"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

Result! Ds finally agreed that all his lego instruction leaflets can be recycled. We had masses of them. Woo-hoo!!

You can find the lego instructions on line too.

I think about 2/3 of our soft toys are bagged up ready for sale or charity shops! The DC thought I was mad thanking each one before putting them in the bag!

Yes, rummikub, that's how I persuaded him - as he has PDF instructions stored in iBooks anyway.

iBooks? Can you store the instructions as iBooks? Is it easy to do?

josephine1986 I think if you're planning another baby then its justifiable to keep the baby stuff - maybe just look through and see if there's anything else that you wouldn't wear again or perhaps - 'decide what you'd want to wear/use if you got pregnant tmrw' is perhaps more in the Konmari spirit?

On the topic of pregnancy type stuff, having cleared my underwear drawer, I have a stack of 30 washable breast pads which are mostly used, but I don't plan to have any more children... any ideas on what to do with them? Not exactly something you can ebay I don't think! Is there a 'eco' page somewhere I could pass them on to a good home through?

So annoying, as I now have a v tidy drawer :), but a huge heap of stuff in front of it that I don't know what to do with. :(

Ah zing hope you are okay. I had a MC at Christmas one year, it's a tough anniversary to mark. I worked out the baby's due date would have been in July and it was very hard to pass their non-birthday... What was strange was that i went on to give birth to DS on the exact day a year later. He was two weeks overdue as well, so it was almost as if he waited. . I believe in magic.

CDs done. They fit the shelves exactly now. Same with books. And clothes. And everything else I've done so far. Has that happened to anyone else? Weird.

Just put my wedding dress in the washing machine..... It's expensive and heavily beaded we shall see how it looks in about 10 minutes....

Melody you are brave !!! I hope that it turns out ok. :).

It's absolutely fine. Not a single sparkle, bead or lace were damaged in the process. It smells lovely and has come up like new. I'm very happy I didn't go to the dry cleaners.

Have been lurking since the last thread and borrowed the book from the library -no clutter! Thanks to everybody on both threads - especially Frances- for the inspiration.

First major achievement today, all the joyless clothing bagged up and off to the cash for clothes shop. (I found it easier to be ruthless, thinking we will get a little something back.)

Evidence attached!

My few criticisms of the Konmarie approach are that it completely ignores families. Toys aren't even mentioned and they are our major issue. (Three kids.) I have managed to siphon off a few toys today - enough to close the lid on the downstairs toy box. Small difference but it does make the room seem much tidier.

I also think she ignores the financial reasons why people do keep hold of stuff. Her attitude of 'if you need it later, just buy another one' may be fine for clients who are able to pay for her professional help but not for the average family.

The process is definitely quite addictive. I will have to split books into much, much smaller categories than those she suggests. (All my books fit the 'general' category!) I've also ordered a pair of shredding scissors - to avoid the space taken up by a proper shredder- to help with the paperwork category!

am music magpie -ing a load of dvds; never bothered with them before as they pay so little but you lot explaining Konmarie's view about £ has freed me up a bit. I am NOT going to carboot/ sell through FB so the MM thing is a solid sale, all done
I need to order this book from library next time I'm in

mum2jakie Well done on the good start. I agree that missing out on toys is a huge problem - maybe as she doesn't have any? The closest she comes to discussing them I think is when she talks about a 3 year old who, when Konmari puts all their things in 1 place, starts tidying up herself! mmm, ok then!

I reckon the toys & kids books make up about 50% of the stuff in our house! Maybe more... hard to say, but have 2 dc and childmind (so I can't even really get rid of much of the outgrown stuff), so hard to know what I could lose realistically - as the stuff may not bring me joy but it does to the little people! :(

Chaffinch I started trying to do that with my cds but it came up with error messages as the barcodes were too old to recognise! so I gave it up as a bad job & dropped them all off at the charity shop instead.

With the kids toys, I think the approach I'm going to take is, if he hasn't played with it in a fair while, I'm getting rid. I'm not saving for next child as I don't know when that will be and realistically they will be more interested in the big brother's toys when/if they do come along! Plus children's best toys seem to be stuff like toilet tubes and feathers, not big plastic monstrosities. Which I will inevitably buy them for Chirstmas anyhow. The running around in bedroom space is much better for them.

Now children's books, that's my problem. I keep thinking even the one word books will be good for learning to read?! Insane?

Do the one word books bring you joy?

rummikub yes it's very easy. This is the website I use. Once you put the number /description in, it comes up with a list and when you click on a line on the list, it opens a new window with the PDF and prompts you if you want to save in iBooks.

shocking
she was due on 3rd May 2009.
DS5 was due a year later on 1st May!
was born on 10th May so not exactly like yours but close enough.
that pg was really hard emotionally as everything happened almost exactly a year on.

my candles are still burning & will do till the 20th, the day that pg was over (had ERPC). I wish she could be here. and I can't believe we had 3 children since!
sorry for your loss as well

despite sleeping in till noon I managed to sort through all the clothes of DS1, DS2 & DS3 plus all school shirts & jumpers for DS4 & DS5.
the older 4 had to listen to a little speech about KonMari and the idea of getting rid of things we don't love. DS2 was ready to get rid of ties and school uniforms so I had to amend the mantra by adding "unless it's unavoidable we keep them"
cheeky DS2!

I've labelled most clothes and uniforms now.
Also sorted their hangers. DS1 has a tiny bedroom and no wardrobe just a rod between walls to hang clothes on. As these are on display I gave him nice wooden hangers DH doesn't use anymore. it all looks very smart now.

DS2&DS3 share a wardrobe, they have red hangers for shirts etc.DS4& DS5 also share a wardrobe, they have black hangers.
(when DD was a baby we bought a pink clothes rail & pink hangers for her dresses. she also has a chest of drawers for all her other clothes)

we've always had a good system & I try to colour code stuff, but it gets overwhelming every time we sort clothes, getting new ones, swapping summer/winter uniforms, chucking out broken/dirty things. And because there many of them and grow at different rates it's an endless project!

Tomorrow's jobs will be:

• sorting pjs, tops, school trousers, jumpers etc for DS4 & DS5
• sorting boxers, vests & socks for 5 boys
• finish sewing in name tags

Monday - Friday I set my sight on:

• sorting DD's clothes

• sorting baby bottles & teats ( I still have the travel bottle holders but the blue teats to be used with those have been unavailable for years! )
• emptying freezer and cooking & freezing soup in portions for me to use post-op

I don't think I will be able to sort baby's clothes as well before 27th, but they are fairly organised. I just have to dedicate a box for clothes he starts growing out of and will be filling it as we go.

Gallbladder op is on 27th, so obviously I'll have to recover before resuming magical decluttering, but once I've sorted 5 DSs & DD's stuff I'll feel I'd made a good start.

oh and I bought the book today on Ebay. I don't have a kindle and prefer a hard copy anyway, but it will bring me joy so it's a well-justified purchase!

mum2jakie

I agree with you. I also wondered why there's no "toys/kids's crap" category.

And about children's clothes - I have to store everything the kids don't wear right now for next child down the line.
MIL has 25 grandchildren, from ages 20y - 3m and we have a lot of friends who have 4 -7 kids so clothes & shoes are doing their rounds and getting passed on, back & forth.
I have a sweet baby outfit that has been worn by all our kids (7) and at least 5 nephews/nieces! and it's still in very good condition as only worn for a short time by everyone so it will be passed on to DH's brand new godson! (only a week old baby Jacob, who has 5 sisters!)

I can't just throw these clothes away as some are borrowed. I have to store them until I can give them back/away in between my kids wearing them.
we save a lot of money this way and that is very important.

Lit a candle this morning for zing and shocking's little ones and anyone else on this thread who's lost a baby. My heart goes out to you.

While the candle was burning it occurred to me that we NEVER use candles or incense anymore... So I have gathered them all up and a very happy Freecycler is picking them up later!

I kept the one I was burning as it turned out to have a very nice scent. So now we have one candle, and that's exactly enough.

leeloo maybe try posting on your local La Leche League fb group page to offer the breast pads?

I've ground to a halt a bit as DC had a virus and work had been a bit full- on. But I'm determined to start again... Onwards!

coughle

thank you, very sweet of you!

we use candles periodically. DH saves the ends and chucks them on bonfires or campfires. makes him & kids happy!

so far today I went through DS5's tops & jumpers, but he has a fever so I can't make him try on trousers atm.
sorted another bag of clothes given to us.

I have a growing pile of clothes that needs further sorting but the wardobes started to look very nice now.
we also keep beddings on top shelves in wardrobes - and I have a huge problem with this. my kids only ever sleep with fleece blankets so I have no need for kids' duvet covers anymore but as we still use pillowcases I can't sell anything and equally charity shops are unlikely to sell them because people want sets.
but they are perfectly fine and putting them in the bin is just a waste. I hate waste and I can not justify it.
I don't know what to do about those duvet covers.