'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'.

Nanny
I'm BFing right now, but will look in book for you asap

have been slowly doing stuff my DH will NOT get rid of any dvds - how can I make help him to?

Need to sort the kids' memory boxes - that'll be hard

Just bought a hang up jewellery thing off amazon - £2.72 for one from china seemed reasonable! dd and I have so much tat jewellery to sort out she can inherit my jewellery box

the kids have been trying to keep stuff folded bless 'em, and I saw DH rolling his pants very cool

thanks for cereal box ideas for holding homework - we def. need something as the system is failing - lost ds2 spellings list... a box would keep it all together... hhmmmmmmmmmmmmm

So I've started. I've done underwear (how do you keep knickers rolled up - they don't seem to get the master plan?), socks, tights and vests. And filled the bags2school bag with loads of stuff. Plus taken another box of books to oxfam (nectar points piling up here!). And I under covered a shower gel mountain (or reservoir) I didn't know I had (that's what happens when you move twice in one year - boxes with STUFF!).

Clothes next. My chest of drawers has very shallow drawers so I'm going to have to fold into fifths to get everything on its end - not sure about this. I think -shock horror- I might have to stack - can't really stack more than two deep anyway so hopefully the folding gods won't disapprove....

As we can't declutter or roll up this thread someone will have to start another

How do you stop yourself cutting out recipes, putting them in a pile and never using them? I have a huge pile in the kitchen and we eat the same food all the time:(

Zing Marie says that it is best to declutter out of season clothes first as it is easier to realise which ones you love rather than keeping them because you wear them regularly. So could you start with the clothes that you cant currently wear. (because they don't fit or aren't bf friendly)?

This morning I sorted my hats, scarves, gloves and bags. I chucked a lot of scarves in particular. They now all.fit in my 'scarf drawer' although the bad news is dps don't so I have made him his own 'shoes hats and scarf cardboard box drawer.

Dp is not on side at all - he doesn't want to chuck stuff out and claims that folding pants is the first sign of my descent into madness

Welcome Change2013 and all other newbies!

I'm going to share something that I found myself doing today...I went to the supermarket and as I was packing the shopping, I put everything in the bags vertically (e.g yoghurts, packs of meat etc). I realised half way through that this is now a proper obsession but it made the packing of the shopping seem much less stressful (I hate the supermarket with a passion!)

As for life after Kon Marie, I will spend my time learning French, learning how to use my sewing machine properly and drinking gin and tonic reading lots of books that bringe joy!

Is anyone else getting impatient and just wanting it all to be done now? I know we are making progress and am practically on first name terms with the staff at our local recycling centre but I do wish I could be a bit quicker with the process. Work and toddler limit my progress however.

I know Duchy. I have a shelf full of cookbooks, a pepperplate account full of recipes, a load saved on the computer and the enormous pile of magazine cuttings sat on top of the recipe books. I'm sure I cleared them out not so long ago, but they're back again.

Mine come out of the magazine from Saturday's Times and recipe cards from supermarkets etc which I don't understand because I do almost all my shopping in Aldi that doesn't do recipe cards. It would be 10x worse if I actually allowed myself to buy food magazines.

I swear I could make something different every day for the rest of my life and I wouldn't get through them all.

On the subject of magic tidying, I've done our bathroom cabinet (a tall one from ikea, 40 cm x 40 cm, holds bloody loads, towels, toilet rolls, shampoo, etc) and thrown away the 20 year old make up, out of date tablets etc).

chaffinch I had this with DH when I was deck uttering last summer, I wanted to chuck all our CDs which had been stacked on top of a really tall bookcase and not touched at all in a year, he was so reluctant and really dragged his heels.
In the end what did it was when I just gave up nagging him and decluttered lots of my own stuff and over time he saw the benefits of space etc and just suggested himself one day that we cull the CDs,we didn't get rid of them all but about half. He also agreed to get rid of about 80% of our DVD boxes and store the DVDs in a zipped case which fits in a tiny fraction of the space. He did refuse to do this with some DVDs which were in "nice" boxes but it still saved soooo much space.
I got rid of 2 bags of sports kit back into work today. Feels good! Next on my list is paperwork including calling Credit card people and bank to go paper free if at all possible, it's not just the statements, they send SO much stuff in the envelope with them.

OnIkley I'm the same. I definitely cleared out lots of recipes a few weeks ago but the pile in the kitchen just grows. I also get recipes from Saturday's Times, Nigel Slater with the Observer and from Good Housekeeping and the Healthy Food Guide Magazine which I occasionally buy. The last time I made something new it was from an online recipe.

Cookery books are taking over here. And magazines. And folders of recipes. I love cookery books though. I will have a cull but generally they do bring me joy.

I have to admit to shopping today! Clearing my underwear drawer showed a few gaps! And DH has been chucking old boxer shorts so needed some new ones. And DS keeps losing grey school socks. That is all allowed.

Then found myself in the xmas section of M&S and bought a few bits. And a Christmas planner in Lakeland. . I love xmas and will have a houseful for four days so I need to be organised. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

On the plus side - DH and I cleared out three drawers in the kitchen. Knives etc, general utensils - how many potato mashers do we need?? And spice drawer. I now have a bag of utensils to go. Not sure where though. And what do you do with old knives?

I had ground to a halt but did ds' s drawers this afternoon and culled a few things that are too small. Everything now fits in the drawers - not sure how tidy he will keep it!

Would strongly recommend to all to reconsider getting magazine subscriptions. A) it's more paper B) they recycle the same old crap which C) is mostly available online anyway, and D) is expressly designed to make us BUY more stuff.

I am significantly less materialistic since I stopped buying mags. (Even non fashion ones like gardener's world and good food)

I did post on this thread a while back, so just updating to push us towards a new thread! I made a good start, got rid of loads of clothes & kitchen stuff, but then stalled a bit. Got back to it yesterday & been going through sentimental stuff. Lots of my old school text books! Have kept some, but culled quite a bit. Planning to store it all neatly in a suitable sized box once I've finished. I'm sure Marie wouldn't approve, but I do enjoy the trip down memory lane looking back on it all, so I guess that does count as joy.

Dd1, who is 4, has asked me to fold her tops like mine! Dh however won't let me do his, spoil sport!

Had my colours done last week, so looking forward to shopping for my correct colours, as I am now very short of tops, having been ruthless!

I have also become quite obsessed with this project but think that is okay as time limited

When I am done I am going to hire a carpet cleaning machine and replace most of my bras with one amazing professionally fitted rigby and peller bra

I agree wholeheartedly with Frances re the magazines and especially magazine subscriptions. I grew up a magazine addict & stopping buying most of them (years ago now when I was saving to travel) was one of the first fully "adult" and personally "important" steps I took in my life.

They are all about consuming and fixing and creating self doubt if not self loathing that will make us rush out and buy.

I do still buy Vanity Fair a few times a year - for the articles & photos - I'm certainly not the target market for the products advertised in VF!. Up until fairly recently I used to still buy the odd food magazine too, but not for a long time now. The last one I bought felt completely pointless and it ahs been easy to resist buying more

Oh actually I buy Burda magazine every few months - but that is for patterns and it doesn't have any advertising or articles in it. If I don't use it I sell it on ebay - very easy can do it on mobile :)

NEW THREAD HERE: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/good_housekeeping/2209260-The-Life-Changing-Magic-of-Tidying-continues-to-magically-change-lives-PT-2

Oh well done BeCool

There aren't many 'full' threads in GH!! Let alone those that run to other parts.

We are all doing so very well.

Come on, we have to get to 1000 messages and a 'this thread is full' statement

Decluttered a box of junk today. Threw away 2 mesh bags for pram blackout covers that we don't even have any more.

Agree with the no magazines thing.

Er...

We did it! Hurrah