The KonMarie method

peaceandfreedom

Good morning all you lovely Kondo-ing people .

Just popping in to say that I have not really got myself properly Kondo-ing yet, need to make a plan and get on with it. I will re-read the book first to get me fired up again. There is so much to Kondo!

I have been reading this thread though and enjoying all the discussions, I WILL do my own Kondo-ing soon .

juliebunny

GreyQueen wrote: »

Morning all.

For anyone thinking of refrubishments and wanting to reduce/ eliminate some ongoing chores, this is a very useful book which may be in your library system:

Make Your House Do the Housework by Don Aslett and Laura Aslett Simons.

Don is the decluttering and cleaning guru and Laura is his designer daughter. It's very very interesting. Many things aren't applicable to me as I rent a tiny flat but, for homeowners, there is much of interest.

DA wrote about buildiing a home in Hawaii, for use by the extended family inc a gaggle of grandchildren. They matched the colour of the tiled floors to the reddish earth which predominated there, so the tracked-in dirt wouldn't be obvious. So sensible. And I love the description of every piece of furniture as 'four (feet) on the floor' - i.e an obstacle to easy cleaning. Makes you feel differently about occasional tables, lol.

One thing which makes my life easier is that I don't have carpets. I have a couple of rugs in my sitting-room, and a runner-type rug serving as a doormat, but the rest is tiles. Which mean easy clean up. I talk to people in my job who are in real pickles because of certain flooring choices such as carpeted bathrooms (all bathrooms have leaks, eventually) and laminate floor. Laminate doesn't stand up to a soaking very well.

Am waiting to see what the weather will do as it's not looking promising, so may be doing gardening up the allotment or stuff at home. Going to do the chore of printing out a big project and then see about getting the copyshop to bind it.

OK, time for a cuppa and to see what the wicked of the world are up to.

Suspect your weather dependent plans will very much come down to where in the country you live....not looking 'too' bad for the Essex contingency.

This book looks worth a read (on the Kindle of course, no more books!)

When I bought my new lounge carpet (everywhere else is laminate with washable rugs due to pets, the local carpet shop let me bring some samples home. I put them next to my 3 tabby cats and chose the best match, so their fur wouldn't show up! Got a lovely dark fawn sort of colour and it copes with being vacuumed just once a week

I used to love sewing when I was younger and made loads of my own clothes, but not sure I would fancy it now. Learning to cook vegetarian healthy meals and yummy cakes, however, is definitely going on my list of things to do when the house is finished. I would love to do more courses, just for pleasure - gardening, cooking, etc, but that will have to wait until I can cut back my working hours.

It's funny, MK talks in the book about just 'knowing' when you can't clear out anything else of a category, and I think I'm there with my ornaments. Even though I can't have many out (due to clumsy cats) I still feel I want to keep the ones I have left now. I don't have much left at all from my past, as I like to look forward, but that old donkey of my mums with the broken both ears and fallen off hat....well there is just no way I could put in the bin....perhaps he could live with someones shirehorse? My house has neither garage nor loft space, so he's out on' proud' display as I dont think there is anything else left of him for the cats to break :rotfl:

bossymoo

I've "done" paperwork :T

To be fair, it wasn't mountainous as this is one area I do tend to keep on top of. But I've still got a fair pile to take to confidential waste bin next time I'm in work.

And everything fits in one concertina file :T

I might be kondo-ing a kids bike later too more power to my garage :T

maryb

One thing I have found extremely useful is a flexible ruler - the sort you use to draw a curve.

Let me explain. As you get older your derriere is no longer pert (In my case it never was but that's a different story) So jeans which fit comfortably round the waist will be baggy round the seat whereas jeans which cling to you sufficiently to avoid bagginess will cut you in half. Unless you have the money to buy a pair of NotYourDaughter'sJeans and who does?

The adjustment you need to make is totally counter intuitive but trust me, you need to make the curve of the crotch seam deeper and more of a hockey stick shape than a gentle curve. This used to be a lot of trial and error until I got one of those rulers which makes it very straightforward to get the exact curve you need by holding it to yourself and curving to your shape.

This is a fairly easy alteration to do though it involves a fair bit of tedious unpicking of the centre back seam and the belt loops but if there is something good on TV to watch it goes quite fast. Those of you who are talking about doing home sewing/learning to use a machine might find this worth trying.

All my jeans bring me joy now

twiglet66

I noticed this thread yesterday and got hooked reading it so now have downloaded the book to my kindle and started reading already, braved the wardrobe and have 2 black bags of clothes so far that really do not give me joy, I find it amazing that using a different attitude while sorting through really works, tops that I wear really regularly do not actually give me joy so off they go :j

One thing I am wondering is how do you cope with a husband and an 8 year old DD who will think I'm off my rocker if I ask them what they find joy in with their clothes and possessions? :rotfl:

ali-t

woohoo, the man of the house said to me this morning that he would sort out his clothes this weekend. I have been kondoing slowly since April but this is significant progress. I won't count my chickens yet but flinging his clothes in drawers when mine are nicely folded has slowly had an impact.

drusilla

Twiglet my OH laughed when I kept saying things were leaving because they were not joyous. It has taken time but he is now starting to join in. I think you have to lead by example and then family will join in.

Good luck.

twiglet66

drusilla wrote: »

Twiglet my OH laughed when I kept saying things were leaving because they were not joyous. It has taken time but he is now starting to join in. I think you have to lead by example and then family will join in.

Good luck.

Fingers crossed then :j:beer:

Igamogam

juliebunny wrote: »

When I bought my new lounge carpet (everywhere else is laminate with washable rugs due to pets, the local carpet shop let me bring some samples home. I put them next to my 3 tabby cats and chose the best match, so their fur wouldn't show up!

:rotfl::rotfl: Love it!

Flooring in our house always a discussion topic in our house. Most of downstairs was slate - but now only kitchen and porch which continues through to LR about a corridor width as this is where the most traffic is to get from one room to another - old house with lots of small rooms and a huge LR with 12ft high ceiling - wouldnt know from outside. Rest of LR and stairs carpeted. DR - we took up the slate dug out the earth floor, re-concreted and OH laid a solid oak floor. Bedrooms: sanded original floor boards. Office and downstairs loo and other down stair rooms: laminate and bathroom a bit Retro : cork:D Cleans easily and warm. Conservatory : quarry tiles - most reclaimed from a skip:p When we replace the carpet in LR it will be with a solid oak floor. Think we will have to keep carpet on stairs though......bit clattery otherwise??

On a cleaning day today - not fully kondoed yet but I can see that when "it" happens then cleaning will not be such a chore....fingers crossed anyway. I am doing the odd swoop and swipe kondo into next CS bag which is filling up nicely:)

PollyWollyDoodle

I love the idea of matching the carpet to the cats' fur - brilliant! Trouble is, I had a tabby (now sadly missed) but the other one is black-and-white, never going to match that!

I spend a lot of time hoovering up cat hair, or rubber-gloving it off the chairs. Hard floors make it much easier to clean, and for anyone who is still using a mop and bucket, save up for a steam mop, it's so much easier. The biggest deal for me, however, never remotely achieved before MK, is not having random stuff on the floor (baskets, boxes etc). It transforms cleaning for me.