KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

GreyQueen

FLA27 wrote: »

Tomorrow I need to rearrange my food storage bins in the kitchen to make them make more sense and I really need to finish picture Kondoing. I have found it really difficult to decide what wall pictures spark joy, i'm not that artistic and it isn't easy to be completly honest with myself on this one.

I'm a recovering art student and have decided opinions. I think Van Gogh is carp, f'rinstance, although his works infest shops selling posters and repro prints. Can't stand most of the Impressionists, either: sodding water lilies etc etc.

I divide pictures into the ones you like and the ones you don't like. That could be homegrown art, photos of the family, reproductions of famous paintings, whatever.

There's no law saying you have to have any pictures on your walls. You can have them bare, you can have plates, you can have some nice mirrors which bounce the light around, you can hang an attractive scarf, a hat, a cloth, a map, a samurai sword, a talking fish, whatever floats your boat.

Why not try taking all the pictures down and putting them back one at a time and living with each one. You might decided to put a certain picture on X wall, live with it for a few weeks and then try it on another wall, or in another room.

Play with it, don't stress about it. Imagine you've got all the time in the world. When you're happy with how they are, then that's good enough.

If anyone's stuck for pictures, and on a low budget, charity shops are your friends. I have three things on my sitting-room walls; a large picture calendar (Alphonse Mucha this year, scenes of rural Britain last year, who knows what in 2017), a mirror and a watercolour of peonies in a tankard, double-matted and nicely framed.

I bought the watercolour for £6 from a charity shop. I was walking by, had no intention of buying a picture, and it stopped me in mid-stride, because I liked it so much. Several years on, I still really like it - if I didn't it'd be back down the charity shop and ready to bring joy to someone else.

mumps

silvasava wrote: »

I have a photo taken of my grandparents and my Aunt uncle & dad when they were all young. It's on the landing and I can see it from my bed. It gives me great joy even though my Aunt is the only one left now.
I've also got a couple of water colours painted by another friend. One is in the guest bedroom (lovely narcissisi) and the other(two cranes -slightly oriental) in the sitting room
I don't have much else on display as I do like the space!

I love family photos and have loads all over the house. I am sitting here and can see photos of my grandchildren, all looking a mixture of cheeky/happy/gorgeous, and graduation photos of my 4 and some family weddings. They all make me feel happy and I regularly put some away and swap with others.

greenbee

Fantastic progress everyone. I'm impressed by the improvements you're making to your parents' quality of life GQ, and how you're making some of the decisions easy for your mum.

I went for a walk this morning before the rain arrived. It was windy, but bright and sunny and cold. I'm now trying to arbitrate a disagreement between my parents about curtains in my dad's room - since he's been diagnosed with cancer he spends a lot of time resting, and hated the rather boring blue toile de jouy style curtains in there. I'm not surprised... they are fairly skimpy, let a lot of light in, don't really go with the room (most of his furniture is dark, and the bedding, bedspread etc he has chosen when he moved in there is all browns/reds) and aren't really his style.

My mother is now cross with BOTH of us, as I dug out a pair of curtains that match a pair I have (interlined, rather old fashioned fabric with a william morris-type patterns of birds and leaves in browns/pinks/greens), and asked what he thought of those. He thinks he might prefer them, so I have taken the old ones down, loosened the header tape out on the alternatives and hung one at each window. That way he can live with them for a few days before deciding. The other pair I have is wider, but it won't be a major job to alter them, get some tie-backs so they don't cut out too much light, and give him something he is happy with. If my mother doesn't like them it really doesn't matter - she can replace them in a couple of years at the outside.

Now I just need to persuade him to choose some fabric for a blind in his bathroom. But he's announced that he's old-fashioned and doesn't like all these modern fabrics my mother keeps showing him. So if he doesn't like the selection of old curtains I happen to have with me, I've offered to take him back to Mav's dept store as they have lots of fabrics and he might find something.

I'm just hoping by brother can go and retrieve the other pair of curtains from my house and bring them up on Tuesday... otherwise I either have to post them, or they'll have to wait a couple of weeks until I'm back.

I've separated my parents to rest in separate rooms while I do the laundry and do some cooking...

I'll order doorhandles sometime today

Floss

Greenbee our main wardrobes were my parents' bedroom suite, along with my dressing table and stool and one bedside cabinet (older brother came along before they could buy the other!). In our guest bedroom we have a 1950s birds eye maple wardrobe, cod and dressing table that came from our tip's reuse shop for £50! We also have a Lloyd Loom glass topped laundry bin and a vintage wooden Grahams port crate as bedside tables, both junk shop finds.

GreyQueen

Oooh, I love birds-eye maple, so pretty.

Been going through the hosiery. Mum's decided she can no longer do tights but is keeping some stockings, knee-highs (for under trousers) and some footsies. Have taped up several boxes on unused tights in multi-packs for the chazzer and made a big bale of used tights for textile recycling - in the crate to go to the HWRC here. Also found an odd sock which I recognised as matching an odd sock in the odd-sock bag I was going thru yesterday, so they are re-united and in the drawer ready to be used.

Mum's passed several long-sleeved tee shirt type tops to me, as she doesn't favour these now but they're my preterred leisure/ gardening wear (very fair skinned, can't wear tee shirts out of doors). Several other items are going to the chazzer on grounds of fanciness - beads etc - and being pains to launder.

She acknowledges that a lot more clothes need to be gone through but I reckon I'm pushing my luck with how much decision-making I've got out of her this weekend already.

There is a still a lot of stuff on the furniture at the foot of the bed but we are minus two crates, one holdall, one shopping bag, a broken picture frame, two biscuit tins of paperwork and quite a lot of Misc. There is plenty more scope for kondo-ing in that area of their room, not to mention other areas, but we're baby-stepping it.

3forholidays

Sounds like great things are happening at the parental home GreyQueen! It can be difficult accepting that some clothes that you have in your wardrobe are no longer practical. I am currently wearing a pair of jeans today that I'll have to donate to the CS for exactly this reason.

huston_kw

Good evening all, Newbie here..

I've not read the thread but intend to read it, actually I got to page three and thought I best post or I'll spend the next six months reading instead of cleaning...

I've printed out the check list from one of the links, so will start there... I have clothes that are too small for me, but I am in the process of losing the weight (about 15ish left to go), so will redo the clothes again at the end, as I will be keeping the ones that I like but may not fit at goal weight.

Any tips on how to make this easier, I've kept some clothes years as they hold memories and I think I may find it hard, even though I know I'm not going to ever wear them again...

Slinky

Today we've been stuck indoors with the weather keep changing.


OH has put up the new light fitting I bought last week in the kitchen. Hopefully there will now be enough light to see the washing up properly so that the mornings aren't spent picking bits off spoons and ladles that you couldn't see the night before when washing up. |OH says the light fitting can go to the tip. I was surprised, I expected it to be going to the loft.


Whilst he was doing that I KM'd the holiday drawers. Managed to consolidate 4 drawers down to 3 (they aren't big) and moved the suncream from the bathroom cabinet to the spare holiday drawer. The rest of the chest of drawers is filled with packets of photos. I got rid of a huge number of those envelopes you used to send away films to be developed in. Photos are a job for another day, but I shredded 3 of a particularly annoying relative's graduation, since they've done bogall with their degree and I certainly don't want to put the pictures up on show.


The space in the bathroom cabinet freed up by moving the suncream has been filled with my stash of half price mouthwash which was cluttering up the bathroom floor still in carrier bags. Discovered 2 1/2 bottles of shampoo I'd forgotten I'd got, so got them tidy for use when appropriate. Rest of bathroom cabinet still needs sorting.


This afternoon we've been doing some of those stupid little decorating jobs that aren't big enough to get around to. Pulled out a nail and filled a hole. Rubbed down some previously filled holes and did a second fill. Filled a couple of large holes where a radiator has been changed. Will need a second fill tomorrow then painting at some future point. Caulked some woodwork on our tongue & groove bath panel. It's been painted with a 'wash' colour I've never liked, I always thought it looked unfinished. OH likes it, but it's been 9 years of his choice, now I'm going to paint it the same colour as the walls. OH filed down a tiny piece of filler from the edge of the bathroom windowsill. It's been stuck there for 9 years, annoys me every time I'm in the bath as it was my mistake, but I've never got around to finding a file to get rid of it. OH had never noticed it until I pointed it out today. He's got rid of it for me.


So a load of silly bits and bobs 'decorating kipple' jobs, nothing of any significance have been started, hopefully we can complete a lot of them tomorrow.


We still have a lot more of them to do. Hairline cracks need filling and painting over. Ho hum.

newleaf

Another newcomer here. Looking forward to reading through the thread.
I've started sorting through clothes. Plenty there that is not sparking any joy whatsoever, so it should be fairly easy to get rid of quite a bit. I finally admitted that the brand new, still with tags on, size 16 jacket and size 14 trousers will never fit, so they were first in the CS bag.

Karmacat

I've been a bit random, not good kondoing but I've been going through the instruction leaflets, people were talking about it a few days ago - some aren't online any more, some are, and I've started to download what I can. Kipple in the box file too - started to sort it. Very, very pleased with that - anything I can do to cut down on paperwork, I'm really happy.

Loved the scenario thing - brain is too blunted to actually respond, but I'm aware - thanks NewShadow, thanks responders