2017 Decluttering thread

[HundredK]

We have currently given away or sold about 60% of our possessions (our car is not included in that calc) which is equal to about $45,000 in original cost. So far, we have kept 780 items total - for 2 adults. We have made countless trips to the goodwill, 2 trips to the dump, had Got Junk come out one time. I've logged every single thing we owned both before and after, though I hesitate to call this a final number as we are still finding things here and there that we now realize we don't need.

Decluttering is such an organic process. Once you give your items space to breathe, you may suddenly realize that you no longer need those items either.

Oh, and I found a huge baggie filled with over $100 in coins. I also found three $100 gift cards, plus a $250 gift card to a very nice restaurant.

My next step is to start working through the items we have designated to sell, so we can get those out of the house. There aren't too many things though since most of it we decided to donate.

[disneysteve]

Once you give your items space to breathe, you may suddenly realize that you no longer need those items either.

Exactly. I've said before that decluttering gets done in layers. The Marie Kondo method works for some categories of things. For others, I think the "layer" method works better. First get rid of all of the stuff you clearly don't need. Wait a few months and then circle back and see how much of the stuff you kept you have actually used. Eliminate the stuff that you haven't.

Even with Marie Kondo, I used her method with my t-shirts and got rid of a couple dozen shirts. I kept a bunch for "bum around" shirts that I wear around the house or when I'm doing yard work. Since then, however, I've realized that I still have too many of those. I've got about 15 which is probably 8 or 10 more than I actually need. As soon as I have a chance, and all of them are clean at the same time, I want to go through that pile again and narrow it down to maybe half a dozen.

[HundredK]

Exactly. I've said before that decluttering gets done in layers. The Marie Kondo method works for some categories of things. For others, I think the "layer" method works better.

Yep, agreed. I am eternally grateful to Kondo for getting us started down this path a couple of years ago. That said, her method fails for me in that if I keep everything that truly brings me joy, I am keeping way too many things. So now I look at it in terms of whether the space provided by getting rid of the thing will bring me more joy than the thing itself.

Probably one of the most important things we have done in this round of decluttering is to get rid of furniture that adds extra storage space. We have gotten rid of all bookshelves, our under bed storage, storage cubes, an enormous storage cabinet in the garage, etc. If you don't have surfaces on which to store things, it becomes way less important to have the things that were sitting on them in the first place.

[creditcardfree]

Yes, decluttering IS done in layers. I always think I don't have much to declutter. I'm doing a series on my other blog (link below) to see how many bags of things I can find to let go.

I'm posting a few things on eBay today. If they don't sell rather quickly, I'm just donating. I'm getting tired of trying to suck every penny out of everything I have ever owned.

I can't wait until the girls are completely out of the house, just from the standpoint of stuff! We still own doll houses, stuffed animals, and some other toys that they have memories attached to. And they are are 16 and 19! Someday it will leave, and I try to be grateful for what we have already let go of that could be considered kid stuff.

[disneysteve]

I'm getting tired of trying to suck every penny out of everything I have ever owned.

I know that feeling. I hate tossing stuff that I know is of value, but the way ebay works with the time involved and the fees, if the item isn't either higher priced or really cheap to ship, it just isn't worth it. Years ago, I sold $10 and $15 items all the time but today it no longer makes sense.

I check ebay first, of course, just to make sure there isn't some cult following for a particular item that I'm not aware of. But then, if it isn't of significant value, I usually opt to just give it away. Either that or if it is hard to ship.

[msomnipotent]

I finally dropped my junk off at my sister's house to be sold. I filled up the back of my car. Unfortunately, it was junk from the 3 least-used rooms in the house. I think I will have a mountain of junk when I finally get to the main bedrooms and basement. So I celebrated by buying a used grandfather clock last night. I have always wanted one and the chimes really help me keep better track of time. Part of my problem with clutter is that time slips away from me and I don't get anything done.

I changed my routine and now have to walk through the garage and right past the recycling bin to get into the house after picking up the mail. I have no idea why I didn't think of this before.

[cypher1]

Cut up a bunch of old scrap wood and base trim from my remodel. Along with old duplicate plasticware from kitchen to be thrown away, and some very expired food products. Gave away an extra shovel I never use to a friend.

[creditcardfree]

Lots of decluttering at our home lately! I loaded everything up in my van and will drop it off tomorrow. We finally let go of several toys we have been hanging on to 'just in case' we have small children visit. Well, that rarely happens, so it is time to let those things go.

[Thrif-t]

I went up in our attic and threw out a bunch of stuff we just don't need. I would keep boxes, like my very first desktop Gateway computer, I kept the box up there in case I ever would need to take it back. Ya well that computer has been long gone, so now the box is too.ha

I had some old kid toys up there and those are GONE! I still have a toy box in my basement, any kids that come over play with that stuff we don't need the stuff in the attic.

We have an old tyco train that was my DH's when he was a little boy, that went around the Christmas tree. It doesn't work. The in-laws took it everywhere trying to fix it but no one could. I've had that box in my attic for the past 18 years. I did take it down and loaded it in the van to pitch but then thought I better take it back up or DH will kill me.

There's also a useless set of old golf clubs from his grandfather he won't let me get rid of. I took some to an antique place one time cause I thought they might be worth money, they're from the 40's or 50's, but they're not :-( so I stored them in the attic because they had been taking up room in the garage. Oh well I guess they can just sit up there. I got a lot of the other useless junk out.

[disneysteve]

We have an old tyco train that was my DH's when he was a little boy, that went around the Christmas tree. It doesn't work. The in-laws took it everywhere trying to fix it but no one could. I've had that box in my attic for the past 18 years. I did take it down and loaded it in the van to pitch but then thought I better take it back up or DH will kill me.

Even if the locomotive doesn't run, don't toss them. I would list them on ebay. The cars may be of value. Even the non-functioning engine might be of value. There are lots of train enthusiasts who repair and restore that stuff.

[HundredK]

We took several more loads to the goodwill, and we also rebuilt our bed to get rid of the under bed storage (we designed and built our own bedframe, so are able to modify it as needed). My mantra at the moment is that the fewer places we have that are designed to store stuff, the fewer items we can own.:-)

[disneysteve]

My mantra at the moment is that the fewer places we have that are designed to store stuff, the fewer items we can own.:-)

So true. There is so much marketing aimed at increasing storage space and organizing your stuff. Just walk into The Container Store if you doubt that.

The reality is that most people have plenty of storage space. The problem is that they have too damn much stuff.

As DW continues to go through our photographs, she is slowly but surely emptying out photo albums that have been occupying shelf space for decades and emptying out storage containers as well. By the time she's done, the shelf that originally held about 16 photo albums will probably have maybe 10 and the 6 or so storage boxes of loose photos will probably be down to 2 or 3.

[msomnipotent]

So my sister finally posted some of my things online and sold $130 worth in one day. People started fighting over the DVD's. I have been trying to sell most of what she sold for weeks. The Legos went within 5 minutes and for $5 more than what I had it listed at. Happy, yet irritated that I wasted all that time.

[disneysteve]

So my sister finally posted some of my things online and sold $130 worth in one day. People started fighting over the DVD's. I have been trying to sell most of what she sold for weeks. The Legos went within 5 minutes and for $5 more than what I had it listed at. Happy, yet irritated that I wasted all that time.

What did she do differently?

[JoeP]

One source of clutter for me was the spread that resulted from having lots of small items stored in their containers, and distributed in many places. I did some research, and found these: Stanley Sortmaster Junior


With 3 of these, I was able to consolidate about 40 classes of items (e.g., drywall screws of varying length, machine screws, nuts, washers, wire nuts, ethernet plugs, picture hanging hardware, coax connectors) into these compact cases. Better yet, during that exercise, I discovered a bunch of pieces I didn't realize I had, so I avoided the typical "I can't find it, must be out, go buy it" syndrome.

Just these 3 reduced my clutter significantly!