KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

WeeMidgie

Great progress kondoing the kilos, GQ and MMF. I don't have any weighing scales but I'm not very tall and had noticed I was developing a pot belly, therefore carrying too much visceral fat, and now my waist has reduced enough for my clothes to feel more comfortable. And I've lost the "Thelwell's pony" look, thankfully...

I'm seven or so weeks into ultra low carb eating, and now sleeping well with no palpitations or metabolic surges which were still present on 50 - 100 Cal's of carbs per day. I reckon I'm consuming about 30 carb cals through the small amount of fruit I eat. The bulk of my diet is bing sized assortments of lovely high water content veg in rainbows of colour. Yum.

At work, we were donated some nearly new books for our charity's specialist library. One wasn't suitable, but was so beautiful and in such good nick that I kondoed it in to our local public library, and it'll be added to the shelves for everyone to enjoy. A win win for everyone.

GreyQueen

JuC wrote: »

Hello! I finally got around to reading the book last week in preparation for my week off this week and I was determined to sort out my clothes.

I have been through them all today and quite a few didn't 'spark joy' so they have been put in a bag for the charity shop :j

My question is for you all is around the folding technique. I have tops which I keep folded in two drawers. I would like to try this folding style but do things not get creased with the number of folds? I don't want to spend my time doing it if I end up having to iron it before I wear it (I iron very little at the moment!).

Any tips or advice gratefully received.

Welcome to the madhouse.

Re folding, Marie herself says to look at the weight of the garment - thick things like jackets and coats are better hanging up, are are very floaty things. Knitwear should never be hung whether you're a kondo-ite or not, as it'll stretch if you do.

If you fold on a flat surface like a bed, a tabletop, an ironing board, you run your hands down the garment as you go and this smooths it out and then the structural folding into nice little packets mostly keeps it crease free. What few creases there are will drop out after 10 mins on the warmth of your body, anyway.

For me, the great thing about kondo-filing them is that I can see everything and don't lose garments because they're buried under other garments. Where the lowest garments in the pile get very squashed, no matter how nicely they were ironed and folded. And I find any folding and ironing will cause creasiness if things stay unworn for months or years at a time but, if you have a smaller overall number of clothes, and they get used more frequently, they stay in much better nick. HTH.

Spent all day fidgetting with the pair of work trousers which I could only just get back into when having a big clothes try-on 19th May - they were slipping down and hanging off my hips. Oh, deep deep joy. They'll go through the wash and into the donation bag. I am now down one size on work trousers.

This week 3 pairs of trousers will leave, two because they no longer fit and the third into the rag bag because they no longer fit and the fabric has rotted and spilt across the leg and is giving way. I couldn't be happier to wave good-bye and to move to the contents of the drawer-ful of trousers I've not been able to get into for some time.

Y'see, I had no actual shortage of trousers, just a real shortage of trousers I could fit into.:rotfl:

Karmakat, re your postcards, how about offering them on freegle/ freecycle? You sometimes get teachers or people who lead craft groups for adults or children looking for stuff there.

I'm loving using stuff up, consumables which I'm not intending to replace, and recycling the containers and seeing the space free up. It's very pleasing. Can't wait to get a donation bag off this weekend, might do that on Sunday (my chazzer opens for a few hours on a Sunday). Currently reading a 30p book bought a couple of days ago, and then that can be added to the bag, plus there's a second bag of clean, worn-out clothes for rag recycling via the chazzer.

I'm also working on jamjars of buttons and screws (separately, I hasted to add ) which will be offered up on freegle when full. I'm aiming to balance my need to prevent waste by saving such things but, once I have enough for my probable needs, getting the excess out into the world to serve someone else.

And, like almost everyone finds out, I don't miss anything which has gone in the slightest.:rotfl:

Slinky

Serendipitious wrote: »

Can you put your car on a dealership service plan Slinky? Mine costs 13.50 pcm, covers MOTs and services till 2017 and have had one major and one minor service out of it so far with another 15 months still to go.

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't think they'd be keen to take on my 8 year old car! OH's car is on a lease, it went in for them to sort out faulty air con which is covered by his warranty, they then noticed that he needed new brake pads (not covered under the service plan), in taking them off they discovered a disc was scored where a stone had got in, and they have to replace them in pairs (also not covered), so what was a trip in for something covered by the warranty came out costing us nearly £700.


Mine's just been a chunk of bad luck, the only upside being there were no advisories on the MOT so hopefully we'll be sorted for a while. I only do about 3000 miles a year as I work from home, but a car is essential for part of my work.

Slinky

Well done on the trousers GQ. I found I had to drop a size, then buy a belt to hold my new trousers up!


Have given a top to one of my customers to alter for me - didn't matter what I did with it, it was a gypsy style and wherever the elasticated bit ended up, it made me feel fat so she's going to sort it for me. Does that style actually do anything for anybody?

GreyQueen

Slinky wrote: »

Well done on the trousers GQ. I found I had to drop a size, then buy a belt to hold my new trousers up!


Have given a top to one of my customers to alter for me - didn't matter what I did with it, it was a gypsy style and wherever the elasticated bit ended up, it made me feel fat so she's going to sort it for me. Does that style actually do anything for anybody?

A few months ago, I tried on a belt from the drawer and the darned thing wouldn't meet around my middle. How shameful. I have a couple of pairs of unworn but now coming into service trousers which I suspect will be a bit too big in a couple of months time. They're casual trousers with a belt and I will darned well wear them belted, mainly for gardening and walking.

I also got back into a blouse I haven't worn for some time today. Didn't dare try wearing it when I was porkier as it had press-stud fastenings instead of buttons up the front and I feared a wardrobe malfunction, lol.

I'm very very joyful about getting back into some clothes I've not been able to wear for some time, it's like having presents. I know the advice to dieters is often along the lines of don't hold onto too-small stuff as you either won't get back down to that size again or, if you do, the item will be hopelessly unfashionable.

I don't really give a four-ecks about fashion and tend to wear classic styles, plus some of these items had only been outgrown by a year or two, so I wasn't sick and tired of them, nor were they on their last legs.

I wore my new pink sandals out for the first time today and they were joyful in the extreme.

Karmacat

Pink sandals :j now *thats* joyful :j

GQ, yes of course, freecycle for the postcards. I should have remembered! Ta muchly.

Susan1962

Kondoed a large stretch of "hedge". Well, I say hedge but it was originally planted by the FIL somewhere around 1960 ish. So it has roots like small tree roots and is thickly coiled with creeping vines, some kind of sharp thorns. Oh and a bit of rhubarb that doesn't grow any more. Each year we've hacked at it to keep the jungle aspect to a minimum and each year a different gardener/handyman has promised to wade in and solve our problems overnight. They then arrive, do an afternoon's digging and never return. Sigh. So - we're attempting it ourselves, very slowly and a tiny bit at a time. Not very MK but neither of us keeps well so baby steps it is. As it says in the song "Maybe this time ....."

mrs-moneypenny

Morning kondoers
Hope everyone is well
Kondoed a fair amount of water from our waterbutt yesterday as local water main had burst leaving us with no water pressure, distributed some buckets of water to local neighbour's so they could still flush their toilets. Pressure is back up now so main must be fixed and it's raining so water will be replaced.

Helped out dd2 with a bit of kondoing/swapping last night. Took her our wooden bunk beds (that we only use one bed from) and helped her get them all built up. While there we were going to take a big metal bed frame away that had a sort of roll under guest bed type affair fitted underneath but we stood it outside while we were building bunks, within 10 mins a neighbour was knocking and asking if he could take the bad away for her as he collected scrap metal:T he asked if they have anything else to just leave it on the front and he'll clear it. While there she was telling us that the stair gate they've bought with them (they got cheap at a carboot) doesn't have any of its fixings so that got put out as well. We the took away their spare wooden single bed for ds2 to have as his replacement for the bunk part had been sleeping on.
So one surplus bed from ours and 3 remove from theirs. We all just have the beds we need now.:j

Plan to spend morning in the attic going through those boxes of paper, I'll let you know how many bags I manage to fill.


Have a joyful day.

mrs-moneypenny

Meant to say well done to everyone kondoing weight:T

Been in the attic and bought the paper mountain down. I have covered our king sized bed! It is a vast amount, I'm in the process of sorting what if any needs shredding and if any of the binders or folders can be reused or donated. One way or another it should all be leaving the house.

Karmacat

I'm reading threads on here while scanning the postcards. Scans are much more accessible to me than postcards, especially when they have to be tucked away under the stairs, so I'm feeling very Joyful right now