KonMari 2020 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying

Slinky

Managed to get rid of our old garden bin. The council scheme changed giving us bigger bins (for mere money) and the old bin smaller was left behind. Somebody posted on a local social media page they had one to give away, I said I also had one, and managed to give it away which brings us down to 5 wheelie bins from 6.

Hazelnutty

To be honest, I don't think many of us on here are seriously Kondo'ing but applying the basic ideas here and there as they work for us

I'm delighted to have shifted a box of books (the ones I couldn't get an offer for) plus two recycling bags full of clothes and bits to a donation centre in my old town (visiting friends today). It feels good to shift them finally. With the renovation project about about to start, we really need to (literally) get our house in order!

bit_by_bit

Hi All,
I work in a charity shop, a standard size clothes and bric a brac type. We were the first to open in our suberb and were immediatly overwhelmed with donations. The first day of opening someone dropped off 22 bags of stuff. I thought I would give you some tips that may help the charity a little and your a little bit.
First, sort your stuff into seasonal. It is no good donating winter stuff just now, it will go in the rag bag as there is usually little storage.
Second: get there early as by the afternoon their store is full. At my shop we have four storage pens (one for each day of being isolated)  that are full by lunchtime. 
Three: just take a couple or three of bags so you are less likely to be declined. 
Four: If they say they can't take donations right now, don't get upset. Its just that everyone has had the same idea and they can't fit it all in. 
Yesterday I did door duty and had to turn four or five people away with full boot loads. We just had no place to put it. People do get upset and one agressive last week. I advised them to come another day in the morning or redirected them to the MIND shop that has just reopened over the road. 
Happy Kondoing. I have found the methods very useful, especially putting everything of one type, like wool, in one place. I had no idea I had so many notebooks. Two crates and a box full. Never mind the 10 inch pile of scrap paper I had ammassed from old essays and letters over the years. Lol. I will never use that much paper in my lifetime.  You can't tell I have hoarding tendenceis can you
Thankyou for reading and take care.

Slinky

Yesterday morning I spotted that we may have a wasps nest in the roof, so with nothing planned for Saturday, we decided to go up and investigate.  Couldn't see any wasps in the loft, although there is something that may have been an old small nest which didn't look active.

While we were up there, we had a good tidy round. We put some new loft insulation last autumn when we shoved stuff out of the way but never put it back tidily as we were shattered at the end and tired of bumping into beams. With a good tidy, we got everything into one small area at the front of the house, and had took about 15 minutes to lay a couple of packs of insulation we hadn't had room to put down over some of the newly created space.  There's another bit we can still insulate so we will get some more next time we visit the big orange shop.  We also found some bits that can go to the tip next time we go - a large triangular piece of vinyl left over from when we had the flooring re-done. Can't see a use for it, we kept it in case the entrance lobby would need redoing after we rented the house out, but it doesn't. We've offered it to a neighbour who says she will speak to her daughter. If we can't rehome it we'll take to the tip.  Not really too much stuff to get rid of, but then we only moved in last year so there shouldn't be much we don't really want to keep.

Regarding wasps, there's still signs of them outside, but I think they aren't getting past the roof lining.

Slinky

It seems to have gone very quiet on this thread!

We eventually kondoed the wasps, took visits from two different pest controllers. First one didn't want to come back and have another go when it didn't work, and refunded our money. Won't use him again.

We managed to get rid of the large offcut of vinyl flooring left over from when we had the flooring replaced 3 years ago. Kept for Justin..... Offered it free on Facebook and it went in 24 hours.

The old gas fire will be going to the tip this week, along with some old curtains and some bits and bobs.

VJsmum

Oh nice to see this thread resurrected.

DD decluttered, tidied and deep cleaned her room - leaving me (of course it's me) with bags and bags of donations to the chazzer.  I will gradually filter it into the small chazzers in this town.  I daren't give them it all at once as they are probably overwhelmed but will do mixed bags of books, shoes, bric a brac and clothes over the next little while (probably months).  The room is amazing though and she's kept it tidy for a whole week!

PollyWollyDoodle

I’d like to say that the reason this thread’s gone quiet is because we have all finished Kondoing the house and never needed to do it again!  Sadly, not quite ... but I do think my house is generally much tidier than it used to be. Like most people I have thrown out more stuff during lockdown, and I’m waiting to be able to take it to a CS. The overall tidying process is still going on, not sure I’ll ever perfect it but I’m much better at throwing things out than I used to be. 

GreyQueen

  I wish, Polly!

Am laid up at the parental homestead for post surgical recovery, so am kondo I got thought not deed. Mum is having fits and starts of clearing out, including bringing out long forgotten summer dresses. Her decluttering motivation is presently to make older age easier......

camelot1001

Hope you make a swift recovery GreyQueen.

I've taken my overflowing bags to the CS but as fast as I clear out I seem to acquire more Grandchild related 'stuff'!

Hazelnutty

hello all! Work on the house has finally started in earnest. As the downstairs is being completely reorganised, everything has to be put somewhere, which means the loft, or in our bedrooms or in the new garden room. So I hope that'll sharpen our resolve for another wave of decluttering. I've said I don't want anything being moved, especially into the loft unless we're keeping it deliberately but whether we'll be able to stick to that plan is another matter 2 boxes of DVDs went to our favourite charity this week and a mass of random hangers listen on FB. There are still some 'random !!!!!!' boxes in the loft from the move (you know the ones at the end of the day when you sweep the remaining bits and bobs into a cardboard box?!) so my goal is to deal with one per weekend. It's not a high bar I know but a start!