Purging the house

[Teacher Terry]

When I decluttered I like to hit it hard and work for hours most days. Depending on my mood I have sold it and given it away.

 

[Scusan]

When I moved in with DGF around 15 years ago, I had to get rid of some extra "stuff". I tend to keep things around, especially if there is a place for them. (If not, I find a place...!)

Two things helped me:

1. Trash Night. I approached things with a different paradigm, brought a trash bag from room to room asking "what can I throw out in here?" Some nights, I'd just fill the trash can. Others, I'd have 4 extra black bags n the curb before I realized what happened. It was like the goal became throwing stuff away vs putting it away.

2. Dumpster Rental, as previously mentioned. Thought a 5 yard one would be enough, rented a 20 yard one and arranged to keep it the whole 10 days. With all that space (that I had paid for) and the ease of discarding stuff, it was full by the time they came for it.

Good Luck in moving forward in your life!!

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Well, this thread has been a wake-up call for me. We moved into our current house back in late 2018. We purged A LOT prior to our move (the one move that the USAF didn't pay for) and we were very happy with all the empty drawers and cabinets. Well, today I see that isn't the case anymore. My DW is moving her cell service to AT&T so I went looking for an older phone to use for porting/activating. I didn't find what I was looking for, but it occurred to me that we now have FOUR junk drawers that are full to the brim!! How in the world did THAT happen?!? I have an idea that if I looked at my AMZN order history, I would find an answer.

 

[brett]

It took us about four 'swoops' to purge our home prior to selling.

We traveled for part of a year, rented furnished apts for the balance, and then moved into what we thought was a short term rental of a one bedroom condo. Turned out to be four years before we purchased another home.

That intervening time helped to train us not to keep unwanted junk. The key for us was not having a basement or indeed three or four extra bedrooms where we could park things out of sight in order to avoid making a sensible decision.

Even now, three or four years later we catch ourselves holding on to things that we have no need for. So every two or three months something gets tossed or given away.

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, a 20 yard dumpster works good. So far between my house, my wife's house and my parents house I've rented 6 of them.

 

[Bamaman]

First I moved from ATL to a smaller home in AL.
Then my parents sold their home in the city (and lived at the lake.)
They moved to MEM where my sister could care for them.
My aunt had a large home we liquidated when she had to go to assisted living.
Then we moved into a really big house we bought as a foreclosure cheap.

I ended up with a double car garage, a single car garage and a 4 car garage full of "stuff". We took the best furniture and garaged the rest.

Simply put, I've been moving someone and something most of the last 12 years of my retirement. And I'm tired. No one's best friends should be the heavy equipment operators at their city dump.

We recently moved down 1000 square feet, and I have another triple car garage so packed I cannot walk thru it. Here we go again.

You know, we're now about 70, and we shouldn't be such a future physical burden on our children that have no need for any of this stuff. I guess more trips to the dump are in our future. But I'm at least down to 3 trips per month.

 

[O2Bfree]

I wish my mom would hear what so many folks here are saying, that the younger generation doesn't wasn't want most of the older gen's stuff. And that if you haven't needed it in a few years, you can do without it. She'll be 91 in a few days and still has three storage units plus a spare bedroom in her apartment full of stuff. She's had stuff in storage for over six years and is currently paying $324/mo for it. That's well over $20,000 so far. It would have been more if we hadn't kept some of the stuff in our garage for over a year. The only things we've needed to retrieve so far have been a few pictures that she gave to her neices and some paperwork for taxes. I've told her that if we move to another area, we are not taking all that stuff with us. I've given up for awhile trying to talk her into getting rid of things. She gets emotional about it, saying that we just don't understand about memories and such.

 

[Sunset]

Long ago I used to work for a non-profit that provided housing for disabled folks.

We always appreciated it, when folks were going to purge a house, if they would phone us.
The donors of course wanted to get rid of everything, which we could not accept, but we could take numerous things and everything we took was put to good use.

It is some extra work, but if you have the time, I recommend checking with local charities to see if they need anything before filling a dumpster.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I wish my mom would hear what so many folks here are saying, that the younger generation doesn't wasn't want most of the older gen's stuff. And that if you haven't needed it in a few years, you can do without it. She'll be 91 in a few days and still has three storage units plus a spare bedroom in her apartment full of stuff. She's had stuff in storage for over six years and is currently paying $324/mo for it. That's well over $20,000 so far. It would have been more if we hadn't kept some of the stuff in our garage for over a year. The only things we've needed to retrieve so far have been a few pictures that she gave to her neices and some paperwork for taxes. I've told her that if we move to another area, we are not taking all that stuff with us. I've given up for awhile trying to talk her into getting rid of things. She gets emotional about it, saying that we just don't understand about memories and such.

The Washington Post has had some impactful articles on how many younger people are refusing to use or keep all their parents' stuff as previous generations did; so much so that I've linked to them fairly often in the last few years. These are mainly for you, although you might want to share them with your mom:

• Americans are pack rats. Swedes have the solution: ‘Death cleaning.’
• ‘Anything you want, take it’: A downsizing party after 45 years in the same house
• Stuff it: Millennials nix their parents’ treasures

 

[brett]

Even after purging and moving our life into an 8X8X16 container we do silly things.

In my case it was an electric tile saw. Into the container for a year. Moved into the condo storage locker for four years. Moved again to our home.

It sat under the garage steps for another two years until I finally gave it away to a neighbour. Same for a few other items. Still don't know why I 'saved' them, let alone move bothered to move them. We still have a few boxes of fine china in the basement. Same story....moved and never used along with some crystal glassware. It has been in boxes for eight years.

 

[candrew]

Our attitude changed dramatically after we de cluttered, sold, and traveled for an extended period.

We stopped keeping things that we did not need or want. Perhaps it was because of retirement. Our focus gradually switched from 'things' to 'experiences'.

+1

In preparation for our E.R. 4 years ago, we embarked upon a de-cluttering campaign in all aspects of our lives. In addition to home/belongings, we also de-cluttered a few relationships in the process.

We've traveled almost perpetually for 3-1/2 years, living out of backpacks with only occasional, short term visits back to the U.S. - until the virus. Those travel experiences helped us more clearly define what are truly "needs" from "wants".

Completely agree about the experiential vs. the material. Reflecting upon the incredible experiences we've had tramping about the planet brings a fondness that no material thing ever could.

 

[O2Bfree]

The Washington Post has had some impactful articles on how many younger people are refusing to use or keep all their parents' stuff as previous generations did; so much so that I've linked to them fairly often in the last few year. These are mainly for you, although you might want to share them with your mom:

• Americans are pack rats. Swedes have the solution: ‘Death cleaning.’
• ‘Anything you want, take it’: A downsizing party after 45 years in the same house
• Stuff it: Millennials nix their parents’ treasures

Thanks, I'll read them. I've tried to share such articles with her, and the AARP magazine she gets often has such articles. But she just gets emotional about her stuff and says we don't understand. She's been so upset lately about the virus and the protests in the area that I'm not going to bother bringing up the storage again anytime soon.

 

[partition1]

Freecycle and local FB freebie pages are what we are using to get rid of all our cr@p.

Curbside "free" piles work too.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We either sell or give away stuff we no longer need. Thrift stores will also pick up stuff with a truck. We never throw away anything in decent shape. Someone else can use it.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I wish my mom would hear what so many folks here are saying, that the younger generation doesn't wasn't want most of the older gen's stuff.

My in-laws are getting up there in age (mid 70s) and are still running several businesses. None of the kids are interested in the businesses and there is no monetary reason for them to keep running them. Nonetheless, in addition to the business inventory (and a lot of large equipment), they have not just a bunch of storage places, FIL has two warehouses that are STUFFFED with crap that he's accumulated over the years at auctions and such. Think of American Pickers, but on crack cocaine. If they don't deal with this MESS, it's going to an absolute pain for the three kids and I do NOT look forward to it.

 

[Scrapr]

A few years ago we downsized from the "big" house to our vacation home. Vacation home was half the size. At that point we had it for 12 years so it had everything Mrs Scrapr needed to live there all summer. So essentially 1 whole house had to go. We purged prior to the sale/showings. Then when the rubber hit the road it was mayhem. A bunch was donated to a local church. Some stuff to the house cleaners. I think our employees got a bunch. Basically, if anyone said they "liked" something we told them to take it. LOL I own a trash business so it is not a problem to get rid of stuff. We just wanted anything with any value to go to someone that would use it

 

[LARS]

Thanks, I'll read them. I've tried to share such articles with her, and the AARP magazine she gets often has such articles. But she just gets emotional about her stuff and says we don't understand. She's been so upset lately about the virus and the protests in the area that I'm not going to bother bringing up the storage again anytime soon.

At age 91 the War is lost. No need for any more battles with your mother on the topic.

Just accept the fact that when she's gone you'll have more of a mess to clean up than you'd wish.

 

[brett]

If DW would agree ( alas,she won't) I would very happily sell up again, move everything into a container, and travel for a year or two with long stops along the way. Not nearly as much to discard this time around but I have no doubt that half of our belongings, etc. could 'go'.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I'm also trying to use the time at home for purging the clutter. I try to pick one category of items every few days. Once I did umbrellas and I think we must have had at least 40 umbrellas all in different parts of the house. I put one in each car, kept a few for the coat closet and donated the rest. Last week I did cleaning rags and old towels. We kept some and were able to throw out a huge recycling bag full. Last night I started on the pots and pans. We cook quite a bit with small appliances like the Instant pot and rice cooker these days, as they use a lot less electricity than our built in appliances and don't heat up the house as much in summer. I'm thinking of just keeping three pots and pans in the kitchen, maybe put a couple with the camping gear and donating the rest.

We've seen how much stuff people have at estate sales and how much stuff some of our friends have had to go through of their parents. I don't want our adult kids to have to take weeks or months out of their lives getting rid of our stuff once we pass or become incapacitated.