The Ultimate Decluttering Thread
- Thread starter disneysteve
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Yes, that's one of the hard things, deciding how to organize. A neighbor who just got an enormous shed delivered, stopped over to borrow a digging bar. He said he was going to come over to get some ideas for organizing. They were just throwing things in their new shed. When we built our shed, we knew there would be mowers, rototiller, rakes, shovels, etc and installed hooks, shelves and a half loft for storage. I just finished insulating, sheetrock and electrical in my workshop (separate building) and before any tools or supplies went in I installed cabinets, rolling carts and worktables. Even though my husband planned for this in our garage every drawer was packed and every cabinet filled. Before you dump out the content of drawers or cabinets decide what you want in that spot and buy or make dividers or containers for smaller items so they aren't rolling around. I have a large kitchen and pantry but almost every drawer has plastic or wood containers.
For those of you that are "bothered" or "cringe" at people throwing out good things, please stop. We are not all blessed with the advertising, packaging and shipping gene. Plus I can't imagine tracking my time, packaging supplies, use of printing supplies, wear and tear on your vehicle driving to shipping location. I have a friend that sells and claims they cover their expenses but if they sell something for $20 once or twice a month they must be cheap labor. I'm not retired yet but don't want to spend my free time selling things. We are all different. Sorry for the long ramble.
We are on the 29th year in our house. Replacing the water heater a month ago, we had to move a cabinet to allow access to the water heater. There was a heavy box that both DH and I were wondering what was in there...full of framed photos!!! 2 went to brother, all the rest tossed and the frames donated.
That motivated me to get started looking through my dozen scrapbooks. Pictures we want to keep were pulled out, some going to brother, some to friend, most of them tossed. Still motivated, bags of gardening books went to the library as my thumb is closer to green than black. Still motivated, but don't have the time right now!
jollystomper
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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Today's all day rain here is allowing me to get back to my de-cluttering work 
. In my case, it is computer, electronic equipment, and tools. I am filling up bins with computer boards, computing and electronic equipment, various cables, and tools to take down to a local recycler that buys this stuff by the pound. Much of it works, but is some generations old, and I am too lazy to try to sell on eBay. In addition, I cannot see myself making anything once shipping charges are factored it.
DW's challenge is books. She has at least 5,000 books, and I mentioned she is embarrassed to find that in some case she has multiple copies of the same book, because she forget she had it, or thought she had lost it. A nearby warehouse will pay a few dollars for a copy paper carton full of books. But it is still a struggle as books were her "safe space" when growing up, and she struggles to let go of them. But she is starting to realize that, for probably 90% of them, only she will see any value in them.
. In my case, it is computer, electronic equipment, and tools. I am filling up bins with computer boards, computing and electronic equipment, various cables, and tools to take down to a local recycler that buys this stuff by the pound. Much of it works, but is some generations old, and I am too lazy to try to sell on eBay. In addition, I cannot see myself making anything once shipping charges are factored it.DW's challenge is books. She has at least 5,000 books, and I mentioned she is embarrassed to find that in some case she has multiple copies of the same book, because she forget she had it, or thought she had lost it. A nearby warehouse will pay a few dollars for a copy paper carton full of books. But it is still a struggle as books were her "safe space" when growing up, and she struggles to let go of them. But she is starting to realize that, for probably 90% of them, only she will see any value in them.
EastWest Gal
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
This has been said many times on this forum:
Time > Money
We can add another saying:
Time > Stuff
Then there is this George Carlin routine:
Time > Money
We can add another saying:
Time > Stuff
Then there is this George Carlin routine:
disneysteve
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Decluttering and organizing are two distinctly separate processes. Don't attempt to do them simultaneously.
First do the decluttering. Go through the drawers and closets and boxes and piles and get rid of all the stuff you can get rid of.
Only after you have done that can you shift your focus to organizing. It's impossible to do them at the same time because until you know exactly what you actually have, you can't figure out the best way to organize it.
disneysteve
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That's fine. Give it away. Don't throw it away. There are thrift shops all over the place where you can donate your unwanted items so that they benefit others rather than ending up in a landfill. Or just put stuff out at the curb and post a "curb alert" in your local Facebook groups and people will come and take it. Twice last year I set up a FREE table at the end of our driveway. I loaded it up with stuff, posted a couple of pictures on our town's Facebook group, our Buy Nothing group, and the Freebie Alert app. By the end of the day, 90% of it was gone. What remained I put in a couple of boxes and took over to Goodwill. Nothing usable went in the trash.
In my neighborhood they would take the table and leave everything else.
I tried giving quite a few things away. A friend wanted boxes of copper wire. I waited 4 months and several texts. Moved on to another person and those boxes are still there "you don't mind, do you? you have all that room?". My husband was in the middle of making me a cherry desk when he passed. He had cut out all the pieces and dovetailed all the drawers. After numerous people saying they would take it to finish for me or keep for themselves it's still in my garage after 2 years. Ha, put things out on a table with a big "free" sign stating everything BUT the table. They dumped everything off the table and took the table. Broken glass is hard to get out of the grass. Thrift stores, Goodwill & Habitat don't always take certain items if they have too many. I am one of those people not on Facebook and our little town does not have a Facebook page.
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Keeping bits and bobs is a good idea for someone like me because I accomplish repairs and fabrications without a trip to the hardware store or an order on Amazon.
The key is knowing what you have.
As soon as you're overflowing your capacity to see and find, then you need to cull. But if it's all organized, and you are not overflowing the allocated space, then there's not much harm and considerable utility to having it around.
This is how I manage my hardware as well as my paper filing cabinet. If it gets too crowded, I start tossing stuff until things fit comfortably and I know what I have.
So there is an organizing aspect to it. That takes some time, but I don't mind organizing. I do mind clutter, but I don't consider it clutter if it's useful, organized, I can find things quickly (or know quickly I don't have a 'something').
But power supplies! I've occasionally used one, but it's rare. Those are in a tidy box, and I've even labeled # of volts and DC or AC, but I have way too many. The shelf that the box is on is on the verge of being overcrowded, so I think I'm going to toss the whole box, thanks to this thread.
threeonesix
Recycles dryer sheets
This is one of the things that was nice about moving so often when I was in my 20's. I moved 18 times in 10 years. With every move I would throw stuff away and start afresh. Now I've been in my house for 18 years and am starting to notice a lot of rubbish building up all over the place. There's a landfill 5 miles away and a 15-foot empty trailer next to my house so I guess I know what I'll be doing on weekends the next few months. It's not worth my time or money to take anything to Goodwill; right now all of their stores (3) near me are closed for remodeling, all at the same time. The nearest location would be 130 miles away.
disneysteve
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I actually put a big sign there to take everything but the table. If you're really concerned, just put the stuff out on the ground instead.
disneysteve
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I've never heard of Goodwill examining items before accepting them. I bring cartons of stuff to them all the time. Not once have they ever opened a box prior to me leaving. In fact, half the time I just put the boxes in the bins and drive off without even seeing a worker.
I'm not sure about Habitat as I've never donated to them.
Sengsational, My husband has 2 metal units that contained drawers that were labeled with the content of the drawers such as washers, nuts, bolts, screws. The overflow would go in the attic in the mid-garage. He knew where everything was and could get parts out without jamming the drawer. When he got sick I would dread when he asked for a tool from the mid-garage. I could get the tool out of the drawer in the tool cabinet but had the worst time getting it back in because there were so many tools. Don't get me wrong, the garage was organized and we cleaned off our counters and worktables at the end of the day. If there were wood shavings it was vacuumed each night. Only thing allowed to stay out overnight were when we worked on the cars.
Retired Expat
Full time employment: Posting here.
Never could get my Ex on board…. Hence the Ex part…. But along with living with clutter and hoarding tendencies is a whole plethora of physiological issues that I have only come to understand later…
Chuckanut
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Years ago my wife and I traveled to the mid-West where we stayed with some of her friends I had never met. They told us they had a very nice guest room we could use for our week’s stay in the area. The house had to be at least 6000 sq ft.
When we got there we found a nice room full of furniture and with a big closet. And every drawer, cupboard, closet, shelf, etc.was stuffed with assorted household and personal items. We ended up literally living out of our suitcases after making space on the floor for them.
When we got there we found a nice room full of furniture and with a big closet. And every drawer, cupboard, closet, shelf, etc.was stuffed with assorted household and personal items. We ended up literally living out of our suitcases after making space on the floor for them.
disneysteve
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I've got a similar but even worse story. Several years ago we rented a condo in Richmond, VA through VRBO. We got there and the condo was very nice and very close to downtown and all of the attractions we had come to see. However, the owner, a young guy, had just started renting it out and clearly hadn't put much thought into it. Every closet, every drawer was stuffed full of his personal belongings. How one single guy had that much I have no idea but there was nowhere at all to unpack and put our stuff. We too lived out of our suitcases for the week. Not to mention that in the bathroom, the tub/shower had about a dozen bottles of various hair and skin products lined up as well as an open used bar of soap in the soap dish.
Needless to say, when I gave him my review of the property (privately, I didn't post this for others to read) I explained that if he is going to continue to rent out the place, he needs to provide space for his guests to put their own stuff and make the place look clean and fresh, not filled with used soap and personal care items.
Chuckanut
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I once heard this decluttering advice:
Every day get rid of 5 things. You can use the trash, donate it, or sell it. Don't reuse its space for at least a month. Over time the clutter goes down.
Every day get rid of 5 things. You can use the trash, donate it, or sell it. Don't reuse its space for at least a month. Over time the clutter goes down.
Last edited:
Lisa Lisa
Dryer sheet aficionado
Four years ago we did a major declutter before moving to our forever home. I asked husband who is a "keeper": "Do you want to go through all this stuff and decide where it goes? Or do you want your heirs to do it?" That did the trick.
I moved to a different state last summer. The opportunity came up suddenly, but I had been gradually preparing for some years, so I experienced two types of decluttering. The first is my preferred way, throwing out one thing per day, day after day. I kept a record of it, and it was amusing to look at the spreadsheet and see "4 pr stretched out socks," and "broken bird feeder." That will always be my preference because it is absolutely low stress, can be kept up for months at a time, and provides some amusement. But then, because an opportunity came up, I had to move quickly, and discard without a lot of hesitation. Thankfully, I lived in high-tax New Jersey, which provided fairly ready means to dispose of electronics and hazardous waste and paper records. I offered items in small batches (some never used desk lamps, for example) at my HOA dumpster with a sign. Those that were not taken within a few days went into the dumpster. And one of the best decisions I made was to spend the money and employ on of those junk removal companies. I loved my 25 year old sofa, but doubted anyone would want it and wasn't about to add to my stress by trying to find takers. I left behind whatever my home buyer wanted.
I had little hesitation in simply throwing stuff out. My mother was the absolute opposite of a hoarder - she discarded items readily, and I called upon her spirit when the need arose. My default assumption was "no one would want this." I had watched an elderly neighbor become nearly paralyzed by the need to "find good homes for stuff." I wasn't going to do that to myself.
I moved into a slightly bigger space than what I left, so I'm slightly bemused by the amount of storage I have. I keep reminding myself that I'm older and wiser now, and it's on me not to accumulate without thinking first.
I had little hesitation in simply throwing stuff out. My mother was the absolute opposite of a hoarder - she discarded items readily, and I called upon her spirit when the need arose. My default assumption was "no one would want this." I had watched an elderly neighbor become nearly paralyzed by the need to "find good homes for stuff." I wasn't going to do that to myself.
I moved into a slightly bigger space than what I left, so I'm slightly bemused by the amount of storage I have. I keep reminding myself that I'm older and wiser now, and it's on me not to accumulate without thinking first.
Delawaredave5
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My experiences: little bit each day "mining" out unnecessary. Do NOT get a dumpster - too much stress. Sold stuff cheap on Facebook marketplace- put in front porch, asked people to leave money under door mat. Also did digital de cluttering
We aren't big into buying stuff. There is virtually no clutter in our home that you could see. In the garage we can park both our cars. I built lots of cabinets in the garage and installed hooks and stuff so everything is organized.
All the stuff we could/should get rid of is in cabinets, above the garage or in the attic. It's too easy to ignore it but if we come across something we no longer use we usually just get rid of it on marketplace or buy nothing.
All the stuff we could/should get rid of is in cabinets, above the garage or in the attic. It's too easy to ignore it but if we come across something we no longer use we usually just get rid of it on marketplace or buy nothing.
Janet from FIRE Planet
Dryer sheet aficionado
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We're at the age where we worry about our adult kids having to clean out "stuff" when we die. We continue to have many hobbies and interests , though, and we do not want to donate many of our items right now. I asked AI recently what to do. The AI answer was fabulous (we thought): whomever cleans out your house will have an easier time IF your items are organized & labeled. For instance, if we died, a pile consisting of fabric, yarn, blouses that need buttons, tax forms, books, magazines, clippings, photos, electronic equipment , tools & Blood Pressure machine, etc would be overwhelming for someone to sort through. But if all the fabric, patterns, yarn, needles, tax forms etc were in dedicated ziploc bags or boxes or on a shelf and labeled -as in "...this is my yarn. Please donate" or " "t...his is a sweater I'm knitting. Please donate" or "...these are books I hope to read someday. Please donate" or "...these are photos, take a look to see if you want some. Please destroy the remaining" - the person will know exactly what is in the dedicated area and the person will know exactly what to what to do with the items.This labeling and organizing "stuff" is the key to reducing stress for those who have to make decisions about the items we will leave behind.
disneysteve
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I'm not sure I agree, though I almost never agree with AI crap so that's no surprise.
Your family members sorting through your stuff after you die won't have to think too hard about what to do with fabric, yarn, clothing, books, magazines, tools, electronics, blood pressure machine, etc. All of that stuff is easily donated, sold, or trashed. Stuff with personal info like tax forms get shredded. The only thing they'll actually have to go through, if they so choose, is the photos and any other items that have sentimental value.
When I cleaned out my cousin's house after he died a few years ago, photos were the only thing on your list that I actually went through one by one, tossed nearly all of them, and kept a small number of him and close family members.
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