How to declutter? Help

Great job TT!

I'm the same Kim. My mother's clutter drives me nuts. I itch to throw things out when I'm at her place. I refuse to be like that. I try not to let too much in to my house but it always feels so overwhelming. I'm working on a massive toy cull ATM. That's hard because we just got a heap more and the kids keep getting into my pile & pulling things out :wall:. Partly my fault. I've decided to focus more on experiences for presents from now on to minimise the inevitable clutter from presents.

I cleaned out my undie drawer today. Only nice new undies in there now. :D

Constantly amazed though at the tide of organisational-undoing and systematic re-cluttering that goes on in this house. Keep walking into DD's room only to find things I'd already removed. :wall: And I know it's not DD putting them back there, either. :wall: I've asked DH to take things to the op shop on his way to work and he leaves them there and then ??? forgets and then finally puts them away again.

How annoying MD!
Im struggling atm with all the papers I am throwing out, our bins are full so have piles of stuff clogging my house. .. the tip is only open for few hourd once a fortnight here and the ute is already full of garden waste. I feel like im not getting anywhere cause its not physically movinh

TT, we've had that problem in the past. Could you get around it by ordering a skip, or one of those garden waste places that leave a hessian bag on a frame and only charge you to collect when it's full? Sometimes those Jim's Mowing type places will do rubbish removal for a fee as well. Otherwise, is there an alternative recycling facility that would buy paper by the kilo? Scouts/schools collecting paper for $$? Other things we've done - chat to neighbours if you have them - about back-filling their bins after they've put them out on collection day (assuming you have rubbish collection). We've also bagged rubbish (pay more and get the heavy-duty garbags with the ties, etc), or boxed it up, and them "queued" it up in the carport/garage/along the side of the house. That way, you can dump the first lot as soon as the dump opens, then scoot home and collect the rest. Obviously this only works if your rubbish is "clean" of regular household waste (dont' want it being stinky or attracting critters) and if you make it a priority to get to the dump as soon as you can.

ETA - boxes are best if you have a lot of paper as it can be very heavy.

We had a bonfire with all the paper work I got rid off. Thankfully being farming zone and not fire season, we could do it.
Otherwise I would shred. Shredding can go into compost, also some people/businesses with animals need shredded paper.

I have been de-cluttering a bit. Sometimes I am great at it, other times I struggle with the "Oh but it could be useful'. I am trying to use things now as I find them. It wasteful to not use them, whereas I had it drummed into me growing up to "save for special".

If you have a lot of paper for shredding, Endeavour will collect it & shred it for a small fee. We use them at work regularly. It's more than it's worth for regular household shredding in our case but if you have a large backlog, it could be useful.

I think you just have to have the motivation/desire to change it. We moved house recently and when I couldn't fit things nicely in cupboards it certainly made me look twice at whether I actually needed the things that wouldn't fit!

I just put 5 big garbage bags full of clothes, shoes, towels and sheets we no longer want/need/use into the Vinnies box! Gosh it feels good to be free of all of that excess stuff!

It so does!
I'm not an anxious person, but all the stuff we had lying around our place was really making me stress
Big things happening here! I'm attacking our linen closet. And planned on making a big post when I was done, including a photo. There is more involved than just decluttering

I have finished the toy room and also have a bunch of shoes that have been worn once or twice but no longer fit me due to pregnancy growing my feet.

i advertised them for sale on local buy swap sell group and got nothing. so now how do i get rid of them before they get absorbed back into the house?

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It so does!
I'm not an anxious person, but all the stuff we had lying around our place was really making me stress
Big things happening here! I'm attacking our linen closet. And planned on making a big post when I was done, including a photo. There is more involved than just decluttering

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TT40, I get anxious when my house is really messy and cluttered too (not like normal day to day messy, but mega untidy stuff spread everywhere messy. If my house is like that, then my head space is pretty bad and I am usually suffering with my depression pretty badly). My mother in law is a hoarder, their house is absolutely full of 'stuff'. Just bits and pieces she thinks she might need someday- packaged food out of date, magazines, books, toys, material, old bedding/clothes.....just stuff, everywhere. When I go there, I feel like I *need* to clean. I hate staying there and after 16 years together, I have finally put my foot down to DH that I just can't stay there anymore because of how anxious I get. I can visit there, and I love my in laws, they're lovely. But I just can't live there for weeks at a time when we go up to see them.

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i advertised them for sale on local buy swap sell group and got nothing. so now how do i get rid of them before they get absorbed back into the house?

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Stick them in sturdy garbags, then donate them as fast as you can. Good quality toys are likely to be welcome at women's refuges or a community child care centre or toy library. Otherwise Vinnies, salvos etc will take them off your hands.

Yep, if friends don't want my stuff I no longer use/want, then it goes into the Vinnies box. I donate whatever I can (they don't accept some stuff). Otherwise it goes to the tip.

I donated a car full of stuff last week. And have more, but it was a fit everything I can now and just do it so there is movement. Also, I was looking on the salvos website and sometimes they can actually pick stuff up, would depend where you are etc, but is handy to know if you have large stuff.

taking baby steps, I have 99% of the kids clothes sorted and packed away. now I need to cull a bit to close the boxes properly.
Washed and soaked a huge garbage bag worth of size 4/5s which wont fit my skinny minny (the waists are huge, or they are really short shorts) to go on our local FB kids page. It helps that Im broke atm, so its motivation to sell the extras.

I've spent loads of time during these holidays getting rid of stuff. Our unit actually echo's!

Rowellan, thanks for the idea of a document destruction bin. I've got one coming today for $55 so that's saving me heaps of time with getting rid of old paperwork instead of tearing it up or trying to shred it with my 'i'll stop working and need replacing if you work me too hard' shredder.
Still need to sort through my shoes, 2 chest of drawers, the top of 1 cupboard and a sideboard but I'm pretty impressed with what we've done so far. The only downside is that DD needed to be in FDC so we could get it done. But that also means she's even more comfortable and connected with her FDC educator and the other children at FDC.

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It helps that Im broke atm, so its motivation to sell the extras.

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Yeah that was part of my motivation, but i didn't get any takers. I have given heaps of stuff to my Mum, who works with families, so i guess will just pass the rest on there too.

Im exactly the same. Sold 1 thing. So just gave everything to the salvos, was all too good to throw, we just never ues it. Plus they have really helped me out lately so was good to give what I couls

Ok, so I need help with more sentimental stuff... ive reached the back of my linen closest and found 3 vacuum bags. My first thought was I actually have no idea what is in them, and obviously don't need them cause they have been there for nearly 3 yrs and probably in other cupboards in previous houses.
But.. I dragged them out and already spotted a couple of things. . Things I jad forgotten existed! But meant stuff to me in the past.. eg.. my camp blanket, a stuffed toy... and a cot quilt my grandma made.
What do I do?!?!?!

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But.. I dragged them out and already spotted a couple of things. . Things I jad forgotten existed! But meant stuff to me in the past.. eg.. my camp blanket, a stuffed toy... and a cot quilt my grandma made.
What do I do?!?!?!

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1. Decide whether they are still meaningful or not, and more importantly, why.
2. If they are still meaningful, do you have many similar things or just a few? If you have many, select the ones that are most precious & let the others go.
3. Think about how you can honour the preciousness of it. For some, that might mean framing a piece of embroidery with a photo of its creator, displaying on a shelf, or photographing things & having them printed in an archival quality book.
4. If after all that, you decide it is something you want to keep, find some appropriate storage. You may have a chest or a shelf or a drawer of family heirloom/personal history type things - but you need to understand that something else has to go to make that space available. And there needs to be a limitation on the space, so you can't just keep adding to it endlessly. For eg, for my DDs' baby things, I have two small tubs, one for each DD. They are small enough to be stored inside my wardrobe so I had to be selective about what went in - ie ONE of each thing.

I'll be honest, this is something I really struggle with, because my childhood/family experience was so fragmented. But I'm aware of it & that process of identifying the feeling/memory that goes with the thing and realising that the memory does not equal the thing, helps create a clearer space to decide what you really do want to keep it or not.

Read Corinnes Grant's book "Lessons in Letting Go". Has her journey from being a hoarder to being able to declutter. Good story plus some great tips ;)

Ok. More work done here =) I'm on a roll! So have to keep it up! My linen cupboard is now sorted. Everything I use and that survived is now in plastic tubs. (For those who don't know we have a serious mouse problem that we are constantly fighting with and ...well let's say I think they won the linen cupboard..) but I've reclaimed it. And yes everything is now stored in tubs. I'm not letting them win this year!
I've stared on our other hall cupboard, mainly full of board games (pretty sure I'm keeping them, even tho we don't play many now I'm sure we will when Spock is older), dh tools, (the inside the house stash), which I do use but will need organising. And my bags... This was hard, I'm really proud of myself for culling them. I like bags...and even tho there were ones I hadn't used in years, it was hard to let go. But I now have one nappy bag, one hand bag (which atm I use the nappy bag but when I start work I need a bag just for me)and one nice going out bag. The rest are being donnated.
I also did a ruthless cull of my wardrobe and shoes. That was surprisingly easy. I now almost have another full car load to donate.
God to all feels so good. I'm really feeling more peace around our house. Dh thinks I'm getting a bit OCD about it all, mainly the mice part of it, he threatened to get me a label maker "just like Sheldon" (from Big Bang, his way of telling me I have a problem). Maybe I do, because I loved the idea!!
My next challenge is gettin dh to do his clothes... He uses over 2/3 of our space, I only take up 1/3 with my clothes (probably less ). I either need to get him to do it, or get him to trust me to do it. Plus I have no idea which draw is his 'good jocks' and which one is his 'not so good jocks'... A selling point might be that if it is all culled and I know where all his crap is, I might be able to put it away for him...cause I put my and spocks away and am left with all his in a basket cause I honestly have no idea how his system works...

I do have to say. It is easy atm because I haven't got a job yet, so we have no money. Meaning I've been really good and up cycling and not buying new things... But when I get a job (hopefully next week or two), and we have more money, I have to be really really careful not to go and buy more crap.

I think that is enough from me. How is everyone else going?

Fantastic effort, TT! I think your idea about selling the benefits to DH is a good one.

If label-maker owners are Sheldon Cooper, then I'm Amy Farrah Fowler - LOL. I bought one last year and I LOVE it. Personally, I don't like labels, I have a very strong sense of organisation & object categorization, and so does youngest DD, but DH and DD1 live in a permanent soup of stuff/location confusion. I have spent too many hours of my life combing the house for things they have stowed in totally illogical places (high suspicion this is an ADHD trait). Label maker (along with using transparent containers) has changed this significantly.

Having said all that, our progress has stalled over the last couple of weeks due to back to school/heat wave/power outage. Keen to get on with it again!

I'm getting so excited at the thought of it all it is kind of scary...also is the fact that once I finish my job eg the linen cupboard, I get disappointed that it is done, because it means I can't keep doing it!
..I really need a job

New job: Professional Organiser! :D

Just an update, I was successful with DH! He got rid of about 60% of his clothes! There is still more there I don't think he needs, but I'm still more than happy with what he did cull, we had another 7! Blue n red stroppy bags to give to the salvos. And he managed to spare 2 draws for my stuff so I could get rid of my chest of draws, which still looks great and draws work, just the bottoms are falling out, and I've already had them duct taped and that is starting to fail.
More stuff I want to move, but it's stuff that will have to go on the curb with a free sign, and get picked up by the council if no one takes it. But the pickup isn't until July...
Anyone else having some wins?

We've done a cull ... Some easy things (off cuts of wood, a broken radio) some tough things (old mix tapes we haven't touched in 15 years, things which we *might* use or pass on someday...).

No more big culls over the last couple of weeks but am making incremental progress. I have a charity bag permanently on the go, getting in the habit of grabbing one or two things a couple of times a week & stuffing them straight in (before I have time to think about it LOL).

We've had a huge process at work where we are downsizing into a much smaller footprint, so massive cull of stuff going on by all staff. Really interesting to see the process going on around me by lots of people - it's obvious that making decisions about what to keep or not is actually quite a complex process & chews up quite a lot of attention/brain power. I've noticed that the people who power through it are the ones who formulate sorting "rules" for themselves, because thinking "yes" or "no" is much quicker & easier than thinking "I wonder what I should do with this thing...or that thing... Or this thing?".

I have a bag like that too MD. interesting what you say about the rules. I am very much like that, but my BFF is a hoarder and she is very much like the other option.

Anyone doing a 40 bags in 40 days type challenge for lent? It's on a couple of different blogs I follow.

Haven't heard of that ... What is it?

Getting rid (to donate, give away, sell, chuck, whatever) of a bag, no matter how large or small every day for 40 days. Retromummy and another blog I follow (whose name currently escapes me grrrr) have mentioned it. They both have Catholic leanings and are doing it as part of lent (so started last Tuesday), but I thought it sounded like a good booster or kickstart.

That does sound like an awesome kickstart! I don't know if I could keep it up for 40 days, though. That is a long time (as anyone who's ever given anything they love up for Lent knows LOL).

Honestly though, I'm not sure I have 40 bags of excessive stuff left in my house to shed. After a year of clearing (in a few big bursts as well as small & incremental steps) I think we're getting down into the deepest layers now. It's less about culling now and more about organisation. The only real exceptions being some paperwork (ongoing) and the shed, which I need some sustained attention/effort from DH for. Then the challenge will be maintaining, in a household full of people who move stuff around and leave it in totally random places. I think we'll need a few more containers and a lot more labels before it's all completely sorted.

Cool!

I think I would have hit 40 given away already, so same as MD I don't have that many left...maybe 2 or 3 left.
I'm not, even bothering with the shed.. That's DHs he is the one that has to deal with it. Plus I know that he knows exactly where everything is in there, even if it is under something which is next to something else, or on top of something inside something else. He always knows exactly where to grab something.

I'm a bit the same. Though, I can often walk around the hours with a small bag and pick up little bits that needs to go in the rubbish (particularly from DD1's room lol). It certainly couldn't be 40 bags for me personally but I'm doing a bit of reorganisation each day as a substitute.

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I'm a bit the same. Though, I can often walk around the hours with a small bag and pick up little bits that needs to go in the rubbish (particularly from DD1's room lol). It certainly couldn't be 40 bags for me personally but I'm doing a bit of reorganisation each day as a substitute.

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Mmm. I can see how the 40-day part is the powerful part. I think Peter Walsh has a 31-day program online for organising, so you're getting 9 bonus days LOL. He says it's 10 mins per day, but I think that would be unrealistic, some days would take much longer.