Konmari converts 2019 assemble!

[BasinHaircut]

I’m almost done with Marie Kondo’s book and I am buzzing with excitement about transforming my home by letting go of old belongings.

This morning I went through my clothes (not shoes, bags coats or scarves yet) and got rid of 2.5 100L bin liner’s worth! I already can’t believe how much space I’ve created.

Planning to do the second half of clothes tomorrow and then convince DH to do his. I’ll do DS’s one day next week when he is back at school (will be impossible with him in the house).

Going to try and go through the categories in strict order and devote at least one of my 2 free afternoons a week to it until I’ve been through everything in the house.

DH has agreed to watch the Marie Kondo series on Netflix with me and I’m hoping he will get involved.

I really think this will improve my mental health and make me calmer and happier.

Well done PFB1. I still have all of DS’s old baby clothes in the loft which need sorting and getting rid of. I understand why it’s so hard for you. I’m planning on saving the tiny baby stuff because they hold a lot of memories and emotion for me (and don’t take up much room as so so small) but going to try and part ways with the rest. Maybe keep a few key outfits as you say.

Next is paperwork for us. Might try and start getting it all together tomorrow but will have to psyche myself up to go through it another day

Started gathering paperwork yesterday from a sideboard in my lounge and also ended up with half a black bag’s worth of rubbish! And I technically haven’t even Kondo’ed The sideboard yet, it was just pure rubbish that someone —DH— has been shoving in there. I did manage to organise all of the birthday supplies into one drawer through so that’s done and has a new home, and any more I find I can just put there. Plus all of the grown up board games are now in one cupboard of the sideboard and not just shoved in anywhere and hopefully there is space for a new home for any paperwork we keep.

How are you getting on with husbands?
Mine is....not helpful (polite term)
I have sorted clothes, which felt great, have moved onto paperwork, kitchen/utility areas and the whole house is feeling lighter, easier to clear up - it takes me half hour tops to clean each day and even the cleaner commented on how nice it is.
Then he arrives, dumps his crap on whatever surfaces have been cleared and tidied. Perfect example. Cat fountain broke at the weekend so we bought a replacement. He set it up in place, however left the cardboard box on one work surface and the old broken one on another.
We have what I call boxes of doom, where everyone piles up crap they cant be bothered to put away. I sort and take the boxes away to find he then uses the magazine rack to drop in paperwork, except he also has the desk, the kitchen fridge and windowsills...I seem to spend forever collecting his crap and putting it in the right place.
I put all his stuff from his desk into a cardboard box with draws in. He pulled boxes out looking for stuff, didn't put them back in and instead dumped it on top.
As for his clothes, for the first time in forever I am up to date with the washing, it's put in baskets for each person to take to their room and put away. His stays, so now the spare bed is covered in his clothes, the dining table has some piled up, our room has piles and frankly its driving me insane.
I am at the stage of saying to him the spare bedroom is his, I don't care what he does with it, his crap goes in there and the rest of the home I take care of but I know as soon as guests come it will be a mammoth task to sort it, it also means the kids don't do their stuff because why should they when he doesn't either?
I work from home, day in, day out I want to sob because every time I think I've got somewhere someone will crap all over it.
Any words of advice that don't involve divorce?!

I'm pretty good at regularly pruning my own stuff - but how do you persuade others in your house to do the same? DH refuses to go through his clothes - he has 3 chests of drawers and a triple wardrobe for himself (I have 2 chests of drawers and a double wardrobe which isn't even full). I looked once and he has 20 black t shirts.

@AmIAWeed. You have my sympathy, I to live with someone who dumps stuff everywhere. We had a disagreement over the weekend because he dumps all his crap on the hall table when he gets in the door.

@33goingon64 it’s tough when they don’t engage isn’t it. The only thing I can think of is spending time talking about what you want your house to be? We have been doing that and it seems to be helping DP to get motivated.

We spent the weekend making sure all of our washing was up to date in preparation for the clothes sorting. I’m actually feeling excited to get started 😀

It's rubbish isn't it, he's a great husband. Drives me insane but I couldn't and wouldn't want a life without him but I wouldn't say no to a tidy him! Should have realised what I was letting myself in for when we met and I saw the state of his office and workshop!
I asked for a pretty bedroom for my birthday, our room is the last to be decorated...so what happened? We moved to the spare room!! His crap is still in the old one, over taking the new and whilst it may be nicely decorated it's a dump.
He truly doesn't see it.
I am going to start moving his stuff though.make a clear transition for my stuff to the new room and keep piling his up in the old and close the door to it.
The kids stuff I pick up off the floor daily to make them keep on top of it and I'll do the same for his in our room and simply dump it in the spare.

Ah well, as long as people who pop in for a coffee don't think we live like slobs that'll be a huge improvement!!

Hi all, is the book called ‘the life changing magic of tidying’?

I’m hoping to sell my house in the spring and it is so so cluttered, I really don’t know where to start, the amount of clutter and disarray is making me feel a bit down.

Thank you.

After spending a couple of days feeling dreadful that I'd given away most of the baby clothes, I sat down and put the remaining items in storage boxes that each or my girls can have in their room.

The boxes literally spark so much joy for me that I finally feel okay about what I've given away ❤️

The majority of these items were living in bin bags in the garage before. I'm feeling so happy right now!

That's the book Meralia, you need to read it all to understand the full concept, good luck!

Oh, I'm far, far worse than my husband. He's a minimalist at heart. I'm not. He's been paperless for a couple of years now, but as the computer is his and he sorts his stuff when he gets home, I never had a chance to sort mine. I'm not working at the moment and I don't think the house has ever been so clean!

I've done my wardrobe apart from my socks, but am leaving the clean ones in the laundry basket at the moment so I have to go through all my socks. The idea being to throw the ones I don't wear or have holes in and then I'll have only the ones I wear to put away.

Going to tackle DD's room next. DS's wardrobe isn't too bad as he's the eldest, everything has a place and I buy him stuff when he needs it. DD's on the other hand has all DS's stuff that fits her plus girl clothes. She has shelves, which really don't work for this folding method so am about to go on Ikea and order some more drawers for her. Would it be utterly crazy to buy one of those shallow bra drawers with separator for a 6 year old? Obviously she will need it at some point in the future, but it could house bead necklaces, hair stuff and scarves for now? Or would that just be weird? Anything else I should get?

I turned out my kitchen cupboard yesterday. There was stuff that went out of date in 2014 although mostly 2016. I finally have space to put away the cereals and have a vaguely clean surface.

Where are people storing their towels if you don't have an airing cupboard or similar?

I've currenting got them taking up quite a lot of drawer space in the spare bedroom but if we have a second baby, DS will move into there and will need the space.

Ideally i want them in the bathroom but they must look neat and tidy!!

DC's bed linen and spare towel are in the top shelves of their wardrobe. Ours plus the rest of the towels are on several shelves in our bedroom.

Towels and sheets in my house live in a couple of plastic containers under my bed. We don’t have an airing cupboard or room in the bathroom for them unfortunately. I haven’t Konmari’ed them yet though so might be able to reduce down to 1!

Hello!

Where are you all getting the small boxes for organising? Any tips on pretty and cheap options?

I've always found Wilkinsons and Tesco good for small boxes in their stationery section

So we are going to start this weekend. We are going through a heat wave in Australia at the moment and its going to be to hot to do anything out doors, so we might as well get started in the nice cool air conditioning.

I'm really hoping DP has a good cull of his t-shirts, he has an insane amount!

Iv printed off a check list and have put it on the wall in the study to keep us on track.

Here is a link if anyone is interested www.neatlittlenest.com/single-post/2017/11/03/ULTIMATE-KONMARI-CHECKLIST

Hi Everyone, may I join you? Just had an email to say Marie Kondo's book is waiting for me (I reserved it) at the library! I am hoping it will change my slightly hoardy mindset so that I can be clutter-free by the summer.

My main goals are (a) to have more time to relax in the evenings because stuff is easier to tidy/clean/find, (b) to increase family quality time together at weekends, and (c) to be able to invite people round for a cuppa spontaneously.

My main problem area is sentimental items, esp "work" done by the children

I can't help on sentimental as I'm not there yet but the cleaner this week commented how it's getting quicker to do the house. She had time to wipe down doors this week which usually she doesn't get round to doing more than wiping handles. I've also sped up on daily cleaning and this week cleaned the fridge and a chandelier, although still have the other one in the same room, o e sparkling light and one dusty at the moment!!
It really does make me feel like I have more time, admittedly I'm doing deeper cleans but that in itself feels good.
My husband's stuff, sentimental and paperwork haven't been done. Well husband's paperwork, I've been paper free for years. I redid the utility and it was much easier clearing out second time round so perhaps if sentimental is hard repeat areas until you're ready?
Books are on hold as we're starting a village book exchange but I'm still moving the keep and donate one's ready

cabbage can you take photos of the kids work and then get rid of it? Keep a few bits maybe, your favourites.

I’d suggest reading the whole book before you even start and the idea is that you do sentimental last so that you have honed your skills and can more easily identify what sparks joy by then. Anything sentimental you find as you go through the other categories just out to one side and come back to at the end.

Yesterday I went through another sideboard and got another half a bin bag’s worth of rubbish out. These areas are still not technically Kondo’ed, there is still stuff in there that needs to go (charity or re-home) but it’s been an effort to locate all of the paperwork (and loads of electrical wires that I’m sure we don’t need!).

I think that’s everything now paper-wise so will have to start going through that next week. Not looking forward to paperwork to be honest. BORING!!

Just adding a little placemarker so i can come back when I have more time. Been lying in bed like a slattern for an hour (such a treat!) and can hear dh starting to exude steam from his ears so need to go join him.

Had a half kondo session about 3 years ago (mostly folding. Less chucking) but look - the results last. Have moved house recently and did throw a lot of stuff but think I can probably do more and definitely need to find a system for the airing cupboard so it doesn't constantly turn into the previous airing cupboard where you open it and all the stuff falls on your head like in a cartoon.

I think a teenie tiny bit of magic happened this weekend.
My husband, the objector to all and hoarder extraordinaire cleaned out a set of draws that haven't been opened in over 2 years. ALL was binned, except 3 pairs of socks!!
I then moved the draws into his office and said, there now you have extra storage where you need it.
So he asked where his drill was (I knew exactly where) and in it went. With a new set of drill bits, a tape measure and screws/raw plugs. He has announced each time I find something like that now it can go, on account of he has all he needs in that one draw.
OMG!
Also, by moving the draws allowed us both to have a bedside shelf either side of our bed, I had the draws and his stuff got piled on the floor - now we both have a shelf, room to charge phones and pop a cup of tea, he even then put a picture up above our bed.
This probably sounds minor but if you look at one half of my bedroom, it now looks nice!!!!!!!
My office is now clearer as he has draws - we have a kitchen worksurface 4 metres long that is our shared desk, his side always messy and it really affects my flow seeing mess out the corner of my eye. Now thats getting sorted, OMG and sorry forgot to say, I have now managed to get a third small desk in the office for the kids to do homework. I doubt they'll use it, but its a desk away from tv, PS4 games etc which they may use if they suddenly realise GCSEs next year IS a big deal :)
It took less than half hour to clear up this morning - I may even get round to cleaning the curtains today. Happy, Happy, Happy

AmIAWeed that sounds like a huge improvement. I can't wait to see similar progress myself.

BasinHaircut you are right of course, I do need to finish the book first. I hope it will really change my mindset. Have struggled to read loads over the weekend as DH away so on my own with kids and youngest has been ill. But I have finished the first section, and ready to start reading about the categories.

I couldn't resist some random decluttering though and have done a couple of drawers, put some clothes in the charity box, and cleared the utility room worktop of all but kid's schoolwork. Will def leave that till last, as recommended.

I have heard about the "taking photos" thing and currently that does not spark joy for me . But I'm sure I can at least weed it down to just work that is a bit special - I have kept too much.

I think my main issue will be finding enough time to do a whole category in one go. May have to adapt the method a bit to allow more micro decluttering, although I appreciate she doesn't recommend that.

Basin - I totally get the adapting.
I have done things like kids clothes. I can't do mine until I have done books, as I am making our bookcases an open wardrobe (currently bed in one room clothes in another)
I am getting good at moving stuff to where it should go to sort later, so all gardening stuff, decorating, tools etc are being put in the shed/garage ahead of sorting there. I identify where things need to go to know where to clear next.
Short of putting your entire life on hold for a month i'm not sure how you can do a whole category and put away before moving onto the next, especially if like me you have stuff all over the place!

IamAWeed that’s amazing. Hopefully your DH will continue!

Marie Kondo has completely sorted out DD2's nasty habit of shoving all her clean ironed laundry at the bottom of her wardrobe! I am thrilled as it's been a real bone of contention between us for ages. She loves putting everything in neat rows now and she's proud of herself as well. I'm trying not to lean too hard on anyone but both DDs are having their rooms decorated in the next few months and I just keep reminding them that the tidier their rooms are, the easier they'll be for me to get in and strip off the hideous wallpaper. I've just offered them an hour of my time at the weekend each to focus on one area of their rooms, and they've both accepted each time so far. DD1 has gone from five desk drawers crammed with rubbish to four drawers neatly organised with stationary, drawing equipment and cosmetics and one completely empty! No more rowing over where her protractor is

The real surprise has been DH - he is a minimalist neatnik with very few possessions, so I didn't even consider passing him the book or watching the show with him. If he gets rid of much more he'll disappear! But when he saw my wardrobe and DD2's perfect t-shirt stack, he went and did his own the same way and he's very pleased with it.