The KonMarie method

Blue_Doggy

I'd like to send big hugs to everyone who is considering their children and kondo-ing their stuff. :A

After my Mum died, her flat was cleared into my house and for some years I had three bedrooms crammed with Mum's stuff (clothes had already gone to CS!). All the stuff had to be moved and gone through carefully, as in her latter years the filing system had failed big time, and important papers were mixed up with dross. It took me weeks to shred the paperwork which had personal information on it. I am only just about now getting to the end of it (but there's a massive box of photographs still waiting for attention).

I now have two friends with elderly mothers who are effectively trapped in over-large houses by the volume of their possessions which they cannot or will not reduce; my friends are dreading going through the things after their mums pass on.

I have found it very slow (because emotionally draining) work, and is one of the reasons I want to get my own stuff minimised and in good order before the Man with the Scythe (could it be Poldark? Please? Pretty Please? :rotfl: ) comes to take me to my long home.

Keep up the good work, everyone!

joeyjimbles

GreyQueen wrote: »

As I get older (50 now) I find I have less tolerance for wasting my time on unsatisfying activities. Anyone else notice this?

Yes. In the past I would read books til the bitter end despite hating the way it was written, or having really fallen out with a character's behaviour but now I will not do it. I've been using libraries for years so it wasn't the fact that I'd spent money on it that made me persevere, but now I'll give a book a couple of goes and if it doesn't suit then it is returned asap. I cannot quite pinpoint when it changed.

Last week, a friend lent me a book from an author whose previous novel we had both enjoyed - nothing lofty, holiday reading really, but in this one the main character was vain, selfish and kept getting into improbable scrapes then knowingly getting herself out and then repeating it. After the second of these episodes and finding that it was still less than halfway through the novel I knew I no longer cared about the main character and in fact didn't want to indulge her daftness by continuing. The friend was surprised by how quickly I 'read' it!

THIRZAH

I had the same problem with paperwork when clearing my Mother's house, Blue Doggy. Junk mail was mixed up with important stuff-all unopened. I'm determined that my DDs won't have to do that for me. Junk mail gets put straight in the recycling and I've been through all my other paperwork. Out of date stuff has been shredded and the rest is in clearly labelled files.

I was keeping a crocheted table cloth for "best". My grandmother made it before she was married in 1928. After thinking about it I got it out and it's now on the chest in the hall. DDs don't really remember my grandmother and it means nothing to them so I shall enjoy it now.

GreyQueen

cpt574 wrote: »

Am too young(hopefully) to be thinking about my children clearing my house, but remember a story of a lady who had died at quite an old age, and when they cleared her home everything fitted in the boot of a car. For her funeral the church was absolutely packed.

:T YESSS!!!!!!!!!!

That would be the ultimate worthwhile memorial, IMO. What a woman she must have been.

Here's a small list of things which have caused family estrangements (permanant estrangements) in families known to me personally or my own family; custody of a biscuit tin of Mother's buttons, who got Grandad's medals, a pair of worthless Staffordshire knock-off dog ornaments, a very small bit of scrubland, a fridge.

Really? Really worth breaking off all contact with your siblings for the rest of your life over any of that? But it's happening.

I have been kondo-ing weeds on my allotment for hours, enjoying the sun and the new leaves on the trees. Sadly, whilst I was out having a life, I missed a TV Licensing peep who had called to see why I don't have a TV license.

:D That'll be because I kondo'd my telly back in the 1980s. Best life-enhancing move you can ever make.

gallygirl

I Kondo'd a bottle of wine last night - does that count

.

iQueen wrote: »

Erm, only if you don't replace it with 2 more! :rotfl:

I don't know about that - but I definitely got more pleasure in getting rid of it than I did in keeping it .

Here's a small list of things which have caused family estrangements (permanant estrangements) in families known to me personally or my own family; custody of a biscuit tin of Mother's buttons, who got Grandad's medals, a pair of worthless Staffordshire knock-off dog ornaments, a very small bit of scrubland, a fridge.

Really? Really worth breaking off all contact with your siblings for the rest of your life over any of that? But it's happening.

My two nearly came to blows over a drill and hammock when I was getting rid of stuff before my move to Spain. Result? One all :rotfl:.

mavvymoo

mrs-moneypenny wrote: »

Welcome jellybaby.
Just been round mils, she asked for help with her wardrobe, so I was in charge of taking out holding up and mostly putting back
She's got rid of some but kept saying oh no I haven't got another pleated skirt in that colour so I'll keep that one.
I've left her with a wardrobe with 28 skirts, 20 are pleated in almost every shade of colour they gave been made in! 48 long sleeved blouses were also kept to keep full range of the colour spectrum. There was a box at the back with brand new still bagged jumpers all identical in every colour damart had produced. She's saving them for best!! She's 87 and got cancer I felt like screaming when is best!!!!!! I've managed to get them out of the box and onto a shelf in the wardrobe but she wasn't going to let me take them out of the bags I case it spoilt them.
Hopefully now she will realise she has other clothes as anyone would think she only has two outfits, she's wears a dress dirtys that it goes in the wash and she wears a pair of trousers till the dress is clean then starts again.[/QUOTE



"If I had my life to live over again... I would have burned the pink candle, sculptured like a rose, that melted in storage." Don't keep things 'for best' - that day never comes. Use them and enjoy them now.


Love this quote and live by it now

My Dads flat has been part kondo'd by me But everything was put in a wardrobe for a bootsale :mad: He wouldnt let me charity shop it sadly .The Bootsale junk will still be there in 5 years I know it will but at least all the old junk is in one place so its a bit of a bonus

I did draw the line at the grotty washed pillow which was so lumpy you wouldnt believe it :eek: About 2 foot thick at one end and 1 inch at the other :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:I refused to put it in the bootsale stuff and chucked it out I will have to check next time I am there as I bet its back in the wardrobe :rotfl:


Been cleaning today its so much easier now Cant say I love it but miles better than pre Kondo

Mav x

Clutterfree

Still working my way through paperwork.

Also, I don't know what Kondoing has done to me, but today when I was in Morrisons my coat button must have got caught on the basket.
When I went to pay, I found it loose in my handbag (how lucky was that?!).
Got home and started to watch Come Dine and got my sewing basket and have sewn it back on already! Now I know this isn't a big thing, but for me it is! Usually the button would live on "the side" for months before I got round to it.
I then preceded to repair a cushion cover that had a seam that had come unstitched about a year ago.

Is anyone else finding that they procrastinate less than they used to pre Konmari?

GreyQueen

I'm the same, Clutterfree. Took a top off yesterday which needed a few stitches in the seam.

Old Me would have washed it, put it aside once clean and procrastinated about it for weeks/ months.

New Me sat down as soon as she got home, put a few stitches into it and slung it into the washer to get done with the next load. It'll be back on my back next week.

Have also felt a bit 'snacky' and just popped some popping corn from out of the cupboard, nomnomnom. A few more goes with that and the large glass jar the corn kernels live in can be re-purposed. It's a coffee jar and is taking up quite a bit of space in there.

Blue_Doggy

There's certainly "something" about the Marie Kondo Method which promotes good practices. It's so much easier post-kondo to put things away at once instead of dumping them in the wrong place and then moving them around several times.

VJsmum

GreyQueen wrote: »

As I get older (50 now) I find I have less tolerance for wasting my time on unsatisfying activities. Anyone else notice this?

Yes

Clutterfree wrote: »

Is anyone else finding that they procrastinate less than they used to pre Konmari?

No

:rotfl: