KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

[Deleted User]

I have both her books and feel a bit like I am hiding behind the cushion, I have not read either, yet. I want to read them but the thought is scary and tbh I am getting so many ideas from all of you. I think I will be reading them when I have finished or I`ll be the one with the palpitations

I think paperwork and photos are the scariest and hardest because once records from the past have gone, then they are gone. Clothes are just objects and so are shoes and bags, ok pleasurable but not embedded deep in the psyche. My thinking anyway and I get cautious as I have seen digital records fail, so am wanting physical records

I am still sorting photos but am towards the end, my printer has been sliding glossy paper all over the place and I just realised why it was cutting heads in half. I am just wanting more ancestorial stuff in the family corner ie grandparents and older but the direct line or it is too boggling. I have some great small prints now of photos over 90 years old. One more delicate bought frame should do it

To the skip now, I have been saving large cardboard boxes

Floss

Kittie, I think that's why MK has recommended doing those categories after clothing, to get your mind going in the right direction before the more challenging photos.

[Deleted User]

yes floss I agree, I started with the underwear drawer, two years ago and it is still pristine and was easy. I was just thinking about digital v actual photos and I think actual photos must be easier to sort as they can be laid out and easier to group. I do want photos as I am getting older but I envisaged something that could be picked up and placed in a small area and in a form that will suit this house and who knows where I would be at 90. I do know that I am not doing photos again, except to swap little pictures as children get older. I suppose too that there is an awareness of these records being available for the children for when it is their turn to sort, hence the cds and usb sticks for them. I really do think that photos is a nibbling task and best tackled a bit at a time

kboss2010

Kondoed the desk drawers today. I now have tidy junk drawers!

MMF007

OK, that's all 19 jars in my jar stash filled with HM marmalade - some lemon, some seville. Phew.

Have listed recipients and written the labels so i can deliver the jars next week, except for 4 we'll keep

Hope to make a pasta-free lasagne with lots of 'leftover' veg this evening. Got to keep the veg rack tidy!

At the risk of sounding like an episode of Farmhouse Kitchen (why don't they show that again, surely the recipes were pretty timeless, or has time diminished my memory?), I also want to make a few low carb biscuits while the oven is on.

Domestic bliss here in my kitchen

I was delighted that my storage of said jars was very much out of sight but easily accessed so it took me a minute to get them and start sterilising. Another Kondo win :T

oldtractor

Charis wrote: »

I discovered this blog a week or so ago while reading about the Minimalists. I had to share it with you. I chose a random post but there is also a lot of food for thought in his archives:

Break the Twitch

thanks for this

[Deleted User]

I am sure that I would be tackling MK completely differently if I had a family at home, now, I think I am at the last chance of becoming sorted, doing it myself, while I still have energy and enthusiasm. Not to forget that I don`t have to stop to make family meals or packed lunches. I suppose you could put all of us into different categories too

I only went up to my sewing room, was husbands study, to do some paper shredding. That drawer, the one in the desk that fills with allsorts, I thought I might as well empty it for my sewing things, then I opened the memory box, the one I put together, quickly, after my husband died. I needed to put his various medals in there. It was half full of photos, together with letters to me (1969) and a particularly lovely valentine. Sigh more photos, the photos came out and I have just finished sorting them. some are ready to be scanned and turned into small pictures tomorrow. I will have to get yet another frame. I so hope that this is the last of them. It is emotionally draining but strangely satisfying at the same time

Floss

oh Kittie I wish I was a bit closer to give you a hug xx

[Deleted User]

Ahhh thank you floss. I found a tiny fluffy white feather on an indoor rug this morning and I am a white feather believer so all is right in my world

Main thing today is to get out for a while, either cycle ride or allotment but I do want to start another kondo category too. I have skirts, lots of them. which will bring me joy when I know what length is best for me. I will be facing the fact that they are all much too long, so I need some help. I am 4.10 and cuddly, too cuddly with legs that stop at my hips and are solid, always have been. I won`t blow over in a puff of wind and I am 70 next year. I have short silver hair and a softer, more rounded face with a ready smile and still sparkling eyes. I am no good with make up and need to wear flat shoes. So yes I need help as dowdy is not what I want but I have no intuitive fashion sense. Skirts are my downfall and I have not worn one in two years but I like the ones that I have, so am only a hem away from joyful. Knee, just below the knee, mid calf.? I do not have beautiful legs and am prepared to hide them with tights. Help!!! I will spend all next week sewing to put these skirts right

GreyQueen

Hi kittie, I'm actually a whole foot taller than you, with legs like a giraffe (it's not the unalloyed boon petite ladies might imagine, btw ) and have a background in costume and fashion.

Generally speaking, the right length of skirt is one which doesn't strike the leg at its widest point. There's also the hitch-up factor to consider as skirts ride up when the wearer sits down, so a just-above-the-knee skirt can quickly become a half-one's-thighs-on-show skirt, which may not be the look you were aiming at!:rotfl:

Longer skirts can look dowdy on older women (lovely young girls can wear just about anything and look lovely but that's just an age thing). You might want to look at a skirt about 1-2 inches below the bottom of your knee-cap when standing. Knees are typically narrower than calves, so this doesn't break the rule about hitting your leg at the widest point.

I don't know how wedded you are to monochrome hosiery, but you can visually lengthen your lower body by wearing skirt, tights and shoes in the same colour. With a different shade on the upper body, even if it isn't a jewel bright hue, this makes your lower body read visually as one unit, rather than like one of those kiddies' books where you flip sections of pages to make different legs, middles and heads.

You might also want to give thought to the cut and structure of your skirts. Depending on the fabric, and whether it is lined, it can look very good or not at all flattering.

I know a very stylish lady in her early seventies who favours tailored skirts, not quite a pencil skirt, but narrow-ish. She looks very nice, attractive with her bobbed silver hair, and with it but not mutton-dressed-as-lamb. HTH.