KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Karmacat

My builder has told me that the ceiling over my built-in wardrobe should be safe until he can mend the roof over it, so I'll be kondo-ing the clothes tomorrow, or maybe even this evening - they've all been dragged out of there, it'd be a shame not to kondo as I put them back

lessonlearned

Uses for odd socks.........

I stuff shoes with them to help them stay in shape.......for knee length boots I use rolled up old magazines.

I use odd socks - old tights, unwanted undies etc to make draft excluder door sausages.

I also use old undies (gussets removed), tatty t shirts and old socks as throw away cleaning cloths for dirty jobs or when I'm decorating.

Icey77

Afternoon everyone

I'm de-lurking to ask what you all do with receipts? They pile up here and my accountancy background makes it hard for me to chuck them out. I understand keeping ones for important, big purchases but how long do you keep all the other ones?

Thanks x

Belated comment on the cardboard sub-frames for pictures. I've found that W*lko sells these in multiple sizes so I can hold pictures up with the frames to see which I like best. I haven't always been able to find and old picture to re-use the sub-frame from.

silvasava

Icy - I staple receipts on the back page of the manual for all my appliances and electrical items so if there's a problem they are easily found. I keep all the instruction manuals in plastic pockets in an A4 ring binder. I have a separate file for DH's tools and the garden equipment but the same system.
I only keep receipts that I would need if I needed to return the item for any reason. All others are binned. HTH

GreyQueen

I'm pretty much identical to silvasava. I have my appliance manuals/ instructions, large and small, in one lever arch file. The receipt is in with the manual. Big appliances have their own plastic pocket, small things live several to a pocket. There is a divider into Big Appliances and Small Applicance (yup, I'm very literal).

Grocery receipts I collate in an envelope, as I keep track of my spends and will total them at month's end, then the whole thing goes thru the shredder.

Receipts for things which I may want to keep track of, in case they perform below my expectations and I want to complain, are kept in an envelope in my file box (in a hanging file called Misc Receipts). There's one for clothing, one for outdoorsy stuff, a couple of other categories.

Been using this system for many years and it's easy to use and means that when an appliance dies, I can retrieve and chuck it's paperwork away in seconds, but have it all handy in case I need it. HTH.

Been running amok with a letter-opener in my pal's office - 80% of the paperwork mountain was marketing carp and into recycling. Have also run a sheet of WD40-soaked A4 paper thru his shredder as it was labouring a bit. And frightened off a telesales person by answering his phone to what sounded like an Indian lady down a well, who asked to speak to the business owner.

Is this a sales call? I asked politely, as we do at work, in order to head off timewasters, and she hung up on me!:rotfl:

Heh, I think we can consider her kondo'd. Poor lass, lousy way to have to make a living.

Tomorrow, the plan is to kondo the rest of the seed spuds on my table into egg-cartons and bike them up to the lottie and plant them. It'll be great to have my table back again.

MMF007

Socks - not often any go missing because there's only 2 of us but odd ones I tie a knot in (she says quietly) and put them at the front of my sock drawer so they are not picked out until the other half turns up. They reunite quickly. Same with knee highs!

Receipts - big purchases and ones that may need proof of purchase some years later I file immediately in the relevant section of our documents files. We only have two general files, one for work related docs and the other for home such as utilities, repairs, white goods etc.
We do have a seperate set for tax returns.
Other purchases
- clothes, I keep receipts for no more than 6 months. Don't buy that many so that's no problem!
I have just realised as I am typing that I also keep the few receipts for minor household items that are meant to last, too (like bed linen, baking accessories etc). They are filed in my receipt file (Busy bee sell them online but they are also available in WHSmith etc).

Food and weekly shopping - check them immediately for over-charges , I keep them in a
pretty!mug!which has a broken handle but was so joyful I re-purposed it. Only keep for a week-ish, just in case anything is not up to scratch.

Not much kondo-ing today. Did a few chores this morning then took mum out while dad had a
rest, then we had a team effort to do a roast for dinner!

Setting off home tomorrow. Will wave to Grunnie again on the way past :hello:

M

Libellula84

There was chat earlier about how it can take various amounts of time to decide if you still like a piece of clothing. I didn't even get that far tonight!!
I started to iron a white shirt and suddenly thought to myself why am I even bothering with this, it's not even very flattering and it's a totally nightmare to iron!
Kondo freedom I call it, didn't even hesitate.:beer:

GreyQueen

Libellula84 wrote: »

There was chat earlier about how it can take various amounts of time to decide if you still like a piece of clothing. I didn't even get that far tonight!!
I started to iron a white shirt and suddenly thought to myself why am I even bothering with this, it's not even very flattering and it's a totally nightmare to iron!
Kondo freedom I call it, didn't even hesitate.:beer:

:T Nice one!

I've decided that even though some items of clothing are attractive, I will not own them if they cannot go through a mixed coloureds wash at 40 c and mostly get away without being ironed.

I buy most of my clothes in charity shops but still check the care labels to see that they meet this criteria. And I steer clear of tops with sequins, beads, fancy embroidery etc because they can be a pain to iron and I flipping hate ironing (most weeks I manage to do nil, some weeks it might be 5 mins, which is 5 mins too long in my mind).

Did a washload this evening which includes my beloved East wrap dress. I bought this for £9.99 several years back in a chazzer and it has had an awful lot of use. It's now losing its stretchiness and going to holes, so I have laundered it, will strip off the fancy buckle which holds the ties, and put it in the rag-bag. Will be sad to lose it but it has served me well so I shall thank it and release it.

Have taken a small bag to the chazzer today, containing a few bits a bobs inc some hand tools from the drawer such as the spiky wheel for marking up paper patterns when pattern-cutting, and two different kinds of rug hooks for making rag rugs. I am not going to make rag rugs, I'm not Laura Ingalls Wilder, for flip's sake. I do make yarn rugs from wool with latch-type rug hooks and I have the one in use and one spare, and that's sufficient.:p

mrs-moneypenny

That made me smile GQ when I was a teen I lived on little house on the prairie books and wanted to be Laura ingalls I thought her way of life sounded idyic (ok maybe not the dysentery or tragic childhood illnesses)
I have a set of the books upstairs that make me smile when I see the covers I haven't actually read them in years.
Maybe we could turn our unjoyful garments into rugs......ok maybe not. That's one for the crafting thread and I already have too much stashed to start hoarding old clothes to turn into rugs. In all honesty I do have a bag of dd2s Tshirts she has asked me to konvert into a throw for her.

maddiemay

Earlier in the week I took 4 bags containing 28 items of now too large and not needed in retirement clothes to "my" CS, the next day I received an e-mail saying that my previous donations of Kondoed clothes and household items had raised £189 so well pleased and will help me keep up the momentum.

Odd socks are placed at side of sock drawers until their mates turn up, but only 2 of us here so no hassle, like LL I use old socks discarded by me and OH to stuff not in use shoes, really raggy ones are great for shoe cleaning and other little cleaning jobs, OH likes old t shirts and the like for cleaning his precious bicycles (he rides at least 3 times per week and they can get pretty mucky or dusty).

Receipts - pretty much same as GQ and Silvsava, food and odds and end receipts are kept for a few days and then shredded as soon as I have checked them against my on-line bank statements.

Another one who rarely irons anything, except linen clothes in summer, everything is very well smoothed out as it is hung outside or on clothes airer if indoor dried. OH and I both retired so no work shirts to be done, I gave up wearing shirts yonks ago as they just don't fit my shape (small back, large front:()