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've been following these threads and I suppose I should report on my experience (and funnily enough, like so many on here, I work occasionally as a translator).

Konmari has been an absolute revelation for me. Before now, every time I tried to tidy my home, I was just organising clutter. I would think of any possible excuse to keep an object - it might be useful someday, a waste of money to throw it out, etc, etc.

Konmari has changed all that - now I am looking for a good reason to keep objects and more often than not, there is none. I've Kondo'd most of my kitchen, my filing and stationary cabinets, my DH's wardrobe, some of my children's toys, all of my bathroom and some other bits and pieces around the house. There's still plenty more to do but I can see the benefits already - my kitchen is so easy to use and keep tidy now that there isn't clutter everywhere and even DH (generally oblivious to matters of housekeeping) has remarked on how easy it is to find towels in our newly-Kondo'd airing cupboard.

Konmari is wonderful - I despaired of ever sorting out the ever-increasing clutter in my home but I think I've finally found the answer. I'm going to sort out my office next and I can't wait!

I'm gushing a bit here but it really is an excellent system!!!

Th sliding squares analogy is perfect.

You end up with an empty drawer or box and when you get to the next category everything reduces and you realise that the empty box is exactly what you need.

I have a drawer full of bags and boxes waiting to find a use to store some future item. I am 95% sure that they will find their destiny in the garage! e

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30849473]

Link fail, story ofmy life.

Anyway, good article about "stuffocation."

It mentions a house in which there were 2,260 items in sight (not including those in cupboards) in two bedrooms and a living room! Makes me want to faint thinking about it! 2,260 things not in cupboards, swoon!

I had a quick scan of the living room and there are 11 things on show including DS's 4 biggest toys (mainly big vehicles) that dont fit in the toy cupboard. Thank you MK!

TheObligatoryNotQuiteSoNewGirl Congratulations

I just wanted to pop on to say that my DD has spent the last two days attempting to Kondo her room - and while it still looks like a bomb has gone off in it, definite progress is being made.

She is 18 and a definite sentimental hoarder and the state of her room has been the cause of many rows around here. It wasn't simply that it was messy, it was also unsafe. Every inch of the floor and surfaces were covered with items, it was filthy and it stank. Most importantly, it was making her miserable.

Anyway - we now have 3 binbags of rubbish and 4 of recycling out for the bin men. The car is loaded with 5 binbags of decent clothes for the charity shop, two carrier bags of college prospectuses for the paper bank and another bag of clothes to be recycled for rag.

The bath is full of outgrown books which we shall offer to friends with younger daughters or take to the charity shop if they don't want them. She has some old videos that I've put on Freegle but realistically no-one is likely to want them.

I've scrubbed her filthy windows which I could not get at it before, what a revelation.

And she has folded everything in her drawers!!!!

I had to fight my natural instinct and not encourage her to keep things that could be sold or in the case of clothes, are still perfectly good to wear, and just accept that now she is finally in the frame of mind to get sorted it is best just to get the stuff out of the house asap.

Still a long way from being finished but hopefully she will keep up the momentum and achieve a lovely grown-up space for herself. Fingers crossed!

Lurleen

Great news , i think it is great you are supporting hef. .

Lurleen, that is totally amazing. Wow. Wonderful that you are supporting her and also stepping back. This will set her up for better habits for life, hopefully.

Ooops her

I am a Kondoer and it has been too long since my last post! In fact so long a whole thread has been filled and another half filled!

Lots of rubbish has been going on in my life, DD ill for days but OK after a course of antibiotics, then problems at school and now diagnosed with Dyspraxia! I feel a bit battered at the moment and as such haven't had the heart for Kondoing.

However, my messy fruit bowl is solved , I have a round one with low sides that looks wonderful and brings me joy. What I have Kondoed has remained so, only problem is that I was working last week for five days and didn't do much washing, so I am nearly out of knickers, having got rid of a load that didn't bring me joy.

DP has got the idea, without reading the book, several pairs of trousers have been out in the bin. As they don't bring him joy! He also cheekily told me that the mess in 'my' office, isn't bringing him joy to look at - I haven't got on to paperwork yet.

I need a bloomin' big shove to get on track again, kitchen is so nearly there (two drawers left), although I need to revisit my clothes.

So impressed with new Konverts and all the work going on, I feel at not keeping up.

Busy week this week, but ironing now to enjoy some folding!

I've just got rid of so many books I have an empty set of book shelves in the livingroom! Yay! I just need to find a home for a few non book things. I am so looking foreword to having nothing in that corner. It is going to be lovely

My only problem now is that I'm not sure our local charity shop will be able to cope with all the books I need to give away. I might have to take a load on the bus into town for another one. Maybe I'll sort some of the more obscure academic text books out and take them to the oxfam books store. They are probably more likely to sell there.

hear would a local college/library/school take the books maybe

Thank you, it certainly feels like she has turned a corner.

We have just come back from the clothes bank and deposited the clothes to raise funds for the Air Ambulance. We witnessed a child being airlifted from the beach once so she is happy to know that her unwanted clothes will support a worthwhile cause.

" HearMyRoar*

Maybe the academic books will sell on Amazon?

Oh my goodness, I've only gone and done it, after weeks of procrastination I have done paperwork! Actually I've only done the discarding but I feel so much better for it. DH and I went through it all this afternoon while DD was asleep and chucked about 80%. We have a fairly small box of the stuff we need to keep and have designated one of our newly-emptied bedroom drawers. We just need to buy some files before we can sort it all. I think I might treat us to some from Paperchase as pretty ones will bring more joy and I am really proud of us for finally tackling it.
DH told me last night how much more he's enjoying the house now we're getting it organized and we started planning a garden overhaul. Last year we were saying we'd probably have to move if we have a second child but staying put seems more realistic now so we've decided we want to make the house into a place we love. A lot of decorating needs doing but I think we will tackle it later this year when the kondoing is complete. It's exciting!

Welcome back swimming I remember the messiness of your fruit bowl. Glad it's sorted. I don't think you need to keep up with the threads, just drop in whenever you feel like as, of course, life does happen to us.

I am really pleased to say how easy it is now my home has been Kondoed, more or less anyway. It is a joy opening the cupboards and drawers. I do have sentimental items left which I will tackle at half term and the garage but that's for the summer as it's way too cold in there. Even DP is happier and very pleased with all the hard work that I have put into it.

KonMarie talks about how Japanese people like to have their bathroom spick and span as they feel it brings good luck - so I am adopting the same way of thinking.

Obligatory well done on seeing your floor. Can I ask how old you are? Because if you are young, what a great start to your future home life.

lurleene so glad your daughter is sorting out her room.

are you two related by any chance?

pleased with the result of all the hard work

CoolCadbury I'm 20 nearly typed 18 since I've been scrapbooking my 18th birthday cards this week! I'm a student, and I live with my DM and little DBs. (I say little; they're all teenagers, and one of them's taller than me, but they'll always be little to me). I keep getting excited thinking about how one day I'll have my own place, and only the stuff I want to be in it will be there even if that does include 30 cuddly toys because they all have feelings and names and families .

I'm fairly sure lurleene is not my mother, since I'm fairly sure I'm not really 18, and due to the aforementioned sleeping-bag-argument!

I think I'm about to bite the bullet and list a few things on ebay. Has anyone got any ebaying tips? Do I have to get those special padded envelopes for posting books/CDs? Where would I get them? Is this all going to cost me more money than I make!?

I went into the converted loft thinking it would be lovely with those two massive items gone but quite quickly started hyperventilating at all the crap. Oh dear.

Major categories in the loft are books (have done one v swift pass but not much left that time compared to what remains), pictures, old clothes (like sentimental clothes), old toys (some sentimental, some not), and of course komono.

I tried adopting an attitude of 'All this is going, what do I want to rescue' and just got overwhelmed. Will take stock and revisit in bits. Need a plan.

Randomfriend no not the whole,house, I've been on these threads from the start but not quite that good yet!

I'm a very tidy (anal) person by nature so this comes naturally to me, and the house is in pretty good shape, but there were definite areas for improvement. DH is a massive hoarder so TBH much of the stuff to be kondo'd is his. My Achilles heel is clothes. Have got rid of so much stuff though.

I could actually do this for a living, I love tidying, makes me feel so calm and serene!

Sadly they are not the sort of academic books that are worth lots, they are just rather unusual subjects that I suspect your average charity shopper isn't going to leap at. I'm also far too lazy to Amazon or eBay these days. Dh does work at the local uni though so maybe they would have therm. Funnily enough quite a few are about rubbish, so rather relevant to this thread

stiff I am impressed by your 11 items. I have much more than that although I'm hopeful it doesn't stretch to over 2,000! (unless they count individual books and games which you can see even though they are in bookcases in which case DS' room may tip us over the edge despite already being Kondoed!)

We did some crafting this afternoon and it was a joy to know exactly where everything was, from the felt to the craft scissors. We also repurposed some old folders (freed by the start of paperwork Kondoing) for making cards.

Swimming I'm glad you solved your fruit bowl dilemma. I knew exactly what you meant when you mentioned the messy fruit bowl

Congratulations, bringmejoy. Enjoy folding tomorrow!