"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

Vold

I'm glad your DH is with you on this.
I brought it up again today with mine and he was resisting.
oh well.

thanks all, I feel ok, but my tummy still gets a bit sore by the evenings.

I'm watching IT crowd on Netflix. so want to tidy that bunker they work in
(and I'm also PMSL, it's just so funny)

Argh the 'office' on the IT crowd would give our dear leader a fainting fit I think!

I'm also only able to do piecemeal decluttering due to a very curious 18mo.

But I did the towel drawer under the bed. Now it's lovely squashy towel rolls. Not a cat bed
next on the list is bedding. I can NEVER find the right sized sheet or duvet cover.

I don't have much drawer space, just hanging. So most of my clothes (aperture from underwear & pjs) are hung up. Not sure what the next step is. Buy a hanging thingy with pull out drawers so I can roll & put into drawers? Not sure I can see the point of that.

proveme and justgo dd's room just has a wardrobe with those hanging shelf things so I have made temporary 'drawers' from cardboard boxes. I imagine that we will replace them with something nicer one day. I think the ban on buying storage is temporary while we are actively decluttering; once the project is finished and we know what storage we really need then it's OK to buy more.

I tried to enlist dp to chuck out some random electronics, it wasn't a success. He refused point blank to throw any wires if he didn't know what they were for, and any broken things as he 'might fix them one day' as a compromise we are going to put anything in these categories in the loft, where I never go, so we can have a nicely sorted box of electronics we actually use where we can get to it easily.

Justgotosleepnow I think the folding not hanging thing is based on v small Japanese 1-room flats, where space is at a premium. If you have enough hanging space then why not use it? Artificially buying drawer type storage (unless it would bring you joy) seems a bit pointless to me.

After Konmari-ing my tops I ended up with ~10 long/medium sleeved & 4 short sleeved t-shirts & 4 hoodies & I rebelliously hung them up again - along with about 25 spare hangers I'd liberated! I can see what I have and the clothes are organised from heavy things/colours on left to lighter things/colours on right, to be uplifting as KM suggests.

Everything is neat & organised & I can easily see everything & choose what to wear. I can't see that putting them in a drawer would help with anything.

pjs, underwear & trousers are folded in drawers as she suggests & for the dc (who have no hanging space), folding their clothes into drawers in rows (instead of piles) has completely changed my awareness of what they own and has meant they wear a wider variety of clothes rather than just what was at the top of the pile, which is great! :)

proveme I find that if I take just the right amount of cash for what I want when I go shopping then I have to avoid impulse buys. You can also then use the cash only till at IKEA and avoid the queues

mrscurrent buying storage for DVDs and then archiving their empty boxes in the loft may be the very definition of breaking the rules. And just think of the stress levels of those lonely plastic boxes in the dark loft - you'd be depriving them of a triumphant second life as a pot plant - assuming you can find somewhere to recycle the damn things since a quick Google search shows this is not as easy as it should be.

ohhelp can't imagine trying to tidy with 3 dc's in the house, my one dd is seriously limiting my progress... Her favourite hobby unfortunately is emptying drawers. Hope you got through clothes ok. I find so much easier doing laundry now as actually have space to put clothes away instead of leaving it piled on bed for ages.
Just did toiletries and make up. Have thrown away half a bottle of foundation from wedding day FOUR YEARS AGO!! Could also open up in competition with boots with amount of body lotion I have. No half price soap and glory set in January for me this year!

Mrs Current I agree with other posters, those boxes would have to go ! Do you really want to find them in the loft in two years ? Take a picture of them if it makes you happy and then recycle them .. . You could always just keep the dvds in their boxes if it makes you happier

Children's DVDs and audiobooks sorted. Two double stacked shelves of plastic cases eliminated and replaced with one neat album. The kids of love it - they are discovering things they haven't seen for a year because you had to take everything out of the cupboard to see the back row of cases. Next up - DH's DVDs, in a much bigger album...

We have our DVD in those cases - means the 4yr old can flick through what he wants to watch in the car, while the 8yr old selects from a different folder.....

DH has just come home and seen the enormous bag of empty cases and said "oh, but we're keeping the cases, right?" When I told him he was slightly missing the point he said, "but if we ever want to eBay them we'll need the cases". This is coming from someone who would rather eBay a child than a film.

But what about box sets? Can't imagine my living room without our big West Wing box.

Or would that fall under joy?

Otherwise, I think using DVD wallets is brilliant.

massive win as I sat contemplating the kitchen and realised I had a whole cupboard but the whole rest of it was full of .... carrier bags. Like WTAF. I realised I was saving them for reusing; but never reused them. literally LOADS. all weakened from aging in the cupboard.
so they've gone, the space meant I could put the pen /menu basket inside the odd space, plus the crisps... which cleared the counter top

then I changed the little table around, and hung up one chair as we only use 3 chairs through the week... saving space... then I thought I would switch the cereal with the cookery tins for easier breakfast access... then clearing the cereals has meant I can have a beaut big bowl of fruit display

I always wanted a big fruit display and bonus - fruit out means I'm snacking on it instead of the now hidden crisps! thank you kondoms for this thread

grouchy my Dh felt a bit like that about some of our big box sets, so we compromised and he kept about 4 or 5 box sets but they're in a cupboard rather than out on the shelves.

Ikea done. Overspent a bit but only on craft paper and pens for the little one. I will take a photo of my clothes now as they look a lot better in the shelf boxes, but I still have too many clothes I have realised since sorting them vertically. Ah well, I will wait a couple of months and see whether I have been delaying wearing anything.

Did my husband's boxers vertically and he has 30-odd pairs! Really ridiculous if you ask me! I am going to ask him to rationalise as he isn't wearing the ones at the back of the cupboard.

We got rid of all the DVD cases when we moved house. It is much better for the kids dvds. But if I am honest, we gave our massive dvd collection to my parents and I haven't missed it since we have netflix. And we did the same with CDs. Honestly, not missed the cases once. The artwork is online anyway if you load it onto your iPad/iPod whatever. Do it!

Well done Chaffinch, I had really similar revelations when doing my kitchen and realising actually things didn't have to live where they had first been placed and I could choose to have nothing on my worktops with a bit of a reshuffle! Great feeling!

On the plastic bags, I reuse mine as bin bags and don't have a proper bin, just a small box under the kitchen sink. This means I don't dread putting the bin out as it's just a little bag and not as manky as its only a day old usually. Also saves the space of a bin and the cost of binbags. This was a tip from my plumber randomly!

Chaffinch

thank you kondoms for this thread

excellent typo and I really needed laugh today after a really shit day

Well done Chaffinch! You were on a real roll there. I do find it amazing how blind we become to our surroundings - not questioning the way we have arranged things and what we have chosen to hang on to. (I say "We", I mean "I".) Sure, some things are difficult to let go of - but I am amazed by the amount of stuff that, when I've finally seen it, can just go.

it is getting rid of crap that allows contemplation
and that space to think about shifting around = better solutions

first time in my LIFE I am enjoying sorting and cleaning.

Chaffinch me too it's great isn't it!

DH looks for the cat in the towels under bed drawer (don't ask) and goes "oh! It's that woman isn't it?" And I reply yup, justgotosleepnow. No, he says- that crazy Japanese lady!
Yes! And it's great all our towels rolled in lovely squashy rolls. Fab

Another newbie here. I downloaded the book on Sunday and during Dd's nap on Monday I did tops and bottoms, then today I sorted hanging items.

I am a total convert! I love Marie's bonkers quirky ideas such as thanking objects for the happy times. That really helped me let go of some of the lovely dresses which I wore to weddings and parties pre-dd. One, I wore to my best friend's wedding, and I was able to tell myself that there were lots of photos of me in it.

I'm so excited and feeling positive to move through the process. DH is picking up my enthusiasm too. Although he initially laughed when I said about folding everything, he was really impressed with my drawers and said he was proud of me. I've also been raving to my friends today and sounding a bit like I've joined a cult. Oh well, I'm in good company! This thread has really added to the experience by giving me ideas for how to discard things.

Well MrCurrent well and truly veto'd the removal of CD boxes, the look of sheer horror on his face was a picture! He does love his DVDs so I suppose the boxes, all neatly lined up by genre, do being him joy...

I'm going to have to tackle the kids' bedrooms this weekend, I just can't seem to move forward (or just move full stop!) for their stuff. Although I am desperate to do the kitchen. Oh no, I really have lost the order, I definitely need a re-read or hire chaffinch

justgotosleep I have images of you opening a drawer to find a cat asleep in the dark having been there since the towels were changed! One of ours will sleep in any drawer left open (boys!!).

volde tell your dh to make copies of the CDs and sell the originals in their boxes on eBay now, if he wants to.

Well done everyone on today's decluttering

MsBug
I'm wondering if that would be violation of copyright laws though?

MrsCurrent I felt the same re kids bedroom, but actually ds (6) was good about it & a big help.

I emptied a couple of boxes of party bag/xmas cracker/comic freebies tat and asked him which he wanted to keep or put in charity bag.

• After a few minutes & 1 obv broken toy being discarded, he looked confused & said he didn't know which pile to put things in.
• So I said it helped me to think about if it brought me joy - he shrugged & said he didn't really know.
• So I asked him if he'd choose it to play with it if he had to pick a toy to play with right now - and he said no & immediately discarded about 70% of the pile!
• a couple of things he said sometimes it brought him joy & sometimes not, so I said to keep those things & could always think again next time we had a clearout, as I didn't want to put him off. :)

We did the same thing of wooden trains & car track - putting all of 1 category out & him picking his favourites - or just seeing that he had a lot of 1 thing & keeping a reasonable amount. He kept a lot but got rid of a fair bit & for a first try I'm really proud of him.

Also, at 1 point we asked dh how much of something we should keep & dh said "I think you should never get rid of anything" (thanks dh!). But ds went to him & said "but daddy, if we always keep everything then the house will be too full of stuff and there won't be room for us." Bless him, he's clearly been paying attention to me. [proud emoticon]