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.

Confession time: I've just bought a small wardrobe on eBay!

When I started this kondo thing, I very readily visualised the house as it will be when I'be finished, and there were no coats on display in the hall! We don't have a cupboard under the stairs, and I am never going to persuade my husband to take his coat upstairs as soon as he gets in, so we either have coat hooks on the wall, or a compact wardrobe. There will also be space in the drawers for dog leads and Poobags, and there's a neat little cupboard for the shoes that usually live on the stairs. And it totally fits with the style of our furniture, which makes me joyful.

Can't wait to take down the hooks and fill the holes in!

I've Kondoed my flat but now I realise I should do the same for my laptop and email accounts. I'm looking at some documents which include my essays from my first year at uni? Definitely don't need them anymore.

Lots of inspiration here! Well done everyone. Keep it coming!

Has anyone found the book cheaper than amazon? It's about £7.30 or something. No kindle unfortunately!

I have been avidly watching these threads since before Christmas, the book is on order so I have not started fully yet. I have been sharing my plans with my DH, who seems quite responsive (the house is in dire need of a clear out) so I was over the moon when we threw out some very old pillows today - and he thanked the old one for all the sleep they had given him! Looking forward to doing the whole house with DH by my side!

Welcome newbies

bring you might well zoom through the next categories like I did. Don't feel overwhelmed- you can do it!

Zippidy -if you have a smartphone you can get the kindle app and read the kindle version that way, you don't actually need a kindle.

Momagain1 - a couple of us have begun a top tips thread so newbies don't have to trail through all previous threads. I hope that as intro reading plus just leaping in to the chat thread here would be useful. Its so helpful to discuss ideas / reactions and get inspiration. Let me see if I can link to it

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/good_housekeeping/2289956-Kondo-tips-and-links-thread-no-chat-here-please-to-accompany-the-Kondo-chat-threads

Wow everyone's been busy! I have conquered the futility room today and over half of the kitchen - I feel so joyful, seriously! Very addictive though, have had to force myself to step away from the kondoing this evening. Am really finding it's clicked now, the whole everything has a place idea, any stuff I find in the wrong place (and there has been plenty) gets immediately taken to its home and if it doesn't have one yet, I create one somewhere logical. I am also amassing lots of storage products which I am collecting together so that when I need a home I can choose one, think I will not throw out any storage stuff till the very end as as she says the house will provide and it's really working so far

Zippidydoodah There is also a kindle app for computers.

bringme I am very jealous of your yoga and meditation room. I would love that :)

My main motivation is that our flat is tiny but I hate feeling cramped.

When we viewed it last year the people before us had tons and tons of stuff. They had loads of chests of drawers, some balanced on top of other chests of drawers, and huge cupboards. It seemed so cramped that dh didn't want to go for it as he said it was just too small and dark.

We went back to our previous tiny flat and I measured out all the room sizes only to find that a couple of the rooms were actually a couple of feet bigger then what we had. The back is also south facing with good sized windows so should be nice and light.

We vowed then that we would have as little stuff and furniture as possible. We stripped all the wallpaper and painted the whole place white as soon as we moved in and have been on a mission to get rid of as much stuff as possible.

Now when people come round they compliment us on how large and spacious or place is. Whenever I think of buying a new bit of furniture I always think of how the flat looked when we viewed it and it helps me resist.

I've just watched the video on the boingboing article linked to in the tips thread and have decided that I'm a little bit in love with Konmari.

I think it was when she said you only need to tidy once. Sigh. She's so lovely :o

I've not done anything for a while. Felt bad about it, but when we put together the cot for the baby to move into yesterday, and set up her room with her sister so it's all tidy, I realised that I'd been sorting my mind out. Feeling ready to get on with paperwork now, though I might need to do the girls' clothes first.

bring

thanks for that link. It was fun.

Particularly the bit where his wife tells him he needs to discard one pair of jeans because he's got too fat for them! That is just before she gets asked to leave the room and let the husband decide his own stuff.

One carrier bag full of expired medicines/bandages etc ready to dispose of!! Book is on order too; thanks all but I haven't got enough space on my phone for the kindle app (the irony!!)

Morning all, de lurking because I need some help. I can't even kondo my knickers.

Background: Live in two bed flat with baby, toddler and DH - been trying to reduce clutter for a while now - had a big breakthrough a few years ago when returning to work after DS1 and managed to get rid of a lot of things with the motivation that would be easier to babyproof and enjoy time with DS1. This year want to finally crack it and have a tidy house so can enjoy remainder of mat leave with DS2. But have tendency to get very attached to things. YEsterday, for eg, had trouble parting with a tin of expired herbal tea which I barely drink simply because I bought it when pg with DS1 and the memories of that day made me keep it.

Haven't read book - on reserve at library but really trying to avoid spending money so thought I'd try with articles and these threads (read the last one and almost all of this one).

Just tipped knickers on bed and spent 10 minutes basically shuffling them around wondering if any bring me joy. Feel bad putting away old but servicable ones; pretty lingerie ones make me sad cos they seem from a different, pre-dc, era.

So much emotion attached to my pants fgs. put two in a bag for give and make up. shuffled more. on verge of just folding them and putting back. Do I just need to bite bullet and get the book on my kobo? Can you help me?

Ok, decided that staring at knickers getting teary while DS got bored on his play mat is the exact opposite of why I want to do this.

Have now folded them into some boxes in the drawer.. Made a bit of space in the drawer, and made me realise that actually I don't know if some of them are joyful as I haven't worn them in so long; sticking in the comfy post baby ones when is no need as am back to old size. So at least having them folded nicely means I can wear them and see if are comfy etc before I re attempt them.

Maybe socks are less emotional for me?

< Tips out sock drawer, clutches at Kondo straws>

Hazy, it's not easy, but it gets easier. You need to focus on who you are now, that makes it easier. With the knickers, if the pretty stuff makes you sad, then out it goes. If you are currently into more "functional" knickers, then so be it. With regards to the tea, you should thank it for the memories it gives you (you are not chucking the memories!) and then get rid of it. The tea no longer has a function for you.

I hope this helps!