KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Wednesday2000

I was boiling the kettle so I ran upstairs to go through the instruction manuals.

Thrown into recycling/ binned - 2 TV instruction manuals (for TVs I don't have anymore) a manual for a pressure washer, manual and receipt for a vacuum cleaner, old ticket stub for a concert, application form for a driving licence?!, manual for a fridge we don't have, three gift bags and a copy of a film on a disc I've never watched.:rotfl:

Igamogam

Weather has caught us out here too.........in that its NOT blowing a gale/hail/blizzard/torrential rain we where fully expecting - cold and overcast but dry and a light breeze...........thrown my plans into dissary as I genuinely thought it would be a an 'indoor' day all day and I had prepared for such. Back to the drawing board as procrastination has set in. OH is now getting under my feet trying to be helpful but DD2 has headed off to the mountains for the day training for an extended trip to the alps this summer......trialing the brand new boots which I am assured 'its not like the old days Mum. Modern boots dont need so much breaking in' :eek: I am sure she is right.....now can I get rid of the old boots.................?

Right trip to recycle center first to get the KM juices flowing;)

Igamogam

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

I was boiling the kettle so I ran upstairs to go through the instruction manuals.

Thrown into recycling/ binned - 2 TV instruction manuals (for TVs I don't have anymore) a manual for a pressure washer, manual and receipt for a vacuum cleaner, old ticket stub for a concert, application form for a driving licence?!, manual for a fridge we don't have, three gift bags and a copy of a film on a disc I've never watched.:rotfl:

See what can be done whilst waiting for the kettle:rotfl::rotfl:

greenbee

GQ - you've made huge progress, and I seem to remember fro previous visits that sometimes your visits do result in follow-up decisions from your mum a few days later. I'm guessing the tights decision might get her thinking about what other things are impractical e.g. stuff with lots of small buttons.

Still mediating in the curtain dispute here ... But have also decided that I'm going to take a mirror home from the attic, and have sorted through some boxes of children's books (finding a huge box of candle bulbs not unpacked from the move over 2 years ago) and extracted what is appropriate now so they can be read here or at my house if my brother doesn't have space for them.

GreyQueen

I was told that Mum didn't want any more stuff pulled around today (kondo mutiny) but I still snuck into the storage stool (three-quarters empty, contains 3 jumpers and 20,000 cedar balls ) and the big plastic crate which contained a stack of paperwork from 2015 and a pile of magazines.

Have gone thru the paperwork and removed obsolete eye prescription (cardboard folder containing several leaflets plus the A4 sheet with the eye prescription on it). Plus letter from the bank advising that they were on track with the progress of migrating the branch to a new sort-code (long since completed).

What gets me about paperwork is how the important and the irrelevant nestle together in the same stacks, and how careful you have to be going through it in order to prevent the wrong kind of Stuff being discarded. And how a good 70% of any correspondence stack is envelopes and exhortations to take up long-expired offers etc.

There was also a printout of an email from a hotel confirming their booking details from a few years ago and various other bits of kipple.

I guess I better go put the clothes-which-aren't-being-worn back in the giant plastic crate, and then put the 3 ft piles of other-clothes-which-are-being-worn on top. The latter piles can't be accomodated in wardrobe, cupboard and drawers due to more clothes-which-aren't-being-worn.

I also found one half of a pair of curtains whose mate is in a suitcase in the loft (this I know from my adventures a few weeks ago, I wondered where the matching curtain had got to).

Don't really fancy venturing into Siberia aka the loft but I have a couple of things to go up there and one thing to come down, so better get that curtain back with its mate before it sinks back beneath the surface of the clutter and is never seen again.

Wish me luck, ladies, I'm heading upwards.............:p

greenbee

Next time take a dead mouse with you and 'find' it in the clothes...

Karmacat

GreyQueen wrote: »

:eek: Blimey, that sounds serious. Err, I'm probably the only one here who doesn't know what hips mean in the context of roofs? Pls explain.

I had to google it myself

Apparently it's like the roofline, but its at the side, where two sets of tiles join up - this diagram shows it https://tricountyroofpro.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/roof_parts.png and my roof is triangular like that.

Weather's vile here today, blowing a hooley all night and still blowing, driving heavy rain.

Its lovely here now - blue sky, blowy but really nice. Neighbour and I have been out, I watched him pulling down the fence - he parks his car only about a foot away from it, so its really lucky nothing (else) was damaged :eek:

I also have roof tile damage on the porch - I insure with Admiral, and they're big, so hopefully they're not too mealy mouthed about things.

oceanspirit

Hello to all newbies.

If anyone is thinking shall I go for it or not, just jump in and do your undies drawer and see how it makes you feel.

Have been given a crockery set which definitely sparks joy and old much hated one is boxed up ready to go to the CS tomorrow, yippee! Three watercolours going out of the door soon - being given to someone who loves them.

Two large items of knitwear also going to CS and a storage tin.

Another watercolour set aside to be sold - am finding these hidden away in boxes etc and haven't considered those on the walls yet.

Also been throwing away old pens and pencils etc and anything else I come across which is not useful or joyful. Home is slowly emptying out and it feels great.

Have been given some old Kilner jars and these will be washed and used for storage, replacing some much larger unjoyful acrylic jars.

Plan for today is more paperwork and a second sweep through mug/glasses cupboard.

GreyQueen

I did find a middling-size dead beetle on the outside of the lid of the big plastic crate but I have discreetly put that in the bathroom bin without mentioning it. I have mentioned something to Mum which she'd already seen in the newspapers about it being expected to be a bad year for clothes moths, in the hopes that she might think about stored clothing (none of that in the loft).

The loft run was fast and easy and the stray curtain is back in the suitcase with its other half, a stray unused Xmas card is now in that crate and I have the luggage trolley down to strap a couple of bags of donations onto for transportation on t'bus this evening.

Most of the Stuff from the kondo-ing has been paper this week, but there were stray items from previous kondo sessions which needed to be rounded up and brought firmly to attention as in this must go to your charity shop with gift aid sticker on it or this is only fit for textile recycling up at the tip.

I'm a terribly bossy daughter but I only do it because I have their best interests at heart. And because one day, hopefully many years away, I will be the one left sorting through all this Stuff.

greenbee

I'm a bossy daughter too GQ but like you, have their best interests at heart. I really wish they'd stop arguing about these curtains, but I can't really tell my mum that if she doesn't like what my dad chooses she can change it when he's dead can I? And realistically, he'll be spending a lot of time in his bedroom (he is already, which is probably why he's realised he doesn't like the other curtains), so I don't see why he can't choose. The colours/pattern I stuck in front of him actually does look much better there, it's just a question of whether the person who they usually use to make blinds/curtains will be able to work with the fabric as it is.

I have just called a neighbour to see what the impact of the wind has been at home - apparently another neighbour's fence is (again) in danger of falling down into my garden. She's put a few more nails in and used one of the spare fence posts in my garden to try to prop it up. I'll call the builder in the morning and ask him to do whatever is quickest to make it safe (prop it up or take it out), but as this is the neighbour who complains about my washing line/skips/kids making noise etc I'm not inclined to get him to actually fix the problem.

Parents are out for an hour or so... I really should do some work and then maybe I'll stop being so stressed by the backlog...

Then again, I could make a decision on bathroom wall lights. I've just realised that the mirror I've ordered won't be any good as although the picture on the thumbnails looks fine, the more detailed images reveal that it is incredibly ugly in profile! Luckily it was only £14 as part of a larger order and can be returned locally. I need to look more carefully in future!