KonMari 2017 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

MMF007

KM is also about finding the right location or even purpose for items so that the magic strikes.
Good example today:
Years and years ago (prob 20?) we bought a clip-on light from Ik** . For a long time it illuminated under the open stairs in the LR, so we could see to put CDs on. Then I had a swap round and the lamp was wrapped up and put in a drawer. Today, while crafting, I realised that the low Autumn light levels were hampering my efforts and literally, had a LBM! I went and got the light out and set it up so there are no shadows. Joy!

Have also managed to find the right location for my new dvd player and remote control. Phew. I was a bit worried about bringing something else into the house, but it is all sorted and I am happy!

elona

Every time visitors are expected I end up whisking everything lying around, clean laundry, post, books etc into my bedroom out of the way.

It means my nice big bedroom looks like something out of "Steptoe and Son" (the black and white version) and has been getting me down so today i decided to make a start on it.

Clean laundry has all been sorted and books and toiletries are in a bag ready to go to a charity shop. I still have a bit more tidying to do but I am better able to find things and my heart does not sink when I go inside the room.

Lovely scented candles are now on the windowsill and the lavender handmade bar of soap is now in the bathroom where I can use it every day.

All clean clothes are now in my wardrobe and easily found and towels are folded in the airing cupboard. Spare clothes hangers and laundry basket are now in the garage out of the way and old tatty slippers are in the bin and new ones are on my feet.


Trying to use what I have and not let things spoil because they are too good to use!!! I also want to be able to find things easily even small things like sticky tape, plasters, notepaper, envelopes and pens and not just go and buy more.

Realised that because I think tidying will take hours I don't even start on it so gave myself a talking to and decided that even ten minutes every half hour is better than nothing and am amazed how much I got done today.

GQ and fen

I agree with you that there is a vast gulf between "poverty", "elegant minimalism" and "frugality". Poverty does not give you a choice! I find people p**cing around being pompous and holier than thou about lifestyle choices and declaiming from on high quite sickening.
Not meaning marie, other bloggers or posters but some of those who have made it a business and a dogma. It reminds me of Victorian preachers who told the poor they were lucky because they did not have the money to be tempted into sins like drink, gluttony etc..

minnie2

So i have some child free time tomorrow. ..not much but enough to start a meaningful declutter and just come upon this thread i have never heard of her books.can i use this method tomorrow without having read it? Help!!

elona

Minnie

Have a quick look on you tube for her videos which will get you started off. You can also order her books from the library.

I still get a kick from seeing knickers neatly folded in a drawer with bras and hankies and socks and pyjamas folded in another drawer so I can find things quickly. I love that the airing cupboard is neatly stacked in terms of size and colour as well. I have my wardrobe sorted so dresses, trousers and jackets are in size order so I can find things that fit me now rather than try to squeeze myself into something and then give up.

DDs were visiting the other week and one of them asked if I had spare socks if I could lend her as hers were soaked and before I could get up another dd said "I know where they are" and went straight to my bedroom and brought back a pair from the chest of drawers.No rummaging around in a full to bursting drawer and trying to pair socks either.

PollyWollyDoodle

Gosh this thread has suddenly got very thoughtful! Catshark, thank you for that quote - really helpful. I love my books, my baking tins and my craft supplies and they're a huge part of what I do and who I am.

I grew up in a happy home but one where money was in short supply - everything was budgeted for carefully, and there wasn't much to spare. We often wore second-hand clothes and made things ourselves.

My brother is horrified that I shop in charity shops from choice, that I sometimes make my own clothes, and that my sister makes handmade greetings cards. He sees all these (and probably buying YS food!) as things you only do if you're poor. I see them as being thrifty and environmentally responsible, and feel sure my mum, who had to do these things from necessity, would have approved. It must be nature, not nurture!

[Deleted User]

yes oh yes GQ, the people in the middle and I would add to that, the people in the middle who grew up in very real poverty, I class myself as one of those, hence accumulating justin stuff and in the latter years, letting go has been one long and difficult psychological battle. Only now almost 70, am I realsising that I will be ok and why I accumulated stuff

I got myself into a pickle last night, went up to bed and thought I would be cold, it was definitely cooler, se went on a hunt for my duvet. I had been so methodical doing my airing cupboard and underbed storage, using many of those vacuum bags which squash airy bedding and pillows. I blooming hadn`t labelled any of them. Many bags later, duvet expanded itself out of a bag and then I spent over an hour re-doing all the bags, with labels and in process dragged out the, gone past it, pillows and other various bits. Made a pile on the landing and went to sleep in my flannelette sheets and wool duvet, cosy as a bug. That pile has just gone to the tip but not a heck of a lot of new space because it had all been vac packed

Wine bottles next, full ones, hm but I don`t drink, hardly at all and don`t want to pass it on to dd as I think they already drink enough wine and I have noticed them drinking less, I don`t want to spark a bad habit. The white wine is easy, I will empty 2 bottles at a time, down the sink. The red is matured elderberry, which should taste gorgeous after maturing for four years but a step at a time, I will use a bit of red in cooking my mutton and have a sip and decide. I am not passing them onto neighbours, they can all afford wine and I don`t want to hand onto the few that can drink a bottle in an evening by themselves

silvasava

So much food for thought from all you lovely people and GQ your phrase about the grubby compromises of poverty really resonates.
I've not read KM but reading though the posts her ethos comes through very clearly. I've been able to let stuff to that had been kept because it was a present, someone's discards or had an emotional attachment. I've still got a long way to go but I am much more objective now especially with Justin and Andy. I know my clothes mountain is because of the paucity up until my 40's but even that is being tackled. Thank you all for your support and continued inspiration xx

greent

Love that quote, catshark x

Both OH and myself come from 1970s single-parent, council-flat households, where the grandparents were very much working-class families in council accom. Money was tight, food ran out by (sometimes before) payday and there was never spare food to have as a snack - it was all accounted for for meals (no chance of being overweight!) I wore my school shoes (Clarks lace ups - weird long skinny feet with narrow heels and long toes with a family trait of curving inwards - Clarks were worth the extra to have something which fitted and lasted) at the weekends. I had one coat (not especially warm, I seem to remember). We only had a fire in the living room and no heating anywhere else - so I'd take my clothes into the living room on a cold morning to get dressed. The inside of our windows had ice on them and the windowsills outside had long icicles hanging down. Parts of the inside had never been boarded and plastered, so were just painted brick - they were especially chilly! Hot water came from the immersion, which was limited - so we'd mainly have strip washes in the sink and wash our hair in the sink, mainly with cold water - a kettle of hot doesn't go far to get all that done! We walked & caught buses to places. I had very few things (toys/ books) and clothes and some floors were bare, some had threadbare carpet (to the point of a metre wide patch of just white threads), others old, worn rugs. We could have fitted into a minimalist lifestyle, I guess - but it wasn't by choice - we were just poor. And what we had wasn't necessarily the good quality, lasting items that you see with some minimalists. Ours wasn't a lifestyle choice - and the minimalism bandwagon often seems to be a well-off lifestyle choice. (Not all minimalists are well off, I know - but for some it seems to pay very well.....)

My house is not minimalist. Some areas are reasonably minimal in number of items - our (large) lounge contains just 2 large sofas, 3 side tables, a footstool (the sort which opens, so throws are 'hidden' in there when not in use) and a tv on a stand. There is a mirror above the mantel - which just has candles on it. The windowsill at one end has 2 wooden ornaments, a plain clear glass vase and a candle on (and a co-ordinating small box of tissues!) The curtains at either end, though, are a deep purple chenille with gold tassle tiebacks. The sofas are a mid-light tweedy lilac - piled with gold, deep purple and mid purple cushions in various textures. When out, the throws are deep purple or golds and browns in fluffy or inviting shiny/ soft fabrics. Not minimalistic to look at or touch - and very joy-sparking (for me) The rest of the house seems to be awash with leg0 (I mean awash!)

I don't think I will ever be fully kondo-ed. Firstly, I'm not sure how anyone with children at home can be - they grow and their tastes and needs change. However, even we as adults 'grow' as a person (I am not the same person I was 10 years ago, when I was an aromatherapist and soap maker by trade) and our tastes/ needs change - and so we continue to also need km, even if that is at less-frequent intervals. An easy example of this for many is retirement - no longer the need for a 'working wardrobe' - maybe also subscriptions to professional journals and a bookshelf full of work-related text books.

I've lost the plot with this post, and it's not coherent. 'Professional' minimalists originally inspired me several years ago but are now often very same-y - and chasing money/ fame for courses/ books/ followers/ subscriptions - and no longer touch me in the same way. I don't want to be minimalist. But I do want what I have to be lovely (which includes a small collection of highly-impractical and not worn very often high heeled shoes, but which I love) Most of all after the obvious health of family etc) I want my house to be a home - a welcoming home for those who live in it, and those who visit it. Less 'stuff' makes that easier in that it's easier to keep clean and tidy - but the vast collection of Leg0 everywhere brings my youngest 2 much joy (and much imagination and creativity is sparked by it) and therefore indirectly brings me joy. AT some point it will go and be replaced by other things - and then it will all go at some further future point

Hmm - definitely wandering off course here - off to get paracetamol and tea (need is not alcohol induced!) and maybe re-visit later!
x

Fen1

SmlSave, quote away. This is a public forum so nothing I type is really mine once it is "out there".

( Hmm, that's a bit philosophical too. Yours, mine, ours, nobody's. Ownership, authorship, individual, communal.....Hmm)


I was feeling quite sad and frustrated last night, so I'd like to clarify my rather jumbled thoughts. I do not blame my relatives for the way they are, it is not "their fault" that they can discard without a second thought, just as it is not "my fault" that every decision must be weighed.
I am encumbered by my past, a way of living that had few choices and any there were were difficult. My relatives have freedom of choice, so much so that they do not even realise that they have that freedom. They can "automatic pilot" through the prosaic and mundane, whilst I'm battling with everything.

How lovely it must be to have such freedom! (Their wastage of perfectly good food is a totally different matter😉)

I know someone who furnished her first house entirely with brand new items. The spare bedroom, however, was empty. She didn't have any money left to furnish it exactly as she wanted. One of her relatives offered a few pieces from their own guest-room ( barely used and in excellent condition.) Friend refused the free furniture, even though it was only make-do-for-now. It was not exactly right, so better to be without.

I would have gladly taken the free furniture.

What does that say about her? What does that say about me?

GoingToDoIt

Hello all, just popping back in after a while away. Certainly there has been some summer/winter rearranging and rejigging now the weather has turned. Also makes a good time to review stuff in storage. A few clothes, cloth bags, etc, had died so another full bag to the clothes/recycle bank.
Very interesting debate about minimalism, I don't follow these blogs etc although I am quite minimalist. People who don't know me always think I am renting/just moved in due to a lack of stuff and nick nacks, apparently.
Similarly, growing up without heating bar the living room fire, with limited food that would run out, I like to know there's an emergency tin of rice pudding in the cupboard at all times. I could have fridge and freezer bursting with food, but I'd not rest well without that back up rice pud!
And I don't buy too much of the YS stuff, usually only bread, if there's a lot. Someone once said to my, you can afford to buy that at full price if you had to, so you're just depriving someone of it who can't (!!!!!!) which I guess is true.