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.

Well done, yongnian! I've been doing paperwork too and was amazed at how much I was able to get rid of; I now have eight or nine empty lever arch files - just need to decide what to do with them.

Oh dear to Blue Balls, bring! I'm sure I could come up with some more inappropriate slogans if I put my mind to it. Ah yes, I saw a woman in McDonalds a while back (about my age, two young children with her) wearing a T-shirt that said "I am a fucking lady." (Outs self to anyone who knows me on FB.)

Steptoe German speakers tend to do the same - the only one I can think of at the moment is one involving "happy ending" and a duck, which isn't really interesting enough to explain but relies on the Germans saying "happy end" rather than "happy ending" and pronouncing it "ent", which is similar to the German word for duck.
Hmm, I think you probably had to be there.

ARF at "I am a fucking lady"!!!

I kind of get the "happy end" bit as duck = "eend" in Dutch (v. similar to German) so it's along the same lines. And sounds tragically similar to the Dutch sense of humour.

yongnian am amazed at your paperwork Kondoing efforts!

Wow. These threads are way busier than I remember!

I'm not a teacher nor a translator but have lived in four different countries and found that we kept lots of stuff in case it would fit somewhere in next house/country. And we lived in three houses with huge basements and therefore had loads of storage space. So we stored! When we moved back to the UK I got rid of three large boxes of curtains - none of which would ever fit a UK house as they were all so random. But we had moved them each time we moved!

I have struggled to get rid of books in the past as we lived in countries where it was not easy to buy new books. Now I read a book and it goes straight in the charity bag. Still have loads though! And DH won't get rid of books. Still has books from when he was at school and university. He is 54.

I did some sorting and tidying yesterday - now have two empty shelves in hall cupboards. Although xmas stuff seems to have increased a lot this year! I think I will have to have a massive cull next year.

As to why I am kondo-ing - I'm really untidy and have a bad shopping habit. Books, magazines, clothes, household stuff, cosmetics etc etc etc. Actually I think a lot of that stems from living overseas in countries where you couldn't easily get certain things. Any trip to a more 'civilised' country invariably meant lots of shopping. Shopping for basics in some instances - Tampax was almost impossible to buy in Vietnam for instance. So I had years of doing huge shopping trips and stocking up on stuff. It has taken me a few years of living back in the UK to adjust to not having to do that.

So we had lots of stuff and I'm untidy - not a great combination. Getting rid of stuff we don't need has made it much easier to keep on top of the tidying. Still have too much stuff but getting there on getting rid.

I need to read the book again though. The clothes folding thing didn't really work well for me and I need to figure out why. Might be the shape of the drawers.

That ended up being long!

Bringme and milly I don't think I could be totally minalmist but we have probably got rid of 2/3 of our stuff through kondo! We had an awful lot of clutter!! We have kept lots of things we enjoy but the house feels so much more spacious with clear lines. I was thinking that it would be one more step to minimalism from here but I can't do it. I think my house would stop feeling like my home.

Laughing at the language stuff too. We had a cleaner in Budapest who was lovely and spoke great English. Liberally peppered with fuck here there and everywhere! I think they just don't get how bad it is as a swear word. And I'm irish - we swear a lot!

Oh, don't get me started on English swear words in other countries! In Denmark, my native country (I'm one of the translators on the thread) the use of "fuck" is truly terrifying. I have seen a TV program title using the word, and I also saw a TV program where they had filmed a school class, and the teacher was explaining to the children that he knew it was "fucking boring" but that it would make sense later! I am absolutely mortified, it was not like that when I last lived there 8 years ago. And it really worries me as Danes speak good English, but they use "fuck" all the time. Last year I was working on a TV commercial as an translator and part of the job was chkeing the recordings of the commercials because they used native Danish actors (young people who lived in London). The recordings were basically improvisation, and I had to make sure that they spoke clearly and didn't use any swear words. We could only use about half of the recordings, because they kept sayin "fuck"! And they lived in England! When I speak to Danes about this, they think I am uptight and needs to chill out ...

I wiped my PC over night and just put it on Freegle. I didn't bother reinstalling the operating system, but I do have the installation disk and the key. So hopefully some one will come and get it really soon!

So far I have not got any work on today, so I am hoping to tackle the crafts in the garage - I have 3 empty drawers for them in the house!

Snap bring; we moved over here from the USA too and it was quite a shock to the system to have to get used to the lack of variety in the shops, higher prices/lack of bargains, limited opening hours, shop assistants who didn't even pretend to care how you were or whether you had a nice day, etc. We also go to a neighbouring country (where shops are open on a Sunday!) for an M&S fix from time to time; I could actually do without it now, but DH (not British) gets virtually all his clothes from there and is usually the one to suggest going.

Cider Huge basements are definitely not good when you want to get things out of the house! Ours is like a temporary storage facility, but the lack of charity shops means we really need somewhere where we can put things for a couple of months or more.
I've also struggled with books (buying far more than I used to, not being able to get rid of them) since we moved here, as I've usually got most of my books from local libraries but read my way through most of the English-language section here several years ago (I've given up reading in German as I just don't enjoy it). I have a constantly growing pile of books in the cellar; I can usually foist a couple on visiting friends, but really need to get to a charity shop in the capital.

misscph Personally, I think that people should be banned from swearing in a language that isn't their own! Although that wouldn't necessarily get rid of every instance; we heard Robbie Williams being interviewed on national radio (equivalent of Radio 1/2) a while back - mid-afternoon; I was driving the DC somewhere - and he used "fucking" in it several times. I remember thinking that the BBC wouldn't have allowed it!

Yes, I have a Kindle and have set it up for UK Amazon. It's handy for when I'm out and about, but I still prefer to read (which means buying) "proper" books, though.

Linz

would the library take the books from you ?

I don't know home, but I could ask next time I'm there. Actually, you've just reminded me that my SIL, who's an English teacher, will take books off me for the school library as long as there's not too much "inappropriate content" in them, i.e. she probably wouldn't want Fifty Shades but I decluttered that ages ago.

Cracking up here at the teacher saying "fucking boring" to the class!

I say 'bloody' occasionally and have been pulled up on it by more than one shocked parent (Dutch and Germans, coincidentally). These are people who say "shit" when they drop a pencil

Parent = parents of my children's friends, I'm not a teacher and probably wouldn't say it to a class .

The red cross will come and collect furniture here . They would probably take other stuff as well if you can't get there. Might be worth phoning them to ask.

Loving the language stories

Well I Kondoed DH's bag of komono from the kitchen window ledge. It included an 80s CD so today I'm going to be working to a soundtrack of 'Berlin' ; 'T'Pau' etc.

Violetta great news that you can sit down earlier in the evenings!

Yongnian I am v v impressed with your paperwork successes too.

Everyone is doing so well!

I don't feel like I'm doing well but I guess that mountain of charity shop stuff tells a different story

I'd more or less discounted the Red Cross shop - or Henry shop, as it's called for some unaccountable reason (possibly because Henry = English name = automatically sounds good) - as they were just asking for donations of clothes when they first opened. However, have just googled them and they also take bedlinen, ornaments, toys, books, sports equipment and collector's items so I shall get some bags ready to take.

Am at Dutch and Germans pulling you up for saying bloody, Steptoe. Mind you, DH once had to relay a message to me from SIL asking me to please refrain from using the German word for "stupid" when talking to her PFB (not about PFB, I hasten to add). However, it seemed perfectly acceptable for said PFB, now in her teens, to use "shit" in front of our DC, who were about the same age as PFB when her delicate ears were subjected to me jokingly calling DH stupid!

APlace DH has a box of komono on a windowsill too. And far too many CDs (last spotted hiding in the cellar). My decluttering and kondoing does seem to be paying off, however, as he's now far more willing to part with things than he used to be.

Am going to be kondoing a tooth (well, part of one) this afternoon, which has brought me absolutely no joy since the dentist decided several months back that it needed a filling. Am dreading it, but am hoping that a lovely white inlay will eventually bring me more joy than a big amalgam filling.

bringmejoy yy I found boots and a dress that needed mending. I've repaired the boots but I think I might need to take the dress to a dressmaker. It's a special occasion dress I bought in Italy years ago and it's so pretty it gives me lots of joy just to look at it but I do wear it a lot to parties and events too. Or, I did until it developed a problem with the strap.