KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

silvasava

Whoop Whoop - 2 more things going via Freecycle. A punchbowl & Mugs that I havn't used for about 10 years and some Bonhams Auction brochures that DH was given showing vintage motorcycles and cars, lovely colour pictures - must have been quite expensive to produce but looking at the reserve prices on some of the machines its probably peanuts in the scheme of things!

x_raphael_xx

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts from 'The Minimalists' lately.
And it spurred me on to get rid a big stack of comics. I was spending £4.00 a month on my ninja turtle comic (I'm a big fan if you can't tell) I would read the cartoon strip in a couple of mins and then just store the comic in my mag rack.
The minimalists talk a lot about adding value to your life and I realised I was spending £4 a month, getting a short fleeting happiness and cluttering up the book shelf.
I donated the whole stack to a friend with a son who loves Ninja turtles and won't be buying another comic.

Apart from that I've been kondoing a lot of weight, 9.4lbs has disappeared in the last 3 weeks.

iamsalt

Grey queen, we suffer from multiplying books, we have some great ones from mum's past career which she stopped when I came along 40 years ago. At the moment every time I pack a box of books more emerge to fill the space! Perhaps in my house they are made of gas and expand to fill the space available


We all have a habit of picking up random books at sales and then finding them later and not knowing who got them or where or when!

Siebrie

I have found two more nests of batteries! I swear they multiply in dark places!

This week was hectic:
Saturday - dd1 horse riding lesson, neighbours' wedding with foodtrucks instead of sitdown dinner (fun!)
Sunday - morning church service with triple baptism, with African meal for lunch; afternoon end of ramadan with African dinner
Monday - dd2's graduation from kindergarten, followed by WI gym after that for me
Tuesday - PT meeting regarding dd1, she can go to the next year, pfew
Wednesday - buying gifts for dd1, picking up and returning potential car buyers to a station about 20 minutes away, pick up car paperwork 30 minutes away, grocery shopping, library, dd2 to ballet, decorate living room for birthday, wrap gifts
Thursday - dd1's 9th birthday, prepare class treat, give gifts, relax
Friday - take car to different potential buyer
Saturday - prepare guest bedroom for my parents, birthday party shopping, dd1's horse riding birthday party, cook

And the normal laundry, getting everyone ready for school and work, cleaning, dishes, bills, ironing,... Occasionally I tell my dh that I do not want to get disturbed for five minutes, and I just read....

GreyQueen

Glad it's not just us with the books, then!

Congratulations on your weight loss, raphael. That's an excellent result in only three weeks. I'm also slowly shedding the mere 5 stone of flab which I'd added to my lanky frame, 3 stone down in 15 months, 2 stone left but coming off slowly and steadily.

As well as being a health hazard, I figure life has just got to be plain easier when one isn't lugging kilo after kilo of wobbly bits around 24/7/356.:D

Last week, I spent some time at the pal's junk shop and went thru the paperwork. I found a car bill from last year in the live pile of stuff to be actioned (it had been, just not filed, apparently) and many other things which could be shredded.

The rest in neatly filed. I shall have to watch him like a hawk, he's one of the worst procrastinators in paperwork that I've ever encountered. To someone who has earned her crust as an administrator, this is almost physically painful to behold.:rotfl:

I'm aiming to be brutal with my own paperwork and unsolicited stuff gets an immediate 360 out to the recycling bin. Some other important stuff came with the junk yesterday. It was opened, contents noted, filed and the envelopes recycled for scratch pads. I mustn't let this stuff roost because that was lies chaos. And perhaps even CHAOS.;)

I was thinking the other day of the many and varied ways which disorganisation and clutter have of robbing us of our time, our energy and our good humour.

Take, for example, the Window Key. This is the window key to the mahoosive uPVC front window into my parents' sitting-room. It is apparently the largest single span without a cross-bar possible in a domestic double-glazing unit and is amply big enough to post a large piece of furniture through.

It's key was still in sight when a large reclining arm-chair was delivered and it went in that way. Many years later, when said armchair, now knackered (was third hand to us) needed to exit and it's replacement from Nan's bungalow enter, the key was long since lost.

Cue my septugenarian parents having a horribly difficult time and dinging up the freshly painted (my moi) hall walls. Grrrr! I found the key when kondo-ing over there at Christmas, which was two months too late.

There was another mini-example of the bike of mine which was being stored in their shed in the Pashley's place when we'd swopped them for 4 years, which we reversed a few weeks ago. They'd chained my bike up with one of their own padlocks and the key to that was lost. The chain was hardened steel and not ameniable to being cut, and the padlock was a beggar to force.

Just too examples of the endless difficulties caused by muddle and confusion, there are thousands of these over a lifetime, aren't there?!

Siebrie

Ooh, yes GreyQueen. I have a new bicycle, and two padlocked bike chains on our old bikes. I know we used one of them in the last year, but where are those keys? I'll be forced to buy a new chain and padlock

For this same new bicycle I am trying out panniers that clip on and off the luggage carrier easily. The first one I tried was a free-when buying-€35-groceries insulated pannier. It is nice and roomy, cheerful colours, clips on relatively easily, and tore off at the clip after the first day (It can still be used as insulated bag until it falls apart completely). The second one is a good size, but a drab colour, cumbersome to close, metal clips which scratched the paint on the carrier (currently in the donation box in the attic with its partner). Hmmm, I think I still have a laptop bag with clips somewhere.... If not, I have to think of other ways to transport my office clothes, lunch/snacks, and raingear. I try to do this without buying new stuff, as we have a box full of bags in the attic. This box has already provided us with neat evening bags, fun little handbags for dds, swim bags and sportsbags. I just chuck every (non-thin plastic) bag I get in there.

GreyQueen

The Pashley has a handsome wicker basket but the metal-mesh basket on the front of the Raliegh had got very knackered after many years of hard use (had it on there since 2001) so when I saw a metal-mesh 'basket' in the charity shop for £4 I jumped on it with both feet.

The rear luggage carrier on this bike has a tall, rectangular bike basket wired onto it, its base is pleasingly the same size as the carrier itself so it doesn't contribute towards the width of the bike (my bike shed is only 3 ft wide so things like this have to matter to me). That was £1 at a bootsale and is wired securely onto the carrier.

This means that I have baskets front-and-back and can easily carry two bags of shopping, or two bags of anything, really.

For anyone reading, I did just snout thru the current Goo Oootdoors cataglogue which came yesterday and they were offering a bike trailer for 2 smallish kids for £100 which seems pretty good and could possibly be put to non-child transportation uses also.

Like Siebrie, I like to keep hold of handy bags and have any number of things being used for things not part of their original job description, such as the strong denim pencil case holding my spanners.

x_raphael_xx

GreyQueen wrote: »

Congratulations on your weight loss, raphael. That's an excellent result in only three weeks. I'm also slowly shedding the mere 5 stone of flab which I'd added to my lanky frame, 3 stone down in 15 months, 2 stone left but coming off slowly and steadily.

Slow and steady is the best way.
Fast off, fast on!
I've lost just under 20 lbs since January, but I still have 40 lbs to go.

GreyQueen

Yep, slow and steady is the way. I gained that extra 5 stone (70 lb) over the best part of ten years, ten years where I holidayed frequently on de Nile. I'm 40 lb down in 15 months and could usefully shrink another 30 lb. I'll never be a twiglet, I'm a big-boned 5 ft ten' er, but shouldn't really be tipping the scales at much more than 160-ish.

The health benefits have already been considerable and the vanity benefits are pleasing, but being able to get back into clothes which I bought because I damned well loved them is the best medium-term benefit.:T

Riigggggggghtt, lovely peeps, today is a Saturday and I have various things to do, amongst them going to the very-reasonably-priced-antiquish-emporium to sort some Stuff out for the pal - gonna re-do the window display, I just love that task - and then he will give me a lift to the parental town, which he passes on his commute. Trading a favour for a favour, so to speak, otherwise I'd be forking over far too much money to National Hexpress (mimes spitting noise here).

I may also have to take a side-swipe at some admin as today is the start of Q2. I feel really sorry for his accountant, they must have nerves of steel to deal with his record-keeping.

Will have one full day and two nights at the family home and am twitching at the prospect of getting into some clutter, kipple, mess and disorder. There's 47 years of accumulation in that place and three sheds. Can you imagine the excitement?!:D:D:D

silvasava

Waiting with bated breath for the next instalment GQ
DH going with a friend for a run on their trikes today ( sounds like a couple of 7 year olds doesn't it ) I'm taking the opportunity to go through the contents of the big cabinet that my friend wants - lots for the CS and Freecycle methinks. Just realised I have a 'free' weekend with nothing planned - oooooh what shall I do with it!