos they won't fit in her drawers/wardrobe and are not good enough to wear when she nips into the village, but she keeps them for working round the house (I personally find housework is a lot less mucky now blacklead and soot are things of the past!!!).

I understand not wanting to waste things but I would rather send my unjoyful
things to CS or recycling, than have the unjoy parked in my house.

I can see the fear and anxiety in her face when ever de-cluttering is broached. I think makes me more determined not ot get to that state. My house is tiny and has too much stuff for its size but I am reducing it thanks to KM.

Keep inspiring me, everyone!