KonMari 2020 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying

Slinky

Thinned out some of the cauliflowers on Sunday as they are getting too big for the cloche. I used some cardboard loo roll inners and kitchen towel inners as suggested by Siebrie, and some other bits I cut up from a cardboard box. Hopefully they will help protect against pests.  I moved some of the thinnings into different parts of the garden and a trough. Not sure if they'll be OK but they either survive or don't.  We need to thin and move some others which are smaller, but will wait a few more days. The rain is certainly helping as I can't believe how much watering I've been doing in April.

UntidySquirrel

I've just finished reading Marie's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing and decided to use her method to declutter and optimize my belongings. However, I've come across one problem. When I use her "spark joy" method, I realise that I need to replace a lot of things which I use regularly. If I discard them, I would need to buy new items very quickly, and that would lead to a lot of expenses and time and stress from shopping. Now I'm at a loss at what to do. She advises to do the tidying process quickly, but we weren't really planning to buy so many new things in the next 6 months. However, now using those items that don't spark joy really bothers me.. Has anyone face similar problems while applying her method? Any thoughts on what I should do?

ivyleaf

Don't worry Squirrel - just replace them with joy-sparking ones as and when needed.  There's no need to get rid of the whole lot and replace them now all in one go   

Andrea9876

My thinking is that if it is something you need and use, it must have a purpose and place in your life so should not have made the edit pile. The fact that you want and need to keep  the item;  it's usefulness could be the joy it brings. 

Slinky

It's hard for things like loo brushes and screwdrivers to 'spark joy' but I don't think it's a necessity to get rid of them or replace them for that reason. Unless of course like my house you have more loo brushes than toilets (a legacy of downsizing our house last year). I must address that issue a get rid of one.

Siebrie

It really brings the message home that I need to buy or accept or keep things only if they spark joy. There are too many items in my house that were given to me, that are useful, but that I don't necessarily like, for instance any sandy coloured kitchen linen. I prefer brightly coloured linens.

When I started out living on my own, as a student, 30 years ago (ouch!) I bought all kitchen stuff in white. I find it soooo boring now, and some items are still around (whoever thought a plastic colander could last that long?). They are nearing the end of their lives now, so I will wear them out and replace with items that spark more joy. I definitely don't mind if one of my daughters drops something and it becomes dented beyond use.

UntidySquirrel

Thank you for all your answers! I started reading her second book and now things look a bit clearer to me. I am starting to appreciate things for the role they are playing in my life right now. However, I've also decided to make small changes one by one to replace old items with new ones that spark joy. Some of them are really inexpensive like a pair of sissors or a new bed sheet. As for the ones that need more investment, I've decided to do that later on and not to rush and create uncessesary financial stress for our family. All in all, I'm really grateful to Marie for her method. When I was growing up, my family was rather poor (I'm from Ukraine and times were really tough when I was a child), so I got used to using things that are old and ugly without replacing them as long as they were more or less functional, but now I can actually afford to bring more joy into my life and should get rid of this habit in order not to pass it on to my future kids! I'm becoming more sensitive to what I like and what I would love to see in my home rather than using whatever I have just because it's kinda doing its job.

Hazelnutty

Hello everyone!! I'm going to catch up with the 5 pages of posts since I was last here in mid-March, but for now, an update. Well, after massive stress we managed to exchange contracts, which in hindsight was really lucky (although as some of you will know, it should have been way before but we had a tricky buyer). I could see what was coming so negotiated with the seller of our new house to activate the clause in the contract to allow us to move in early, and with the movers to pack and take our stuff the following week. So we moved in the week before lockdown! 
Our plans for getting the work that needed doing done obviously went out the window so since then it's been a case of piling up boxes in the dining area that would have gone in a newly boarded loft and generally living with chaos. Plus all the dumps and charity shops were understandably closed and people not wanting to do FB sales so decluttering has been on hold.
I'm still pretty wary about contact for various reasons but just in the last week we've managed to re-start our efforts using contactless collections. Shifted a shoe cabinet, some of DD's clothes and shades and curtains left by the owner. We still have piles and piles of cardboard boxes and bags of packing paper and stuff for the dump but will just have to live with it a bit longer, which is fine.
It's so nice to feel a new life has started. It's going to take longer than I'd planned to get settled, but we're all healthy so far so am grateful that I could move and lockdown safely. The only real aggravation was my tricky buyer coming back to me after completion demanding I provide window keys I've never had... I really just want to be done with the old place

greent

Glad to hear you've moved ok, Hazelnutty! - fab timing  

Cardboard boxes are always (including at the mo) sought after on our local fbook pages for movers - that and the packing paper could perhaps be shifted that way? X

Hazelnutty

Thanks, greent. The boxes came from our removal company so need to return them but could offer the packing paper - good call!