Day to Day

I meant to write this update before 2015 ended but I procrastinated badly that last week of December and am just now catching up with everything. What I didn’t procrastinate with was Kondoing the things.

When I last updated you, we had these things left:

– Knick Knacks
– Art (you know, that stuff some people hang on walls but we generally just store in closets. sigh)
– Seasonal decor
– Sentimental things

We also had some things that we needed the children to go through and planned to have them help us out with that during the holidays: the nutcracker collection, the videos and the board games.

Where are we now? Done. Sort of.

We went through all of the knick knacks and art and made some sizable donations to Goodwill right before the kids came for the holidays. We still have a few more things to donate and we have some art and large framed mirrors and such that we’re holding onto until after we choose a new home. It’s possible that even if they bring us joy, they may not fit in our new home… we’ll review right before we move and purge again, if necessary.

We went through the seasonal items and I thought that would be harder than it was. I don’t know if it was TW’s mood or what but she found less joy than I expected her to find and it was a piece of cake to get through that stuff. (We cut down Christmas by 2 rubbermaid tubs and a cardboard box!)

We went through ALL of the sentimental things, once. We did a quick “no joy” pass on all of the things we’ve saved and there are three bins in the office that we need to go through once more to see if everything sparks joy. We also put all of the photos in one big box (except for what’s already in albums) and we need to go through those (and the albums.) Michelle belle helped me go through a shoebox and two small albums while she was here and that was kind of fun to do with her.

As for the things we thought the kids were going to Kondo? We went from four HUGE boxes of nutcrackers to two. I’d like to have gotten down further than that but…whatever. It’s not my stuff, though we’ll probably be storing those boxes for the oldest youngest child until we die.

Four of the five kids went through the games and only a small number sparked joy. I would like the fifth child to weigh in but if she doesn’t make her way over here soon, I’m probably going to just bite the bullet and discard the bulk of this stuff.

The videos that the kids originally struggled to let go of, (while I was trying to Facebook them photos asking “Joy or no joy.”), were suddenly much easier for them to discard and they agreed that I should just let it all go. I’m not sure I can do that, but it makes it easier to discard the bulk of it without worrying that they’ll be unhappy about what didn’t bring me joy. So, I need to go through the cabinet and just get that done. I think I’ll actually do that as soon as I finish typing this post.

I also realized that there are some things in one of the sideboards that we never went through because they were art or sentimental or knick knacks but since they were out of sight, I forgot about them. I’ll convince TW that we should do those tomorrow.

So really, we’re very close to being finished with this (oh, except of course for Elly’s room which we’re still working on, one small batch at a time when she’s here every week or two.) It feels good but TW said the other day that we’ve done so much but it still feels like there’s more to do. I feel that way too, and expected it. It was always sort of my plan to do another pass through all of the things as we pack up to move — and then really think about our possessions again once they’re being unpacked in our new home. I do expect we’ll let more go over the next six months or so. Not a lot, but just looking around while I type, I feel like there are some things here that don’t really bring joy… I like them, but joy… probably not.

It’s been a good few weeks for KonMari. The end is in sight and I can’t wait ’til it’s all done.

We’ve been to the electronics recycling station twice and need to go again because there are TVs, computers and microwaves in the garage that we need to dump before the snow comes back (and there’s a TV and DVD upstairs that will need to go if we can get someone to carry it down for us.) TW did manage to clear some of the content from some of the old laptop hard drives but she hasn’t finished — once she has, we’ll need to dump those hard drives.

Also, during my last update, we were heading into the world of toys. Hah. It turned out to be a more difficult category than I’d originally expected. I kondoed the toys in the shelf that sits in front of the fireplace — that was easy. I ended up discarding a small grocery bag of stuff. At which point, I buzzed my kid and said, “you’re not going to tell me you’re pregnant the day after I discard all of the baby toys, are you?” … she laughed. She said she should ask JMP if the toys bring him joy. I told her that was dumb because he would say yes, all the toys belong to JMP and they all bring joy. But, he isn’t here and he won’t know the difference because Grandma will just buy MORE toys and that will be fine. She laughed and said that JMP needs all the baby toys. I said TOO BAD, they are going….

And then the weekend was over and I hadn’t gotten upstairs or into the extra bedroom to do anymore, which is a good thing since the damn kid sent me this photo, the next day:

Yea. There goes the idea of discarding all of the baby toys, right? Right!

I did, however, manage to discard a bag of odds and ends – some broken things, some things that just never got played with. I also found all of the old legos, wooden trains, and hot wheels (joy!) and I started sorting through the toys in Elly’s room – tossing anything that was totally dead or disgusting and putting her zillion stuffed animals into bags for her to sort… soon. Very soon.

I tracked down all of the board games and stacked them up in the dining room — when all of the kids are here for Christmas, I’ll make them decide which ones we should keep and which we should get rid of. (Oh, they also need to go through the DVDs/VHS tapes when they’re here — someone remind me of that.)

Then, we moved on to the arts & crafts supplies. Another tough category but we did it.

TW sorted through all of her quilting material and knitting stuff and ended up with a bag to take to goodwill and a bag to throw in the trash. I went through all of the art supplies on my desk and Raskogs and various other carts and gave some paint to Elly (Buster ate a bottle and ended up painting one of the dog beds pink — that was fun.) And, I had a bag of trash as well as a bag to donate. I even managed to get Elly to go through her craft supplies — that was tough but she did it. She took a bag of stuff to her father’s house and we ended up with a bag to donate. Yay, us!

Then we back-pedaled a bit and Kondoed shoes — we ended up discarding or donating 9 pairs of boots/shoes/slippers/sandals. Woot.

Here’s what’s left:
– Knick Knacks
– Art (you know, that stuff some people hang on walls but we generally just store in closets. sigh)
– Seasonal decor
– Sentimental things

In preparation for the last four categories, and the holidays, I cleaned out the present closet and then the entire cold room (it’s a bedroom that has no insulation so it’s always freezing cold and we use it for storage.) All of the bins and boxes that hold sentimental things, that were in the cold room, are now in the office. I dumped two garbage bags of stuff and have another garbage can full of stuff to throw out and we have a ton of stuff to take to Goodwill next week, too.

I’ve got all of the seasonal decor in one place, ready to Kondo when the kids are here (though I’m going to do the two bins of gift boxes/wrapping paper tomorrow) and I’m going to move the empty rubbermaid bins into the cold room so they’re out of the darn office where I keep tripping over them.

I can’t decide what to do about the knickknacks… do we really need to put them all in one place and touch each one to determine joy? I’m leaning toward no — and just have us all wander around the house and looking at/touching everything and discarding as we go… That seems fine, doesn’t it?

So, that’s where we are… making excellent progress. We might really be able to finish this by the end of the year. Maybe. The sentimental stuff is going to be hard — there is so much and we are so sentimental. lol.

(We’ll also be going through each room, once all of the categories are done, and Kondoing again — the stuff we overlooked the first time or never got to for one reason or another. And of course, there’s also the garage. Ugh. But let’s not think about that now. Ugh.)

We’re a month behind schedule but we’re really digging in and getting stuff done, now. Unfoturnately — we’re about to hit some difficult categories not to mention BlogHer Food 15, Michelle visiting, Thanksgiving, Holiday shopping and planning and then Christmas with some subset of the kids here. It’s going to be tough to make it through the next five categories + Elly’s room before Christmas and that was my original goal.

Think good thoughts for us.

But back to the update…

We’ve made two trips to the electronics recycling station (they are only open on Saturdays from 9am-11:30am which has been a challenge but I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made for finally getting the old electronics out of the house.) My goal is to have all the discarded electric stuff out of the house by the end of the day November 5, except of course for the stuff upstairs that’s too heavy for us to carry down and all of the laptops that need to have the hard drives cleared… My goal for that stuff is 12/31/15.

We made it through the kitchen stuff without too much trouble. I don’t seem to have written down any notes about how many things we discarded but I know we carried about six boxes of stuff to Goodwill and we threw away quite a bit of stuff as well. It’s so weird to open the cabinets and see a small number of plates and mugs and glasses… I’m always tempted to yell “KIDS, bring your dirty dishes downstairs!” Life with only what you need and what brings joy is weird, lol.

Next up we sorted through all of the tote bags. Oh the tote bags. We had 120 tote bags. We kept 50. We’ll be taking the donations down to Florida this winter and donating them to Peaceful Paths. Until then, they’re in a box in the empty bedroom.

After tote bags, we moved to luggage — which was pretty easy. Anything with a broken zipper, a rip, or a handle that didn’t work brings new joy. BUT, we’re not discarding immediately. We’ll be packing stuff in those suitcases and discarding once we unpack down south. The suitcases that bring no joy have red strips of tape on them so we’ll know immediately to discard them next spring. We kept 6 suitcases and 3 duffle bags. We have 5 suitcases in the no joy pile but we may change our mind about one very small rollerboard… we’ll see. We also kept 3 of those weird shoulder strap carry-on bags that you get when you buy 3/5 piece luggage sets. We’ve never used them but TW says we might be able to pack stuff in them. Whatevs.

Which brings us to linens and towels. Those suckers were EVERYWHERE and I spent a few days last week collecting them a little bit at a time. Oh my gosh, so much stuff that we never ever use. We ended up with 8 bags of sheets/blankets/comforters and 1 bag of towels to donate to the animal shelter. Another bag to donate to goodwill. And, one bag tossed into the trash. We also sorted through the throw pillows — we kept 3 and discarded 7 (though there are 2 more in the cold room that I can’t access right now — we’ll discard those as soon as we’re able to remove them from underneath some very heavy mirrors that are sitting on top of them. lol)

This was a long update — because we’ve made a ton of progress.

Next up… toys. You’d think that would be easy, wouldn’t you? Next up… convincing Elly to Kondo her room… that’s not going to be easy at all. I’m probably going to have to threaten to do it for her…