'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying' - Marie Kondo

[FrancesHB]

Has anyone else read this? I did a search but couldn't find any previous threads.

Marie Kondo is a Japanese expert in tidying and decluttering and her book has been translated into English and is best selling. It's wonderfully eccentric and inspiring and in some ways rather a breath of fresh air compared to other books on the subject (have read 'em all and my house is still messy...).

She asks us to ask if an item brings us joy and if it doesn't we thank it and out it goes. A bit like fly lady 'you can't organise clutter', but in a less annoying and at times quite endearing way.

I wondered if any MNers had used her technique and if it helped them 'get their house in order'.

it was very important for me to get things into groups - this can take time.

for example - tape. throughout the flat I had sticky tape x 7, duct tape, brown tape, masking tape, double sided tape, spongey tape, arty/fancy gift wrapping tape etc. All in different places, to varying degree of accessibility, some hidden/lost.

If I couldn't find sticky tape/duct tape etc when I needed it, I brought more - so more clutter.

Post decluttering all the tape I kept, I now keep together. So if I need tape, whatever the kind, I know exactly where it is & if it's not there I've run out so I can use something else (increasingly I do this) or buy some more.

Sounds simple? Well imagine your whole living space works like this. When you go to the kitchen cupboards, you know where X is, and it is easy to get in and out of cupboard.

So everything has a place - I know where everything is, and most importantly even though I'm an untidy person, it is easy for me to put it away if I know it has a home. And I can find it next time - so it becomes a cycle of happiness and confidence rather than a cycle of clutter, confusion and despair - and many rolls of tape.

I discovered I had more biros than I cold use in a lifetime!

My clothes take up half the space they did before thanks to her rolling method and I now have empty drawers. It is the best book I have ever read for decluttering.

What is the rolling method? I'd like to have space in my drawers!

There is a video that explains the rolling

This might not be the one

www.redonline.co.uk/health-self/self/declutter-your-wardrobe-with-marie-kondo-how-to-fold-videos

But if you google you will fins it.

Thankyou mirpuppet!

And you don't have clothes covered in crease lines when you get them out to wear them?

Love the Kondo method...have actually managed to continue with the clothes folding thing. She also said something about not holding onto clothes that you've bought, maybe they were really expensive, so you hold onto them because you feel guilty, even if they are still in the wardrobe with labels still attached. They just need to go! You have to remember the enjoyment you had of buying them, and just get rid, they no longer bring you joy.. Well something like that. And the everything in its place thing is great to. I got rid of tons of stuff, just gave it all to oxfam, rather than hanging onto it waiting for time to ebay it.
Still got a long, long way though to being minimalist!

I also realised I had stuff hanging around, because I kept telling myself I'd ebay it. But I never did.

Now I'm happier giving stuff straight to charity. Much better.

I am continuing the clothes folding thing because it is so easy and I don't need to iron any more as it smoothes out creases.

The best thing is that like she says once you have tidied you never need to do it again. It sounded too good to be true but worked. I am now talking to my (unstressed) socks and handbags

Once you have tidied you never need to do it again?

Really? How so?

I guess because everything is clear and you have a space for it already so all you are doing is putting it back as soon as you've used it, rather than everything being 'out' and needing a frantic occasional tidy up.

Take the tape example - funnily enough just last week I organised a wrapping paper/Sellotape/envelopes/cards type drawer. Previously all this stuff was all over the house and would be left out after use. So it would be among the stuff needing tidying up. However now when I've used something from that drawer I just put it straight back.

I guess it depends how you define 'tidying' as opposed to 'putting away immediately'

Yes Fuzzpig is right. Once something has a space it lives in that space when not being used.

I read the book and thought this is weird. But I tried it and like someone said it is the category thing that actually works. Most systems insist that you start with a drawer or a cupboard but doing that simply means that you rearrange things. With categories you can see everything you have got at one time and get rid of what you don't want.

I agree - these days pretty much all mess in my place is caused by either
a) something that doesn't have a proper 'home' yet; or
B) something that hasn't been returned to its home (or filed in its home yet in the case of the dreaded paper pile).

The motto I try to live by now is if it doesn't have a home then it has to go.

For example, if you have the 'right' amount of clothes then they will all have a place to live when you aren't wearing them.

Feeling full of cold and a bit lazy today so am going to read the book. And am not adding to my clutter as will download it to my kindle!

I'm putting off sorting my wardrobe, chest of drawers and shelves so maybe this will help!

Excellent, thanks for explaining.

Did you invest in various types of storage containers?

Or storage organisers?

re storage containers, yes and no.

Storage containers can actually be a massive distraction from 'proper' decluttering. Decluttering is different to "organising all your crap".

Google decluttering online and you will fine 1000's of articles on how to organise all your stuff - usually by buying lots of lovely storage containers and stacking them high - and these articles are not so hot on advice about getting rid of stuff/living with less. I view them cynically - they are about selling you MORE stuff - which is an anti-decluttering/minimalist ethos.

Serious decluttering or adopting minimalist principles is about needing and having less stuff overall. And then keeping the stuff you have in a way that works.

I did buy new storage stuff and furniture over a period of time, but more because my old stuff was rubbish and really needed replacing. I was well involved with the purposefully decluttering process before I started to buy new stuff and I think that is important. The 'storage solutions' are a small part of the solution, the big part happens in your mind - when you start to view the stuff in your house from a different angle.

So I got rid of horrible old broken chest of drawers, as well as lots and lots of clothes. And then I brought Muji clothes drawers that work really really well in our space, stack, and the format of them can be changed. But I did a lot of research before buying them.

As I live in a small space I find well designed Japanese stuff often really suits our needs. As well as Ikea's Expedit (or whatever it's called now) - that rocks too.

i.e. I reduced a small filing cupboard to this - www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?Sec=14&Sub=59&PID=885

plus a box file for bulkier warranties/instructions etc.

Great to lose an entire piece of furniture, but the storage solution I chose was only suitable because I had applied minimalist principles best I could (I know I could go further but it works for me).

Completely agree WRT storage! That's something I've only really learned recently. Before this we used to think "oh gawd the house is getting even messier, let's get some storage" and then we'd just fill that new storage with more random crap!

Now we are trying to apply the same principle becool mentioned earlier by waiting a long time between deciding we need something, and actually buying it.

The key is to minimise BEFORE you get your storage! :)

I am totally sold. It might be a load of bollocks (time will tell) but it really is inspiring in its sweet, enthusiastic and slightly bonkers style so I'm giving it a go and have bought it on kindle. DS is doing it with me we're doing the first stage "Imagine your end goal, how your perfect life will be". DS has written "hav silipus" (Have slippers). I'm reading each bit and stopping when I get to the words "when you have done that" and won't let myself read on until I've really done that task.

Have to say though becool I'm impressed by your muji file, do you really manage with just that and a box file? We actually have a filing cabinet which is virtually unused, we just bunged a load of stuff in when we first got it (all paperwork stuff but still! ) but all the paperwork we need is scattered all over the house and I swear there's loads! But I don't actually want to keep the filing cabinet, it's got a huge dent in it anyway, basically from where we piled a load of stuff on top of it! FFS.

Anyway, I managed another binbag easily today. Looks no different but I still know there is now less stuff in the house. And I managed to home some other stuff too.

I've had to return the book without reading it unfortunately as loads of people were waiting for it, and I've got my huge reading list to get through this month. I'll reorder it for October.

go Bertie!!

yes I do fuzzpig - but I have mentioned my massive pile of papers to sort? It's ongoing.

The box file is fit to burst but that is because I keep all the allan keys and spare parts for flatpacks etc in there too.

I am ruthless, all bills are online only and I scan stuff I'm too nervous to get rid of completely and then shred the originals.

Getting rid of the filing cabinet was a really important step for me - I felt then like I had cracked it. And I did that bit on my own - no help, all me.

I am constantly tempted to buy books & ebooks!!!

Usually I don't.

Instead I make lists of books I want to read - and tell myself I will buy them when I am ready to read them and not before. Sometimes I take a photo of a book in the shop - and then the urge is gone.

When I have read a novel I give it away or take to chazza.

It is an amaaazing book. I fold all my clothes her way. Can't roll socks by sticking one inside the other anymore - feel sorry for them what has that woman done to me?!

I am reading the minimalism thread, just not got much to contribute due to the summer hols.

I've read reviews of this and wondered about it as I have had a certain amount of success with Flylady but still suffer with too much stuff. I fell for the more storage thing too and filled the whole house with storage boxes, I am trying to eliminate them a bit now.

I really do a lot of the hanging onto things in case they come in handy thing, it's surprising how often they do.

Also the buying more tape thing. I decided to declutter the craft drawers the other week, which led to me gathering pens and pencils from all over the house and sorting them. We never seem to have a normal grey pencil so I'm always buying more, surprise surprise, when I got them all together and sorted there were about 100 of them.

WhoKnows but now you will keep all those pencils (perhaps give some away?) in the 'pencil place' and know where they are forever and ever and ever. You'll probably never have to buy another pencil either.

Perhaps keep your sharpener in the same place as the pencils?