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.

Thank you bringme

I have really noticed a few of us who started at the same time are feeling unmotivated. I try to stay positive but I'm wondering about reading the book again.

She did such a good job of convincing me that it was worth putting in the effort that maybe I just need another dose of that?

Hello everyone.

A few thoughts:
It is important to get stuff out of house. I got to a point where I stopped between categories to focus on clearing stuff out of the house. Otherwise one is essentially just moving the same crap round the house. Feeling like I spent my life doing this was part of what drove me into kondo's arms in the first place. It's worth it, because once it is actually out of the house, you feel less stifled.

I agree about the folding being a pain tbh, I do seem to gather piles of laundry waiting to be folded. Haven't cracked that one yet. But it was a problem pre kondo too tbh.

Finally, hermione don't focus on and regret the years and notebooks of pre-kondo. Instead focus on all the years ahead of you, where you are not surrounded by towers of notebooks, but standing on a hill able to enjoy the sunshine and space, seeing clearly and joyfully.

I am ploughing through paperwork. I had no takers for my hangers, though some v odd replies. "I don't want the hangers but I'll take your clothes for my 14 month old son" to an advert for adult hangers. Wtf? Personal Inc financial paper will be fine. Uni/career based papers will be harder, as I still use these.
Any ideas for getting rid of empty files/concertina files? Free cycle/gumtree freebies the only options?

Star face - how weird!!!

Free-giving away files has always worked quickly for me.

Agree re others comments about losing motivation. I've learnt my brother the book so can't reread. I think I need to focus on both the immediate category and on the long term goals.

The books going frees up the bookcases in the spare room. I may take one down. Then move ds1's books to the other as part of him moving to the spare room (apart from when we have guests when he'll have to move back in with his brother. Until we eventually do a loft conversion.)

Totally agree getting rid of things between categories is the way to manage with young kids. Plus work on a sub category at a time (eg travel books) and as someone (grouchy? Roar?) suggested, plan how you will store items mid kondo before you get them out.

hermione sofa covers sound great,;as does your newly edited, joyful notebook stash

Those losing motivation: Did you do the "visualising your destination" bit at the start, and can you re-read or look at that? That gets me motivated again when I'm slacking.

Yes to sub categories. Don't ever leave categories half done, even if it means that you're waiting months for a suitable opportunity to do a category.

About throwing away, my thoughts: Yes it's best to recycle or pass on when you can. But the most important thing with Kondoing is to get the stuff out of the house. There is a bit near the start where she explains why putting things in a box to see if they get used is a bad strategy, and having the stuff hanging around waiting to go will really make you feel crappy, and you also risk the stuff sneaking back into circulation again. You run out of tops so you grab a discarded one. Nooo! Don't do it! :)

Just get the stuff out. Long term, if you keep up the approach then you will be buying less and so discarding less and contributing far less to landfill anyway. Though the contents of one house probably feels huge, in reality, it will be an absolutely tiny proportion of the waste thrown away by your street or town in a month or a year. So don't feel guilty about throwing away, if that's a practical option. Electricals - if you sell them to somewhere like Cash Converters, or CeX they will wipe all data for you anyway. If you can't find a charger, you can't sell them anyway so send them for recycling. Again, your data will be wiped.

If you have to do something with things before you throw them out, like washing clothes, either do a dedicated wash load just for that or wash them all first. If there's a stage getting between the sorting and the removing things from the house, it's not going to work. It will just wait around forever, being more clutter and eventually turning back into komono.

Seriously - banish the hoarder's guilt (yes, that's what it is!) and Let It Go. Be Elsa. Freeze some shit (Got that from another thread)

Well said, Bertie!

Hear hear, Bertie! I've been throwing more stuff away lately... Partly because the categories I've been working on dont really lend themselves to donating, partly because we're waiting to get the handbrake fixed so the car's out of action, and largely because I have no tolerance for having more shit hanging about while the boxes of books are still waiting to go to the library!

I completely agree about the long term view: a life with less stuff will produce less waste overall.

Fiction books gone

Hi girls! How's the Kondoing? I've had a kondoing break but am back now. Going to read the thread now and thread 6.

Shoes storage question first though. There are 6 of us and a hell of a lot of shoes. We have a coats/shoes cupboard and the shoes are bunged loosely on the floor. How do you all store your shoes? I was looking at racks but then discovered a shoe wheel type thing, then a door hanging shoe storer, then a tall thing with a circular base that can be spun. Bearing in mind that lady kondo likes everything stored upright, I've really no idea which is more practical.

There is a funny article in our local rag today about a charity shop receiving a bag of sex toys! So come on, own up - who kondoed them this week?!!

I have trouble getting things out of the house because I don't drive and there's so much that I can't take it in one go on the (large) pushchair. I think I need to get DH to agree to a Kondo day next Saturday.

We've decided to move house this year if we can and to that end viewed a show home today. It is exactly what I want, if lacking a little on storage, so I have a new goal to help me get this done. I need to make sure we don't have so much stuff that any new house is overwhelmed. The show home was just beautiful and I feel inspired now.

Have started gathering all our loose papers into a box so I can slowly do paperwork over the next week. I think that will go a massive way to making the house look better. Will probably do the same for komono; have a box chosen for that too.

Did box of komono with Dh as he was sitting down tired. Most in the bin/charity box. A few bits he wanted to hang on to or put in the shed. Hmm.
Found an old school photo from my teaching days we can giggle over tomorrow when friends from those days are coming over. Then in the bin! Haven't looked at it for a decade and don't want it in display.

Bertie thank you. She pushes you to DECIDE. I find that hard but it is worth it to decide once and for all. And if I'm not sure, it probably isn't a keeper!

I am coming around to ditching some of the storage stuff soon. We just won't need it and it is seriously hanging around annoying me, even in the shed.

So I'm new to Kondoing. Read the book today and have successfully decluttered clothes so now on to storing them. Can anyone tell me how to Kondo bikinis? I can't get them even vaguely rectangular let alone get them to stand on end!

Kiwi - that's exciting news! It'll be interesting to hear what moving house post-kondo is like!

JKS - how is your husband doing now? I'm so impressed with the way you keep chipping away.

Violet - shoe storage seems to be a common problem. I think you need to limit the number in the hall cupboard. In my opinion, people's shoes should, in the main, live where their clothes live. That way individuals take responsibility for the number and tidiness of their own stuff. Ok, you're bound to have a pair each, sometimes two pairs, knocking around downstairs, but the moment any person has more than two pairs out, that's the signal for that person to SORT IT OUT! I wouldn't recommend carousel-type storage: it tends to need more than its fair share of space to get the best out of it. Some sort of vertical rack sounds like a good option, but reduce the scale of the problem first.

This link shows how to do bikinis.

Thanks RandomFriend, I think my bikinis are a little too structured so I think I'm just going to have to fold them as best I can and keep them in a small box in the drawer to stop them springing open.

Can I join your thread?

I read it this morning, your see, and went off to google Marie Kondo. I began to implement the ideas this afternoon.

Only it has been a bit of a shock really. You know the whole idea of asking if an object "gives you joy"? Well, it has made me realise, for the first time, just how many objects in my home do the very opposite. I have objects that I use fairly regularly that have very negative emotions and memories attached to them, and I have realised that when I do use them, I remember all those bad things.

For example, I have a pan that I had at university. It once had a lid but the rather unpleasant flatmate I had at the time left it in the sink and the wooden handle swelled and came off. Every time I have seen that pan since, I remember that flatmate and how awful my life was at the time.

So far, after only four hours in kondo, I have realised I am surrounded by items that are similar to this pan. I can't quite believe I have done this to myself, that I never recognised I had surrounded myself with reminders of upset and failure.

It all has to go. Even so early on in the process, "discarding" some of these items feels a bit like an exorcism , which I suppose is hardly surprising -- they have probably been haunting me for years.

works you are reminding me how to go about this.

No more 'well, my mum gave me this.'
No more 'it might come in useful one day.'

No more 'It would be wasteful to just get rid of it.'

Say thank you and goodbye.

Violet, I have had door hanging shoe storage, and it worked quite well, only problem was that the kids couldn't reach the top ones. I had it on the back of the door to my downstairs toilet/cloakroom. DD has it in her wardrobe now, full of her small teddys and dolls, as we moved and I didn't want it for shoes anymore as we have more room now. Our shoes are now in the spacious (smug smiley) entrance hall and in the cupboard under the stairs where I also have a coat rack, iron and ironing board, crafts and paper files. It may sound cramped and confusing, but is actually works rather well! Ideally I would like a wooden bench with shoe storage under, but it's probabaly never going to happen. Have you looked at Ikeas shoe storage? They do nice, slim shoe cupboards.

Works, I am sorry to hear that you are surrounded by things that have bad memories, but I am also pleased to hear that you have identified the issue, as now you can do something about it.