The KonMarie method

silvasava

Jo4 - glad your results are OK but so sorry about poor doggie.
Mavymoo - fingers crossed for the house.

Rowan9

GreyQueen - in the blurb about opting out of junk mail, if you read below the 'write in
' bit, it says or email to....
I have emailed. Apparently they post you out the form. Yes, still just lasts two years but worth a try

GreyQueen

wmf wrote: »

GreyQueen - in the blurb about opting out of junk mail, if you read below the 'write in
' bit, it says or email to....
I have emailed. Apparently they post you out the form. Yes, still just lasts two years but worth a try

Thanks for that info, but I already printed the form (it's only one sheet of A4 btw). I do think it's deliberately obstructive to have a weblink to do stuff via email and then tell you to use a paper form. Talk about mish-mashing the technologies. And the last time I requested something from RM via email (a sticker to put on the letter box to tell them I opt out of having undelivered items left with my neighbours) they took about 6 weeks to post that out to me.

Have texted pal yestereve to advise knitting machine is here, and we'll aim to hook up at some point in the next few days to get it over to her place - told her she'll need to bring the car around for it.

Thinking of the hassle and aggravation which recovering this machine and its accessories from the parental home; the main parts were behind two bits of furniture in one room, the accessories mostly in another, other bits were in the loft (and not all together) and it has taken a lot of time and energy to get it together to the point where it can be rehomed.

Multiply this process by the many other items in the house and you can easily see how it can take months and months to clear places when someone passes away.

It's enough to make you want to take up minimalism as a hobby. I need less stuff in a hurry, I'm not getting any younger...........:rotfl:

mavvy, your prospective home sounds fantastic, hope it works out for you.

mrs-moneypenny

Morning all
Mavvy everything crossed that the prospective new home is workable and becomes reality.
GQ well done on getting all the knitting machine bits together. I hope that kondoing of the excess continues well in your parents. I'm nowhere near minimalism yet but you are making it sound very appealing, didn't do much kondoing yesterday - I do still have a couple of days worth of lists from the foray into the garage excess but while sitting watching DVDs and cross stitching all I could think about was how much stuff is stashed in the attic that we really don't need. I dropped a couple of hints to Dh that we could go and move some stuff up there. I have the excuse that the alarm man will be needing to go up there soon so we need space for him....
Edit just reread and it sounds like I'm planning to kidnap hi and hide him up there opps not the case I promise he just needs room to work.
Hope everyone has a good weekend

GreyQueen

I think the thing about attics, and also sheds and garages, is that they are what the decluttering writer Don Aslett calls 'seasoning cellars' where we put the things we're not sure about so's we don't have to make the decision. Sort-of a halfway house, out of the house, so we don't have to risk facing up to Declutterer's Regret, which is the polar opposite of Buyer's Remorse.

I catch myself thinking this way about my two sheds, the 3ft x 6 ft shed at the flats and the 6 ft x 8ft one at the allotment. I hear an echo of Mum's rationale and catch myself thinking I can put it in the shed.:o

I find it difficult to dispose of things which might be useful one day but for which I haven't got an immediate use now. I don't mean excess of things which would be welcome at a chazzer or similar, I find it relatively easy to let these go. What I struggle with are things like plastic tubs, tins, glass jars etc etc, which would only be useful to contain other things, and which would only burden a chazzer and incur disposal costs.

I've come to the conclusion in recent months that I have to draw a very sharp mental line, and then a physical one, between useful (as in useful to someone, in principle, in a specific set of circumstances) and useful to me, within a reasonable timescale. I simply do not have the space to hoard things which might come in handy in twenty years' time. I need that space for living in, now.:rotfl:

And, of course, we kid ourselves that everything we've saved because it might come in handy one day is in the exact same state as it was when we last saw it, and it's a helluva shock to find that things decay and get damaged by being in unheated and possibly even vermin-visited places.

In Mum's loft is a sunlounger, a mistaken purchase from about 30 years ago. We are a family with unsuitable complexions for sunlounging and it went up there not long after it was bought. Because to have sold it/ given it away back then would to have acknowledged the error when the purchase price was still fresh in the mind.

As it is, the error is still there, and allowing negative emotions to be revisited whenever it is seen or even remembered. And I am expecting that when I get my hands on it in about 8-10 days time, the foam will have perished in the seat cushions and it will be fit only for the tip, thus representing waste and negativity and regret.

Ach well, it isn't getting any younger up there, better out than in.

mrs-moneypenny

Totally agree GQ, I'd saved a lot of baby clothes after I had my five. Loving stashed in the attic just incase. My youngest is now 15 so incase of what I'm not too sure. Anyway when dd2 announced first grandchild was on way I made a foray into the attic to retrieve her some clothes. Lots had died in storage the poppers on babygrows had rusted, the elastic cracked and didn't ping back and they were just plain out of date and style. I should have given them to the CS years ago as it is they were only fit for rags. Also baby clothes are so cheap at carboots we got him some lovely ones there from people who had the foresight to get rid of straight away!
I'm sure there are still any more bags of clothes up there so may have to take a look today.

missyrichards

I just threw away a half used jar of cumin. I don't like it and I was going to keep to use up in a recipe where I couldn't taste it but what is the point of that?!:D

missyrichards

Consider This New Yorker Cover: Do You Love Simplicity or Abundance? | Gretchen Rubin

Still more on clutter: a quiz. | Gretchen Rubin

:A

mrs-moneypenny

I love gretchen Rubin's stuff I borrowed the happiness project off someone and read that a couple of years ago.

Mins game
Day 24
1. Broken Rock polisher toy - binned
2. Clogged aerosol of Hair styling mousse - binned
3. Net curtain wire - binned
4. Box file of old knitting patterns - CS
5. Ring binder of old knitting patterns - CS
6. Bits of broken dyson cleaner - recycling
7. Bundle of assorted knitting needles - CS
8. DVD - watched given to my mum
9. Cruet set shaped like hugging couple - CS
10. Assorted fridge magnets - CS
11. Pot a candle came in - CS
12. Bundle of busy needles mags - CS
13. Origami papers - CS
14. Spare next years calendar - CS
15. Kids chair shaped like a teddy inner punctured and lost one eye - binned
16. Kiddy rucksack shaped like tweety pie - CS
17. Teletubby cuddly - CS
18. Penguin cuddly toy. - CS
19. Walking penguin toy - CS
20. Set excercise booklets - recycling
21. Couple of tatty children's board books - recycling
22. Bag of old bandages slings etc - binned
23. Wooden puzzles with missing bits - recycling
24. Split plastic storage box - recycling

PollyWollyDoodle

GreyQueen wrote: »

....

And, of course, we kid ourselves that everything we've saved because it might come in handy one day is in the exact same state as it was when we last saw it, and it's a helluva shock to find that things decay and get damaged by being in unheated and possibly even vermin-visited places.

In Mum's loft is a sunlounger, a mistaken purchase from about 30 years ago. We are a family with unsuitable complexions for sunlounging and it went up there not long after it was bought. Because to have sold it/ given it away back then would to have acknowledged the error when the purchase price was still fresh in the mind.

As it is, the error is still there, and allowing negative emotions to be revisited whenever it is seen or even remembered.

Ouch. Ain't that the truth! You've really summed it up there, GQ. I'm embarrassed at the volume of stuff I've had to bin which could have been used by someone if I'd had the guts to admit I'd made a mistake.

Missyrichards, another great link especially the 'quiz'. I think I would have scored 12/13 on that before I began this process, now I'm genuinely down to two or three.