"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

. I have a lot of blubber to go too! Unfortunately I keep decluttering the wine and biscuits which makes more blubber!

Glad it went ok.

Big lurker here!
Zing-glad ur op went well.

Have done mine and the kids'clothes. Folded DH's pants and t-shirts to highlight the wonder of the way that is konmarie!

Started on the massive heap on kimono.
Feeling way happier about the decrease in clutter-just need help to make my home a bit nicer looking I.e. pics on wall etc. Sometimes feel some rooms feel a bit sterile. We have spent a loooooong time renovating and dh is loathe to put hooks in his newly plastered walls!!

kiwi have you come across those 3M command hook thingies for putting pics on the walls? We used them when we lived in rented housing to avoid damaging the walls, and thought they were so good that we now use them in our own house. Makes it nice and easy to move pictures around too.

Very recently we had our home on the market and as such it's never been so clean & tidy. We intend to keep it that way as it's a delight to come home too after a hard day at work.

Will use this thread for motivation x

leeloo, that was the thing, with 90 mins left I had made £ 8 but my pitch cost £15 so I had to make at least that much back, plus I wanted enough for the skirt another seller put aside for me . There was NO WAY I could justify making a loss, so I just looked at everything and thought 'flip this I don't want this stuff, I want the space in my bedroom and that skirt !' I did take a couple of things off the rail that I knew I could wear in the future given the right circumstances, but all my short fancy dresses and the jackets, no . I got a proper rainproof jacket last year so much as I love jackets I can't justify having ten + of them ! I still have the rainproof, 2 leather jackets,2 denim jackets and 2 black so they cover all eventualities from wet to cold to formal to going-out etc wear that I need really. Oh and a fab wine velvet one and a fab ankle-length black one I've kept for DD.
Not in the true Kondo spirit really, but I still love all these - I can see me reducing them further at a later stage .

Oh thanks eqokka. Then I can just go and put stuff up without dh's procrastination!!!

Glad it all went well today Zing, seemed like two minutes to me

I think Millymoose you've approached the whole thing in exactly the right way, got rid of what gave you issues and kept what gave you joy. I don't think MK is actually proposing minimalism, just only owning what you get pleasure from, even if it doesn't fit you anymore or whatever as long as it gives joy not sadness. For me, keeping the odd going out dress for a party I may never again attend (boohoo!) is worth it because I love to see some sparkles in my wardrobe. I would feel very frumpy without them there!

and it was lovely to see everyone so delighted with the stuff they bought, my corner was a big happy smiley place :) !The 2 girls that were set up next to me were pros at this kind of thing and helped me set up and watched my stuff while I ran to the loo etc, so they were thrilled with the stuff they got from me. One is into upcycling and came up with fab ideas as to how she would revamp them and the other girl is very slim and my stuff suited her perfectly, I was as happy as they were !
I'll never be a 'true' Kondo-ist, stuff does make me happy but equally so does space - it's trying to balance the 2 in a rented house the LL has stuffed with furniture that drives me crazy !

Honestly renting somewhere with a load of furniture and stuff inside is soooo depressing. We are debating whether to ask the landlady to move it out but appreciate that is a real pain for her, but it's all ancient bed linens and little pictures of the Virgin Mary. We put as much as possible in the cellar but what can you do with 8 unnecessary chairs and two pallet size boxes of pictures and cushions when you have a two by two metre cellar? Even harder as we took absolutely anything they asked us to take from our house we own so our tenants weren't lumbered with any of our trash! We even cleared the loft for them and the shed! I may have to lend her my copy of Kondo!

I don't have many organs left. Have been relieved of gallbladder, tonsils, spleen, some of Fallopian tubes, and much of my stomach. What can I say, they weren't giving me joy...

Good evening all. Milly that's brilliant, it's such a great feeling to just let it all go and not have to think about it or look at it again. I felt like doing a little dance on my way out of the chazza today after depositing 5 bags of clothes. Thank you clothes and farewell!!!
zing glad all went ok.
prove that's a pain:( hope if you do email her it works out. Maybe just msg her saying your stuff just doesn't spark joy when you touch it. And see if she thinks you're weird

Zing I am glad the op went well.

milly well done on your successful day.

50 pairs of trousers spam. I am impressed . How many did you keep?

I have cheated . Today I ignored the rest of the paperwork and did dd's toys. I noticed her this morning sitting surrounded by toys and not really knowing what to play with next. I felt like a Bad Mum. I think decluttering my own stuff has made me see how much nicer it is not to be surrounded by junk and to be able to find what you want easily. So I chucked a load of toys which weren't ever played with and have started a toy rotation system like the one someone linked to above ( for that).

Tomorrow I will pay for my sins by finishing the paperwork mountain

Three boxes and two bags to charity today - feeling the joy already! And sold/ebayed some more expensive purchases to exacerbate the guilt. I do need to do it Kondo-style, though, I think. If I just do bits and bobs, it doesn't feel quite as good… like, when I do it properly, I get a real rush, but just ploughing through stuff is tiring.

Hope you feel well overnight, Zing, and get a chance to take things easy for the next wee while. And Francesca are you bionic?!

Thanks everyone! had a reasonable night, pain level is not bad at all.
going home sometime today.

my mum is staying for a month because this first week I'm not even allowed to lift Elijah (he's just less then a stone) and it's questionable when I can drive and when I can I'd like to avoid lifting baby car seat and 2.5 year old DD in and out of car for as long as possible.
I'm going to indulge and will lie down and rest as much as I can this week - I have to bf lying on my side anyway.
I'm expressing bm as we speak yo get rid of last bit of tainted milk and really looking forward to resuming bf my baby. come on docs hurry up, little calf is waiting for mama cow!

msdolittle - with knives, I usually wrap them well in newspaper and tape into a parcel. It's less of an issues with wheelie-bins, but I remember reading ages ago about a bin man that got stabbed when he swung a black bin bag of rubbish onto his back and it had a loose knife in it

I've been reading the toy rotation pieces with interest. Where do you store the toys that have been put away? We have most toys in the living room and the rest in DS's bedroom. He doesn't have too many toys at the moment but with Christmas coming up that might change...

He has a lot of cars that get played with most of the time, but I'm thinking about rotating some of them to keep it interesting. I'm going to keep all the books out downstairs, and we already rotate the books in DS's bedside table for bedtime.

We've got one of those IKEA expedit units for toys and I've put the current toys on the bottom rows that dd can reach, and the others in boxes on the higher shelves. MK would say that you should use whatever storage you already have rather than buying anything new

Toy rotation: how old are your children? And what do you do if your ds only plays with lego?

Btw, went away to visit family this weekend and it was wonderful to pack clothes because it was easy to find the right stuff, easy to pack because everything was in rectangles, packed more stuff into less space and easy to find stuff in the bag when the right clothes were needed at the other end.

Dd is only 22 months so I can still pretty much decide what she plays with.

We have a huge box of Lego so I've spilt it into smaller sets and she can only have one set at a time. Different Lego sets could fall into the three types of toys the blog talks about too (thinking, moving and pretending) - eg Lego people and animals are pretending toys, vehicles are moving toys and all Lego is a thinking toy.

I dropped 6 bags of clothes to the charity shop today. Feel great about getting rid of the stuff that has languished at the back of my wardrobe for the last few years. Really like looking at clothes that never suited me as having served there purpose by showing me what not to buy again... Don't think I will ever do patterned trousers even though they look great on other people, they just aren't me... Have served their purpose and hopefully whoever gets them next will rock that particular look!
Also tackled my knickers drawer. Got rid of all the uncomfortable thongs.. Feel more joy already!! Have decided to keep only black, white and nude that way will always match the bras I have kept. Still don't want to be run over by a bus, but at least won't be mortified by underwear if I am;)

I know I've not really been posting on this thread as I can't really follow the order/instructions in the book ATM, but I wanted to share a way the book has helped today.

I've decided to get rid of a load of old Orchard Toys board games. The DCs have outgrown all but a few so they are not needed. They've fulfilled their purpose. The ones that are complete are going to my friend who is a reception teacher.

But here's the amazing bit. One of them is a game, Tummy Ache, that I picked up in a charity shop. It's an old version, with pictures exactly the same as the one I'd had as a child. I was SO ecstatic when I found it! And the DCs enjoyed it too. It made me really happy to play it with them.

But they've outgrown that too I think. And the book helped me remember - it HAS done what it was supposed to do. It made us all happy. And now (although I did have a little wobble when I checked it all) I can let it go :)

Or can I?!