KonMari 2018 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Karmacat

1/8 of the state pension for me - I have no wage, and no pension, but I'll pretend I do!

Wednesday2000

I have been watching a woman called Jennifer L Scott on YouTube and she is doing a 10 item wardrobe. I have just gone upstairs and put much more clothes in the bag to be picked up this week!:T

silvasava

Afternoon all - hmm off to work out the percentage of our council tax to our pensions am prepared to be horrified.
No 'proper' kondoing :- took 3 bags to the Sally Army that were left over from our club jumble. Have just finished making the sail cover for my boat and boy am I glad to see the back of that! Fits a great and looks very posh so worth the effort ( and the language!) I've got another small (in theory) sewing project to do and that will be something else out of the house. Bit of a state of flux at home at the moment but this year will start moving soon (she says hopefully )

[Deleted User]

1/8 of my monthly income. No street lights, 3 buses a day going 4 miles each way, bin every 2 weeks

I am off to hospice shop on wednesday, will take 5 items including a never worn jumper, black very good bodywarmer, brand new with labels fitflop clogs. Podiatrist said fitflops are bad for my feet as are crocs, which he called devils footwear. My feet have been great since I took his advice and my toes have stabilised, priceless advice

I never did get around to removing 3 of my special pots. I put them together as a group, half filled with plastic bottles, topped with soil and grit and await 3 achillea arriving tomorrow

daisy_1571

GreyQueen wrote: »

However, my real problem is lack of space. Home is 240 sq feet, a bedroom just a bit bigger than a standard double bed, a 6 x 6 ft kitchen, and the largest room (sitting room) a whopping 9 '7" x 12 ' 9'.

Just been catching up with the last few pages and spotted the above, Ive been watching a programme called Tiny House, Big Living recently. Its about people making tiny houses for themselves to live in. They start with the idea that they are narrow and small enough to tow although not all of them end up being moved around, so can have decks or other outside space attached but generally they are between 150 to 250 square feet so you would fit in nicely GQ.

Although some of them annoy me intensely with how stupidly difficult they make their lives (ie the bed sliding partly away under something with a third poking out for the settee - seriously ? Try sitting on that for a few nights and see how comfy it is and how great it is to have to store your pillows and bedclothes somewhere every morning then tell me its better than a proper settee rant over !!) there can be good ideas about how to make things interchangeable and adaptable. I'm sure a search on t'internet would bring up some of the progs if you cant find it on your available tv channels if anyone wants to check it out.

I enjoy it but cant help wondering when they are so excited to see it beautifully finished but still sparse for the tv cameras - where are you going to store your (for example) washing powder and toilet rolls? Its all very well having 5 pairs of pants and 2 tshirts and I can see how that would be workable for some people but unless you plan to go to the shops every day to buy everything in small sizes as you need it (which is of course much more expensive than buying larger sizes and decanting things into more manageable bottles etc) you are going to need another trailer to store everyday "life" items ??? Another couple had the dog's bed pushed most of the way under their settee. "Oh thats great" she says, "we can have it away when he's not using it and get it out when he's using it" What ??? How often does your dog go out without you ??? Does he go to night school perhaps ??? And when he is in a room with you with a floor space smaller than 3' by 6' are you expecting him to sometimes stand nonchalantly leaning against the wall instead of wanting to lie down??? No, its going to be out all the time cos even when its away it was sticking out by 6" so you step on it as you get to your own settee, hmmmm, practical. :rotfl: Grey Queen maybe you can sympathise/empathise with them but have found the workarounds ??

Anyway, thats just today's thought (sorry it got a wee bit ranty there ) for anyone who feels in a reflective mood.

In other news, I have emerged from my attic and i would say there is now about a third of the items up there now than there was 3 or 4 weeks ago. Bags and bags of old clothes taken to cs for selling - most as rags some as items :T, other household/decorative items to cs, some stuff been eba*d, several bags of crafty items, yarn and material gone to the local scrap store, some items to local auction house, a few things to the tip, some things brought back into use, some china still sitting around waiting to go to its next home, one bag of "retro" (80s) clothes waiting to be found a new home, a pile of about 10 now empty suitcases to be compared and then the excess taken to cs, a pile higher than me of now empty plastic boxes again to be compared and weeded out. (Id just like to say that we have never bought a suitcase in our lives :rotfl: they have all been "inherited" from ones already in the attic when we moved here, from my mum and dad when they were downsizing and from clearing f/mils bungalow. Several went to the tip as zips no longer worked or they were so ancient they were heavier than the clothes you would put in them :rotfl:)

House feels so much lighter and i love *feeling* the space up there when i am walking about the house, I can almost feel the floorboards lifting back up into place and no longer groaning :j. It was so depressing going up when there was piles and piles of boxes (and suitcases:rotfl:) all heaped up. Everything was so dusty and grimy it all had to be cleaned as it came downstairs and Im sure i will be coughing it up for weeks. It just felt like such an insurmountable task that it was easier to ignore it for years. Now it is almost a pleasure to go up and see floorboards stretching off into the distance :T

Hope all well

Daisy xx

MMF007

Daisy, I totally agree with your rant!

Sounds like a huge achievement re the attic, well done :T. It does feel good to get rid of an oppressive heap of Stuff, doesn't it.

Well I collected my auction purchases yester and need to clean and restore the colour on parts of the chairs (faded and starved wood, some surface mildew from damp storage), and replace a damaged castor on the two-person footstool! The footstool is gorgeous but too big for my little house. I shall have to part with it

Shall be kondo-ing considerable money at dentist's later :( I am finally getting my new tooth fitted

PollyWollyDoodle

Oh good luck MMF007 - it'll be worth the wait, and the money.

Daisy, once again you've made me roar with laughter. I'm wondering what the dog would study at night school ... advanced barking? Ball retrieval? However I do agree, while fascinating, some of the Tiny Houses are not very practical.

I've always had a vague yearning for a caravan or campervan. It was only when I started the MK journey that I realised what lies behind this. In vehicles like this, or boats, or tiny houses, everything has a place - often custom built. You are forced to be tidy because of the tiny space. Now that I have finished MK, everything in my home has a place (well in theory!) and it's so satisfying to put stuff away. I do wonder if it's a lack of control over stuff that makes these tiny houses of such interest; we can all fantasise about living in complete order.

Frankly, if my living space was 6' X 3' I wouldn't want to share it with another person, let alone a four-footed one who doesn't wash that often!

silvasava

Polly - we caravanned for many years and now I have a boat. You rapidly learn to put everything away after it's been used, everything on board must be an essential and where possible have more than one use and everything stored in its proper place! The boat has been far more challenging than the 'van as it's smaller, has much less storage space, a lot of which is needed for the actual 'gubbins' to run the boat. Must admit my early caravanning days have led to some rather inventive solutions!
Maybe I need to apply them to my home ....................;)

maryb

Kindles are a godsend when boating. When the DDs were small and Kindles hadn't been invented it was a real struggle to store all the books they brought for a two week holiday - let alone my books and a few CDs.

Now they are older and usually only come for a week and not always together and it feels so CROWDED - it's amazing to look back and marvel at how we managed. Let alone when they were babies - all that STUFF - bottles formula, nappies etc.

[Deleted User]

Grim out today, I need a project, playing with enthisiasms isn`t enough or time will pass too slowly. I have cheery local radio on and am mainly under the stairs, I only have to bend my head to get in, it is like a mini pantry and masses bigger than the pokey little spaces I saw when house hunting.

Emptied now, apart from very long lasting hm jams marmalades and bottled fruit. Hubbie made freestanding shelving to go in there because he could not go in to fix shelves. I am glad of that, they will be going with me, five fully empty spaces on and under

All hook racks are unscrewed and out, nice ones too, seeing them in daylight, will be good for my new home. I left my accordian in there, won`t be re-learning until I have moved. I need a space for three spinning wheels and it is perfect, moving those means that I can make my crafting study look like a study. I have 3 rolser trolleys in there, ok I could not resist bargains in the past but they are wonderful for storage. They are empty and I think will also fit in that space but I will put all my spare large shopping bags in one, all useful for moving

MK enabled this, having done 2 passes in that area. This is final and will make pre-moving storage space

That stuff for hospice tomorrow, I couldn`t do it, it all fits and the two tops look nice plus made of wool and are new. They will be hung in clear sight in my wardrobe, ideal for this weather

edit: yay :j thanks to initial MK work, I have finished and have neatly stored under the stairs, accordion, two spinning wheels in padded bags, four different wooden weaving looms, 3 rolsers, two lots of kilners including a big box and my brompton bike. All the preserves are still in place and everything is neat and easy to take out and best of all, my study looks like a study. I had to push furniture but have sisal carpet so it was easy with no remaining marks. I feel very happy and satisfied today, that room was bugging me, now it makes me happy