Kondoing away the chaos: Kondo thread 7 for yet more life-changing magic

[LinzerTorte]

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 6
Thread 5
Thread 4
Thread 3
Thread 2
Thread 1

Tips and links thread

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.

thanks for the new thread. thank you for replies about the books. I think I may put back some of the unread books... but otherwise will try to see what I can do with the space!

Thanks for new thread :)

toiletries was hard for me (done things in wrong order as we're decorating so some things easier to get at than others!) I couldn't throw away anything that I'll eventually use. I had over 20 body moisturisers (my class get me lots at xmas! im a teacher) so I have one in every room to use as hand cream as I do have really dry skin, but I know it will take maybe 2 years to use it all up! I hate clutter and love the book but I hate waste too!

Hehe, weasel; another teacher! Seems a certain type of person has been attracted to this thread!

Bringme- totally stuck because of work getting in the way, having a messy dp, loads of stuff that needs doing before I can get kondoing which means no time to do it! House feeling overwhelmingly messy again although the couple of little bits I managed to do are still clear.

Would it be wrong to quit my job in order to kondo my house?!

Oops sorry linzer; thank you for the new thread!

I just realised I lied about why I did toiletries first... I had to do them first because I'd bought a moisturising set in Xmas sales and it wouldn't fit in my bathroom storage... the shame!!!

Marking my place, thanks for the new thread Linzer. Had a very annoying morning trying to Kondo baby clothes but a they are all in the loft I had to go up there and ened up smashing a vase that did bring me joy, most irritating. May have to replace it but I will force myself to wait until the whole house is kondoed as I may realise I have enough vases when I get to the kitchen stuff....I hope,

Hello! Just wanted to de-lurk and introduce myself! After reading the last thread I ordered the book on my kindle, read the whole thing in one go last Sunday afternoon and by Thursday had got rid of 10 bin bags of my clothes and a couple of hundred books. I'm a complete konvert! I've been telling everyone about how amazing the book is and my folded sock drawer is a thing of beauty.

This actually all came at a really opportune time for me as I'm in the middle of buying a flat which is absolutely tiny (360 sq ft) and I don't see how I ever would have fitted everything in before.

This weekend I'm starting on the komono, can't wait...

I'm still on stationery/office supplies, but finally feel like I'm starting to make progress with them. I've just kondoed several sheets of blank address labels that I bought in the USA, so they're a good 12 years old - and also the wrong size paper for my printer (despite changing the paper from A4 to letter size, the test sheet I did just in case came out all wrong). I have no idea why I've been hanging on to them for so long!

Have also sorted and made a list of our stock of school stationery so now I'll immediately know what I need when it's on offer at Lidl/Hofer and hopefully won't end up with 12 of the same exercise book again!

weasel I also have a ridiculous amount of body lotion and am loathe to throw any of it away or pass it on as I know I'll need it, but putting it all in one place has really helped me see exactly what needs using and most urgently (have just finished a bottle of baby lotion; my youngest is now 8 and the DC refused to use it after their baths so I thought I may as well have it!).

I also put aside sample sachets and miniatures for the two trips I have planned this year and am using the rest of them up. It's quite satisfying to use sample sizes as I get through them so quickly.

Zippidy I keep getting distracted and finding things to kondo when I'm supposed to be working - one of the disadvantages of working from home and getting to stationery in my kondoing, which I'm surrounded by while I'm working...

Tipsey What a shame about the vase; hope you find you don't need to replace it.

Good luck with the toiletries, bring.

Hi Wilding; well done on all the kondoing! I'm not sure whether I'm looking forward to or dreading komono, but am definitely looking forward to having it all done as I know it's komono that creates the most mess in our house.

Gosh, a whole new lovely thread already!

Dh just broke the new shredder by putting far too many sheets through it. Ho hum. Paperwork is now stalled.

Not much kondoing happening here and way behind in the threads too. Had a work trip, trade show and lots of freelance stuff to finish.

However the house does seem to flow much better now. My best move was to put a trofast in the hallway and to get rid of the console table which was frankly in the way (was left by previous owners of our house).

Now the trofast holds gloves, hats etc is I have a drawer for my stuff (running stuff, headphones, chequebook, brolly) that I need on a regular basis.

Has stopped the scrambling round looking for stuff time wasting of old as it is all to hand.

Yay, another thread ! I'm still slowly doing bits, am bobbing a bit between catogaries as I haven't had the hour and a half at home alone while DD is in drama since before Xmas so am stuck with doing the bits I can sort/access while she is in bed . Finally managed to get the buggy gone out of the house though (did I mention DD is 6 ! :)), and small bags of stuff making their way to bin/chazza.
*tipsey&, your vase post just reminded me I have a HUGE vase hiding in the annoying corner cupboard of the kitchen, it can go too. I don't get flowers anymore, and if I were too on a rare occasion I can divide a bunch up between my pretty jugs that I love . I haven't kondo'd the kitchen because it will just depress me, it's full of landlords crap that I can't do anything with except shove in cupboards out of sight :( .

For those of you with lots of lotions and makeup , if you do decide to get rid of some women s refuges are grateful for them . I think the name is escentual.com. You can send it in the post.

Thanks Linzer for the new thread :)

That's a good reminder about what to do with spare make-up and toiletries, home - there's more info about Give and Makeup (the address, what they're in need of, etc.) here. I did start putting a parcel together for them at the end of last year but in the end passed most of it on to a friend as the postage from here would have been extortionate.

Jumping on new thread.
Haven't done much with birthday stuff going on (thanks for wishes). But have just gone through a keyholder and binned a pile of paper.

I received the book this morning and have started on my clothes. I have filled 3 bin bags of stuff to get rid of but feeling a bit wobbly about one dress, it's a bit small for me at the moment but I might lose weight once the house is in order. I may also become a fabulous social butterfly who gets invited to lots of exciting parties and will need lots of nice dresses to wear! It did look good when it fitted. Argh this is more difficult than I thought

Snowfire, if you could wear it right now, would you? How would you feel in it? How do you feel when you run your hands over the fabric?

Thanks for new thread.

Thanks for the new thread, linzer. Just got rid of the Xmas plates that I stored carefully to use over Xmas and didn't use. I am now redoing parts of the kitchen as well as the wardrobe. I'm not sure how I'll ever finish as I keep going back to categories.

Hurrah - a shiny new thread! Thanks, Linzer .

Well, tonight I'm going to Kondo DS' shoes. I forgot to do them when I did his clothes.

I was packing today as we're going away for a few days next week and it was so much easier thanks to our clothes being Kondoed. Everything was easy to find and already nicely folded. It brought me much joy!

DH hasn't really been infected with the Kondo bug but he has been washing up more often. I think it's the influence of everything in the kitchen being Kondoed so the washing up looks out of place. Anyway, it's another little source of joy.

Hello new thread, thanks Linzer.

For those of you doing toiletries who have read the book; does she have any particular advice/suggestions? Like most of you I think I will end up with some duplicates though I will try to be strict about passing on things that I don't think I actually like rather than keeping them just in case.

Very little kondoing for me today, slept most of the morning after being up early with the toddler (DH takes him out Sat mornings for me to rest/do yoga/sleep) Then a (toddler) birthday party and my back still bad so not sure how much I'll do tonight/tomorrow. BUT, good news! I am now number 1 in the queue for the book at my library. Hoping my back will magically get better and kids will sleep through to enable me to make most of it once it arrives....

Oh, and weasel I can sympathise; I decluttered my books a few years ago and they now just fit on our shelves. I can see a few which I could probably get rid of but then I worry that if we ever move to a bigger house (which we hope to in next year or two) then I won't have enough books to make it feel like a home.

But I keeping thinking that if I reduce some of the read-but-not-loved books I can potter guilt free in second hand bookshops one day and replace them/fill shelves with ones I do love. Now all I need is time to potter!

yeah that's our problem. dh absolutely loves books and is planning to build another bookcase to make the room homely, but now our current bookcase is only half full

mother in law coming over tomorrow so hoping she can help style it to look better!

in the meantime I might buy some new books from Amazon!