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.

Mightily

Starface... I feel a bit like that at the moment. 4 months in, and just lost a bit of impetus. I had other stuff to deal with, so went into a maintenance phase, which is fine, but it's hard to find that evangelical fervour that got me through the first few months.

Today I did the tea towels, which was my first foray into the kitchen stuff. Having a seriously tiny kitchen, I've always had to run a fairly tight ship, but I still managed to halve the number of teatowels. I really like teatowels as souvenirs, so there were some real joy-bringers in there... No need to keep the second rate ones.

I have done very little lately, but I've noticed a couple of changes - I have a charity bag in the bedroom and put two tops in it today that had made the original cut but had never been worn, and some of ds' stuff just went straight to the bin. I'd have ummed and ahhed (sp?) about that before instead of being decisive.

I have reaped benefits from sorting the filing cabinet, in that I easily found everything needed for 4 passport applications (£300! Ouch!) Gave away a couple socks and also put some cutlery and crockery in the flat for new tenant, that I would have got rid of.
Kids stuff needs to be next as ds finally agrees there is too much.

DH and I spent a couple of hours clearing out the loft. Threw about 30 boxes. Just empty boxes from various appliances and electronics. We know what's up there now and hopefully going back up there next weekend to finish off.

Wow - well done to all Kondoers - prettymess I have a cupboard of despair rather than a loft (middle floor apartment) and I cleared out the bottom shelf to put in camping equipment as the new tent is too big and heavy to stash elsewhere. Now wondering what I'm going to do with displaced items. Your 2 hours in loft seems to have been more fruitful!

I've not updated for a while, but since we have a house move looming in 4 weeks I have been really busy. The entire household (me, DH and three DCs) have had clothes Kondoed, all books, airing cupboard, understairs cupboard of doom, kitchen and bathroom have been done. Need to do the paperwork (dreading it...) and the camping gear (which counts as sentimental).

I love folding clothes now...

Heh I'm worried those empty boxes were good insulation though! Up there now is Christmas decorations, posh crockery and cutlery (only used for special occasions), suitcases... That kind of stuff.

I must say having a tidy kitchen is a big help, I've instigated a new rule that the dining table and kitchen must be cleared after every meal as with a 3.5 yo and a 10mo things get so messy. Usually dp ends up depending an hour trying to get all the cooking pots and days pots into the dishwasher and the table cleared every night after he has battled got ds to sleep. Tonight I got the table cleared, stuff in the dishwasher and everything wiped down in 10 mins whilst the DC put their toys away. I know normal people do this naturally but to me its a total revelation and so much more relaxing to know that its all done and I can get on with kondoing

Speaking of toys, thank you to whoever posted about toy rotation, DS is much more engaged and into playing instead of watching beebies all day now that we have the bottom 6 or 7 cubby holes in the expedit unit with a few carefully selected toys instead of a basket in each rammed with plastic crap. And it looks nicer to boot .

Good luck with the house move knapp and well done for tackling the loft pretty

Pstt... Have you heard Marie Mondo is pregnant? Shall we invite her to join Mumsnet?

Kondo obviously..

Yes! Yes! Yes! Steep learning curve ahead for Ms Kondo!

whatsonyourplate Where did you hear the news?

This article here: www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/shopping-at-anthropologie-with-marie-kondo
Where it says 'cherish your size now'.

I predict a sequel! I will be very disappointed if her system falls apart with the new arrival though.

I've done the bathroom. I had three bottles of dry shampoo and I hate the stuff. They're gone. I work for a big pharmaceutical/beauty shop and having discount has made me a hoarder of cosmetics! So i've discarded what I didn't want and using up before I buy any more. I'm the one who tends to have to put things on the clearance stand in the shop though and that's going to be hard to not go for the bargains!

I've also gone through the bit of stuff that came out of the loft. Coca Cola glasses that came free with McDonalds meals! Little pots from desserts! All gone! Husband has taken the car this morning which was full of cardboard and he's recycling that.

What I am keeping is my milk bottle tray from when I had milk delivered. Not for milk now, but wine!

It feels so good to clear this clutter. The idea which she writes near the end of the book that we hold on to things because of an attachment to the past or fear of the future was such an eyeopener!

Oooh! I shall be much excited to follow the news of the Kondo baby.

However, surely it will be brought up with the method and hence be annoyingly perfect just like those babies on the Montessori blogs in the US, with charming pictures full of neutral-shaded expensive hand crafted baby clothes, wooden, organic play materials shelved and rotated on a strict weekly basis, etc.

Although I suppose there is not a baby on earth who does not experience joy from pulling every single item of clothing out of a drawer.

Oo kondo baby
Definitely a steep learning curve no matter how prepared you think you are!

She might be lucky and have a fairly sedate child who doesn't cause mayhem. My first was. Then my second was a whirlwind of chaos who loved emptying drawers. She's better than she was...But I've learnt not to bother tidying up until the day the cleaner is actually coming!

Will see if I can chuck any toys without dd noticing tomorrow...

at the gleeful responses to MK baby news. We do seem to have complex feelings towards our guru: 65% hero, 25% nut job, 10% smug fucker?

prettymess - which do you like more: your everyday cutlery or your posh cutlery? Pick one and ditch the other. It doesn't wear out, it doesn't break (unless somebody uses it to poke things into the blender, or to open paint tins!!!), so why shouldn't you maximise the joy all year round. I discovered that I preferred my everyday cutlery, but there wasn't enough for a family christmas... So I bought a second set of the same, and gave away the posh stuff to a friend. And actually, I think the same of the posh dinner service: if you love it, use it every day; if you don't, eBay it. You're more likely to break it getting it in and out of the loft than in daily use (remember the Friends episode with the wedding china?)

We have loads of those cola glasses too. They irritate me. I've put kondoing temporarily on hold as husband has taken it to the extreme and had his appendix out ha ha. I wanted him to get the last case of clothes out the loft for me. Should I start on books and come back to clothes later?

Yes I think so. Or get them out yourself? It can't be that hard :-)

We've had all of our McDonald's coke glasses break recently while washing up, so be careful if anyone is keeping them.

I loved the Coca-Cola glasses. I only had 2 and, sadly, both went through natural wastage.

Just Kondoed the 2-hour Election Special on Woman's Hour!

Iqueen - me too (wrt Election Special) but then I do have work to do
which is why I'm on Mumsnet

educatingarti

I listen to Radio 4 from when I get up, until bedtime. It doesn't interfere with anything I'm doing, but today I couldn't stomach all that political manipulation.

I listen a lot too - but I agree, all that spin just winds me up! see what I did there oh and I can't stand The Archers, which proabably makes me a R4 heretic but I don't care!