KONDO Thread 9

[Iqueen]

Kondo your Home and your Life. Live the JOY!

No, that does make sense Grey, the moment of receiving a thoughtful gift stays with you even when the gift has long gone. This is why I like KonMarie's way of looking at things.

If I do Kondo them though I shall have to think up a good excuse for why I don't have them any more when she visits and expects me to be gaily drinking out of them all day long .

Have any of you persuaded your other halves to read the book? DH has taken some leave and totally accepts we need to spend a day decluttering... I can't help feeling we'd be a lot more successful if he did. I'm a bit worried about the passages concerning the feelings of socks though...

ena stupid phone. I should kondo it.

longtall regarding socks, my dh was a nightmare for hoarding socks, he's got walking ones, cycling ones, work ones...etc. He's got 53 t shirts and I have no idea how many pairs of socks. I didn't get him toread the book, but told him about it, and did my own clothes first. I think once he'd seen how much easier I found putting things away etc, and howmuch I'd got rid of, he started doing it with no prompting. He threw away socks with holes.and no pairs, but that's it, as to him, joy is having nice clean socks left when we're spending three weeks away somewhere damp! (camping in Ireland usually!)
He also folded all his t shirts the kondo way, that was a while ago, I haven't checked to see if they're still like that...my drawers are!
It hasn't made him actually put his clean clothes mountain away, or put the dirty clothes in the basket though. She's not a miracle worker....

Him rethinking gifts would really help us - we have inlaw problems with regard to that. MIL's house is like a new pin but she's reacted very strangely to the times we've attempted to have a big declutter (before the arrival of both children). On both occasions we mentioned we were having a big sort out - and she turned up at our house with boxes and boxes of crap from her loft - stuff of DH's which had been there for 30 years. As a result the net result was that we made no progress. I've said this time we're not to tell her what we're doing - DH thinks I'm being silly because of course his mum wouldn't be sabotaging our efforts - but I'm going on experience. She also buys us large amounts of not very useful presents at Christmas. The way we've dealt with this is DH feels we should give them at least 2 years of house space to show appropriate gratitude before getting rid of them but I swear she forgets about them as soon as she's given them and there's really no reason to keep them that long. They're things like mulled wine glasses, not ornaments (thank goodness) - so they'd live in cupboards anyway

Longtall surely she's telling your DH to move his crap from her house first?

There's a section on unwanted gifts in the book. You appreciate the time and effort that someone took in choosing the gift and if you don't love it you pass it on to a charity shop or somewhere else. If you have stuff that is stored in your mil loft then it is up to dh to sort it.

Kondo win for the day: I sent
my old hoover on to its new home via Freecycle (still works but I need something more powerful for pet hair).

My bedroom is pretty much "done" to the casual observer now, in that any categories not yet kondo-d in there are hidden in drawers/wardrobe so there's no excess clutter on display and it looks neat and tidy. There's still things that tell "my story" as it were - my dog's bed, art on the wall and pieces from travels between books on the shelving, and souvenir/memories stuck around the mirror. But somehow I feel like some of the personality has gone with the piles of clutter - maybe I'm just so used to it being messy.

Ena no - quite the opposite! We asked that we could sort it out from hers at her convenience - she made non-commital noises, and then just turned up with it all. I asked her to stop as we were trying to prepare the house for a new baby - she turned up with boxes and boxes and a tinkly laugh. Then all went quiet for three years (we both assumed that was it) and then I got pregnant again and she did it again while we were trying to clear the 3rd bedroom (aka the room of crap) before DD2 arrived. It was done knowing full well that we didn't want it right at that moment. In fact there was one occasion they offered to drop DD home while I was at work - I got home to find the hall full of boxes (13 iirc). DH said he'd say something but didn't dare. Issues I tells you... I bloody hope that's it now but am trying to declutter in secret this time.

Bloody he'll longtall she sounds like a nightmare! We got given bags of old stuffed toys and clothes that were dhs when he was a baby, 41 years ago! None of it, unfortunately was suffering we would use, the toys dh was loathe to get rid of, I finally convinced him to just keep a couple of the nicest ones and I threw away the rest. mil will never know. I'm determined not to be that type of mum, I'm getting rid of things as ds grows out of them now, straight out of the house, no fuss. I'm getting a lot more joy from giving them to charity or passing on to friends than I would with them hanging about in the lift like dds stuff did.

The item I already have was a wedding gift that cost about ?500 and is unlikely to need replacing, this new item is cost about ?10.

The bright accessory is like a fancy dress item!

I sound really ungrateful but I honestly wish she would spend that money on something for herself, like a trip somewhere or a nice meal (not stuff, she has loads of that!)

Oh sorry Josie!

(Tinkly laughs are always a bit worrying aren't they!)

I've just had a reminder of the "sparking joy" feeling with clothes. I just about fit into my pre-baby jeans, and putting them on for the first time in many months I felt so ... me, they make me stand taller not just because they're still a bit tight at the waist, feel more confident, they're fab. I want my whole wardrobe to feel like that.

I've put a few things on ebay, and anything that doesn't sell is going straight to the charity shop. Very limited with how long I can kondo atm with 3 month old DS2 but have a big bag of "to go" that I chuck stuff into as and when.

Ladies, I have dismantled my wardrobe and will be replacing with drawers. THAT is how committed to the Kondo I am.

And since I have gained weight I have had to redo my drawers and have relegated old size clothes to the loft of doom for now.

And today I thought I'd do my scarves. Too many? They all bring me joy though.

Longtall Wow. I think I would be just a little bit annoyed!

I have a bag of educational and information books from DP's mum (it's because of her career why I think she has so many books!). Not to sound ungrateful at all, she means well, but they really are too old for my son! But I'm putting them in the attic as books are always worth keeping and for when my son gets to school next year.

I get given kids clothes from my sister sometimes and some are too big for my son (he's 3) somehow I end up with clothes aged 5 years! I did used to bag them up, put them in the wardrobe and wait for my son to grow - I mean before he was born, I got bags of boys clothes aged 3 years! Yep. But now I've decided, although it's resourceful, I can't keep clothes for years before they fit him, that's too much, ha!

I sorted out my son's clothes again today and got rid of some more, some bottoms that I'm sick of seeing that I find are the last resort if I can't find anymore for him. And a couple of tops that I'm sick of seeing!

I even went through mine and DP's socks and un-potatoed them all! They're not done the Kondo way but are folded in a much more "resting-thank-you-for-the-day" way. I wasn't going to even fold socks as I didn't think it would be easy to maintain at all... I'll see if DP comes along and screws it all up again in a hurry for work!

Sometimes I just feel like throwing everything out! I keep finding bits that I decide to get rid of as I really don't want them anymore and get added to the 'to go' pile of bags!

Good morning all. Got back a little bit on the kondo wagon yesterday. I've just had my hall decorated and have just moved my storage unit back into it. I decided to kondo candles and put them in the top section. I love a nice candle going but really didn't realise just how many I'd got! The usualcthing of having them stored all over! Didn't actually get rid of any as candles in general bring me joy but will certainly be set up for power cuts and they are now all in one place! Had 1 candle and 3 tea lights going last night!

I have some candes in my hall cupboard you can have..

Not the right idea I know!

I still haven't maDE A PROPER start. I started socks and stalled! Although I do now roll my own socks and I've found it speeds up getting dressed by at least a few milliseconds! I am now fiddling about the edges with a clearout of children's books.

I'm looking at it as being like stopping smoking- chances of success increase each time you try!

"candles" of course!

I'm failing at this
Have been posting on here for ages, still with limited progress/success.

Zippy- limited progress here too, although I did manage to kondo cleaning cloths and cleaning products over half term. I think the secret for me when I have managed to do something is to do tiny categories and to get absolutely everything of that category in one place.

I agree with small categories. I wrote my own list after reading the book and other people's lists online.

What do you think is getting in the way, Zippidy? Maybe we can help problem solve.

I did some kondo folding today. Although I've "done" clothing in the sorting/discarding sense, I haven't really organised my wardrobe/drawers perfectly. This afternoon I kondo-folded the drawer that has my work tops, exercise gear and pyjamas in, and also my boyfriend's drawer (he doesn't live here but has a drawer of tshirts, socks & boxers). I also neatened up my underwear drawer, which is beautifully kondo sorted, organised and folded and makes me happy each morning I choose underwear :)

Meant to add, I found some excellent cute little KonMari folding videos on YouTube by someone called Lavendaire, which helped me learn how to fold Properly! :)

Well we've been off visiting different sets of family the past week and a half so not at home to Kondo, but did go through with DH the boxes stored at MIL's. Couple of boxes worth went to charity, a couple of handfuls came back to the house to be used now, and the rest got neatened and organised more so specific categories (e.g. books for DS2 once he's older) can be found easily.

First time round, last year, I kondoed toiletries and was determined to use the 'spare' toiletries before buying new. Well we've finally got to the point where I'm going to need to buy shampoo! Now I don't know which one to buy - for so long I just bought on sale or grabbed the first off the shelf or Mom gave me extras that she'd bought. For me a part of this process is getting to know which products I like (discovered I love Method cleaning stuff) to unclutter the decision-making-when-I-shop part of my brain, so now I have to choose/trial shampoo, though I'll have to find a way to do that without buying lots of different ones and cluttering up the bathroom again.

ExAstris Could you try using any samples from magazines? Or perhaps buy the travel versions?

While travel versions are more expensive per 100ml or whatever, at least you will waste less if you really dislike one, and you won't clutter the bathroom while you find one you absolutely love, because you will only get a couple of washes before moving on to another.

I am stuck kondoing in the kitchen. I don't really feel any joy from the items in here, but I can't do a full kitchen refit and restock today, so I need to keep what I need until I can.

Thanks for the lovely messages!

Hmm, what's getting in m way....myself, most probably I just find it hard to do proper kondoing in amongst the normal daily stuff (3 school runs, laundry, tidying etc with three little children). Though saying that, I did manage yo streamline thd toys a bit which has made a difference!

I think I have it in my head that I MUST follow Marie kondo' order, so am hung up on clothing which isn't finished, and in my head I can't move on til I think it is. However I am starting slimming world this week and have at least 2 stone to lose so my clothes are in limbo!