KonMari 2017 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

GreyQueen

Loving your posts, too, Daisy.

The reason I cart the mug to and fro from home to work (5 mins' walk apart, incidentally) is that there's nowhere hygenic to wash it in our office. There's a shared sink with A Sponge of Doubtfulness (sometimes has been seen to be used on the floor -eww!) and a Tea Towel of Doom (which is probably evolving several gadzillion bacteria). I frankly thnk my immune system doesn't need the extra workout........ :rotfl:

I have been at the parental home since Saturday evening. A carboot sale was done yesterday which shed some Stuff and today I searched the two boxes of coned yarn in the Bedroom Cupboard of Doom and retrieved two cones of pure wool 4 ply which will be combined to knit a jumper for Dad - Mum's next project.

Mum also confessed that she feels overwhelmed by the dressing-table bit of her bedroom unit, an area less than a foot deep and 3 ft across which was stacked several inches high in Stuff. All of which was covered in fluff. She'd tried and failed to tidy this before and was ameniable to offers of help.

I got a linen basket and removed everything, then dusted, and then we sat and sorted into three bins (general rubbish, recyclable rubbish and confidential rubbish for shredding). Plus various mini-piles on the bed, being routed for different destinations inc chazzer donation.

Contents included, but not limited to: one old-fashioned hand-mirror, hairbrush and clothes brush set, plus a non-matiching second hairbrush from another set plus a large clothes brush from a third set. Three cheap plastic combs. Four clasp knives, a Tree of Life keyring, two small soapstone trinket jars, a yellow plastic dustbin, a doiley, 77 mini packets of paper hankies (from a woman who says she never buys these), three nappy pins (babies are me and Kid Bruv and we went out of nappies pre-decimialisation). Three pre-Euro Belgian coins, two candles, 9 odd 'footsie' sockette thingies, several pens, two 9 v batteries, two torches, one brand-new battery still in it pkt which was so old it had corroded and leaked, some balls of yarn, a gen-u-whine gold-plated pen and cufflink set, a compass, two small soaps in plastic soap dishes, a nail brush, a completely empty perfume spray, an empty wooden cotton reel, payslips from the early noughties, till recipts from clothing so long ago that it has been worn out and discarded, elastic bands which have mummified, a small tin of smaller misc (there wasn't time to go there)......

That, gentle readers, is a mere fraction of the total, but you've suffered enough.:rotfl:There are three rammed drawers below this dressing-table bit, and a locker above, and other surfaces nearby in a similar parlous state.

Tomorrow, I will be getting into the loft. I've been told that the suitcases post-holiday earlier this month and the cat-baskets, post vets, were just put any which way up there, so I will need to salve my control-freakery by putting them in their proper places.

I have sorted out a bag of clothes and handbags which, along with a couple of other items, will be taken to their gift-aid chazzer of choice on Wednesday. I have also taken back the re-handled hand-cup from Nan's which I had tol burn the worm-eaten handle off in the bonfire last October. It now has a new hand-turned handle and I will be treating that with linseed oil and painting the bowl of the cup-bit with hammerite as it had lost its galviness and got rusty.

We are also readying a pile of things for a dump run and Dad is marvelling that he'd saved three of the original wooden-framed house windows, replaced with uPVC about 16-17 years ago, and completely forgotten he'd done it. As you can only offload one window or door at a time at their tip, it's one down and two to go - he didn't even remember saving them and they've been invisible in a huge back garden shed (as in a 6 x 8 ft shed). Amazing.

OK, can't resist; also a cork, a purple felt cat-toy mouse, a bamboo back-scratcher, a photo frame with no picture, a loose pix of moi aged about seven years old. Mum picks up the latter, smiling with fond reminiscence:

Aww, you were so cute. Paused a beat. What happened?!

We have also baked; three pies, two dozen muffins, 7 random buns, and two veggie bakes (mainly courgettes). Revenge is a dish best served piping hot, as they (don't) say in Italy.

ETA; a small souvenir stautette of Mannikin Pis, three empty birthday card envelopes, a length of florists' ribbon, a hair bobble, two drinks coasters, a stray blue plastic examination glove, two identical pairs of toe-nail scissors, a spectabcles case, a fountain pen, a component being kept in case we find the thing it belongs to, so that can be given away, an airport sewing kit, a trinket tray with a garish picture of a 1970s seaside resort, a pottery dish with its broken off handle glued back on.........

Y'know, all things considered, it's a wonder I'm almost normal!

ETA again; three strands of beige rug wool, a US mini army can-opener, A 1962 2 shilling coin, 22 f (Belgian), three bits of skinny ribbon skirt hangers (all different colours), the membership badge from a club Mum used to belong to (now defunct), a chain to attach a plug to a bath tub, a mini tube of handcream which seems OK and a large tube of handcream which had turned a yucky brown and deffo wasn't OK..........

MMF007

Oh GQ, well done!
In an office of 18 people DH was the only person who ever took the tea towels home to wash so I totally get your need to tote the mug home for hygiene reasons :rotfl:

I took an elderly friend out today, she wanted to go to a local CS. She found 3 pretty tops and I took her to the till, at which time she asks me, have you got any money to pay for them?! I paid, her daughter will pay me back. She then said that there was a lovely, very colourful skirt that would suit me, for my sunny holiday next January. It was very pretty and I did love the colours. She asked how much it was (£1.99). Well, she says, it is nearly your birthday, I'll buy it for you. Guess what she said next? Yep 'Can you pay for it?' :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

As an aside, the skirt was a bit tight. It should be fine in about 8lbs time, iykwim.
I checked the label and it is a size down from my current size so I felt quite good that I could even do it up (fixed waistband)

VJsmum

daisy_1571 wrote: »

Vjsmum - back in January on the closed thread you were trying to start a system of not having a wee box in your kitchen for used batteries. How's that going ? My system is as soon as I take the dud battery out it goes in a little pocket of current handbag. Then when i am next in beee and quuuu or wherever has a drop off point if I spot it I just search that pocket and if there's a battery there, off it pops. Has worked for me for a couple of years now and stops leakage when you leave them in a wee box too long. Hope it helps but you have probably mastered something in the 7 months since lol

Daisy xx

Ooh did I? We don't seem to have a plan at all now. Though I think our battery consumption has reduced.

I sent my wedding dress off last year to make the angel baby gowns. In due course pictures came back and they were beautiful. I've not regretted it one bit and, moreover, have no stress about what would happen to the dress in the loft.

Well done GQ and :rotfl: at the haul, was there a cuddly toy and a fondue set? :rotfl: good game, good game.

Slowly the pile of stuff is reducing. We have an L shaped arrangement of a three seater and a two seater sofa. OH is at one end of the three seater and I am at the opposite end of the two seater - between us is a large suitcase, a bag of board games, a bag of shoesm a bag of cuddly toys, one with her TV, one of tinned and packet food (little of which I would eat), a bag of under wear, her friends cuddly toy (no fondue set that I've noticed), a Star Trek lunch box, a laundry bag, .. I could go on...

Hopefully some of the kitchen stuff (in yet another bag in a different corner of the lounge) will go to uni with DS in a couple of weeks, the food will eventually go and the cleaning stuff will get used up. I'm hoping to be fairly straight in a week....

GreyQueen

...... I suppose the felt mouse could count as a cuddly toy but there's never been a fondue set in this household insofar as I'm aware.

Probably every other kind of cookware you could imagine, but never one of those. I expect the mysteries of C-space will precipitate one over here any second, now our lack has been identified.*

There's a bottle of nail polish up there. In the approx 45 + years that I can clearly remember, Mum has NEVER EVER WORN NAIL POLISH. Why she would have a newish bottle of it I do not know but apparently it stays.......:rotfl:

* C-space is an old thread gag, akin to L-space in the Discworld's magical library. All Cupboards are mystically linked through quantum mechanics with all other cupboards in the multiverse. This is why each and every one of us will, at some point, find things in our own cupboards which meet some of the following criteria.

1. Completely unidentifiable.
2. Not now, and never before, seen by any household member, past or present.
3. Contraband on all five continents and most of the solar system.

My best advice would be not to panic if C-space chucks something random into your life. It may be good, it may be bad, it may be floggable on the Bay, but don't expend too much energy worrying about where it came from - it's quantum, innit? :rotfl:

Callisto

Sorry to hear about your Dad Charly, sending hugs. You're very welcome to send me a PM if you ever need to talk.

Thank you all for your wishes for my Dad, Kittie especially bought me to tears for lighting a candle for us, so lovely of you!

Dad's cancer has spread to his brain, and he has refused any further treatment, as he has had radiotherapy and chemotherapy before, but the tumours continued to grow. The only treatment option left was whole brain radiation, and the side effects sounded awful, with no real benefits. We all fully support his decision and are spending as much time as we can with him.

The good news is that my youngest sister and her boyfriend got engaged just over a week ago and are getting married next Sunday! It will be at the village church, and then the village hall, near to where our parents live. We are all helping to decorate the hall the night before, and clearing up the day after.

It was a lovely day yesterday with Mum and Dad and two sisters (third sister lives a couple of hours away, but visits regularly), as it was a gorgeous day, so we were all sat in the garden outside the summer house looking at table plan ideas and suggesting songs for their wedding playlist.

I have accidentally ordered three dresses from Eb@y though for my wedding outfit! Ordered the first, but didn't notice the postage dates, so it probably won't arrive in time. I submitted an offer on another dress, which was accepted, and then found the dress of my dreams, so bid on that one as well! Will be good to have a back up I suppose, but will probably sell on one or two after the wedding!

I have a bag of clothes, a part dinner service, two mugs, some baking equipment and a large picture to drop off at the charity shop tomorrow. Also a bag full of tetrapak cartons to go to the recycling point. A pair of socks have found religion and are now in the rag bag. I have made a birthday cake for sister, so that is a bit gone out of the flour stash! Also have blueberries and bananas that need to be made into muffins soon.

Still not caught up with the old or new thread, but hoping to... one day

Floss

Callisto wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your Dad Charly, sending hugs. You're very welcome to send me a PM if you ever need to talk.

Thank you all for your wishes for my Dad, Kittie especially bought me to tears for lighting a candle for us, so lovely of you!

Dad's cancer has spread to his brain, and he has refused any further treatment, as he has had radiotherapy and chemotherapy before, but the tumours continued to grow. The only treatment option left was whole brain radiation, and the side effects sounded awful, with no real benefits. We all fully support his decision and are spending as much time as we can with him....

My mum had the same: before she lost her speech we had numerous conversations with unusual words in where she couldn't grasp the correct word. PM me if you want to offload xx

[Deleted User]

I have 3 rolser shopping trolleys, love each of them, two normal sized and one a bit shorter, one shiny white and black cowprint and the other two are purple mixes. The nearest I will get to KM with these is storage in one for the cs. They are brilliant for storage anyway, akin to a mobile storage unit so will never be given away. Trolley is full, I went around at dusk and easily found cs destined goodies to complete cs trolley filling, topped up with picture frames and several glasses, vases and stone salad oil bottles and a water pitcher

I put three grey scandinavian metal tealight lighthouses on a coffee table and decided that I would light them for a little while before bed. I had dithered about offering them to dd earlier but have completely changed my mind. Had local radio on, they play lovely music and have nice conversations. The holders won`t be KM`d but the candles need to be used and there is something calming about candlelight pre-bed, that with the slow potter to get things ready for breakfast. Result was a good night`s sleep because I was in my own zone, not in some unwanted and intrusive worldly space

silvasava

Have just won a prize at the club quiz ......................a spiralizer Think I may try it and see - if its not going to be that useful it will be donated elsewhere!

daisy_1571

Literally posting and running so haven't read but in the midst of trying to fill a bit time before my next doggy client comes at 11 I decided I would have time to clear out the under sink. It's only a yard, well 1000 in new money, wide cupboard, double doors, half of one side taken up with undersink and pipes you all know the kind of thing. So how come the stuff out of there can cover my kitchen floor and two of my bunkers ??

On the face of it, it should have been tidy cos theres multiple boxes from previous "organising" but they are all on top of each other, and too tall things in front so you don't actually pull the boxes out just pile more stuff in front or on top of the boxes and eventually on top of the stuff in front. Being disorganised there has caused me to never find what I'm looking for, hence I'm now looking at a pile of 8 hand brushes cos I can never find them and keep buying them and after 1 use they disappear again (plus ive got others out in hut and my treatment room......you've guessed cos its easier to stash another out there cos i can never find the flipping things !!!!

What a pain over the years, stress and wasted re-buying/keeping/moving of SO MUCH STUFF. 😁😁😁

Sorry to rant but I just keep thinking about all the background interference that's been in my head of planning storage solutions for all the carp over the years, constantly thinking "if only I was more organised". No!!! If only I had only tried to store 1 of things not multi amounts. Mind goes back the 100 garden items that I could not figure out how to store and was planning on buying more solutions to crate them, hang them and variously corral them. NO, just get rid of most of them. Jeez, it seems so flipping simple now lol 😂😂😂😂

Hers a big smackeroony kiss for Marie and all you guys who have inspired and helped my mind shift in amongst sharing your lives on here 💋

Daisy xx

Slinky

Ahh the under cupboard sink. I feel your pain. I think it's such a disorganised space as you can't see into it properly with the sink taking up a lot of the top and the pipes etc obscuring everything else.

Like you I found a tonne of stuff in mine. What I did was decant most of it into a crate which has gone into the garage, and only one of each thing apart from stuff like dusters, was allowed to go back in. Now I 'shop' from the crate in the garage when stuff gets used up so the duplicates are slowly going down.