Thursday 9 February 2017

To fold or not to fold. What was the question?

In between reading this months read a long book, Mansfield Park, I have been reading some other books.


A friend gave me her copy of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  


I have now completed it and I can say that other than helping me fold things so I can get the whole of my chest of drawers into on single drawer, I am not sure any of the rest of it is worth while.  There! I said it.  I have not only my food storage but also my this could be useful items, stored in the shed and garage workshop. 

There is one line, that says something like "Throw the item away if it doesnt spark joy", OK, I can understand if something doesnt make you do the happy dance.  "If you need it later you can buy it again!".  What?  What what?  hmmm Me thinks she has money to burn.


Take for instance, there are things from each house that once we strip it, before renovating it, you may need again.  In the kitchen of our last house, for some unknown reason there was a  mirror and a shaving light and socket over the draining board.  Weird right.  We took the socket down, and mirrors are expensive, I saved it.  It went in the garage when we moved.  


Fast forward to the roof off, put back on higher, renovation here.  As the roof is part of the wall in many rooms, it means limited wall space that isnt at an angle.  Enter the en suite, no mirror.  A mirror cut to size would be £80!  £80!  you have to be kidding me.  

Enter the mirror that fits exactly in the right place in the new en suite!  Bingo!  Womble-ing at its finest and no need for a back splash.  When you view the room as a whole it helps with light and balance.  As your head actually goes into the sky light, you have to stoop to look in it.  But on first glance, that will be people viewing the house when we sell, look a mirror about the sink.  TAH DAH!!!!  They dont think it is only 40cm x 40cm.  Nope it will make them think it is all exactly as it should be.


You are supposed to thank things for their service, she says so in her book.  She also empties her handbag out each night and puts things in drawers and shelves?  LOL  {Aint nobody got time for that}.  So, thank you Marie Kondo book, your off to the charity shop, unless someone on here wants it...

6 comments:

Sue in Suffolk said...

Emptying bag and saying thank you? positively weird. But that's the way to sell lots of books I guess!

Granny_J said...

I can't imagine throwing things away as she described. I have things in my storage that are only used once a year but they were rather costly to purchase. That mirror fits the space perfectly.

Sol said...

Hi Sue, I dont really get it. She obviously had and still has some form of compulsion disorder to tidy. Dare I say OCD. She started her obsession at 5 years old. Heck I was combing barbies hair, rather than scouring the house for boxes to put things in.

Hi Granny J, welcome to my blog. She wants you to put everything in one cupboard. Ha Ha lol It wouldnt even house my books, from one book case. I am glad I dont live in Japan, I thought British houses were small compared to Canadian homes, it sounds like the flats in Japan are smaller than our master bed and en suite! Where would my dogs go?

The mirror was fate I tell ya! Thanks for your comment.

Janie Junebug said...

I'm quite organized, and I really do have a type of OCD. However, I don't get rid of something if it doesn't spark joy in me. I don't know if anything I own sparks joy in me. I do organize my messenger bag at the end of each day, but I don't take everything out and put it in some other place. What a waste of time.

Love,
Janie

thrift deluxe said...

I have avoided that book. It took me a long time to sort out my clutter (and indeed learn to see the difference between rubbish and not rubbish) so the idea of thanking things before getting rid of them would just paralyse me!

Sol said...

Hi Janie, I do take all of the receipts out of my bag each time I come home as I give them to the Mr, he checks them off against the bank account. Most things in my house dont spark joy but I need them. Like chopping boards for instance...

Hi Thrift Deluxe, I also avoided that book as I didnt see the point in it. My friend gave it to me as I was moaning about how we have expanded to fit the house and I am hating it. We dont have that much stuff as we move to often for it to really mount up. But I see things slipping and bits being put in the wrong place or we have a double of something as we thought it had been thrown away. Like you, I get bogged down and doubt everything I throw away as we dont really have a lot of really good stuff. but when things dont have homes, they are left out and become a visual headache to me.