'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'.

Anyone else on memorabilia yet and how are they coping. Most of the jewellery I have does not bring me any joy but my dh bought a lot of it so I'm stuck .

Finding things for storage is a revelation - used plastic dividers from choc mini-roll packet to stop pens etc rolling around in drawer.

Penn have you thought about taking your jewellery into a local jeweller if any of it is gold or silver and getting it remade inot something you do like.

If its not valuable then could you just say to your DH "I'm having a bit of a clearout. Do you have any emotional attachment to any of this?" and choose the oldest stuff to start with.

Yes ARainyDay, same here, I feel quite resentful that my husband is going to spread his crap into all the newly acquired space. I've started getting rid of a few things of his here and there though, knowing that he won't notice.

Also now that we have a baby we have been given some stuff from PIL,stuff from his childhood over 25yrs ago. Including a collection of about 50-100 cassette tapes... Yes that's right cassette tapes.....imagine my horror when DH refused to get rid of them. I should have said no to start with but they caught me off guard...I mean I didn't think they were actually serious when they first suggested it

They spark anger not joy, but got to keep them for now

I have almost finished a patchwork blanket for my nephew, all it needs is max 3 hours spent stitching the binding on on the reverse side.
it's not a big chore, easily done in one evening but I've been putting it off and consequently the almost finished blanket gets put here, there and back again, just being in the way.

so I'm now determined to finish it asap. Other things are more important, but this will give me a sense of achievement and that liberating feeling of "done & gone".
I don't think it counts as Konmari philosophy - for now it will have to do

I am trying to do paperwork now but it is getting on my wick! There is just so much of it everywhere and not much of it sparks any joy. Wish I had a magic wand. When I do get it done I am going to be ruthless in future and never let it get this bad again.

Just started on my books. I thought it would be really easy, but it's actually not. I have books going back to '86. I know this because I wrote the date in the books when I bought them. Books that have moved around the world with me. But I am going through them and so bar removed about half of them.

hubb does your dh even have a record player? And will he agree to convert the tapes into mp3 or does he want to physically keep the tapes? I have vinyl records somewhere in the house that I haven't got to yet.

Dh keeps most of his stuff hidden in the upper cupboards in the built in wardrobes. I can't reach them without a step ladder. He banks on that . Tbh, I wouldn't dream of getting rid of his stuff.

Penn well done on the 50 bags. If the jewels don't bring you joy then get rid. You could sell them to a jewellers and buy something beautiful with the money. And sorry I haven't done sentimental stuff yet - I have done jewellery but I had no great attachment to it.

so far

Is it wise to keep a paper shredder?

Arghhhhhh

Hello,

can I join in? I've read this book and it has inspired me to start some serious decluttering.

I've had a day off work today and so far have cleared out my tops, bottoms, and wardrobe clothes. I also got my two binbags of winter clothes out from under my bed and have been through these. I reckon I have thrown away about half of the stuff .

I've folded everything a la Kondo and my drawers look amazing .

I'm not so convinced about the wardrobe, it still looks very cluttered and I can see it descending into chaos again. I am tempted to put all of my summery dresses back under the bed, which would make it look much better. In my defence, DP and I share a medium sized wardrobe so we really don't have much hanging space although I have about three quarters of it.

Going to try to do socks and tights before I get dd from nursery. I have a ridiculous collection of tights - every pattern and colour imaginable, plus about twenty pairs of black opaque ones, which I have bought for some unknown reason.

progress update my mum thinks I have far too much time on my hands to be folding pants face

but my drawers look like a boutique hotel's! and I've emptied 2 drawers. and my sisters are going to be offered some lovely boots/shoes I just never wear but felt like was a waste of £ to give away! and Macmillan bag got filled for the 1st time ever! and I found an old charger to pair up to an old handset = thanks envirophone £££
and I though I needed to buy biros...found 16.

I also have a muttering DH in the background suspiciously watching me and I keep saying DVDs to him....we have boxes in the attic which've never been dealt with since we moved in

Ive halved my nailvarnishes....used their wicker thing to house the baby toys. Am loving re-purposing containers

given a bleurgh houseplant to my mum who loves it
and Ive not read the book - just this thread. Awesome.

Slow progress here but did a cull of shoes and have a huge sack of boots and shoes (many with the labels on) to give to the charity shop. I did think about selling them but it's just an excuse to keep them I reckon. Someone will be genuinely glad to get these :) Also put away all the summer clothes at last. Just the underwear to do now which won't take long and that will be my clothes sorted. Next up books.

Well done to everyone on getting rid of so much stuff :)

Welcome MsBug! This thread and book are amazing! I've only been going a week and have four black sacks of clothes/linen and two of paper work. Definitely magic!

hubb I can't bear the waste either, surplus food isn't too much of an issue as do trawl the cupboards regularly, luckily DD3's school Harvest Festival is tomorrow so the extra tins of soup/sweetcorn went there. I also don't want to chuck toiletries but I have a box in the garage and everyone was allowed to take one shower gel, one shampoo/conditioner. When it's finished they are to get the new one from the box and only buy new when all that has gone. There were a couple of sealed containers of pretty bubble baths/shower gels so they are going to the school collection for the Christmas tom bola stall in a couple of weeks - in a labelled carrier bag in garage ready to go. Not strictly Konmari as not left the house immediately, but I can't "waste" them by throwing them away.

woodenheart seconding what others have said, give the stuff away, I used to hoard everything to go in the twice yearly NCT sale, but now I give more away throughout the year - after a while I realised that the space was worth more to me than the few pounds I might make. This sale, I went through the girls' rooms and pulled out all the outgrown toys/books etc - whatever didn't sell went straight to clothing bank/charity shop the next day. Feels like a relief not to just be putting it back in to store for next time.

Gah I went to Primark today- not a good place declutter wise! Random shiz that has made its way into my house- a pair of Las Vegas socks, Christmas tree earrings, a Bambi make up bag and a few other bits. They do bring joy but so unnecessary!

wooden I promise you will feel fantastic after you take all that stuff to the chazza. Not only will you be rid of lots of stuff, but you will be liberating yourself from all the obligations to car boot/baby sale etc AND the charity shop will make money. Win win win.

Thanks for advice re-jewellery COOL and KEW. I will look into that and give the other stuff away. My next thing to ask about is cards; wedding,new baby,mother's day etc Should I just keep the ones that bring me joy and sling the majority?I am hovering over the bin bag with most of them just not sure?

Oh Penn I think cards are one of the hardest things. If there are only 5 that give you joy then you should keep those and sling the rest. Yes really. KonMarie says that the true purpose of a present is to be received - the same can be said of cards. Just thank the cards for the joy they gave you when you first received them and thank the people who took the time to send those cards. And then set them free.

Yes but it doesn't feel right to throw away new baby cards, and a zillion homemade Christmas,Easter cards COOL- what are you doing/done with them? Maybe I'm made of stone if they don't bring me joy. I just feel I need to move on. I don't think my parents kept any cards I made. And what about all the kid's artwork? Argh no wonder this is the last section...and I was doing so well. How has your decluttering gone COOL?

I am pretty hard hearted as I've never kept cards and artwork. I do have a crate of the children's old school books which I'll look through at some point I guess.

Well, I am just on books so far so not got to the sentimental stuff but I have been thinking about them a lot. Personally, I probably won't throw away bought cards given to me by DS and DP. I don't have any hand made cards by DS because I threw them away because there were made at school and they were rubbish.

Could a compromise be that you photograph them (front and inside message) and make an electronic collage out of them using an app? I have done that with cards given to me by the kids at school. It can look pretty nice.

Frances I have said it before on here. Keep the reception books and year 6 books. You and the children (in the future if they are interested) can see the progress they made from when they started to when they finished school. Everything else in the middle is noise.

Also I would keep the books in pre-school/nursery because they tend to be quite interesting with photos and things that do and say.

things that they do

(Sorry for all the typos in my posts)

You could take photos of the messages inside the cards? Or keep a few special ones in the baby box. I got more cards for DS' birth than anything else ever in my life but most of them were just "Congratulations on the birth of your beautiful baby, love from XXX". I'd keep cards with a special heartfelt message I think or perhaps from people very close to me. I wouldn't keep ones from random colleagues etc.

Oh, I disagree about the in between books being noise. You have to keep some of the random shit they write. I have an RE book from year five where we were learning about Adam and Eve and I drew a picture of naked Adam and Eve, hang on, I scanned it somewhere once.

no wonder you lose weight doing this. Folding is exhausting! yet addictive as you just have one more bit to finish..... and you push yourself

never in 1 billion yrs would I ever have thought I'd write that on MN.