KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Slinky

On the Kondo front, we've just put a load of OH's childhood toy car collection into the loft......... not good really, but it shouldn't have been cluttering up his mum's house still and for various reasons was causing her stress. I haven't even had a conversation with OH about why he wants this stuff that he hasn't lived with for 30 years, just got to accept that he wants to keep it.


I did find a pair of his old shoes he has agreed can go to the tip whilst putting holiday stuff away.


Suitcases have gone back to the loft. A small amount of paperwork has been filed/shredded/recycled.

Serendipitious

Well done pavlovs_dog.

I too have struggled today - but with a desktop pc. It's been sitting there, gathering dust and has been non-functioning and redundant since before moving here - so that's two and a half years minimum, and it wasn't working for a while before that, in fact it hasn't been right since 2011.

I've decluttered other stuff with ease, and I only kept it because it seemed so very hard to let go of it and I never knew why. However today the keyboard etc has been recycled, the tower unit is in the hall ready to go for hard drive removal, and someone wants the monitor so that's been tested and cleaned and is ready for them.

short_bird

Low carbers, is tea with milk OK on the diet and does it have to be full fat milk??

Just got rid of 2 large shopping bags of stuff to one of the local charity shops and have a small pile of CD's for the local record store...currently hitting the paperwork and odds and sods resulting from a pre holiday clear up.

Since I moved last year, I've been concerned at an annoying trickle of post from credit card and catalogue companies addressed to me and with pre-filled forms that anyone could sign. Any good ideas how to stop this at the source?

GreyQueen

Hi short_bird, could you register with the Mailing Preference Service and then return each of these items to whence it came? I rarely get unsolicitied mail because of this tactic and anything I haven't asked for gets spat right back at the recipient by return of post. They seldom try it twice.

pavlov_dog, inspired by your post, I took down a DVD from the shelf and watched it and it is now in the donation bag. I bought it for £1 used so I don't feel any financial pain in parting with it.

But I do know what you mean about the pain of parting with once-expensive items which you no longer use. It hurts because no one likes to waste money, do they? Most of us could do with a bit more than we have and it hurts to give away Stuff we've bought.

I find it helpful to have an internal conversation. Interogate the items.

Hello, Thing, what are you? Oh, you're a baking tin? For the baking I don't do? Or you're an item of clothing which I don't wear because I look stupid wearing you? Or you're a book I started and was so underwhelmed with that I couldn't complete? Or you're a recording of music I either don't want to listen to again, or have in another format which I do listen to. Or you're in a format which requires playing on a device I don't presently have and can't see myself re-purchasing, as I don't like you that much.

Hmm, so you're a Thing which Does Something, but I'm not interested in what you Do. Or not interested enough. Could you also double up as an ornament, perhaps? Err, not really that attractive, are you? You are taking up room in my home and providing a landing strip for dust and flies. And fuel for housefires and an enticement to burglary. You're also slowly deterioating and, when I discover you've died in storage, I shall be so p*ssed off because every penny I ever spent on you will have been wasted, plus I may have to pay someone to cart you away. Talk about adding insult to injury......!

Or I'll die, and someone will throw you in a skip, probably whilst cursing my name and my hoarderish habits.:o

OK, so let's imagine I gave you away. I could make someone happy, make money for a charity, and make the bliddy grubbyment give the charity an extra 25% of the sale price, if I can register for gift aid. I could cause the government pain and suffering whilst doing good. Wheee!

And I could forget you ever existed and probably will, shortly after we part. So I won't ever have to regurgitate these tired old emotions when we bump into each other again.

Slinky

I drink tea with semi skimmed milk on account of that's what I've drunk for years and full fat milk tastes a bit odd. The plan I follow (Escape the diet trap by Dr John Briffa) recommends sticking to decaf. I discovered a couple of years ago that I was getting heart palpitations due to all the tea I was drinking so had already swapped to decaf so no hardship for me.


TBH I don't think drinking tea with or without milk of any type will make a huge difference one way or the other so go with what you prefer.

GreyQueen

Milk upsets my digestion and gives me terrible wind (tmi, I know) so I avoid it. I'm fine with cheese, although it's not strictly paleo.

On the primal website, they suggest that you look at your relative recent genetic heritage. Do you come from cultures which have been eating dairy products for thousands of years or do you come, wholly or partially, from people who had a different non-dairy food tradition? Suggestions that you proceed accordingly.

Although milk is known to cause and aggravate acne, so maybe if you have skin problems you might want to avoid it.

Serendipitious

GreyQueen wrote: »

Hi short_bird, could you register with the Mailing Preference Service and then return each of these items to whence it came? I rarely get unsolicitied mail because of this tactic and anything I haven't asked for gets spat right back at the recipient by return of post. They seldom try it twice.

pavlov_dog, inspired by your post, I took down a DVD from the shelf and watched it and it is now in the donation bag. I bought it for £1 used so I don't feel any financial pain in parting with it.

But I do know what you mean about the pain of parting with once-expensive items which you no longer use. It hurts because no one likes to waste money, do they? Most of us could do with a bit more than we have and it hurts to give away Stuff we've bought.

I find it helpful to have an internal conversation. Integate the items.

Hello, Thing, what are you? Oh, you're a baking tin? For the baking I don't do? Or you're an item of clothing which I don't wear because I look stupid wearing you? Or you're a book I started and was so underwhelmed with that I couldn't complete? Or you're a recording of music I either don't want to listen to again, or have in another format which I do listen to. Or you're in a format which requires playing on a device I don't presently have and can't see myself re-purchasing, as I don't like you that much.

Hmm, so you're a Thing which Does Something, but I'm not interested in what you Do. Or not interested enough. Could you also double up as an ornament, perhaps? Err, not really that attractive, are you? You are taking up room in my home and providing a landing strip for dust and flies. And fuel for housefires and an enticement to burglary. You're also slowly deterioating and, when I discover you've died in storage, I shall be so p*ssed off because every penny I ever spent on you will have been wasted, plus I may have to pay someone to cart you away. Talk about adding insult to injury......!

Or I'll die, and someone will throw you in a skip, probably whilst cursing my name and my hoarderish habits.:o

OK, so let's imagine I gave you away. I could make someone happy, make money for a charity, and make the bliddy grubbyment give the charity an extra 25% of the sale price, if I can register for gift aid. I could cause the government pain and suffering whilst doing good. Wheee!

And I could forget you ever existed and probably will, shortly after we part. So I won't ever have to regurgitate these tired old emotions when we bump into each other again.

GreyQueen this is brilliant x

mrs-moneypenny

Spent the day helping dd2 move house, it was really hard work as she has so much stuff. Convo me and Dh have just had is that we need to sort our excess out as it would not be fair to inflict it on the kids and leave them to cope with it all.

Love your virtual convo with yourself GQ , it makes perfect sense.

GreyQueen

Thank you. I've also caused myself to stick something I was procrastinating about on freegle in the last few minutes, so we'll see if I get any requests. If not, it's small enough to go into a bag down to the chazzer.

oceanspirit

Thank you all for the inspiring and encouraging posts over the last few days.

Back home now after a few weeks away and am horrified at the amount of stuff still in my little home. Although have been aware of how bad it has been, having been out of sight out of mind for a while it was a true eye opener to come back to. There is no space to unpack and put things away which doesn't make for a happy homecoming. Positive effect is Kondoing is back in action.

Dealt with most of post which has arrived during last few weeks. Also been sorting, recycling and shredding paperwork from desk in between putting things away in other rooms and deciding on getting rid of a few others. Village fete coming up so books etc being put in a box to go there and a pile to go to CS also forming.

Will go through clothes again at some stage but have other priorities to deal with first. Address book coming along slowly as is birthday book - I would say both are now 3/4 done so will be finished soon.