KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Karmacat

lessonlearned wrote: »

Karmacat.That's sooo funny.

I have to confess to that too. Guilty as charged, M'Lud.::rotfl:

I was only saying to my son the other day, so glad they finally turned "War and Peace" into a TV serial. I don't have to try and slog my way through it. I always felt guilty for not reading it.

Those Russian novelists might be great storytellers but by crikey their books are hard work.:rotfl: I just dont have that kind of time......

Oh thats true :rotfl: I've never been able to read a full Russian novel :rotfl:

Thanks LL, much appreciated

Igamogam

Karmacat wrote: »

I've got a kondo question, actually. Books. I don't put them in the middle of the room and do them, but I do stare at my bookcases a lot trying to see past the habitual, and really **look** at the books I've got.

I tend to stare at the book shelves and sometimes take one off and drop into CS bag. One book I recently did that had been in my possession for 30 years - a classic I bought new when at university and I really thought I would read it and I wasnt an arts student - the week after I discarded it having come to terms I was never going to read it, it came up as the choice of my reading group I belong to:mad: I even went back to CS to see if it was still on the shelf:rotfl: Bought from the Big River Company in the end for 1p...............was not worth the wait:rotfl::rotfl:

I have read W and P and when I saw it had been dramatised I made a point of not watching because I thought I had suffered enough! I dont mind watching dramatisations of books I have read usually....... I prefer to 'watch' Austen because I really cant stand her writing style unlike my fellow reading group members who are all Austen fans.

I have been pretty ruthless with books and feel a revisit on the cards as we have soooo many - something for half term maybe:D

Not much kondoing here today. Took advantage of 2 poorly members of the family staying in bed all day and have done a few 'roundtuit' jobs, inside and out and some prep for The Big Spring Clean during half term when I shall be blissfully left to it as DD2 away and OH working all week;)

Going to sit in front of TV tonight with a pile of paperwork - I am not a KM purist and tackle things as and when it can fit around other things - cant watch TV and do nothing so paperwork is a handy category to do then:p

VJsmum

Couldn't get on with televised war and peace, have the book on kindle but it isn't getting read....

Love Austen, can't stick Enid blyton

Kondoed my handbag whilst waiting for DS to finish his footie match, amongst the carp (mostly receipts) I have ejected I have finally jettisoned a freebie pot of Nivea cream I have been carrying round for 3 years!! :eek: found a (small) cheque I need to pay in and an old fiver I need to exchange in a bank.

OH and I walked into town today - for somewhere to walk more than anything- so I took along a bag for the chazzer :T. I rather struggled to find stuff to go in it though.

My only two remaining categories are photos and some paperwork. I bought OH a voucher for a photo book at Christmas, and we did it the other weekend, I have to say it is rather good. There are about 95 photos in it, spanning two years. The book is about A4 size and only about a quarter of an inch thick, if that. We are now planning to do the others. The voucher was £20 and if your marriage can survive the process :rotfl: it's well worth it (got slightly stressful at one point :cool:)

I also bought him a display cabinet for his Hornby engines, and I built it last week. Currently they sit in a plastic stacking drawer set thing. So with the case about 15 of them can go on display on the wall. We are thinking of getting another to house the remainder. Far nicer than them shoved in the drawers.

Our biggest outstanding task is the garage, which is a skip job. :eek: just need to find a good weekend to do it. My project for this year is the garden which is in desperate need of something drastic.

The job has gone, though I am still kondoing some outstanding marking, but every bit out is not being replaced so it's ok. I have one more session to teach next week also - I think I may be asked to do the remainder of the module but am definitely going to say no, which will shock them I think. I am now settling into a working from home role and fending off people who think that now I am at home, I am not doing anything.....

GreyQueen

dragonette, it's difficult one, isn't it? But I get the impression from your posts that you're not well enough to work, and that means you're probably not very well-off and, if you're shelling out some of the little you have, it's reasonable to expect that things are done properly. Cleaning for someone else for money isn't the same as giving your own home a lick and a promise, after all.

I appreciate demonstrations aren't going to be feasible, but could you have a conversation with this friend, perhaps not on the day when they've come to clean for you, and explain what it is you need and expect them to do?

Nothing you've described is OTT cleaning, just the normal go-over. It's like me cleaning my sink daily, which is a quick wipe-over of the basin and taps, and just over the edge of the basin to the sides, but the deeper cleaning I did yesterday was down on my knees cleaning the pedestal, and the WC base/ pipes etc.

Bathrooms are hardworking areas and need to be kept on top of, or they can get nasty pretty quickly.

Anyway, that's my two'pennorth, for what it's worth.

Slinky

We've been on roundtoit jobs also today. A couple of weeks ago I ordered a mat to go under the washing machine as it's very noisy. It's only been in the house 10 days and is actually under the machine! Considering this involved moving the tumble drier off the top of the WM onto the chest freezer, moving the WM out, cleaning the floor and walls, moving the TD from the freezer to a trolley which fortunately has wheels and moving that out of the way. Moved the freezer, cleaned floor and walls, put the mat under the WM and managed to shove it back into position, moved freezer back, moved TD back onto top of WM then put the trolley back. Discovered that the WM was well out of level which may have accounted for some/all of the noise and have sorted that as well.


However all the cook books from the bottom of the trolley are now on the dining room table. I'll have a bit of a sift through as I'm sure some can go but that won't please OH I'm sure (I'll do it when he's away this week). These aren't all our cookbooks though. As in true Kondo diagnosis, there's another stack under the stairs! I need to find some strong bookends as the trolley has open sides therefore the books are stacked. If I could store them properly upright I may use more of them.


I also managed 4 small sewing repair jobs. I need to find somewhere better to store all my sewing stuff which is spread across a Ferrero Roche box, a small sewing kit and a paper bag. For no reason, these live across 2 drawers in the dresser in my hall. A Kondo job for another day, but I'll keep my eye open for better storage for them.

Slinky

Forgot to mention it, I did go for a mammogram a couple of weeks ago as you were all advising, and the results came back yesterday as nothing found, so that's all good.

dragonette

GreyQueen wrote: »

dragonette, it's difficult one, isn't it? But I get the impression from your posts that you're not well enough to work, and that means you're probably not very well-off and, if you're shelling out some of the little you have, it's reasonable to expect that things are done properly. Cleaning for someone else for money isn't the same as giving your own home a lick and a promise, after all.

I appreciate demonstrations aren't going to be feasible, but could you have a conversation with this friend, perhaps not on the day when they've come to clean for you, and explain what it is you need and expect them to do?

Nothing you've described is OTT cleaning, just the normal go-over. It's like me cleaning my sink daily, which is a quick wipe-over of the basin and taps, and just over the edge of the basin to the sides, but the deeper cleaning I did yesterday was down on my knees cleaning the pedestal, and the WC base/ pipes etc.

Bathrooms are hardworking areas and need to be kept on top of, or they can get nasty pretty quickly.

Anyway, that's my two'pennorth, for what it's worth.

I am on ESA and receive PIP for daily living needs, so I can just about afford to have the cleaning help but it really needs to be done well. I might ask the friend who is good at it to show the other girl. a dry cloth over the floor just isnt washing it and I feel pretty guilty at not wanting to teach, but if I had the resources to teach then I could do the cleaning myself

Karmacat

dragonette wrote: »

I am on ESA and receive PIP for daily living needs, so I can just about afford to have the cleaning help but it really needs to be done well. I might ask the friend who is good at it to show the other girl. a dry cloth over the floor just isnt washing it and I feel pretty guilty at not wanting to teach, but if I had the resources to teach then I could do the cleaning myself

That would be a great solution, to get the one to show the other.

And of course you dont want to teach her yourself - the reason you get ESA and PIP is that you're ill - when you spend that money, it needs to get you what you need, in the way you need it.

Sorry I missed what you were writing before

Lady_Bee

Afternoon all! No Kondoing for me, I haven't actually cracked open the book yet so that's probably why I think I might book a day off work next week to finally get going, for some reason I can't get motivated on a weekend or evening but that is just laziness.

I can't believe the house horror stories, I have been 'enjoying' them. Not too many horrors for me here but there were a couple of things left behind in the loft. There was a fluorescent light unit thing and some roller blinds, luckily the loft hatch is near the landing window so things came down the hatch and straight out the window! Also up there were a few rolls of carpet which came out when I had the roof done, god knows how they got them up there in the first place. To round things off there was an unused water tank that had to be cut up to get through the hatch, how did that get in there :eek: I don't have any of my own stuff up there now, it is fully insulated and empty. I wouldn't fancy getting up there anyway but I'm lucky that I share big things like suitcases with my parents so they keep those in their loft, not sure what I'd do if I had big things like that round here though.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get moving soon but in the meantime I will keep seeking inspiration from you all. :T

Floss

VJsmum wrote: »

.... I bought OH a voucher for a photo book at Christmas, and we did it the other weekend, I have to say it is rather good. There are about 95 photos in it, spanning two years. The book is about A4 size and only about a quarter of an inch thick, if that. We are now planning to do the others. The voucher was £20 and if your marriage can survive the process :rotfl: it's well worth it (got slightly stressful at one point :cool:).....

Thanks for this fab idea - DH has lots of photos taken on his travels with his previous job - to China, Israel, the States & Canada, the Seychelles and most of Europe, so that would be really good to get those in a format that he can look at them.