KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

luxor4t

GreyQueen wrote: »

........The Off Room will be where I will be performing kondo-magic this coming weekend, as per special parental requests, repeated at the past 3 public holidays.

........... Wish me luck cos I'm gonna need it!

I shall be crossing everything - and am considering buying popcorn

gallygirl

luxor4t wrote: »

I shall be crossing everything - and am considering buying popcorn

Cancelling my plans to wait in for updates

MMF007

'Evening All!

greenbee, hope it's going well. You are coping magnificently, my dear :T

luxor4t you'll have to budge up and share that popcorn, there will be a few of us awaiting GQ's updates next weekend :rotfl:

no real kondo-ing today, unless you count 'not being an emergency service for consulting on planning matters'.... I was at a client's home, helping to re-arrange a room to make it more practical for current needs (oh, maybe that was MK!), when another client rang this lady to ask to speak to me. (Background is that they know each other and one recommended me to the other, iyswim, so she knew to catch me there).
Client number 2 says she needs me to call between jobs because she needs my help with something. Now I only have about 20 mins between jobs to grab a drink and a bite before a busy afternoon so I am a bit wary of getting caught up with some undisclosed task. I therefore asked client 2 what it is she needs help with.
Client: Well, the builders working next door (detached houses) have put scaffolding up right by my back door'.
Me: is it blocking the door??
Client: No.
Me: OK, so is it on your land?
Client: Yes, a bit, and they say they told my son about it when they showed the plans.
Me: I know there is a law about working on/adjacent to neighbouring land but I haven't got a clue what the law states. I cannot help but you could ring the Council Building regulations team, they should be able to tell you a bit about it.
Client: Yes, ok, but they say it will be in situ for a few months.(anxiety building again)
Me: Just give them a call and see what they say. I'll see you tomorrow.

so, I guess I went for the joyous option of Not Confronting Buiilders about something I know nothing about and isi nothing to do with me!!

Right off to make salmon thai fishcakes and cauliflower cheese* with green beans . Unconventional but DH's fave, and he has just bought me a beautiful acer for the patio, as an anniversary gift, so he has Brownie points! *made without flour as still low carbing

M

GreyQueen

I am available for bookings............ I jest (frequently and annoyingly, I'm told).

I have had a couple of kondo-esque escapades in The Off Room in the last 12 months. The first pass was over the countertop (where the coal bunker used to be) and I left everything sorted with the Kenw00d Chef in pride of place and able to be used in situ.

And all was well for a while and Baking took place, then Stuff fought back. The tins (an archive of Qual St and Roses back to Year Dot) somehow reproduced and bags of black sunflower seeds etc for feeding the birds took over and the KW disappeared under a teetering pile.

On my Xmas-New Year sojourn, I sorted it again. Mum allowed a cull of some of the sweetie/ biscuit tin stash which thinned the herd. In the cupboard above, I sorted out space to keep four of those square orange plastic cracker boxes (my family hoard these for all sorts of purposes, I even have two of my very own ) and these were in constant use for things we ought not have been eating (big cakes and various lookie-likee Mr Kip thingummies). This has lasted well against the family's tendancy to untidy any possible system of organisation.

The counter has been lost again and the bags are out of control and a the floor contains the following; a circular saw (boxed), a plastic footstool, several large bags of cat food biscuits, several bags of wild bird seed/ black sunflowers/ niger seed/ freeze-dried mealworms and other things yet to be itemised for comic effect when I get back there.

I expect we're not the only ones who keep the things we actually use on the floor and counter/ cupboard tops because all the space in the cupboards is filled with things which haven't been used since Noah was a wee laddie.

OK, supper's cooked so gonna eat now.

mothernerd

greenbee only worry about the lack of stairs when all the components (handrail,stair treads and risers) are all stacked in your bedroom and you end up sleeping with crowbars - because it's easier to have them in bed with you rather than tripping over them in the middle of the night. It was bad enough when the handrail decided to move itself from an upright position to sliding down the wall like the drunken horse in Cat Ballou.

I have survived my first day with Mr and Mrs Builder. I have electric light and sockets in my room (deep joy) and the 'chimney' (goes from skylight to bedroom) in DS3's room has been clad in insulating material on the attic side. Mrs Builder (lovely woman) has swept up as much as possible of the floating bits of polystyrene and is bringing her Henry on Wednesday to get the rest. Mr Builder threw down the leftover chunks after she had done the tiny bits.

They are not here tomorrow so I have accepted DS1's kind offer to meet him in the city after he finishes work. He's going to take me somewhere to eat.

On Wednesday the builders are going to hack all the plaster off in the front room where the damp proof course needs repairing and the plasterer is booked in for Friday to make it all good again (well better then it is now). Followed by weeks of mopping and wiping to get rid of the plaster dust.

I was up very late (waiting for DS3 to feel inspired to do the heavy bits) and up early so I have dozed for part of the afternoon and had a little sleep after the builders had gone. Not everything went to plan (does it ever). DS3 had asked (I thought) about some boxes on top of the sideboard. When I was in the bath, there were terrible screeching/ dragging noises. He had moved the electric fire (has a surround so about 4' x 5') all the way through the kitchen and as near to under the stairs as possible (the place I wanted all the boxes) cutting off access to under the stairs where I have stored my material/ craft supplies/ tools/ decorating tools/ tinned food and dry goods.

By moving things a few inches I can squeeze in and out. He refused to move it again and not really sure where I would have told him to put it.

So front room has enough room for the work that needs doing. Kitchen (mostly under the stairs or near to it) and my bedroom are full of boxes so I can contemplate how much stuff I have. If I start getting extra energy (my weekly vitamin D tablet is due tomorrow evening) I could start painting DS3's room starting with de-moulding (black stuff not the decorative kind) the 'chimney'.

Today I have done many loads of washing including nearly all the bedding. Had two loads in baskets ready to hang out first thing but waited in case the builders wanted to bring lots of things in. I have left two quilts and some pillows outside (still some to do) as it will be easier to compare them and see if any need culling or remaking. I think I have got rid of the worst ones.

I am going to have a bath and sleep as long as I need/want tomorrow.

kazwookie

Morning

Sounds like plans are ongoing Greenbee.

Washing is out blowing in the wind
I have had yet another major sort of the garge amd the 'stuff' in there is now gone, re stacked, or in a heap for car booting.

Redlady.....

Here's another looking forward to GQ's updates.

Love your/her parental home adventures....:)

GreyQueen

Redlady..... wrote: »

Here's another looking forward to GQ's updates.

Love your/her parental home adventures....:)

Gordon Bennett, the pressure, the pressure......... !

I will arrive on Friday evening and will be visiting Nan for two-thirds of Saturday. Kondo-ing will have to be fitted in around those fixed points and will be heading back to the city late Monday evening.

Hope to find something amusing among the Stuff - I have steely intent to get those LPs out of The Cupboard.

Picture this; the sitting-room at theirs has a 1970s stacking stereo thingummy it its own delightful chipboard cabinet. First the radio failed, then the tape decks (anyone under 25 can ask their parents about c a s s e t t e s). So, there is always a CD/ radio parked on top of the stereo so's it can be used but the stereo itself can't be got rid of because Mum needs a turntable to play her LPs.

Which are played once a parliament, if that. As in, one side of one LP. But they can't be got rid of because they might be played, even though they aren't played. There is a cabinet full of the dadblasted things in the hall and a pile under another piece of furniture and the foot-tall stack in the Cupboard in The Off Room.

It's not like these are golden oldies reflective of her yoof in the late fifties/ early sixties, either. Most of them were acquired in the 1990s from carboot sales and have never been played at all.

Mum has been self-banned from attending carboot sales, they are no place for someone with hoarding isshews. I think I need to extend that restriction to myself.:p

VJsmum

Present?

http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Record-Player/38-4323?gclid=CNLo4aXm9MwCFRHhGwod-q8CMQ

GreyQueen

That'd be a neat option which I will discuss with her. I suspect the argument would be circular, as in couldn't get rid of the stacking stereo cabinet because it actually works and is somewhere to stand the CD/ radio thingummy on. :wall:

The trouble with the parental home is that it has about 80% more Stuff than room or need, so life is pretty inconvenient much of the time. Not insanitary, or stacked 4 ft deep with only goat paths through, but still a blessed nuisance.

Been out at archery and had big fun and nipped into a supermarche on the way home for a bottle of a toilet cleaner which they don't have in my more local mini version of the shop. I am on the last dribbles of the existing bottle, as in just enough for a rinse and recycle so will be straight onto the new bottle.

My inner hoarder was tempted to buy two bottles and then I told her off because one bottle will last me several months and I don't need to pre-position its replacement to take up valuable space and gather dust in the meantime. Changing bad habits one at a time.