Tightwad versus De-clutter

You can only prioritise what means "clutter" against "being prepared" based on your own storage capacities/needs.

I loved the theory of buying clothes for children in all different sizes and having labelled boxes all neatly arranged ... but, that wouldn't be practicable in my circumstances (space!). However, what I do tend to do, is to buy one year ahead - for example, this time last year, I spent money in the sales buying up clothes for the lads ready for now; I'm waiting for the prices to reach rock bottom so I can do the same again this year, although I have bought some already.

I'm slowly but surely working my way through the clutter in our home .. but a lot of what's stored is from when dh was married to his first wife :rolleyes: (loooooong time ago ... looooooots of hidden clutter!).

Once I have those spaces, maybe I'll be a bit more generous to what I will store ahead and what I won't My personal priorities (which might equate to someone else's clutter) are fabrics, books, notions, books, certain magazines and erm ... books. I also view TWG as a great book but not all of her ideas are suited to my way of doing things; so I take from it that which suits and disregard the rest.

I think a bit of a key to marrying the two styles is not to buy things you don't actually *need*. A few pieces of packaging from food like ice cream tubs, don't create clutter alone. Clutter often tends to come from things we buy thinking "we'll use them sometime" or "that's a bargain" and it doesn't turn out to be the case.

squiggles - dye them? Wear with thick socks? Charity shop???? Some things just aren't moneysaving in the longer term :whistle:

I only have a small house and I'm a tidy person so I declutter once a month. I do find that there are some things that I do hang on to eg margarine pots are great for the freezer but I have allocated spaces for them. With glass jars and bottles that I know will be used [other ones go straight into recycling] I have a cardboard box in the garage. Once it's full I then put all subsequent jars into recycling or I swap one. You have to be fairly ruthless. I also have a box in our spare room next to the pc where I keep scrap paper for lists etc. It also pays to regularly check what you've got pinned up on your notice board and what's in your intray if like me you have one for post. I even have a drawer for receipts for doing accounts so I can shred them monthly. I buy clothes a year in advance for my son and then keep them in the top of his wardrobe in bags etc etc I even keep a bag going for stuff for the charity shop on the go all the time so I can keep slinging stuff in there [I've just turned out all summer clothes that small person has outgrown in preparation for the jumble sale coming up this Sat]. I've also got my own small craft basket that sits behind my arm chair [I,m one for hiding things] and an old linen basket in my bedroom where I keep all my lovely scrap fabrics and odds and ends of ribbon. I pretty much know what I've got most of the time but maybe I'm a bit anal about it all. I like to have organised and manageable treasures!!
Aril

I'm quite good at decluttering*, and often don't need to resort to the one year rule.

To implement my one year rule, if I come across some items that I'm just not sure its right to get rid of I put them out of sight somewhere, usually in a box in the loft. I write the date on the box.

If I find I need it, then it comes back. But usually, once its in the loft it's forgotten.

Every so often when I am in the loft I pull out the boxes that are oder than a year and if I - or my DH - haven't missed the item then I dispose of it (sell/freecycle/charity shop).

I do the same sort of things with my husbands clothes. He never wants to get rid of old stuff...so I just secrete it away into a drawer in the spare room. If he hasn't missed it one year later, I get rid of it.

*I once had to empty my grandfathers house. He literally never threw ANYTHING away because it "might come in handy". "e found boxes and boxes of empty sugar packets, egg boxes, and Pedigree Chum tins, and newspapers going back about thirty years. You couldn't move in his house for crap. This cured me of any hoarding habit I might have been harbouring! Now if we find ourselves saying that something might "come in handy" it goes straight in the "one year box".