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.

Are your emails on a server Coatandhat?

Eg DP and I both have active gmail and sky email accounts and in both cases all the emails are saved on the server and should probably be there for ever.

Therefore there is no reason to save, file or back up any of them? I've long since given up trying to manage or back up email as its 90% marketing nonsense from all the companies I have bought things with and on the odd occasion I need to find an old email, I can do it via a keyword search while logged in on the internet.

Hello Coatandhat, my PC died not that long ago (after my whirlwind of a one year old had at it! ) From my emails, photos went onto dropbox (still awaiting sorting, but I'm not at photos yet) and any emails I needed I forwarded to my gmail. I was pretty ruthless, scanning the top 3 emails from each folder to see if they sparked a memory of anything I wanted to keep. If not, I deleted the whole folder. It made it a lot quicker, and there isn't anything I've realised later that I should have kept. Shiny new gmail account is still super tidy too.

Re e-mail, I find it so much easier to gmail as it's web-based. I bought extra storage (it's about £2 a month) and I don't delete much. Every now and again I simply delete a period, say this year I would delete all of 2013.

Perhaps you could go over to a web-based e-mail system? I retrieve my other e-mails via my gmail, it's not that hard to set up.

Coatandhat, without wanting to confuse with another method I use David Allen's Getting Things Done approach for emails. It's quite similar to MK's paperwork approach, things are either for action or reference. On arrival in your inbox you either deal with it then and there (if it's going to take less than 2 minutes); delegate it; delete it; or put it in your action folder. If dealing with it means filing it in reference, with email programmes now there's no need for an elaborate system of folders beyond "reference" as most programs have a decent search facility.
Not sure how you'd apply this to historical stuff though. Maybe use the Kindo approach of like with like and sort by sender, see if you can delete whole chunks in one go?

Ooh thanks everyone - will have to look into this thing you call gmail! I'm hopelessly behind in the tech field - does that mean you have to change your e-mail address? Ilkley I don't know if they're on a server - have a Virgin e-mail address from the dark ages!
Mango - That sounds lovely but I don't think I can be as ruthless as that which is why I'm in this mess I guess!
Vert I really like the sound of that approach - so much simpler!
The funny thing is, while I jumped away from the thread, I was reading an e-mail which had arrived from January Cure in the meantime about digital decluttering- tis a sign I tell you

Why did I lend my mum the book?? She has read the bit about leaving stuff at your parents' house and is now threatening to give me all my rubbish back!

Vert - another GTD reader?! That's simething I want to put in some effort with. But tidying first.

Coat - I'm no Aragon with my emails, but I find it really useful to sort by sender. There are certain senders you can just delete wholesale, then divert anything new from them to junk.

Misscph, JKS and... Someone else - pffft. I think people are far too superstitious about talking about death. You might not do it for fun, but it's not awful. You know what is awful? Having to go through your loved ones' belongings after they've died.

Ugh. Paragon. Not Aragon.

Yup Hermione, back in the day when I had an office job that involved juggling deadlines and lots of information I found GTD very useful.

I never implemented it to the nth degree (I think it's too easy to get bogged down in the system and go crazy with folders and label makers ) but even in my current role as a SAHM I find the principle of keeping your to do lists in a context where you'll look at them, and thinking "what's the next action" is a useful discipline. But yes, tidying first!

I am pleased to announce that Onslow's front garden is no more!

DH spent 3 hours clearing it all and did two trips to the tip and I am going to ask him to move 2 ornamental bay trees in pots to the front of the house, which was what we bought them for 3 years ago!

I bet they get nicked...

And Coat, I'd add to what Hermione says about deleting certain senders that it is also well worth reducing the volume of emails that arrive in the first place: marketing ones from companies you bought from once; newsletters you don't have time to read; etc etc. All of these should have an unsubscribe option (though it's probably buried in the small print). It's the electronic equivalent of not bringing more komono into the house!

Don't think I've seen this mentioned yet, apologies if it has been. There is a dramatisation based on the MK story. It's in Japanese but with English subtitles and is strangely mesmerising. Link here: www.dailymotion.com/video/x17zm7t_%E4%BA%BA%E7%94%9F%E3%81%8C%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8D%E3%82%81%E3%81%8F%E7%89%87%E3%81%A5%E3%81%91%E3%81%AE%E9%AD%94%E6%B3%951-2_tv

Got all my cookbooks off the shelf to dust the shelf earlier, got rid of a few food mags/ recipes I'd cut out of my mums mags etc, and was about to put the books back, until I suddenly thought sod it! The only one I've used more than once, and like, is a Jamie Oliver one so that's staying. The rest are offski!! I love cooking and recipes but usually go on the internet to find them! So liberating!

zippidedoodah I did same with cookery books, travel guides, maps etc as so much info is now available on the web and easier to find.

Whenever I come back from holiday I wonder why we keep all this stuff that we can manage without. May be a bit extreme but I'd live to live somewhere as empty as a holiday cottage!

Thanks Hermione & Vert. Have spent several hours down Memory Lane deleting messages and folders and have definitely made progress. Will simplify the system vastly in future!

Hello again, I couldn't stay lurking or waiting...so many inspiring experiences on these threads I am just desperate to have a house which needs no tidying.

Vert I agree the postnatal period is probably not best time to kondo clothes (not got to your nursing bra drama yet, only on thread 2) (it's like a set of novels...), but reading old threads and working through a 'organise your home in 52 weeks' challenge made me realise that a lot of my home is already okish, thanks to a foray towards minimalism in the last two years. Clothes are the sticking point for me, so I feel I need to tackle them even if it's not perfect.

Began on tops today. Allowed myself to keep ones which will bring me joy if they fit when my boobs go back to normal, but to make up for that I made myself look at all tops - summer ones included. Only part way through but so far 18 tops going and 34 staying.

I keep seeing things I think I can get rid of (eg travel books) and itching to get to that category.

whatsonyourplate I love it! Thank you for sharing that. DH wasn't quite as impressed, but he still sat down to watch the whole thing with me.

HazyShadeOfWinter, when I spot something I know won't make the cut, I discard it there and then. No point holding onto something, knowing that as soon as I hit that category, it'll go.

Ooof, Hazy! That's a big change with the tops - well done! You're right of course: perfection has to be tempered with pragmatism. It's not like your wardrobe's three quarters full of clothes that are hour sizes too small.

whatsonyourplate I enjoyed the line: "fundamentally you just leave things lying around, don't you?"

Sums me up nicely! Only part way through but bed is calling...

whatsonyourplate That was great, really inspiring, but is there a second part to it - it seemed to end when he declared his love for her. :(

Oh and Matsuko-san(sp?) seemed a bit mean to me - he should have been able to see past the messy apartment to what a sweet girl she was. :( Life isn't just about apple pie dufus man!

leeloo there is a second part here: www.dailymotion.com/video/x17zw2r_%E4%BA%BA%E7%94%9F%E3%81%8C%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8D%E3%82%81%E3%81%8F%E7%89%87%E3%81%A5%E3%81%91%E3%81%AE%E9%AD%94%E6%B3%952-2_tv
I have only watched a bit of that one so far. But yes I agree, the fact that he didn't mind her getting paralytic but did mind the state of her flat was a bit odd. Maybe we will find out he had horder parents...