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

We had a mass book clearout a few years ago - had 3 big car loads. I checked with the library first to make sure they could cope. And donated to them.
They didn't quite believe how much I was talking about I don't think but they took them all.
I had them in plastic crates I wanted back and they were fine about that as they have huge crates they transport books about in so decanted for us.
The huge pile of empty crates was a delight to see

And even if they don't add he books to their stock they sell them on so it all works out in the end.

The main thing for me was just that they were gone. We'd thought about a boot sale, even just 10p a book would've made us a decent chunk of money but it never happened.

I've been lurking on these threads and in the last week I've been inspired to read the book and get started. We don't have masses of stuff but there is a constant low level detritus of clutter that I want to get sorted.

I'm following MK's order and am about halfway through my clothes, 4 carrier bags gone already! I love how when sorted and folded you can really see what you have, and what you need. I've already worked out that I'm fine for long sleeve t shirts but only have one serviceable jumper! So I've done a bit of sale shopping but don't feel guilty about frivolous spending because I know I'm filling a gap.

Just a question for experienced kondoers, did you get off season clothes out of storage before you started discarding? I have a couple of vacuum bags in the loft of summer stuff and workwear (currently a SAHM), and I just can't face getting them down and creating more mess. I think I know what MK would say though

I use a company called we buy books. They don't take everything but they have an app so you can just scan the barcode to see what you'll get for each book. They pay the postage as well like music magpie and then when they've process your order they can pay you by PayPal or I think cheque/bank transfer. The thing I like is they've never paid me less than the original quote unlike music theiving magpie!

Amazon trade in works like we buy books but you get an amazon voucher not money. Plus they will send back books if the quote changes for those individual books. This was quick and easy for me and other books will go to chazzer.

Vert, MK recommends doing all clothing at once including summer. Then keeping it all out and not having separate. So not storing. I haven't done this though. I can't face getting up to my attic right now... plus I am pretty sure summer clothes won't fit so will be respectfully ignoring this bit and kondoing those clothes in the summer.

Yep Star that's what I thought. In the long term I'm happy with not storing and avoiding the twice a year rotation, but I only have short slots in which to tidy round the DCs, so I don't want to get it all down, get half way through, then have to shove it in a pile somewhere! My house is currently tidy ish but not organised so this would feel like a backward step.

I think MK probably says find everything and sort only once because she also says that tidying should be a once in a lifetime activity: but if you are resigned to having a retidy when the clothes come out for summer, then I think that's ok. Not entirely in the kondo spirit, but hey ho.

you could take your books to an Oxfam bookstore - they will take academic stuff as well. I think most bigger cities have them, certainly near me anyway.

I'm having to do my clothes a stage at a time as I've got a 6 week old and a toddler so no time to do it all in one go and no space to do it. I am imagining I will have to redo it a few times. MK would be furious but you've got to be practical...

catsofa Just imagining those babygros filled with cute cuddly baby loveliness!

I have to work today ( first proper work day since Christmas) so may not get too much else done!

Step 1: GET OFF MN and actually start working!!

I seem to have ground to a halt. I want to redo clothes but not until I return to work after mat leave and see which smart stuff I actually wear.
I need to do baking sheets, cake tins etc but I want to wait until DH is here as we both do a lot of baking so we need to decide what to keep together.
I can't face paperwork yet, I've always hated it. Books and DVDs are done, toiletries are done, the rest of the kitchen is done and I'm not doing the garage while it is so cold outside.
What else do I need to do? I've lent the book to my mum so I can't check.

Hello! Can I join you all? I was active on the minimalism threads a while back, but life has gotten in my way. My house is already pretty organised and tidy, having done several big clear outs, but I'm finding that this is still taking up too much time and I'd like to get down to less stuff around. I also really need to be better about not slipping back! I'm great at clearing out, but there is still too much coming in (not helped my MILs shopping habit!!)!

I read the MK book a couple months back and have been lurking on the threads. So far I've mostly kondod my wardrobe - nothing more to get rid of, but my tops need to be stored better - currently folded and hung, but not in drawers, which is leaving my folded items wrinkled. However, my drawers are nicely folded and organised. I have just kondod the children's drawers as well, which they love as they can see what is there and they have thus far refrained from pulling everything out! I have kondod the bathrooms, which is lovely. I do still have lotions and potions to use up, particularly as I got two smelly sets for Christmas! However, I put items I know I won't use into a bag for a friend who will use them. Not very MK, but she will use them, so not wasted!

I have organised electrical, but would really like to get rid of lots of it. DH is reluctant (just in case!). I have sorted them all into labeled bags and plan to seal them with cello tape. Anything that hasn't been used in a year will go. I know this is a long time, but I do have to justify to hoarding-inclined DH.

My CDs have all been languishing in those flip cases for years now, so I spent this weekend ripping them all to my computer and uploading to google play. The CDS have been binned! I can now play it through my phone and plan to purchase a wifi speaker so that I can downsize the old Hifi system we've got.

Next is paperwork for me. I really need to scan in old important stuff and shred a lot of the stuff from the past few years. I've purchased an external hard drive to back up everything and to organise photos, but think I probably need to use some cloud storage as well in case of fire / theft. Can anyone recommend something? I do use dropbox for work stuff, but think I'll need more storage than the free membership will allow for. Is there a better one out there or shall I stump up for the paid membership??

Phew, well done if you got through all of that!!

catsofa I love the idea of your little babygros - so cute!

mango I aspire to have kitchen cupboards as tidy as your photos. I haven't started on kitchen stuff yet but I know I have a lot of wasted space and items are randomly packed so I can't wait for it to be more organised.

I am loving how much more organised I feel. Even getting out to school this morning was a joy. DS' uniform was hanging neatly. DH's work uniforms were in their shelves organised by size, and I was able to choose what to wear in 5 seconds because my tops and bottoms are organised. I'm also finding it much easier to pack away clean clothes. No more leaving them lying on the kitchen table. Everything was folded and packed away as soon as it came out the dryer.

I've lurked on housekeeping threads before and tried flylady but none of them worked. For some reason MK has just clicked and it's bringing me much joy

Thanks Gertrude, Scarface, and Flouncy. I'll look into those options, really helpful .

Pointless I'm totally with you looking for any thing other than paperwork to Kondo. Will just have to give myself a firm date to do it, but obviously not today or tomorrow! Have redone toiletries this morning. I definitely didn't do it properly first time around. But I think that it's ok to need to redo stuff. I'm obviously improving as time goes by and getting more ruthless.
I have a little box put together of half finished products. They will have to be used by end of month or else into the bin...
Lighteningstrikes no idea about cloud storage but want an answer to this too... Need to buy more iCloud storage for iPhone but too mean. Maybe should just Kondo apps!!

APlace it's a big old change for me. A baking session was usually announced by a loud crash and a metallic ringing, as all the tins fall out with the one I was trying to get to! I keep opening the cupboard just to look.

lightningstrikes I have this bluetooth speaker so I can use it with my phone and laptop. I was amazed at how loud it goes. It's tiny, about the size of my fist, but it's got good bass, and doesn't distort until it's almost painfully loud. Must copy my music onto google play. I don't have many CDs left, but it would be nice to have none.

I might need to break with the sorting by type for a bit. From previous tidy attempts, I have lots of komono stashed in odd places. I mostly don't know what's where. I think I'll have to go through a room at a time, pull out all the things that shouldn't be there. If I stick to type, I won't pull all of it together, and I don't want to just throw things I've forgotten. I've already found a jumper and an lovely pair of jeans that fit again, and hold in my post-CS belly. Definitely joy bringing!

Is anyone else struggling similarly? If so, how are you handling it?

catsofa my heart just skipped a little beat at the thought of freshly washed newborn clothes. My baby is now 18 months and I'd love another little squidge ...

educatingarti think I need to take your advice. Lunch finished ten minutes ago ...

Hi lightening

Mango I'm going to have to do by type, by room and by type again. I know, I know, not exactly the Kondo way but that's the only way for it to fit with the utter choas I am living in at the moment ! Because I've been so rubbish at putting like with like, I know I will come across random bags of clothes / boxes of books / photograph albums at the back of cupboards / under floorboards etc (not really, I live in a ground floor flat with concrete floor. If I had had floorboards I'd be storing all manner of crap underneath I bet...)

I've been catching up reading thread 3, and there was quite a bit of talk about the guilt of getting rid of stuff you've been given, even if you didn't want it in the first place. I follow 'a slob comes clean' on Facebook and she's made a few videos about dealing with 'clutter guilt'. Lighthearted but they ring true too. This is the first one: m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=msQQiuH2xXQ
Hope that link works.

I was going to get some more done this morning but I hear the 19 Month Old Tornado stirring upstairs so it may not go so smoothly. :) At least now she is up and I can put her clothes away. (I'm six hours behind you btw, she's not still sleeping at 2:30 :o)

Oooh Violet I'm so glad to hear that you also had a ton of crap and have gotten rid! Thank you :)

Maybe I'm a bit slow but...I don't understand what she means by all of your clothes standing up? Is there a picture somewhere?

I have Kondoed my clothes in the house and managed to throw away 2 garden refuse bags worth of clothes - 160 litres of clothes.

I still have 15 bags of clothes in a garage but I can't get there at the moment.

I can now recognise the 'joy' feeling when I touch something. So I think it will be easier once I get to them.

I also have to think about the fact that I have too many things that bring me joy. I love lots of things, antiques, jewellery, scarves, hobby things.

I am really hoping that if I continue I do have enough room for all the things I love.

Dh thinks I don't though

She SAYS she will be a good tidying helper this morning but I have my doubts

I need to slam a cup of coffee and just get started. I'm pregnant with #3 and feel exhausted all the time but slow progress is better than none!

If anyone needs any paperwork shredded I have a three year old with a hole punch stamping holes in all mine (I will shred too). It's slow progress but he's having a lovely time.

Cheerful, she is do cute, mine are all grownups now ( or meant to be ) . Have a good day. I have just kondoed the cheap hangers in my dd wardrobe, i don't think she will complain too much as i left all the nice ones.

I managed to do a little Kondoing on my clothes, had to alter the method a little but still feel good about it. Was hard to pick clothes that bring me joy as so many are 'meh' or not the greatest fit but I still need to wear some so instead I went through and immediately got rid of the worst, kept any that really brought joy and made a 3rd pile of 'in between' (not very Kondo I know!) Made 3 big bags for charity shop straight away and am going to sleep on the 'maybe' clothes pile and go through it again tomorrow, keeping what I need to make enough outfits for now (but replacing with more joyous stuff long term) and being more ruthless with the rest. Got 62 tops (inc jumpers etc) down to 5 keep and 19 maybe though which is a start!

Cheerful - your little helper is adorable!
I managed to take 2 unwanted Xmas gifts and an old coat to the charity shop today although I accidentally bought 2 tops for DD while I was there. I didn't mean to but one had cats on and the other had owls. I love cats and owls, they will bring me joy!

Thanks :) She is being quite a good girl today, playing with the Little People who survived the toy purge whilst I run up and down the stairs putting laundry away.

I've had a good sort through some drawers and have put a lot of the kids' clothes into bags to donate. It's hard to admit how many things fall into the "cute, but realistically won't be worn often" category.

7 x 70 litre bin bags (prob none were totally full, but even at say 40L!!) went to charity today. Mainly clothes but also a lot of unwanted xmas gifts. I feel bad as some of the gifts were Christmas decorations so possibly not a great seller in January but I didn't want to landfill them. Hope I am not guilty of dumping on the poor chazza ladies! There were a lot of new unopened things and good new clothes etc so hopefully they'll let me off.
I'm finding that even though I might be doing one specific category I'll see something else that definitely doesn't give me joy so it goes too, rather than waiting for that category to come up. I hope that's not breaking the rules