KonMari 2020 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying

Slinky

Funnily enough OH passed a brand new pair of socks to me this morning, to go to the CS, he was given them at Christmas 2018 and they're a Christmas pattern. I knew as soon as I saw them he'd never wear them, they've sat in a drawer for a year but will be leaving the house shortly.


Couple of books and a shirt went to CS on Friday. The shirt seems to have shrunk a bit, so it needs to go to somebody smaller than OH. Plenty of wear left in it.


Today we visited the garden centre and bought a winter flowering cherry tree we saw last weekend. We'd gone looking for espalier apple trees..... but I suddenly thought of the tree we had in our previous garden which I know will be in flower now. We visited 5 garden centres/nurseries and only found one espalier apple tree, but found several examples of the cherry tree. Decided the one at Dobbies was the nicest, so joined their discount scheme to get 10% off the price and had a couple of free drinks whilst we were there. I think we'll get back the £10 we paid to join across the year even if we don't get around to visiting for the free drinks each month.


I need to do some more research on the trees and perhaps make some phone calls/emails rather then spending time/fuel visiting places that don't have what we are looking for. We'd like to find 3 trees that look similar as we want to train them alongside the wall at the bottom of our garden.


The cherry tree has been planted and I kondoed an old shrub rose which I wasn't particularly keen on and is very thorny - huge potential for injury. Was surprised how shallow and small its roots were - it came out very easily. Unfortunately OH broke the main stem on a very pretty small rose I discovered when hacking back the bushes last year. It was growing very well with access to the light but this is a major setback. I've put some tape on the break, there's still some of it intact, hopefully it will heal. Have tied the top of the plant to a cane to help support it. If that bit dies off, there's only one very small stalk coming off the root so I don't give much for its chances.


Whilst out there we inspected the lilac we moved a couple of weeks ago, that's looking pretty happy, as is the clematis we moved next to the pergola (having been moved from our previous house so it's been uprooted twice in the past year), I can see some shoots coming. The large plant which may or may not be a duetzia which we cut right back and moved to make way for the pergola is covered in lots of very small green shoots so that's a win.


One mouse discovered in a trap, has joined the frozen moths OH forgot to put out for the binmen last time, so they'll go this week.


ETA we are still getting a few moths, but down to one or two a night now. Hopefully we're winning that battle.

pavlovs_dog

About 9 years ago on a trip to ikea I bought a wooden venetian blind on a whim for our junk room spare bedroom window. It didn't fit that window or any other in the house, unsurprising really when I eyeballed it rather than measuring properly . I lost the receipt and so it has been in our spare room ever since.

In July 2017, one of the blinds in our bedroom broke. To spare the neighbours from some haunting sights :eek:, I moved the blind from the landing into our bedroom. The landing window has been bare ever since.

Last night whilst looking for my next kondo victims, it dawned on me that we could probably cut the old blind down to fit. I measured it, and we realised that by a hair's breadth it was just about possible. It has taken most of the afternoon, but

1) the blind is up
2) it has been shortened rather than putting it off until another day
3) the tools have been put away.

Feeling very accomplished today! Looking forward to a relaxing evening in front of the telebox whilst I plot my next project to whip this house into shape

maddiemay

3 sandwich toasters given to the furniture charity (1 from clearing DM's house, 1 from our house and 1 from the caravan).

1 large and 1 smaller bag ready for a CS drop in couple of weeks. 1 bag already left this week, slow progress, but in the right direction.

So many things we have which have been needed and used in the past, but no longer.

I will never be minimalist as I like my books etc too much, but determined to have the house clearer as I can foresee the time when we might need to engage a cleaner.

Karmacat

greenbee wrote: »

I have the same thing with spiders I just keep a heavy book handy. I've also discovered that weirdly some of them just hang about until I've gone and put all my protective clothing on

I also wear socks in bed - I put lots of cream or coconut oil on my feet first and claim it's a foot treatment, but it also keeps them warm So you could do this on your last use of socks about to be ragged, and put the bedsocks over the top - no need to wash the oily socks, nice warm feet, and they'll be lovely and soft too!

Thanks for all the above, greenbee :rotfl: I like the idea of overnight foot treatment, might well get into that :j

VJsmum

Yesterday saw a few 'outs'

A pair of leggings with a hole in the crotch and very thin elsewhere
Another bl00dy candle
My birthday pressie - a red kite metal bird, was put in the tree where it belongs

https://www.metalbird.co.uk/collections/the-birds/products/red-kite?variant=17510661455930

(so not 'kondoed' as such, but put in its place rather than hanging about the kitchen in its packaging for months)

DS has decided that, due to his mental health issues, he is probably not going to live much in his uni accommodation. He really needs the stability of home for his final few months so is going to commute. This obviously means that he will be here more and so will his stuff, so I need to think where that can go. Also ... we are fortunate enough to have two lounges, but often the children are in one each, doing different things. Of course we could kick them out but I don't really think it's great for them to be banished to bedrooms, so I am actioning 'operation put the conservatory to use more'. It means I need to rethink some storage issues as the conservatory contains things like buckets and mops and is sometimes used for drying washing. But i'm going to swap some units round, put a TV out there and buy a second hand sofa so it can come into use... It'll cost about £120 or so to action (plus a tv that we need anyway, the old rather knackered one will go in the conservatory) and I think it'll be worth it.

Siebrie

VJsmum wrote: »

DS has decided that, due to his mental health issues, he is probably not going to live much in his uni accommodation. He really needs the stability of home for his final few months so is going to commute.

Compliments to your son on recognising a mental health problem and taking appropriate action!

GreyQueen

Went thru a cardboard folder holding old envelopes for re-use, which normally sits in my bookshelf. Cannot remember when I last needed to re-purpose an envelope but have had this folder (it originally held cards) for about 20 years.


All gone now, many of the envelopes have been re-purposed to scrap paper which I will use up at the office in the next few weeks and the rest, plus the folder, into the recycling bin.


Not a huge gain in space, or in physical weight spared, but one less thing on the premises.


I have also brought some fancy handmade soaps into service and am going to be turning out three tops to the chazzer, in place of the one which I brought into the home a couple of days ago.


Baby steps, baby steps ............

Slinky

VJsmum, you can probably pick up a second hand sofa free on Facebook Marketplace. I see loads on there that people just want to get rid of, we gave one of ours to a charity shop. If you're not bothered about what it looks like and just need something to sit on for a bit, not worth wasting money on if you don't plan on keeping it long term.

VJsmum

ooh good idea, Slinky, thanks.

Thanks Siberie, he just needs nursing through it. And an eye keeping on him. We have had a suicide in our family and, whilst he hasn't expressed any desire to, we are now very alert to any mental health issues. He is under the eye of the local mental health team but they aren't all that helpful..

two more candles out today - I 'think' that's the last of cheap candles bought by DD...

VJsmum

I was wrong - another s0dding candle out today... See, I am kondoing by categories after all

Yesterday was a shower gel, finally used up after sitting around for weeks with half an inch in the bottom. Add a bit of water and I got 4 more showers out of it...:T and some more out of date hundreds and thousands type decorations

Also, I seem to have doubled my output to two a day...

Edit: add a bottle of pillow spray, used up as air freshener and then binned