Kondo Project

[Geila]

I'm in the process of Kondoing the last part of my house - a hallway closet that has been the dumping ground for all things misc. And I think this is why I've been running out of steam this week - the current parts of my projects entail decision making. What to keep, toss, purge, donate... so tiring. Whereas the previous two weeks was all mindless work. Nothing to decide, just simple work.

So far I've taken almost everything out and sorted by type. And I've got a basket of "what to do with?" items that I should really just donate and be done with. But I keep thinking I'll use this stuff in a project. Except I haven't. I've got lots of pretty fabric ribbons, assorted knick knacks, candles, etc...

This is also the case in my garage section work. Not fun. I miss the mindless work that gave me a good sweaty workout without any mental stress.

Anyone else doing any Kondo work right now?

[Yppej]

I organized an area of my car that holds miscellaneous items - small and easy. You are much more ambitious.

[Geila]

@Yppej - I've been putting this off for a long time, so not as ambitious as it seems. :)

This closet is a black hole. I can't believe how much toothpaste and q-tips we had in there.

And shampoo/conditioner. Does anyone know how long shampoo is safe to keep?

I was thinking of saving it to use on my dogs, but know I'm wondering if it would be safe. I'm thinking the products are at least 18 months old. Some are opened and some are not.

[Yppej]

I ignore expiration dates with rare exceptions like milk. One of my disappointments was finding my favorite store that sold expired products just across the border in Live Free or Die NH closed. They have other locations but they're too far away. If anyone knows of stores like this in Massachusetts please post them.

[mschrisgo2]

All the bits and pieces- I just filled two bags and threw them in the donate pile! They've been moved from pillar to post for Years, no more.

[Mary B.]

@Yppej - I've been putting this off for a long time, so not as ambitious as it seems. :)

This closet is a black hole. I can't believe how much toothpaste and q-tips we had in there.

And shampoo/conditioner. Does anyone know how long shampoo is safe to keep?

I was thinking of saving it to use on my dogs, but know I'm wondering if it would be safe. I'm thinking the products are at least 18 months old. Some are opened and some are not.

I don't think much can happen to it, except some ingredients might settle. When I'm using something old like that (lotion, conditioner, etc.) I skin test a little bit on my arm just in case it's changed in some unpleasant way. Don't know if this makes sense or not, but i find it comforting!

[pony mom]

I wouldn't use human shampoos on dogs. The formula is too acidic for a dog's skin.

[Geila]

Hall closet finished. Tossed out about 50% in trash and recycle (lots of packaging material). Will donate about 25%. The remaining 25% is nicely stored in matching baskets and organized for easy access. I'm always amazed at how little I end up keeping every time I do a round of Kondo. I'm going to take the doors off to encourage a nice display. I have lots of empty space now. Dh calls it 'wasted space' and I tell him, 'no, I'm saving it!"

I'm just going to throw out all the shampoo bottles. If I haven't used it, I'm not going to. I cut my hair super short and now I just use Suave Daily clarifying instead of all those moisterizing ones.

[ejchase]

Congratulations, Geila! Good work!

[Chicken lady]

My dh always says "I'm using it to store air. I like to have a lot of air in the house."

[Geila]

My whole house has officially been Kondo'd.

Next week I start on the garage. I already did one big purging and now it's down to all those things that I want to keep but don't use, don't need. Not looking forward to it. I feel tense just thinking about it.

[iris lilies]

Missouri Botanical Gardens is offering a class on Kondoing your garden.

arghh, I am not ready for that! I am still collecting! I have 32 new iris plants coming this fall and many new lilies. Which reminds me, I need to place my lily order.
and then, I have to divide iris and daylilies, finding places for the key ones in my gardens and cleaning/grooming the rest to give away.

[iris lilies]

I will say this about Kondoing my garden: i no lnger allow perennials and annials to come up willy nilly and stay. I have no compunction about pulling out plants that are not invited or welcome in one place. That at leqst s one step toward order in the garden.

[Yppej]

Got $9.00 for some of the old DVDs. Threw out a few so trashy I figure the library would not want them and I will see about donating the rest that have no resale value to them.

[rosarugosa]

I filled a 40 lb kitty litter box (my decluttering unit of measurement, lol) with miscellaneous glassware to be donated. There were some little dishes I was vacillating about, and DH said, "keep them, they give me joy!" Hehe, so he is actually listening to me on occasion!

[Yppej]

It's great that he is onboard.

[TVRodriguez]

My dh always says "I'm using it to store air. I like to have a lot of air in the house."

This is really funny. And actually kind of true. I am going to steal that line.

[TVRodriguez]

My whole house has officially been Kondo'd.


Wow! I'm impressed. I have not completely finished--kind of petered out in the miscellaneous categories and never got to memorabilia. I even cut down on some of the kids toys a while back, but we still have too much of that.

But a few months ago, I sorted through all sorts of kids papers and things that I had kept from previous school years. I got rid of a ton and kept things that they wanted to save. I got them each their own accordion type file folder/cabinet thing and saved about 1 or 2 dozen pages for each school year. Freed up a ton of space!

Last night I sorted some school clothes. I put my older son's shorts and pants that he'd outgrown into labeled shoebox size tupperware with tops. Saving them for when my younger son is big enough to wear them. They had just been thrown in a basket in the closet in their room. Now they're neatly stored on the top shelf of that closet, out of the way.
I started talking to the kids about maybe doing a "toy vacation"--meaning we'd "send the toys on vacation" (i.e., store it out of sight for a few weeks) and let them each keep 10 of their favorites ("dolls" and "legos" would each be one thing), plus 2 stuffed animals each. They actually weren't able to come up with 10 things each. But I have yet to follow through, partly b/c it's physically a lot of work, and we don't have much storage space to speak of, so all of the stuff would end up in my room. But I might tackle that in the next week, since I have some time off coming up.

[Yppej]

I did some purging and organizing things in shoeboxes today. My houseguest left so I am tossing worn items as I will now be using the nice bedding and towels myself that I bought for her visit.