It’s obviously the “it” topic as everywhere I’ve gone this past week people are discussing the show. Gym, hair salon, grocery store, my volunteer job and over the phone with friends and relatives. I’ve only watched episode one but I’m definitely in the mood to get rid of a lot of stuff.
I fold H T-shirt’s into quarters to make them fit in the drawer. My stuff is thirds.
I fold so neckline is more protected from getting wrinkled.
Some of her “why” is in her later writings
She readily admits that it’s easy to get overly enthusiastic and throw out stuff you actually need to keep. Not everything gives you “joy” in the traditional sense. Most items especially in the office or kitchen are for utility. Doesn’t mean you need ten staplers though. This is another reason the kitchen is next to last stop.
Don’t forget to post success to the bag a day thread!
It felt great cleaning out my big walk-in today. I got rid of a ton of kids stuff, and my clothes, some potato chip bags from The Masters 2009, and a dress from 1988 among many things. But the strangest thing i found that made me laugh was a brown paper sack way at the back under a few tubs. I had completely forgotten about it. . . . it was a gag gift from a neighborhood exchange 10+ years ago . . . and filled with ripped out Hustler and play boy pages from the early 80s. I laughed and laughed. I did not take a picture of those to save!
I tidied all my dresser drawers and our kitchen dish towel drawer. Small steps but it has created a small bag to donate and another small bag for washing the car (cotton T-shirt’s).
I still have a long ways to go but am making progress. I am mending as appropriate or donating as well.
All I did was fold pants, but it was amazing how little space they now take. Plenty of room from the ones I don’t wear. 
Regarding kid stuff. I highly recommend photographing it. I worked for a woman in a small apartment. She had a handful of drawings and supercute letters that she had framed and put in her bedroom. I thought I would do the smae, but my kids never wrote the supercute letters. I did put up one of my younger son’s many drawings of the Titanic, and one from my older son, and I have all of their quilts (potholder sized for the most part) from elementary school on a wall in the guest room.
I actually was glad I’d saved a bunch of younger kid’s boat drawings as I used them for his “Candi-O” box. (A congratulatory box you send to your kid when they make Candidate-Officer level at Candidate Officer School.) It reminded my how long he’d been interested in things naval.
@sryrstress we moved every 2 or 3 years when I was a kid, and we did major purging every move. It did not help me to purge as an adult at all. If anything, I think I am more apt to hang on to stuff. DH has the same background and is the same way. I do like the idea of putting all his shoes together so that he only keeps one back up set of sneakers.
I’m sure most of us have grown kids now as we try to get rid of stuff but I think it’s important to let your kids as they grow up have a say. I remember my mom would just decide to purge the kids closet (me) and all of a sudden stuff was gone. Not earth shattering but it hurt.
Sometimes I think that’s why I’ve hung on to not only my stuff but also my kids stuff way too long after they’re gone.
Tonight I watched the episode with the gay male couple. Some of the tasks seemed so hard for Matt (?) the ones whose parents were coming to visit. I wonder how old they were that they still were sort of in college/dorm mode. They had some really nice furniture pieces among all that other stuff!
@gouf78 totally agree that kids need to have a say, whether they are old or young. MK says she likes to tidy with her kids, especially folding and putting away, so they get used to taking care of their things. I think it is also quite useful to try to get kids to sort through things they don’t play with or wear any more and ask them to decide which ones to give away for other kids to enjoy and which things to save. I know I kept some things my kids were done with because they were meaningful to me in addition to what they wanted to keep. Then we went through some things again later. Just recently had my very grown up daughter look through middle school and high school stuff that she had kept and edit it down to special things. We still have the luxury of being able to store some of it. And at least if it’s their stuff, it’ll be fine for them to deal with it if we can’t. Better than them having to deal with too much of our stuff.
Realizing that I keep a bunch of clothing that doesn’t give me joy because I don’t have enough things that do! I can remember times when I loved my jeans or other pants but I just cannot find any know that I love. So I have a few things that are OK but aren’t really sparking joy.
As I get rid of clothes I don’t love, I rediscover the little worn clothes that I really do love but keep saving for some special occasion which never appears. I’ve pulled them out and started wearing them much more often.
Agree, @gouf78 ! I too decided that life is too short to save shoes for special days. I recently pulled my treasured pair of Jimmy Choo boots out of the closet and wear them. Bet that kiddo will swipe them soon.
I came to the same conclusion when we downsized from a 5+ bedroom house to a 2+ bedroom. Got rid of the “every day” dishes, eat off the good stuff. Sleep only on the good sheets. Kept only the best towels. Very few of them, I might add because why store stuff you don’t use.
Two articles from today’s Washington Post:
pro tip: delete the stuff after “html” in those long URLs. That’s just tracking info (looks like you got those links from FB or some other social media).
^from article linked above
Note to self - donate the four bags from walk-in closet “tidying” soon - before goodwill is overwhelmed and out of space
To add to what @marvin100 said - delete the ? and everything that follows. The link will still work. I have seen parts of people’s email addresses embedded in the tracking info… definitely delete that!!
I follow a couple of bloggers who have small businesses based on thrifting finds - clothes and home goods. They are just reaping in the benefits! Cause not everyone is Kondo’ing - or the Kondo’s are refilling back up!
I wonder if another side effect of Kondo’ing will be a dip in retail sales on all levels.