KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

grunnie

After having to clear drawers and boxes and wardrobes full of letters and papers when I cleared my aunt's flat and a few years later mum's house I don't keep much. I had to go through each one of their papers in case I missed something a bill or even money. I took home a box a night and removed the stamp, checked who the letter was from and nearly all were shredded. I didn't want to have any of my family having to suffer that so I am pretty ruthless with what I keep. I have a postcard from 1960 written by my granny which I keep in my chequebook but other than that a few recipes written by my mum and the handwritten label my father had on his suitcase when he was in the navy( that must date from about 1938ish.
One thing I do say is not to keep lots of money around the house. From the time my mum was widowed in 1975 she cashed her pension and used very little all bills etc she paid by cheque - so you can imagine the purses and handbags I found very organised along the bottom of her wardrobe with several thousand pounds. I didn't know she was doing this. Loads of the £10 and £20 notes were no longer currency but the bank sorted this all out when I arrived with a carrier bag of money. They joked I had robbed the bank across the road.

procrastinator

I'm not quite a hoarder (well I am but not in the frightening shown on telly,) which makes this method very hard for me. However I am slowly chipping away and am finding spaces that haven't seen light of day for years. However I struggle to keep going. At the minute I have unloaded one kitchen cupboard onto the work surfaces and need to clean and put back. Have thrown quite a few things out but again this is slow due to the recycling rules. Jars are being emptied and washed before going out. My ultimate aim is to have everything cleared so I can finally do a full Kondo session when space is found. Oldest jar today was chocolate spread dated 2009.

Slinky

Not so joyful today.

Boiler suit I ordered online so we can stain our fence this weekend has turned up and is way too large, it's a bloke's one despite being sold as a ladies one, so that's having to go back at my postage expense. Arms and legs are way too long. Can't do the staining anyway as the stain I ordered online hasn't turned up either. Job will have to be postponed to May BH weekend.

Still I got rid of the stationery via my Thursday group and charity shop, plus some extra bubble wrap also went to the CS. Paid in OH's cheque received for refund of his Credit Card Sentinal payments and KM'd some Swiss Franc coins to charity leftover from his business trip, unlikely to be going to Switzerland anytime soon.

Noticed the CS has a sign on the door saying they can't accept any more books at the moment, I wonder if KM is having an effect locally!

Karmacat

procrastinator wrote: »

My ultimate aim is to have everything cleared so I can finally do a full Kondo session when space is found.

Exactly! That's what's helped me - in doing the books enough so that I had two spare shelves, I could haul out all my electricals and deal with them on the suddenly-free shelves. It works!

Just reading through The Book, and it's surprisingly logical, in the light of the amount of criticism its had - mind you, I'm only a quarter way through So either it comes later on, or I'm a lot more hippy dippy than I thought

lessonlearned

Hello Kondoites.......

Still having to rest my back and can't drive yet - can just about shuffle round the kitchen so I can at least keep us fed and can feed the washing machine. So plenty of food and clean clothes - that's all we really need for now. DS2 has loaded the car for me ready for the next chazza run so at least it's out of the house.

So not much Kondoing for the next few days. I have a pile of papers to go though but I think I'll save those until tomorrow.

My late husband only ever wrote me two letters......I have kept them both.:D.

Catslovelycats

Thanks Slinky for mentioning this thread.

This is now my billionth attempt to declutter. My decluttering desires are compounded by the fact that I'm lousy at housework. Yes, I could blame my demanding full-time job and health issues. But I am single so have nobody but me to blame really.

Lousy weather this weekend makes me think I want to do some tidying at least and hopefully also a bit of decluttering, maybe.

Slinky

catslovelycats wrote: »

Thanks Slinky for mentioning this thread.

This is now my billionth attempt to declutter. My decluttering desires are compounded by the fact that I'm lousy at housework. Yes, I could blame my demanding full-time job and health issues. But I am single so have nobody but me to blame really.

Lousy weather this weekend makes me think I want to do some tidying at least and hopefully also a bit of decluttering, maybe.

Welcome catslovelycats (love the name), I'm sure that once you discover the joys of a tidy knicker and sock drawer everything else will follow. It's amazing how once they are tidy, you can't bring yourself to chuck stuff in untidily on top.

Karmacat

I love that name too

First test on the letters .... found a letter of thanks from someone who later did me a wrong'un ... and it sparked the very opposite of joy out it goes.

Slinky

My non-joy sparking boiler suit has been returned to the post office, a joy sparking bar of chocolate has been purchased on the way home.

I took delivery today of some joy-sparking bed linen. We bought a set a few weeks back but couldn't find another set we liked as much to use when this one is in the wash, so bought another set the same, currently going round in the washing machine.
http://www.johnlewis.com/bluebellgray-tetbury-floral-bedding/p1872609?sku=234259390&kpid=234259390&s_kenid=f7de062f-e742-440b-b610-1c54bd68b6fa&s_kwcid=404x1155182&tmad=c&tmcampid=73

Siebrie

Karmacat wrote: »

I love that name too

First test on the letters .... found a letter of thanks from someone who later did me a wrong'un ... and it sparked the very opposite of joy out it goes.

Karmacat, I can only advise: burn it! It's sooo satisfying!