Kondo thread 8

[Isisizzie]

New thread for Kondo addicts.

Sorry I can't do all the links that were on the top of thread 7.

All has gone pear-shaped, in spite of my enthusiasm Yesterday...
Life all too busy for anything and kondoing has gone by wayside....
Glass of wine now.

This week the plan is to dispose of a mattress (please don't fall out of bed ds2, you haven't needed the mattress for months now), a bag of plates (I had enough crockery to serve the whole street), and a couple of bags of toys. Think I'll try to do the DVD cupboard too before going to the charity shop.
Dh last night filling up a shelf as fast as I'd emptied it.

I've read about half of the book so I'm going to have a crack at clothes on Saturday. She says in the book that by keeping things that bring joy we'll keep as many clothes as we need. Off the top of my head I can only think of 1 piece of clothing that brings me joy. I hope there'll be more when I get started.

I found that I had nothing left in some categories. So I wrote myself a little ledger on the side. I resolved to replace 2x pyjamas and 10x socks and all of my pants. Kept PJs because I had no others. Discarded unwanted socks and lived with v few socks, which prompted me to buy more. I have replaced both socks and PJs now, as soon as I bought the new PJs I discarded the old ones, I need to do pants still so sticking with the old ones but they will all go when I get shiny new ones! Just have to stretch it out a bit because money is tight. But keep notes - get rid of all but the barest minimum and then operate a strict replacement policy of discarded items.

If you're worried about forgetting which items you have decided to discard but don't want to write a list, you could mark or cut the labels so that you can easily check later.

The shopping trip for new clothes which bring joy is the best part

DD and I took four bags to charity shop. My normal rubbish bin is full and another week till they empty it!

My normal cleaning is stalled because of the Kondoing.

Bedroom pretty much finished. The before was dreadful. I moved some paperwork out to do later on. There's empty floor!

Pretty , that bedroom looks fab :)

That looks nice prettymess. I'm looking forward to seeing a larger percentage of my floors. At the moment the cleaner isn't allowed in my bedroom or the spare room as it's too messy to even hoover. I have dreams of the spare room being transformed into a guest room with twigs and shit.

lol at "twigs and shit" ... :-)

I already have lots of shit in my spare room...

Oh yes, shit n stuff I have plenty of

And wine

Slow going here as RL is busy.
Need a chazza run soon.

Twigs and shit, hmm!
I'm pleased I haven't got a spare room, it would be the perfect place to hide things.

We're meant to be moving ds1 into the spare room (whilst keeping the bunkbeds for him to go back to when grandparents visit) soon.
Not sure where all the crap in there is going to go.
I could go with a halfhearted move and basically just let him sleep in there but keep his wardrobe in his current room but it feels a bit mean to make him have a room that's his finally but surrounded by our stuff.

Yes, the spare room has been 'spare' since we moved in a year ago because it's the perfect place to hide things like unpacked suitcases and god knows what else. Since saying I want to turn it into a guest room, I read the part of the book where she says not to bother with things for guests (extra bedding etc) unless you have them frequently. Really I'm just picturing the once a year my husband's posh friends come to visit so it's probably not worth the effort.

I really enjoyed the section about not storing things at your parents house. I think I'm going to include my old room as a place where my clothes live. There's probably going to be things that are 15 years old and have just been left as I've forgotten about them and my mum can't be bothered to do anything with my room. Once I've finished I might pass the book onto my mother who I'm convinced is turning into a hoarder since the death of a lot of elderly relatives. That's probably a whole other thread though!

I have people staying at least weekly, and half a dozen a couple times a year. And now a lodger in the spare room. The bedding breeds, I swear!

I made some progress over the last couple of days but still have way, way too many clothes. I did an initial sweep in the autumn on one of the earlier threads when I first read the book and was shocked by the number of clothes I have. I still have a lot even though they are now mostly nicely folded - part of the problem is that I don't want to have to buy expensive new suits if I go back to my previous job (my current part time work is less formal) - I still have good suits/shirts/shoes/other smarter things that still fit and look good even though they haven't been worn for several years.

I am trying to be relatively ruthless though - I've subdivided tops and did jumpers/cardigans yesterday, taking two carrier bags to the charity shop (and also two bags of toys/childrens clothes). This still leaves me with over 25 though (including summer/winter weights, fleeces, cardigans, chunky jumpers etc). Hopefully if I can do a significant cull so I can see more clearly what I have and wear, it will be easier to get a feel for what actually brings joy.

At the moment though joy doesn't seem the most appropriate criteria - what is needed/useful still has a place. I'm thinking for example of shoes/sandals - I walk several miles on a normal day on the school run, picking up shopping etc and have to wear flat, comfortable, hard wearing shoes if I'm not to get sore feet. I wouldn't describe shoes that fit that criteria as bringing me joy (unless you count not getting sore feet) but they are needed - I look forward to the day when I find shoes that are both joyful and can cope with pounding the streets!

newlark - I've just kondoed a pair of shoes bacause although they looked nice and solved the "what shoes can I wear with this outfit for a wedding" they killed my feet if I actually spent any time walking in them. Definitely not joy-bringers!

Kondoing internet favourites is fun - on ipad, phone, different browsers.. sheesh... so even gathering them together in one place is difficult!

Oh yes - and kondoing social media accounts (friends lists, and the accounts themselves too). Facebook is a great thing when it's filled with people you actually like and want to hear about rather than feeling irritated by them

I bought some pyjamas today but I didn't try them on (Primark hell) so I have to take them back tomorrow because they don't fit properly :(

Newlark do you have any books/papers relating to either line of work? Once you've gone through those (at least sorting into which sparks joy, even if you can't part with the stuff yet) you may have a better feel for which career path makes you happier as a person. If you're planning/hoping/intending to do the work that you used to do that requires you to wear fancy suits, what are you doing to make your career shift back into that direction? If your life as a whole is happier with you in this role and you don't see that changing, you might want to konodo those suits so they bring joy to someone else before they go so out of style that they're back in again!
it's hard, I know: I'm in a similar situation and working out where to go from here, once my current temp job finishes.
Not much Konodoing in my life the past few days, nor the next few: DD has her b day party tomorrow and work is crazy busy!

I'm sorting through Lego. It's a nightmare. I feel sad as there's hundreds of pounds worth of sets in that box, but now all in bits. Hogwarts, most of Bikini Bottom, Star Wars sets... it's all in there. I need to let go and appreciate that they can build new stuff out of it. I've got a lot of figures back together and accessories, but the rest is just a random pile of building bricks now.

A family of spiders has made the lego box their home too, which shows how long it's been since the kids played with it and it's really freaking me out.

Eek at spiders I'm bad with them!
I have let go with Lego. It all lives in a big shallow box.

Dds party on Sunday for me. She's very excited I'm a bit meh about it all but hopefully she'll have a good time.

Hoping the bin men take the broken garden chair I've put out otherwise not really getting anything done. Not even the usual - clean and dry heaps of laundry surround me!

CycleChic - the work is closely related so books/papers are applicable to both - there is some sorting of out of date stuff that can be cleared when I get as far as papers though. I am happier in my current work at the moment as there is much more flexibility (although the available hours are limited and variable).

Lego is going to be interesting here - ds (6)makes all sorts of imaginative stuff out of the mixed contents of two plastic tubs but I do periodically try to extract complete sets with their instructions to put them aside for a bit as he does sometimes like to follow the instructions to make something before adapting it again which I think gives him more ideas. No kondoing today with dcs still on school holidays - we are trying to have a tv free day (I've called it a "game" day to encourage them to use board games, jigsaws etc but some limited time on my tablet has been allowed too)

Kondoing various random items. Not as satisfying as the proper systematic method but threshokd for looking at non-joy bringing items is Falling rapidly so they need to go OUT....asap....