Kondo thread 10

[SnozzberryMincePie]

Just noticed the old thread was full, so hope no one minds me starting the new one

[NotCitrus]

Bright How many 'special' clothes would be sensible? Or to put it another way, when might you wear them? If you have space to hang 6 lovely dresses at the back of a wardrobe, probably doesn't matter if you only wear them once every year or two. But if you did have a wedding to attend next week, which would you wear? Would any not make it because you'd always prefer others? And do try them on and check they still fit!

Maybe actually you might want to just dress up more often for no real reason?

I find I feel grumpy when I try selling stuff and it doesn't work and people don't turn up or I don't get what they are 'worth', so actually giving away tends to make me feel better. Though Freecyclers who don't turn up and charities who won't take any mildly-damaged items make that quite difficult. I need to organise a tip run for a sofa as after 3 months no-one else will take the bloody thing (fake leather has cracks).

Right, back to Kondo-style spring cleaning! [I may have fallen by the wayside but all the categories I got sorted have stayed sorted and many of the rest are just about under control, in between building works.]

[Mytribeof3]

I'm enjoying clearing out in general. Sent several bags to the charity shop in recent weeks. I still have too many clothes though, and my main difficulty is getting rid of them if there's nothing particularly wrong with them. Especially if they're hardly worn. I think I need help with the guilt of only having worn some things a handful of times?

[BrightNewLife]

Thanks @citrus, good advice!

@mytribeof3 I also have fairly nice clothes that I don't wear for some reason. For those I find MK's quote useful about having things in your life for the life you want to lead rather than your old life. I am finding this helps.

I have also been giving good stuff to friends or people who will love it more than you do. Finally I have a small pile of things to sell at a dress agency and make a bit of cash, if you have one of those near you.

[randomsabreuse]

Clothes wise - after the initial cull I've ditched anything I put back if I randomly grabbed a general purpose top to wear. Obviously if I've only got the purple jeans clean and dry (thanks DD) I have to make a specific selection but for a general blue or black jeans day (SAHM) any of my every day tops should be acceptable and if it's not it's not an everyday top. Starting to struggle with long holidays now but I just used to pack things I don't like and come back with them unworn anyway...

Nearly there on paperwork. I have to let go of some books for a professional qualification I never did in a field I have no intention of working it. They spark the opposite of joy so need to go. I didn't even pay for them - my then employer did but I've kept them 10 years ffs!

[purplegreen99]

I'm in the process of Konmari-ing my house, long overdue. I finished clothes yesterday and got rid of 15 sacks for charity, recycling & rubbish. I'm leaving books for now as I did a big purge and reorganisation of those quite recently.

So now onto papers and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and don't know where to start. I've just googled or ideas on how to tackle this and most of the Kondo blogs i found seemed to be by people who I'd consider mega tidy and organised already, so they are just going through their organised folders of bank statements and taking out piles for shredding.

I have papers mixed up and all over the house in piles, folders, bags and boxes. There's no way I could gather everything together in one place to tackle it because I don't have anywhere that would fit it all, and we can't live in a sea of papers while I tidy them.

If I sorted by subcategories I'd have to sort through all the piles first to sort them into financial, medical, recipes, etc, so might as well be throwing away as I do that, but on the other hand I don't want to fall back into sorting room by room rather than by category.

So I am looking for a bit of inspiration please from anyone who has managed to Kondo a large amount of papers & especially any ideas for how you broke it down into manageable chunks.

[randomsabreuse]

Paperwork is pretty disastrous here.

To make it remotely manageable I started with a box at a time splitting between one category, others to consider and bin. I started with banking stuff (receipts, bank statements and the crap banks send you) so I'd go through my random box and put banking in one spare box, other papers in another, other random junk without an obvious home in a 3rd and shred/recycle the rest. If you have more space/spare boxes you can further categorise the others as you go but I found that one big category was enough for the first pass and sorting into boxes meant that when stuff came up that got in the way it wasn't too horrific so everything just got dumped at random.

For my credentials I'd say I have just started shredding my bank statements from 1997 and had a filing cabinet full of crap plus a loft full of random boxes of stuff.

I haven't finished but it's getting there. I do prefer a filing cabinet to the full on Kondo Marie box of things because we both keep 7 years' bank statements...

[purplegreen99]

Thanks randoms I'm going to try that approach. I've been sorting papers in my bedroom this morning and quite pleased with myself for ignoring all the komono stuff and just focusing on the papers, but it is such a HUGE task.

[purplegreen99]

It's going better than I expected. I've just spent an hour going through all the paper I could see left out in my bedroom and kitchen and picking out anything that can be recycled or shredded, then I've put the rest in magazine boxes for further sorting. I've got rid of 2 sacks of recycling and have a stack about 10cm thick for shredding. I'm starting to think there really might be an end to the sea of paper in my house.

[randomsabreuse]

Nice one! My shredding pile was about 4 feet high. Plodding through it as my shredder goes on strike due to heat exhaustion after about 10 minutes. Unless some of the paper is somewhere really bizarre it will all be comfortably contained in 1 4 drawer filing cabinet for the entire family and it should be easy to ditch the previous year's statements as appropriate. I am hoping the prevalence of online statements will allow me get down to a 2 drawer cabinet in the not too distant future (DH also has hoarding tendencies...)

[hmmwhatatodo]

I don't know whats wrong with me. I hate clutter and mess. I like living in places that are free of 'stuff'. I love watching all the cleaning programmes on offer. I hate floors that aren't hoovered. Last summer I started on a mass chuck out mission before I really knew anything about KonMari. I'm very god at getting rid of things and do not like to hoard. I came upon Konmari and thought it was just what I had been looking for. However, despite getting through the first book (and it was a bit of a struggle, which surprised me, as I assumed I would be glued to it and finish it in two days max) I only really managed to sort out my clothes and books then I couldn't seem to do much more. I bought the next book a few weeks ago but cant seem to get past the first few pages. Not sure what wrong with me. I love opening my wardrobe now and also seeing the empty space where all the books were piled up so I'm assuming its something psychological (or maybe I'm just feeling lazy?) Anyone else not finding the journey as joy sparking and quick as they had hoped?

[purplegreen99]

randoms I think you need to be saying a big thank you to that shredder .

hmmwhatatodo - I wonder if it's because you already throw a lot of stuff away, so there's not enough clutter to give you the big motivation for continuing? My house is such a mess that it spurs me on just seeing all the junk. Re the second book, I am just reading that and finding it a bit dull tbh. I loved the first one and it really motivated me, but Spark Joy seems quite repetitive and there is a lot more of what I thought of as the weird stuff from book 1 about talking to your possessions and respecting their feelings and opinions.

[NotCitrus]

When I sorted out MrNC's paperwork when we moved to this house (that's 7 years after first moving in together), every time we found another secret stash of it, we decided where each bit needed to go - necessary financial - into filing cabinet. Sentimental - into box labelled sentimental. Other necessary stuff - also filing cabinet, or box next to it. Rest - bin. He's severely dyslexic so when living alone had never thrown out paper in case it was important...

Having somewhere where stuff of a category goes when you find it means it will migrate there over a few months, whereas searching across the house doesn't work for small things for me. My house is still a cluttered mess but important things I can find, in their homes I've made for them (batteries, light bulbs, pens, etc).

Time to chuck more kids' artwork and writing while they're at school!

[hmmwhatatodo]

Purple you may well be right actually. I don't really have much clutter lying around and I live in a fairly small space so don't have huge amount of stuff either. I wonder if it's partly knowing that I I will never achieve an end vision as all the kinds of things I would like to have are too expensive and also, living in rented accommodation means I am severely limited in what I can and can't do to have it 'just so' . I think I am possibly a bit of a perfectionist in some ways so maybe that is stopping me go further. I agree that so far the green book is a bit mundane.

It's an interesting process!

[Wildernesstips]

I started this about three weeks ago. Have done most of my clothes and am ridiculously pleased with the fact that they are all in Kondo folded style even now. I think it is easier doing all one category than one location.

Have been reading through the original threads for inspiration.

[Cornwall73]

I have given my pantry the kondo treatment. I am so be with my pantry, my pantry is one with me oooommmmmm

[Cornwall73]

Also done the kitchen drawers, I binned loads of stuff but they are not worthy of a pic! Looking forward to doing the kitchen cupboards next.

I agree that it is very easy to do it by catergory. I have ditched so much when I see it all together and realise what I actually like and want to keep.

I need to get my paperwork done but it's been hard cause most of it is in the spare room in boxes and a cupboard we cannot close and we have had lots of visitors so no access to the room. That's going to be a long and difficult one. My poor shredder won't cope!

[Wildernesstips]

Done my toiletries and medicines this evening. Always buying ibuprofen and paracetamol but that's because they were in about five different places! Not too many out of date meds and surprisingly not too much overstock on toiletries.

I'm beginning to see empty shelves!

Your pantry looks awesome Cornwall!

[isthistoonosy]

Is there any point trying this if your OH isn't on board with it?
He is quite the hoarder (although much improved), and we are not really struggling for space as such. But the constant mess of papers, books, toys, clothes etc is driving me up the wall and getting me down.

Second bit is how do you tackle the stuff that's already in storage - so the attic, garage etc? We have loads of stuff as we have inherited several old barns (8 maybe?) and 3 very old wooden houses (we are not able to renovate, so are really just keeping them standing for now), and other family seem to keep putting stuff into them. We are also planning to house swap with MIL soon ish and will also need to sort through her / old family stuff, I suppose.
There ís enough crockery to host a party for at least 200, at least 10 beds and paperwork going back to the 1800's - I shit you not :-)

[isthistoonosy]

Oh Obvs I'm not in the Uk, and live rurally in the middle of nowhere not super rich

[purplegreen99]

isthistoonosy my OH has barely noticed I'm doing KM and when I've mentioned it he just makes a joke about it. I'm ploughing on regardless because it is improving my life and KM says something along the lines of do your own stuff and your OH will get on board eventually. I also think that once I've done my stuff (& the communal stuff) I might surreptitiously start on his.

Re the other stuff, I only have a loft and shed, so don't have quite so much to sort as you! I suppose it depends on how close your other buildings are to your house and whether it's practical to do it as a complete project or take one building at a time. If they are outbuildings I suppose you should try and work by category e.g. every bit of crockery should be really be sorted together even if you have enough for 200 people.

[ZeldaWasMyGransName]

I was convinced my OH would never join in KM, about three months after my clothes had been consistently done he said "can you show me how to fold my stuff?" I was very surprised but it has stuck!

[Kokusai]

Hi

I've read Spark Joy and have moved house and am keen to start from a new lean tidy base. Had a few life stresses (and haven't finished getting furniture) which set me back a bit bur making progress.

Have done bathroom stuff and kitchen and books. Books were easy with having a kindle.

Still haven't done clothes so my clothes are still in their moving bags!

Paperwork to be done after clothes.

[AttillaThePun]

(Attempts to revive thread)
Anyone have any advice for the post-Kondo stage? I’ve sorted (almost) everything now and it’s...fine, good even, but every time I try to add joyful decorations to my spaces it just looks a bit...naff, really, and I don’t like it after a month or so.

Maybe I should get some plants or something...

[Rainallday]

Kondo has made me buy less and think about whether I really love something when I'm in the shop now. If I stand there looking at it and can picture myself decluttering it in a few months I force myself to walk away! I'm more likely to spend more on something really lovely that I definitely want.

[Gammeldragz]

Any chance of resurrecting the magic of Kondo for the new year? I've just done all my clothes, got rid of two bags for charity shop and one of rags/rubbish.