Tidiness - how does this actually work in practice?

[RangeTesKopeks]

I really want to be more tidy and organised at home, and have got into the whole Kon-Mari thing (probably because my home/life when I was growing up was a bit chaotic!!)

Please could you talk me through the idea of 'a place for everything, and everything in its place'?

I really want to implement it at home, but don't know where to start (even after doing Kon-Mari).

Thanks :)

[ZigZagIntoTheBlue]

Less stuff! I'm trying myself but I've come to the conclusion that I've got too much shit I'm therefore trying to clear one piece of space whenever I have a fewspare moments- top of my chest of drawers for instance, or clear out my tops drawer. Good luck!

[BeachyKeen]

Don't put it down, put it away. If it doesn't have a home, find it one or out it goes.

[PandorasXbox]

The basics in reality is tidying after yourself all the time.

Whatever room you’re in and no matter what you’ve been doing you put your stuff away.

Thankfully both DH and I are the same in these areas so the house stays pretty tidy. The dc are a work in progress

[Imfinehowareyou]

There's a thing called the toothbrush principle. It means that you always know where your toothbrush is as it is put back in the same place all the time. So you need to apply that principle to all your other belongings. You probably do this with a lot of your stuff already. We never lose the hairbrush or school bookbags as we have homes for them. The things that clutter my house/we can never find either don't have a home or the home we try/fail to use doesn't make sense. Our paper shredder is in an upstairs cupboard so we find piles of paperwork everywhere causing mess as it is awkward to get the shredder out. The solution would either be to put the shredder somewhere more suitable (downstairs) or get a box for all paperwork to be shredded so the various piles disappear. Need to follow my own advice now!

[SpottedGingham]

Don’t leave the room empty handed.

[missiondecision]

Leave everything as you want to find it

[gamerwidow]

I’ve worked out that I can achieve perfect tidiness if DH and DD move out.

[AliceLutherNeeMorgan]

Sometimes you have to force yourself to look at things differently too. If you make a point of starting in one corner of the room and seeing what's there that don't belong, you soon find out the "difficult to deal with" items. Aim to throw them away but if you really need them, force yourself to find a logical place for them. You've made a good start, getting into Kondo!

I agree about never leaving the room empty-handed; I gather a pile of things that need to go upstairs and deal with them while DD is getting ready for bed or pottering in her room

[gamerwidow]

In all seriousness how does being tidy work when the rest of your household won’t get on board. It does feel like you’d have to spend all your time putting things other people have used back to where they belong. Isn’t that just really really infuriating? Sorry to hijack thread but I’m looking round my shithole of a house again wondering where to start and why i bother!

[SaucyJack]

I always imagine living Kon Mari style would be like it is when you go on a caravan/self-catering holiday.

[cornishmumtobe]

Never rise from your chair/bed or leave a room without looking to see whether there’s anything that shouldn’t be there.

Eg rubbish for the bin, shoes to go out into the hall, a coat to hang up, dirty clothes for the wash.

Never go upstairs or downstairs without thinking the same.

This is bloody good advice

[Smitff]

Use whatever time you spend stressing about untidiness, reading books and blogs about tidying, and making lists and plans about tidying, to actually tidy. Works a treat.

[Sidge]

Also be ruthless - we don't need a tenth of the "stuff" that we think we do.

Once you've read a magazine or paper, put them in the bin/recycling bin.

When you take the clean folded washing upstairs - put it away, straight away. Don't put it on the bed thinking "I'll do that later" as later never comes and before you know it you're going to bed and can't as it's covered in clothes.

Whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, or the bath to run, etc then put stuff away, or clean the sink, or tidy a cupboard.

I appreciate it's easier when you have adequate storage but if you don't have room for it you can't have it.

[DaisyRaine90]

I’m such a clutter queen. About to move house and half this 💩 is not coming with.

I’m upsizing not downsizing but would like to actually have some more space in the new place

I blame amazon prime myself 😂

[KathArtic]

Do you have storage - everything looks much tidier if it's not on show.

[CharlotteCollinsneeLucas]

gamerwidow I have a lost things box. Everything that belongs to family that I don't want to put away goes in there. When it gets full I tell them to sort through and I will book anything that's left at the end.

[CharlotteCollinsneeLucas]

Book anything? I think I meant chuck!

[5BlueHydrangea]

Smitf that is of course excellent advice... but less interesting than reading about it. Procrastination queen here...

[CharlotteCollinsneeLucas]

But also I "remind" the DCs about putting things I've noticed away, before I'll do something they're keen to do.

Eg yes, you can watch TV, but first you need to clear up that craft stuff you left on the kitchen table.

Or even, before you go to bed, you need to clear up blah blah and if you're quick we'll still have time for a story.

[Larsitter]

It can be partly a personalty thing (or having messy family members thing).

Have fewer things.
Buy less.
Try to throw 2 things away for everyone bought.
Never put anything out of pace rather than in its place however annoying it is at the time to go to the place that item is kept.

I never go to bed for example until everything in the kitchen is tidied up.

[NoSquirrels]

Don't put it down - put it away.

That's basically it.

I am hopeless at it, but less hopeless than the rest of the buggers I live with, and that's awfully frustrating.

In order to "put it away" you need to A) know where its home is and B) make the effort to put it there, consistently.

So as a PP has said, if its home is inconvenient in some way (e.g. bookbags & shoes in the utility off the kitchen not the hall you come into, or hairbrushes in bedrooms not the bathroom where everyone does their hair in front of the good mirror etc) then no one will make the effort.

So identify the problem items that end up homeless or drifting & give them a new "home". It can take several goes.

And then be utterly ruthless about enforcing the system. That's where I fall down.

[RunRabbitRunRabbit]

Sometimes you may find that you can't put the Thing you used away in the place for those Things because the Thing store is full of all the Things that you don't use.

Throw away Things that are not the Things for using. Store the Thing for using in the Thing store.

[honeylulu]

Less stuff (much less - think about what you actually use and / or brings you happiness)
Store stuff where you use it (Less likely to forget you've got it/ more likely to be able to find it/ more likely to put it away again)
Storage solutions where you can see everything at a glance and retrieve it easily- it's ok to have space in your cupboards and shelves. (For example I chucked out 3/4 of my tupperware so I could stack the boxes in the cupboard with their lids on - now I can see exactly what's there and pull out what I want, with the right lid, and it doesn't all fall on top of me. )

[SpinnerDryer]

It just means that everything has a home. Like cutlery in a drawer, you wouldnt put socks in there.
So keep everything in its place.

I do not follow my own ideas though.
I have decluttered. I have read the book.
Im so messy.

Never rise from your chair/bed or leave a room without looking to see whether there’s anything that shouldn’t be there

I do look, & then I think fuck it, too much tidying to do. I will just sit here for another 30 mins
Its bloody knackering after a day at work, then sorting DC out.