I have so much stuff in the loft/attic. Have you, and when will I get rid?

Towser

our current house does not have a loft thank goodness otherwise it would be a mess full to the top.

No I have to take things to the tip, Freecycle, charity shop donate, ebay or give away. It's all part of my natural recycling.

I can be a bit lazy and when we need more living space have a purge on stuff that needs to go.

I'm sure if I was in debt the house contents would have been sold off and virtually empty. I am always saving for a rainy day so must push myself to ebay occasionally.

We have a shed the same is true. When we need the space we do something about it.

Goldiegirl

pollypenny wrote: »

OH is a 'just in case" type, as well as thinking some stuff 'will be worth money' in years to come.

He has every tool since he started his apprenticeship!

My dad was a carpenter. About 10 years ago, after he died, and my mum had to go into a home, I had to clear their house. Fortunately they didn't have a loft, but it was quite a large 4 bedroom house, and they had lived there for nearly 50 years, so there was loads of stuff!


My dad had all his old tools, right back to the 30's to 40's. It is to my eternal regret I just let the house clearers have them. I could have cleaned them up and sold them on to somebody who would have cherished them, as there is a market for old tools


But at the time I had so many other things to think of, it was too much to consider.


I brought home quite a few things from my parents place that I felt were 'important', and stored them in the loft for a few years. But, as the years have passed, I've either eBayed or sent them to charity shops, leaving me with the momentos that I really care for.


My loft is quite neat now. There's the Christmas tree, suitcases, and and some neatly packed plastic storage boxes, which hold 'treasures' and photos

JC1440

When I moved house a couple of years ago, I cleared everthing out. Everything I didn't need was recycled, donated, sold or binned. Now I have a clutter free house. Trick to keeping it that way is to get rid of anything that you know will never be used again straight away. For example, I bought a PS4 game, played it for a month and was done with it. In the past it would have gone in the cupboard, but I sold it on Ebay. Bought a marker pen the other week, but it wasn't suitable for what I needed, so I just gave it back to the store, said it's as new, just sell it again. So much better for the soul to have zero clutter.

poppycracker

meritaten wrote: »

WOW - I would love to see the size of caravan THEY came from! :rotfl:

think it was more like several caravans :rotfl:

greent

Our main loft from the top of the main part of the house is now our bedroom and bathroom - but we still have a loft over the kitchen and playroom - this is unboarded and empty - and staying that way. We have a loft hatch to it in the playroom, but no ladder and there is no light up there We also have a boarded loft over the garage (separate to the house) - this is used. It contains Xmas decs/ fake trees/ Halloween decs. 3 boxes of 'sentimental' stuff (culled earlier this year from more), 2 large suitcases (there are small individual cabin suitcases in individual wardrobes in the house - these are used regularly enough to warrant keeping them there), a pushbike (outgrown by ds2 after just a few months of use, too big for ds3 for another year or so), several boxes of childrens clothes ready to grow into (labelled by name and size) 2 boxes of company paperwork (equalling 6 years worth), 2 boxes of labelled/ priced items for the next nearly new sale (Feb - there was one last month) and the boxes from our current laptops - we usually sell them on, so keeping the specific box makes sense to package them up in. Seems a lot, but it's all sorted, labelled and organised up there - and none of it is 'jic'.

GreyQueen

I spent last Sun-Tues sorting stuff in my parents' loft. With their consent as they are both very much alive and kicking in their early seventies.

This loft has been maturing nicely for over 40 years and there is some Stuff up there that's been there all of that time. The suitcase we took on a coach holiday in the mid-seventies. How well I remember the slapstick moment beside the coach when Dad went to pick it up and the handle came away in his hand.

It had a temporary handle of knotted string for the duration but then went up into the loft for 'storage' - not sure if it's empty or full as didn't get across to it stood amongst the Suitcase Archive (1950s cardboard to 1990s nylon wheelies, several of each in various sizes).

When thrashing around whittling out boxes to long-gone appliances and rationalising other things, I had plenty of time to meditate on the futility of keeping a lot of stuff, and the unsuitability of the loft as a place to do it.

I'm impressed with those of you firm enough to keep your lofts ruthlessly empty or very very controlled. It's such a worthwhile habit to form.:T

meritaten

poppycracker wrote: »

think it was more like several caravans :rotfl:

aww now you have spoiled my vision of a massive 'double wide' static!

it was a goal of mine to have one of those - then I stayed in a 'lodge'! hoowee! I want a lodge now!

meritaten

sorting out mums house right now, she died in July. and up in the attic there is 'bu99er all'. she had the roof replaced about ten years ago, insulation put in, and as she had two spare bedrooms.........everything she wanted to keep was stored in them. which is taking us months to go through! She had a massive walk in wardrobe in master bedroom plus two chests of drawers, a single wardrobe and three chests of drawers in what was my room and two wardrobes and a 7drawer chest full of clothes in my brothers bedroom!
we have decided to give all the clothes to the local womens refuge as mum fluctuated in weight and the clothes range from size ten to size sixteen. oh and the nineteen 'for best' handbags and about 50 pairs of shoes and boots! and I cant even count the other handbags, and other stuff we have given to various charities - I do know we have filled about 30 large boxes and about the same in black bin bags have gone to the dump. No, she wasn't one of those 'dirty' hoarders - everything has been clean and in good condition that has gone to charity - even the stuff that went to the dump wasn't 'dirty' just broken or unusable!
She just would NOT throw stuff away!

2gorgeousgirls

Just cleared my roofspace. Husband left us earlier this year and is moving into a new home next week after living with family.

We agreed that he could take furniture from my house and I decided that would include stuff from roofspace. Last weekend we cleared it and 90% of the contents are in the front room to be taken by him.

The other stuff includes my children's baby boxes and a pile of records. Girls got excited by that and I ended up buying a record player. We have been listening together - brought back memories of my teenage years. Also discovered that they actually love the same music I do.

dander

I use my loft as a bit of gateway to leaving the house. Stuff goes up there when I think I don't need it downstairs, but I can't quite bring myself to get rid. Then every now and then I decide to do a boot fair or something like that and I go up and somehow when it's been in the loft for a while I can evaluate a bit more clearly about whether I REALLY do want to keep it.