Help needed to throw things out

HOLsale

i used to be such a pack rat, but i'm reformed... 2 events made this happen

1st event
my father and i had been seperated by my moms side of the family. after 19 years we found each other and after awhile i decided to move from indiana to texas to live with him but we could only take what i could fit into my dads people carrier minus the space taken by me, my dad and my stepmom


2nd event
i moved from texas to scotland. i couldn't afford to take anything more than my luggage allowance so i had to pack my clothes and the most important parts of my life in 2 large suitcases, a large carry on bag and an enormous handbag

that was hard!

after that, i realised that i didn't need to hang on to so much stuff

the hardest part was throwing away old photo's. 90% of them meant very little to me but it still seems wrong somehow but i had to do it. i only took the photos that really brought a smile to my face, and everytime i look at them they still do, so i guess i brought the right ones!

unfortunately my dh is still very much a packrat. he's gotten much better in the 6 years we've been married but he is still pretty bad about it and we have rows during major cleanups. i often just clean things when he's not around and get rid of stuff then, he has only ever noticed once and even then he begrudgingly admited i was right to give the item away.

for anyone that is having a hard time getting rid of stuff, sometimes it is easier if you give it away to people you know, or even selling it. i know this helped me alot when i moved from texas to scotland. i needed extra money so the non sentimental items were good for that. i had some lovely antiques that i gave to a dear friend of mine that had always loved them, that felt really good

you could also offer things up on freecycle, go through bookcrossing for old books, charity shops of course or you can check out the forum in my signature (sorry, couldn't resist)

it's hard to give things up sometimes, i used to be so sentimental, i do understand! i think that many people use the 'it might be useful' thing when what they are really saying is 'what if i don't have enough' sometimes the absence of 'stuff' is scary, it reminds us of times when maybe we didn't have enough or what it might be like to not have all the creature comforts... quite frankly i now prefer to look at it as 'well, someone else can use these things and i can have some space to move... plus i get to teach my daughter about charity and recycling' it's a thought that has served me very well indeed

sans_2

Bogof_Babe wrote:

ISo far my main problem is clothes I don't wear (well they still fit even if they have been stuffing up my wardrobe for 10 years without seeing light of day) and piles of unread newspapers. Now this is where the problem lies - I cannot come to terms with chucking out papers that I have spent good money on. I don't get any new ones now, except one on Saturdays which has the TV guide, but the accumulated backlog of 2002/2003 (yes really ::)) papers is just sitting in a pile on my spare room floor.

Every time I think I really must have a clear out, I start reading one of them and although the "news" is stale, all the features and letters are still worth a look, so I make little progress.

The trouble is I spend far too much spare time on the Internet, and also reading for any length of time gives me eyestrain, even with my glasses.

One day I will make a determined effort and take them to the recycling bank, but I am waiting for that dawn of enlightenment when I finally see the light! It drives my husband potty - he keeps on about fire hazards!

Best of luck, and perhaps we can encourage eachother in this. Hey, maybe we could start a support group - Clutterers Anonymous?

Regarding your papers, if you can't bear to throw them out because you spend good money on them perhaps if you had a spare bit of time you could take out any celebrity; pop or film star clippings (keeping the full page would be ideal for dates etc). Once you have collated a reasonable pile put them on Ebay for sale. If it is an old magazine you have with a celebrity on the cover again list the full mag on Ebay if intact and in good condition. I should know as I have brought clippings on my favourite stars and sold clippings too. After all I have an unhealthy habit of buying around 5-7 mags a week to get that 'must have' articles on my favourit star. It's expensive been a fan, especially so when it is for 15 years x 3 pop stars.

sans_2

Reading this thread has inspired me to pull out half the contents in my wardrobe which shouldn't be there (thunkfully Hubby not back until Friday), so now have boxes and piles of stuff scattered in livingroom, bedroom and sons's bedroom. Slowly sorting through stuff, unfortunatly being a hoarder not managing to throw out much, although feel so sood about the rubbish I am throwing out. Also been addicted to watching Kim and Aggie on cable most of the day before I got myself off my backside to go through my own stuff instead of looking at peoples dirty houses.

jayne_just_learning

I haven't read all the threads in this post so forgive me if I'm repeating others. I'm an anti-clutter person myself which is great when everything is going well but day to day life gets in the way, visitor's arrive for example, and stuff gets hidden into drawers or cupboards and promptly forgotten about - out of sight out of mind . . . until you really need to find what you did with that letter or statment and waste half an hour looking for it . . .

My best method in the end for dealing with my mountain of post is:

1. Be ruthless when you open your mail. I love flicking through catalogues and would keep things on the side to 'look at later'. Later rarely came and instead I started creating a mountain of paperwork in the kitchen, half rubbish half stuff I couldn't afford anyway.

2. With things like utility bills and statements you need to keep, make sure you throw out all the 'extra' bits in the envelope you don't need like special offers/code of practice/marketing material. I throw the envelope too. What's left either gets filed straight away or goes into a 'pending filing' basket (an old shoe box would do) so if I need it before I've had time to properly file it I only have to look in one place.

3. when you file one new bill/statement (I always file new ones on top) throw out the one on the bottom. I only keep one year for bank/credit cards and 2 years for utilities. As you throw away january's gas bill from 2 years ago you can also compare it to your current bill for the same quarter and see if you are using more or less energy.

4. When I get new documentation for things like insurance I tend to keep it all in the envelope it arrived in. Often it will contain many different documents and policy booklets so once I've opened it and checked it I write on the front something like 'Home Contents Insurance 2006' and make sure I ditch the 2005 envelope at the same time.

5. I have one big box file where I keep all my instruction booklets and guarantees. You tend to need these at first to work out how to master the basics of your strimmer/ juicer / TV set but then seldom need them until something goes wrong or you need to replace the strimmer wire or something. I find it useful to keep everything in one place rather than having things in the rooms you might associate with the appliance works best for me.

6. For post you have to do something with, eg pay a bill, make an appointment, rather than putting it to one side if you can't do it there and then, put the item in your handbag (sorry guys). Then when you are passing the bank/post box/have 5 minutes you can deal with it rather than thinking 'I wish I hadn't left that at home today'. Also everytime you go in your bag you'll remind yourself what you need to do!

7. Finally for those who have to do tax returns, I start each year with a simple A4 envelope and put all my relevant paperwork, pay slips, interest statments, etc in it and when I come to complete the return I know all of the information I need will be in one place.

Hope my tips might be of use to others :-)

wilf55

Need to order 6 more wheelie bins for it all

3 rolls of bin bags...

4 boxes..

2 skips..

Gers

I am in the midst of decluttering the kitchen and have taken a tip from here to use the freecycle site. It's really useful - I have now happily disposed of:

• 6 Crystal wine glasses
• 1 unused typewriter
• 3 unused flasks
• 1 unused egg boiler

all to good and loving homes so I feel no guilt factor for being a bad consumer!!

phizzimum

decluttering really is a liberating experience. we hold onto stuff "just in case" but if you ever did need that object you probably wouldn't be able to find it or have forgotten you had it and go and buy a new one anyway.

we hoard stuff because we think it makes us feel secure but really it smothers us! check out the flylady website for advice on decluttering in small manageable chunks of time.

ms_london

I am the opposite, and declutter until I have nothing left to wear :0) - I recently shredded ALL of my bank statements/credit card statements etc etc!! And with going to Oz in Aug it makes sense to get rid of as much as I can (and the rest I'll store at my parents!!). I need to remember to keep some clothes to wear before I ebay everything :0)

HOLsale

percyflatcap wrote:

and not just meaningful things
I have got a couple of rooms just full of boxes
looking through them most of them are full of rubbish, old magazines and papers
I never ever throw any bills or correspondence away, just store it
I don't know where to start

you sound like my dh...

one thing that was keeping him from going through his rubbish bags full of papers, old suitcases for of papers, random boxes full of papers (and so on and so forth) was that he didn't see a plausible solution for what to do with what was left

so, we bought a filing cabinet from the small ads

we got our second one from freecycle and even though we had to pay a firm to uplift it (we no longer have a car) the £25 we spent was well worth it as you can't normally touch a second hand filing cabinet for less than that (we needed a second one as i am now self employed and need space for my documentation/receipts etc and he's doing a MSc and will begin his ph.d in october so he needs space for his copied reading materials)

anyway

once you have the cabinets and the files you will be able to properly handle all the things you feel you MUST keep. and in the future you can allow things to pile up for a week or so then file them, takes all of 5 minutes

as for the time involved in getting there

we kept bags for recycling and rubbish bags in the room with all the stuff

then we just went in as we had time (you can do this while watching telly ) we'd do 15 minutes here and there and eventually we were done :T

we also made piles first THEN made file folders once we were finished, much faster this way

i know it's daunting but it is sooooo much better this way

now when we need documentation for a form we can have it in less than 2 minutes time... if we need to find the instructions for any household gadget, we can have it quickly if we need receipts, yep, their in there

saves so much stress AND space!

good luck

skintchick

I LOVE decluttering! I have lived in my house for onver seven years and I have NEVER put anything in the loft, and teh garage is only full cos I rent it out for storage!!!

If anyone wants me to come and blitz their house - let me know!! Did it for a mate when she moved and it was so much fun!