KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

greent

Had a tidy up in my wardrobe today and removed 4 items of clothing for ragbag, 1 for CS and a handbag for CS. Also identified a pair of shoes which are way past it - will wear them to do a muddy job in garden and then they can go too

Mostly I find that I am on 'maintenance' with regards to KM now - although that's never ending with the children's things. I have to confess that I haven't tackled photos, though - definitely procrastinating over that. The paperwork demon isn't fully under control, either - but much improved nowadays
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Karmacat

Sort of in relation to kondo-ing - I've been disposing of the tax papers that can now be safely done away with because they're old enough. And I saw a little sentence from hmrc - you don't have to keep paper records, you can keep them on computer as long as documents are copied front and back, and the information can be presented readably to hmrc, if requested. Gulp. I don't think I'm quite brave enough, but certainly scanning *future* bank statements onto the computer might be an idea in case of a house fire? Not sure if I can be bothered with that, especially now I've retired, but .... hmmm.

GoingToDoIt

Finally -I decanted my wash gel and fabric conditioner into empty mr T vinegar bottles (washed out and label scrubbed off) I used a sharpie pen to write the names of the contents on.
The vinegar opening slows the flow out, the size of the bottle isn't too heavy and they look very "plain" on the counter top. The giant colourful "master bottles" are hidden under the sink.
It's a bit of a faff every few weeks that they need refilling, but they are worth it!

Slinky

Karmacat wrote: »

Sort of in relation to kondo-ing - I've been disposing of the tax papers that can now be safely done away with because they're old enough. And I saw a little sentence from hmrc - you don't have to keep paper records, you can keep them on computer as long as documents are copied front and back, and the information can be presented readably to hmrc, if requested. Gulp. I don't think I'm quite brave enough, but certainly scanning *future* bank statements onto the computer might be an idea in case of a house fire? Not sure if I can be bothered with that, especially now I've retired, but .... hmmm.

Do you have online banking Karmacat? Could you print the online statements from you account and keep as pdfs, would be a lot easier than faffing with scanning.

I have a very old scanner connected to a very old computer which is no longer connected to the internet, so anything I scan has to be saved to an external hard drive, then picked up from there onto newer equipment to deal with.

OH wanted a bank statement re-scanning for opening a new account, the origianl scan done at the weekend was too low res and the company wanted a better version. I was all set to start scanning again, when the penny dropped, I took a photo of it on my phone and emailed that to OH directly from the phone.

Karmacat

Slinky wrote: »

Do you have online banking Karmacat? Could you print the online statements from you account and keep as pdfs, would be a lot easier than faffing with scanning.

I do have online banking, Slinky - it will only go back a few months, no chance of getting statements from 2011, I'm afraid

Plus, to be honest - printing is really expensive, I print as little as possible. And it would still take up the same amount of space

I've discovered that for "business" type record keeping, as opposed to genealogy, I can happily use my camera - on its highest setting, it will take photos up to 4KB, and half of that will supply a jpeg thats good enough for print. So I'll rush through with my camera, because you're spot on when you say that scanning takes ages. I'm willing to do it for older family photos, but not bank statements

I have a very old scanner connected to a very old computer which is no longer connected to the internet, so anything I scan has to be saved to an external hard drive, then picked up from there onto newer equipment to deal with.

OH wanted a bank statement re-scanning for opening a new account, the origianl scan done at the weekend was too low res and the company wanted a better version. I was all set to start scanning again, when the penny dropped, I took a photo of it on my phone and emailed that to OH directly from the phone.

That's the thing, isn't it - so many different sorts of tech around, we can do stuff like that. Good for you :j

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firebubble

I think I'm learning a lesson about how much I find e bay a total faff, despite thinking it's a good idea... kondo'd two bags of clothes to the charity shop which I just couldn't face listing...On the bright side, 5 things have sold already, but still have half a dozen things still to list. It never seems to end!

Interesting posts from all about books...I read all the time, but had a eureka moment when puzzling why I love being in libraries, yet looking at my own home library didn't fill me with joy... libraries are exciting to me because of all the books yet to be read, whereas my library is just the stuff I've read, plus the ever increasing pile of 'what I want to read', which was out of control and then starts to feel like a millstone.

Once this clicked, I got rid of most of what I've read without a second thought, and then have limits on the number of 'books I want to read' that I buy, no more than two or three lined up, the rest go on an amazon wish list until I'm ready (or more likely, something else takes my fancy...:rotfl:)

Next job to attack is kitchen stuff...I don''t have much but I use even less. One thing that needs to go is a little le creuset frying pan...I don't really rate their frying pans: too heavy, the enamel stains and the non-stick coating is starting to peel, but does anyone know if it can be recycled? It feels too substantial to stick in the bin, and it's too knackered for the charity shop. Any ideas gratefully received :j

greenbee

KC - printing to PDF is creating an electronic file, not a physical paper copy, so cuts out the need to scan. For anything that arrives in future, if you can't save it to a suitable format, print as PDF to the folder you want to store it in. Otherwise photographs via your phone work. I use them for work when providing receipts for expenses, and I don't bother to send on the highest resolution as that makes the file too big. As long as they can make out the numbers it's fine

wort

Excuse my being thick here! But can someone explain the scanning process? My printer has this function but not sure what it's for?
I've used it to scan a page and print it out, and to copy an email to the printer.
But not sure how you are using the scanner to help you kondo?
It doesn't help when equipment doesn't come with instruction books anymore! Usually just a sheet of diagrams!!
Mmf007 _3 weeks in the Caribbean wow , are you hoping to be inspired by the beautiful colours in your painting class? Around 12 weeks till our holiday ! I can't wait x

Wednesday2000

I have got rid of a few more things lately, I can't think what it all was now!:D A lamp, some of my worst underwear and bras, some felt tip pens and some of the scented candles used up.

I'm also defrosting my freezer and I was amazed how much food was in there. It's only a small one, but it was packed to the gills. A reminder just to buy what we need in future.

Karmacat

Slinky wrote: »

Do you have online banking Karmacat? Could you print the online statements from you account and keep as pdfs, would be a lot easier than faffing with scanning.

greenbee wrote: »

KC - printing to PDF is creating an electronic file, not a physical paper copy, so cuts out the need to scan.

:o:o I am *so* sorry I use my scanner like this, to declutter, all the time it was the word "print" that blinded me. Yep, without my scanner, I'd need another room in the house for everything thats stored...

wort wrote: »

Excuse my being thick here! But can someone explain the scanning process? My printer has this function but not sure what it's for?
I've used it to scan a page and print it out, and to copy an email to the printer.
But not sure how you are using the scanner to help you kondo?
It doesn't help when equipment doesn't come with instruction books anymore! Usually just a sheet of diagrams!!
Mmf007 _3 weeks in the Caribbean wow , are you hoping to be inspired by the beautiful colours in your painting class? Around 12 weeks till our holiday ! I can't wait x

Wort, a scanner helps you kondo because once you've got whatever-it-is scanned, and appropriately backed up (for me, thats at least two other backups - old laptop, external hard drive, and sometimes a flash drive too) you can get rid of the paper, or indeed as Slinky outlined, never have the paper in the first place.

When I first got a computer with a big memory, I copied all my genealogy notes onto there, for instance. Some things are still hard copy - very old photographs (I have one from 1903, for instance) or certificates - but not much. And because I'm careful about the names of the folders where I store it all, I can lay hands on most things within 30 seconds, literally. The pile of notes has built up over the years, because its about 15 years since my first pass at computerisation, but it will be comparatively easy to do.

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