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.

I had amazing proof of the life changing magic of Marie Kondo this morning. I got a letter from the Tax Credit people where they claimed that I had not reported my "other income". After getting over the panic of possibly being (falsely) accused of benefit fraud, I was able to quickly find the letter they sent me last year confirming that I HAD reported the "other income" (dividends from my Ltd company). So now I can send them a copy of this letter (with the information that they should already have!) and hopefully they will apologise for nearly giving me a heart attack (!). I really wish they would check their records before they send letters like that, it was quite awful - but only for a short while, because my papers are kondoed! Letters from the Tax Credit people definitely falls into the category "must keep, can't get another copy easily".

Ooh good call, misscph. They currently reckon I owe them thousands of pounds I know I don't because it's related to proof not sent, but I can't prove now that I did send it several years ago, it has hacked me right off.

If only I had Kondoed my paperwork!

That's brilliant, misscph - well, apart from the initial shock the letter must have caused, obviously. At least kondoing must have kept your panic to a minimum!

I had something (although not quite as panic-inducing) similar happen earlier today, making me very glad I'd kondoed paperwork. One of our neighbours phoned this morning to say she needed some house-related paperwork as they have someone from an insurance company coming to see them tomorrow - she'd already phoned DH, who's in Romania atm so told her to phone me as I have everything in a lever arch file. So all I had to was take the file off the shelf and take it next door.

Pre-kondo, we had two files related to our house purchase - one sort of categorised, the other not at all (it was in chronological order and DH claimed he could find everything he needed in it, but I certainly couldn't). Now we have just one, and everything inside it is neatly categorised - neighbour's DH, who's a retired lawyer and very pernickety, was highly impressed. The magic truly is life-changing.

bertie, it sounds so familiar. I claimed childcare credits when DC were little, and all of a sudden they wanted receipts - going back. I got as much as I could, but not all. Tax credit people are in my experience not the most organised.

Oh Bertie - I just got fizzy water up my nose laughing at your DH and his coat of children's clothes

It's grey bin day (general waste) for us tomorrow: the highlight of the fortnight! Am I the only one who gets excited by the waste collection schedules? We never used to fill the bins, but since new year, the grey bin has been packed solid for every collection. It was pretty close last night, but I'll be doing another sweep tonight, to make sure we use every last cubic cm!

Hermione it's not just you, I get especially excited about black and blue bin collection days

I sympathise ohhelp. I also haven't done nearly enough kondo due to work, dd being ill, and then me being ill.

It's rubbish! I love my kondoed bits and want all of it to be done! Now!

You're going to be sick of the sight of my fabric stash, but I wanted to show you how well my house has done, providing the storage I need. These cheapo plastic crates were definitely not bringing me joy on top of the wardrobe, but they are bringing me lots of joy as inserts for this blanket box!

I might have to do a second sweep of the stash when I'm feeling less tired and less rushed, but it's going to be so much easier now I can actually see what's there. It was formerly crammed into an over-full chest of drawers, and I had completely forgotten about most of the stuff at the bottom.

Oh, and on the right hand side of the second photo, you can see a bag of sewing patterns... I haven't even started on those, but as I usually trace patterns so I can adjust them, they're almost all intact, and I expect the charity shop will take the ones I don't want.

Hermione, that's so inspiring, well done! I am very jealous, as my fabric is in the garage in moving boxes still ;) I am itching to get sewing, but I have too much work on at the moment.

I have so much more headspace now, I can't wait till halfterm next week, there is so much I want to do with the kids, and I am going to take some time off.

Hermione that looks fantastic... Bet you've kept opening to admire it all day!

Thanks missc! It looks so much better! I do still have a load of threads, zips, bindings, buttons etc to sort through, but I feel like I'm a step closer to actually doing some sewing.

It really is all about the headspace, isn't it!?

Yay Hermione that looks brilliant, am so inspired not just by the Kondo but the sewing - something I want to learn to do but never had time.

Bertie your DH is a trooper with his coat of clothes, made me smile.

Am feeling very motivated tonight. My amazing SIL came to visit today - gave up her day off work - specifically to help me organise and clear out. We didn't Kondo exactly. I did work through a few small categories such as travel guides, but basically we cleared a lot of space by weeding out rubbish; putting things in the right place and also folding all DH's clothes. I introduced her to MK vertical folding (she loves it, she is already a sock folder); we managed to get all his tops; jumpers; shorts and casual trousers into his chest of drawers. Will try and post a pic, but is great cos he can see everything and it cleared a shelf in the wardrobe.

Leaving the shelf empty for now, to remind myself of how nice it is to have space. Yet even with that space our bedroom looks so tidy and there are clear surfaces too. A few months ago that would have been impossible. Admittedly there are a few boxes of komono to go through but better in a box than on a surface, right?

Ta da

Argh! Complete standstill here. Work is very busy. So frustrating

Oooooh, nice drawers Hazy!

A day at home without dc before halfterm for me.

Have a couple of freecyclers coming hopefully and going to try free cycling all the books we've agreed to get rid of. Lots of old but not antique ones.

Bath and cuppa first though

Have listed all the books on freecycle.
Random button batteries and one book gone already.

Hangers spoken for
One other book requested too

Still loads to go and they're all in the living room now!

Good job, JKS! Could you store the items more out of sight? I put all my ebay listed things in suitcases in my bedroom, as it made me stressed looking at them on th floor.

Finally catching up with things.

Kondoed my recipe books yesterday and managed to get rid of about 1/3 of them. Found one that I've never used but which looks very inspiring so I'm really looking forward to trying some of the recipes in that.

Have just realised that my PILs will be here in a couple of weeks so I really need to get cracking with this!

Also realised yesterday that my bedroom hasn't got messy since I did my clothes 2 weeks ago! Makes me so happy.

Grouchy, it's great to be able rediscover things, isn't it?

I am sure it won't be hard to get ready for PIL visit now - it was easy for me last weekend.

Misscph - so far they're in boxes stacked to one side so should be ok. Everything we've ever planned to get rid always goes into dh's office and he's made such efforts in there I was reluctant to fill it again. But it makes sense as its out of the dc way.
So may shuffle it all in there later. Also have a couple of boxes on the go for the chazzer in there too atm.

Dinner tonight consists of the bottom contents of the freezer - itching to get it emptied/defrosted/and stacked vertically!

I need to redo my clothes but the school has a clothes collection after half term so that's easy. I'm still doing paperwork. And I really want to do the fridge.

I think I need to complete something first. The family are away Saturday pm so I think I'll attack clothes again then.....