Kondo thread 10

[SnozzberryMincePie]

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

[stiffstink]

I haven't been kondoing properly but I have collected a carrier bag of things that were hanging about that were headed for the door which include:

• A black and silver bedding set - so 1980s bachelor that I hated it the moment DH bought it. We've just bought a gorgeous set that goes with our newly decorated bedroom (its like a hotel)!
• A handbag that I snaffled from a bag my sister was donating to charity - MK would have slapped my hands if she'd caught me doing that.
• A pair of DS's gloves, the type that are mittens with a flap to make them gloves. The flap is too flappy and it drives DS crazy when his fingers poke out
• A necklace that someone gave me - its not my style and the giver irritates me too!
• An ugly bath mat. I still have a duplicate for when my lovely fluffy new one is in the wash.

[ayria]

My partner has way too many odd socks, the only matching ones he has are the ones I have bought him for Christmas! Drives me nuts the amount of socks he has so I went through them and threw out the ones with holes and ones that looked worn. I don't care. He has too many. Our undies and socks are now arranged neatly on the wardrobe shelves.

And I didn't hink I had that many lothes I was still a bit iffy about. Another bag full of things to go. Listed some more stuff on ebay today. And I have also sorted out theupboard of fish stuff under the fishtank as I got given some more baking trays etc. Now they aren't all clunking together shoved into one shelf!

Oh... yesterday I couldn't figure out where or how to hang my necklaces. Before they were hanging of a crook in my shelf, now they are all dangling from inside my wardrobe off what is meant to be a tie hanger I think... but I can see them now.

[ayria]

think clothes

[bibblebobblebubble]

I am new to this and just...... wow. I have a house full of clutter. I read the book over 2 days and yes it's bonkers but somehow it really works. My visualisation was very strongly about calm and peacefulness and our home being a haven for our family - which it is far from being at the moment.

Tonight I got home from work at 6.30, played with the kids. Whilst DH read bedtime stories, I started with step 1 - tops. Then after dinner, back upstairs and did wardrobe and underwear drawers. The lightbulb moment was losing the guilt about getting rid of things, and instead thinking about keeping and looking after the things I love. I must have a pile in my room now of at least 100 items of clothing for the charity shop as well as a bag full of rubbish and rather a lot of coat hangers :). I even rolled rather than balled my socks.

So one evening, in-between kids and dinner, I've cleared out probably 50% of my clothes and 10 years of accumulated stuff I no longer wear. Can't stop opening the wardrobe and drawers to look!

Have a few more clothes to get through tomorrow - 'practical' stuff like running and outdoor gear. And need to get a load of bin bags and actually take stuff to the charity shop.

Realise I am preaching to the converted here but again.... wow.

[GrubbyWindows]

Wow bibble that's fantastic!!!! Very inspired by your evening energy!!!!

[WutheringFrights]

Well done Bibble!

It's an amazing feeling isn't...and it appears also slightly addictive!

I have a question for Kondo-ers, paperwork - what do I really need to keep?

DH is self employed but I am not, he wants to keep 6 years of all bank accounts, but our joint account is purely household bills, surely I don't need to keep those.
Statements for our kids accounts?
I do online banking so everything is there too - I want to get shredding!

[WutheringFrights]

I spent this evening watching telly whilst going through a huge box (8 years worth) of greeting cards, ripping them in half, putting the picture half into a box for the kids art stuff and the other half into recycling.
8 bloody years worth of cards - we've moved 5 times and taken them with us every single time!

[stiffstink]

Lions I have a very strong sense of what I want my end point to look like. Like when MK explains about sitting drinking tea looking at her favourite picture. I want to be able to sit in the house or garden and watch my kids play and be 'ready' for visitors at any time so that we can enjoy being with our family & friends not panicking about tidying or cleaning.

For instance, I used to dash around closing doors and hiding things in cupboards if the ILs rang to ask if they could pop round. Now my last minute cleaning regime might be running a wet wipe over DS's face and putting the kettle on because the house is always tidy.

I'm going to have a bite of paperwork tomorrow.

[Alwaysmaking21]

Wuthering

It's amazing getting rid of those cards that our significant people sent us isn't it?

My DS is 11, eldest is 30 with some in between, have kept one - only one of his home made cards, all the rest have gone and I don't feel any negative emotions.

Even managed to get rid of Xmas card with grandchildrens footprints on without too much angst- can't start hoarding that layer of sentimentality after only recently culling my years old keeping my own childrens stuff. Didn't feel at all bad and didn't give it a second thought-

Until........ When just leaving the charity shop with the umpteenth box of books/ CDs and vinyl records, the lovely lady volunteer in there called to me waving triumphantly in her hand the said grandchildren footprints card she had recovered that had been interleaved in one of the books. Did I want this? She said- I looked thinking 'no I do not' but could feel her expectation and that of her colleague burning into me, So replied yes gratefully, then as I walked towards my car folded it over, tore it in half and stuffed it in the bin- felt ever so slightly strange about doing that, but really there was no other way.

Funny that....

I think I'm kondoing for the rest of my life....... I wonder if any of you fellow Kondoers has managed to get all of your clothes and personal items down to one double wardrobe and one chest of drawers yet? That is my present target....

[IsItMeOr]

Always not sure what you're including in personal items, but I have got all my clothes into a double wardrobe, half a chest of drawers and one under bed drawer.

I do keep coats and some shoes downstairs though.

[TheWitchsCat]

I'd like to join please :) I will admit I haven't read the book yet but I do have it, lent to me by a friend. I've just moved house and it all happened very quickly so while I'd planned to sort stuff before we moved we ended up lugging it all to the new house, so now I'm having to wade through boxes of STUFF to even get into one of the rooms (don't ask about the garage!).
I'm kind of doing a pre kondo sort at the moment, just so I can actually get my bearings. I chucked 9 (NINE) years of old bank statements and useless bits of paperwork the other day (people have asked how to get rid of paperwork - I tear mine up and stick it in the compost bin in the garden). Couldn't believe I'd been carrying that around for almost a decade, it felt very liberating! I then went through DD's baby clothes which I thought I'd been quite good about getting rid of but realised there was a lot more that could be cut down so I gave a few bits to a friend for her baby and gave 2 big bags to the charity shop along with a box of books and some toys. I made sure to get them straight out instead of leaving them in annoying piles to build up so I end up tripping over them for weeks and then having to do 5 mega trips in a row!
The thing I found really helpful was telling myself "I'm getting rid of all of this, unless there is something I just have to keep" instead of "I'm keeping all of this unless there's something I really don't want!" Reiterating that in my mind every time I open a cupboard or box really breaks down that barrier to giving things up.

Looking forward to getting started proper!

[WutheringFrights]

Always I did my clothes yesterday, I have whittled it down to:
Drawer 1 - underwear / pj's / t-shirts
Drawer 2 - light cardigans / shirts / tunic tops
Drawer 3 - jumpers / woollen wraps
Wardrobe contains - 7 pairs of trousers, 8 skirts, 4 dresses.
It was fairly slimline before, but I reckon I chucked about the same amount out.
I feel freeeeeeeee!

[BeyondBootcampsAgain]

Wuthering, could dh scan his bank statements so they are there if needed but out of the way?

Paperwork i did before discovering mk. I have kept only dwp/benefit stuff, in ONE folder, everything else got shredded. And everything in the folder is backed up on the pc, but i tend to use it a lot so kept the paper copies

[StuntNun]

On paperwork, Martin Lewis recommends taking photos of documents before shredding them. That would be a lot quicker than scanning them unless you have access to a really good scanner. Mine takes about a minute to scan each page.

I have gone through my clothes twice and I think they are Kondo'd now. I have one wardrobe and one chest of drawers and they are not overstuffed. I am still resolutely balling my socks. Make the little feckers suffer, that's my policy on socks. That will teach them for always losing their other halves. I'm not sure whether the remaining clothes spark joy or not but I'm going to make sure all new purchases do. I've decided to put all my clothes on the right hand side of the wardrobe after washing. That way I can see what hasn't been worn for a few months and either go out of my way to wear it or get rid of it.

Next job is books iirc?

[GrubbyWindows]

wuthering it is wise to keep things for 7 years of self employed. I just stuff all the relevant papers into one folder per tax year, date on the front, and chuck the oldest when I do my self employed tax each year. Seven folders is not too desperate to have in a drawer- although MK would probably not approve! A friend of mind got audited though, and spent a fortune having to pay her bank for missing statements, and weeks hunting down copies of paperwork. She now pays an accountant to do the lot and store the necessary papers- so that could be the streamlined answer!

[IsItMeOr]

I don't think MK's advice re documents is quite right. If you look at the Mumsnet article about MK, they got a UK-based expert to give an opinion - which was definitely to retain more than she said (I had to go through my queued bag of shredding and rescue a few docs!).

[Alwaysmaking21]

wuthering and Isitmeor

Think I'm heading towards the one wardrobe and drawers

Am eyeing the medicines/ plasters/bandages/ aches and pains sprays stored neatly in a large plastic box under my bed- think I'll just keep the first aid kit and a packet of paracetamol

Looking forward to getting rid of spare bedding sets, decommissioned when new ones arrived- going to take these to new house and use as floor covering whilst painting and then ditch them

Hurrah for the freedom feeling of major decluttering

My local hospice shop is loving all of their new stock 😀

[ClarenceTheLion]

I did a fair bit of Kondo-ing last spring, but paperwork had me stumped (there's so much I need to keep) and it all fell apart.

I've decided to go by what badly needs doing. We have a small house, and over the last year our living room has actually been overspill space for groceries. I buy the kind of things you are supposed to eat, then ignore it in favour of instant crap because the kitchen is so cluttered I can never find what I need. I have actually found a bag of mouldy fruit in the living room before, that's how bad it's been! I am also a sucker for good deals on multi buys. I found 6 tins of expired tomatoes that I was so pleased with when I bought them for 30p for three.

Even after throwing out the expired stuff and filling two bags for the food bank, you could not fit another thing in my food cupboards. Everything is finally in the kitchen and grouped together. I can see my counters again! Jars of jam and boxes of tea will have to live on the counter till I can make room (might put the jam in the fridge actually) but eventually I want everything put away. We have soooo much food. I counted over 20 tins of soup, and I'm the only person who eats it.

I've organized things by date to try to avoid half-filling the recycling bin again in a year, and I finally solved the problem of the annoying top corner cupboard where food goes to die. Only kitchen rolls, bulky easy to grab things and non-perishables in there from now on. And tonight I'm going to work out some meal plans to make sure I get on with using things up. I may even stick some wipe clean sheets to the inside of the cupboard doors with expiry dates to make sure I keep on top of things.

I'm so happy with my organized cupboards! And instead of being depressed about the waste, I'm going to be pleased that I don't need to buy much more than bread and fruit and veg for at least the next month!

[IsItMeOr]

Good luck Clarence.

I got an unexpected boost to sorting the freezer after DH put a can of coke in there to cool it quickly and forgot it, so it exploded. DH initiated a running down of freezer stocks so that we could clean it properly.

Every cloud, eh?

[IsItMeOr]

Plus, it's good soup weather at the moment .

[LadyMacnet]

I hope it's OK to join the thread too. I have been lurking a lot. I read TLCMOE last year and had a bit of a go but it wasn't a success because I didn't throw enough things away before I started on rolling socks into balls and hiding everything back in drawers again. This time I have been a bit more ruthless and have completed 2 trips to the tip with a stuffed car in the last couple of days. Some rooms in my house are OK but others are not. I also find it hard to focus on just one category at a time. Today, for example I've been doing my clothes but I got bored and then started on the bathroom cabinets. I want immediate results and it is hard for me to remember that MK says it is a six month process. I want it all done in six days!

[StitchesInTime]

I suppose 6 months is a much more realistic timescale for most people.

We went away to visit the in-laws for a few days and I spent an embarrassing amount of my free time fretting about my inability to continue kondo-ing my papers while away from home (papers are a mammoth undertaking due to the sheer volume of them).