The KonMarie method

chickadee

OK. Under the sink done! I threw away a spray bottle of laundry freshener. It was almost full and when I sprayed it I realised that I don't even like the smell. Out it went, along with tatty cloths, a long-separated bottle of brass cleaner and a spray bottle of upvc cleaner that OH brought when he moved from his old place 12 years ago!!! Our upvc doesn't seem to be any worse for the fact it hasn't had this stuff used on it.


Much more orderly now and I used a plastic tub for storing my cloths and sponge washing-up scourers. I also found a bottle of spray disinfectant which I didn't know I had so that will save me from buying one that I don't need.


Less is more...

GreyQueen

Nice to have you with the krew, chickadee.

Funny about the tan shoe polish, isn't it? I simplified my life decades ago by deciding that I am like Henry Ford when it comes to shoes; they can be any colour as long as it's black. One small simple step for womankind.

I have a spare landline telephone. I have it because it belonged to a pal, who lives one street away. I had the loan of it for a couple of days some years ago, when my then-phone failed. When I tried to give it back, pal said I could keep it. So I did, with the thought that if my landline conked out, I could plug in my spare phone to see if the fault was the line or the physical phone.

At no time in the past several years has this set of circumstances occured. It may theoretically occur at some future point but so might an asteroid hitting the planet and wiping us all out. I could always momentarily borrow a phone from a friend in the block for 5 mins to see if my line's working. So it can now go as a donation.:rotfl:

Clutter is mostly lots of small things, rather than fewer great big things. This means you have to make a lot of decisions to get a cubic meter's worth of space freed up, but it does mean that you can do it a bit at a time and lift the stuff.

Oh, and I have just called to mind a spare (partially broken) cheap mobile phone in a drawer. That can go also, into a charity shop's recycling bin. What was I thinking, keeping these things?!

ETa Dear penguin pyjama top, I want to thank you for being in my life since July 2011. We met in a charity shop. There you were, brand new with tags, but without your jammie bottom half, mine for only 80p. How did that happen? You're brushed cotton, which I like in a winter pyjama. I don't normally do twee animals on my clothing, but your tiny cartoon penguin print amused me. I brought you home and wore you for years. Your lovely brushed cotton fluffiness eventually went smooth from wear. You had a couple of mends. You'd been washed and worn so many times your buttons had faded from pink to nearly white. You're now technically wearable but rather tragic and the joy isn't happening for me now. So, I'm thanking you publicly on the interwebs, where it can be seen, and I have debuttoned you and put you in the rag bag. You're clean (and even ironed) and can go honourably to the charity shop to be added to their rag sales. Your passing will raise some funds for them, and you will rejoin the material stream where you can be re-constituted into something else. Farewell, penguin pyjama top, I enjoyed our 4 years together. But I still wonder whatever happened to your other half.

Igamogam

GreyQueen wrote: »

There seems to be a class of kipple which needs a name, if any of you witty people can think of one. The stuff which clearly came off something (dunno what), was made for some purpose (dunno which) and which has lurked in cupboards for many years -and sometimes many homes - (dunno why). But which cannot be discarded because it is clearly Important and disaster will strike if it goes.

In our household these items are know as 'JICERS':Just In Casers. A box of them is known as JICAM............came about when we moved house many years ago and we had a pile of stuff packed in a box labelled 'Just in Case':rotfl: I have a small plastic box ( shoe box size) in study with all sorts of Jicam in.... mostly tiny screws and bits that seem to appear every time OH rebuilds/updates the PC:eek:

maryb

I call it S*d's Law stuff - because if you get rid of it, you will remember just after bin day what it was for and why you needed it

PollyWollyDoodle

JICam - that's great, Igamogam. Also known as MCIH (or, Might Come In Handy) in my family. Why, every time I buy an appliance, do I keep the wall bracket and fixing screws even though I'm never going to hang it on the wall. As noted, usually I have no idea what it was for when I eventually find it.

I've got a drawer full of JICam, including unidentifiable door keys. It's going. Anyone else finding they can't tolerate mess any more, stuff that usually they wouldn't even have noticed?

YORKSHIRELASS

GQ your comments about invisible things appearing again strike a chord with me. We have a little office - not grand enough to call a study - and I hate this room. As I once worked from home, OH has his own business and we both do voluntary work we have a lot of paperwork.

On the face of it the room was tidy, so why does it feel so unpleasant? Over the years I have filled every available inch of the room with storage boxes and filing systems. We have 3 desks, 2 computers and 2 printers. I saw today that there is just far too much stuff in the room so as I am clearing paperwork (4 bin bags full today) I am starting to see the room as it could be.

And yes, JICam, lots of that here. I have just found a small nut that came off a cricket helmet. Keep that says OH. Why, is DSs helmet missing one of these nuts? Can you buy them if necessary? Of course if I bin it now it will be needed.

GreyQueen

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

JICam - that's great, Igamogam. Also known as MCIH (or, Might Come In Handy) in my family. Why, every time I buy an appliance, do I keep the wall bracket and fixing screws even though I'm never going to hang it on the wall. As noted, usually I have no idea what it was for when I eventually find it.

I've got a drawer full of JICam, including unidentifiable door keys. It's going. Anyone else finding they can't tolerate mess any more, stuff that usually they wouldn't even have noticed?

:j Yes! It's like being sensitised to an odour, the subtle but persistant reek of the unjoyful objects. And I can track them down like a bloodhound.

In my family, the class of objects are called MBUs (pronouced em-bee-yous) and standing for Might Be Usefuls. Trouble is, almost anything can be categorised as an MBU if you're really good at it. Although I have to say, I am very taken with the term JICam and will steal it.:rotfl:

Re doorkeys, I have had a couple of sessions of key reconciliation, one solo at my homestead and one at the family home. Great rainy day pastime; gather all the household members around a table, tea or coffee mugs in hand, with all the keys spread out.

There will be keys to bike locks long gone, previous homes, previous homes belonging to relatives, keys to next-door to the home you used to live in when you watered their plants when they went on holiday. Keys to cars/ bikes/ caravans and dwellings no longer owned by you. Some of them may be in foriegn countries. And those pesky useless keys to those pesky useless suitcase padlocks.

Early in 2014, I suffered a break in to the bike shed at the flat and lost two good padlocks. Once the insurance claim was resolved, I made sure that I hunted down all the keys to these padlocks and binned them.

When my great uncle made a non-notice exit to the next life, he had a bunch of keys in the kitchen dresser which fitted no known lock anywhere on the premises. I know, because I personally went all over the place looking for them. And he also had half-a-dozen backyard sheds, each with padlocks on to which there were no keys. Grrrrr!!

GrannyKate

Many years ago OH worked in a large Victorian psychiatric hospital as an engineer. This was in the days before modern locks and they used to collect keys of all varieties on the basis that it was easier and cheaper to try and match a key rather than take a door off when either staff lost keys or residents locked themselves in unexpected places. Consequently he had literally hundreds of keys in his tool box. It was a good 40 years after he stopped that sort of work before he eventually Kondoed the key collection. We had a key sorting session after we had new windows and doors fitted but we still have some odd ones.
I have a small plastic shed in which I keep recycling boxes of paper, bottles etc and hold the doors together with an old padlock loosely looped but not shut. A few weeks ago a delivery firm left a parcel in the shed and to our consternation they locked the padlock shut - fortunately thus was one key we had not Kondoed in our last cull.

grandmasam

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

Anyone else finding they can't tolerate mess any more, stuff that usually they wouldn't even have noticed?

Just to say that it was only this morning that I moved the drainer from the draining board ,as it Really :mad: irritated me!! This is half a century of habit, leaving the dishes on the drainer waiting to dry before putting away, kondoed. The crockery is now dried and put away, and the drainers rinsed,wiped off and rehomed under the sink, till next time. :T

I read daily, and gain my motivation from this thread re kondo'ing my home .
Thank you Konverts!!

Caz

katsu

Oh has kindly reviewed his sock stash and released around 60+pairs. The majority are packed up for socksandchocs but there is also a large pile of odd and holed socks in the rag bag for the tip. I've also piled up a handful of pairs from my stash for donating and am determined to finish my socks today too.