KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

GreyQueen

Charis wrote: »

GQ, do you think it might be worthwhile getting another key cut for the window? Should the found key go missing again, you could magically produce its twin, enhancing your role as household bringer of light and air.

Good idea; they've already decided to do this in the New Year.

I have spent some time rootling around in the back yard, rounding up things like old jam jars. You know how it it, you do some gloss paintwork and put the jamjar with the sticky paintbrush in a couple of inches of white spirit out by the back door to deal with later.

Although later never seems to come and even white spirit eventually evaporates and you have a ruined brush and a crust of gloss paint at the bottom of the jar. If you leave it long enough, it can be peeled out like rubber.......... :rotfl:

Have rounded up a crate of carp from the backyard, including several sheets of picture framing glass from old frames from Nan's (woodworm ate the frames), plus various bird-feeders which had suffered the attentions of Cyril the Squirrel and its extended family.

Also went into the shed and got some more carp from there, some of which is recyclable and some of which will have to go to the tip like the old header tank from the loft.

We have mice in the workshop shed, according to the evidence. The cats are presently drawing straws to see which one of them will be forced to spend the night in there to catch them.

Oh, and the compost bin contains an interesting melange of 6 lb of tosspots basics lemon curd and a large tin of pears. Could be the makings of an interesting dessert, thank gawd that the wasps are no longer around.

Duty calls - food is on the table.

Igamogam

Well thats over for another year..............:) I had very useful gifts form both DDs - silicon oven mitts and dinky silicon half mitts which have proved very useful so far and some handmade crochet slippers, perfect on the new oak floors Had a secret santa of books which will be read and passed on so very happy.

Did have another kondo woo moment when I was making up DD1 bed - I thought b00ger, no single sheets because I had had a big clear out of bed linen and towels. Then I took out the carefully folded single set - duvet folded into pillow case - and in there was a matching single sheet. Then I remembered - I kept 2 single sets and in each pillow case added a matching sheet, getting rid of all the rest. There was a time when sheets, duvets covers and pillow cases where all folded into separate piles..........not anymore

Tea_Lady

Hope everyone had a great Christmas Day.
Well I'm back installed in the homestead. Moving wasn't too bad.
Packed and on the road within an hour. Travelling later at night was a breeze hardly any traffic. Unpacking took one hour on the nose because we had to take the feet off the sofa to get it in through the door.

The lounge was piled high with furniture and boxes. Shut the door on it and went to bed. Mattresses on the floor.
Next morning OH helped build the bed and helped move the huge welsh dresser and built it up. He then had a hospital appointment in Leicester and he had to take the van back.
I had a great time pushing and pulling all the furniture into place, empting boxes and putting things to rights.
By the time he came home after lunch the house was a home again.
Just the huge pile of fold cardboard boxes to get rid of now.

Had Christmas at DD1 and partners house great time had there. Presents for me where chocs, wine and a grandma mug for my coffee. So nothing really coming into the house there. 2 mugs going in the CS bag so I can use my new mug.

Everything is in place now just needs straightening up and a few bits and bobs taking out of boxes.
Before kondoing I would be in a mess for weeks. Now the house is already home.
Have a Happy New Year folks. Hope all your wishes come true.
Tealady

Floss

Tealady, must feel fab to be back there again! Well done on such an easy move!

DH has finally agreed to KM the attic - mainly because DS2 needs to store some stuff and there's no space - not today, mind you, but soon! Am hoping to be able to get rid of honey kit not used in 16+ years, flipped & snorkel not used since 1994, skis mot used since 2004, plus allsorts of other "stuff" that Justin has been looking after.

Fen1

GQ, would it be sensible for you to keep the duplicate window key? At least then you will know exactly where it is, and the risk of it being lost in misc would be minimal.


( My Girl Guide training is itching to say "get a third key". Everything in threes. Perhaps I'm a Lancre witch?)

greent

Tealady - how fab to be in your home again - and brilliant that you've already made it into a home

GQ - great news re the key!


Presents here for me were socks (much needed and mostly chosen by myself - all joyful), chocs (already consumed! ), flavoured vodka (yum), cushions for our new sofas (deeply joyful!), No7 face stuff (always useful), prosecco (consumed), a voucher for afternoon tea (yum!) new earrings (to replace a pair where I lost one ), 2 purple sundae dishes (the kids will use them and purple is a great colour) and 3 Baileys miniatures (will be consumed in the next couple of weeks!) - so all good!

Have popped into town (yesterday - was quiet) for an hour - exchanged a top of OH's which had a flaw in it and bought half price individual Xmas cards from WHSmith and also used a 25% off voucher, so got next year's individual cards for bargain prices Used a gift card which DS2 received for Xmas and gave him the money back instead. And that was it - resisted all reduced Xmas paper/ packs of cards/ bows etc - I do not need any!! (well - would consider one pack of cards for the smallest 2 to use at school, but only if I see a good pack) Did not buy any reduced random items for present stash (yeay) - am loving the space under our bed. We do have a small stash of presents under there but am looking to use these on any party invites DS3 gets next year. They are mainly duplicate presents DS2 and DS3 have received anyway. Any deemed unsuitable later in the year will go to a NNS in Oct.

DS3 had a small clear out of toys (his chpice to do so) on Xmas Eve, so will price these for NNS in Feb and then he can have the money. Added some outgrown (but good condition) clothes to the pile too for pricing up.

Sold an item on fleabay at 4.30 Xmas Eve afternoon, so need to go to PO today to send that off. Also need to package up some items for returning to M&S at the same time - decided I didn't need all of them that I ordered, so that will be a nice refund to my M&S CC

silvasava

I buy my wrapping paper and cards after Christmas. I also look for wrapping paper that doesn't have a Christmas decoration of plain foil type to use for presents through the year. Just discovered DH has thrown out my punnets and the bin men have been - bum!

SparksAlive

So I'm very new to the idea of KonMari, but I'm very taken with it. I really like minimalism and the idea of only keeping things that are either useful or bring me joy - I've previously lived with exes and we did that thing where you keep stuff because it might be needed, in the future, maybe... I'm now buying my own home, alone, so I really want to start off on the right foot and have a lovely tidy, organised home to live in.

I've already been through my parents garage and thrown out or donated a lot of the things I was holding onto from my last house. The pile of stuff I actually now is depressingly small, but this is because I have no furniture, just kitchen equipment, a couple of airers, and some bits and bobs like a cool bag, or a nice vase.

For Christmas I did pretty well - I mostly got books (I love books and I reread them, so they're not a waste of space), consumables like chocolate, some nice pyjamas and best of all my mum got me a crockery set I wanted for the new house, and my boyfriend's mum made me a box of cleaning supplies! So useful presents, things I wanted, and stuff I can eat

Knit_Witch

SparksAlive wrote: »

So I'm very new to the idea of KonMari, but I'm very taken with it. I really like minimalism and the idea of only keeping things that are either useful or bring me joy - I've previously lived with exes and we did that thing where you keep stuff because it might be needed, in the future, maybe... I'm now buying my own home, alone, so I really want to start off on the right foot and have a lovely tidy, organised home to live in.

I've already been through my parents garage and thrown out or donated a lot of the things I was holding onto from my last house. The pile of stuff I actually now is depressingly small, but this is because I have no furniture, just kitchen equipment, a couple of airers, and some bits and bobs like a cool bag, or a nice vase.

For Christmas I did pretty well - I mostly got books (I love books and I reread them, so they're not a waste of space), consumables like chocolate, some nice pyjamas and best of all my mum got me a crockery set I wanted for the new house, and my boyfriend's mum made me a box of cleaning supplies! So useful presents, things I wanted, and stuff I can eat

I hope you get a nice, joyful house soon - you are starting well!

GreyQueen

SparksAlive wrote: »

So I'm very new to the idea of KonMari, but I'm very taken with it. I really like minimalism and the idea of only keeping things that are either useful or bring me joy - I've previously lived with exes and we did that thing where you keep stuff because it might be needed, in the future, maybe... I'm now buying my own home, alone, so I really want to start off on the right foot and have a lovely tidy, organised home to live in.

I've already been through my parents garage and thrown out or donated a lot of the things I was holding onto from my last house. The pile of stuff I actually now is depressingly small, but this is because I have no furniture, just kitchen equipment, a couple of airers, and some bits and bobs like a cool bag, or a nice vase.

For Christmas I did pretty well - I mostly got books (I love books and I reread them, so they're not a waste of space), consumables like chocolate, some nice pyjamas and best of all my mum got me a crockery set I wanted for the new house, and my boyfriend's mum made me a box of cleaning supplies! So useful presents, things I wanted, and stuff I can eat

Welcome to the thread, good to have you with us. KM really does change lives, and for the better.

How wonderful to have very few items to start your new home with. Seriously, just think about it; you won't have shedloads of Stuff that you have because you have it, IYSWIM.

You can choose to take a measured approach to acquistions and decide what you really need, want and love. You can dare to be different and not have certain kinds of Stuff just because everyone else has them.

I'd take my time. I've got a mature home, in my very small flat but, in the event that I had to start over again from scratch, I think I'd even live with stuff in boxes for a while until I found just the right items of furniture rather than shopping at ThistleDew Furnishings...........:rotfl:

Freezing fog here today and very cold (Wild Thing hogging the raditor and her sister-cat is dead p'd off about it ). We had various errands to accomplish in town so took the car loaded with Stuff for the recycling centre, spent an hour kondo-ing appts and then did a tip run on the way home.

Annoyingly, I forgot a bag of textiles which has since doubled in size as we went through a bag of Stuff leftover from Nan's bungalow. Never mind, it'll go next time. Good to get rid of the kipple which was cluttering up the back garden.

We've also decided, at my urging, to bring Nan's wonderfully old style large enanmel teapot into service, to replace the stainless steel one which poured less satisfactorily. This teapot was already in Nan's keeping when Mum met Dad and that was the very early 1960s. Not an antique but it has a homely charm.

I've got the steel teapot steeping with bicarb of soda to remove the tannin stains as I've told Mum we should put it away in the cupboard clean. I have an agenda that she may decide to get rid of it at some point, but I know from experience not to push my luck.:rotfl:

Tea Lady, wow, what an efficient move, I'm dead impressed and bet your other half was, too. Very well done.

Oh, and Poondlandia has those J Asher xmas puds reduced to 50p each. They're pretty tasty, too. We've stocked three into the cupboard for next year.