KonMari 2017 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Karmacat

Loving the thread. *This* thread is so often inspirational, never mind big-heads from BlogLand.

Floss

Kittie, your new house is waiting for you - it will appear when the time is ready

MMF007

Karmacat wrote: »

Loving the thread. *This* thread is so often inspirational, never mind big-heads from BlogLand.

Yeah! Go us!! :T:T:T

Just had a little talk with DH and suggested we go through his pile of gardening mags to extract a few articles then release the bulk. He has fetched them all downstairs, said he can't be bothered going through them and woukd I (!??) take them to give them away. Whoa, have the aliens landed and taken him over??
Now to tackle ( pun intended) the football programs......

I am also pushing my luck, striking while iron's hot, 'n all that - going to try and help him deal with his excess clothes, such as office wear he won't use again. Cover me, I'm going in!

Fen1

Kittie and Elona, great news on the weight loss.

carrielovesfanta

Hi folks

Charly - sending my thoughts to you and yours x

About to read the controversial minimalists post, but from what you guys have said about it, it does occur to me that the purpose of The Minimalists, is obviously, to be minimalist. The purpose of KonMari may lead you towards minimalism but isn't about being minimalist. The reduction of "stuff" is merely a by-product of realising that there are things that can leave.

I notice this on the KonMari Facebook page often... people ask "is 10 pairs of trousers too many?", "how many pairs of pyjamas should I have?". This answer is "the number that brings you joy"! And joy may take many forms.

Take myself. I have a real joy in all my pretty dresses. I love to wear them and look at them. There are about 20-25 dresses and it would bring me great joy to have even more. However, it would NOT bring joy to have the wardrobe overstuffed or overflowing, so dresses will be kept to a sensible level.

On another note it was KM round 2 on the shed. Another (small estate) car full of carp has left. Some things that had died in storage (but were already in the shed when we moved in). Some things uncovered to be used in the future.

clf x

iamsalt

Afternoon.

I also find this a really positive thread which everyone is supported to take things at their own pace and encouraged to take whatever works for them from kondoing.

My home move saga continues, although I have had a productive day at the in-between house, checking some power tools we have moved there and releasing those that have died in storage at mums, another carful to the recycling centre from the shed and greenhouse.

We came home and like mmf007 the aliens have replaced my OH and I was asked to help clear out the shed prior to moving. It has until now been "his" shed and any helpful suggestions of mine that the paint tins of the colours now long gone could be released were met with a firm no, UNTIL TODAY! Oh happy day, one shelf 8' long is now clear!!
I am pleased that they won't be moving with us when the time eventually comes.
S x

Knit_Witch

Just sending hugs to Charly27

firebubble

I read the controversial posts with interest, but I think the Becker post shows he doesn't understand the difference between 'joy' and 'happiness'. Happiness seems to me a goal, rather like the horizon, whereas joy is immediate and in the moment. Happiness might be the idea of a cosy home, whereas joy is actually returning to that cosy home. To me, they are not the same thing.

I also thought he was rather pompous in his idea about 'life purpose' - the thing anyone has to grasp when they are decluttering is acceptance of who they are now, and how they live now. If you can't grasp this, you can't declutter, because you'll be keeping things because they used to be useful/loved by your past self, or you'll be shopping for your aspirational future self. Life purpose is just another future self, which doesn't exist.

I think this is why decluttering is a process, because acceptance of our current self is not easy, and can take time. We might not know who that person is if there is too much past and future stuff obscuring it - we've been encouraged by the advertising industry to only exist in either one of these states. A while ago I read Gretchen Rubins 'Happiness Project' - one step is decluttering, but there was a related point where she talks about accepting the truths of adulthood, and how this involves acceptance that she's never going to be an astronaut or an opera singer, but which once you start accepting who you won't be (and therefore you start accepting who you are) filters down to much smaller things like acceptance that she doesn't like wearing coloured t shirts, so she can let those go and only buy white t shirts.

I loved the post GQ linked to about succcess, and agree that the Minimalists aren't as interesting as they used to be. I don't like that minimalism has been hijacked by the white room and nothing else brigade, as I think everyone on this thread is a minimalist, because I think it's about not having excess, rather than what anyone 'should' have (any 'shoulds' mean we're talking again about a future self).

GreyQueen

:TWise words, firebubble, wise words.

There seems to be a narrative of minimalism developing in the blogosphere and in allied print media. It's as if one has to have a backstory which involves having had (and having willingly given up) a six-figure salary, live with 100 (preferably fewer) items, having a sparsely-furnished-with-expensive-modern-furniture & white-painted-wall home, be a location-independant tech nomad who travels from country-to-country and who lives out of a backpack etc etc........

Now, the only way I could claim a six figure salary is if I counted it to two decimal places (and I'd still have change from 12k a year ), I regard a backpack as suitable for a light amble around town, my tech skills are rudimentary and I have no clue how to use the camera on my dumb-phone and no interest in finding out, and I probably have more than 100 things on my desk, never mind in my whole flat (full disclosure, this dwelling's walls are yellow. Apart from the kitchen, which is pink-ish).

I enjoy minimalism as an aesthetic movement but, being a messy puppy, and pretty sure it isn't for me IRL. Not to mention that as I live in a very small flat, I'd have to own almost nothing at all and I'm not interested in going there - real poverty is a recent enough memory to make faux poverty appalling not appealing.

KM has helped me to think about what I want to keep and why I want to keep it. Because I like it is a perfectly valid reason, whether I call it joy or not. Equally, unless it does something which needs to be done and for which I have no substitute, releasing something because I don't like it is also a perfectly valid position. Plus, I have become less attached to some things, and less emotionally involved with them, which is a new thing for me, and an interesting phenomenon to self-observe.

catshark88

I think this is interesting. It's a quotation from "Goodbye Things" by Fumio Sasaki:

"Minimalism is not a competition. Don’t boast about how little you have. Don’t judge someone who has more than you. A minimalist can easily fall into the trap of bragging about how little they have or competing with others over who has the least. As I said in chapter 1 , I think a minimalist is a person who knows what’s truly necessary for them, a person who reduces so they can focus on what’s really important. The things that are necessary will vary from person to person, so there isn’t much point to comparing yourself with others. In my opinion, a person can be surrounded with a lot of possessions that are truly necessary to them. If owning many things gives someone real meaning and purpose, then there’s really no need for them to try to get rid of anything. There’s no reason to judge a person like that. Similarly, there’s no need to go too far and part with things that are really necessary for you. Minimalism is not a rite of penance, nor is it a competitive sport. It is simply a means to an end." Page 150.