KonMari 2017 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

wort

Vjsmum - please accept my condolences, keep your happy memories close.x

I was born and grew up in a pub until I was 11. So had an inside bathroom, but the upstairs kitchen,was makeshift so had no water and mum had to get water from bathroom to wash up etc.
Nan and grandad had the downstairs kitchen and we catered for weddings from there too.
There was a pay phone on the landing halfway up the stairs and a red phone box right outside.
Not that we ever used them. We had to share bedrooms, it always amazes me these days when families say they need to move as they need more bedroom s when they have a baby!!!!!
We had frost on the inside of windows and I can remember running from the living room to bedroom to dive under the blankets!! I even used to get dressed under the covers!!!!
The Billy Connoly sketch with the coats on the bed was certainly true !!!

GreyQueen

(((((((VJsMum))))))) so sorry to hear that you've lost your dad. Take care of yourself, hun.

[Deleted User]

wort wrote: »

Not that we ever used them. We had to share bedrooms, it always amazes me these days when families say they need to move as they need more bedroom s when they have a baby!!!!!

There were 5 girls in our family, I was the oldest and we shared one bedroom, gosh it was good, we nattered well into the night and maybe that is why we were and still are, close. One has passed and it is like a bit of each of us passed, we all think of her

So I sat for 30 minutes and did 3 rows of knitting after breakfast, radio was very boring, so I dived into my cds, neatly stored in those big black cd files, the ones with a zip. I have been sorting all my cds, just finished now and got rid of a huge lot, I mean I don`t want, or need, to listen to foster and allen,noisy rock n roll and all those reggae cds and Irish folk music that I grew up on. German sacred choral music has gone and anything that I don`t really want to listen to any more, including dh`s music. I haven`t counted them but it is a lot and very heavy and it is something I have been meaning to do for a long time. Amazing how the day can evolve. I just have to print some generic labels and then these much lighter files can go back on the shelf.

It feels like a good mornings work but was a bit tail wagging dog

Karmacat

VJsmum wrote: »

Been AWOL.. Sadly my dad passed away suddenly last week and kondoing has understandably not been happening. ....

Re cards - social media has huge advantages.. Posted a message on Facebook wishing all a merry Christmas and that we would make a donation to a homeless outreach organisation and the Trussell Trust and, yes, the postage costs were included. At such s difficult time it was a relief not to be doing them and I don't intend to ever send them again.

So sorry to hear about your dad, VJsmum, I hope you have some support in everyday life for this difficult time.

My mum died this time last year, and none of us (me, my brother and sister) did any cards at all - I've just started to do this year's, and I've cut down tremendously. I think it was wort on here saying that anyone who didn't send a card after her husband died, or come to the funeral, she didn't send cards (wort, I hope I'm not taking your name in vain) ... that's more or less exactly what we've all done, and it's very freeing.

I'm not quite km-ing at the moment, it's more that I'm storing like with like while tidying - all the scarves, for instance. I'll never need to buy another scarf as long as I live

greent

VJsMum - sorry to hear about your dad x


I'm not yet 50, but Christmas when I was a child (from about 5 - I can barely remember where we lived when I was small, and then we moved in with my Nan for a while before getting a place just before I was 5) - we had 1 gas fire in the living room - and that was it. The bathroom was painted brick work (so no insulation/ plasterboard) and obviously the windows were metal framed and single glazed. The living room had a loose rug in the middle on wooden floorboards (which you could feel draughts coming up in between) We had a small (gas) fridge which had an ice box - no freezer.

We moved into a new build (council house) when I was 13 (so 1983-4) It had radiators - but only downstairs - nothing upstairs. The windows were aluminium based single glazing and each window was 2 panes which slid open - so you couldn't open a small window up top for ventilation. It was standard to have frost on the inside of the windows and huge icicles hanging from the outer windowsills. We didn't get a phone until 1986.

Xmas cards - I give cards to family (bought 1/2 price, of course), a couple of older neighbours and my best friend. A lot less than I used to. I'm not fussed on getting them either, really - they're just clutter (although I do cut some up for tags before recycling)
(That comes across as a bit bah humbug - I love Xmas, just not unnecessary spending/ things)

catshark88

I'm very sorry for your loss VJ'sMum.


Tree and decorations went up today. We've kept everything to one room, so it's Christmas central in the sitting room and would be minimalist elsewhere...

I've just really realised that this is likely to be our last Christmas in this house and there were a few tears. We've been blessed with some wonderful family Christmas days here (& 2 horrid ones when I was ill and for which I still feel guilty) and I will remember them with much gratitude (& several photo books).

elona

DDs and son in law came round for lunch and finished decorating the tree which looks very lavish. There are fairy lights up in the conservatory and living room and garlands on the mirrors. I have nearly finished wrapping presents and feel much more inn the festive spirit.

Slinky

Sorry to hear about your Dad VJsmun.


We put up the Christmas trees yesterday. One has a set of lights from the 1950s which my Dad bought one year for his parents when they couldn't find a home-made set Dad (an electrician) had made. They are very precious to me and worked first time out of their original box. I saw on Facebook somebody complaining it took 2 hours to untangle their lights...... well there's a solution to that....


Another set which goes on a bush out the front had a broken bulb. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to get the bulb out of the holder, but managed it with some pliers. OH put lights on the tree out the back. We've made a decision to bin a couple of sets of lights which have sections which don't light anymore and which he hasn't used. Our decorations run to five boxes, it's not that we have vast numbers of decs, but the bits we have are treasured and well packed. I don't understand people who get rid of their decorations every year and buy new. We've got ones we bought on our honeymoon, some from holidays in Italy, others from trips to the Bath Christmas market, a couple with photos of our old cat on, a right mixture, but mixed in with some commercial 'fillers' look good to us and that's all that matters.

daisy_1571

(((((((Vjsmum)))))) sorry for your sudden loss
Daisy xx

Charis

The solution to the tangled fairy lights is to take the Christmas programme guide (the double RT Xmas issue is ideal. Roll it from the stapled side into a tightish roll. Put the first light inside the roll on the pages edge, just tuck it in to hold it. Hold that end of the roll to stop the end slipping out and wind the lights as close to each other as you can, round and round the rolled mag. A five foot tree worth of lights is about the max it will hold, unless you wind back the other way doing a second layer, which I have never tried. When you run out of lights, there's enough cable left to wind back far enough to stop the whole thing unravelling from the plug end.

I still have the millennium issue inside our lights.

Next year you can unwind from the start end with the first light.