KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

MMF007

BlueDoggy, whenever ny Dad finds that all food tastes awful, we have found he is suffering from very low sodium levels in his blood - worth checking that out? Hope you are feeling better now!

Serendipitious - isn't it funny how we do things as part of a routine and even though, every time we do it we get annoyed by something, it takes a LBM to trigger the answer!? I love your July project

when we had new carpets fitted ages ago I remember going into the room with no furniture and thinking (long before MK) that I didn't want any furniture back in there! However, it is the LR I'm talking about so furniture is back in :rotfl: I still hanker to get rid of the 2 chairs under the window. The room would look so much bigger, but there would be nowhere for guests to sit! It is a v.smal house. We love it because we have great views in a lovely village but there is always a compromise, unless money is no object.

Oh no, now I am thinking of what I could do to minimalise the seating without compromising visitors...... I once told DH that I was going to source an old tram seat, the ones where the back flipped over, so we could have the lovely view out most days but reverse the seat back so guests would face into the room, iyswim. He is not that imaginative so the idea was quashed

silvasava

Hmm MMF007 - how about a drop arm sofa? Extra seating when needed.
I've managed to list 3 items on the bay of E, kondoed 2 loads of washing and washed all my kitchen, breakfast room, fridge, freezer and utility room doors down! Only 34!!!!
DS1 has invited us for a meal tonight so no cooking
I'm still making inroads into the room of doom but very slowly as RL keeps getting in the way - must try harder!

ivyleaf

Just been catching up on the thread and was so pleased to hear your DMum's news, GQ :j

GreyQueen

ivyleaf wrote: »

Just been catching up on the thread and was so pleased to hear your DMum's news, GQ :j

Thank you, we're very happy. Going to having a rough time with my Nan's appt with the oncology dept at the big hospital next week, but life tends to go in cycles. We'll get through it.

Went to the lottie after work and kondo'd a project I'd been procrastinating about for probably a good 3 years. You know what? Done in 40 mins. Painting the wheelbarrow with hammer1te, in case you're wondering. It will need a second coat, but that can be done another day.

Just knowing I've got on with it is incredibly liberating.

Seredipitous, it sounds like your irritation with those two cupboards has reached critical mass. I think you may well be on the way to getting them out the door. Good luck!

One thing that I've become aware of with storage furniture, both my own and that I see out and about, is that a lot of it displaces a lot of volume in the home in return for the amount of Stuff it actually holds.

If you come down to it, maybe some of the Stuff isn't needed and then if that means some other Stuff can be relocated, the actual piece itself becomes superfluous and then it can exit.

I find space rather more exciting than Stuff, don't you?

Serendipitious

Yes, critical mass is correct! I keep going and looking at them. One houses my stash of shampoo and shower gel along with my gift stash. The other has sheets and spare bedding. And the large bottom shelf in each cupboard is crammed with paperwork - creative writing projects, course materials and course work for all training I've ever had, my degree essays from the early 90s, oh dear... I might have to read MK for some tips on that little lot, joy is but a distant memory in there, although all these do represent past success...

Baby steps - one cotton sheet into the c/shop bag, as never used in 7 years, another cotton sheet into kitchen to be cut up for cleaning cloths (cotton is nice for polishing) one bubble bath and hand-wash into the main foyer with a 'free please take' sign by them. Rest of bedding relocated into ottoman. So far, so good...

MMF, I love the tram seat idea.

PollyWollyDoodle

I can't remember when I threw out my degree notes but I must have done at some point. I had the knowledge in my head, and the notes were of no practical use in my career (even though it was a 'vocational' degree). And I'd got the certificate to prove I graduated. Same with my professional qualification - I didn't need the notes to show that I'd passed, and anyway they soon became out of date. I have got a few course notes from other things I've done but it's time they went I think, as I'm not going to re-read them. And they'll be of no interest to anyone when I'm gone!

GreyQueen

Serendipitious wrote: »

Yes, critical mass is correct! I keep going and looking at them. One houses my stash of shampoo and shower gel along with my gift stash. The other has sheets and spare bedding. And the large bottom shelf in each cupboard is crammed with paperwork - creative writing projects, course materials and course work for all training I've ever had, my degree essays from the early 90s, oh dear... I might have to read MK for some tips on that little lot, joy is but a distant memory in there, although all these do represent past success...

The decluttering and cleaning guru Don Aslett (gotta love the man) has some interesting things to say about some forms of clutter; that they are evidence.

Evidence of achievements (your degree essays), evidence of esteem (look how my employer/s valued me to give me all this training) creative writing projects (proof that I am a creative person despite whatever it is I do for a living).

Picture this;

At some point in the future, you are challenged in a hostile manner about your achievements.

You will be able to bring out your degree essays as proof that you have indeed studied and are clever.

You will be able to point to the shelves of training folders, handouts and even the little rubber mannikin/ fridge magnets/ motivational badges/ pens etc to convince the disbelieving that you were worth training. All that represents a fair bit of money invested in you and you are worth every penny.

If you can bear to show your creative writing someone else, especially since your skills are likely to have advanced over time, you could in theory, let them read your earlier efforts. Or you could hold onto them in anticipation of achieving literary renown and The Nation wanting to buy them and archive them for future scholars to pore over.

I don't speak dispargingly of creative writing btw, I've created a bit of it over the years and incinerated/ deleted even more. I do know I've written things that I'd rather poke my own eyes out with a blunt pencil than let someone else read.:o

I'd suggest losing the training materials. Just about everything in them is likely to have been superceded by now and they're just ballast. And a fire risk. And they get more obsolete with every passing week.

The degree essays could possibly, if emotions are very dear, be bound into covers at the copy shop, which should make them handier to re-read. If you think that re-reading them is unlikely, you might want to lose them. Or perhaps scan them, although the time invested in the project vs the anticipated future enjoyment of re-reading them might be so high as to make the project moot.

The creative writing is the most sensitive category. Have you re-read it recently and is it still reflective of your skills or is it making you cringe? Perhaps a sample rather than the whole ream could be kept?

MMF007

Ooh, another good idea Silvasava, thanks! I shall have to face the non believers problem though, 'but those chairs cost us good money'! ...

hey ho.

I got everything washed, dried and put away after our week away, did all my domestic admin - car insurance, a pensions thing to sign following my redundancy -(although no payout from that yet!), a sympathy card to a family friend, a birthday card, 2 phonecalls and booked a table for lunch with friends at the local 'gastro pub'.

All the above made so much easier because everything was easy to find, and easy to put away again

kondo'd just one thing - another book I have finished, into CS bag. More to do of course but happy with what has been done so far

Serendipitious

Thank you GQ. Most insightful.

Seems almost all of it can go, as being challenged in a hostile manner (or receiving put-downs) about achievements is now unlikely - as those who tended to do it have been kondoed out of my life, either naturally, or in one case, with a significant push from me!

In fact, looking back, it's clear that the older stuff in question actually originated (and was kept) at a time when these negative critters were still very prominent in my life.

Goes deep sometimes, the reasoning why we hold on, doesn't it?

Training stuff has been skimmed at the speed of light and is now in carrier bags in hall ready to recycle.

Thank you.

Kerfuffle

Over the last couple of days I've just had another massive decluttering session in which I put all my past coursework papers into 2 boxes, sealed them up and stowed that away in the garage.

Now, after reading the last posts I'm away to the garage to unpack 2 boxes of coursework in readiness for discarding them.

Thankyou Serendipitous and GreyQueen

Edited: and PollyWollyDoodle