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.

On the subject of properly rolled tea towels, these would definitely bring me joy gizmodo.com/you-can-roll-these-kitchen-towels-into-delicious-lookin-1687956365

A proper Kondo homage there!

Afternoon everyone. I finished putting the last of my clothes away and then did all of books this morning. I don't think I've been quite strict enough, but I have identified a huge amount that I want to read/reread.
The books were all boxed in the loft from when we moved house and now are all on our bookshelves so that's all good.
I m nervous about the next categories. In fact I don't see a category called 'shite contents of the garage of doom'.

Love the sushi towels. Dh would really appreciate them he loves sushi.

Rogan - had to lol at your missing category. I'm sure there should be one entitled 'enormous heap of miscellaneous cuddly animals/creatures' for my house but I haven't found it yet.

Had PTA then lunch out now it's school run time. One bag of school
Uniform handed down that's it for today unless I magically get moving later!

Sorry meant to thank Starface for the tip. I can do that as an interim job but lots of the sealant seems to be coming off so it does really need redoing.

we have a garage of doom too. in fact it's getting worse as stuff from the house keeps getting put out there. the plan is to have a car boot sale but I think a giant bonfire would be more effective....

glad I wasn't too ruthless in tidy my sewing supplies, this week I have needed eyelets to mend a trainer and sequins to jazz up a school play costume, both nearly went in the bin last month, unkondo like proof that somethings you do need to keep "just in case".....

paperwork done! Whoop whoop. komono will be more satisfying as it's more in my face.

We have a shed of boot fair doom too. First boot fair locally is April 5th. Its diarised! My plan is to do 2 then chazzer the rest.

Tw1nkle, I TOTALLY think you should use your beautiful cutlery every day! I arrived at this conclusion a few years ago... What was I saving it for?! It doesn't wear out. It doesn't break. It'll make you smile every single day.

Just make it clear that it's not to disappear into people's lunchboxes, or to be used as screwdrivers!

I kondoed all our tea towels about a week ago. they were all dirty and rubbish at drying. We now just have a hand towel in the kitchen for drying hands and wipe the sides and stuff with kitchen roll.

I realised today that I can use the bookshelves we emptied and have stored in the shed in a large cupboard we have in the kitchen. I had been planning on buying something, but once again the house had provided

I love those towels!
Good tip for cleaning sealant too. We use cotton buds to clean sealant around the bath and the window frames, they get into every nook and cranny!
No kondoing planned for this weekend it is DH's birthday.

Have got rid of box sets of videos to a Freecycler, 11 books donated to school library, and got rid of more magazines and mostly empty boxes from the spare room. And a bag containing a bizarre mix of junk has had contents put in the right places.

A lot of dust wafting everywhere. Thank goodness we don't have a garage, as it would be full of KomonoDoom widgets...

Have lots of extra plates and bowl I seem to keep in case of a giant coach trip suddenly appearing at the house for tea - can I throw them out? My mum (still with us) bought them for me for my first home, but daily I like my monochrome ikea stuff. Charity shops don't want plates do they?

Good point, Citrus - I often wish we had a garage, so we had the option to have a fun old car, but realistically, it would be so full of crap we wouldn't be able to get so much as a scooter in it. Actually, the best bit of this process has been the realisation that a) my house is not that small, and b) I don't want or need it bigger. As we give up using every bloody room like some kind of warehouse, their proper functions come to the fore... and it feels plenty for the people and animals that live here.

Iggi, I'm sure charity shops do want plates, and glasses/cutlery sets etc... I've bought that kind of stuff from charity shops in the past, both when it was all I could afford, and when it was the only source of wine glasses smaller than buckets!

Just reading in the local paper about the Ikea Ideas Festival next weekend. It says it is at Ikea Birmingham which I assume means Wednesbury. It's all about storage ideas so I thought you might all be interested, they are probably doing it at other branches too. Details at www.ikea.co.uk/Birmingham according to the paper but it often gets things wrong!

Hermione we do have a shed which is full of tools plus full of all the bits of wood for various building works. It was impossible to get in, but recently all the scraps of insulation were used up under the dining room floor, so now it's just difficult.

Thing is, most of the widgets are useful, even the ones inherited from MrNC's grandad and priced in old money. There was a crate of junk I wanted to chuck, but then we returned to our old flat in the middle of the night one Easter to find the hall under 3 inches of black water. MrNC told me to get a plumbing olive out of said crate (price 2d 1/4 !) and fixed the leak while I cleaned up with all the old papers. Saved us a good £500 or much more if it had got to the flat below, but has of course been an argument for keeping junk ever since...

Yes! Take plates to the charity shop, they will thank you for them

I finally moved some things about in the kitchen that I have wanted to sort out for ages. It looks so much better. I was so excited I kondoed the food in the pantry as well. It is now an ordered paradise. It was mayhem before, dh is genuinely impressed.

I'm getting nowhere with paperwork, it's too daunting. There's just so much of it. I had a beauty magazine habit throughout my teens and twenties, I bought all of them, and I'd tear out anything that looked remotely interesting. I still have most of it. I'm sure I'm hoarding at least dozens of
pages on fashions that won't come around again for a long time!

I'm going to do something more fun to keep myself going - makeup! I have two three drawer units full, plus several small boxes under my bed, all from my BeautyTuber addiction. I'm going to aim to at least have the boxes emptied, but ideally to only have one three drawer unit by the end of tomorrow.

Did:
Jewellery
Bags
Scarves
Shawls
Hair stuff
Gloves
Hats
Other random bits in with all that.

Have an under bed box empty for something else

And another plastic box full for charity/freecycle/etc.

So think that's accessories done.

Need to focus on getting the exit piles out of the house over the next few days before moving into anything else I think.

Thread keeps falling of TIO so marking place quickly before a proper catch up tomorrow.

this week feels like a million steps back. Having our bathroom re-tiled and some other minor building works done so everything is out of its usual place; dust all over; no bath and shower; trying to put undercoats on walls; losing important items and forgetting things when going out.

Did Kondo toiletries as I cleared bathroom so that's something I guess. .Just trying to hold on til the work is done and I can kondo things as I put them back into their places.

Sorry if this has been posted before but thought it might interest

www.wsj.com/articles/marie-kondo-and-the-tidying-up-trend-1424970535

Thanks for the link, the sock video has made me want to revisit socks again. For the forth time!
DD got me up at 5 so I might as well do something useful. Currently drinking tea in my dressing gown and fantasising about sleep!

this thread is really slowing down, are people losing their enthusiasm? the end is in sight for me, so have become lazy and putting it off!

I have these left -

• organise wardrobe with clothes going from long to short, left to right (unless there are better ideas?)
• try folding my socks (put off as not convinced!)
• find new home for handbags (how do you clean mould off leather?!)
• sort belts
• kitchen pans and roasting dishes (bump too big and heavy to even consider doing that!)
• cooking utensils
• cutlery
• keys
• bedding
• garage
• car
• sentimental - mainly diaries, songs and ornaments that I've had for years but aren't being displayed

I actually don't think it would take me long at all to do all of that, maybe just a few days! but my enthusiasm is waning

any success stories?

I'm definitely not losing enthusiasm, but have been on holiday for the last week so no kondoing going on! Before I went away I did help a friend kondo her wardrobe - completely exhausting but we managed to get the whole thing done in about 3 hours and she got rid of about 8 bin bags of stuff. I was surprised at how much emotional energy it took even though it wasn't my things, it's definitely a knackering process even if you're just there as support rather than doing it yourself.

Home today and I can't wait to get started on clearing out my electrical things, and putting the last lot of clothes on ebay

Weasel I just used leather soap on my mouldy bag (I forget the brand name sorry). Soaped it twice and then used some leather cream to restore it's colour and softness. Looks a bit marked still but in an 'aged leather' way.

I haven't done anything in 6 weeks BUT at least haven't let things get worse and have been doing new paperwork etc as it comes in, so once term ends on 25 March I can jump back in. We are moving house in July so it is a good incentive to try and get more stuff cleared.

Drawers still tidy over 2 months on and still folding socks etc.

I am finding the house easier to clean and keep clean.