Clutter, emotions, and folding our socks - Kondo thread 6. All welcome!

[SteptoeAndDaughter]

The Book: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo, Cathy Hirano

Summary of the process link from mipmop

Article of top tips by Marie Kondo

Thread 5
Thread 4
Thread 3
Thread 2
Thread 1

And BeCool's copy of Coughles list of ORDER from Thread 2 for everyone:

"ORDER TO DECLUTTER/LOCATE THE JOY*

Clothes folding by rummy
Books
Papers
CDs
DVDs
Skincare products
Make-up
Accessories
Valuables (passports, credit cards, etc.)
Electrical equipment and appliances (digital cameras, electric cords, anything that seems vaguely ‘electric’)
Household equipment (stationery and writing materials, sewing kits, etc.)
Household supplies (expendables like medicine, detergents, tissues, etc.)
Kitchen goods/ food supplies
Other (If you have many items related to a particular interest or hobby, such as ski equipment, then treat these as a single subcategory.)

KonMari stresses that sentimental items should be left till the end. So for example, when you are doing papers, don't include photos of your children, love letters, old school reports etc, leave anything with a sentimental connection for later."

*As discussed in previous threads, your order for decluttering and finding the joy/spark/recognizing may be different to recommendations.

I haven't managed to do any serious Kondoing for a few days, though I have sorted some things to sell and am in negotiations about getting stuff picked up. It's so much quicker to give stuff away isn't it?! But I'm feeling joy about the fiver here, tenner there, that I'll be getting.

I tried to start on the children's room the other day and ended up feeling completely and totally overwhelmed. Think that's why I've stopped - I just keep going to look in the cupboards I've done - especially the bathroom cupboard which looks fantastic - to calm me!! I have three DC, and about six millions ikea boxes full to the brim of chaotic messy separated stuff. How the hell do you sort it???!! I know she suggests bringing everything together, but has anyone actually done that? I can feel palpitations coming on! I didn't give in to the panic and used the time I had the other day to just take out what was obviously rubbish, but I felt I suppose the opposite of what the bathroom cupboard makes me feel. It's soothing to have ordered accessible surroundings, and I want that for DC. Help!!!

Hear I'm so sorry about the loss of your mum and

Yesterday my cousin dug out an egg poacher to make breakfast. I wondered whether I'd already kondoed the silicone egg poaching pods... Hadn't used them for ages, but thought I might quite fancy poached eggs when I got home. They were still in a completely inappropriate part of the kitchen, so I just dusted them off, oiled them, got the pan on... The egg pods filled with water and sank, so there was egg white all over the place anyway, they stuck to the silicone, and when I ate them, I remembered that I'm not much fussed about poached eggs anyway. Pods in the bin.

Apple, do it by subcategories... As small as you need to make it manageable. You don't want all toys spread around you at once, but you might be able to face all the Lego, or all the cuddly hippos! Of course it'll be a pain at first to find all items within that subcategory, but it'll only get easier as you gradually clear the mountain.

Unfortunately work is getting in the way today! Boo!

Big tick. Towels and bed linen completed.

With the toys I find it easier to do a ' get rid of all the obviuosly broken/duplicate/grown-out-of/crap-free-with-mags/fast-food ' stuff first THEN sort out what is joy or not

Obligatory

Do have the book ? If so do you remember the story of the mother who walked in to the daughter's room after it had been kondoed ? She took the yoga mat( if I remember correctly) and did not even practice yoga. The point is that you don't have to consult anybody about what brings you joy if the item is yours to donate.

I have started doing my photo books for the kids and their artwork, it is going to be a long process but I have thrown away a lot .

I've finally finished paperwork. I did it before but revisited it since and realised I was keeping things that we had no use for. It was originally spread out over ten different folders and I had got it down to five. Now I have managed to condense it all into an expendable file with minimal fuss. Feeling very inspired

Expandable.
Or maybe it is expendable? Is MK trying to tell me something through my autocorrect?

So, I need advice/ would appreciate thoughts on this.

I have done several categories e.g. socks - folding them has made clear that even though I really like all the ones I have, I only have time to wear the same 4-5 pairs each week and they get worn, washed and replaced while others remain untouched.

Same with pants, I have loads more than I use.

I faced that issue too. About two weeks back I re-arranged it so that all the newly washed and dried stuff went in at the back, and new stuff is taken only from the front. So a bit of a shove forwards every time I put away, and slot it in behind.

Doing this also made it clear that there are a few items I thought I liked, but that turned out to be uncomfortable when I put them on , so out they went on the spot.

I took three things to church this morning to give away so they could bring other people joy - a bag to give to a friend of mine, a card trick set to give to one of my brothers' friends who was doing magic tricks at a youth event on Friday, and a massive art set (which I loved when I was younger, but have absolutely no use for now), which I gave to one of the little boys in my pre-school group. His face just lit up when he saw it - it feels amazing to think of all the joy he and his baby sister can get out of it now. It's even better than just throwing stuff away!

bringme - thanks

peonies - I agree with anzu: get wearing all those socks on a rotation. If you find you still gravitate to the same few pairs, I think you need to consider thinning out the others. I also have more underwear than I really need... Before I sorted it out, I was less proactive about the laundry, so I would occasionally run out, but now I can see where the gaps are in my drawer, I know what needs to go in the next wash, and I never come close to a knicker crisis. It is on s rotation, but I think once I've dealt with the rest of the categories, I'm going to do a second sweep of clothes.

That's lovely obligatory. :)

I was just thinking that I would want to do a second round of kondo once I've been through everything once. Maybe I'll just keep going round and round getting rid of more and more stuff until I have only a small amount of really important things and can run off and live in one of those tiny houses :o

Hear sorry to hear about your mum

I have hit a bit of a Kondo impasse partly because I've been trying to spend a bit more time with ds that doesn't just involve him helping me Kondo! We've worked our way through all our board games and had a loom band frenzy. My neighbour reminded me yesterday that her relative works in community initiative that takes items so I have a bag of clothes and komono to give to her as well as an outgrown bike. I'm hoping seeing the empty spaces when those items leave will re-energise me.

Hear, I find that I often revisit a category so I imagine I will do that too.
First thing I did this morning was to whip the fitted sheet off the bed and bin it. It has kept coming off the corners of the bed all week. So uncomfortable and definitely not bringing joy!
DH finished emptying ring binders which have been chucked (too tatty to reuse or give away) and I've put a couple more carefully labelled bags of baby things in the loft plus some piano music although I might get it down and sort it a bit more later.
Tupperware cupboard has stayed tidy for over a week now. What I'm finding is that I actually want to put things away tidily straight after use now.

Roar and Hermione sorry to hear about your bereavements.

We've ground to a halt here as we're simultaneously renovating/decorating and a lot of the stuff we have that needs sorting has been crammed into the study. We did a number of boxes as we moved them from the bedroom to the study but then dh moved a load of other ones while I was out, and obviously is under the impression that those don't need sorting. As the main thing I can see in there is a broken lamp I'm pretty sure there is still a lot to sort out!

We also desperately need to do paperwork but I'm feeling a bit depressed hearing all of you gaily throwing it all away and fitting it all into a box file or two. We also live in a paperwork obsessed country and are required to keep all payslips In the brief moment when the study was looking like it might be almost done (before it was filled up again) I realised that the filing cabinet looks horribly out of place in there. Might have to get some stickers to decorate it with as I simply can't see us getting rid of it. I might see if I can find out if scans are enough and put all of mine through the scanner at work. Hmm. DH has already scanned a lot of his.

Those of you finding joy in doing little categories are inspiring me though. Did my handbag the other day and it feels like a real (figurative and literal) weight off my shoulders.

I'm also on a "15 in 15" (15 kg in 2015) health kick and I'm finding this joy-seeking methodology very helpful when deciding if I want to eat something or not!

I've just been Kondoing the kitchen for the second time... I have a tiny kitchen with not much worktop space but pleased to say that I got rid of/put in newly made cupboard space so much stuff that I was able to put my wooden kitchen trolley on Freecycle. I now have an actual space for the bin and cat litter tray rather than them both being in front of the back door (very annoying having to shift them when I need to get out the back!). The kitchen looks really spacious now! Uber chuffed!

Happy Sunday Kondoing everyone :)

Oh, and while I'm not a teacher or childminder I have done some post grad studies in linguistics and am also an expat! Perhaps there is something to that theory...

Hello, new to this.

I was rearranging my storage closet, decided to get down the boy's car booster seat to put in the donate pile as we discovered boy had outgrown it. It was on top shelf as we dont have a car, only bought it for those times we have a rental car for weekend trips. There was some thing on top of it that landed right between my eyes. Small, but heavy enough i am now on the sofa with an icepack so I don't end up with two black eyes, that would be nice to explain at the school gate, wouldnt it?

So, Balancing ipad on a pillow to read MN during my lie-down and stumbled on this thread. Fate, evidently, has led me here.

I guess i need to start at thread 1?

Roped husband in to help me cart four bags for life, each spilling over with books, plus a box of maps to the charity shop. He looked in the box of maps, started with an "oh but...", and then he shut up at a stern look from me.

I've also emptied a chest of drawers and moved it from the box room, where it stored my fabric stash, to the study, where it will store bedclothes, towels etc. Meanwhile, I've started clearing the rubbish stuff complete-and-utter shit out of the blanket box in the hall. Once emptied, I will move it to the box room (the blanket box, not the shit!) then I can start kondoing the fabric stash and decant joyful pieces only into it.

Upstairs looks like a bit of a war zone at the moment, but I really am making major leaps forward. It's a bit like one of those puzzles with just one space in the sliding squares... I hope that by tomorrow evening, the hall will be 100% joyful!

Welcome, momagain. Sorry to hear about your accident.
You can probably get the gist from reading the threads but the book is excellent.

Momagain

U can probably start from this thread as it will take quite a while to read the others. First category is clothes, split that into small categories if it is too much for you. Hope your head gets better soon

DB just helped me take 4 crates and 4 black sacks of recycling to an overflow recycling bin! I can see my floor!