You're welcome...glad it's been inspiring! Since I started this thread the friend who inspired me to embark on my own journey has started to work on her own place, last time I went round to see her, her front room looked "amazing"...she's very creative which helps but she actually gathered up all those flyers and concert tickets and has made them into works of art! She's made a couple of collage pictures and put them into frames, but the best thing she did was to lift the glass from a really nasty old coffee table she had and completely covered the surface in tickets then put the glass back - I reckon she could start a small business by making peoples sentimental paper clutter into objects d'art!
It's true what you say about the mundane stuff, but it's not until you clear a work surface or table that you see how dusty and grubby it is underneath, but a clear surface is a lot easier to keep clean and takes only a few mintues. My biggest problems were laundry/mail and I'm pleased to say that both are still well under control....Just looking over at the lamp table by the settee and all I can see is this hideous bright red mesh fruit bowl....I really really want to get rid of it. It's in the shape of an apple..hubby bought it to go in the kitchen 'cause it goes with the colour scheme in there, but it's too big and takes up a great big chunk of work surface, so I just popped it on the shelf under the table. I've already got a fruitbowl, it's a small attractive wire thing, but hubby said that it got on his nerves because smaller fruits sometimes fell out of the side! rather than arrange the smaller stuff on top, he'd rather buy something the size of a bucket....agggh. Next mission hide hideous red bowl in the attic cupboard, get nice little wooden one to satisfy his need not to be chasing stray satsumas across the floor....Oh and sort out this computer table area! Here's the two fruit bowls, just so you can see what I mean...I know which one I prefer lol! Also thinking I might just get the expensive chair and put it on buy now pay later!
Your friend has genius ideas, she could definitely do something with them! The point (and sadness) with sentimental items, is that we put them away rather than bringing them out and displaying them and celebrating the memories they invoke.
I know that once I'm fully decluttered, keeping things clean will be quicker. It's no accident that the most frequently cleaned rooms in my house are the toilet and bathroom... not quite zero clutter, but very little.
The kitchen is moving towards being decluttered too. I've a kitchen implement carousel, which is very useful but never gets turned, so the stuff at the back might as well not exist! I have a cutlery drawer that barely gets opened as all the stuff I regularly use is out in the open.
I have great sympathy with the fruit bowl dilemma. I got rid of mine entirely as the fruit stays in the fridge until I'm ready to eat it, bar the bananas, which are I split and store in a basket (I used to use a tree, but apparently if the "fingers" are still linked, they ripen faster). I wouldn't give the red item house-room, personally. I like your other one, but possibly I'd use it for decorative objects rather than as a fruit bowl. I know I'm in agreement with you about which one goes and which one stays!
I hope you get sorted with your office area and a chair which suits your needs. Have you tried searching on ebay or similar to see if someone has the one you liked in the brown? I have a rather large black fabric office chair, which is currently a dumping ground for things... in due course, when I get sorted out, I will decide if I should cover it or just leave it as is. It's very good quality and I wouldn't get anything like that without forking out a large sum of money, so I'll either try to tone it in with my colour scheme or build a colour scheme around it.
The bags of donations in my car should be going to charity on my way home today. That will be 10 more bags of stuff out of the house, and I'm still on that first KonMari category.
If I can actually finish the shoes and boots tonight, and get some bags out tomorrow, that will be the end of the clothes category.
I've decided to skip doing books for the time being, as I'm hoping to sell as many of them as possible, and that may take a bit of time. Instead I will do category 3 next, and try to make a start this evening.
I will report back!
One of the most useful things about this thread is that it's giving me accountability. I live alone, and although I talk about my decluttering a bit at work, nothing's in black and white. I come on this thread and I see what I said I'd do, and then have to either confess I've not done it, or give an update.
It's also great to hear about others' successes or problems and how they solved them.
I hope to be able to say - by this Friday - that I've done my papers category, as I've only 1 more weekend before my visitors arrive! Watch this space...
I got watching an American method called the Flylady method on you tube. Anyone else had a look at that?
It's a little and often method. I got SO depressed when the lady said when tackling paperwork only tackle 1 inch at a time... and then said "you'd be finished in 6 months" - I can't wait that long!!!!
One thing all of the methods I've looked at do seem to emphasise is that you have to treat decluttering, cleaning and tidying with love. And although it sounds strange initially, I think it's very true that when we get into a pickle with clutter there is a lot more going on emotionally / mentally, and often getting to grips with that is what breaks the cycle. So showing yourself, your family and your home love, or gratitude begins to rub off on other areas of your life.