KONDO Thread 9

[Iqueen]

Kondo your Home and your Life. Live the JOY!

Just marking my place lurking on the current thread - I've pretty much stalled completely the last few months although am getting odd bits cleared (went through school uniform that has been grown out of over the weekend and got it out of the house and took a couple of carrier bags of childrens shoes to the recycling bank). I have some time when dcs are at a summer activity camp a few hours a day the week after next to make some more progress...

I have a question: can Kondo really help someone like me?

A few days ago I got started on a huge de-cluttering exercise, having spent several weeks psyching myself up for it.

I have piles of 'stuff' all over the house - every available surface (virtually) and in some places restricted to 'bowls of despair' on surfaces - despair because I don't know what to do with the items filling them - while in some places there is an array of bowls all lined up...

So DH is encouraging me to tackle each pile (he has numbered them!) and some days I find the clearing satisfying and other days anxiety-inducing but can I ever actually enjoy this process?

Tempted to just RTFB (read 100s of reviews - seemed a bit Marmite) to find out if it's for me, but is there anyone who can relate to what I've said above and genuinely found this approach life-changing?

I'm definitely one with piles of stuff. I went through one just this morning. The house is so much better but I haven't got to sentimental yet.

Deafening - categorisation does seem to work better for lots of us than 'sorting spaces' - because once you get lots of similar things together, however small the category, it becomes clearer where you have too many.

Though then you find eg the drawer for pencils, pens, paperclips and similar stationery items is too small after you've spent months going round the house finding more, but at least I'm now sure I can find one when I need one!

Hello everyone - mind if I join?

I've been trying to make my way through all the previous threads but they seem to be filling up faster than I can read them!!

I'm loving the idea of kondoing - I'm travelling at the moment but have already started getting rid of some items mentally and I'm itching to start.

I have a couple of questions though that I hope someone has experience of;

We have the ikea hennes drawers in the bedroom - they are really deep so how do I maximise the space through folding? I can imagine that the clothes will only take up half the height when folded, rather than stacked.

Second question - related to the above point - I have a lot of running / hiking tops (which I love, so will stay) that are in quite a slippery material. How do you get them to stay folded, and how to do so when trying to fold to the depth of your drawers?

Thanks for any help!!

Hello! I'm back after joining you all then immediately stepping away from online chatter. I'm redoing clothes again as I kept too many just in case or because it seemed practical to have them. Focusing more on what I love!
Fret - you may want to try folding your slippy excercise items into a smaller box (shoebox maybe) to keep them propped and contained.

Deafening, I'd recommend reading the book first.

I have just got rid of tons of children's books to my mother. Not sure how thrilled she will be.

I am definitely getting more compliments since I Kondoed my clothes. Not because of my innate beauty but because I am actually Wearing my clothes, instead of living in jeans. Ridiculous that I have all these lovely things taking up space. It's like using my best China everyday. (I don't have best china)

Nectarine, I am refining the clothes.

I did it in May but I kept a few summer dresses on probation just in case.

Just in case what I'm not sure. Hot weather?
Then we had that scorcher on 1 July. Didn't wear them. Got rid.

I have some oversize silk shirts with buttons missing. God knows why.
Tell me that they have to go. I don't think I have worn them for 3 years.
They represent the final desperate pocket of resistance to the kondo liberation.

:)

Thanks. If using a shoe box to store / stop folded tops from slipping down, is it very anti kondo to stack these in twos of you have very deep drawers?

Hi all! On holiday so really just marking my place, but I am soo tempted to give my MIL the book as I'm no longer comfortable with piles of stuff.

fretfree I suspect it's fine to stack your shoeboxes I hope so anyway because DD's craft stuff is in boxes stacked on top of one another

fishbones you have to sew the buttons on by Monday. if they're not on by then, what joy is there in owning these silk shirts?

Funambulist at there being an Ernest in my wardrobe! maybe he is a renegade fawn who has absconded from Narnia?!?! sadly, it was a spelling mistake

I have Kondo'd one of my drawers which is now a thing of beauty, and half empty. Yippee!

How successful have you been in getting the others in your house to declutter? Any tips?

My eldest DD and I have Kondo'd all our stuff (12 Ocado bags full for charity and 3 binbags full for the bin and 4 recycle box fulls of paper!) but are having problems convincing my other 2 older teens and young teen son and DP to follow suit. They are refusing to even look through the old games consoles and hoards of associated games that bung up the cupboards in the living room that haven't been played for years or sort toys from their childhood still in their bedrooms ("they are sentimental, not causing any problem etc"). Ma y DP is the worst - piles of books on the floor and piles of papers all along the hearth etc , even the kitchen table - he just colonises everywhere these days and it drives me mad. The through lounge never looks clean - but like a students pad.

I have itchy fingers to just go ahead (at least with shared games etc) but they do sometimes play with the odd game again, usually at Christmas or a birthday when old pokemon games, guitar hero or mario might get an outing and then I'd be a villain. I also know it goes against Kondo's advice to Kondo others things but I feel our lives and house would really benefit from a fresh start.

misty what about giving them a deadline otherwise you will bin them?

I have got rid of a lot of books, toys and shoes to charity shop. Have another pile for tip/recycling centre.

Going to re-do clothes and then towels, bed linen, etc. I haven't been following the "correct" order but just fling things as I come across them.

Cycle, but those xl shirts are handy for summer pregnancies...

Best get your sewing stuff out then!

I have finished clothes - hurray!

I have done all my clothes plus school uniform, old baby clothes in the loft and hats, gloves and scarves for the whole family (with their input). DD caught a bit of the Kondo bug and cleared out a couple of her clothes drawers. No effect on the male members of the family!

Next on the Konmari list is books.

I knew that this would be a tricky category for me as I have loads to the extent that they are double shelved on all the bookshelves and piled in heaps in several rooms.

I can't get them all together in one room so have just been taking them off the shelves one shelf at a time, cleaning the shelf, sorting the books by type and then putting the fiction that I'm keeping alphabetically. So far I'm discarding about half, which my husband is amazed at. Putting the fiction back on the shelves alphabetically is working well as I can see straight away where I have two copies of the same book. I often get books as presents so there were quite a few of these and it's easy to discard one copy.

My difficulty is that of course all my husband's books are on the shelves too (the children's books are mostly in their bedrooms) so I need to pull those off at the same time. We do read each other's books but it's usually clear which ones belong to who. He has a lot of history and football books, which I think probably need to shelved together so that he can find what he's looking for easily. What I'm finding tricky is that I'm discarding lots of books that I like but which I would read only once e.g. chick lit type books and crime novels. Whereas presented with a pile of his John Grishams or Tom Clancys my husband is just saying "Yeah, keep those." I itch to Kondo the books of his that are not bringing me joy, which I know isn't really fair.

Fiction is proving so time consuming to Kondo that all the non fiction is now in piles on the floor along with the discards and I haven't quite finished one room. I'm definitely at that looking worse stage and I think getting the discarded books out of the house will be trickier than clothes.

I regretted getting rid of books I liked that I had already read. plus I think books look great! you could buy a new book shelf for them so that they are looked after..

not very kondo of me but it's the only thing I regret 6months on!

Hi Chumbler I do agree with you that books look great. I find it slightly odd when I go to people's houses and they have few or no books.

Mine didn't look that good though as they were all double shelved, so I couldn't see the ones stacked behind the front row. Might explain why I had three copies of one book!

I think I'll be getting rid of about 50%, which will probably leave me with just under 1,000. Konmari would probably be horrified!

I am hoping for single rows on my shelves and no stacks on the floor, but I've still got all the non fiction to go so I am wondering about replacing one of the free standing bookshelves with shelving that fills the alcove where it sits.

morning all, can I join you all?
I have read the old threads, and just bought the book (kindle version !) and am just over half way through. I have also made a start with some stuff.
There are 8 of us in this house - me, dh, ds1(17), dd1(15), dd2(13), dd3(11), dd4(9) and ds2(7)
so as you can imagine there is a LOT of Stuff!
So far I have done most of my clothes(need to get ones down form loft today) and most of dd3 and 4 and ds2 clothes (need to check loft for any lurking and do large basket of washing!)
I have also done my books and dd3 and 4 and ds 2 books.
I will be leaving dd 1 and 2 and ds1 to their own devices, although will "encourage" them all to have a bit of a clear out!
I actually love discarding stuff, so far I have got rid of about 10 black bags of stuff between charity shops, recycling and rubbish. The only problem I have run into so far is that I didn't really love ANY of my clothes!! I have got rid of as many as possible and have very few left! but tbh there are still more that could go as I don't really love all that I have left, but I will have to wait till I can afford to replace before binning the rest!
I have cheated a little bit and also done kimono in my bedroom so that I could clear some drawers to fold my tops into , will try and stick mostly to the categories and the order, but with so much in the house may have to adjust a bit.

I have just read the bit in the book about when she gets in form work and she is emptying her handbag and putting her stuff away and thanking it all for how hard it has worked!! Quite a far cry from when I stumble through the door with the three youngest kids and Im yelling "for heaven's sake hang your coat ON THE PEG" or "you need to bring you lunch box OUT OF THE CAR" I am hopeful by September the dc will trot merrily into the house, hang up their coats whilst thanking them for keeping them dry and return their lunchboxes to the kitchen, empty them and wipe them out whilst telling them to have a good rest before tomorrow. What do you reckon ....I can see it now ...I am going to be living in domestic bliss aren't I?????!!!!!

That's brilliant bobbly

I have got rid of loads of books that I miss. Not thru kondoing

Cycle, buttons?
Last pregnancy was 18 yrs and 5 house moves ago

I had a dream last night that I found loads of empty shoeboxes, and was really pleased . In rl have run out of shoe boxes, and I've only done my stuff. I still have coats and bags to go of my stuff. I have Hemnes drawers, and found that once I got rid of stuff and folded, I didn't need to double stack. I do have my clothes organised on a seasonable (ha!) basis, with heavy jumpers and winter dresses in boxes under my bed (sorted and folded correctly though).

Welcome to all the newbies! (Lurkers welcome too!)

To anyone in doubt, the category method (together with 'does this spark JOY?') really works, because it makes us focus clearly on one item, in one category (or sub-category) at a time, rather than random items scattered around a room.

This intent focus eventually spreads to all areas of our lives (the woo factor!) and changes us.

For the Time-starved, categories and sub-categories can be broken down into bite-size subs, or even nibbles!

This hones and speeds our decision making, and concentrates our attention. 'Space de-cluttering' doesn't work because we are constantly being distracted by other surrounding crap stuff.

Books: My CS can only take a couple of BFLs at a time, so I'm still nibbling at my library, which is mainly non-fiction. I'm going through these and scanning the bits I may want later, then donating/selling them, except the ones that I need all the info in. Most info is available on the Internet anyway, especially cookbooks.

Clothes keep nagging at me, but I have noticed that I have changed a lot - I'm not the same person who started out on this journey, and I'm still changing! No wonder my wardrobe doesn't reflect the joyful me - I'm not there yet! The final review will come after the sentimental category.

My house looks like a Hoarders' Paradise - still. It will be clear and minimal - eventually! I'm still trying to work out when, and why, I stopped the weeding that I did automatically in the past!

Today, my large 'maybe' clothes pile is sitting on my bed, sorted into tops, bottom, sweaters and tees, ready for the cuddling and and 'do you spark joy?' treatment, along with a bit of colour co-ordination. Sadly, the 2 Barbie-pink tees will probably go, as they suggest heart failure, close to my face!

Have a good day, Konverts!

OK, back again. Have a small break before more kondoing!
have now finished the book - she is a bit mad isn't she? Anyway, sticking with it.
Have been in loft, found 2 bags full of my clothes which have been kondoed and a lurking bag of stuff for dd 3 and 4 wich has been sorted and kondoed.
I am loving the fact there are now no huge bags on top of my wardrobe, room looks much lighter!
Have also done my papers, which wasn't too bad because I hate having paper around so tend to scan most documents straight away and rcyle paper. I am keeping pay slips though as I may need them for tax purposes.
have started now on kitchen stuff, food first....found 4 half full bottles of tomato ketchup! Have kondoed so well that the set of shelves is now empty so can go which means there will be room to move freezer from garage to kitchen.yay
unfortunately on glancing in garage I realised how much stuff was in there, no clothes or books though so will tackle in relevant categories....
dh and dc areally going away for a few days on Tuesday. I am working but am hoping to use the evenings to get some serious kondoing done. Mind you I am also planning on painting the little ones bedroom...l

Goodness Bobblypop you're doing well.

I'm getting there with my fiction shelving. I have several tall wobbly piles of discarded books, almost the same number of non-fiction books stacked against another wall and my fiction is now mostly on my shelves. I hope that the shelf space in the front room will be enough for all the non-fiction. I am beginning to flag and was up late last night sorting books so I might well take a break till tomorrow.

I have to say that my, now alphabetically sorted and neatly shelved fiction is bringing me deep joy. It is SO easy to find things. I've discovered several old friends of books that I thought I'd lost.

Having seen how nice it is to have properly ordered books with all (well all if I ignore my husband's airport thrillers) dross pruned from the shelves, I am motivated to sort out the non-fiction as well.

Clothes took me at about 10 days so I expect books will take at least that long.