KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

kboss2010

GreyQueen wrote: »

I have a dustpan which was given to my parents as part of a selection of cleaning implements as a wedding gift in the early 1960s. Bygorry, Ad d is knew how to make plastics.........:rotfl:

My Aunt has a broom which lives outside in her back garden leaning agains the wall. It is very very old, entirely made of wood with natural bristles. Well, it has a couple of clumps of natural bristles remaining, the rest is bald.

I asked her why she kept this near-useless broom, when she has several others in better nick, including yard brooms and house brooms. Her answer was that no one would steal it.

She lives in a village, surrounded by relatives in nearby houses, everyone knows everyone and it's not exactly a hotbed of crime. Folks mostly don't bother even locking their doors.

Auntie, if no one would steal it, it might be because it's good for nothing but the bonfire.....:rotfl:

My Mum has pictures in the older family albums which include a couple of chaps who lodged with Grandma in the 1950s and the then-next-door-neighbour's dog. I actually know the name of that animal, for goodness sake, and it died about 15 years before I was born and it wasn't even owned by our family.

:cool: Address books, there's a thing. I have tried a number of times over the years to get Mum to consolidate her various ones into one current one. The oldest address book is actually my late Grandma's who passed from this vale of tears in 1970 at almost 80. Plenty of the people in there were of similar vintage - none are presently actually alive, but hey, we know where they used to live!:p

Reminds me of a time a couple of years back when I came in from work to find a message from what sounded like an elderly lady. She obviously thought she was leaving it on Daphne's * answerphone and it was about someone's funeral.

Not wanting Daphne to miss a funeral, I made a courtesy call back to the lady, explaining that she'd made a mistake (I have had my landline number nearly 20 years, and knew the people who had it before me).

Blow me, instead of being grateful, she demanded to know where Daphne lived and was quite rude, almost as if I'd done away with the woman or summat.

Folks, keep your addresses and numbers up-to-date, or this could be any of us in a few years, and you might end up missing a funeral and a rollicking good wake as a result.:rotfl:

* It wasn't actually Daphne, but something of that vintage I can no longer remember.

Lol, I once had a woman phone my house, insist on speaking to "Dave" (just my mum and I lived there, there was no Dave!) and when I told her she had the wrong number, she argued aggressively with me for 5 minutes until I had to hang up on her.

I don't know what that was meant to acheive!

Floss

Igamogam fingers crossed that your cleared space & surfaces don't get swallowed up by someone else's stuff...

Slinky

kboss2010 wrote: »

Take out, say, one drawers-worth of socks that you will use in maybe a week. Store the rest in a box in an attic/garage/cupboard until the ones "in use" get worn out then replace. That way you don't take up easily-accessible drawer space with stuff that's never used and you don't end up with a mountain of odd socks after doing the washing because every pair has been worn before being washed (if you're the kind of person who waits until they have no stuff left before washing things)!

We're OK for drawer space, but I'm certainly going to be a bit more ruthless in binning any of his in-use socks which are a bit ratty.


I'm pretty good at keeping on top of the washing, the secret is not having a huge washbasket. If it gets to overflowing I have to deal with it.


I also came across the hospital paperwork from when my Dad was ill before he died. My sibling would have kept it given half a chance. I've shredded it, Dad wouldn't want a stranger reading it if somebody else ends up clearing out sibling's home.


In the same drawer were a couple of Dad's old T-shirts, I'm sure they still smell a little of him. Dear Dad, I do miss him so. Kept them.

dragonette

I turned down a 10 items for £5 offer, and got 4 things and paid £6 for them. A little more expensive, but I really couldn't have found anything I could put in a CS bag even. Happy with my new flowery hair clips

Igamogam

Floss wrote: »

Igamogam fingers crossed that your cleared space & surfaces don't get swallowed up by someone else's stuff...

No chance ! The rule is once cleared it stays clear........ and I have nagging rights;)

GreyQueen

kboss2010 wrote: »

Lol, I once had a woman phone my house, insist on speaking to "Dave" (just my mum and I lived there, there was no Dave!) and when I told her she had the wrong number, she argued aggressively with me for 5 minutes until I had to hang up on her.

I don't know what that was meant to acheive!

Unbelievable, isn't it? The old lady I'd rung had obviously mis-dialled or hadn't had a valid phone number for 'Daphne' for 30-odd years, which was the length of time my ownership and my pals' ownership of that phone number added up to.

I thought I was being kind, preventing a missed funeral and possibly a rift between two ladies, and instead I got the 3rd degree about 'Daphne's' whereabouts. In the end, I had to point out, somewhat testily, that this is a city of over 100,000 people and I don't know everyone who lives here!:rotfl:

Moved two stacking baskets off the kitchen counter to clean around them and decided I much prefer the space without them, so they can go to the chazzer, possibly later today or otherwise tomorrow, as I want to free up every available bit of space before the electrical work next Tuesday.

I'm sure the liason officer was using the plural, so am thinking that I will have two electricians, not just the one, so it'll be even more of a squeeze in here than I imagined.

Nothing like the thought of having strangers clambering around your home to concentrate the mind on decluttering.

Having a few convos with the folks about Stuff. Mum is chortling joyously that she doesn't miss a thing which I have taken for charity donation. Dad was ruminating that one of the reasons for a lot of the Stuff is that they haven't moved for 45 years, which would have dragged some of this stuff into the light and it would have been got rid of.

Dad's pretty minimalistic and very little of the Stuff in the family home can be laid at his door. But I was still teasing him about Grandad's coat. His dad passed away 17 years ago, shortly after having bought a new coat which had never been worn. Nan gave said coat to Dad, which he put in his wardrobe, and has never worn. He has several coats he does wear and has said to me a few times that he should donate this one, but it hasn't happened yet.

I gently suggested there might be some chap out there badly needing a coat who couldn't afford a new one, who'd be delighted to have it. Hopefully, a seed will have been sown and it can wend its way to the charity shop. I do know they're often desperate for menswear.

wort

http://thechalkboardmag.com/marie-kondo-sparking-joy

Just read this and it really resonates , to me my family is everything and time is memories.

ScotinLondon

So my freezer after 14 years of being useful and happy has now decided to KM itself!!

Funny thing is that the fridge is still happy as can be. All freezer food will now tonight be moved to the fridge part and be eaten during the week until the replacement arrives, which will be next Friday.

I realise that there are other companies out there that will get to me in a day, but as we want the doors to be reversed - this is the reason that it will take longer than normal, plus I work....can't always take time off to suit delivery companies.

Hope that everyone has a good day and stays warm.
SIL

kboss2010

I really need to Kondo my clothes and be ruthless. I have so much stuff and hardly wear any of it yet I'm being sentimental about stuff for no apparent reason. My wardrobe is a mess, it's badly designed by whoever built it into the bedroom and I hate going into it so I've put a pile of work clothes and my underwear and sock into a couple of drawers beside my bed so that I don't have to go into it - if I can live off the stuff in 3 drawers, why do I have a wardrobe full to bursting that makes me miserable to contemplate opening???

Madness!

Slinky

ScotinLondon wrote: »

So my freezer after 14 years of being useful and happy has now decided to KM itself!!

Funny thing is that the fridge is still happy as can be. All freezer food will now tonight be moved to the fridge part and be eaten during the week until the replacement arrives, which will be next Friday.

I realise that there are other companies out there that will get to me in a day, but as we want the doors to be reversed - this is the reason that it will take longer than normal, plus I work....can't always take time off to suit delivery companies.

Hope that everyone has a good day and stays warm.
SIL

As you've got a week, if you haven't got any, try and get hold of some silicone grease, you may find it somewhere like Halfords. At the back of the freezer there are copper and steel pipes, there will be a fairly visible point where the copper and the steel are brazed together. Smear some grease liberally on this point as this is a weak point where the fridge or freezer can fail. Could add years to the life of your appliance. You need to keep oxygen away from the weld.