KONDO Thread 9

[Iqueen]

Kondo your Home and your Life. Live the JOY!

hello all been meaning to do this since I saw thread number 1 but put it off!

We moved back to the Uk from overseas last summer so had a major sort out then but of course still have lots of (too much) stuff to sort and keep tidy. I am a tidy person by nature and if I lived on my own would have been living a sort of Kondo'd life naturally but pack rat DH and 2 DCs mean things are messier than I would like them to be and clutter makes me anxious

Clothes done, did not take long as still don't have much for this climate and decided I am not going back to work in an office so all work clothes gone - pouf! that was remarkably easy

Felt very calm and zen like after folding underwear etc, hope I can keep it up when putting laundry away.

A few points on the book though:

• did anyone else feel sorry for MK? She seemed a bit melancholy and lonely although she says she is happy, it left me feeling a bit sad.
• there's is no way in hell I shall be unpacking my bag every night, recipe for that moment at the till and you realize you don't have your money on you

Snozzberry - after clothes it is books, then DVDs/CDs

Thanks grey thank fuck I don't have to do paperwork yet

Lex I think MK is a funny one, the bits about her childhood obsession about tidying make me think she must have been a very strange child! I think her book is very focused on young single people, this thread is great for working out how to adapt it to life with a family.

Speaking of which, I think that toy rotation fits in well with the kondo method. We've been doing it for a year and it has worked really well. Unfortunately it has gone to pieces after the xmas/birthday double whammy and dds room has reverted to an explosion in a toy factory.

playfullearning.net/2013/09/childs-play-the-art-of-toy-rotation/

I kondoed some biscuits and the tin I now home to my sewing stuff in the airing cupboard, next to the iron. They were good biscuits!

lexloofah, exactly, emptying your handbag, and taking your keys and your wallet OUT of your bag every evening is a recipe for disaster.

Keeping all the important stuff in your bag is a good system!!

Quick question. I see that there is now a second Kondo book out. Has anyone got it? I don't have either yet. Is it worth buying one over the other or both?

Sometimes a second book is like an expanded, updated version of the first so both are not needed. Or is a follow on where it's best to get the first one first and then the second one IYSWIM?

Barbara I can't speak for myself as I haven't read either the second book, however, I have read the reviews of both and the general feeling is that the first is great, the second not so much. It doesn't seem to be an updated version, more a focus on the joy aspect of Kondoing.

I could be wrong, but that is what I have read.

I have just Kondo'd my inbox and unsubscribed from loads of emails that I never read, that was the easy part, now on to the paperwork!

By the way for cables does anyone have any genius solutions? I am fine with the ones we keep and hardly ever use but what about charging cables we use all the time that are currently kept in a kitchen cupboard so at least they are out of sight when not in use but still need to 'rest' or whatever and not be all tangled and messy and make me want to throw the lot against the wall when I am pulling one out

I read (on here I think) of a suggestion to put each charger/cable in a clear plastic sandwich bag and label it. Then the wires can't breed with each other and spawn new cables which don't match anything else in the house. That may not have been the actual reason, but is an added bonus

Morning all. I just redid my bags and hat/scarf/gloves drawer, got rid of more than I thought. It's amazing how the clutter creeps back in!

I'm not emptying my handbag every day, in fact I keep a few things in all of the bags I regularly use (tissues, lip balm, shopping bags etc) so I only need to add my wallet keys and phone when I use a different one. Dp and I use different change bags and they both have nappies, wipes etc in them

I like the cables idea but I think dp would rebel

Question for those of you with young dc: are you doing their stuff as a separate category or do you do their clothes with your clothes, and so on?

Snozz I did DSs clothes after I did mine - the folding gets quite addictive and it is sooooo satisfying to see his clothes all neat and lovely.

I carried on with my books today - went through my cookbooks and weeded out 50% of them, plus all the 'ripped out of magazine' type recipes. They all look lovely now.

Text books are going to be difficult though. They don't necessarily bring me joy but they are necessary for my future studies. What to do?

Righto, I am reading the book!

Hello all

I'm kind of lurking now. Still haven't regained my mojo yet

I am very much enjoying reading your journeys, especially the many newcomers (must be that time of year!)

Grey do the text books inspire you and remind you of your goal to study in the future? Does it bring you joy to know that you won't have to buy them again in future? If so then I would keep them.

On the other hand are they books which will date and which you will need the most recent edition of for your studies? If so then ditch them.

Well done to everyone who has managed to get items out of the house! Very encouraging.
I took some bags of clothes to a charity shop today - not much compared to the mounds of clutter left - but I'm trying to focus on "something is better than nothing".

Thanks my will try the cable baggies perhaps with a hole left for the business end to stick out so it can be used but stay in the labelled bag

I wondered the same thing about DCs clothes as they dress themselves so drawers do get rummAged around in and unlikely to remain perfect, for that matter DH's drawers would be the same so I have just done mine for now as would not bring me joy to see my work ruined within a day or so, However I did enjoy picking my underwear this morning, very satisfying

I had a massive pile of books I needed to get rid of, si I took them to the charity shop yesterday. It wasn't worth trying to sell them, the app was offering me something like £3 for about a third of them. So they all went!

All my son's bags (all 7 of them) are in the little cloth skip. It's great having it there. will kondo kitchen on saturday. i will categorise things. Baking things.

At the moment I have jillian michaels dvds in the same cupboard as cake bakinng stuff so Ican see it is a bit in need of clearer categorisation!

Any tips for kondo-ing the kitchen. I need to think about how I'm going to order things. cups. Plates. the obvious I can do. any tips?

Mississippi- the best things I've done in my kitchen are:

• putting all spices and herbs in a plastic tub as my spice cupboard is a wall one. Now I just get the tub out, choose the ones I want and put it back in! Tidier, easier to find what I want, protects shelf from turmeric spills! I've done the same with oils and vinegars.
• I now store my plastic food storage tubs with the lid on. It might not be the best use of space but it saves a LOT of time and frustration scrabbling around looking for matching lids and tubs!

Ps I also kondoed all the out of date/duplicate spices and all the lidless tubs/tubless lids! Though I did keep them for a bit in case I found a use for them- the plastic tubs with spices and oils are poor old lidless lunch boxes (think the kids must have fallen down the back of the cupboard)

Lids! Not kids!

My book has arrived, now I need to find time to read it.
I see a few posters have mentioned 'cloth skips', I tried to Google it but I'm none the wiser!?

Thanks zippy, I will put spices and herbs in an old washing detergent capsule plastic tub. I might put all the baking things (flour, sugar,vanilla etc) in an old bread bin and buy a new bread bin that brings me joy :-p

I keep all my baking items in a large plastic transparent box, originally out of necessity but it works well for containing flour, sugar etc which always leak from bags, and keeping the zillions of bits for decorating cakes together, so I think I will do similar even when I have a cupboard. We are doing well with building the kitchen, and have now Kondoed the lodger who has a job far away, so lots of furniture is going on Gumtree this morning.