to wonder why Marie Kondo transforms lives

[Teenageromance]

This is a genuine question - on a recent thread about self help books that have transformed your life the Marie Kondo book came up a lot.
I’ve got the book on kindle but now need some inspiration to read and do it.
So tell me how it had transformed your life and home?

lljkk good point.

I think I own about 4 books.

MK isn't a minimalist! You can have clutter if you want, as long as every object "sparks joy"

Op it's a tiny book / why not just read it and experience it yourself?

Some things seem bonkers but just take time. When I dd clothing I did not fold my socks. Though that bonkers. Until a year later, when it felt right.

Now a few years on I'm starting to feel like the handbag emptying might actually be a great idea for me!!!

MK also screws with my ecofreak principles. I can easily not buy stuff, but Does MK have any advice about saying no to gifts or other people's offers of their 2nd hand items (free?).

I offered friends some boy t-shirts out of a big lot I bought (like 30p each). They declined (being minimalists). 3 weeks later they realised their son's t-shirt was in awful condition, and being one of only 3 shirts he owned, they had to replace. They could only buy an expensive shirt where they were at the time, for like £12. That kind of false economy & less-ecofreak-practice would get on my nerves.

@lljkk

From memory MK would say you shouldn’t push your items or offer them to other people because that’s still a kind of hoarding just not in your house. I’m not making sense - basically you can’t bear to get rid of something and think “someone” should have them. You shouldn’t have bought the big lot in the first place.....
as for accepting from others, you just say no.

Re it being wasteful, everything you have ever purchased will end up in landfill eventually (or burnt). Absolutely everything unless it ends up in a museum.

The only way to be less wasteful is to buy less. MK helps with that big time.

If something you already own goes to the tip (or charity shop etc) now or when you are dead, it's makes very little difference to the environment. Your home is just a stopping point on the way from factory to landfill.

If you want to hold onto stuff you don't want/need/love because of the environmental impact, you have things all muddled up.

Buying less from this moment on (and making better choices) is pretty much the only way to make a difference to your environmental impact.

lljkk I agree. I haven't read the book. In my kitchen I use only plain white crockery ( mostly Ikea type) I like it that way as everything matches and is easily replaceable.
Last month my local very cheap charity shop had a bulk load of plain white crockery for sale- 12 plates, 12 soup bowls, 10 mugs all for £5. I didn't need it as I have enough, but I know that in time stuff gets broken, so I bought it and put it in the back of a cupboard.
I know that in time, maybe this year, maybe next year I will have a need for that stuff and it will save me money.

@speakout

I would see that as hoarding. You might not break any plates etc.

I’ve stopped buying stuff “just in case”, because it’s easy to get stuff when I need it as opposed to just in case I need it. I buy a lot less as a result and haven’t had any inconveniences so far beyond minor ones.

I bought the book, read-through first bit then put it down and lost it in the clutter for 6 months.

You are sooo not alone. I was desperately trying to find it in my clutter this morning. You all have convinced me I shall not fret about that.

I know what I want to keep and would happily get rid of the 80% of things I do not need in my house... it is getting them to the tip and charity shop that is the problem... I need a truck, a skip and someone to help me carry heavy stuff out.

That is my problem and it is a big and expensive problem.

It's family stuff. I don't think MK has a formula for helping one declutter one's child's or family heirloom sentimental vaguely sometimes useful stuff that next eldest kid might use or want, etc.

As the only member of my family left, I've ended up with several households full of 'stuff' over the last number of years, including all of the sentimental items. Just too much to really handle for one home. I've been going through working out what is important to me and how I can adapt them to suit my home and lifestyle. I don't want boxes of sentimental things sitting in boxes that never get used.

For example, my father did tapestries, which are very high quality, but were very old fashioned in their ornate gilt frames. Some went to the framers and were reframed in really modern frames and mounted. There is not one person who walks into my house and doesn't comment on them (and are surprised that they are not paintings). I gathered up all the old jewellery pieces from family members (along with a few of my own) and took them to a jeweller and had a really lovely one of a kind pendant made with the gold and stones that I now wear a lot, instead of random old fashioned pieces sitting in a jewellery box that never gets used.

It's ok to repurpose things that were heirlooms so that they can be used and appreciated. There is no joy in heirlooms stuck in a box.

Photos are important, but having twenty boxes of very old photo albums in my house was taking up room and not making me happy. I've been going through the albums, scanning them onto the computer with notes in the file about who/what they are, and then putting the actual photos into file keepers and getting rid of the bulky items. I bought four electronic photoframes, mounted them in my lounge, and every few weeks I update the cards on them with the new scanned photos. That way the photos are actually on display rather than stuck in dusty albums that I'll never look at and taking up space.

Believeitornot but plates do get broken. In my house anyway. I don't think I have an original item of crockery or glassware that is older than 10 years.
I am not a hoarder. My cupboards are half empty. My house it tidy. But some thins are worth buying or keeping. A year ago ASDA were selling Alberto Balsam shampoo at 20p. I bought 20 bottles. I have only a couple left. That has saved me money. I have a shelf unit in the garage that is stocked with similar bargains. The stuff is rotated and used. Nothing is left to fester. I don't see that as hoarding.

I still think the book is pointless

In a nutshell, don't buy things you don't need, get rid of things you don't need, tidy up. Standard practice I would think without needing a book to tell you that.

I wouldn't waste your time reading it OP in all honesty

Yes plates get broken. Happens in my house but I buy when I need to.

Saving money by buying loads isn’t environmentally friendly because you are more likely to buy more.

I stopped bulk buying because I have less and use less knowing that things aren’t easily replaced.

Reading this has inspired me to revisit Marie Kondo. I have the unfortunate habit of buying books that tell me how to declutter & tidy then somehow feeling I've taken a step towards a better life & ignore them so clutter remains.

I am a bit better than I was before but only a tiny bit & that overwhelmed feeling remains. I like the 15 minute suggestion I've found it to be effective in the past & going to try it again. I'm going to make a determined effort today - for at least a few 15 mins sessions.

Ion haven't read he Kondo book. But I did read clutter clearing by Karen Kingston.
I've skyways been tidy and organise but this book gave me permission to let go of stuff. My mum died when I was 18 do I had a lot of her stuff - paintings from the 70's, bits and bobs in boxes that just got moved from house to house.
I was able to let go of the rainy day mentality and felt so much freer.

What book is best to buy? There's a few on amazon. My issue is buying. I'm always buying stuff and bringing stuff into the house, is there a book that's best for that kind of help?

OP if you have Facebook just follow her page. It gives and explains a lot of her tips in short articles, written by her and by other people who have followed her method. You should be able to get the gist of how to 'Konmari' your home from it and it's much easier to read than a whole book.

If you cut through the guff, there is a lot of common sense in what she says. It saves you time and saves you money.

For me, the biggest change I have made was to have the same thing in the same place. I found nine bottles of cough mixture throughout the house, because it was “easier” to buy a bottle than to search. Loads of plasters, pain killers. Now everything medical is in one place and I am disciplined enough to put it back.

If you are time poor, it is very frustrating searching for stuff. I have a box for handbag stuff. As soon as I come I. I tip my bag contents into the box. Next day if I change bag, everything I need is there. No more searching for keys, passes or purse.

I love knowing where everything is. I love seeing empty spaces in cupboards and drawers. I love having more money, because I no longer impulse buy.

The big lot of clothes came as entire bagfull, it was all or nothing, the seller wasn't going to let me pick thru!! About half we didn't keep, I was just trying to help skint friends (obviously aren't that skint at all or they would plan ahead rather than spend £11.70 too much).

I have a 1000 lb (heirloom) piano, Midnite. You'd pay £20k to buy something similar. And other stuff like that. Photos are pretty easy to declutter in comparison.

DD is very sentimental & hates me getting rid of anything family-linked. It all sparks joy for her unrepentant hoarder. She won't have own home to receive it all, though, for at least 15 yrs.

Some of my other examples of to-hoard-or-not decisions:

2016: I got some snowboots for DS to wear hiking, little too big so DS rejected. I kept them anyway. Finally getting worn lots this last week! Very happy I still had them.

2015: Someone gave me salopettes. 2018: they seemed almost useful b/c DD nearly made a winter trip to Iceland. Now I suppose I'll sell them even though I chance having to buy exact same thing in future ... hate thought of future wasted money, though.

@Freudian, thank you for the British Heart Foundation link🌞

Your home is just a stopping point on the way from factory to landfill
Yikes🤤
Harsh but true😶

I have a 1000 lb (heirloom) piano, Midnite. You'd pay £20k to buy something similar.

But do you use it? Does anyone in your family play the piano? If they do, then that's great and you love having it in your home, then it should absolutely stay. But if no one in your family is interested or you get no joy from it being in your house, then what value does it bring to your life? Could you use that 20k to buy something that will value your family now? Is it of historical value and could be loaned or donated to a museum?

One of my favourite relatives collected a particular brand of porcelain statues. Very lovely, but not something that I particularly loved having 100+ of in my home. I have chosen a few that I do really like and fit in with my home, and have been gradually selling the rest. My son will likely have no interest in porcelain statues in the future owned by a family member he never met so why should I store them of the next 20 years (at least) and then make them his problem?

I think that we use 'sentimental' instead of 'clutter' too often because we don't like getting rid of things. But having inherited a number of houses jammed full of 'sentimental' items, it's not possible to keep or display everything. I'd end up living in a museum of other people's lives instead of my own. And if we just keep passing down items, they lose that sentimental value when the people we are giving it to have no emotional connection to the original owner, and essentially it just becomes a job for that person to sort through.

Kondo works really well for single people , preferably living on their own.
If you're part of a couple living together it doesn't work so well, and it's nearly impossible with 3 children...

It was my mother's dying wish that the piano stay in our family, Midnite.

My cousin hissed daggers at me when I suggested she could pay to get it shipped back to their country (her adult children are musically gifted but they don't have a lot of money... or room for it).

@lljkk what you described is, to me, about saving money not about having less stuff.

You could still have bought the snow boots recently and returned the last pair at the time. You didn’t need to buy a mountain of clothes etc.

I used to do stuff like that but it’s difficult to buy for your and your DCs needs if you buy so much and not when you need it. I used to end up with piles of clothes for the DCs but actually didn’t use most. The only things I buy early now are coats in the sale because I get expensive ones.

Buying less creates less demand for stuff to be made and therefore less impact on the environment. Buy lots and in bulk might be cheaper but it’s still more stuff.