KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

short_bird

I got rid of the beanbag, cheers!!

A cautionary tale. I hadn't heard of Really Useful Boxes until Nigel moved to America for work. He had an entire house full of stuff and kipple to sort and dispose of and donated 6 Ikea units (lots and lots of drawers) and 4 Really Usefuls to the flat I shared with my ex. And that was the beginning of my Really Useful habit. All sizes, all shapes. Some are the perfect size for the contents, some aren't as the stuff's just been chucked in there. And although they close, firmly, and they stack so nicely, they don't help me to resolve one thing...

The stuff that's in them. :rotfl:

I know exactly where this habit comes from: the family that didn't have a huge amount of money and the keepers of items for Justin Case. Also, the keepers of the family heirlooms. Every year, there would be a trip to my great aunt's flat to remove every piece of china from one cupboard, wash china, clean and reline shelves, put china back until next year. Some of it belonged to her great grandparents so yes, a decent age.

So, no real need to buy any more stuff. Or boxes to put it in.:D

GreyQueen

Afternoon all.

Pleased to say I'm feeling ever-so-slightly better today, after a really early night last night.

Grinning about the sex toys. I once asked a pal who manages a chazzer what the strangest items ever donated were. He glanced quickly left and right, dropped to a whisper and said someone left a big bag of used sex toys on our step overnight.

We laffed........:rotfl:

With that syncronicity which peppers life, I was reading a book by Chuck Palahnuick earlier this month. He's the guy who wrote Fight Club, which became a film of the same name. This book is called Survivor and featured a TV celebrity holy roller who set up a Sanitary Landfill for all those special, intimate items you wouldn't want the grandchildren to sort through.

I was thinking about fancy china the other day.

Back in the distant past, human beans learned to work and fire clay. Being creative, it wasn't enough to have our fingerprints on the clay. Oh no, we had to pick up sticks and poke dots and incise lines. We pinched and tweaked and added flutings, funny faces and even naughty bits of anatomy, in some cases. There's some prehistoric pottery out there which definately isn't suitable for family viewing.

And heaven forfend that pottery should be just clay coloured! Nope, our busy species was grinding up minerals and glazing and painting and all sorts. Our crocks were getting fancier by the century.

Then we reach peak fanciness, with the crocks so thin-bodied and fancily decorated that we can't possibly do anything as vulgar as eat off them or drink out of them. Indeed, we must take good care of them and leave them to our descendants because nothing says I love you like a few hundred breakable items you'd never have chosen for yourself.

So we purchase an [STRIKE]altar[/STRIKE] oops, I meant to say a china cabinet, where we array these items carefully, ideally behind glass but on show. So passing guests can admire our tureens and teapots and be consumed with envy over our luxurious lives.

While we serve them coffee in a dishwasher-safe mug from Sainsbugs or Tosspots. It's a funny old world, and no mistake.

Floss

You're right there GQ and we often get left to sort it out.

Have decided I need to revisit clothes, as my work environment has changed so I don't now need so much "corporate wear". Am intending to store rather than dispose, as it is all classic items and would be ok if required in the future (luckily my size does not fluctuate much). I also need to reassess how many long-sleeve t-shirts I really need DH is off out to footie today so I can get on with that in peace

Am still waiting for him to be available to start on the attic...there is so much stuff that is O.O.D. dying in storage or just being stored for Mr J Case, and i am itching to rediscover the "treasures" up there!

Karmacat

GreyQueen wrote: »

Feeling a bit guilty about not popping in to say hi as my absence was noted.

Between the chat and the original thoughts and such hard work to keep your flat at peak efficiency, you're a great read, GQ, but please don't let it guilt you - your riff immediately above on pottery is classic GQ :rotfl: so that's good, and I'm glad you're feeling a bit better

What point do people think that we became unable to contain our goods and chattels in modest furniture and cupboards and found it necessary to invest in what the great Don Aslett termed 'junk bunkers'? By which I mean the endless arrays of receptacles in seemingly endless combinations of card, plastic, wicker, timber etc etc?

I can recall growing up and stuff went into furniture and one modest size blanket box. No endless arrays of 'storage'.

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

Good question, GQ (hope you soon feeling better, by the way). I just don't think we had so much Stuff - I grew up in a very untidy house that was filed with books, but as you say, clothes (mostly) lived in drawers and wardrobes, and other stuff went in cupboards.

I agree with Polly - we didn't have the stuff. As a child, I had 3 skirts and 2 dresses, I think - no trousers, and there *were* no jeans :eek: I had a pair of school shoes, and a pair of slippers, and that was it. I remember getting a dressing gown (from Father Christmas, technically!) when I was 12, before then it wasn't a thing.

An auntie of mine was talking about this topic - she remembered that my cousin, the same age as me, had 3 pairs of knickers - wear one, wash one, get one dry.

Save

GreyQueen

Morning all.

In an hour or so, I will be going up to the [STRIKE]junk shop[/STRIKE] ahem, very-reasonably-priced-antiqu(ish)-emporium. Expect a humourous report later today.

One thing I have seen literally dozens of times whilst hanging out in there is when the adult children of the recently-passed parents bring in things hoarded and saved from the house they're clearing.

Oftentimes, these are things which have been saved for 50-60 years with the oft-repeated exhortation to family that they'll be worth serious money some day.

And you know what? Mostly, they're not worth anything, never mind serious money. Pal isn't trying to drive a hard bargain, he just doesn't want these things because they're worthless. He's kind about it, but some people take it very hard and are visibly disappointed.

Then, people tend to say one of two things: Oh well, I'll just keep it then or I'll give it to a charity shop.

The first is just kicking the can down the road for a few years, meaning that whatever it is will have to be handled again, perhaps by the next generation down the family tree. The second annoys him because he feels you should give valuable things to the charity shop, not trash that they can't sell, either.

Guys, if you've got caches of old pre-decimal pennies and half-pennies, they get sold for scrap at £2 a kilo. Pal's got a crate of the blasted things waiting to go off to the scrap-merchant. Probably gonna give himself a hernia moving it one day.

We're all been exposed to too many Anteeks Roadshows and are wedded to the idea that anything old is valuable. Mostly, that's tosh. Keep stuff because you like it, it serves some purpose, it brings back happy memories, but don't be tempted to hold onto a load of old tatt because it might be valuable one day - chances are it won't be.

Karmacat

Thats interesting to hear, GQ - especially the bit about scrapping the pre decimal coppers!

elona

I have sorted out the china cabinet and now just have a sentimental coffee set, two tea sets which do get used when we are all together and one which "sparks joy"(DDs have their eye on that one as they love it).

I let dds talk me out of keeping a lot of mugs and gave them away and then realised that when there were seven or eight of us here with refills - I did not have enough. I now have a mug tree with six pretty matched mugs on it and a few spare in the cupboard near the hot water dispenser.

GQ

You reminded me of Charles Lamb's "Dissertation on roast pig!"

Perhaps it should be called "dissertation on the tyranny of "stuff"
and the lies we tell ourselves" At least china "does not eat" in the words of Sam Weller but it eats into our space, our clutter and our stress.

GreyQueen

Karmacat wrote: »

Thats interesting to hear, GQ - especially the bit about scrapping the pre decimal coppers!

They haven't even been copper since 1860, they're bronze. Pal reckons to have scrapped 200 kilos of them per year for the last several decades. Probably countless tonnes still nesting in their natural habitats of old biscuit and toffee tins.

And still they keep on coming out of the woodwork. It's because decimalisation meant 12 old pennies was 5 new pence and it simply was too petty to change them at the bank so many, probably most, households kept the burgers. And still they emerge.......

Wanna laugh? I was up there today and was making a round of teas in the kitchenette at the back. OK, it's a scruffy store-room equipped with a sink unit and a kettle, perhaps even calling it a kitchenette is pushing it a bit.

Anyway, I dropped the teaspoon and it went under the cabinet - which has no boards to enclose the legs - and it went out of sight and reach. Cue me with my trusty handbag torch looking for it.

Quess what I found under the cabinet?

Three teaspoons, a carrier bag from a duty free shop (sadly empty), a Jif plastic lemon and a low-value NZ coin. Plus the inevitable fluff and cobwebs.

I also found a platter among a pile of rubbishy EPNS which turned out to be hallmarked silver and will scrap at £108. Pal marvelled that he couldn't believe there was some proper silver in among the rubbish.......

Beats the hell out of staying home doing the housework.

Floss

Floss wrote: »

...Have decided I need to revisit clothes, as my work environment has changed so I don't now need so much "corporate wear". Am intending to store rather than dispose, as it is all classic items and would be ok if required in the future (luckily my size does not fluctuate much). I also need to reassess how many long-sleeve t-shirts I really need DH is off out to footie today so I can get on with that in peace

Update
DH decided that his man flu was severe enough to curtail his planned trip to Anfield (involving an hour drive each way plus 25min walk from car & back plus climb up many stairs) so has been home under my feet. I escaped to Sainsbugs and have been reviewing the clothes while he watched the match on TV from the comfort of the sofa!

hebwood

GQ -so glad you are improving, sage words on 'junk bunkers'/storage, pottery/china and finding the silver.


To the rest of you with the lurgy, distant hugs and hope you feel better soon.


After the streams of stuff were jammed up for a while, very pleased to report they are now flowing out again. Such a nice feeling of space and neatness. Joy.


Going to get back to enjoying the sun. Inside.


Take care
H.