KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

greent

VJs mum - good news

x

monnagran

Oh dear, GQ. You do take me back to the time when my brother and I cleared the house that my parents had lived in for over 50 years. My father was 90 and had lived in the house alone for the 10 years since my mother had died. He was quite domesticated as mother had suffered from dementia for the previous 10 years and he had looked after her devotedly at home.
However, he was so thrifty that he read his grandson a severe lecture when said grandson gave him 500 white plastic plant labels for Christmas one year. Such wanton extravagance! Such unnecessary frittering away of hard earned money! One F**ry L*qu*d bottle would supply a good 20 plant labels if cut up correctly.

I digress. We had finally convinced him that at 90 it was ridiculous for him to be living in a large 4 bedroom house and keeping up a 3/4 acre garden and we had found him a lovely 2 bedroom bungalow that fulfilled everything on the 'shopping list' he had given us.

We cleared the house one summer. The only things left were the two detached garages.

Ye gods! It took 3 days. In the middle of a heat wave. We had a bonfire going all the time. Even when we had burnt everything burnable - think placards advertising a church fete in 1979, wooden case for a radio made by my grandfather in the 1920's which was so huge and thick it would have made a good air raid shelter - we had enough to fill 2 large skips. In the end DB was shovelling stuff out and I was coming along behind him with a broom.
Cobwebs, GQ? Cobwebs? If only!

Finally we filled the last skip, covered it with plastic and tied it down.

I covered two arm chairs with old towels while DB fetched glasses of water. We fell into the chairs and my father who was reading his newspaper looked over the top of his paper and spoke words which have gone down in family folklore.
"When you cleared out the small garage did you come across my Stanley knife?"

We thought of those two huge skips standing in the drive, we thought of the bonfire still smouldering, we thought of the weeks we had spent toiling away in temperatures of astronomical height, we looked at each other exhausted, filthy, sweaty, the colour of beetroot....................
My darling bro said in measured tones, "I think I might have seen it Dad, but it was very rusty."

"It only needed a new blade."

GQ. I feel your pain.

silvasava

Brilliant Monna!!!

GreyQueen

:eek: OMG, monnagran, what a labour!

Ours wasn't that bad but, for complex logistical reasons, the shed's wood and corrugated iron roof was taken off the day before the contents were cleared and the rest of the shed dismantled.

And it rained overnight. Imagine yours truly picking her way through wet misc carp, sorting it into metal for the scrappie, landfill waste, tools with wormeaten handles to be burned off (so's the tools could be scrapped/ re-hafted dependant on the condition of the metal bits).

We filled a 6 cu yard skip, plus a lot of outdoor stuff taken by Cousin, plus several bonfires, plus a neighbour's large trailerload which went to the scrap merchant............

We come into this world with nothing, we leave with nothing but, by golly, do we usually leave a lot of work behind us!:rotfl:

Righty, heading out now, a junk shop needs my tender ministrations. There will probably be erratic posts during the next 3-4 days. Very erratic, knowing me.

Cover me, ladies, I'm going in!

Siebrie

Siebrie wrote: »

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've just realised that this is actually a change in my mindset. Before, I would think "I will use the old ones, they can have the new ones. They won't want the old ones, and I like them to have the new ones. Poor/heroic (depending on my mood) me, all alone in processing the family belongings to get the most out of their lives and to their correct final destination". Now, I've let go of the emotions and just distribute the old ones as a family project to wear them down completely.

MMF007

Monnogran you made me howl with laughter and empathy. That will be me, clearing my parents large house, 3 large sheds and one giant shed. My laughter is in fact hysterical :rotfl:

Pre-Christmas clean today and prep for friends visiting for lunch tomorrow. Spicy butternut squash soup ( thanks for the inspiration, Slinky!), quiche, salad and baked potatoes for those that can eat spuds, fresh fruit salad n whipped cream, cheese board with pecans, grapes, and fresh dates. Designed the menu to be very low input by the chef, as you can see!

M

PS - VJsmum, you must feel mighty relieved that you can get things sorted out for your dad. More power to your elbow!

VJsmum

Elbows, knees and everything in between - and around and above.

So, i am now on my way back - feeling filthy but accomplished.

The fridge is clean :T, he should not die of food poisoning because of it. The kitchen has been wiped over with bleach spray (my poor nice shirt has bleach spots on I should have known better and worn scruffs). It isn't perfect but, hygiene wise, should do till next time.

This morning i tackled the bathroom - ye gods :eek: crud crud and more crud - when i lifted the loo seat _pale_ there were plastic food containers on the floor, full of stagnant water. OMG i nearly barfed... The loo and basin have had regular perfunctory wipes but nothing else done for 5 years - which was the last time dad saw it. Minging doesn't anywhere near cover it.

I hoovered two bedrooms - loose cat food over the floor and (clean) cat litter. This time all i could do was hoover round the stuff on the floor.

My brother did not say a word apart from tell me off for throwing away his toothbrush - ye gods, how he could put that in his mouth is beyond me.

So they are on a warning - two brothers who have a load of carp stored there have 6 weeks to take or label what they want and then i am going in with the bin bags.

One result is that dad had a pile of DVDs - most still in cellophane. I persuaded him to let me take them to the chazzer on the basis that they could sell them before christmas. I told him that he will get another load of stuff in two weeks and his birthday is only 4 days after that....

Slowly slowly catchee monkee.....

camelot1001

Well done VJsmum, that sounds like a labour of love.

Having cleared my parents house some years ago I am determined that my house isn't going to be full of carp when I've gone.

A lovely lady has just been to collect the extractor fan from the old kitchen via Freegle, another thing saved from the skip. Sadly I couldn't find the filters, I have a feeling they are in the cellar but there are no lights down there at the moment so will have a look tomorrow. If they're not there they are easy to buy and a standard size.

roxy7699

Hi all,

I have been lurking for a while but am going to commit myself to the thread in the hope it resparks my kondoing.
I first read the book last year but only got as far as half the clothes which was amazing and I still fold the same way.
As time permits I will tackle small categories.

Rox

silvasava

Children's party done and I'm done in!!! DH got the decorations down from the loft this morning and I persuaded him to bring down an old filing cabinet and a Formica topped table and 3 stools. They'll go on freecycle first to see if any takers. That's a bit more out of the loft that wasn't expected