KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

GreyQueen

Slinky wrote: »

Good idea on the visiting newbuilds MMF, they're building new houses in our village so I could go and look at what the competition is!


GQ I'm fortunate to have just got a subscription to House Beautiful as a freebie with a bank account, so this is being devoured as it comes through the door. I will however be looking for cheaper alternatives to some of the £64 a roll wallpapers on show! I was very pleased to learn that our joyful bedlinen was the Gold choice in readers' votes in the magazine's 101 best buy competition.

That's a bit of good luck.

Worth noting that a lot of places who do interiors will likewise be poring over the more expensive fashionable ranges and that there are likely to be lookie-likees in the cheaper stores. Some magazine articles I've seen even show the expensive option, the middle-market option and the cheapy option of various looks, with details of how to achieve it for those of us of slender means.

And there's always the store with the meatballs, they're stylish and their stuff is not likely to frighten the horses.

Slinky

We have the meatball store not far from us GQ so will take a look there for some accessories if required. Don't want to spend too much money on them as it'll be 'window dressing' to sell rather than buying things we'll want to keep as they won't suit the style of our new home at all.

Siebrie

GreyQueen wrote: »

And that light is very important. Lightness, cleanliness, declutteredness (not sure that's actually a word), that kind of thing.

Do you think a little shrine with Marie Kondo's picture, a tealight, and her books would help sell the house? :rotfl:

Pooky

A friend of mine had her house on the market for over a year with no offers, decor wise it was fairly on trend, clean and tidy, plenty of light but just not right obviously. She took it off the market, painted the entire house in boring magnolia (stripped out all the feature wall papers), put it on the market for £25k more and sold it in 2 days.

Utter madness that some people can't see "through" decor.

greenbee

It may seem madness Pooky, but that's what means some of us get bargains Some people see potential, others buy a lifestyle. So you need to understand who your market is - clearly your friend worked it out.

My parents bought a lovely extended cottage - which was decorated with lots of expensive feature wallpapers that were really not them. They've painted over all but one of them in colours that work for them, their curtains (new fabric wasn't on the list) and furniture, but also complement the house. The wallpaper that HAS been left looks even more spectacular now as it stands out as being different.

Wallpaper never features in my houses as paint is cheaper...

greent

SOrted through my wardrobe again (it was a mess of bags and shoes thrown in on the floor) - 1 pair of worn-once boots (uncomfortable - hasty purchase last Summer) released (given to my mum) and 1 summery top to textile recycling bag. 1 cardigan which I love the colour of gone to CS pile - it falls off my shoulder in an annoying way, so wasn't joyful to wear Summery shoes and sandals boxed up and put at rear of wardrobe and boots removed from boxes and brought to front Jumpers moved to front rail and summer tops to back rail. A pair of manky (but comfy) shoes moved form back of wardrobe to landing - they were kept for gardening type duties but have not been used. However, I want to paint the fence in the next week or so, so I will put them to use for that (I always get fence paint all over myself) and then they can be released.

Oh - and 2 tops of DS3's discovered to be too small today so have been priced for the NNS (less than 2 weeks to go)

3 items paid for on flebay today - all will be posted tomorrow. A further 2 items ending tomorrow which have bids on

GreyQueen

Siebrie wrote: »

Do you think a little shrine with Marie Kondo's picture, a tealight, and her books would help sell the house? :rotfl:

:eek: They might think weird people lived there......... :eek:

Loving the story about the magnolia walls. I've known some people carry on about wall colour as if it was a major problem rather than an unappealing (to them) emulsion. Failure of imagination describes it very well.

There was a house opposite my parents' which was put on the market for a very ambitious price for a small ex-council house. The vendors had not even bothered to sweep the front garden and re-stain the very battered-looking front picket fence. I looked dreadful IRL as well as in the pix on the estate agent's website. It didn't sell.

You'd think after all these property programmes on the telly for decades now that people would have heard of kerb appeal.:rotfl:

Slinky

There's a house not far from me where the interior shots look quite good, but the front door is really battered wood, needs replacing or at least some restoration and a good coat of paint. Perhaps that would be cheaper than keep dropping £5K a time off the asking price. That and the completely wonky shed in the front garden do nothing for those first impressions.

GreyQueen

Slinky wrote: »

There's a house not far from me where the interior shots look quite good, but the front door is really battered wood, needs replacing or at least some restoration and a good coat of paint. Perhaps that would be cheaper than keep dropping £5K a time off the asking price. That and the completely wonky shed in the front garden do nothing for those first impressions.

Lunacy, isn't it? You'd think anyone old enough to own a house would be able to see things like, or that their agent would have a word. A lot of these improvements are relatively-inexpensive to achieve, for goodness sake. Heck, we'll be 'presenting' Nan's bungalow back to her council in better knick than that.

:j I've kondo'd another 0.5 kg of flab so am very pleased. Despite eating a 100g chocolate bar yesterday, which I decided was my Liddle treat.

Working day today so relatively-low kondo potential. Will be taking a couple of borrowed magazines back to their owner, so that's a small amount of Stuff outta here.

blizeH

Had a huge clearout over the past few weeks - two car fulls going to the charity shop, and one to the tip.

We haven't actually bought anything other than the very occasional item of clothes for the past few years but it feels good to have a clearout. Sold some furniture on Gumtree too because it wouldn't fit in the car.

Minimalism ftl. Plus I absolutely hate shopping so it's a good match