Clutter clearing tips

[smartrock]

Clearing clutter seems to be a "thing" these days. A very popular book right now, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" one of my kid's book club recently read. I saw an article online listing 116 things you can start clearing *now*. Some of those items? Used or torn envelopes, hair elastics that have lost their stretchiness, expired coupons, dried up nail polish. Do people really need to be told to throw out that stuff? I guess so or TV programs like Hoarders would not be on.

But- 2 things on that list were old towels and frayed towels. I saw those and all I could think was, What do they dry their dogs with?

I will confess that we have sort of an issue with clutter. My recommendation for getting rid of clutter? Move to a new house, preferably out of state. I probably need to move again.

What are your clutter busting tips?

[Labradorks]

Put all of your crap in one back room and forget about it?



I'm not much of a clutter-y person. I do have a back room that is full of "stuff" but at the moment it's sort of a catch-all-slash-construction staging area during my 3+ year remodel. Paint, painting supplies, ladder, stuff like that.

[Maxx&Emma]

Moving sounds like a great idea, lol!!

I just don't look or sort, I throw everything away.

[POPTOP]

When my brother moved, SIL used a 3/5 plan. If she used it within 3 years, set aside and thought about it. Not used in 5 years, out it goes, no questions asked.

DON"T throw out old towels. They are always in short supply at rescues and ACs. I'm always scrambling for towels for rescues I support.

My nemesis is the crafting stuff. There are always left overs from a project and I can't bear to throw them away. Along with quilting, I've got a mess to clean out. Just cleaned out the garden shed and today did the freezer. Boy, were there some bad stuff all the way in the bottom.

[Blackboy98]

If you have not used it in one year ( 4 weather seasons) or you have two or more of the same item, pick the best and take everything to Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc.

Works for me.....I like a neat and tidy house without 'stuff' laying around. A place for everything and everything in it's place.

[Macy]

I box up clothes to donate at the end of the season. I find it less painful to purge stuff I didn't wear at the end of the season. At the beginning of a season I "might" wear it again.
Thats is my only tip. My cupboards and drawers are a disaster.

[smartrock]

Put all of your crap in one back room and forget about it?

That's called a basement!

I actually have cleared out a fair amount of stuff recently. My mother in law died last fall, though, and had about 40 boxes of tissues she must have gotten on sale that will take us years to use. They're all in the basement. She had several boxes of kitchen wrap, plastic wrap, waxed paper, foil, all stuff I know I'll use at some point but haven't used yet. I've used the 5 bottles of laundry detergent she had and now have to actually buy more. Cleaning solutions that I never use anyway but hate to throw out full bottles. She had enlarged photos covering every wall that were taken by her husband that I thought I could take out of frames, roll up, and send to his son. Alas, every photo had been dry mounted on foam board, so no rolling was possible. I sent him probably 20 of the smaller ones (11"x14" give or take) and he said he didn't need any more of them. That left several poster sized photos I just haven't dealt with. These are all in addition to the furniture my husband didn't want to donate or sell that is in a storage unit. I think enough time has passed that I could probably get some charity to come and take all the stuff to one of their stores to sell but it's in another state, so it's not exactly something I could schedule for next Tuesday or anything. I do have a friend who has 3 storage units full of her mother's belongings that have been in storage for over 10 years, so it could be worse. I just would prefer no storage units.

My mother is still living in the house I grew up in and still has games and toys that my siblings and I played with as children stacked up in her basement. Trust me, after 4 kids worked them over, there's not much that could be considered valuable any more. She doesn't want to throw those out in case any of the grandchildren want them. Um, my kids are now out of college, they do not want any of that stuff. The youngest grandchildren do not want any of that stuff. I envision the day when I will have to call one of those junk removal services to come haul it all away, when my mother is no longer around to object.

I should start throwing stuff away now so my kids don't have to deal with it in 30 years. Curating, that's what I'll call it.

[Labradorks]

My mother is still living in the house I grew up in and still has games and toys that my siblings and I played with as children stacked up in her basement. Trust me, after 4 kids worked them over, there's not much that could be considered valuable any more. She doesn't want to throw those out in case any of the grandchildren want them. Um, my kids are now out of college, they do not want any of that stuff. The youngest grandchildren do not want any of that stuff. I envision the day when I will have to call one of those junk removal services to come haul it all away, when my mother is no longer around to object.

A couple years ago my mom went through all of this stuff that she has been keeping from mine and my sister's childhood. Clothes, toys, school papers, etc. Now that I own a house, and, at the time, my sister was settled, she put all of the papers in scrapbooks (it took two scrapbooks for each of us) and handwrote everything she could remember about it (our age, for example, or if it was from a particular vacation). She also went through the toys and clothes and kept what she thought was most special (discarding or donating the rest) and had them cleaned and/or repaired for us, put them in a special box, and presented all of this to us over Christmas. It was really special and a great idea for someone de-cluttering, but who also feels nostalgic about the items in which they are trying to rid of.

[Dividizzl]

My mother is still living in the house I grew up in and still has games and toys that my siblings and I played with as children stacked up in her basement. Trust me, after 4 kids worked them over, there's not much that could be considered valuable any more. She doesn't want to throw those out in case any of the grandchildren want them. Um, my kids are now out of college, they do not want any of that stuff. The youngest grandchildren do not want any of that stuff. I envision the day when I will have to call one of those junk removal services to come haul it all away, when my mother is no longer around to object.

My grandparents home was like this. They still had all their kids toys and school projects... they even brought it all with them when they moved provinces. It was organized but there was lots that didn't need to be there. My mom had a lot of fun *sarcasm* going through the house when my grandma died. My grandpa is still alive but he couldnt handle going through it. Even when he downsized to a condo from a house he refused to take any of the old furniture with him but also didn't want to get rid of it so now our dining room is filled with random outdated furniture.
My dad is the king of clutter he's almost a step away from hoarding... in fact if it wasn't for my mom he would probably be a huge hoarder. He has a habit of collecting old computer crap.