Kondoing this and kondoing that - thread 4 for Marie Kondo's lifechanging magic with tidying. All welcome!

[TheSporkforeatingkyriarchy]

Here's thread 4 for all the KonMario converts, wannabes, and guests to the magic!

Thread 3

Yes, AdventuringAbout, 15 teaspoons of sugar, in yer pint mug o'char... but only when you are wearing your hard-hat!

As for the gizmo (ah, cable detector) no idea about brands (and of course, not having kondoed tools) I don't know where it is! You could ask a knowledgeable (old) assistant in B&Q or an electrician. I imagine own-brand from the national DIY stores would be OK. I think they also detect pipes as well!

YY, didireallysaythat, a Garden Kondo thread. Mine has been overgrown for the past 2 years... massive brambles strangling everything! (Hmm, need to put the new inner-tube in the wheelbarrow tyre and fill it with Slime... sealant!)

My small junk box room is going to be a craft room. And the big junk front room is going to be my cosy lounge!

Finished the book at 04:30 this morning after having insomnia since 02:00! The final chapter has some good insights for 'what happens after', and emotions, along with some strange bits of Shintoism and feng shui! Definitely, motivating, though.

I need to really start thinking about the clothes I'm keeping. I haven't got a lot, but I'm beginning to see what has 'the spark'.

A second take on what has/hasn't 'the spark', which applies to every item is: "I 'love' this, but am I really taking care of it?"

Most of the things that I think I love, are really not being cared for!

We have a similar problem with glasses, we have loads and can't decide which to keep. We rarely drink wine but friends do when they visit so we probably need about 6 wine glasses but we have about 5 different sets of 4, all gifts. We also have a lot of beer glasses with brewery logos on that is DH has collected. We use these a lot for soft drinks as well as beer but we still have more than we need.
Then we have sets of martini glasses, sherry glasses etc that we never use. These were gifts from my dad who probably thinks we should have his lifestyle!
Our other kitchen problem is rolls of foil, cling film etc which are too tall to store vertically anywhere so are stuffed in a drawer. They are driving me mad as I always have to rummage to find the right one. Any suggestions?

Violetta, what have you regretted, if that's not too personal a question?

Totally agree with the "future person" concept. And I'd extend that to the "past person" that you once were, and are somehow trying to get back to. Frankly, it would make more sense to allow your neighbours to store all their old shit in your house, seeing as they actually exist! Don't you deserve your space to yourself, just as you are now?

Another Kondo bonus- just got a gift aid email from the Hospice chazza I donate everything to; my donations have raised £225!
Win-win - a clearer house, and money to charity!

We have too many glasses too. Two shelves and the top shelf and half the bottom shelf are almost never used. Every time I empty the dishwasher I have to figure out how to get the ones we actually do use back in the cupboard

RichardP great idea putting letters you're keeping by folder per person. I too have a big box of letters but it's busting at the seams so I will follow your inspiration.

DF said yesterday he was keeping some things for us and the children as maybe DC will want to do his hobby in a few years. It's a hobby that I used to do, I am passionate about but is all consuming and I simply cannot see a time in the future when we will have time or energy to want to make the time sacrifice to do it. Added to the fact these are huge pieces of equipment that we will have to pay someone to store, and pay to insure. I told him that if he wanted to make sure it all goes to a good home he'd do better selling/giving it away now as he is still active in the hobby and knows who/where to sell the stuff. I would most like just give/sell it to the first person knocking if I'm trying to sort out his estate and deal with the inevitable grief and guilt that will follow his passing

Just Kondoed some stickers to make labels for DC craft drawers. Going to hold on the the ones left (letter stickers) until I've finished the drawers and will chuck the remaining letters then. Only a few vowels left anyway so probably will only manage another drawer or two anyway

Right, off out to lunch. Have a nice weekend everyone!

That's great halfspam

I would keep your favourite two sets of 4 wine glasses pointlessfan and get rid of all the martini and sherry glasses. Not sure about the beer glasses - I guess it depends on what they mean to your DH.

Cling film etc - I used to keep in a drawer too - which I agree was a bit of a pin. Since having new kitchen I've now got a kitchen cupboard deep enough to store them horizontally down the depth. Could you look out for an inside cupboard door holder? Something like this?

Sock photos! They're not blue or grey, they are black socks, but I used a filter to try to get them to show up better. They're sort of rolled / doubled back. So cuffs and toes meet, folded over at the heel, and they're not stretched.

Mango I second that sock strategy. It works well provided I put clean socks away fast enough.

Nice socks, mango! Not at all potatoey!

More photos, DD2s tights, before and after. There's a lot because there's many pairs that don't fit yet, but we've kept from DD1, with the rest of the matching outfit. Discarded those that didn't bring joy when I thought of DD2 wearing them. I thought I'd end up putting them back in the same basket, and adding in those from the over flow box (small square box in the after pictures) but it didn't look right. So I tipped out the hand-me-down shoes, kondo'd those into the basket, used the big square shoe box for the tights, and the small square boxes for the now rolled winter hats/gloves and the summer hats.

I was so pleased with the result, I ended up sorting out the rest of her shelves, put all her laundry away, put all the boxes away, managed to easily fit the new boxes of nappies into the cupboard, and still had some space left. I was looking about trying to figure out what I'd left out until I realised that that was it!

Now I've moved onto my clothes. I already fold and store vertically, so I'd sort of done half a job with mine, so I decided to re-do them properly, pulling them all out, collecting them all up. My bedroom is in happy chaos at the moment! Taking a break with a coffee, and re-reading how to order my wardrobe before putting my joy-bringing clothes back. I have another bin bag to go to the Air Ambulance clothes bin this afternoon, and a small pile of things that I want to ebay. Feeling a lot less wobbly about the things I've already let go too now.

When I kondoed my socks, which had been 'potatoed' I noticed that one in some pairs had a stretched top.

I have kondoed them by lying them flat together, on top of each other. Then I fold the feet up the leg (in half for mine, thirds for longer ones,) and fold in half again. I file them, fold uppermost, like t-shirts, in the draw. No stretched cuffs, they are very happy and loads more drawer space.

Got everything to the tip this morning before the heavens opened. It is so magical knowing the shed is so tidy and empty. Aaaahhhhhh..... Breathe.....

It isn't I am in awe of your shed. I am leaving ours till the spring, but last night I dreamed about discovering a whole extra garage of joyless items. I think prompted by your posts...

This morning I enjoyed vacuum packing duvets Inc spare bits of duvets that come in two bits. Kondotastic.

What a funny dream! Love it.

Hello, so sorry to barge in but I have been reading Kondo over the past week and am slightly obsessed. I have started 'kondoing' properly over the past two days and have a question for more experienced tidiers:

Things like mugs, crockery etc, do you just bin those or can you recycle pottery? I feel bad just lobbing in the tip, but they don't bring me joy!

Also, I have a 4 month old baby so I'm doing it bit by bit when I have time. I know she advocates one big 'tidy' but this just isn't possible at the moment with a 4 year old and a small baby. It won't fail if I stretch it out over a fortnight will I?

I send mugs/crockery to charity shop not the bin .
None of us are able to do 'one big tidy', jobs/children/illness/life! keep getting in the way lol.....just keep at it as and when you can.

Welcome southpaws. As i understand it the one big tidy she reckons takes 6 months. She maintains the rest of life will only then require choosing to discard. I'm not convinced as I reckon as family needs change and big life changes happen other big tidies will be required. But I get that one big tidy will change mindset and last quite a while (Though mindsets can slip over time too).

If you do it over a fortnight I will be staggered by your success. Aim for quality and thoroughness not speed. Plus your house will be full of stuff out waiting to be thanked and sent to its new home, if my experience is anything to go by, and trying to do it in 2 weeks would be carnage. But maybe you can be more efficient than me...

Thanks MillyMoose and Starface.

I had wondered whether charity shops would accept crockery but that's definitely where they will be sent, thank you.

I'm quite lucky (or unlucky some would say!) to have moved house due to job relocations 4 times in 9 years so we really don't have that much 'stuff' because we have been forced to declutter as part of the packing process. It's mainly clothes and books that I need to tidy (3 bags thanked and gone already today!) but it's good to know it's ok to take a lot longer. Thanks.

Yeah, crikey Southpaws... Give yourself a break! I did just my clothes over two days, and I've spent the last couple of days taking out another couple of things here and there. I think to do it really thoughtfully and thoroughly, you need time to reflect: on each item and in between categories. The quicker you go, the more likely you are to focus on what to get rid of, rather than actively choosing what you want to keep.

Sadly I couldn't do any kondoing last night as myself and my two littlest ones have had a stomach bug and today is mostly being spent with us all curled with blankets (but previous kondoing made the clean up and finding the right bedding much easier ). I think today is mostly going to be for list making.

FriedFishandBread I know several people who've gone purely digital so I don't think it would be odd at all. For our DVDs (and video games), we have disc case [with boxes in the cellar at the moment] with a few that are special to DP stored separately.

While kondoing, DP and I went through them all and I went all geeky and made spreadsheets (so now when we want to decide on a game to play or wonder if we have X, I can just look at a spreadsheet rather than going through the disc cases and possibly missing something again).

mipmop My back room is currently full up with things to sort (with my bad legs I need to sit to sort through so much so it's easier and I prefer to clear the area, give it a good clean, then sit and sort), especially after I cleared out the shelves in our storage area (pre-kondoing I noticed that I always did the storage area last and used it to dump things to sort later so it would get too full to really sort or store more but doing the storing room first made doing the rest much easier but I hope to sort out what I've got out no before I pull out the stuff under it). I have no idea what we're going to do with that back room now, me, DP, and the lodger can't seem to decide.

Fantail With exercise and movement and similar things, I put where it is most convenient and will mean I use them. Things like that need convenience habits, I think (or maybe I've been reading too much Gretchen Rubin).

southpaw Welcome! While at first read it does feel like it's suppose to be done all at once asap, it does include a line about taking 6 months as Starface said. Good pacing will prevent burnout -- though it can be pretty addictive even with little ones as seen by this thread . Best wishes getting started.

Milly , I totally agree with you about Playmobil - I tell myself I'm keeping the two underbed storage boxes full for future DCs, but the chances of me letting anyone else play with my "people" is next to none! But it brings me joy, so I guess KonMari would say that's okay.

Now I'm off to Kondo the last four remaining lever arch folders - my KS3 Science, A Level Critical Thinking, and two for A Level RS, the last named of which I ought to keep since DB is doing A Level RS on the same syllabus this summer...

So, today I thinned out two of my six glass fronted book cases. I did really, really well and removed more than half the books. The other four book cases are chocoblock full of books but I will donate these other books to a charity shop first (four very large shopping baskets worth).

It is entirely possible that in another six months I can have a look at the books I've decided to keep and further remove some more. The bookcases look great now; not cluttered and disorganised.

On another note, I am heading for a dispute with DH about moving the stuff craphe has had piled up on his dressing table for months (including a suitcase and weekend bag last used six months ago). I have just put it in DS's bedroom (he lives away). "It's not doing any harm" protested DH. "Yes, it is, it needs dealing with", I retorted. Watch this space...

I'm having a similar battle with DH but he loves his kondoed clothes drawers so I'm hoping that will encourage more sorting and less leaving of crap everywhere!
Have achieved nothing today, DD is teething so I didn't get much sleep last night and she's hardly napped today. I'm slumped in a heap on the sofa drinking tea!

Really happy as managed to get kids to sort some of their stuff, what worked when faced with a sock drawer that has not been opened much since they left for uni was "pick out what you want to keep " that was so much quicker and easier than asking them what they wanted to give away. I knew that i could get rid of what wss left without any thought. I just thought this might help those with reluctant teenagers.