Both my wife and I are pretty appalling on the clutter front.
Our house is literally packed with tens of thousands of items, of which probably only 20% get used on any kind of regular basis. Examples include:
-Bags of paperwork e.g. old mobile phone bills, bank statements, stuff related to old homes etc etc
-Old computer gear e.g. cables, backplates etc much like the OP, obsolete hardware (Pentium 3? Yeah that'll come in handy...)
-Little cuddly toys etc often got 'because it was cute' or as stocking fillers etc
-Cosmetics/'smellies', literally dozens and dozens of bottles of creams, lotions etc that will never get used, that's not including maybe another 5-10 gift packs of the same that have never been opened
-Overflowing bookshelves in the dining room, living room, 1st and 2nd floor landings
-All kinds of random kitchen stuff, you know like bizarre utensils used to peel an aubergine while standing on one leg on the moon, basically any 'good idea' to solve the most random trivial kitchen issues in the world, my wife will buy. Most of them still in their packets in a cupboard for the past x years
-DVD box sets where we own 7 series and have watched S01E01
-Tins of food, boxes of food, packets of food, pots of spices... basically things that if we were feeling adventurous we might make but in reality never will... I think we have about 30 different spices?
-Garage has two dismantled bed frames in it
-Old mobile phones being kept as backups just in case
-Drawer with old small electricals from when I was a teenager... Gameboy, walkman, camera, discman etc haven't been used over a decade
-Old study materials.... I feel all nostalgic looking through them and don't want to throw them out. Plus in some cases I think "if I ever went back to studying this type of thing again, I'd want to refer to my old work as it was really good". To be fair I have purged all my school stuff at least.
-Pictures just sat around in rooms on the floor that we haven't bothered to hang up
-Loads of clothes... like I've got say 5 suits, 15 smart shirts, 15 casual tops/shirts etc etc and that's AFTER recycling a load recently.... realistically do I need that many? Likewise the utility room probably has at least 50 unmatched socks.
-Hundreds and hundreds of burned cds/dvds containing random stuff I downloaded like 10 years ago
-Hundreds of CDs - ironically for an IT geek I am bucking the trend and just buy CDs nowadays as they have dropped in price so much, and bear in mind I used to listen to MP3s back in the 90s when the vast majority of people had never even heard of them
-Truckloads of stationary.... packets of post-its, packets of files, packets of pens etc
On the plus side we've recently been having a massive sort out to convert one room into a nursery, so things aren't as bad as they once were. Although we do now have an unbelievably large array of baby items, there must be at least a months worth of clothing for example.
I would say clutter is probably the #1 issue with how our house looks, 90% of the time it looks a mess because all shelves are bulging, counters and tables just covered in stuff.... when we have a blitz tidy it actually looks a lot better and we say "lets try and keep it like this!" but within a week it is returning to normal. When I watch those property programmes on TV, Phil Spencer goes round and is like "you need to dress this room to sell - de-clutter and give each room a clear definition and purpose" - he would have an absolute field day with us
One thing that irks me about de-cluttering is it means thinking about how much money has been wasted - since often a fair proportion of what we throw out has never been used. I'd estimate we spend at least a grand a year on useless tat that just clogs up the house.
Anyway, to answer the question about how to de-clutter, as a serial clutterer I am probably not best placed to advise but here are some things that work for me:
-Be as ruthless as you can - if in doubt, the chances are you don't really need it. Ask yourself "if I chuck this out, what's the worst that can happen?". The reality is the worst that could happen may be, you can't plug an obsolete hard drive into an obselete motherboard, meaning you can't sell an obsolete PC for £10. In my cases the cost of that is less than the value gained (less stress, more space)
-If necessary do it iteratively - bin some stuff and then return to the stuff you decided to keep but haven't used since 6 months later
-Clothing: If you are like me, you'll have some items that you basically would never choose to wear if you have other items of the same type available because of some flaw (doesn't fit well, damaged, silly logo or whatever). Give all that to charity, realistically your 13th choice casual shirt will only ever get worn in an emergency. Keep one for DIY and such if you must. If clothes don't fit but you like the style and want to keep it to wear in future, ask yourself if you are currently making a determined effort to make them fit. If not, just chuck it out and buy a replacement when the day comes - you'll be a winner anyway because you'll have achieved your desired body shape.
-Nostalgia is not necessarily a bad reason for keeping hold of things. I actually think that 'stupid'/sentimental reasons can be better than trivial practical ones like holding onto items you have no emotional attachment to "as a spare". When you handle such items in future it evokes feelings rather than "not this crap again, where I can find a place to stuff it this time"
-Make things as easy as possible for yourself - don't allow yourself excuses for not decluttering, come equipped with everything you need (bin liners, bags for recycling, buy a proper shredder, allen keys at the ready to dismantle flatpack etc)
