KonMari 2018 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

greenbee

I have visitors due in a couple of hours, so a lot of the stuff that's been hanging around for ages is suddenly being sorted

I'm going to have to emptied all the waste paper baskets before they arrive as they have suddenly filled up! Lots of stuff has been put back where it should be. Mind you, I still can't find the cutlery that's been missing since the utility room was done...

Karmacat

GreyQueen wrote: »

I feel a degree of impatience with some forms of decluttering, even kondo-ing, where there seems to be an undercurrent of affluence informing the promotor's decision-making processes.

As a small example, I presently have more household linens than I need but they were all part-used before they came into my keeping. I'm happy to use a towel until it's thin and balding (and then I'll hem it for a cleaning rag) but know from experience that such a towel would be deemed to be rag only by a chazzer, despite it having the ability to provide many years' worth of drying service. Ditto with variations for the bedlinen.

Therefore, I would gain a tiny amount of space, but nothing else would be gained by the world, if I was to declutter towels or bedlinen that I will eventually use up. I have committed to buying no more, probably for the rest of my life.:rotfl:

Well said, GQ, really good post there, thank you.

Greenbee, hope the visit goes well.

As for me, I'm stepping up a gear in emptying the kitchen, the packages containing the new one are going to be delivered next Thursday

:eek::eek::eek:

I have my own version of what GQ's referring to: not only a lot of extra clothes that are perfectly acceptable for everyday wear, which come from my mum, but also kitchen equipment, ditto. And a big stock of food ... if I say so myself, I'm really good at fitting a lot of stuff into one space, and that's coming back to bite me at the moment

Purpl3

Thank you for the advice! I hadn't thought of that way of approaching things, I'll definitely give that a go.

I'm only in a room in a shared house, so in theory I shouldn't have a lot of stuff, but in practice I have loads!!! I'm going to tackle one of the boxes I keep under my bed today, haven't opened them in ages so dreading what I'll find.

Igamogam

GreyQueen wrote: »

Therefore, I would gain a tiny amount of space, but nothing else would be gained by the world, if I was to declutter towels or bedlinen that I will eventually use up.

This exactly! I am shedding lots and lots of things that I know longer use and it is all done so responsibly. I am shedding lots and lots of stuff that I dont need, and never will and it is all done so responsibly. I am shedding lots and lots of things that have no place in my life anymore ie spark joy, and I do so responsibly. BUT there are things that I know I will come to need/want/use in the future and I dont want to spend hard earned money on again just to 'gain space' now.

Its a bit of a battle.........

GreyQueen

Regard it as a treasure hunt, Purpl3, you will be meeting old friends. These were things you allowed into your life at one point, they must have some fond memories, not to be objects of dread.


Quick word of advice, if something can't be fathomed, put it back. Put the box back. Set yourself a note to revisit in a month. Some decisions, or indecisions, are determined by the emotional state of the day, rather than real values. Or maybe determined by the state of your digestion. Let them pass.


Yes, Igamogam, very correct attitude. With my linens, they all fit of the shelves of a cupboard which is only 20 inches wide. And that cupbpard includes non-linens like a small hamper of sweaters, a bag of soaps and some TP and bags for life and a couple of blankets.



Even if I decluttered enough to clear One Whole Shelf, it would still only be a tiny area in a small cupboard whose utility is limited to things which wouldn't suffer by being kept very warm from the hot pipes in there.


As I have wittered on about before, I am working the stash down by concentrating the use on one or two of most categories, such as one tea towel, two bath towels, one hand towel in the kitchen, one pillowslip, a couple of flannels. This sees things used to the limits of their utility, then they get ragged. Eventually, I use up what I have already accumulated and do not waste the energy, water and oil which was used to process them into their present form and bring them to the point where I could buy them - cotton such as my towels and bedlinen is one of the world's dearest crops in terms of water, pesticides, and oil to process it.

Siebrie

I agree with the above: I wear down or out whatever I have, for instance at home or in the garden, focussing on a few items each time. We take our old bath towels to the swimming pool if it is just us, but have nice ones for when others will see them. I wear my old T-shirts underneath my woollen sweaters, wearing out the T-shirt and saving the sweater from having smelly armpits. I use one or two tea towels and kitchen cloths the most, then bringing them on our summer camping trip and throwing them away there (responsibly, if possible).

Husband having so many clothes annoys me, especially as he can't be bothered to keep the piles straight, but the clothes are all bought from Salvation Army, or on discount, and are passed on to his relatives in Africa, so they don't represent an enormous amount of money.

GreyQueen

I'm in my early fifties and having been living independantly of my family since my late teens, and have never ever bought a new towel or new bedlinen in my life. Have bought a couple of duvets over the decades, but the covers are all pre-loved.


About 20 years ago, I wombled a suitcase full of clean ironed linens from a pile of stuff another bootsaler had driven off and abandoned when they hadn't sold. The case contained two immaculate kingsize duvet covers and six matching pillowcases. In as-new conditon and a plain colour. The covers are still going strong, I'm down to three of the pillowcases, I expect the one currently in service to wear out later this year.


Where clothes are suitable for gardening in, which means loose enough or stretchy enough to be able to work, they get demoted to gardening wear and will eventually wear out that way.

Purpl3

Thanks GreyQueen, that's a lovely way to look at it! I'm progressing through my pile at the moment- I'll be honest there is quite a bit in here that I couldn't even remember.

GreyQueen

Purpl3 wrote: »

Thanks GreyQueen, that's a lovely way to look at it! I'm progressing through my pile at the moment- I'll be honest there is quite a bit in here that I couldn't even remember.

If memory serves, wasn't it Andy Warhol who commented that you could switch the contents of somebody's closet with somebody else's closet and no one would notice?


I've riffed on the concept of C-space, a metaphysical concept modelled on L-space, where Terry Pratchett described how all libraries in the multiverse are somehow connected to the magical library at the Unseen University. I think all cupboards and possibly all storage boxes are somehow connected.


Which is why you will find things in your keeping which you have never ever seen before, and lose things which will never be seen again. It's a wrinkle in space-time (or summat ).

greenbee

Visit went well thanks KC - mower now working, plantlets dug up for my brother, books given to niece and nephew for them to try some new authors (I have all my childhood books still!), one of the two footballs that have magically appeared in the garden has been taken away (along with a small plastic patio furniture set for them to use temporarily while they save for new garden furniture) and we had a lovely time catching up over lunch in the pub.

I agree with GQ about not throwing things out that you have a use for and have space to store. I likewise keep a lot of linens - my mum had masses of single flat sheets (mostly inherited from my grandmother!) and doesn't now have much use for them. So I have lots - I put them under duvet covers to save changing the duvet cover so often, and TBH prefer them to fitted sheets on the bottom. When we were kids we had sheets and blankets in the summer - I always remember 'top to bottom, bottom in the laundry, clean top sheet'. Most of them were sides-to-middled and while fine on the top, not so comfy on the bottom - they worked their way down from kingsize to double to single, then to dust sheets and eventually to rags.

I think I need to go through my dust sheets and wash them as the point is that they should be clean. None of my builders seem to manage to use them properly - they get the surfaces they are supposed to be protecting dirty and the dust sheets are filthy too! I'll wait for some good weather and sort through them properly, making sure I separate out the stuff to use as rags.