KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

silvasava

Aaaaaaargh - went with DH to a charity bike show on his trike. He's come away with two awards! One for the best trike and one for the Landlady's Choice - how long before I can discreetly Kondo them?? Anyone want a sort of artistic spark plug ornament???

ivyleaf

Oh dear silvasava If they bring him joy I suppose you'll have to let him keep them! Especially as I suspect you're proud of him for winning them in any case :A

Clutterfree

Morning All,
Not been reading on here for a few weeks so if there is anything important that I've missed, please update me. Thanks!

Well, I'm finding it very hard to KM at the moment.
I am still sorting and discarding but not the proper KM way.

My problem is that we are hoping to move in a few weeks and we have lots of built in storage here. Once sorted I cannot assign anything to its new home because it won't be at this house! Hope that makes sense! So I am having to sort and then assign to boxes. Unfortunately we won't have as much built in storage at our new home so it will be fun unpacking!

I am hoping to sort the boys rooms this week.
My plan is to sort out the junk in their drawers first (they'll be helping!) and hopefully free up some drawers. Then thought I could temporarily put the stuff from their shelves into the drawers for ease of moving.
Am I right in thinking that we don't need to pack drawer contents because the removal men will take the drawers out to move the furniture? I'm just trying to cut down on how many boxes we will have to move!

I've taken ten dustbin sackfuls to the charity shop and have listed 15 items on eBay with some more to list tonight. Have £50 worth of bids already so I'm pleased with that.

I thought moving would make things easier but it hasn't.
Yes the discard is easy but I can't finish the process until we move.
Argh!

Sorry to waffle on. Has anyone else moved whilst doing KM? Any tips please?

Have a good day ladies.

PS why do we not have any men in our group? Is it a female thing?

GreyQueen

Hi Clutterfree, a pal who moved with a small local company asked if they could move her c-of-d (clothes) without her emptying the drawers and they could. First thoughts were that this was a properly-made piece of old wooden furniture and quite strong, and that the contents were clothes and thus not as heavy as some other drawer contents could have been.

I think it would probably be best to ping your mover an email to check. You could also ask them a few other questions, to establish that you and they are on the same page about what they expect to do and what they expect you to have done ahead of time. This could save you some work now, if you avoid unnecessary work, or some awkwardness on the day itself.

I feel your pain about losing built-in storage. My previous flat was carved out of the basement of a mid-Victorian house and I had several spaces which were actually tiny rooms, think they were things like pantries and larders back in the day, and things sat on shelves there behind full-sized doors and out of the way.

Is it possible that you could pack things which normally live in the built-ins into smaller boxes/ bags and keep them in the built-in until a couple of days before removal time, then consolidate them into larger boxes/ bags to travel in? Bigger boxes can be stored flat and made up with tape in 30 seconds or less. If the contents of the bigger boxes are already containerised themselves, loading them will be very fast. I'd highly recommend a packing tape dispenser for speed and ease.

But yes, having to pack up a home and live in it at the same time gets awfully tiresome. When my number came up on the council list, I had 5 days' notice to move and, although it was manic, it was over quickly. Took me a few weeks to get straight at the new place, tho.:rotfl:

Because, due to the absence of the room-cupboards, I had insufficient pieces of furniture to store my necessary items in, so had to reconfigure the furniture as well as the contents. I swear I was so busy in those first weeks, as was working and on a big training course at the same time, that I was in danger of meeting myself coming the opposite way.

Anyway, best of luck. I'm a demon packer, if you have some weird query, I may have the answer, or someone else here is sure to have encountered the problem before.

PollyWollyDoodle

I agree with GQ, best to check with your removal firm but in most cases they will move c-o-ds with the stuff still in the drawers. They usually have clothes rails too so hanging clothes can be put straight on the rail and lifted off at the other end. This only works if you've got wardrobes in the new home to put them on, of course. If you're doing this, make sure the stuff on the rails is all securely fastened and won't slip off the hangers.

This is an ideal time to Kondo in some ways, because the thought of packing, moving and unpacking stuff really helps to focus the mind! In other ways not, because you're under pressure - it's inevitable that you'll move stuff and then decide to discard it at the other end. Don't worry about it.

Just accept that things are going to be a bit chaotic for the next few weeks. Discard what you can, pack anything non-essential or seasonal - but don't start packing too early, there's nothing more annoying than having to open a box to retrieve stuff.

Oh, and the loft. You know, that 'oh, there's just a few boxes and the Christmas decorations up there - not much' loft. Start now, to avoid total meltdown the night before you move!

GreyQueen

PWD, I was helping a fiendishly-organised, mimimalistic friend, who had downsized many things to an auction house prior to the long-planned move. I cannot stress enough that this woman was the most organised, fastidious and minimalistic woman you could meet if you lived a long life.

On The Day, she said I'll get a dry tea-towel to finish washing these last cups and went to her airing cupboard.

Which was still in its full, unpacked glory as she'd completely forgotten to pack it. Cue some considerable chaos......... :rotfl:

I'd say, if time is of the essence, this is not the time to be going through little kipple-type things like small children's toys, your costume jewellery collection or your makeup bag/ scarf collection.

Focus on things which will give big wins and aim to get rid of anything in the following categories which you think won't be wanted at the other end:

1. Big things like furniture/ appliances.

2. Fragile things like some appliances, ornaments, lampshades, mirrors, potted plants.

3. Things which might spill, like paint cans, part-used liquid foods or cleaning supplies/ toiletries.

4. Things which are very heavy in terms of their volume (books are a good example).

5. Things which need to be kept refridgerated or frozen - eat those darlins' down.

6. Things which are bulky but definately don't fit, like outgrown childrens shoes/ wellies/ jackets. Even among your own stuff, it's more space efficient to jettison unwanted footwear/ excess coat than a dozen pairs of smalls.

HTH.

Clutterfree

Thanks both.

Polly, we did the loft about a month ago so it's now empty! :T
Loads went to charity and discarded lots too. From the entire loft there are about 10 boxes to keep which I don't think is too bad.
1 is Christmas stuff and the rest is sentimental stuff which I don't have the time or mindset to go through before we move.

Our drawers are all solid wood (not flat pack) so should be okay there.

Will pack kitchen last but that shouldn't be too bad because I KMd it last year so probably not too much to discard.

Tbh I'm not packing "proper" until we've exchanged - don't want to tempt fate!
I'm just packing things I'm pretty sure we won't need before we move.

Clutterfree

Yes, we are eating our way through the freezer contents!
It's so hard for me not to batch cook, though.
I have 2 freezers, so I'm hoping to empty one and maybe leave it at dads so I can transfer any frozen stuff across there on day of move.

Also making sure only one shower gel, shampoo, etc is out so that it gets used up by us all.

Not buying any "store cupboard" food and almost used up my huge washing powder so will just buy a small box before we move. Perhaps I might just get tablets, although not economical, they'll be easier for moving.

Paints we are leaving for our buyer in case she needs to touch up any walls.

PollyWollyDoodle

Sounds as if you're on plan. Moving's not a time for economising unfortunately.

SilvaSava, congratulations to your DH on his awards. Put them on display somewhere central, polish them a few times and take some photos of him holding them. Point them out to everyone who visits. For about a month ... then rearrange the mantlepiece/bookshelf/display cabinet and quietly lose them. You may need to keep them in cold storage for a year till the anniversary of the event has passed, just in case he asks. After that...

GreyQueen

Nice one, Clutterfree, you sound very well organised.

Just done a chore which had been pending for a while; the bike shed. I live in a flat and my small storage shed, which is big enough to take a pushbike and a few other bits, is several meters away and around a corner.

It's also on a well-travelled thoroughfare and some neighbours are proper nosey-parkers and will blatantly snout if they see you with your shed door open. Added to the propensity of these sheds to be broken into, meant that although I needed to do a couple of things in there, I didn't want to have the shed standing open for long.

Anyway, have had the bike out and chained to a lamp post whilst I swept and tidied. Have grabbed on item out and stuck it on freegle, have brought something else (a WIP of Mum's which I took over) into the flat for further investigation to assess if I can see myself finishing it or whether I should freegle it as a WIP, and seen something else which I will haul out of there when the bike goes back in.

Small potatoes compared with what some of you are hiffing out, but small gains in a very small space are still worthwhile.

Anyway, off to the allotment for a few hours, it's the great broad bean harvest today. Have a good day, one and all. GQ xx