It's hard clearing out the clutter II

[anykey]

Thanks for your suggestions on "It's hard clearing out the clutter"

I must say it a pity so many of you hijack the thread and talk amongst yourselves - is that how you threads the posters here? It made me feel very cross

And the number of you that said I should have moved years ago. What use is that :
There's me struggling to throw away a souvenir, and you tell me to get a degree in hindsight. Thanks

It's all very well telling me what "you have done years ago". I was looking for the answer to How to deal with it myself. And I meant now, here today, in my present circumstances.

On the other hand there were some empathetic suggestions. Thank You

 

[Fireup2020]

Welcome to the board 8)

Hijacking is commonplace here, yet more often than not, somewhat beneficial and amusing.

If you haven't used or seen it in a long time - ebay, craigslist, freecycle, donate, or toss it.

Watch Clean Sweep (TLC) or Mission Organization (HGTV?) for motivation.

Hang in there & take breaks with beverages of your choice

 

[REWahoo]

I must say it a pity so many of you hijack the thread and talk amongst yourselves - is that how you threads the posters here? It made me feel very cross

Compared to most, your thread stayed true to topic. Not one mention of annuities, paying off the mortgage, or waiting until 70 to take SS. Nor did anyone post photos of scantily clad young women...although I haven't entirely given up hope.

 

[Achiever51]

One of the posters on the original clutter thread suggested scanning important documents and I agree it's a good way to consolidate the important paperwork.

One way I've been able to part with sentimental "treasures" is by taking a picture of the item(s) and in some cases selectively keeping only one of a group, getting rid of the others. I've learned long ago that the stuff isn't what's important, it's the memories around the event that prompted the stuff in the first place. So, yes, I've been able to toss all kinds of trophies/plaques/certificates/programs/keepsakes/and on and on after taking a picture of it and adding it to my digital scrapbook along with a line or two of notation.

For the stuff I (or DH) think we just gotta save and cannot even think of parting with, we pack these items in boxes and paste a list of contents with the date packed. If the box has not been opened in 1 to 2 years, we know it's excess and/or obsolete...and gone.

 

[Texas Proud]

Thanks for your suggestions on "It's hard clearing out the clutter"

I must say it a pity so many of you hijack the thread and talk amongst yourselves - is that how you threads the posters here? It made me feel very cross

And the number of you that said I should have moved years ago. What use is that :
There's me struggling to throw away a souvenir, and you tell me to get a degree in hindsight. Thanks

It's all very well telling me what "you have done years ago". I was looking for the answer to How to deal with it myself. And I meant now, here today, in my present circumstances.

On the other hand there were some empathetic suggestions. Thank You

Have not read the other thread, nor this one yet..... but I will say what my sister says "CLUTTER BUSTERS"...

 

[SecondCor521]

You could also try:

http://www.flylady.net

2Cor521

 

[Moemg]

Don't take the hijacking seriously .It's all in good fun !

 

[SteveR]

Thanks for your suggestions on "It's hard clearing out the clutter"

I must say it a pity so many of you hijack the thread and talk amongst yourselves - is that how you threads the posters here? It made me feel very cross

And the number of you that said I should have moved years ago. What use is that :
There's me struggling to throw away a souvenir, and you tell me to get a degree in hindsight. Thanks

It's all very well telling me what "you have done years ago". I was looking for the answer to How to deal with it myself. And I meant now, here today, in my present circumstances.

On the other hand there were some empathetic suggestions. Thank You

Ok, first of all...take a few deep breaths and relax. Clutter can be cured.

You got a lot of good suggestions from a number of fine folks on the board. There are many ways to di-spose of de clutter.

One of the best tips I got from a widow/widower board is frequented after my DW died was to make three piles of the stuff you spouse (or yourself in this case) left behind.

Create three piles:
Pile #1--those items you will clearly not want to keep.

Pile#2--those items you clearly WANT to keep.

Pile#3--those items you are not sure about.

Pack up Pile #1 and give away, sell, or dump.

Pack up Pile #2 and store with a label as to the general contents of the box(s).

Pack up Pile #3 and store for 6 months. At the end of six months take out the contents of Pile #3 and

Create three piles:
Pile #1--those items you will clearly not want to keep.

Pile#2--those items you clearly WANT to keep.

Pile#3--those items you are not sure about.

Pack up Pile #1 and give away, sell, or dump.

Pack up Pile #2 and store with a label as to the general contents of the box(s).

Pack up Pile #3 and store for 6 months.

Repeat until all you have are items for pile #2.



As for where to get rid of items.

For my DW's work clothes I took them to the local Jr. League. They use them for women who are just entering the workforce and need clothes for interviews and for work.

I also had friends ask around and Igave away many many items to people they knew that were in need of clothing.

What was left went to the Cancer Federation for resale.

Every year we purge the closets to some degree and once the pile is big enough we call some charity and they come and take it away.

With furniture we do the same thing...family first...then their friends. So far we have been successul in getting family member to find people they know or work with to pick up the stuff. I would much rather give stuff away to folks that we "know" that clearly need it. We have even worked out a few barter deals where I got some much needed work done and they got some very nice and lightly used furniture for a few hours of work.

Craigs list is good and I sold all my cabin toys using it.

Freecycle scares me a little. We did one item this way but met them in a parking lot in a public area. It was a bother and for small items to me is not worth it.

Ebay is also an option if you have the time and the patients.

Consignment shops are also and option. We have made a few bucks on some old jewlery (50:50) split of the sales price with the shop so don't expect too much.

Of course the final option is the trash.

There are many ways to get rid of the clutter. The first thing is to decide what to keep and what to toss. The rest is easy.

 

[samclem]

Thanks for your suggestions on "It's hard clearing out the clutter"

I must say it a pity so many of you hijack the thread and talk amongst yourselves - is that how you threads the posters here? It made me feel very cross
. . .
On the other hand there were some empathetic suggestions. Thank You

Okay, so you just want the "main event"-- no flowers, no dinner no movie . . .

[size=10pt]Throw away the stuff you don't need.[/size]

There!

 

[bright eyed]

just don't mention anything in the thread that gives opportunities to walk into the hijack quicksand round these parts including:
boobs, bbq, annuities, surfing, iraq/war/bush, gas/oil, or market timing...did i say boobs?

did i miss any?

 

[bssc]

If you haven't used it or it hasn't touched you in a year, I would recommend tossing it out.

Scan any magazine or newspaper articles that are not about you personally, if you think that they would be valuable. Go through your books, CDs and DVDs.

 

[brewer12345]

Put it all in your driveway, pour gasoline over it, and touch it off with an M-80. Problem solved.

Now, have you decided whether to pay off your mortgage?

 

[WM]

I've recommended this book here before, but I found Karen Kingston's "Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui" (or however you spell it) to be extremely helpful. Parts of the book are very new-age, but other chapters are very practical in making you sort through your attachment to your clutter.

Also, get a friend to help you. It's always easier to get rid of other people's stuff

 

[citrine]

Just wanted to thank everyone....I was inspired to get rid of everything in my house that I don't absolutely love, have worn in the last year, or fit into for the last two years! I am also going to be selling all of my living room furniture....a bit radical, but I can expand my studio and get a nice tax write off to boot!

 

[W2R]

Just wanted to thank everyone....I was inspired to get rid of everything in my house that I don't absolutely love, have worn in the last year, or fit into for the last two years! I am also going to be selling all of my living room furniture....a bit radical, but I can expand my studio and get a nice tax write off to boot!

Good!! This thread has inspired me, as well. I decided that it's time to get rid of a lot of my old professional journals. I'll start with those more than ten years old. You would not believe how heavy they are! What an albatross. I could not bear to throw them out last summer (when I last combed through my things to throw out stuff), but now I think I am ready. I surely do not want to move them when I retire and move north in a couple of years.

I plan to get rid of most of my furniture, eventually, to further simplify the move north. That will be hard!! But realistically, it makes sense to sell it and buy new furniture that fits the new house when I move, and this will also minimize the cost of the move.

 

[Martha]

We are putting our place up for sale and I have spent a few days paring down what is in our apartment so it looks nice, spacious and uncluttered. Our garage is getting too full. I have been trying to get rid of stuff on Craigslist with minimal success. The first few days I got rid of a few things at full price. Now nothing. I wish I could get rid of that dang bat house that was never used.

I did take some things to Goodwill that I couldn't sell, but no one at Goodwill is going to know the box with an opening at the bottom is a bat house.

 

[Lakedog]

I wish I could get rid of that dang bat house that was never used.

I did take some things to Goodwill that I couldn't sell, but no one at Goodwill is going to know the box with an opening at the bottom is a bat house.

I have been thnking about building a bat house but haven't gotten around to it yet. How big is your bat house -- too difficult/expensive to ship? PM me if you still need a home for it.

 

[Brat]

I think the OP is grappling with the emotional process, not the mechanics. DH and I have been going through the same. Each of us have accumulated our parent's treasures. A few we both enjoy.

The question is what to do with the rest. Our kids aren't into glassware from the 30s. We are planning to downsize so keeping it really isn't an option.

DH is now 'into' EBay. It doesn't bring much but I think the process of taking gazillion pictures and writing a description is a part of his grieving process. It has taken a humongous amount of time but he has great pride in the modest return.

Most of the things, so far, have been from my side. When I mention the box of old double size (frankly ragged) quilts that haven't been touched in at least 15 years he bristles. Sigh... At least I hope my nephew's bride will welcome grandpa's cradle and he will have one less thing to use for deflection. When we get down to the Boy Scout Handbooks and the Lionel trains from the 40s, and his long deceased aunt's napkin ring collection we are hitting deep. Good thing we aren't planning to move for a year.

 

[Martha]

Greg has very few family things and is gradually going to give the few things away to neice and nephews.

I have too much family stuff--too much furniture from grandparents plus dishes and other stuff. One of my sisters doesn't have much of anything but doesn't want the family stuff. She says she likes the sparse look in her home. Another sister is too far away. I haven't been able to let go; too sentimental. So, we will end up moving way too much stuff.

 

[flipstress]

I did take some things to Goodwill that I couldn't sell, but no one at Goodwill is going to know the box with an opening at the bottom is a bat house.

Martha, what if you labeled it "BAT HOUSE" using a taped piece of paper? Not being cheeky, but just simple-minded. Oh, and if you were good at lettering, you could paint it in nice letters on the bat house itself.

My BF would probably like one but we have a small yard with a few small trees.

Good luck with unloading the bat house and with the cleaning process for the move! It's better to keep and move with you the sentimental-value items than later regret giving them away too soon. You can always give them away when you are ready to part with them.

 

[HFWR]

Or "bat room"...

 

[flipstress]

Absolutely!
...or BAT MANSION or BAT CONDO,
all better than BAT HOUSE for marketing purposes.

 

[Celany]

This weekend, I went crazy with clearing out the clutter! 4 medium sized garbage bags of clothing so far (and I've got at least one more garbage bag worth of stuff to get rid of), many random nick-nacks, cheap little gifts that I'd been given over the years & almost afraid throw away, old nasty shoes, old nasty jars of food that went bad years ago, & other assorted things.

We also built some new ikea wardrobes, & getting that done was a big inspiration, as I went through everything in the old wardrobe & reevaluated if I really wanted it, before putting it in the new one.

As for the emotional side of clutter, my mom is a hoarder to the toes, and I was, for a really long time. I couldn't even sleep in my own bed, unless there was stuff on it with me. I'm not sure exactly what made me want to change, except that, although I love my mom, she can be a mean, nasty person & for some reason I associated the clutter with that. maybe because she gets so insanely pissed if anyone brings it up to her.

My best friend & I went to visit & stayed with my parents last weekend, & I think staying there, where most of their 4 bedroom house is 'off limit's, due to the fact that it's so full of **** that there are little pathways through the rooms (if there are any pathways at all) may have inspired me to go crazy getting rid of my stuff (although it also seriously worried me - it's scary bad, I worry about mice & things catching on fire all the time).

Now all I need to do is convince my SO to go through his stuff & get rid of it. he's not a hoarder, but despite telling me for MONTHS that he'll go through his stuff, he rarely does it. I don't know what to do at this point, because I'm afraid to sound naggy, but I'm sick of living with cardboard boxes full of old papers pushed up against the walls of the living room! I want to have the kind of house where, if something has to go in a box, then that box can go in a CLOSET and not sit out & be an permanent eyesore.

 

[ERD50]

This has helped me:

Choose a specific category of 'stuff' one day. Gather all the similar items of that category together from all over the house. I find, that when I realize I have seventeen of the same item that I haven't used in 10 years, and five other similar items, it is a lot easier to part with them. Or maybe I decide to keep *one* of them.

Before I tried this approach, I'd go through stuff a little at a time, and over a period of time. I often didn't realize that I had similar stuff in different areas (basement, garage, closet, etc). Each time I'd keep the two or three things, thinking I might need it some day.

I'm whittling my pack rat collection down. But I'm also picking up some stuff from in-laws that are downsizing from a house to retirement apartment. I'm being selective in what I take, and I will get rid of it if I decide it isn't worth keeping.

Like others have said, with mementos, you may realize that keeping just one small thing is enough to remind you of the event or whatever.

Good luck,

-ERD50

 

[CuppaJoe]

To get the momentum going, I start with the underwear drawer, no need for three boxes, storing for a while to see if they are missed, or re-using as rags, just toss them, then after that success, I move on to another area.

I live in an apartment building but there are not enough storage rooms so I store my old stuff in a burned out area of the basement. Every once in a while the landlord hires someone to dispose of the stuff in "common areas." Gives us a couple of weeks warning and I rescue what I want. I find I can be more ruthless this way; last time he missed a whole section of my stuff and I was disappointed. I also have a charity pick up my better stuff.