KonMari 2017 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

GreyQueen

Just following my normal morning routine; peaceful pot of tea and a bit of net-surfing before brekkie and work. Was reading this and it resonated: http://www.becomingminimalist.com/

I have mentioned that I had the loan of Mum's P@shley bicycle (June 2013-June 2017) whilst my R@leigh lived in the shed at their place. We swopped, and swopped back.

I originally had a rather bulky old-style set of bike lights on my own bike, the kind which hold two of those large cyclindrical batteries. The front light suffered a catastrophe secondary to my running into a very large deep pothole at speed one dark winter's evening; it fell off about a week later, smashed on the road; I think it's fitting had jarred loose at impact and I hadn't had the wit to think to check and tighten it up.

So, I replaced the front light with a much smaller niftier one which was mounted on the handlebar. The back light was the survivor of the original set and has a mount which is still on the R@leigh; indeed, the bolts holding the bracket to the bike frame have rusted tight.

Both lights (minus batteries) went to the parental home and both came back and are cluttering my home. I have mounted the new (4 y.o.) lights onto the old bike, they work fine and are light-weight, bright, energy-efficient and I'm happy with them.

I am going to hang onto the front light as it's small and efficient and would be needed if anything befalls the front light - I feel it's space-taking vs Justin is usable but the back light including its bracket must go. This light has an iffy switch (sometimes turns itself off in use, which is hair-raising in urban traffic) so I can't in good conscience re-home it.

This evening, when the bike it at the allotment, I will put some oil onto the rusted bolts and hope that they'll ease enough to undo. Otherwise, it will be a job for the junior hacksaw but, one way or another, it's outta here.

PollyWollyDoodle

Haha, thanks Greenbee, brought a smile to my face! Yes, it's an expensive process but worth it in my view.

silvasava

My mum used to say that teeth and eyes have to last a lifetime so look after them. If that involves expense but has benefits then do it! My root canal from 2 years ago never happened as the nerve just seems to have died with no after effects (so far) but it does seem to be discolouring so I'll enquire about a veneer next time I go. Don't want to look like a black toothed pirate!!!
Only Kondoing dust bunnies and maybe garden today.

MrsPorridge

Talking about embroidery I had not done cross stitch for years and like others had millions of half finished kits and threads galore. Last year I discovered daylight lamps and magnifying glasses and after buying a stand with said items on I am now finding joy in my cross stich all over again - so what if I need a light and magnifying glass in board daylight? Once I accepted that I was fine.

MMF007

:rotfl:
I can confidently say that the only tooth fairy in this house will not be contributing any money. He nearly crashed the car when I (stupidly) told him the estimated cost!

The Dentist said tooth broke due to a very old (at least 35 years) root canal filling that was very 'thin' and had no strength, and some minor tooth grinding that weakened the bottom of the tooth too. One powerful bite from me on an unyielding object and *bang* it went.

Kittie, I know people feel strongly about ripping books and mags but I, too, took a similar practical action when I had a 900 page paperback on holiday, part-read. No way was i lugging that back. I simply tore out the remaining pages to read and binned the rest I have to say i couldn't face doing it with a hardback of course.

maddiemay

GreyQueen wrote: »

Just following my normal morning routine; peaceful pot of tea and a bit of net-surfing before brekkie and work. Was reading this and it resonated: http://www.becomingminimalist.com/

GQ - What an energising article, it would be so helpful to have read that (a few times) when I was starting that journey and still very much attached to "stuff"

Frogletina

I've been given a video player but it was minus a fuse. I knew I had fuses, but where were they?

Eventually I found them by accident, on a pull out shelf by the side of the oven where I keep my spice and herb jars! No idea how it got there

Also in there were some digestive enzymes and probiotics. I've just looked up when I bought these, and it was about a year ago. I remember putting them in there and promptly forgot about them and have since bought more! So that was £22 spent and forgotten about.

It also shows how much I use my herbs and spices - at the front I keep a salt grinder and a salt pot, and at the back of it an egg slicer and rarely touch anything inbetween.

At least I can now play my videos and maybe find some I can throw away (I've been waiting to watch a lot of these since my last video died on me)

I should confess I was actually given two unwanted video players. Both look rather grotty but I'm going to try them one at a time and the first one I wanted to try was minus a fuse so I took the fuse out of the other one. Doesn't make much sense, does it.

So now I have two on the floor and haven't connect either one to the TV. It's a work in progress.

frogletina

Pooky

Great article GQ - the time freed up by not having so much stuff to work around, clean and maintain is priceless to me. I now have a Friday morning cleaning routine that involves being able to hoover and wash under all beds and pull out and hoover behind all furniture, clean both bathrooms, change beds, dust and hoover all through and wash all downstairs floors.....it takes an hour and a half....2 hours if I'm adding in a "not done weekly job" like cleaning the windows etc.

We went to a rather beautiful farm house this morning that we'd heard about, the grounds were stunning and every barn and outhouse was crammed with stuff.....furniture, old fair ground rides, huge carvings, stone work, you name it, it was there....we only popped in as it was on a route we were taking anyway, didn't need anything. DH instantly fell in love with a rather gorgeous oak cabinet and beureau, would look amazing in our dining room and and a fairly reasonable price.......but I asked him what he intended to put in it......currently the dining room has a table and 4 chairs, a small chest of drawers housing a stereo and plant and a standard lamp in the corner.....that's all we need. It's so easy to fall into the trap of having stuff because you have somewhere to put it. I'm not going back down that route again.

The reason for our excursion this morning as to meet a nice chap and buy his wine making equipment from him. We had loads but it all got far to much for DH a couple of years ago and we didn't make any, the equipment was in the way and went in the first wave of clearing out. DHS meds are now "right" (as such) and his pain is far more controlled which gives him the time and want to do something.....I can't even say we regret getting rid of what we did as it all went to a free cycler who was very grateful and very down on their luck. It made them happy which made us happy and we were in a fortunate position to find this chap with a load of stuff at a very reasonable price.

[Deleted User]

I like the swap about of stuff, like the wine making equipment pooky

This morning, a small card was in my AnC organic box, had to have it this week as am carless for two weeks. They want stuff like stationery for Malawi, well I have lots and lots just stored on a shelf, kept it for many many years as a very well known maker was closing a local factory and hubbie did some work for them, he was told to take as much of anything from any of the large holding crates, that he wanted. It all had to go from there. So it weighed down a shelf for a long long time, gave lots away but still lots left. Now it is all packaged to be collected for Malawi children and that gave me a buzz

Fleece from one 5 gal container is now spread on the allotment, I know it will take a while to break down but it will eventually. Many spinners spread fleece that is below standard. My fleece was good but I just couldn`t contemplate using it as it was meant to be used and am not into selling this stuff, so back to earth it went. Next step will be to dispose of the rest in the same fashion and then to offer my combs etc onto ravelry. Its easy to sell on there. More and more space is appearing

maddiemay

A carrier bag of books and a couple of watched DVDs to the CS today:D I have an hour spare before needing to think about supper so going to have a sort out in my bedroom, several knitting UFOs in there and a lot of things that need a home finding for them.:eek: