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KonMari 2018 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

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  • Slinky
    Slinky Posts: 9,910
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    Well, empty crates have been returned to the loft, along with some decorating tools. He has parted with 3 books and a roadmap of Sussex..... And about half a sack of recycling......


    Most of the rest of it is back in his office. At least it looks a bit tidier in there.


    There are of course those difficult bits of gubbins to find a home for, which are cluttering up other rooms still.



    Progress of some sort has been made, we still have a long way to go, considering we are going to put the house up for sale in about 6-8 weeks.
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  • I have always been a hoarder but my husband was the total opposite. My ‘clutter’ used to drive him mad. In recent years however he has become worse than me. Wonder if it is an age thing? Never mind books and papers, we have an old double bed in our loft...
  • Igamogam
    Igamogam Posts: 6,024
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    My OH is blind to his clutter/hoarding/justins etc but mine he can see from half a mile away and complains loud and long about it. I now have a control over it as have analysed the hows and whys and wherefores about accumulating stuff and I can now clear out happily and responsibly with a net flow out of the door of stuff. Its slow and steady and no way KM style but it is happening.........OH however remains blind to it. I have managed to ditch some of his stuff unknown to him - old magazines, some holier than thou T shirts from when he was a teenager in the 1970's and he has never asked for them. The clutter/hoard has been the source of some of our greatest arguments........

    In time I will finish and I am not putting any pressure on myself. It didn't happen over night so will not be sorted overnight either. I have a vision in my head of me doing the last sweep with a brush of each room and standing back to admire the emptiness :)

    I just hope the OH will jump on board soon........he put a cardboard box in the attic at the weekend from a new fancy gadget bought for the log burner.........for effin Justin he said :mad: Justin obviously likes boxes and boxes of IT obsolete carp too..........
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  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008
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    :D Justin is a beggar for hoarding boxes, isn't he?! He must have a franchise in every house with a loft I've ever encountered. I count myself lucky to live in a tiny flat with no loft (some topfloor flats do have lofts) so I cannot be tempted to stash things.


    Now, my storage shed is a whole 'nother story.


    Am slowly accumulating another donation bag of bits and bobs and a large quantity of stuff will exit the home late next month when the parental chariot comes up for tater planting time - big box of books to share with the family and then go for donation in another place clean across the county line.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
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    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • carrielovesfanta
    carrielovesfanta Posts: 2,978
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    edited 19 February 2019 at 9:12AM
    My dad is a funny one for placating Justin. He has kept the last two sets of cordless phones. They needed to be replaced as something was wrong with them (although they were still making and receiving calls).

    He is keeping them in case the current phone breaks so that he can hook it up until they can get a new one. Nothing wrong with this idea except:
    • Surely you only need one for Justin
    • They have a 24 hour Tesco 20 mins walk away
    • They both have mobile phones
    • No one calls them on the land line apart from cold callers
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  • Slinky
    Slinky Posts: 9,910
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    Boxes.......... oh dear. OH likes taking photos. He doesn't actually do anything with the photos, but his pleasure is in taking them. Hey ho. This has resulted in a large amount of boxes that things like lenses come in. They're currently shoved on top of the wardrobe in our spare bedroom, having been turfed out of his office when we emptied that for decorating purposes. I've suggested that these small boxes be put into a large box to go into the loft (sorry, sorry, don't be cross with me). Otherwise they are just clutter for when we try to sell the house. It's pointless trying to have the conversation about why he needs these boxes. He also has a lot of old unused wet-film camera equipment in the loft.........you've guessed it, we have the boxes for those too.



    Talking of boxes, I bought him a very expensive watch for Christmas. I'm not kidding you, the box it came in is nearly the size of a small suitcase. The size you take on a budget airline as luggage you can put in the overhead locker. You get my drift. Can you believe it, a suitcase sized box for a watch. I nearly cried. It also contains a sculpture to store the watch in (except for insurance purposes, the watch has to go in the safe). I wrote to the watch manufacturer telling them what I thought about this damned useless sculpture and the box. They didn't reply. I regret the purchase now except he does love the watch.
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  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008
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    :)carrie, your Dad may be my long lost maternal uncle.


    My mother once had cordless phones (set of two, one upstairs, one down). They weren't terribly satisfactory and were replaced with a plug in answerphone. That lasted a few years and was replaced with another like it. And there is also a spare non-answerphone landline phone in case the phone goes wrong and they're not sure if it's the line or the phone. IYSWIM.


    For business reasons, there are two completely separate landlines into their home, so it is perfectly possible to unplug one phone and plug it into the other line 20 feet away, should it become necessary. But the cordless phones still have to stay. Oh, and they have a mobile each, too!


    There is also the matter of the speaker brackets on the lounge wall. The speakers which fit them are on the opposite side of the room hiding among the clutter on top of a tall piece of furniture. They've been over there for 25+ years and there's no plan to move them back onto the brackets. They're connected to a 1970s stacking stereo, of which various 'ponents (radio, twin tape decks) are defunct, and which is itself a roosting spot for a CD-radio whose radio is definately used.


    I've proposed tentatively that the whole thing could go bye-bye but it's the only record player in the house. A record gets played about once a decade, typically when I've mentioned getting rid of the stacking stereo. So it has to stay.:o



    The bottom of the stack has records in it. A whole cupboard at the bottom of the stairs is rammed with records and there's a two foot tall pile of them on the kitchen counter, which were bought for a song and never played. This is a very small house and every inch really needs to be used productively.



    If I spend too much time in their house, I start to go very very slightly cray-zee.:rotfl:
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • maddiemay
    maddiemay Posts: 4,979
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    My Dsis and I have today had a spell at our DM's house clearing the clutter in preparation for placing it on the market in a few weeks time, tired and weary and will need lots more visits from us and our siblings, it has strengthened my resolve to clear my own unneeded possessions as soon as energy allows, it will be little and often, but it must happen, it is just so unfair to leave all the stuff for others to deal with. There is subtle moral blackmail in respect of re-homing things, so we are all gently making "we will have to see" noises, without upsetting our DM:(

    If anyone is reading this and not started, but loves their offspring, please just get going. Having already taken nearly a year to sort D in laws properties and estate it is sad, hard work and leaves one with an awful feeling of intrusion.
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  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008
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    :) The declutering writer and professional cleaner, D0n Aslett, wrote about this very problem and suggested starting this process aged about 50, before the energy and eyesight diminished.


    When I hang out in my pal's juntique shop, at least once a day people come in with bags, boxes, tins etc of things from the houses of relations who are either deceased or have had to move into a care home. In some cases, the items now being offered for sale have been handed across a couple of generations already, when people died, and have squatted in three or four homes within the extended family.


    It would be great to say that these treasures would gain a nice lump of cash to go towards care home costs or whatever, but mostly what's been hoarded is completely and utterly useless, like the kilo after kilo of old pennies, ha'pennies and brass thupennies from the pre-decimal era. Worth about £1/ kilo on in scrap metal and hardly worth the hassle of taking to a scrapyard. The relations are hawking these things from secondhand dealer to secondhand dealer and finding no one will make them a bid because there is no market for these articles.



    I've had ample time to muse of the futility of hoarding and the unkindness of leaving a house or flat or garage and sheds full of stuff. Much of it was hardly worth anything when it was put away, and time and entropy have taken their toll, both fashion and technology have changed so much.


    It can often take multiple people multiple years to fully process the leavings of one overstuffed household, the process is exhausting and demoralising and shouldn't be necessary.:(
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • Siebrie
    Siebrie Posts: 2,887
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    In relation to GreyQueen's post above: my Mum has given me the family's (grandma, greatgrandma, greataunt, and several more) hand embroidered table cloths, for the express purpose of using them up on our outside dining and coffee table over the next few summers.
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