KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

mrs-moneypenny

Morning all
Hope everyone is as well as can be
A consignment of reindeer food left the house yesterday which was taking up space, I have 2 more lots of about 30each to do which should go by the weekend. The 30 knitted stocking I'm hoping to get finished today-all made from my various stashed so are slowly creating space. I have two Christmas dinners to attend today I'll look like a Christmas pudding! Secret Santa gift went to work, I gave nice soaps, a shopping list book and handcream which I hope will be useable and functional for the recienient.
I am a sucker for Christmas but trying to be more careful/practical with my gift giving rather than frivolous

Better get on these stocking won't sew themselves up

Siebrie

Another pair of holey pants was washed and put in the ragbag.

I am now on project 'wear out the baby towels'. We have four square towels with an extra triangle of fabric in one corner, that you can put on the baby's head and then wrap the towel around the baby. The edges are starting to fray so I can't pass them on anymore. I think my dds were already babies 8 and 9 who have used these towels. It's good that I can keep our new lush biocotton towels for our guests or when the girls have a sleep-over somewhere. It's against KonMari, but I don't care. The baby towels still do what they have to do, namely dry us after washing or showering; that sparks enough joy for me.

Last weekend we dismantled the small chest-of-drawers that contained the maps and electronics. I have just put the maps in two shoeboxes in the study, and put the electronics in a basket and a bootbox in a corner of the living room for dh to sort out, and taken the shelves apart, completely separating the wood and the metal. It will be taken to the recycling centre soon.

Fen1

Siebrie, I don't think it's odd at all to use up ordinary towels for yourself and a best set for visitors. Everyone I know operates that way. It's a matter of pride that your guests are given the good stuff; it's a basic matter of respect and hospitality.
The problem comes when 'best' is never or rarely used, and you are making-do with the grots, saving the best for best when you desperately need to respect and value yourself.
I came to that decision myself this year. I sent a pile of towels to the dogs home. They were perfectly useable, but I was fed up of restitching the hems and making-do with thin and rough. Especially as I had new ones in the cupboard not being used. I had a S*D IT moment. S*D money saving, I'm going to have a fluffy towel.

MMF007

Thanks Siebrie , never thought of putting maps in shoes box but they will fit perfectly! :T

Spent a frivolous £2 today on xmas tat - 2 pairs of comic glasses with attached red noses. My brother wanted us to buy xmas jumpers but I am not prepared to spend at least £10 on something that will be worn for a max of a few hours and then need storing or releasing. I suspect he is planning a xmas family photo.
I am going to decorate a red t-shirt I already have using safety pins to attach some snow (cotton wool) balls and I was given a santa hat, so we will join in the madness! DH is going to wear his 'bah humbug' hat with his mad glasses (but really he loves Christmas!), and a white jumper with tinsel adornment.

Haven't had chance to kondo the xmas decs yet and time is running out to take them to CS for this year! I did grab a few very small baubles that will look nice on wrapped presents

silvasava

I am helping at a children's Christmas party tomorrow and was required to dress as an elf! As I'm like QG - nearly 6ft I will be the biggest elf Santa has lol. Bought a top and hat at HB for £3.99 which will be worn with some red ski my jeans and red ballerinas that I already have. The top and hat will be put in the dressing up box for future use either by me or whoever!
Kondo'd a few bits and pieces today - used up the remainder of a hair rinse, squirted some half used tubes of conditioner into a bottle and got rid of the empty tubes. Also kondoed hubby's beard to a sensible level - he was beginning to look like catweasel!!

MMF007

Oh we still refer to the telephone as the telling bone, al la Cat Weazel :rotfl:

GreyQueen

Evening all.

Haven't done an awful lot of kondo-ing today but did briefly visit the pal's shop where I decided to swipe some dust off a picture frame, which lead to me moving said frame (it was on the floor leaning against a wall) and finding another, smaller and much more interesting picture hiding behind it. Pak had forgotten it was there and there was no way it was going to sell as the customers couldn't see it.

Which is now dusted, has had its glass cleaned and is up on the shop wall and will hopefully sell. The bigger picture was also cleaned but still has to stand on the floor as there is nowhere big enough on the walls to hang it.

I found a lot of webs behind them both but no actual spiders, plus a 50p piece and several artillery shells. Or shell casings, rather. I commented joyfully to the pal about how clearing up in his place is soooo much more interesting than at my own home. :rotfl:

A single corner held a sword, a golfing umbrella, a Louisville Slugger baseball bat and an Napoleonic War bayonet. And cobwebs. There will always be cobwebs, it seems, I think they're mandatory fittings in junk shops.:D

Will be going over to the parental home tomorrow evening and may ease into a bit of kondo-ing if I'm allowed on Sunday. There is enough Stuff in there to keep a team of kondoites busy for a year and a day; Justin and his pals have their interests well-represented.

Siebrie

This week was very good for emptying the house: on Wednesday the green bin was emptied, on Thursday the plastic/metal was collected, and today old glass and old paper was collected. The only collection we had nothing for, was the 'rest of garbage', the unrecyclables. Yay us!

VJsmum

I am in my bed in my dad's house. Major breakthrough.

brother and his girlfriend have moved out - this is good, though brother may be a bit here and there. it hasn't worked out with them living with dad - partly cos, at 46 and 27 they behave worse than my 17 year old in terms of cleaning, tidying and being civil. But because they have gone, quite a lot of their [STRIKE]shi[/STRIKE] err stuff has gone too.

I am now on a mission to clean, declutter and make good the place. i shouldn't have to, but someone's got to and i want to get my hands on it frankly.

Dad can't get upstairs so i asked for permission to get rid of stuff, expecting him to want to see it all beffore it goes.

But he doesn't :T:T

He said he trusts me to tell him if there's anything he really needs to see but not to show him anything else as he will want to keep it. And he doesn't want to keep it...

So every time i come I will do a little more, stuff for the bin, stuff to recycle and a bit more cleaned.

Bring it on.

this weekend is largely making sure he won't get food poisoning, which has been something i have feared. So the fridge was first, then the bathroom.

GreyQueen

:T Wow, VJsMum, what an opportunity to improve your Dad's quality of life, I bet you're up soon and ready to tackle it. And you're so right in your priorities, get the food and bathroom hygiene sorted and then pick off the clutter and the kipple on subsequent visits.

I really wish my Dad had followed my suggestions about dealing with the contents of Nan's shed long before the end. As it was rented, we always knew we'd have to take everything inc the shed down, and very little of the shed contents was actually anything other than rubbish. Probably only about 5% was usable. The few good tools could have easily been stored in the wash-house, the block built building right beside the shed. There was plenty of room for them.

I mean, worm-eaten chest of drawers full of carp like scraps of binder twine and seeds which should have been sown 30 years prior, and piles of very elderly bamboo bean sticks which had got so brittle they broke when you tried to use them? None of this stuff was usable by anyone and could have easily gone on the annual bonfire of hedge-clippings.

The bungalow has been re-let, according to family intel. Aunt has been around with the parish magazine (she hasn't mentioned to the new people that it had been her mother's home for 50 years although they may well acquire this knowledge over time). They're keen gardeners, which is a good thing, as that allotment-size back garden has been under good cultivation by only three gardeners (Mr X the original tenant from 1952, then my Grandad, and then my Dad). Be a shame if all that good soil was put down to lawn.

Their rural bona fides have been established, they're from one village over, their surname is known to us, and my Dad thinks he knows their people. People like this kind of thing where we come from.:rotfl:

Mind you, it isn't all unalloyed Darling Bud-i-ness, some families have known and loathed each other for a couple of hundred years at least.;)

Today's plan is a leisurely start, then a bit of pottering about, then nipping up to pal's shop to play with the cobwebs and bully him about his paperwork. The latter by request, btw, I'm not a total monster. After the shop closes, he'll drop me off in the hometown which he passes on his commute and then I can spend a few days bossing clutter around in the parental home - subject to parental permission, of course.

Have a great day, everyone, whatever you're up to.