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 :)

I started the decluttering 2 years ago. My DH was as hoarder, but 6 months into the process he started to decluttering too. Now he is really tidy and happy to dispose of things.

The secret is, not to be overwhelmed and to do too much too soon. Few people have the time or space to follow the practice religiously. For example to take everything out of your wardrobe, creates mess and chaos. It is impossible to decidd what the next step should be when e everything is on the bed?

Instead I would advise Down loading the Konmari 200 checklist. I started with medicines/first aid. It was only an hours job but revealed I had nine bottles of cough mixture In Various places, 6 packs of plasters and loads of other useless out of date stuff.

Starting with these little things, pens/ 'mugs/ vases/ornaments/ kitchen utemtisils/ cutlery is a quick fix and shows results immediately. It is like a practice run for the. It jobs.

This is all great advice and most of it is followed in this (reasonably tidy) house. However how do you train the rest of the family to carry things up the stairs when they walk up??? They just don't seem to bloody see anything in their path!

You train them by making them take it up another time when they feel even less inclined.

Basically make sure it inconveniences them more to do it when you tell them instead of when they choose.

Do not make it more convenient for them to leave it by virtue of someone else doing it instead.

It helps if people have specific things they are responsible for, e.g. own washing, anything they used themselves, the bins, the towels etc.

This method will temporarily result in everyone thinking you have become horrible. Don't cave. They'll get over it when they know you won't break first.

Is it good advice? It seems exhausting - do people really do all that thinking about tidying all the time?

I think I'd just rather live in a mess TBH. Which is probably just as well

Bertie for me it is so annoying when I can't find the things I need when I need them that I'd rather have the minor inconvenience of putting them away when I've finished.

Bertie I hate mess so definitely worth it here!

It is exhausting if your life is already busy. I think part of the advice people aren't mentioning is don't have every part of every day already scheduled up to 10pm.

Because that is me and I have given up on having a tidy house for the next ten years.

I think some people just aren't tidy people.

I discovered, after reading Kon Mari etc that I don't actually feel comfortable in a tidy house. I want to sabotage it!

Honestly it's brilliant. I'm a reformed hoarder and I love having less stuff! Once you have the system it sort of looks after itself and stays tidy.

If things start looking cluttered again it's time for a mini clear out.
I won't lie, it took me over a year to do my whole house, category by category but so so worth it.

Behold the Japanese minimalism of my tea towel drawer! (I really need to get a life don't I?)

Oops

She is a sad individual who is happy to state her only recreational hobby is tidying and she expects her children to join her in this.

Poor kids.

I like a tidy house but by God she is no role model of mine.

Basically, for every single thing in your house, or thing that comes into your house, you need a real actual place, and that is where it goes, never anywhere else.

The kondo books just serve as more clutter in my house.

Brilliant ideas, everyone - thanks!!

I agree that the solution to this is actually having fewer things, rather than finding lots of places to store different things, especially when you don't have that much storage available (like me at the moment!) I'm staying with relatives while I find a place of my own to rent, so don't have too much storage space at the moment.

Get rid of lots of stuff. Then it’s easy!

I don't have lots of things scheduled. It just takes me an effort to think about tidying up. I would have to consciously remind myself every single time I stood up etc and that sounds like hard work and like you could never relax in your own home.

I should admit I'm not a tidy person and I don't really notice it being messy until it gets really bad.

One thing I did like from Konmari was the idea of making things easy to put away but not necessarily worrying about whether they were easy to get out, because she notes that if you want to use something you'll go to some effort to get it, yet the last step of putting something away often feels like too much which is why you end up with crap everywhere.

Do people with small children and a full time job seriously manage to achieve this?

The mind boggles...

@Pithivier do you know where to find the Konmari 200 checklist please? I Googled, but can't seem to find it

Kopeks did you mean this:

makinglemonadeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/free-printable-decluttering-konmari-checklist.pdf

I'd love to know

My husband is borderline OCD with tidiness - I am not. I just don't see mess.

Its the one thing that could split us up as he thinks I'm taking the piss of him.

I just don't know (even after 7 years) how to explain I just don't see it. He thinks I selectively don't thinking he'll fix it.

He often threatens to go on strike which I hate because I know he's unhappy living in a mess but him going on strike isn't going to make me any tidier!

"You train them by making them take it up another time when they feel even less inclined"

But when that is husband to wife isn't that spousal abuse?

Get rid of enough stuff so that you can put it all away. Get a cleaner, or pretend you have a cleaner. Do a big tidy up once a week before the cleaner (real or imaginary) comes. It gets easier the more you practise.

Tidy yourself to death