'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'.

Im onto towels. Trying to figure out best way to fold.

Thanks BeCool for your picnic blanket suggestion for tablecloth. Genius and I need one!

my old (non-working) hoover is sitting outside my front door as we speak. After a year I have decided that I'm not going to freecycle it for someone to repair. I'm going to take down to our dump as its now a recycling centre. I decided that it didn;t bring me joy, just dust.

I can;t fold socks though. Just can't, it feels wrong. I think it brings my socks joy to be balled up.

Only successes here this week have been not buying any new stuff except food. However MrNC has agreed with removing everything from the living room, which in practice means shoving it in his room. Up two flights of stairs. I suspect he will then realise the papers at least are not bringing joy and can be thanked and go to happy new homes in recycling bags. The widgets are the tricky bits. Hopefully they will fit in the shed now it's not so full of building materials.

Prove HTH and how fab that you can turn them into something you need!

I'm looking forward to the weekend - DC free so usually this is when I get some bits done. I'm feeling quite inspired to just get stuff out of the flat and there is a dresser in the living room I can't stop wanting to get rid of so I think it's days may be numbered. Need to look at what is in there.

One of the great things of having been through every item in the flat before is I thought I kept what I need/use/love, but then I can look at this dresser and realized I've not opened it in 12 months now and have forgotten what is inside it.

Prove I have been rolling towels rather than folding. They are much easier to grab without disrupting the rest and they look quite groovy too :)

Think about how many towels you have too - I think most of us keep too many.

We have 2 each plus 2 for guests.
3 hand towels (probably one too many).
about 8 facecloths.
2 bath mats (I'm nearly ready to go down to one)

Then when I wash towels they get washed & hung up straight away and then they are dry in time to be used again.

I also have 3 very thin light towels I keep for swimming but they are kept together with the swimming stuff in a ready to go grab bag.

The rest were superfluous to requirements and have been decluttered.

rocktheboat - I am not chucking unread books, what I have done is be ruthless and done her method for taking out every book, and have only put back those that are genuinely "bringing joy". The rest were either taken to the charity shop, or put in a "read-and-get-rid" box. I am working my way through these now, did the book exercise a couple of weeks ago and first book has been read and passed on to someone else who likes historical novels (and I know she will read it and take to charity who). Next book started - if I don't get into it after a couple of days it will go to the charity shop.

Becool you know it never even occurred to me that I could get rid of towels. I know how ridiculous that sounds! I certainly won't be buying any more and will maybe just recycle the ones we have as they get tatty. I do have a couple of complete sets of guest towels as I got fed up picking through our scruffy everyday ones. I'm keeping these as they give me the joy of avoiding a nervous breakdown every time we have visitors :)

Housemum that sounds like a good system. The book bit is what I'm dreading. I think I need a 'read it and pass it on' box too.

I had cleared out my towels a few months before starting this and I had accumulated 18 hooded baby towels- how the actual fuck did I have so many without noticing?!

I now have 3- one in use, one in wash, one emergency spare.

YY the towel thing was a revelation I learned from MN'er MinimalistMommie on a GH minimalist thread.

Also I learned from MM about sheets - same theory. I think MM has one sheet per bed but I am not that brave and have some occasional bedwetting issues to deal with (DC not me :)). So I have about 2 sheets and duvet covers each bed. And a spare sheet for the odd guest. Again they all get washed and dry in a day. It works and I don't have to store lots of bedding. Genius.

Same with tea towels - you only need to keep what you use plus a spare or 2 for baking or whatnot, the rest can go. When they need replacing, chuck them and buy new ones.

I grew up in homes with entire cupboards devoted to lines - stuffed full of lifes linen - but there is no need. Not needing to devote space in our homes to storing excessive linen/towels etc is a revelation. I'd rather have the space thanks.

I grew up in homes with entire cupboards devoted to LINEN

I was dithering over getting rid of bedding then the weather did it for me! Leak from ceiling after a tile got dislodged and then we had rainwater drenching our bed meant we had to get a new one - DH found a storage ottoman kingsize for the price of a our double that the insurance company gave us, so we had to buy new duvet covers and sheets. We just bought 2 sets - one on, one in the wash. Very liberating!

(and the storage ottomans are NOT to be filled up with tat!)

Ooh - bedlinen and towels are about the only things left to cull! I have too many of both. I'm getting new towels for our new house, so can happily chuck out most of our current rather threadbare ones.

Not sure about bedlinen - we will actually have a guest bedroom in the new house for the first time so will need some bedding for new beds in there.

Part of our 'problem' is that we have plenty of storage space so it just seemed easy to keep getting stuff to fill it. That's part of MK's genius at saying don't get storage until the clearing is finished!

We also have a guest room and I like to keep it permanently on standby, plus we often squeeze in extra visitors on pop up beds etc. which means extra quilts and sheets etc. I think I'm going to keep all those extra quilts etc. in one giant vacuum bag in the attic or under the guest room bed. That way it's there, it's organised and it's not taking up wardrobe space all over the house. Yes DH, I am looking at you!

Coffee - thanks for the advice about the books. Unfortunately I've now got one more because of this thread. Shhhh don't tell anyone but I cracked last night and ordered it off Amazon . Looking forward to reading it this weekend to find out what to do with all the other books.

Not sure who mentioned the weight loss but it's TRUE. I've been lurking on this thread since day one and not only have I shifted a whole Volvo worth of crap lovely things that I have said good bye to, I've waved ta-ta to nearly half a stone too!

Well that's all my clothes done, 3 bags filled and some stuff sold, got to take the lot tomorrow to the charity shop (who write thank you letters which makes me feel fab about parting with my stuff) before I change my mind about something! Shoes next, will really need to channel mk on this one!

Re towels - I got rid of almost half of ours last week. I had about 6 people who wanted to take them on Freecycle so do think of that especially if a bit too tatty for charity shop

About socks - Green Treat socks are lovely and they sometimes have them in TK Maxx. I also really like H&M socks, they're just plain colours but they sell them in packs of 5 co-ordinating ones and for some reason they really please me.

Oh yes - towels always go on freecycle, old ones are good for homebirth, cleaning and dog beds. Could give to an animal shelter as well.

Ooh rolled towels - that's just reminded me! DH has stopped smoking in our bathroom so I can put the towels back in there Yay!! I'm going to roll them. One day I'll buy towels in all the colours of the rainbow to roll up and stick in a tall thin shelf in the bathroom. I can't wait

This hots a nerve for me. DH is always saying I'm a hoarder because I have a blanket box with linen in. I keep saying "people and homes HAVE linen FFS, its not hoarding!" Maybe I'm wrong {shock}

skinny how big is the box? Does it take up a whole room, and do you have to turn visitors away because there's linen all over the house waiting to go into the box?

I am planning on konmari take 2 today. I have made a list of what to start on next. But I have to clean the bathroom first as a priority and am doing anything to avoid starting!!

Ha coughie .picturing a GIANT linen box now lol

coughle sorry...my eyesight is terrible!