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Original poster

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

999 replies

LinzerTorte · 07/02/2015 14:58

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
11
MILLYmo0se · 10/03/2015 08:15

tHANKS hermerione must have a look, boots tend to look like wellies on me,skinny-malink calves and ankles :( .
Would you have accidentally 'hidden' the thread btw ?

Smooshface · 10/03/2015 08:17

consider don't stop the music to donate instruments to local school!

Trazzletoes · 10/03/2015 08:54

Good point Mango thanks.

I've just found a drawer of my clothes in another room so they're all gone too as I'd forgotten about them. Included my PE jumper from school. Approx 20 years ago. What is wrong with me for goodness sake!!!!!!

defk0ndo · 10/03/2015 09:00

Amazing work from some of you on here! I am waiting for a news story about how UK charity shops are overwhelmed by donations as kondoing madness sweeps the country - everyone round where I live seems to be having a mahoosive clearout..... I have kondoed notebooks and am now using a lovely organiser gifted to me last year and notes on my phone only. Need to try to stop writing notes and lists on random bits of paper/in new notebooks. Need to keep it simple!! Handbag/swim/gym bag system working really well, muchs easier to get out of house with relevant stuff....

defk0ndo · 10/03/2015 09:02

PS violin sold to a pal who wanted. Otherwise it would hv gone to local primary school.

misscph1973 · 10/03/2015 10:12

The sheet folding video is great, thanks Trazzle!

Linzer, could you take photoes of your x-rays so that you have a digital copy only?

I have listed more things on ebay, I really hope my sales will pick up!

JKSLtd · 10/03/2015 10:27

Ive been folding my fitted sheets for a while thanks to MN Smile

Have put more random komono in the charity box. Aiming to drop off before presch pickup today.

Listed a few more bits on fb selling page.

And done long overdue banking.

Original poster
LinzerTorte · 10/03/2015 12:25

Brilliant idea misscph - I used the CamScanner and Evernote apps all the time when I was decluttering paperwork to save photos of documents etc. that I wanted to declutter, so I don't know why I didn't think of it before! I have an appointment on Friday so will see how "photographable" the x-rays are, but AFAIK the likelihood of me ever needing them isn't great (friend said she got told off there for not bringing her old x-rays when she moved from another town, but we have no plans to move in the foreseeable future).

Mango Yes, I found the same re eBaying; I rarely made more than a couple of euros on anything so decided it wasn't worth the time and hassle. I now feel altruistic about taking things to the charity shop whereas in reality, I'm just lazy. Grin

OP posts:
JKSLtd · 10/03/2015 12:38

Yes re the altruism/laziness Grin

2 big cardboard boxes
2 ride on things
Gone. Yey.

Tiny bit of paperwork sorted.
And more stuff ready to sell/give away.

Pause for dd ballet, Sch runs and orch.

misscph1973 · 10/03/2015 13:14

Last of 4 laarge wood pallets taken to dump! I can only take one at a time in my tiny car, so it's taken a month as traffic is awful in that end of town, so I only go if I have more than one errands. Pallets are from deliveries to DHs business, and they were blocking our garage.

Also got all the paperwork together for DHS blue badge parking and bus pass - he is registered blind, although he has some vision. I have meant to do this since we moved 8 months ago, and I finally did it. Kondoing stops me procrastinating!

Am going to take charity bag with me when kids go swimming this afternoon, as therere is a chairity shop nearby. Will try to make this a habit!

Not getting much work done today, but it's worth it!

defk0ndo · 10/03/2015 13:34

Not much kondoing here today but did drop off a bag at charity shop. Three bags shredded paper and misc rubbish for bin collection. Loving the lightness.

misscph1973 · 10/03/2015 13:43

That's quite a bit, def, I manage that in a week at the moment!

defk0ndo · 10/03/2015 14:10

Sorry, it's the result of last few days' kondoing. Just cos it is bin collection day.

I meant no actual sorting out of stuff today....

Trazzletoes · 10/03/2015 14:28

I've filled, so far, more than 10 rubbish bags off junk and stuff for charity and hardly made any impact! This is horrendous! I was just looking in a bedside cabinet in DS' room to see what was in there... MORE of my underwear! It's been there since we moved nearly 4 years ago. No wonder I felt like I never had any! I'd forgotten it even existed! All in the bin now.
This is half amazing, half really bloody depressing!

JKSLtd · 10/03/2015 15:21

Totally agree Trazzle. Half and half.

Think dd may be coming down with chicken pox...

BrandNewIggi · 10/03/2015 18:42

Got a new top in a sale last week as it was under a tenner - wore it for the first time today and it's going in the charity bag! I would never have felt able to do that to a new item before. Come to think of it I haven't bought clothes since I kondoed, that's an unexpected side effect!

HermioneGrangerHair · 10/03/2015 19:01

Well, I had to take another half day of leave, for The Cause (Kause?), but BHF came and took the giant ugly cupboard, a bookcase, an overlocker, a big vintage radio and a lamp, all of which have been cluttering up the hall since Satursay morning. Seriously, we had to shuffle sideways to get through!

I'm probably going to take it relatively easy for the next week or two: I've got some big stuff going on in work at the moment, and need time to recover. But my husband has asked if I'll help him sort out some of his stuff... He wants me to coach him through the decisions Shock Shock Shock

For those who've asked how you get partners to join in, I don't know if you can make them, but I think a few of us have demonstrated hat if you lead the way, they might just follow. My husband isn't exactly a hoarder, but he does have that tendency. i haven't so much as suggested he get rid of anything, but he has made a start, and seems ready to go further.

defk0ndo · 10/03/2015 20:06

There's a German word that sums it up for me: "Betriebsblind". After a while you don't notice the stuff around you day-day-day. you literally don't see it, because the human eyes and brain are trained to notice changes in the environment. Hence until you do sth like Kondo, you actually don't even see how everything is mounting up. You feel it, somehow, you feel the feelings of suffocation/drowning in stuff etc., but you don't make the connection. That is certainly what happened to me. I too am taking out bags and bags of stuff. I am not finding it depressing, I am just accepting that it is a process that needs to happen and that now is the right time. Sometimes things just need to happen in their own time. Before, I was too busy, or stressed, or tired, or whatever. We all have our own reasons why things got this way. Or maybe we didn't mind having so much stuff at one point. It obviously fulfilled a need at one time. Just that now things have changed. I am just thankful that I now have the tools to tackle it. And it is heartening to realise that I am not alone, that others are feeling the same way. So we should all congratulate ourselves on getting to this point.

defk0ndo · 10/03/2015 20:08

And Brandnew - I did the same with some shoes. Just no good. And I could tell right on first wear.

defk0ndo · 10/03/2015 20:10

Sorry, that should of course be "day to day". Apologies for the three posts - I am quite new at Mumsnet. Should kondo my thoughts before I type...

HermioneGrangerHair · 10/03/2015 20:27

Thanks for those insights, defkon... Betriebsblind... I'll remember that one.

maybe we didn't mind having so much stuff at one point - this bothers me sometimes. I know that, right now, I want the space more than I want the stuff, and I haven't regretted (for more than a day) any of the stuff I've jettisoned, so far. But if there was a time when I didn't mind the clutter, will there come a time when I'll miss what I've got rid of? Is this just a fad, like yo-yos, or the Atkins diet, and we'll all look back and roll our eyes about the year we got rid of all our worldly possessions, like some kind of modern-day Savonarola?

CoupdeFoudre · 10/03/2015 20:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

misscph1973 · 10/03/2015 21:04

maybe we didn't mind having so much stuff at one point - I did not have any clutter pre kids!

BertieBotts · 10/03/2015 21:14

DS has been doing it a bit :) I made the mistake of asking if he was ready to let go of his old t-shirts which are really too small but he got really upset so I said he could keep them Hmm Remembered to phrase it as "Which do you want to keep?" for the next batch and he had no trouble at all. But wasn't fooled when I tried that for the original three. When he took the t shirt off it had four tear drops on it :( I had to let him keep them for a few more weeks! But he has got rid of some toys which he never ever plays with.

defk0ndo · 10/03/2015 21:16

Hermione - I don't know. I think the advice given about living in the here and now is sound - I need headspace for the things that give me joy right now, because I don't have the time and emotional energy for all the clutter from the past. I don't need my riding boots and my helmet and my crop, because I fell off a horse six years ago and decided that evening that I wouldn't ever ride again. I don't need a violin I was never that fussed about playing anyway. I am now a grown woman, and I don't play the violin, and I don't ride. I have other hobbies, which give me lots of joy. I've changed. But yes, there are things that are less clear, but at least this process makes me stop and look at each thing and make some sort of decision one way or another. I'll still have tons and tons of possessions, compared to most people on this earth. But I won't have to be responsible for maintaining quite so many.... At the start of this I took photos of everything I was discarding before it left, but I stopped because at some stage I just felt I didn't need or want to. Now I probably could only list about a third of what has left the house, if that.