KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

tibawo

I will catch up with the thread shortly but I just have to share my night out with the family. I am lucky I have a close knit extended family and my youngest is the youngest grandkid. Linked to out of seven I have the two girlies who get spoilt rotten by both aunties because of this.

Just been out for a meal as nephew is off on travels. Chatting at table I find out that mum was supposed to tell me that after meal out with sister they are coming to ours on New Year's Eve. Then whilst waiting for lift outside pub chatting to mum who assumes she is coming Xmas eve too. I was about to say rude things in jest as they normally come for a drink as they put father Xmas things they 've been hiding in my car and bob in for a drink but last year stayed later. Bear in mind DD has birthday before they go back to school as well! That's three nights in less than 2 weeks! I am now in shock. It is probably a good job I love my family dearly !!!!

MMF007

Phew, fitted kondo-ing of xmas decs into a busy day! Although we won't use them all this year I have neatly stored some baubles and bits, some are ready to be added to the tree and some are going to CS on Monday (hopefully in time to give joy this year!).
I also put a bag of baubles aside to use at a client's. She is away but I am keeping an eye on the house and it needs some decs on display so it doesn't look abandoned.

Decanted the damson gin into 4 bottles via filter and funnel, labelled and made pretty. Three bottles will leave the house in the next 3 days. We have kept a bottle for ourselves, just for quality control, of course.

Kondo'd domestic admin - Renewed house and travel insurance, negotiated £10 off the already- low-premium for house :T Got quote for Travel ins that was £10 less than last year so went with that. :T

Mum's pressies arrived at last (somewhat later than promised) and have been wrapped.

Soup is made.

House is very tidy and clean, just need to run the vac round after food prep tomorrow

The beautiful bunch of lillies I got on YS (£3) from m&s are looking fab, just deadheaded 2 stalks, all flowers open, perfume lovely. They have been sparking joy for 8 days so far!!

M

PollyWollyDoodle

Oh Monna, that made me howl, too! It's sad that we all have very similar experiences of clearing parental homes though.

I picked up a book in the library last week on the basis that it looked a fairly 'light' read - family that has a secret which has driven them apart, as they start to uncover the truth etc etc - the sort of thing I like for bedside reading. However interestingly the central character in the book has a hoarding problem, and this gets worse as emotional problems accrue so that the book begins with her children having to clear her house after her death. It was a good read - 'The House We Grew Up In' by Lisa Jewell - and it made me reflect on some of the reasons we keep stuff.

grunnie

I have had to clear two homes in my time. My husband just said go easy and remember our house hasn't got elastic sides:p
On this joyful thing it works. I fancied some bits from Boots and put in an online order ( am about 3 hours on bus from nearest city) and the glass jars were smashed and everything in the box covered in shards of glass. not joyful. Got offered a lift yesterday to replace said items and holding them - it was the sanctuary spa jars realised they don't bring joy so left them. But on the way home stopped at Morrisons as we don't have one nearer and got a trolley full of reduced stuff - choc cake 9p which is now in the freezer and it will do my birthday in January. Huge bits of beef and loads of yellow stickered stuff all in the freezer. :j
Spotted a cardi in Jlewis which was joyful but at £220 just wasn't joyful enough to part with that kind of cash.:rotfl:A great day out and braving the crowds. Do people really leave it to December to buy their Christmas wrapping paper - I thought every one was like me and buy it at the end of January for 5p a roll:D

WeeMidgie

I've done a second kitchen kondo after about a year or so. This time there was nothing major to go, just small items e.g. small veg paring knife which was given to me by a lodger who didn't want it.

The main success has been opting to use a large empty Fairy detergent box to store my collection of folded up reusable carrier bags. When I go shopping, I can simply use the carry handle on the Fairy box to take the whole lot out to the car, then use the box as an additional carrier for crushable items.

What I'm noticing is that each repeat of the kondo process is easier and quicker. I'm hoping with less Stuff to manage, I can now move on to implement Katie Berry's book "30 days to a clean and organised house", for which grateful thanks to whoever mentioned it. I, like GQ and some others on here, have fatigue issues so I'm waiting for the Christmas shutdown to start it off. So day 1 will be Christmas Eve - good timing for me, as Christmas will be low key and so I'll have the energy to get started.

VJsmum

Today i put my christmas tree up. There are no superfluous decorations :T

GreyQueen

Evening all.

Hello and welcome to roxy. May you kondo happily alongside the nutters. I exclude myself from that, of course, the phrase 'box of frogs' has never been bracketed with my RL name or my username.;)

Today has been a bit fatiguing, due to losing half a night's sleep when the phone went at 3 am; parents' neighbour of 45 years with a middling medical emergency. Mum and I booted and suited and went round to comfort her and wait until the paramedics came. Nothing serious, but scary for a lady in her eighties.

Didn't get much sleep before or after that, so have been running on empty (OK, I lie like an old rug, I have been running on tea and chocolate biscuits) all day, but have been busy.

I decided to tackle (with consent) the linen cupboard on the landing. This is something I do approx once a year but the chaos-mongers in residence send any system to hell in a handcart. Plus the cupboard had indigestion due to an influx of linens from Nan's.

It's a pretty small cupboard, floor to ceiling but only 2 ft wide, with 4 shelves, the highest of which is above head height, even on me.

Had everything out, with the ironing board set on the landing to use as a folding table. Several experiments caused the abandonment of the jelly-roll style of towel storage and back to the folds.

We broke half-way through for a supermarket run. Food was needed but I also needed a couple of very specific sizes of boxes for the re-organisation, which I got.

Three thin towels are in a bag to go to a rellie for dog baths, twelve others are going into the loft until some space is created downstairs by wearing up some others, some other things have been re-purposed and some MIA things have been brought into service.

It looks fantastic, if I say so myself, and the folks have been made to admire it.:j

For my next trick, I moved into the boxy back bedroom, which is just a bit wider than a single bed. There is a gap about 12 inches wide at the foot of the bed which was rammed floor to ceiling with; bags of scrunched up carrier bags, a handmade rug of mine, several bundles of wombled blister wrap, a holdall, an unused handbag, a lot of dust and dead spiders and ........... wait for it .......... a microwavable mini Xmas pud with a BB date January 2016.:rotfl:

I shall take it home and irradiate it at my leisure. Good job we don't have mice in this house because, between bedding and food, they'd've had a lovely time down there.

I have samosa'd a lot of carrier bags and found twelve of those red duffle-type bags from that shop C E X, which will be taken to live and my place and leave one at a time with donations in for the chazzers.

Have also made a carrier-bagful of stuff for ragging and got the folks to agree that an unused single duvet from Nan's would be just the thing to donate - hopefully tomorrow.

Slinky

We've decorated the tree in the lounge, I've got the one for the sun room to do tomorrow.

Before that we put the dresser in the hall back together, assuming BT will no longer need to get to the master socket as I'm waiting on them putting in a new cable and have asked that they come in through my office wall instead. Dresser looks less imposing now it's been painted, will take some getting used to.

I asked OH if I could get rid of his blue teapot......... he said he was worried that if we get rid of it, we'll need it at some point. We make tea in mugs. I have a lovely teaset for if we want to have a 'proper' afternoon tea. In 15 years I think this ruddy blue teapot has been used, perhaps, twice. Not that my one gets used either, but mine is nicer than his. Ho hum, back in the cupboard it goes.

He asked about getting rid of a vase. Said it doesn't get used much. So I said well you don't buy me flowers often......... So that went back in the cupboard too.

The contents of the drawers remain in two boxes, I'll try and tackle them before Thursday when we are away for a long weekend.

GreyQueen

Morning all.

Day One of the two normally-working days where I'm bobbling around the parental home. Had a bad night's sleep again and was up relatively-late by my standards (7 am) so have been doing a only a few things thus far.

Got a haircut, got the vacuum upstairs and cleared out the area at the foot of the bed. It will be re-packed in a more sensible sort of way. I was missing a bag containing an Xmas present for Kid Bruv purchased a few months ago. It was taped up in a carrier bag with a big label with his name on in and an exhortation not to peek and had gone missing.

I found it in the cupboard under the bed with a load of business paperwork in lever arch and other files, all kitty-cornered and wasting space. I had them lined up and also extracted a brick.

Said brick was inside cardboard and inside fabric and had one been pretending to be a sofa with a small teddy sitting on it, an ill-advised craft purchase - anyone recall the habit of making bricks into doorstops? I'm cleared to dismantle it into just a brick, which will go in the back garden and can go to the tip at some point when the car is heading that way.

Duvet hasn't exited today as a change of plan involved walking to town rather than driving, but hopefully it will go in the next couple of weeks.

After luncheon, I shall be heading into the loft. Heaven knows what I'll find there............. :rotfl:

ETA; organised myself before opening the loft hatch to see if there was anything anybody wanted to have fetched downwards as well as any additons to what was going up, as it's chilly up there and I didn't want the heated air escaping into the roof space. I was so quickly in and out of the loft that Dad's just likened me to a rat up a drainpipe. I retrieved a bundle of part-used rolls of wallpaper snuggled into tights' legs, which were prepared for usage a few months ago, plus the plastic lidded crate in which I had consolidated all the Xmas cards when I cleared out the Bedroom Cupboard of Doom..

Also shopped the yarn store for cones of 4 ply for Mum to use two at a time to make two sweaters for me. I shall have one black and white and one muted green and grey. The two latter still had their prices on - 50p a cone (2nd hand several years ago from a chazzer). She will start winding off the white yarn any minute, as it's difficult to knit straight off the cone.

All in all, a pretty satisfactory day thus far. Hope everyone is having a good day. GQ x

oceanspirit

Frustrating day because my brain won't work! Trying to write the last few Christmas cards to post this week and it's just not happening.

Been laughing about the Christmas pudding find, GQ.

I had forgotten that I'd made a brick doorstop as a child. I carved it, painted a picture using the carvings as texture, put some sawdust on to create more texture then a couple of coats of wood varnish on top. It was in use for a number of years but it must have been got rid of when we moved when in my teens.

Not been kondoing for a couple of weeks, however a few things have been removed from their hiding places as I've come across them in the kitchen. So the emptying process continues.