KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

silvasava

Oooh now we are all hoping for a bumper edition from GQ! I imagine us all sitting cross legged on the floor entranced while GQ spins her wonderful tales ( it is only in my mind as if I could even sit cross legged I'd never get up unaided)
Dropped into the local hospice furniture shop and they will take my garden furniture so now looking for something smaller and lighter. I have also decided to keep the units that are built into my alcoves in my breakfast room instead of replacing them when the kitchen is done. There's nothing wrong with them apart from the are discolouring with age. I bought some cupboard door paint and tried it on an old drawer front as all my doors are vinyl wrapped. It seems to have covered very well so DH will have a nice little job as he's a better painter than me!
Hope everyone gets to enjoy some of this glorious sunshine today.

GoingToDoIt

We appear to have kondoed kittie where's she got to?
I just had a look back through my own diary, it's only been a year since I started km, can't believe it really. Certainly it isn't just a passing phase!

[Deleted User]

still here but am only killing time as I am picking two grandchildren up for the weekend. Blooming enjoying the kondo results though, especially yesterday in my back garden, when neighbour brought some baby plants in for me to look after. She looked around at my beautiful blooms and pots and apple trees in raised beds and spoke about how her garden was getting too much, she is 10 years younger than me but her garden is a `put it in wherever there is an inch` type, beautiful in summer but so much work and full of knick knacks. I kondo`ed my garden over the past two years and my word what a lovely difference. Yesterday I set up the solar water features and the garden is completely uplifting. Who needs knick knacks

I am almost done, hence me not being on here so much, anyway as GQ knows, there is a lot to do on the allotment plus I am cycle riding these days. The wardrobe is really the last, I am not treating it as a category any more but this morning, having put on several tops to match a skirt, I have decided that the `smart` top is the one. The nice cotton short sleeved polo tops are on their way out, except for a few for carving sessions and I was back to that yesterday

Kitchen kondo is still good as it is, I am very pleased to say the least. I have used the bm and my mixer, both out but very quickly sorted and cleaned afterwards.

I have prepared the living room for summer as my sun trap back is heating up. 21 in the shade yesterday. Back to its summer decor and velour and wool cushion covers have been replaced with brighter cheerful cotton ones (ebay buys)

Enjoy the sun everyone, while we can

wort

Isn't it wonderful to have the bright and light curtains and covers out, it was it truly lifts the spirit when the sun shines in.
Can I ask Kittie how have you made your garden easier to manage? I have been pondering this as much as I love everything in it, I need to make it easier, I know I'm only in my 50s but unfortunately my joints think I'm much older!!:rotfl:
I'm in work today at lunch time, so hope you all enjoy the sun, have a good weekend all. :beer:

tibawo

Planned on being up bright and early but only just contemplating putting my foot out of the covers!

DD1 asked if the weather was good could we go out. I was thinking if the weather was good I could sort the back yard, do x, y etc as I am never off when the weather is like this! Decisions! Decisions!

I know I need to update my diary as a few things on this coming week the girls want to get the guinea pigs that I promised at Christmas! I just want to sort more carp !

GreyQueen

Hi wort, I'm in my fifties too and have been having some of the same problems with my joints (hips, blasted things hurting).

I confess to being no expert of matters floral, being an allotmenteer and thus a vegetable wrangler, but I could share some thoughts from how my late Nan modified her garden over the years.

She widened the borders to take in what was formerly a narrow and awkward-to-mow grass strip about 2 ft wide between the border and a narrow bed before you reached the lawn proper.

Then she concentrated on herbaecous plants and perennials which would come up every year, tall clumps of things at the back, lowering in height towards the front. Things were far enough apart that it was possible to cultivate the border by standing in it using a hoe. She had michaemas daisies, golden rod, peonies, the odd rambling rose, a couple of lovely lilacs, one purple and one white. Also those carnation-y looking things (mind gone blank, sorry) which formed bushy clumps.

She had some annuals which were allowed to self-seed (california poppies, love-in-a-mist ) but she only sowed annuals (or planted out shop-bought ones) in a selection of tubs, as the height made them easier to manage and she could even sit in a chair and cultivate the pots.

kittie, heartily agree with you about knick-knacky gardens, a personal bug-bear of mine. My allotment is pretty stream-lined in that there are two ceramic pots, and a cold frame and compost bin and bird-table but that's it, apart from a shed. I don't like carp all over the place and have learned from experience that stuff like old bits of wood kept to be useful one day ends up getting shuffled around the site and weathered until it is useless and thus ends up as bonfire fuel.

Am chilling out for a little before heading allotmentwards. Nothing bonkers happened at the junk shop today but pal was again surprised by my ability to find things in his stock rooms that he'd either lost 20 + years prior or confessed to never having seen before in his life.

All junk-shops are possibly part of a meta-organism which is capable of exchanging its cells (i.e. stock) randomly with no regard to space or time. Bit like C-space but on a semi-industrial scale.

Slinky

We're having a session of pre-decorating repairs. Filling hairline cracks, etc with filler or decorators caulk as appropriate. OH has finally got around to putting up the extra support in the middle of a curtain pole. It's only been needing doing for 9.5 years.... We're now finding that the need to sell this house in a couple of years is concentrating the mind somewhat and those silly little jobs will need doing. We've moved bedroom furniture around whilst doing filling jobs so it should be easy to get started with wallpapering the feature wall next weekend. Our duvettes are also going through the wash. Fabulous day here. Sat outside to eat lunch for the first time this year.

GreyQueen

I've heard of people who do the same thing; get all those niggly little things done prior to a move and then the new occupant gets the benefit.

Have just been doing a little more sewing on the WIP and have got to sew one 6 ft section to another and then the biggest bit is finished, which I will do tonight. Have pinned out the next section (so's the colours will work together) and that needs to be sown, then the next section sown to it. When I got the folks' place next weekend, I'll take the last bit with me and add that on then the whole WIP gets photo'd and offered at the carbooter and hopefully SELLS.

Righty, small lie down for a few mins to rest my eyes, then up to the allotment for a few hours' graft. Want it to look impressive when the family visit it tomorrow, lol.

iamsalt

Afternoon.
Packed up my fabric stash as part of a pre move tidy up. I hadn't seen it all together previously. I have kept 3 pieces out which have patterns planned for them. At least one I hope to make over Easter as it will make a lovely top for holiday, but I feel less overwhelmed not its not all looking at me accusingly!

I spent a couple of hours at mums sorting the summerhouse. Oh dear. It's full of my great aunt, grandmothers and mums stuff in boxes - for about 16 years, the roof has been missing for at least five years, and wasps and mice have previously made their home in the boxes as they collapsed.
So many photos and pictures in frames have rotted, grown terrible mould or disintegrated beyond recognition.
I sorted things into piles for mum to inspect - tip, recycle, charity/boot fair or keep. The keep things are less than one small box, and I have taken a carload to the tip - sadly so much was beyond recycling! Mum was comfortable with the piles I chose, so I will be able to continue with less supervision, but she needs to be part of the process. At least we are both making the steps to realising that keeping only those things that make you happy means that they are less likely to be ruined in the future.
I am torn on the boot fair/charity front. Mum could do with some money, but I am just not sure I have the time to do a boot fair, as she couldn't do it on her own. One to ponder.
Right. Off for a wash and a potter in my garden in the sun.
S x

[Deleted User]

wort we moved to this house in summer 2010 and it was baking hot. The house is 3m below the surrounding orchard ie field with 15 year old trees and including the garden base, there are 4 tiers. The bottom 3 tiers were grassed and the top narrow tier had whitebeam shrubs and a stock fence. We took the shrubs out and put weed fabric down and a few tonnes of small pinky stones. We took the now browned grass off and used weed fabric on the next 3 tiers and a base on each of gravel, rustic slate and gravel. The sizes/colours of gravels mean that each tier is a slightly different area. We put 5 wooden raised beds in, 3 triangular and deep, one triangular and not so deep and one long, not deep and rectangular. We put different things on each level, adirondak chairs, very large pots with trees, lilac and crabapple, acer. Apple trees for height in the large deep raised beds and lilacs in the large pots, again for height.

I had over 40 pots but come summers after that, it was baking here as it is a suntrap, so I have gradually changed what is in some of the pots eg semperviviums are easy and watering is now easy too. I have also two large steel raised beds, the steel is rusty now as it was meant to be. I half filled those with empty polythene bottles and polystyrene and put a weedmat on top then a good sandy compost and they now contain semperviviums, small pinks and small lavender plants. That is basically it in a nutshell. My ground is easy, my beds and pots are easy and my plants are sun loving and easy. I have decking and a large slated patio square and the middle tier has a surrounding latticed fencing which adds interest. It is not a fussy garden and I have no major jobs like weeding or grass cutting. It is a pleasure garden, not one that makes me work. I have two large parasols, grey metal table and chairs on the bottom level and a small green table and 2 chairs on the middle slate tier, water features and a narrow wall greenhouse and about 700 litres of water storage in two very attractive greek style water butts, worth the money as they are a feature themselves. Crikey all this from what was a very difficult and bone dry garden, it was back breaking getting the gravel in. Reading this, I think I will stay here all my days :):)