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 am very minimal iron here. Kids school shirts and dh work shirts are pretty much all that gets done.
Agree that the kondoing by other people needs to come in their own time. Dh won't read the book, but we have talked about it and he has started sorting some komono, and I folded some of his clothes, so drawers are lovely!

Today I have cleared the area under the stairs which I've been calling Kondo korner
Basically it's where I've been putting stuff destined for the chazzer/tip/Freecycle. Had a courier collection for 3 boxes of stuff going to Music Magpie yesterday (£80 worth), did a tip trip this aft and now only have one small bag for the chazzer under there! It looks great, I'm really chuffed with how much stuff has gone out of the house so far.

Now I just need to get cracking on the loft and the shed but think I might leave that until the beginning of March when I have a week booked off work and can get stuff pretty much straight out of the house.

Aplace, as a halfway house, could you just put away the unironed shirts wherever they'll go once they are ironed? You shouldn't have to, and it'll probably irritate your husband when he has to get them out to iron them, but no way should you stoop to ironing them, and the slight inconvenience to him is nothing to the cumulative effect of the mess on the whole family.

wow, spent the day under the stairs dealing with old uni stuff, teaching things and general rubbish (not exactly by category but it's so hard to get at I did everything at once) 3 x 42litre boxes of stuff gone... I am ashamed how much stuff was under there that I somehow thought I needed!!

a place I would agree a place where they are stored while waiting for ironing that you can both live with. A tub in the corner or sister drawer. I have had to do that with dh's worn but not dirty clothes as he won't put them away again but won't put therm in the laundrt. He now has a drawer for them that I don't look at. Anything found on the floor gets put in the drawer or the laundry depending on how I'm feeling. It seems to work as a compromise.

I have no idea what a sister drawer is...

Aplace my DH irons his shirts too, he has enough to last 2 weeks then does one big ironing session (and I often sneak a few of my things in!). In summer they are line dried then put in laundry basket until ironing day. In winter he dries them on hangers on a door frame so a lot of the creases drop out anyway. He hangs them at one end of the wardrobe until ironing day. Could that work?
Feel like I've got back on it today. Sorted out most of the komono in the spare room and also did cake tins. I have a bag for the charity shop and put a few things tidily in the loft. My shelf hasn't materialised yet though so all my school stuff is still in a pile.

Well, I haven't really done any kondoing this weekend, but I have made a start on cutting back things in the garden, which is really more urgent at the moment. Plus, husband has let me throw out an old coat of his, AND he earmarked another to take to the charity shop!

Good news about the husbands getting in board, albeit reluctantly..... Mine is dead keen for the house to be sorted but god knows if I'll be able to persuade him to kondo his stuff!! He keeps buying loads of CDs and clothes that he simply doesn't need, too. I've got a pile of stuff for eBay that he's bought and never worn because they don't fit and he hasn't bothered to take them back. Labels in and all

Didn't manage to do much Kondoing this weekend, only really a kitchen cupboard that the little one had emptied all over the floor for me, but did do some important household stuff (tax return...) and replace some light bulbs which have been out for months .

It sounds like everyone else is doing great. I'm so glad that your DH got home JKS

I've just read the bit where she says you should wipe your shampoo and conditioner bottles on your bath towel and put them away in the cupboard

I'm not up to skincare yet. Does anyone do this? Does it spark joy? DP and I use different shampoo/conditioner and we have various other random crap in there and it is a bit gross tbh.

Thanks for all the suggestions regarding DH's shirts (I'm especially thankful that no-one suggested I should iron them ). I'm going to store them in a different place tonight and see how that works for us.

Minimal Kondoing today but I did another small Kondoing of toiletries and tried to do bath toys. However DS was adamant that they all bring joy so I had to satisfy myself with storing them differently. I also worked on one of DH's piles of komono in the sitting room and lo! I found an important piece of paperwork that we had spent days searching for in our office where it should have been stored .

So I never got round to cook books because baby needed feeding, then food to be made for toddler, kitchens to be cleaned, laundry shoved into bags put away, toys needed picking up etc etc

Finding it quite frustrating that I want to kondo to reduce tidying, but tidying and general house stuff eats up the time I have to kondo. Anyone else feel that frustration and find a way to do it? Or maybe am being too ambitious - with a nearly 3yo and a 4mo? I do have 2.5 or 3 days a week when elder child is at nursery or with grandparents, but of course still have the baby those days, and a bit of paid or voluntary work to do most weeks.

Hazy, yes, I think you need to moderate your ambitions. But that doesn't mean kondo always takes second place to maintenance. If you think you've only got time for one of the two, I'd take both down to 50%, or at the very least, cleaning at 80%, kondo 20% of the time. What's the worst that would happen if the kitchen just didn't get cleaned today?

Sorry I can't remember if you've mentioned it, but is it just you with the kids, or do you have a partner around to help out? If you've got support, you could ask for a bit more help with the day-to-day stuff while you're sorting the clutter. It'll be an advantage to everyone, and make for a lower-maintenance home in the long run, so it's in everybody's interests to make it happen.

Hazy, I'm in a similar position. I'd put it on hold because month old wasn't sleeping but we're starting to win on that.

I've decided to break each category down into smaller categories so I can do it on half an hour per day.

So tomorrow I'm going to tackle my shoes and handbags.

Then I'll do the cloth nappies the next day and go from there.

I'm already a somewhat organised person so can do the children's clothes drawer by drawer as sub categories. But I think the thing that will take longest is toys. How do toddlers accumulate so much stuff?!

Er. That should have said 6 month old.

Thanks Hermione, I do have a DP, he already does a lot of house stuff and we're discussing the idea of him taking a day off when DC1 is at nursery so we can focus on some joint stuff/clearing out. I think I could also prioritise categories that would make an impact eg those which are cluttering our worst rooms.

Prob is I'm a bit of an impatient perfectionist - want it done now, properly - learning to be a patient 'do a good enough job' person...

Grouchy it really worries me how much stuff he has, and how he already wants so much - requesting all sorts for his birthday. He has generous grandparents who see him often, and a lot of hand me down toys from cousins. So he's used to getting new things quite often, albeit smallish things and/or second hand. It's part of my motivation for kondoing, to try and break my own materialism so that I can pass on a better example to him.

Will try to break categories down even more, and reflecting a bit I realise the problem is I'm also not a very good completer finisher - I want to get the next category going when I still have stuff around that I earmarked for donation/selling. So this week (if baby and paid work allow) I will aim to clear out everything that is going, and will tell myself over and again that it is progress, even if I;m not starting a new category.

Hazy I'm in a similar position with a toddler and a baby. I'm also impatient! It took me two weeks to finish clothes, I think I could have done it in a day if uninterrupted.

I second GrouchyKiwi's advice of breaking it down into subcategories, I try to do the usual chores (well, some of them ) and one small category while DS is at preschool. It's all progress, even if it's not as fast as we'd like. You'll probably find that you speed up as you get used to feeling the joy (or not).

I have three little ones and a part time teaching job; it's frustrating but I'm just doing little bits here and there.

Am dreading doing the toys............

I highly recommend toy libraries. I don't know why I didn't use them more.

I liked the idea of owning the things and it equated with being a good parent, but really it is not good for kids to have too much stuff. Regretted many many purchases but sort of couldn't help it.

And also found it hard to get organised for toy library and return things etc.

Hazy and Grouchy - with such young babies I think you should both be sleeping in your spare time, not kondoing!

Captain
Yes I do wipe the shampoo bottles and put them in the cupboard! It does bring me joy in that it makes it essier and quicker to clean bathroom . It also looks less cluttered.