"The Life Changing Magic of Tidying" continues to magically change lives (PT 2)

[BeCool]

Come fold your loved clothes, and feel the spark of joy in every object you own (or thereabouts).

Continuing our journey on from the Original thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/good_housekeeping/2178442-The-Life-Changing-Magic-of-Tidying-Marie-Kondo?msgid=50091328#50091328

OneWay, could you get away with three of those fan type files which are like built in dividers? Mine all fits in there by bill type inc mortgage stuff. I just have one but if there are lots of adults three maybe?

coughle thank you so much for your lovely candle. I've had two MCs and two gorgeous healthy boys. I do tend to not think too much about the little brothers or sisters that didn't make it and your post made me cry, in a good way.

Agree that holding on to stuff is a form of insurance. I've binned all my baby clothes (apart from one bag of stuff that I cannot be parted from!) but not the toys or slings yet for some reason. Perhaps I still think I may have another baby? I won't. I'm 42 and utterly clapped out! I've filed that stuff under "sentimental" and will takle that last.

Chaffinch are you the first person on this thread to do photos? I'm taking my hat off to you. You've inspired me! I have boxes and boxes of them and I'm too scared to get them out of the loft... Maybe it won't be so bad after all .

oneway. I was very dubious about paperwork, and not at all convinced by the KM method of filing but it's ace. I've chucked all the stuff you have to keep all in one box essentially (with bright pieces of a4 paper wrapping sections together so I can find them easily if I need to). It's working a thousand times better than all the box files and lever arch files that just depressed me ever did!

Dh has the decluttering bug now too which is very helpful. He seems to think we'll be finished by Christmas though. Ha ha DREAM ON!!!

The staff in the charity shop starting filling my name in the gift aid stickers before I gave them it....

Ha ha Frances, you're now a regular!

Ok, I can't possibly konmari paperwork to the extreme however what I do is now in labelled button wallets in a nice basket.

chaffinch, photos, wow, I'm not sure if I will ever manage those, well done!

oneway with multiple children I can not see I can get paperwork down to 3 files but I have tried to approach my paperwork with that as the ultimate goal! I started with a floor, a pile of paper and files and the paper recycling bin then got to work discarding. It is amazing how much could be thrown. While throwing I identified quite a few more bills which could be transferred online and some paperwork which has been but to one side for later as it fell within the category of memories. Now I have a plastic wallet for each of us with certificates etc then a plastic wallet for each other vital category - car, house insurance, household, wills, school letters and have a big sticker on the front of each to make them easy to grab. In addition for each child I have another wallet for items like the health record book and school paperwork that might be needed. I was determined not to use this as an exercise in purchasing more storage so plastic wallets were what I had to hand but I am sure you could reuse your box files although I think you should not aim to fill one per child maybe one per category? However I have a dc with a pile of paperwork relating to health issues, I have culled at least half which has been superseded but confess that the remainder is rather more bulky than the other files.

All my wallets are now lined up side by side on a shelf in the cupboard, able to breath, where previously theybwere crammed in.

Photos however........

Thanks MrsBug.

Zing Do your dc really like their pillowcases? If not, could you buy a few plain ones for them & then get rid of the duvet covers & pillow cases as sets? Even if a few of them went then it might make a difference?

Also, it might be worth comparing them, as if the pillowcases have been used lots more than the duvet covers then they might not be a good colour match anymore (as they get bleached by washing powder and drying in the sun - I have a swim set for my ds & he almost never wears the top - but his new swimming lesson pool is cold so I dug it out for him & the trunks now look red & turquoise & the top is blue & red still ). My mum used to make curtains out of duvet covers too if thats any help? Not saying you should do that as you must have your hands full already, but other people might if you charity shop them?

I've only decluttered cake this morning (the side is much tidier!), but I sold a moses basket on ebay & posted that off. Also I posted back 2 coats I'd bought in the sale for ds but weren't quite right.

At the weekend I was proud of myself as I went to a big john lewis & tried lots of clothes on baby dd - normally I'd have bought at least a couple of bits, but it wasn't hard to put them back as they weren't exactly what I wanted & we didn't really need them. So perhaps my mindset is changing a little bit - hurray!

Well done Leeloo on the change in attitude to shopping. That's going to be the thing I think that will keep us all on track long term. I've really seen a difference to my approach to shopping. I went to a market and bought nothing, which is unheard of for me. I just kept thinking, "yeah, the shoes are cheap and quite nice but i didn't know I needed them before I came out, and they won't bring me joy for long at all". I think it's actually going to be quite hard buying things in future!

Chaffinch you have done really well with the photos. I can't imagine condensing 50 years down to an album, but that is KonMari master class standard I think! I would say blue peter badge but I'm guessing that wouldn't last long hanging around in our houses these days!

And yy to the thing of other family members palming things off on you. Most of my 'Komono' comes from my mum originally. She brought a sewing machine over from another country the other day that was my birthday present when I was 14 (I'm now 30) Surprisingly she now has her own new one . I'm determined to use it though once the tidying is sorted. That can be my next nice reward for sorting out the house.

Chaffinch thats amazing! Well done for getting rid of so many photos - & for appreciating the ones you have. Konmari would be proud! :)

I have read the book but i'm not convinced. I think it is a really good idea not to keep buying stuff so I will try not to.

I will try and sort out books and ebay stuff but I think it is important not to put stuff in landfill so I think what people are doing on here is great.

I think the process for me will have to be gradual.

Marie doesn't really talk about what to do with the stuff apart from putting in bin bags but surely if we all did that then the landfill would increase.

I am not really prepared to throw stuff away unless it is crap like you see in those clutter programmes where they keep old newspapers and margarine tubs etc.

I've made a start on my papers. I have 2 empty box files, a couple of thin plastic boxes and a lot of plastic wallets that are now empty. I've got the bills box file into a thin plastic file, as most of it is online now and I've binned a whole lot of out of date bills. I've filled up 6 carrier bags with shredded paper today! Still got a lot of files to go though, but right now I'm knackered. Is anyone else finding this process tiring, or is it just me?

Not just you, tis exhausting!

Alemci, there's a strong likelyhood that everything we own will end up in landfill one way or another (or it'll be incinerated, which is how our council deal with it). Someone's got to get rid of all this stuff, might as well start now.

I think the great thing as PP have said, is that this process makes you concious of how much rubbish we are accumilating (and it is all rubbish in the end)... Best not buy any more.

Alemci - I don't think much if anything that I have gotten rid of has gone to landfill. I have taken everything to charity shops.

Although we did take a load of stuff to the tip yesterday - some of that will go to landfill unfortunately but where we live the tip reckons they recycle 77% of what they get so I don't feel too bad.

echoing further down thread as it is hard to 'spend' money now on stuff

noticed a lot of what I'm getting rid of is 'bargains' form the charity shop...so possibly not really bargains, but a waste of £...at least charity benefits doubly

I have started on paperwork and have chucked quite a lot. We definitely have different types of paperwork stashed in different places around the house, eg old stuff in the loft, important documents (birth certificates, passports) under the bed and everything else (bank statements etc) in a file in the living room. I would love to have them all in one place at least.

I have a terrible charity shop shopping habit

On the plus side, I have sent lots of stuff back there so in effect I've just been donating money to charity

Very little has gone to landfill, apart from really stained or worn out things. Even the paperwork will be recycled.

Today I went in a charity shop and saw a couple of things which I thought were quite nice and the old me would probably just have bought them but then I remembered that I have enough clothes and wouldn't have any space to put them and surprisingly resisted.

We have 10 lever arch files stuffed full of paperwork plus two folders that need filing. Its fairly organised but stupid. I've got three regular A4 folders and I'm determined to downsize to these. And then reduce further.

But I'm running before I've folded all my clothes. The video link was great but tee-shirts are easy. For some reason my camisoles and yoga pants don't want to toe the line. I already culled my wardrobe when I had my colours done so I don't feel too badly off here.

I'm going to reread on what happens after clothes.

i did 1 drawer today so it's a start and put some things on ebay.

chaffinch you're an inspiration!

With baby/kid stuff, I saved a lot of stuff from my first. I had it all in labeled boxes in the garage. But tbh some of the boxes never even got opened the second time round!

I do think it was worthwhile as it saved me the stress of having to source it all again. Most of it was secondhand anyway.

As DS2 grows out of things I'm freecycling them immediately. I have one box of baby things to save. They do bring me joy every time I see them as I remember those tiny baby days.

Just did my pan cupboard. I wasn't ruthless as I think it would really bug me if I got rid of the right pan for the job as the ones I've got are all slightly different. I'm not a minimalist...but I put my pressure cooker up high as I only really use for big groups of people and I re-purposed a storage box for the pan lids which is bringing me untold joy to think I won't have to scrabble about among the pan lids tonight [tragic emoticon required]

Also, I had two lids without a pan

Memory boxes anyone? At the moment I have boxes and boxes of stuff for each child. The paperwork challenge scared me but once I had decided on a format it was easy but how much is too much with memory boxes? Should I even have boxes or would albums be better? No Kondo advice - anyone like to share. I want to do them before photos which I think will be even harder!

I just half-Konmarie'd DH's sock drawer!

Anything holey went in a rag bag for the charity shop.

Then, as I actually have shoe boxes for once (usually they're recycled), I used the lid of a big one for pants & next to it used the main box to coral stripey thick & thin socks on one side & neutral thick & thin on the other. I then used baby dd's shoe box to put his trainer socks in, with his hiking socks in the space behind. Good to be able to keep her 1st shoe box without it being clutter.

He still has enough socks to last about 3 weeks without washing , but he'd be upset if I got rid of any. I didn't fold them... MK wouldn't like it, but I know I'll never be able to maintain it (altho' I have done it for mine), but I stood the thin socks on end in their 'potato balls' and the thick socks have to lay down as otherwise they're too tall.

It looks really nice now, so I hope he appreciates it! He's such a hoarder. I told him I was thinking about doing a toy sale & he looked plaintive & said 'why would you get rid of poor dd's toys? ' - missing the point that she has so many toys (as does ds) that she hasn't time to play with them properly & gets distracted from what she's doing by the clutter they cause!