KonMari 2020 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying

Siebrie

FoxFace said:

Hi everyone, I haven't posted here yet as I generally loiter around the decluttering thread.
I have half been following this method though, I find the "joy" thing incredibly useful because it helps be to be completely honest with myself about what I need to keep. I also love the folding/storing method. The only difference is that I am still decluttering by area, not by item, because that works better for me right now.
Really enjoying getting rid of clutter though.

Welcome, FoxFace!

The KonMarie method kind of lets you follow you gut feelings about where and what you declutter. I find it hard going against this gut feeling, and much easier to go with the flow; there will come a point where you are actually looking forward to decluttering a category or a space, and points where there is no stress when you are actually NOT decluttering but enjoying life. (I get tense when I have the feeling I should be decluttering but really don't want to, because I want to finish reading a book, or just sitting in the garden with a glass of wine, uninterrupted, enjoying the sunshine. It's been great being relieved of feeling the 'you should be decluttering'-vibe. Does this make sense?)

Out of the house: one bag-for-life full of a friend's clothes, which she left here 2 years ago when she had overfilled her suitcases and needed to leave some behind. She's back for 3 weeks, staying at her sister's, but spent last night at our place and I just brought the bag down and gave it back to her. Husband didn't agree to give it back just yet, and said 'all in due course', but I wasn't passing up on this opportunity

Karmacat

camelot1001 said:

Thanks Karmacat, I'll put them all in a bag and leave them in the car for when I go over that way.

Thats great!  I'm supposed to have left the house for my local one right now, but I'm hungry **embarrassed emoji**!

maddiemay

Two more bags of clothes, costume jewellery, and bits and bats dropped at CS in neighbouring town this morning, a lovely soft Autograph brand man sized sweater came home with me, now need to have a little look in wardrobe/drawers to try and find at least 2 more items to donate.  The lovely designer brand grey cashmere sweater I found in a CS for £3 a couple of weeks ago has been passed on to OH, that helps redress the balance a little.

Siebrie

Ragbag: 1 sock, 1 pair of girl's winter tights.

Donation: 2 girl's tops, 17 children's pyjama pieces (tops and bottoms, they don't all match up).

Slinky

Things have slowed down on the kondoing front here, however I have donated 3 books to the library. They only arrived at Christmas as gifts from OH. One I managed about 40% of before deciding life was too short. The other 2 also fit into the 'what was he thinking' category. I think he read the reviews on the backs and didn't bother to read a sample of the text. Neither was of a style I would get to grips with so I didn't bother past the opening paragraph. Call me hasty, but I felt joy as I passed them on.

maddiemay

Slinky - there are so many books that I would like to read and probably not enough years left in order to read them (I am 70 after all),certainly I do not persevere too long with something that does not really sing to me, no matter what reviews or recs by friends say.  I bought 3 new to me novels at the weekend, but do have 8 ready to donate as soon as I can get a lift to town.

Siebrie

I decided about 10 years ago that I would outsource my book storage, aka the local library. I am still very happy with that decision. 

camelot1001

I'm with you Siebrie, there are far more books in the library than I have years although I will happily read books that are gifted to me. My boss seems to read a lot and passes them on to me. Some I enjoy but others just get donated to the CS as life is too short!

maddiemay

I love the library too, I mostly order in what I want at 75p a time, live in a small town and cannot often find what I want, this is fine for me, I am not rich, but it all helps keep the library running, there have been so many cuts in the county.  Books that are not in the system I mostly source from CS and re donate back, or donate to the library.  I have loved libraries since I was able to borrow my first one from the school library more than 60 years ago.

GreyQueen

  My most perfectly-imagined life would a small apartment with a secret entrance into the main library, with out-of-hours rights to roam the stacks. The first kind of card I ever carried in my wallet was a library card and it is still the most useful and money-saving one, even 40+ years on. I read a lot, mostly from the library, occasionally charity shop books which are sometimes shared between family members and then re-donated. It's amazing how much entertainment can be achieved from a few pence, wisely spent!