'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'.

Did huge clear out and packed car as per the pics. Drove to recyclung centre, they wouldnt recycle anything except the clothes and textiles and wanted everything else in the bin due to space issues in the recycling areas, DH refuses to throw things away at the best of times so we had to trawl supermarkets looking for bulb recycling and plastic recycling. The charity shop at the tip snootily said they aren't accepting donations so we still have loads left to get rid of hoping to find a charity shop this afternoon.

If the recyclers and charity don't want it then your options are limited. Can't you make DH see sense? If not, can you take the car out yourself, take it to the tip and tell him you found a charity shop that would accept it all?

I know! It's not that the stuff is awful or anything they didn't even look at it before refusing, the unit is just unusually snowed under. So DH is thinking let's keep and try again next week etc but I want it gone

Wow, I can't believe the charity shops knocking stuff back! No chance of that round my way.

Hi everyone, have enjoyed reading through everyone's de littering journeys!

I have gone through mine and the childrens clothes and whittled them right down. Have given my sister and niece my old party dresses, was sad to see them go!

Now have two bags to take to charity shop, I forget them Everytime (why does my phone make Everytime capitalised??!!) I go out the door

Have also sorted my bikini and underwear drawer. Bikinis have been put away colour co ordinated in freezer bags to keep them together. I have two knicker piles, black and coloured.

Have also sorted out my make up and put it in a drawer instead of flinging it all in my make up bag.

Have bought some of the drawer tidy things from ikea so will be going through my living drawers later this afternoon.

I just dropped off a lot of books at Barnardos. Checked out their books - 'woah I love the books in this shop'. Then husband reminded me that they were the ones I donated last week.

2 bags to clothes bank, today.
I really should have let more go,
I feel guilty now as I saved some for a indoor baby event, Maybe I should just take them tomorrow

at Frances.

peonies, I still can't get my head round charities knocking stuff back but I know British Heart Foundation and The Salvation Army collect in my area, perhaps calling a couple of local ones might be an idea? There may be a nearby town that isn't quite as up their own arses lucky to be inundated with donations you could try.

My local BHF has had 6 bags off me this weekend and are smiling nicely whilst drowning in donations looking forward to more, such nice staff in there.

That's every Current done clothes wise now, including Mr Designer label the house may be a mess but there's less mess in here than before!

Frances, you can go home with the warm fuzzy glow that someone will walk into the shop, think exactly as you did, and take home the book that will bring them joy.

woodenheart, IMO as long as it's bagged and good to go it doesn't matter who receives it as long as it goes soon and doesn't just find another space to occupy in your house. I have separated my stuff into 'staying' and 'thank you, but it's time for you to bring joy elsewhere' (yes, I am talking to my things but as a lifelong hoarder anything that works will do for me!). Then I've divided again by 'charity', 'bin' and 'sell'. Whatever doesn't sell within a set deadline is in the charity bag, no messing as I've already promised it a new life (seriously, whatever works!!). Don't feel any guilt, it's still going, it just needs time to find someone who will get 'joy' from it!

Our local charity shop often has to decline donations as they can't fill their back room too much or it's a fire hazard.

I really wouldn't have minded as much if he'd been nice about it but he acted like we'd asked if we could take a poo on his rug! Soooo snooty and rude.

Frances that made me chuckle

How do charities know your address to send a letter? Or is it from those ones that post the bags?

Peonies that would be a donation and half!

Argh! Last week I made such good progress and had filled boxes and bags with things to get rid of... But I didn't get them out the door fast enough and they became CLUTTER!

The kids found the box of toys I was going to get rid of and scattered the toys all over the house again so I had to collect them and box them up secretly... They still haven't left the house, they're waiting to be freecycled. If they're not gone by tomorrow evening I'm just dropping them in a charity bin.

The other boxes just took up space and I forgot what was in them and have ended up carrying them all out to the garage just to make some room in the house, what a waste of time.

From now on in going to try and get stuff out of the house pronto, KonMari did say so but I didn't listen and it hurts!!

(Rant over)

Did our local NCT sale this weekend - took 3 large boxes of stuff, came back with 2 slim banana-boxes of unsold items. Bagged up the unsold clothing and deposited in the textile bank at the supermarket. Kept a few simple tshirts and unsold paperbacks and took them to work yesterday (children's ward) for the clothing cupboard and the playroom respectively. 2 toys in boot to go to charity shop, hopefully later today (waiting for piano tuner to come). I am no longer holding onto stuff to try again at the next sale - let go and move on!

In addition to the tips in the book I am finding hidden/digital clutter to tackle too

When catalogues arrive instead of putting them straight in the recycling I am emailing the company to ask to be removed from their mailing list. I have a draft email in my iPhone note pad for this purpose so it takes seconds.

For months I have lived with lots of old addresses and cards on my Amazon account and always seem to be having to choose between them at checkout. I've quickly de cluttered those too.

Any more suggestions like these?

Can anyone who has the book list the order in which to do things pretty please.

I've done clothes, about to do shoes.
Food cupboards.
Books done.
About to do kitchen stuff.

Thanks.

I've added a lot of companies to my "Junk Mail" email filter, as I'm not sure if they will just sell my details to more spammers if I try the "unsubscribe" link - ones I know are reputable I do use 'unsubscribe'.

My inboxes have subfolders for each year, marked Archive.

Everyone is making such amazing progress.

For some reason although I normally quite enjoy decluttering and having a tidy this seems to have got me to take it to a different level and get rid of far more stuff that doesn't bring me joy, rather than just keeping it because it is alright.

The charity shop round the corner that has received most of my tat currently has a big vase/jug of mine in the window that I never particularly liked that much but I have kept for years as a friend gave it to me as a present and it wasn't hugely offensive. Hopefully it will bring someone else more joy

After reading about other people getting turned away from local shops I maybe need to take my next 10 bags to a different one and spread the load a bit!

Lazy day today- next up is paperwork and kids jigsaws/games. I am not sure how ruthless to be with jigsaws and things- they live in a cupboard and never get a look in- get rid of them all?? What do you wise KonMari followers think?

Coffeeinthepark - unroll.me is a good way of getting yourself removed from email lists quickly.

I have just emptied my email inbox by sorting by name so I could delete all the old newsletters etc. in big chunks rather than going through by date order and delete individually.

Can you register for online billing and bank statements so you never have paper ones again? I'm working on this.

I'm starting to use Pinterest to collate my bookmarks. My Firefox list of bookmarks is massive and hopeless. Pinterest is much more visual and they can be ordered more easily. So all those recipe/holiday/household tips/interesting articles are much easier to find again.

Afternoon all, I am finding paperwork so difficult, I can't possibly chuck anything financial as we want to move house soon. I shouldn't have started with paperwork, feeling a bit disheartened. Perhaps I should just come back to it when I've made more progress elsewhere.

Not much decluttering going on here lately, DD got a horrendous stomach bug which she generously passed on to me so most of last week was spent in the bathroom

I have to stay in all day tomorrow waiting for washing machine repair man so I am going to tackle the paperwork (have been putting this off!)

Order to tidy:

Clothes
Books
Paperwork
CDs, DVDs
Skincare products
Make-up
Accessories
Valuables (passports, credit cards, etc.)
Electrical equipment and appliances (digital cameras, electric cords, anything that seems vaguely ‘electric’)
Household equipment (stationery and writing materials, sewing kits, etc.)
Household supplies (expendables like medicine, detergents, tissues, etc.)
Kitchen goods/ food supplies
Other (If you have many items related to a particular interest or hobby, such as ski equipment, then treat these as a single subcategory.)

KM says:

Start with clothes then move on to books, papers, miscellaneous items (komono) and finally things with sentimental value. If you reduce what you own in this order, your work will proceed with surprising ease. By starting with the easy things first and leaving the hardest till last, you can gradually hone your decision-making skills, so that by the end, it seems simple.

I've been sorting out a huge sideboard in my living room, bought some type of drawer divider box things from ikea and they are fab.
The drawers are super deep and I have not got an arts and craft box, pens and pencils box, sunglasses (we have a lot!) box. A box for loose change and a tray for any money to be put safely away (lost £200 last week ) I also have a drawer just for nappies and wipes and a drawer for electrical boxes, and old electrical stuff that dh cannot throw away.

I'm just on the cupboard and moving some of dh's CDs out of it to make way for my paperwork folder and box that holds instructions and warrentys.

I'm at that stage where it's got worse before it gets better, time for a cuppa!

I have *now got, not not got

We moved house in the summer and the new kitchen had loads less cupboards and we were really struggling.

WE had a big drawer unit in there too with a random crap drawer and 2 drawers of kitchen bits that wouldn't fit elsewhere. I managed a clear out and everything is now in the kitchen except stuff that isn't used very often and the big drawer unit has now moved to the cellar to help store screw drivers and stuff more tidily.

so much more empty space :)