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I tend to hang on to a lot of stuff. First, I hate waste, and I always think, hmmm, that extra coffee maker / set of dishes could be given away, sold, saved for the studio/cottage or the kids when they leave home, lets move it over to this corner here. Second, I grew up as an army brat and we were forced to part with tons of stuff every two or three years. And instead of being 'trained' that way I longed to keep cherished things, books, records.
So every few years it's a battle... How do I decide what to take out the house which is bursting at the seams with junk that no-one has looked at in years. It's always painful, and it's always cathartic, to do these major purges. I find it easy to go through other peoples' stuff. lol.
This year I've discovered an interesting psychological game that helps me get rid of more junk: It's so simple. Decide what to KEEP. Don't decide what to throw away!
Example: Many bookcases full - books from over 30 years ago.. I put them all in a pile to throw out, then I ask myself which ones I'd like to rescue from that pile. If I do it the other way around, look through my book cases and ask myself which books to throw out, the quantity of books I keep, is MUCH larger.
How do you personally get rid of stuff, particularly if you've been one to fall into the hoarding habit?
Every "thing" must have a place. A dedicated place that is only for that "thing". Since there is only so much room, and "that corner over there" is only appropriate for furniture, that means if something new comes in, something else has to go.
That leads to the Next bit, which is if you ever buy something, something else has to go. Bought a new coffee maker? The old one goes. No hesitation, no "Oh it'll be good for that sometime years later", just be done with it right away.
I have a couple in-laws that have a cluttering'stuff problem. When I visit and see what it is that's cluttering, it's always cheap stuff. They buy a LOT (huge quantity), but none of it is ever very good (low quality). I've always been one to buy the absolute best I can afford. That means "Things" work WAY better (you ever use really good cookware back to back with cheap stuff? it's amazing the difference... how about toweled off after a shower with a high quality towel vs a cheap one? It's like a cloud vs sandpaper), and I've yet to see a time when it didn't Last a lot longer too. That means there's a *LOT* less purchasing going on, less "stuff in" = less clutter = less stuff out.
If it's a constant battle for you, there May be an addiction issue. I know that's the problem with my in-laws, she's always had a shopping addiction, brought nothing but debt to the wedding. Only you can know if this hits close to home. In any case, if this is the case then it can be mitigated. Unfortunately it means you're prone to becoming addicted to any/everything, but knowing is better than not and you can learn to slow/stop the process.
FWIW, I have no issues in my house, but my garage is a completely different problem. I hold onto a TON of scrap wood/project materials. It's dollars worth of stuff and sometimes goes untouched for 6~9 months, but I seem to always find a need for it at Some point. Same with fasteners (screws mostly), though I have an old card-catalog that I use for organization/storage of those things. I just struggle more with the garage than the house.
By Sunday our home will be completely clutter free. We will be removing and donating anything and everything that has not been used in six months, is in an unopened box, is a duplicate or cannot be repaired, including clothing.
After that, nothing will be coming in unless something goes out.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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Designated spaces and never stacking things or piling things.
I hate clutter and I live with people who love to collect stuff. I keep things organized by giving everyone a shelf or a drawer. If their stuff fits within the assigned space, keep it. If not, get rid of something.
I don't allow anyone to start stacking----on the table, the entertainment center, etc.
I don't allow them to give things to each other. MY husband is horrible with this. He will have 100 t-shirts, sort through them and then give 20 to our son. Now my son doesn't want to part with them b/c of the emotional attachment. Hubby hasn't really accomplished anything. See where I'm going with this?
I also do a major push after Christmas. Things to be exchanged or returned are dealt with asap. Otherwise, they tend to hang around and take up space.
I tend to hang on to a lot of stuff. First, I hate waste, and I always think, hmmm, that extra coffee maker / set of dishes could be given away, sold, saved for the studio/cottage or the kids when they leave home, lets move it over to this corner here. Second, I grew up as an army brat and we were forced to part with tons of stuff every two or three years. And instead of being 'trained' that way I longed to keep cherished things, books, records.
So every few years it's a battle... How do I decide what to take out the house which is bursting at the seams with junk that no-one has looked at in years. It's always painful, and it's always cathartic, to do these major purges. I find it easy to go through other peoples' stuff. lol.
This year I've discovered an interesting psychological game that helps me get rid of more junk: It's so simple. Decide what to KEEP. Don't decide what to throw away!
Example: Many bookcases full - books from over 30 years ago.. I put them all in a pile to throw out, then I ask myself which ones I'd like to rescue from that pile. If I do it the other way around, look through my book cases and ask myself which books to throw out, the quantity of books I keep, is MUCH larger.
How do you personally get rid of stuff, particularly if you've been one to fall into the hoarding habit?
I like this! I may try because the Japanese method someone posted about putting all your clothes in one pile and do the what do you love has resulted in a roomful of clothing that is breeding & I'm feeling defeated........................and can't find the things I love because I put them in the pile as well.
lmao to the unknown person who sent me the comment - love it, thanks
I have to add more.
Baskets are my enemy so I don't use them any more. Cute little baskets, that hold everything you don't know where to put. Extra laundry baskets - NO MORE. I end up living out of them instead of putting the clothes away. Even fruit bowls can be dangerous. I found my husband putting a tape measure in one of them (One of 6 tape measures we have because they've been put in such strange, random spots).
The kitchen drawer - that junk thing where you can find everything from batteries, pens, notepads, plastic tags from flowers that you don't need to identify any more, many unidentified keys (yes I threw those out). AC adapters and chargers for all sorts of sorts of electronic equipment. ID badges from places people don't work at any more! Receipts from stores. They now go into a spring clip on the fridge and are thrown away after a month.
I've also tried "let's pretend I'm going to be dead in a month" and "let's pretend we're moving into a 1 bedroom apartment" but cannot take myself seriously enough.
We went through the house room by room,one room at a time. We pulled EVERYTHING out, including furniture, pictures, etc. leaving a bare room.
We put things back, one item at a time. We liked the space more than the clutter so we ended up keeping only half the furniture, a few pictures and none of the knick knacks. All the rest was donated to Goodwill.
We LOVE our minimalist rooms. SO easy to clean, so much more peaceful than our old rooms full of furniture, wall hangings and knick knacks.
De-cluttering is getting rid of stuff you no longer use and is taking up space you want back.
The hard part is the psychological process of actually parting with it. We keep stuff we don't need because it is providing some sort of comfort for us, and that is ok.
Problem comes when you decide you need/want the space that the stuff is in.
I had a couple of Eureka moments. One of the first was when our adult daughter did not want the Marcel Breuer chairs and Dansk dishes we saved for her. Wayfare had just what she needed! HAHA
Our stuff was donated to a local charity to furnish homes for Habitat. I loved that!
The second was dealing with MIL's house and all the French Provincial Furniture she had saved for and cherished. None of her kids wanted/had room for it so it went to auction and paid for a couple of months of nursing home for her.
What worked for me was the knowledge that someone could use and appreciate that stuff that was "cluttering" our life. It is a personal process.
A good tactic, which I learned from Real Simple Magazine is the 10 item rule. When we tackle too much at a time, it can become overwhelming, and so many of us do nothing.
Take 1 drawer a day, and throw or give away 10 things, then you are done. Closet, 10 things. I have used this principle when weeding my garden. Weed around 1 plant until it is perfect, then weed around one more plant, and one more. Do this for a half hour or an hour and then stop. Do more the next day. When I work this way, the work gets done in small, manageable bites, and small manageable bites are easy and give a sense of accomplishment.
If you are donating, then place the items into your car and take them to the donation center the same day. If you have to go there several times in a week, so what? It is important to have follow through, and it also gives a sense of accomplishment.
There first needs to be an overall plan. What's your life like? What do you think you do in your free time? What do you really do? Do you live somewhere or the sort of lifestyle where keeping some extras of selected items makes sense, saves you time and money?
For example, I live where there is real winter and there are times I can't or don't want to fight my way to the store. I cook from scratch, so it makes sense to keep a winter pantry and a goodly amount of staples on hand. That does not mean years and years worth! But a reasonable amount, bought at sales, properly stored saves me time and money. I also have a proper pantry where things are neatly stacked, just like at the store, LOL!
I also like to sew. I used to have boxes and boxes of material, patterns, etc., and after some soul searching, I moved a lot of it along. Now, I know exactly what I have, and I limit myself to starting (and finishing) one project at a time.
Setting limits is huge! Someone earlier mentioned having shelves with nothing on the floor. That's my rule, as well. Things I'm storing have "homes" and aren't allowed to exceed their space, unless my needs drastically change (and then I'll move out other things).
Also, before bringing things home, it also helps to consider your storage plan, once you develop one.
For example, there might be lots of clothing and shoes on sale, but do you have room to store them properly, or will they turn your closet into a nightmare mess? Are you going to get rid of things (one in, one out rule?) If not, maybe you shouldn't buy so much . . . that's just one example, but it applies to a lot of things, like tools. Maybe some of them should be rented rather than purchased.
As for me, I had a nightmare mess for awhile because I bought a bunch of estate stuff back from a storage room that I could no longer afford. Many lessons were learned from that, so when I moved this time, I set up the new house with lots of storage and rules about how much I would keep.
I still need to go through twice a year and do purging (everyone does, I think), but it's no longer the nightmare that it was, so these things worked for me.
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