Minimal effort for maximum decluttering

[ExFlyBoy5]

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the Marie Kondo “Joy of Tidying Up” approach. She has a very specific process that makes sense to me. Instead of going room by room, group like items together from all rooms. Clothes are often the easiest to start on. Get rid of things that are worn out, don’t fit, are out of style, etc. Then organize so all like items are visible and together, instead of storing like items in different locations. Many more tips if you read the easy reading book.

We watched one of her shows on Netflix. Perhaps her method is useful to some, but I found the act of holding on to a single item, thanking it for its service and then placing in a pile to be a HUGH time suck. If folks really have THAT MUCH STUFF, they don't have time to "thank" 1,223,883 items.

While decluttering our own place (and my Dad's after he passed), I found just going room to room and assigning value to things to make it easier. Almost a triage if you will.

1- Must keep, no question
2- Like to have, but not necessary
3- Goodwill
4- Trash

We set a limit to the categories 1&2...in my Dad's house case, only what could fit into a single storage area of (pick your size) the rest was 3 or 4. For our house, the garage items were limited to a specific area and the rest was 3 or 4. Anyway, you get the point. When we finally got moved to our new place, it was very refreshing to have so little "stuff"...plus we saved a significant amount of money not having to move thousands of pounds of stuff 1,000+ miles.

 

[Koolau]

It's one of those inexplicable, irony-of-life situations that consumer items are rarely worth 10% of purchase price by the time you get them home. Word to the wise is (1) don't buy them next time. (2) Give what you have to charity. (3) Repeat 1 and 2. YMMV

 

[Scuba]

Not a factor for the OP since you must be of an age when photos were printed...but my recent decluttering victory came from buying a fast photo scanner; put 36 photos in the hopper and they're in the trash can in 30 seconds, saved locally and in the cloud. Boom! The ones in the albums were more time consuming, but pound for pound, still a win since the albums themselves were so bulky. And I can SEE the pictures better on the big TV too!


Probably 100 pounds of albums and photos dumped. Multiple shelves now comfortablly empty.

What brand/model of scanner did you use? We need to do this. Thanks.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the Marie Kondo “Joy of Tidying Up” approach. She has a very specific process that makes sense to me. Instead of going room by room, group like items together from all rooms. Clothes are often the easiest to start on. Get rid of things that are worn out, don’t fit, are out of style, etc. Then organize so all like items are visible and together, instead of storing like items in different locations. Many more tips if you read the easy reading book.

I wasn't a big fan of the book, but have been a follower on her TV show. We went through all of our clothes so far and gave away quite a bit. It feels good seeing big bags of stuff leave the house.

 

[pb4uski]

What brand/model of scanner did you use? We need to do this. Thanks.

+1 DW has been wanting for one too.

 

[Music Lover]

It's one of those inexplicable, irony-of-life situations that consumer items are rarely worth 10% of purchase price by the time you get them home. Word to the wise is (1) don't buy them next time. (2) Give what you have to charity. (3) Repeat 1 and 2. YMMV

Imagine seeing something you can't decide whether or not to purge at a garage sale. Would you buy it? If not, get rid of it.

 

[Paracelsus]

We have a local tech dump that we take all our out of date technology gadgets. If they are still working, you can claim the value for charitable giving. Otherwise things are erased to not have any account info on them, and recycled well by component.

 

[Scrapr]

We have a local tech dump that we take all our out of date technology gadgets. If they are still working, you can claim the value for charitable giving. Otherwise things are erased to not have any account info on them, and recycled well by component.

I E cycled a Kindle about 10 years ago. About a month or 2 later small charges started showing up on my Amazon account. A bit later 2 i phones.

I suspect that the recycle center was the culprit. But of course no proof. So now I damage the hard drives before E cycling

 

[deserat]

Not a factor for the OP since you must be of an age when photos were printed...but my recent decluttering victory came from buying a fast photo scanner; put 36 photos in the hopper and they're in the trash can in 30 seconds, saved locally and in the cloud. Boom! The ones in the albums were more time consuming, but pound for pound, still a win since the albums themselves were so bulky. And I can SEE the pictures better on the big TV too!


Probably 100 pounds of albums and photos dumped. Multiple shelves now comfortablly empty.

Which photo scanner did you use/buy for that task? Would it also work on documents?

Sorry for the repeat request - just went straight to the posting area after reading your post Seems like your information is much anticipated....

 

[tb001]

Which photo scanner did you use/buy for that task? Would it also work on documents?

Sorry for the repeat request - just went straight to the posting area after reading your post Seems like your information is much anticipated....

Yes! I almost asked as well