Decluttering your house.

[Mysterae_]

Has anybody embarked on a serious decluttering of their house of all the crap they've accumulated over the years?

Okay, I admit this is verging on mumsnet territory but please bear with me. I was watching Sort Your Life Out with the other half, that program where Stacey Solomon helps couples reduce the amount of stuff that's getting in the way and also has a splash of home improvement. Those households featured on the program are usually extreme cases but the meaning is there; why hold on to possessions you'll never use, wear or even fit in it again? You'll create space, possibly make some money selling some old tat and thinking a bit morbidly here, be less for your family to sort through should you leave this mortal coil first.

So yeah, I thought it was a good idea. Started with clothes which resulted in seven bin bags going to the charity skip and quite sparse looking wardrobes. Now it's my study's turn, getting rid of computer stuff that's out of date or no longer useful (3x centronics printer cables anyone?!). Next will be the loft which needs clearing anyway for a re-flooring soon. My Kilimanjaro will of course be the garage/workshop but that will probably be the most fun and worthwhile due to how I envisage the final result to be; accessible workspace and tool nirvana!

The other half's start hasn't been so great as sentimentality and wishful thinking ( ) gets in the way of her making any progress but she's keen.

 

[413x]

I'm terrible. I hate throwing anything away.
Luckily I have a small house so have to.

I wear old slightly holey t shirts at home because they are still wearable and no one would want them.

I also have a garage full of ****

I do find it hard to get rid of stuff. I still have my old tv I bought in 2011 as its still going and it feels wasteful to buy another.

Minimalism is better. I kind of regret buying so much lego. As I find it hard to get rid of

 

[NickK]

We've moved away from buying 'things' simply because we've reached a limit. For presents it tends to be experience days or craft days etc.

The Mrs is neat and tidy but she would, if left to her own devices, store everything in boxes within boxes. Where as I'm less organised, messy but can throw things away and feels good todo so. I have some things that I could sell on.. but given the market, it's not worth it at the moment. I like minimalism and our lounge is that, yet my mancave office contains all my stuff stowed on shelves in boxes etc.

 

[sovietspybob]

We've got just so so much 'stuff' in our house, it really really infuriates me

I guess it's been a gradual thing over 15 years, an ornament here and there, gifts from family etc but it's pretty overbearing. If it was up to me i'd get a skip and clear most of the house out.

We have tried a bit and we did clear a fair bit of junk but it only made it as far as our landing... so now our landing has a massive pile of junk on it as we need to figure out how to dispose of it all.

 

[Begbie]

Moving house recently, and have been pretty brutal at throwing stuff away. Damn it feels so good.

 

[Uther]

We started a few months ago, loads of clothes gone to charity, and even more stuff given away / gone to the tip. Still far too much still to go though.
Just need to get out of the mindset of 'that'll come in useful one day' and be a bit brutal.

 

[flea.rider]

i'm/we are minimalists if we have it we use it .. can't say theres much i'd throw away .. but we do give things away we won't use again .. tv's old pc's ect ect ..

 

[darkblade]

The trouble with these clearances and the resulting space you get back – is that it introduces the temptation to buy new stuff to fill the space with!

 

[Bint Box]

Has anybody embarked on a serious decluttering of their house of all the crap they've accumulated over the years?

Okay, I admit this is verging on mumsnet territory but please bear with me. I was watching Sort Your Life Out with the other half, that program where Stacey Solomon helps couples reduce the amount of stuff that's getting in the way and also has a splash of home improvement. Those households featured on the program are usually extreme cases but the meaning is there; why hold on to possessions you'll never use, wear or even fit in it again? You'll create space, possibly make some money selling some old tat and thinking a bit morbidly here, be less for your family to sort through should you leave this mortal coil first.

So yeah, I thought it was a good idea. Started with clothes which resulted in seven bin bags going to the charity skip and quite sparse looking wardrobes. Now it's my study's turn, getting rid of computer stuff that's out of date or no longer useful (3x centronics printer cables anyone?!). Next will be the loft which needs clearing anyway for a re-flooring soon. My Kilimanjaro will of course be the garage/workshop but that will probably be the most fun and worthwhile due to how I envisage the final result to be; accessible workspace and tool nirvana!

The other half's start hasn't been so great as sentimentality and wishful thinking ( ) gets in the way of her making any progress but she's keen.

I did a loft declutter a couple of years back, it was crammed full of stuff that had been stashed away over two decades for want of a better place to put it.

Luckily at the time the house next door was undergoing extensive reconfiguration and they had a couple of skips per week coming and going from the site. I managed to blag my way into chucking my junk into their skips over a one month period which finally cleared the trash from the loft.

 

[the shadow]

 

[BUDFORCE]

The other half's start hasn't been so great as sentimentality and wishful thinking ( ) gets in the way of her making any progress but she's keen.

Women are useless at this sort of thing, 90% + of the accumulated junk in this house is the Mrs.

 

[Hussman]

Why is it that when you declutter, the stuff that you throw out - that you've not needed for five plus years -suddenly is something you really need, and you have to go out and buy the same thing again! Really frustrates me!

 

[TNA]

I'm terrible. I hate throwing anything away.
Luckily I have a small house so have to.

I wear old slightly holey t shirts at home because they are still wearable and no one would want them.

I also have a garage full of ****

I do find it hard to get rid of stuff. I still have my old tv I bought in 2011 as its still going and it feels wasteful to buy another.

Minimalism is better. I kind of regret buying so much lego. As I find it hard to get rid of

I'll take it off you to help you out if you want

 

[Mysterae_]

Why is it that when you declutter, the stuff that you throw out - that you've not needed for five plus years -suddenly is something you really need, and you have to go out and buy the same thing again! Really frustrates me!

This is similar to buying something you think will come in handy or need and when you think "where should I store it", the answer is of course right next to the exact same item I bought 2 years ago! Says more about the memory than it does the hoarding though...

As some have said, you have to be brutal with some some stuff especially the sentimental collection. Those with children could each fill the Tate Modern with pictures the kids have made over the years most of which the child doesn't even remember doing.

Moving house recently, and have been pretty brutal at throwing stuff away. Damn it feels so good.

Just before you move house is the perfect time to declutter. Makes the house you're trying to sell more appealing and have less to sort out when you move in. Not that we did this of course , took all manner of detritus with us when we moved!

 

[413x]

I'll take it off you to help you out if you want

Genuinely thinking about packing up the millennium falcon. Takes up a big footprint and the mainly grey look just doesn't do it for me anymore

 

[img]

Waiting until i have to pack and move house and then decide if i need 300 random cables and 6 old tablets etc.

 

[Deep]

I buy a lot of tech stuff for a particular use case but realise they never scale properly.
Like I bought a KVM and used it for a bit, then sold my other PC and was left with a KVM that I never used again.

 

[Mason-]

The wife's terrible. Every cupboard is packed to the rafters with 'stuff'. Pantry, every kitchen cupboard, full. We are 2 people in a 3 bed semi. She wanted to join costco, our nearest is a 50 mile drive away,
"why do you want to join?"
"it's cheaper to buy in bulk."
"If we have to drive 50 miles each way is it really cheaper? And there's only two of us"
*radio silence*.

Before I started renovations, all 3 bedrooms were full of stuff. We just moved into our new bedroom and she,. reluctantly, threw out 8 heavy duty rubble sacks full of clothes. It does my head in. I pretty much live out of a single chest of drawers and I have 2 suits in the wardrobe, that's it. She buys a dress, wears it once and it lives in the wardrobe forever. She still had her dress from her school prom 14 years ago. Bonkers. To get her to clear it out I had to guilt trip a bit, we're starting a family, "where is the kids stuff gonna go if we fill all the rooms at the moment?", that seemed to work, for now...

Writing was on the wall though, her parents house (only 3 people living there) is a 6 bed detached over 3 floors, every single bedroom is full of 'stuff'. Double garage, no cars in it, again you struggle to walk through it.

It really does get to me though, puts me down.

 

[Mysterae_]

@Mason- I think you need to give Stacey a call, see if she'll do a 2 for 1 .

 

[The_Arbiter]

; why hold on to possessions you'll never use, wear or even fit in it again? You'll create space, possibly make some money selling some old tat

I just can't bare knowing that if i sell something i haven't had much use out of for a mere fraction of what i paid, and i simply can't sell it. If i knew i wouldn't have got my money's worth early on i'd have sold it and not lost its value through time.

I have several sets of half decent headphones which i never use and probably will never use, but no point selling them for a few hundred quid. As "i might use them one day".

Apart from a few technology hobbies i've had, generally i've been good with refraining on purchases, and my regular outgoings are minimal so i've not amassed loads of expensive junk. I find purchasing stuff quite difficult at times even, there's just so much poor quality stuff out there, games to technology to white goods and tools.

I've got a box of stuff and some clothes that i hope to carboot and charity bin. Though it's hard.