KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Siebrie

I was looking at online catalogues and in reallife shops for one or two china mugs with nice cheerful patterns. They had to be lightweight with a thin 'lip', and hold a good cup of tea or coffee, but I refused to pay €15 or more. I just realised that I have the near-perfect thing in my attic, where I knock them over almost everytime I go through my dds' stored clothes. If it can stand all those knocks, it'll be fine for kitchen use. They are 2 Korean tea mugs with strainers and lids, similar to these: http://www.korean-arts.com/tea_ware/teacup_sets_strainers/chrysanthemum_bun-cheong_teacup_set.htm but nicer


If they break there is no harm done; they are from a trip where the memory no longer brings me joy (or grief - otherwise I would discard them).

silvasava

Thanks maryb - I think it was the thought of them being a 'Justin'. I did manage to bring a few odds & sods down from the loft to go to the CS (to redeem myself ) A square plastic bucket thing with a lid that originally had picnic items in it., an old pair of binoculars, two Capo di Monte owl ornaments (late mum's) a piece of coral with a display stand, a 'Chance' glass oblong dish (mine or mum's, can't remember!), a glass case with a chinese cut cork arrangement (whaaaattt!!) and a small hanging display shelf. Took them to the CS all labelled up and........they are not accepting any donations until after the 12th! So they're sitting in the boot as they are NOT coming back in the house

hebwood

lessonlearned - so sorry to hear about your Father, my condolences.


Thank you everyone for the info on funerals. As we are just sorting out wills and other stuff, this is very timely.


What do people think about Lasting Power of Attorney? Are they worth it when there is still husband/wife. I can understand if there is only one of you, but not sure if there are both and wills are in place?


Take care
H.

firebubble

Hi all

lessonlearned - sorry to hear about your father.

Hebwood - wills take effect on death, powers of attorney for finances and/or medical treatment take effect in life but once the person giving the power becomes incapacitated. A power of attorney is still useful even if you're married as it is clear evidence of what you wanted, if the situation arises where your spouse has to demonstrate this, or if you have very specific instructions, or complex financial affairs...

bumblebeany - I know what you mean about the recycling. When I read the book, I wondered whether that was something that just got lost in the translation, or whether not much recycling goes on in Japan, or whether everything there gets recycled so it was taken as a given that 'throw away' meant recycle?
The suggestion of tearing up books did make me flinch at first, but then I had the breakthrough realisation that books are just clutter if they're unread and there is no intention to reread them, rather than sacred objects which have some magic intelligence giving power by keeping loads of them around...the upshot was I got rid of around two thirds of my books because having groaning bookshelves didn't bring me joy. I still couldn't bring myself to tear them up though! :rotfl:

Don't get me started on the cost of funerals... the whole thing is a rip off. Had to arrange a funeral of someone who wanted the cheapest possible funeral... first on the list of charges to cut was hiring limousines and a hearse (the deceased owned a van and used to laugh about that being used to transport him). Except the local crem refused to hold the service there because they only allow limousines and hearses to pull up outside it :mad: We had to drive to the next county where the crem there wasn't so picky...

GreyQueen

The funeral industry is one big scam, imo. They know people aren't in their right minds for grief, are physically and emotionally exhausted, don't want to look 'cheap' in front of the funeral director, or the other family members and the wider circle, so they've got you coming and gong.

Used to know a lady who arranged long-distance coach holidays for the elder cohorts. Inevitably, over the course of a year, there would be a few individuals who passed away whilst on holiday. It was her job to organise the return of the deceased to their home area (and no, they weren't put in the bus luggage locker).

She told me that every time a hearse crosses a river, there was an extra fee. She used to sit there with maps, trying to plot cross-country routes with the minimum of river crossings to save money.

When even a basic funeral seems to cost £4k +, and lots of people barely have 2-3 times that as their annual income, it's brutally hard. I have decided to leave very specific instructions for my very basic disposal and a suggestion that if any mourners want to remember my funny little ways collectively, that they head to the nearest cheap & cheerful pub, pull up a stool and have a few drams and a laugh. Whilst wearing comfy clothes. Preferably fleece.;)

*******

Re the KM book, I also found the 'throwing away' references a bit grating but, like others, not sure if this was a concise translation of some elabourate Japanese phrase which means dispose of responsibly. Or what the secondhand market/ refuse and recycling options are in Japan.

As a highly-urbanised and wealthy society with a small amount of land for about twice our population, I would expect them to be equal or in excess of our own actions in these respects.

I am an ardent book-lover and a voracious reader and swither about disposing of through recycling of even the most battered and disintegrated mass-market paperback. But sometimes it happens. And I felt like a barbarian as I did it.

I have to tell myself that a book is a chunk of remodelled tree with ink on it. It's only value is being read. It does not seep wisdom or entertainment whilst lurking on shelves or in boxes. I will not become cultured because I own classic books, I may become cultured if I read them.

I find it helpful, when decluttering all sorts of things, to think of myself as their temporary custodian, rather than their owner.

My reasoning being, if I feel I own things, I can get a bit Gollum, a bit my precioussss and want to clutch it to my chest and defend it against others. If I think of it logically, I don't own anything, not even the body I inhabit. I am just a temprary custodian of things in the material world.

Ownership is my legally-recognised right to use and control certain resources. A thief can make a mockery of what I think I own in seconds, and a disaster can remove every one of my possessions from me, without my consent.

So, if I say to myself, I am the caretaker of X, Y or Z, I can take some of the emotional heat out of the issue. I can de-Gollumise things. I can step back and think; hmm, am I getting the best use out of this resource, or is it time to release it to another caretaker? Or to let it return to its constituent elements, so they can be re-purposed into other useful and necessary things?

F'rinstance, I've decided that my battered and broken screen spare mobile phone, a £10 N0kia dumb phone, can go to recycling via the cancer charity locally. The smidge of rare earth metals contained in it need to be back in the materials stream, not loitering in a drawer here.

greenbee

The Japanese have very effective recycling systems, so the chances are that less of what Marie 'threw out' actually went to landfill or even incineration that would have done here (although I realise that facilities vary hugely by region in the UK. (I did some work on e-waste and their recycling facilities were used to show what the potential was for material recovery).

They have laws covering packaging materials, household appliances, building materials, food, vehicles etc. I don't remember the detail, but it was certainly all very impressive.

With e-waste, manufacturers have to have the facility to recycle the stuff they make - and equipment is returned by retailers to the manufacturer when consumers want to get rid of it.

A_Frayed_Knot

Feel like I am interrupting, sort of , but came on here, as decided as part of the NY was to get house in order. With hearing about the weather coming, thought I need to go out and get myself a pair of winter boots for the snow, then thought - hold on - I've already got a pair, or two or three or four oops !!! so decided NOT to go get myself a.n.other pair and start MK'd instead:A lol :rotfl:

For many months, no, make that Years :eek: I have spent my time, shuffling items around, tidy one room, only to offload the items into the other rooms, then tidy up another, only to move said items back into room they came out of :mad:

So started with my make-up/creams etc (wasn't a lot there) then moved onto my clothes, have a nice little bundle for the bay, huge bundle for CS, and a bundle of rags, so far, so good, just need to do my jackets/coats, shoes and bags now.

Just thought I would post this, as I am feeling good about the whole mind set just hope I can keep up momentum.

GreyQueen

I was thinking about why I hung onto the aforementioned battered N0kia.

It was a cheap phone, about £10, with a PAYG Hasda sim. I'd replaced another cheap phone with this one, had only had this a few months when I was in a narrow seat at an airport.

You've likely seen seats of this type, rigid plastic ones bolted together in rows with arms between. Ones so pinched and mean that folk naturally sit in every other one. Which is what had happened on that day, until new arrivals had to sit in the alternate ones which had been left vacant.

Annoyingly for me, a rather over-nourished gentleman plopped himself down in the seat beside mine without warning. My phone was in a jacket pocket which was protruding against the arm and his arrival graunched it against rigid plastic and broke the screen.

I heard it go, but kept schtumm and only looked at it once he'd gone; spiderweb fractures over the screen. I stuck a bit of clear plastic over it and continued to use it until Hasda withdrew their service. I didn't want to migrate to the new service provider as I could get a much better PAYG package elsewhere. So I went for that one, which required a slightly fancier 3G N0kia (and for which I bought a rigid case for off the market for £2, I might add).

I kept this phone as a spare, even though it was partially broken, and it would need a fresh sim to function. I kept it because it was new (by my standards) and because I was p'd off at the over-nourished gentleman for being over-nourished and clumsy and breaking it.

Y'see, I felt I hadn't had my money's worth (£10 phone) and it owed me something, dammit!:rotfl:

All this I realised in the witching hours of last night, when I was pondering Life, the Universe and Everything, so I can now laugh at my silliness and release this item.

And then I won't remember my crossness of the over-nourished gentleman every time I see that cracked screen, either.

MMF007

DH has persuaded me to release 2 tshirts that are way past their best. He has said he will treat me to replacements:D

Have finished packing, not taking too many clothes, made sure it is a capsule wardrobe! TBH it helps that I have shrunk, so don't have too much choice :rotfl:

springdreams

A_Frayed_Knot wrote: »

Feel like I am interrupting, sort of , but came on here, as decided as part of the NY was to get house in order. With hearing about the weather coming, thought I need to go out and get myself a pair of winter boots for the snow, then thought - hold on - I've already got a pair, or two or three or four oops !!! so decided NOT to go get myself a.n.other pair and start MK'd instead:A lol :rotfl:

For many months, no, make that Years :eek: I have spent my time, shuffling items around, tidy one room, only to offload the items into the other rooms, then tidy up another, only to move said items back into room they came out of :mad:

So started with my make-up/creams etc (wasn't a lot there) then moved onto my clothes, have a nice little bundle for the bay, huge bundle for CS, and a bundle of rags, so far, so good, just need to do my jackets/coats, shoes and bags now.

Just thought I would post this, as I am feeling good about the whole mind set just hope I can keep up momentum.

Well done :T:T

And welcome to the thread. Just keep posting, and you will soon feel like you've always been here

I fell off the bandwagon with paperwork and have not quite managed to climb back on .... yet. I do plan to though. Presently doing the post Christmas packing away and tidy up, then will start back with my KM journey. I do frequently lurk on this thread though to keep me motivated to start again.