KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Siebrie

Re the shoes: it's a discussion I've had with colleagues a few times. We work in a very corporate environment and they all love their shoes! When I see the heels or tiny toe-part on them, I ask if they are comfy, and the answer is nearly always 'no'. They also like to boast that they have 60 or more pairs..... One colleague had to drive an extra time to bring all her shoes from Germany to Brussels; the moving van was full!

Monnagran - I love the way you dealt with dh's remarks!

short_bird

This may be the only place people will understand my happiness... I'm going to inherit a label maker :rotfl:

Pooky

short_bird wrote: »

This may be the only place people will understand my happiness... I'm going to inherit a label maker :rotfl:

:j I've always wanted one! You lucky thing.


A new (to me) desk entered the house on Sunday - it's lovely and prompted a huge turf out of the office area. This area contains DH's large desk, my desk, a side board that is home to 2 printers (one large one A4) and a huge welsh dresser.....it's got a walk through to the living room, a door to the kitchen and doors to the conservatory so it's a real walk through for most of the house. When DD1 moves home she'll need desk space too so we needed a huge shuffle around. 2 large bin bags of rubbish (mostly from DH's desk) and a huge pile of paperwork to burn came out, along with the sideboard that will be made into something lovely and sold on. DD2 now has my old desk with some storage. DH's desk is clear of all the interesting and highly collectable bits of wire/brackets/bolts/sweet wrappers and I even persuaded him to give it a dust!:cool:

I filled a folding plastic crate with stuff to take to the boot fair later in the year and a huge bag of craft stuff for DD2 to take to work with her (she's a nursery practitioner).

I hadn't done any filing since before Christmas so the paperwork drawer needed a good go through, but the ease of my "one in one out" system means it can be sorted within minutes. :j

[Deleted User]

short-bird, I understand, completely. I bought a label maker for gardening, five years ago, mine is re-chargeable, and I use it very often for house/garage/shed and garden. The label reels are pricey but I learnt to write labels for several things at once, to cut apart myself, hence using less tape. They are brilliant labels and stay on through thick and thin, yet they peel off if prised with a finger nail. I was using mine last night eg screwdrivers, drills etc

Waiting eagerly today for my new flat pack shelving tower. It will be heavy but this one is chrome and very robust. I have a two wheeled wheelbarrow and if necessary, I will open the cardboard before I move the parts. Going to have to assemble in the shed, on the floor as it will be over 2m tall and I will have to raise up and shuffle it. I ordered a few extra shelves for the two I already have and will add them later in time. I want the `really useful` boxes to be one on a shelf and not stacked, as some are now, will be more future proofed. Just got to move a few more items into my lounge this morning, sanders and planes and then I wait. This is all going to make one huge difference to me enjoying my woodcrafting and the fact that I will be able to find everything. Looks as though I will have some empty `ru` boxes, so I will be able to box the bird seed etc. I feel so joyous getting this done, making my heart sing, which is so needed in dreary winter

Gosh pooky that was some big job but how satisfying. I will be aiming for one in and one out in future.

Candles are reducing in number here, I was so sucked in by special offers in the past. I only get stearin candles and they kept offering boxes of 20 dinner candles, so I had 70+ also loads of pillar candles. Am making an effort to use candles in the evening, instead of stove. Keeps the room warm well enough and am now down to 50+. I didn`t burn them until I bought a tall metal lantern as am aware of safety and knocking over these tall candles

All in all, so far, this winter is being most productive and beats moping in a chair. Optimism rules and doing KM in winter, even if no other time, is a recipe for living on the bright side

PollyWollyDoodle

I've been away for the weekend, so just catching up on things - my, you've all been busy! I definitely think that KMing lifts my mood in a way that 'decluttering' didn't because it means focusing on the positive things and appreciating that all the Stuff you have sparks joy.

I think that labelling things is a really good idea and I wish I'd done that with my yarn etc, time to revisit perhaps. I thought I'd remember which box has baby stuff in but find I'm going through all the boxes every time and as they're stored on an overhead shelf, that's not easy.

A tip for moving furniture - sliding is even easier than wiggle-walking, you can buy special furniture sliders but a big piece of cardboard or even better an offcut of vinyl flooring works just as well.

Kittie you sound as if you're doing brilliantly. I wonder if you've just got too many 'allotment outfits'? Depends how often you visit but if there's time to wash them In between maybe you just need to prune down to a couple? I know I was surprised at how many 'decorating' clothes I'd saved, when usually you only need one set.

Finally ... Luxort you mentioned a patchwork charity. I think this might help me to deal with my fabric hoard, I mean useful and beautiful collection. Can you post details please?

Siebrie

The box/hocker dh ordered has come, has been assembled, and now houses the awkwardly shaped toys (p1aymobil house, several dolls, jar of beads, etc). Thin desk that was in that space has been moved to the study; the normal desk in the study has been cleared, and dd made her homework there yesterday .


I'm no longer feeling down; it must have been 'Blue Monday', the most depressing day of the year. I joined the WI gymnastics (stretching, balancing, gentle musclebuilding exercises) yesterday, and had a pampering shower this morning, shaved legs, armpits, etc, actually took the time to put conditioner in my hair, smothered my legs in bodylotion after the shower, put a little more make-up on than usual, and forced my mouth into a smile. It all helps to feel alive and attractive

mrs-moneypenny

Morning all
Not sure how long I've been away, fat fingers seems to have meant I kondoed my subscription to this thread so I thought you'd all gone incredibly quiet! Anyway I've found you gain now and notice there are new people kondoing this year. So a huge welcome to you all.
Not sure how this can remotely relate to kondoing but, we are knodoning our non efficient 32 year old upright freezer and heading for year old larder fridge after we realised how much they cost a year to run!!!! So at the weekend we are getting a new combined American style fridge freezer that will cost a fraction to run so should pay for itself with two years then start saving money. (Well that's the theory) also decided to convert over to led lightbulbs the initial outlay will hopefully mean that I can get rid of my drawer of random fitting and light emitting bulbs we currently have stashed.

We are still working through the kondo journey but I think I will start at the beginning and revisit clothes again.

Hope everyone is well.

oceanspirit

You've all been so busy over the weekend - lovely to read of kondoing successes which helps to spur me on.

Been getting rid of more emails and unsubscribing so less come in, and made a start (yet again) on the desk yesterday. Using up ood foods from kitchen cupboards and using up vitamin supplements having binned those that I know I will never take. I will not buy any more until these have gone.

OS_QS

Righto, am getting on ok today, tidying a bit rather than doing a full blown kondo.


the pile of baby clothes neatly folded and bagged for the next trip into town. The Children's charity shop here takes your details and lets you know how much money they've raised. last batch of pristine clothes I gave them raised well over £200 for them. money goes to help local children and also provide subsidised baby/ toddler development classes. so all good


A bag of adult clothes for marie curie (my sister is a MC nurse and I really admire the work they do, so make an effort to drive to next town for this specific shop). Hoping to add my shoes to it this afternoon.


The pile of 'to sell' stuff advertised on gumtree. i've never sold anything (or even bought) from ebay, so am avoiding this. Did ok in my first foray into selling equipment before Christmas on gumtree, so hopefully will work again. I'm giving the items 3 weeks, then they will be donated to the charity shop. Also advertised on FB marketplace, but have found that folk offer very cheeky and often silly prices for things. So my policy is to respectfully decline selling things for £5 to strangers and donate to charity so hopefully they can make a bit of money on it.


best get back to it.


PS, well jel (as the kids say!) of the labelling machine - brings back great memories too...when I was a little girl (prob about 25 years now!) ago my granny used to have one and we used to sneak in and print silly things, then get into trouble for wasting the tape!!

Slinky

Just taken a phone call from our solicitor, we were buying a house last year but pulled out. Apparently we paid £250 on account that we're due back, so they're sending it back to us. Had completely forgotten about this, so it's like free money.

I've retrieved a large cardboard carton from a pile to go to recycling and am going to attempt to cut it up to cover in tinfoil and stick down the back of a radiator to reflect the heat back into the room. I remember seeing a programme once where they put a thermal imaging camera outside a house and you could see where all the radiators were with the heat going into the walls. I have already got one radiator where I've done this, but ran out of card/inclination, must try and get the others done.