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The KonMarie method

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  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    :) Afternoon all.

    I went offline deliberately mid-morning to stop myself reading MSE, and simple living/ minimalism websites and get on with err simple living and minimalising.

    I joke IRL that I've taken up minimalism as a hobby as it fits perfectly into my tiny flat, and that I hoard minimalism website bookmarks on my computer. Like many jests, there's a truth behind the latter. I have a bad habit of clicking through website after website on intruiging links, worrying I'll never find them again and bookmarking far too much stuff. So I had a cull and now delete two for every one I add.

    Today I went to the allotment on the 3rd drizzly day in a row, offloaded a lot of compostables and spent 20 minutes wielding a hoe with intent. Peeps who garden know that it can be a major time investment and can get away from you if you don't watch it, but I bear in mind my Dad's top tip about spending a few mins hoeing if you haven't time to do much - you get a lot of return on your labours.

    I also turned up one bit of glass and three bits of crockery, on a patch I've been gardening and removing carp from meticulously since 2008. I swear that stuff grows when my back is turned.

    :) This afternoon's convo with Mum and Dad revealed that they've been In The Loft. This is smallish loft with crouching room only, but its contents have been maturing nicely since 1971 and there are things up there which haven't seen the light of day since before some of us were born. I advised Dad to wear the headtorch and attach a rope to his middle, in case the yarn monsters got him and he had to be dragged out.

    The object of the mission was to get the various accessories inc the box of the knitting machine, and this was successfully achieved. What has left me beaming with satisfaction is that other things were discovered and these things will come to mine next week and I am allowed to dispose of them.

    I asked Mum what was the funniest thing uncovered. I hoped it would be insane, as this is a woman who had two separate sets of redundant false teeth (in placcy bags) hidden in strange places around the home (underwear drawer and telephone directory cupboard). I found them both whilst tidying - she didn't remember putting either of them away.

    Alas and alack, we didn't get into that level of joyful barminess but we approached utter randomness. In the knitting machine box (in the loft, untouched since 1986 according to the date of newspapers which were inside for wrapping something which isn't there any more and no one has a clue what it was) was a complete dress, pinned and cut out, and a part-started tapestry-type thing complete with wool. Mum has only a vague recollection of the former and no recollection of the latter whatsoever.:rotfl:

    Things which are coming out of the loft and to mine; the dress, the tapestry-thing, a portable clothes rail of mine, a polystrene wig stand, a small pine shelf and a basket of hair-curlers and pins. Plus a tent, a drawer unit full of Irish folk cassettes (long story involving me and a skip, best I deal with this, I am responsible for it).

    Still left in the loft is a sunlounger, a canvas parasol for the garden table (used once) a dress form, a hair-dryer of the 1970s dalek and stand variety, boxes of drinking glasses, two steamer cabin trunks, boxes of misc, an archival display of suitcase styles from the 1950s to present day and more yarn than most yarn shops. One day, gentle readers, all this will be my responsibility.:rotfl:

    :D Oh, and a ceramic gazunder which can't be got rid of because We Might Need it Someday - this is a two-lavatory household, one upstairs one downstairs but if you get really taken short, please pull down the loft ladder and you'll find the 'po just to the right of the hatch. Be sure to check for spiders before widdling, tho........:p
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • Blue_Doggy
    Blue_Doggy Posts: 854 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 18 October 2015 at 7:36PM
    GreyQueen :rotfl: at your parent's loft - mine were like that,
    even to blouse, cut out and tacked and then abandoned (from the fabric pattern, sometime in the 1950s).

    June89 I have pantry-envy - I've always wanted a pantry, the nearest I ever got was a house where the pantry had been converted into a loo!!

    I've been having a bit of RL, so catching up with posting my Min's lists here are a few:

    Day 13
    3 Charity "begging letters" from last Christmas
    Empty dog treat packet (derrr!)
    Item of furniture sold on Eb*y (collected!)
    5 supermarket recipe cards for dishes I shan't ever make
    Magazine
    Shoeboxful of cash receipts
    Plastic food tub lid (no base)
    Day 14
    Meal plan for a day back in February
    Cover for an old shopping list pad - have never been able to find refills of the right size
    3 magazines
    Catalogue
    Empty tissue box
    Packing slip from an online order received months ago
    4 odd bits of paper
    Hanging label from a garment
    out-of-date supermarket voucher
    Day 15
    Wadge of inserts from magazines
    Corner crockery stacker - plastic covered, plastic is degrading
    2 pieces of sticky note paper
    6 old lists
    Pile of dusty old eggboxes (kept to return to egg-man but now a bit past it)
    Stack of dusty old paper coasters
    3 items of junk mail
    All from the kitchen table :eek:.

    Another installment of this thrilling (not! :rotfl:) saga tomorrow!

    Meanwhile, I just wanted to add that although all this stuff *should* have been easy to sort, when I hit the buffers (no energy) a couple of years ago it was all too much, so I'd like to add my thanks to the Konverts here for support and everything which has helped me pick up the threads again.
    “Tomorrow is another day for decluttering.”
    Decluttering 2023 🏅🏅🏅🏅⭐️⭐️
    Decluttering 2025 💐 🏅 💐 ⭐️
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 18 October 2015 at 8:31PM
    Blue_Doggy wrote: »
    GreyQueen :rotfl: at your parent's loft - mine were like that,
    even to blouse, cut out and tacked and then abandoned (from the fabric pattern, sometime in the 1950s)..
    :o I am inordiately comforted that my parents (well, it's Mum, really) aren't uniquely odd.

    I've just finished a book by Martin Rowson, called Stuff. It's a memoir of his family life and includes descriptions of clearing out his family home. His late father was a famed virologist and a clock collector. His workroom included nine bottles of horse blood (it's ideal for culturing things, apparently) and lots and lots of frankly weird s**t. Oh, and there was a knitting machine in their loft, too, which was about the most normal thing up there. There was supposed to be a human skull in the loft, which was promised to young Martin, but he couldn't find it.

    :D The late Dr Rowson's hoard makes the rest of us look very dull indeedy.

    ETA other things in the loft (from memory, not my home): three cat travel baskets, for a two cat household, a bag of 2 ft long zips (approx 200 of), a huge bag of clean but laddered tights, every pair of curtains ever hung in the house (apart from the 1970s fibreglass ones, which were binned), blankets dating back to WW2, pillow ticking saved from dead pillows, several mousetraps, the boxy handbag thingy off our 1960s pram, a small archive of computer technology and peripherals (1980s to present) enough cardboard for a bonfire, a carrier bag of brushes for brush & pan sets, bits of quarter-round and other mouldings, a 1970s coolbox in retro orange and beige, a box of ex-office lever arch files with their arches broken, a few dozen holdalls and a double-digit collection of those tartan laundry bags holding yarn (coned and balled). Plus the boxes of Misc. Some are yarn, some are yarn & misc and some fall into the category of WTH?!

    There is also a small artificial Xmas tree and a modest box labelled Xmas decs. These are accessible. The small tree is actually the top off a much larger artificial tree which was 8ft tall and we didn't have room to put up. So it stayed in the loft and only the top came down, for about 20 years, until it was taken to the tip. There are sufficient decs to dec the halls, landings etc, but the only things which get decorated are the mantle and the tree. There are 4 x the amount of baubles etc than there is space to hang them, most of them are modern plastic things of no sentimental value but they can't be thinned out and donated Because. And I try, each and every 24th December, when I decorate their tree.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • june89
    june89 Posts: 480 Forumite
    Blue_Doggy wrote: »
    June89 I have pantry-envy - I've always wanted a pantry, the nearest I ever got was a house where the pantry had been converted into a loo!!

    Don't worry about getting too jealous! I think it was originally the broom cupboard (and a half width one at that) which someone stuck a whole bunch of slatted shelves in. So I call it the pantry, but it's not a proper walk in one like I had a few houses ago. Now that was lovely. I miss that house. :o
  • mrs-moneypenny
    mrs-moneypenny Posts: 15,519 Forumite
    Evening konverts

    I've spent most of the afternoon rummaging through the pressie stash that's been accrued Over the year, and wrapping family Christmas pressies along with Nov, Dec and Jan birthdays so they can be offloaded at some point this week so will fill tomorrow's kondo list.

    Going to watch homeland now so night all
    SPC~12 ot 124

    In a world that has decided that it's going to lose its mind, be more kind my friend, try to Be More Kind
  • MMF007
    MMF007 Posts: 1,375 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Grey Queen, I can hardly see the screen for tears of laughter. I am sure we have mothers who were seperated at birth :rotfl: DH has asked me to leave the room because he can't concentrate on the film, I am spluttering at your list of loft contents. My parents have quite a large house and it is full (not quite worthy of a tv prog, but pretty impressive volume) of STUFF. Much of it obtained when the parents cleared their parents' homes, a lot has just accumulated and cannot be set free because they may need it one day .......

    My 'favourite' komono, on a scale of 'why the heck are you keeping that/those?' is a basket of souvenir mini soaps that are all covered in dust. I tried cleaning a few and suggested that only the really treasured ones were kept but this was met by hysteria of the sort one would have associated with an attempt to take a child away. Serious panic attack - style breathing, waving of arms, the lot. I took a few deep breaths myself and walked away :eek:

    we are visiting in a couple of weeks and I have been planting the MK folding and filing seed for a while, hoping that I can at least sort out some of the clothes mountain (it is contained in wardrobes and drawers, don't want to give the impression you actually have to climb over the piles!! ). I'd luurrrvv to be able to sort it out to make things easy to see and access. They both have severe health problems and could benefit greatly from a KM attack :D

    thanks for the laugh. I'll give you my two pen' 'orth in a few weeks' time :rotfl:

    M
    I have changed my work-life balance to a life-work balance. :grin:
  • I'm finding a second huge benefit - I'm having enough energy and visual 'rest' to see where small improvements can be made and can get them done. I'm talking minor changes, such as moving a vase of fake flowers into the other room, or of sticking down the anti slip mat under the welcome mat so it all stays in place.

    I have a small list of pretty little things to do tomorrow. A couple of decorative things that I am putting a colour wash on the frames so they match their respective rooms better. Painting some empty thread spools which I will then use to hold draught excluders in place. To paint over the old and non working doorbell I will use black nail polish as I refuse to buy any paint.

    I'll probably find some other things, before it was such a hassle to do these small things as they needed lots of prep. A space had to be cleared, all the necessary pieces dug out of various places, kept together till there was time to do it, and invariably not all the things would get put away again. Thus making it more of a chore to do the next time.

    I don't think I'll ever be finished with the strive for simplicity. I have hit the second tipping point in this journey, the first was when the house started to feel light and the second when small tasks became easy and trivial to do. Admittedly, I'm in a very fortunate position to be able to do this - not living with a partner and having no children. The two cats cause far less chaos than my flatmate, and even he is pretty tidy.
    :AStarting again on my own this time!! - Defective flylady! :A
  • That really sums it up. Dragonette - those little tweaks which never seemed to get done but don't really take long when you're organised.

    Today my friend came over for Garage Part 2. I now have a 'tip' pile which includes two bottles of sulphuric acid drain unblocker :eek:, some more rusty paint tins, bits of plastic drainpipe, etc and various other bits of junk; a Freecycle pile including a tent, a kite and a completely unused plant-watering system .... and enough plastic plant pots to keep Kew Gardens happy for a year. The space inside the garage* is amazing, and will make it much safer, and things like camping gear, beekeeping kit and the cat-basket are readily accessible. Part 1 which was tools, paint and gardening stuff was done about six weeks ago and it has stayed tidy! Onwards and upwards.

    *No, there isn't room for a car - don't be silly! In my defence, the garage was built when cars were smaller, it wouldn't hold a modern car even if empty.
    Life is mainly froth and bubble: two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble, courage in your own.
  • jinny
    jinny Posts: 1,889 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 19 October 2015 at 12:22AM
    Hi to all konverts new and old
    I rea the post asking about originals on the thread. I was the first poster after the op. I was highly embarrassed when I said thanks I will look into getting the book. Only to discover I had already bought it and never read it!
    Well im glad I did eventually I kondoed the life out of my flat.
    It didnt take long as its a flat but stuff from my tiny kitchen filled the dining table and more. I was shocked at the amount of stuff I
    had in there. Walking into the empty kitchen was amazing I felt as if I could breathe. Only stuff I truly needed was put back. Amazingly its still like that. However, I think you have to be vigilant in watching what comes in. In an earlier post I quoted a line from the vampire film The Lost Boys, "They cant come in unless you invite them".
    Thanks for all the funny posts I needed cheering up a bit today.

    I can so relate to the parents stuff, mine were from the era that didnt throw anything away. It was awful when we had to clear out loads of their the stuff when they passed away. I dont want my boys to have to do go through that.

    Hugs to all that need them too. Such positive attitudes is
    humbling.
    Through kondoing I was able to have a great summer visiting friends and rellies with an easy mind. I am a carer for someone close to me and dont often have to chance to take off like that but the oportunity arose and I took it.
    keep chipping away you can do it.
    ”Pour yourself a drink, (tea for me now)
    Put on some lipstick
    and pull yourself together”
    - Elizabeth Taylor
  • lollyfin
    lollyfin Posts: 299 Forumite
    This is two nights in a row I haven't slept well and been up just after 5 �� and I figured it out this morning, well I think I have, I have so much stuff in my bedroom that it's not a comfy relaxing room at all. I can't walk from one end to the other without having to climb over things and when I need to find something loads of stuff needs to be pulled out ��. It has always bothered me but not the extent it does now, reading about you all getting rid of stuff and clearing space has made me realise just how awful my room is.
    So plan of attack is to clear my things down to just what I love and put it all away properly, OHs stuff I'm just going to rearrange and then I'm going to get one of the wardrobes out of my room into my daughters and we are hopefully going to organise her stuff into that wardrobe and get rid of the two that are in her room.
    And I want to start right now but can't because everyone is still sleeping so am organising the stuff I'm going to need to get it done and getting more inspiration by reading more of your posts ��.
    Thank you thank you thank you for the kick up the butt and fingers crossed tonight I can actually sleep
    konMarie and fabbing all the way
    Weight loss challenge starting 11st loss in November 4lb
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