KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

PollyWollyDoodle

One of my UFOs is a rag rug made from old t-shirts cut into strips. It seemed like a good idea at the time ... I think pretty soon I'm going to accept that it's never going to be finished and throw it out but I'm not quite there yet.

I have a really bad habit of saving clothes to use the fabric to make something with. Sometimes it does actually happen, but not as often as I'd like to think. I'm going to set myself a time limit on the fabric stash - if I haven't used at least half of it by the end of the year, then I'm going to chuck out anything that I don't have a specific plan for.

MMF007

Stupendous reports from the KM gang yesterday, I see.
My admiration goes to GQ for sorting 9k out for friend while tidying paperwork :T:T
Libel lulu for the LBM and the decisive action on the spot.
Maddiemay for donating clothes that are *too large* now (I really need to lose weight and I am certain that now the stress and anxiety of the office job is behind me I can do it!)
All Kondo-ers who are sitting on items in their otherwise-fabulous craft stash that they know in their hearts are not going to spark joy and will not be transformed because this month is the month you are going to examine each item by holding it in your hands and doing the special 'future project test', isn't it?

By this I mean, if the very item you are holding would (and only if it would) spark joy when you repurposed it, AND you have a recipient in mind (your home or somewhere else's), and, hand on heart you can Kondo-swear that you WILL do the making AND pass it forward, THEN, but only then, you can keep it for crafting. :eek:

GQ mentioned (last year?) that she picked various items up and visualised them finished to work out whether it was something she really did want to spend time on. If no potential joy then release the items so someone else can enjoy them.

Together we can do this.

I was happily hoarding quite a bit of craft stuff, fully intending to use it. When I started KM I realised that I did not have enough recipients in mind to pass the proposed items to, I was not really going to use the 12 pottery mugs / box of fabric scraps I got dirt cheap, etc etc. What helped me, as with many other categories, was having somewhere to pass it on to for a useful life after chez MMF. I donated lots to the local community centre arts and craft group because it was too good to bin and I really wanted it to be made into lovely things, but I wasn't gong to be the who could do it! :rotfl::rotfl:

Soooo, onwards and determinedly upwards! (I notice that bossiness is catching :rotfl:)

M

ETA - rag rugs just make me think of the dust that must be collecting there - bleh. Wool latchet type rugs, I wanted to make a beautiful one but decided that I had nowhere to put it if I started and eventually finished one, so I RESISTED the urge to buy a kit. Yeah me!

silvasava

Morning all - serious Kondoing going on - must be the weather . Trip up to the loft today to release a large garden cushion to DS1 and a bag of pot feet for him that have been in the Greenhouse for at least 10 years!! A friend has posted on FB for ribbons, buttons etc for Alzheimer's patients so I'll minimise my stash some more for her. I have SO many buttons as I've got my Gran's and my Mum's button boxes as well as my own!. A sort and cull is definitely called for - whatever isn't suitable for my friend can go to my local hospice craft shop.
Have a good day all x

mrs-moneypenny

On the crafting front because I wore the dress I made at Easter and mil found out it was homemade she has kindly given me her fabric stash as she doesn't sew anymore. It arrived home with Dh one night I didn't collect it out of choice. Anyway three large dress sized pieces of fabric, two are beyond hideous. Crimpolene green camouflage anyone (I'm not even going to imagine what mil was planning on making with that!) another piece is a silky tablecloth sized piece that would make a cracking horsey persons headscarf (thinking the queen or princess Anne in the 70s) it's red white and blue and has giant gold chains and horse bits printed on again what would you even begin to think about turning it into? The other piece is quite strange (but only quite) it's jungle foliage with zebras on in a random repeat pattern so that half of them are upsi down sort of looking like reflections in water BUT it's all in shades of blue.
The first two pieces I think will go to the nearest CS in the hope someone can think of a use for them but the zebra one I will keep to turn into bead bags of courage for the local children's oncology ward. As I have been assured that the beads do bring absolute joy to the brave children enduring chemo treatments and the bags give them somewhere to store their collections. So while the fabric itself may not be joyful hopefully I can give it a use that will.

It's ds2s 16th today we paid for him to go to a gig during the week along with transport and will give him a cinema voucher today and so far gifts being opened from friends seem to be mostly edible or useable I've shower products so not too much coming in dd3 is providing one of her hm cakes later so looking forward to that.

It's raining here so glad I did most of the garden related kondoing and jobs over the last couple of days.

Have a joyful weekend all.

Karmacat

maddiemay wrote: »

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:()

Me too, I rarely iron - in fact, I forgot where I'd stashed the thing

MMF007 wrote: »

Stupendous reports from the KM gang yesterday, I see.
My admiration goes to GQ for sorting 9k out for friend while tidying paperwork :T:T

I agree with this as well :j I love this thread *so* much :j

Although this house is a 3 bedder, like the last two houses, the room sizes are much smaller, all of them. I'd started to declutter, it's true, but Kondoing has given me a structure, sort of thing, about how to think about my stuff, and what I want from it. It really ties in to retirement planning, actually, especially because I work from home Plus I love having more space in between the things I have, which is difficult in the small-ish rooms. Kondo helps again

My sister has agreed to drive me to the tip the week after I retire so that I can dump all the counselling room paraphenalia (ancient foam insulation etc). Its a WIP, but I'm winning

mumps

I've had a bit of a clear out of the understairs cupboard. Difficult as some of my husband's things are in there and I mustn't touch! Anyway I had a new jacket for walks this week, nice bargains as reduced from £59.99 to £24 and is warm and waterproof. The old jacket has gone in the cs bag. I also decided a pair of old boots could go, they were so comfortable I didn't like throwing them away but realistically I'm not going to wear them again so they have gone in the recycling box as not good enough for cs as they just aren't waterproof anymore so what's the point? Found two of DDs coats, she left home 8 years ago and I'm still finding her stuff, also a pair of her shoes and some wellies so she can have them today when she comes round. I suspect the coats don't even fit her anymore, she had them when she was at school and whenever I mention them she says she will pick them up sometime, well today is the time. It has made enough room for me to tidy the cupboard and I won't be ashamed if anyone looks in there in future.

I have a family of hoarders so normally my sorting out/throwing out is a pretty secret affair so it is lovely to share with people who understand the joy of getting rid of unwanted stuff and having a tidy house. One day it will be minimal, probably not but I can dream. The grandchildren are leaving stuff now as they stay alot so minimal is a longterm dream.

GreyQueen

My friend's £9k haul was small business rate relief for several years, inc £1400 for the tax year about to start.

Channelling Estelle from the Golden Girls - picture this:

GQ standing in front of pal, a man of her father's generation, with paperwork for this which was sent to him by the council more than a year previously. Against much resistance, and with outright bullying, I finally managed to get him to sign the form and a few weeks later over £7k was put back into his account and I've been shown the 2016-17 business rates bill which was 0.00 because of the same tax break. Nearly £9k for a couple of signatures but I virtually had to nail his feet to the floor and stand over him with the form in one hand and a biro in the other to stop him procrastinating.

Just wish I'd brokered commision on it before I started, I'd be in clover. Hell, I have to work nearly the full year to get £9k.

Today I have handed off some small coins of foriegn currency - mainly US - from the parental home to a chazzer collection, returned a library book and bought some bits for the kitchen from a chazzer.

In my defence, m'lud, the mug is to replace a chipped one, and the containers are for the decaff teabags I have nowhere to keep and the nuts which keep falling out of their bags.

You wanna know where your nuts are at all times, I reckon.

I do know where my iron is, and it's the same one I had new in about 1987, which shows you how little ironing I actually do.

milasavesmoney

As I go through my paperwork, I'm realizing there are things I need to do such as update insurance policies, get a will made, etc. This is slowing me down but it really needs to be done. Double joy...less paper plus the feeling that I'm keeping things current.

kboss2010

I have an odd sock bag. Don't start this!!

I started with a mini ikea blue bag, migrated to a reusable shopping bag and am now overflowing a Markies large cloth bag with plastic handles! It's sitting on the trunk at the top of my stairs bugging my happiness lol. It's a job for next weekend. Or so I tell myself each week lol. I've started wearing odd socks with my boots.

mumps

kboss2010 wrote: »

I have an odd sock bag. Don't start this!!

I started with a mini ikea blue bag, migrated to a reusable shopping bag and am now overflowing a Markies large cloth bag with plastic handles! It's sitting on the trunk at the top of my stairs bugging my happiness lol. It's a job for next weekend. Or so I tell myself each week lol. I've started wearing odd socks with my boots.

I can't believe how many odd socks there are in the world! There is definitely a sock monster in my house and he never eats a pair. Odd socks are the way to go, I swear the stress level in my life when I decided to just wear odd socks. Life's too short to worry about odd socks.