KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

tibawo

Does dd1 kding subjects she doesn't want to do at GCSE count? Just had a fab parents eve, a few teachers had added themselves onto our list as they wanted to try and persuade her to do their GCSE. Sometimes i forget how lucky I am to have such awesome kids. What made it nice was her new shoes arrived today and i had not got round to telling her i had ordered them so smiles all round.

Siebrie

Well, I have done most of our kondoing, now it's just maintenance with the occasional lightning flash of ideas to store items better. It's a rather natural process: I find or see a few items in different places on different times, my brain starts working away (veryvery subconsciously) and all of a sudden, usually at a moment when I'm doing something completely different, I have a solution for a problem I didn't know I had

DH could kondo more, his part of the shared wardrobe is overflowing into mine, but I just shove his items back into his part. If he does not care about nicely stored clothes, why should I? Dds have a lot of toys, but most get played with, and I rotate them in and out of action via the attic. If something breaks or gets sticky (old barbies - yuk!) they get thrown away immediately; plastic tat gets removed quickly, and then discarded at work; school art is admired and then recycled (at the bottom of the old paper box. Dds know that the art is not displayed, but I have a gut feeling that actually seeing it in the bin would be a bit too much).

Every evening I make the living room nice again: fold the blankets, plump the cushions, remove dirty crockery. The kitchen is not there yet, but slowly getting there.

And I have started on the garden, sowing seeds in trays, hoping something will come up and survive I only today thought that I want to dig over a sunny corner of the garden and sow a whole package of flower seeds there. A few nights ago dh was complaining that the anti-moss treatment I gave the lawn in October didn't work, and before I knew it my mouth said "we need to make large borders there with shadeloving plants - the moss is never going to go, it's way too dark and damp there".

kboss2010

So I've been kondoing and, during my week off, I kondoed junk drawers, bedding bags & boxes, kitchen cupboards and under bed storage.

A trip to IKEA with a list of "needs" and I came straight home with the bag, emptied it, used all of the things that needed to be put into immediate use (rug grippers, flour jars, picture frames for new artwork) and put away in their "home" the things for later use (spare bath mat, food bags, kids' presents for a few months' time) - it's the first time in as long as I can remember that EVERYTHING I brought home in a shopping bag had a place and didn't end up half-full and sitting on my stairs ready to be shoved in the upstairs cupboard out of sight to be sorted later.

Feels a lot like progress.

[Deleted User]

I do think it is important to pop on here from time to time esp for beginner kondo`ers and strugglers. I am probably like many and have now emerged over the winter, straight into spring jobs and there is much to do in that category. The primeval urge to prep for the growing season and summer

I am finding that there is much less to do kondowise and what I have left is minor and enjoyable eg I just threw three sewing magazines out, nothing in them for me, if there were then I would cutout and file. I am in process of sorting many sewing machine feet, they are being catalogued and notes will be made. That is pretty well it re sorting today. Going with the flow

Siebrie

As an example of how much kondoing has done for our family: we can go to 1kea, have dinner, let dds play in the play area, and walk out again with absolutely NOTHING BOUGHT from the warehouse.

PollyWollyDoodle

What - not even some tea lights? :rotfl: I'm still working through my stock!

I think that's probably the biggest difference MK has made for me, very little new stuff comes into the house and what does come in is either essential or really sparks joy. I bought two tops from a CS this week but in both cases I asked myself 'would you buy this if it was new and full price?' and the answer was 'yes'. I'm not buying anything because it's cheap and 'it will do' any more.

juliebunny

So I'm a returning Kondoite.
I started my journey a few years ago. Tidying up quickly when you work long hours and used to have a bad habit of being sucked into so called bargains seems to be taking a lot longer than 6 months.
Was just wondering how long others were taking? I'm feeling a bit despondent

[Deleted User]

julie I wouldn`t bring time into it, just do what you can, in nibbles. Obviously some areas can be done in a short time and remain good for a very long time, so they are the areas to make you feel positive and you will find that the positive feeling grows and enables you to get onto a roll, which is when kondo becomes magic

GreyQueen

juliebunny wrote: »

So I'm a returning Kondoite.
I started my journey a few years ago. Tidying up quickly when you work long hours and used to have a bad habit of being sucked into so called bargains seems to be taking a lot longer than 6 months.
Was just wondering how long others were taking? I'm feeling a bit despondent

Please don't feel despondent, we're all different people with different lifestyles, singletons, couples, solo parents, partnered parents, non-parents, sharing with others, or living alone.

Some folks have houses and garages and sheds, some have small flats, some are young(ish) and some have racked up a fair few decades and have absorbed the lifetime accumulations of older relations, too.

There's no one size-fits-all, nor one perfect time-frame, so hopefully no one should feel that they're not coping with kondo-ing or keeping up with a schedule. Please be kind to yourself.

Dropped in on the pal's shop after work today and took him a new calendar (YS for 8p!) and slung the 2016 ones (there were two, long story) into the recycling bin. I may pop over there tomorrow as I have a minor kondo-plan to enact, it's less than 5 mins' walk away so no hardship to visit.

Talked to the folks tonight. Mum told me she was tired of struggling with a couple of pairs of socks which kept creeping under the soles of her feet and remembered that she has a whole plastic crate of socks. She remembered them because I rounded up all the spares when I kondo'd their Bedroom Cupboard of Doom in 2016 and stuck a big label on it.

She also needed an envelope to send a charity cheque off, and found that in another crate in the same cupboard, clearly labelled Stationery. And she mentioned needing a card from the card cache for her SIL's birthday in the next couple of weeks, and I was able to prompt her as to where that crate was (in the loft by the hatch, too much other stuff for it to fit into the BCof Doom).

She confessed to really liking this business of being able to find things easily. I have told her that, one day, all cupboards could be this way.:rotfl:

kboss2010

juliebunny wrote: »

So I'm a returning Kondoite.
I started my journey a few years ago. Tidying up quickly when you work long hours and used to have a bad habit of being sucked into so called bargains seems to be taking a lot longer than 6 months.
Was just wondering how long others were taking? I'm feeling a bit despondent

I've "kondoed" my whole two-floor flat 6 times since I moved in a year and a half ago! And it's still a work in progress. It's only in the past few weeks that I'm actually starting to feel like I'm reaping the benefits of being able to locate things quickly & easily and am only just getting the hang of not hoarding to excess (a bad habit of mine rooted in my pack rat childhood lifestyle). I feel like it's a thing you just chip away at bit by bit until one day bigger achievements seem to snap into place.:)

GreyQueen wrote: »

Please don't feel despondent, we're all different people with different lifestyles, singletons, couples, solo parents, partnered parents, non-parents, sharing with others, or living alone.

Some folks have houses and garages and sheds, some have small flats, some are young(ish) and some have racked up a fair few decades and have absorbed the lifetime accumulations of older relations, too.

There's no one size-fits-all, nor one perfect time-frame, so hopefully no one should feel that they're not coping with kondo-ing or keeping up with a schedule. Please be kind to yourself.

Dropped in on the pal's shop after work today and took him a new calendar (YS for 8p!) and slung the 2016 ones (there were two, long story) into the recycling bin. I may pop over there tomorrow as I have a minor kondo-plan to enact, it's less than 5 mins' walk away so no hardship to visit.

Talked to the folks tonight. Mum told me she was tired of struggling with a couple of pairs of socks which kept creeping under the soles of her feet and remembered that she has a whole plastic crate of socks. She remembered them because I rounded up all the spares when I kondo'd their Bedroom Cupboard of Doom in 2016 and stuck a big label on it.

She also needed an envelope to send a charity cheque off, and found that in another crate in the same cupboard, clearly labelled Stationery. And she mentioned needing a card from the card cache for her SIL's birthday in the next couple of weeks, and I was able to prompt her as to where that crate was (in the loft by the hatch, too much other stuff for it to fit into the BCof Doom).

She confessed to really liking this business of being able to find things easily. I have told her that, one day, all cupboards could be this way.:rotfl:

I'm discovering this myself lol!