More clutter

Spare long life shopping bags are returned to boot of car for next grocery run. The paper bags that come from other shopping are saved for charity collections .... they appreciate same for use in their shops.

Kim19 - I have begged my mum to get a skip and offered I would take any time off work to help her declutter so that one day when we have to clear the house (large 5 bed house with full celler all filled up) it would not be such a night mare. she just laughed and said. It’s mine and other people can throw everything away when she is gone.
Father in law has also so many little side tables and dressers and lamps that he found it hard to navigate around the house. He has just seen the light when he got rid of some random rugs on a carpet and a few little pieces of furniture and may continue the good work.

I may treat you to a picture of one of my surfaces, Bradfordlass but I'm a bit scared you might tell me off!

Yours does look lovely, fresh and clean.

This is as cluttered as I get.

MissAdventure mind still boggling at:

"I may get rid of a couple of dangly things."

Kim19 Your Mum’s ‘wartime depravity’ sounds interesting. Can we have some more details?
Or was it a slip of the finger, and you meant ‘deprivation?’

Juggernaut I have an unused celery jar somewhere and an unopened packet of those lights - thank you for the idea!

Now, where to put it, no space

I have recently begun to declutter, and it is refreshing, as the stuff that needs to go, I DO NOT NEED! However, I do keep certain memorabilia which my children and grandchildren I think would find interesting. I like the idea of 'throw away day' and will continue to sort out cupboards.

Lots of my 'clutter' has a story behind it - either it was given by someone dear and perhaps deceased or inherited (each with its own story) or, as annsixty says, made or given by a DC or DGC, although I must confess some of the home-made precious stuff is carefully stored in a nice box!

And books .....

I love that Throw Away Day

I call it a Throw Away Day. I have a small home w/6 bookcases and a cup collection on my kitchen wall. GC never give me anything. I have about a dozen family photos and four souveniers. I've always been a tidy housekeeper, but then I remarried. DH is a Keeper, but alot of his stuff is not. About three times a year I try to get his permission to throw some of his stuff away. That's why I celebrate Throw Away Day.

I like to declutter, feels good to have a sort out and tidy up and gi e a few things away to charity shops or friends or family who can make use of the stuff. But then I love charity shops and car boot sales and just end up buying other clutter! Oh well, it's all a change and no one loses out, me, family, friends, charity shops, car boot sellers...

lovebeigecardigan1955. No books are not clutter as long as they are in a bookcase or shelf. :-). Nicely displayed sentimental ornaments are also no clutter in my eyes (although I have hardly any). As long as things have a ‘home’ and don’t pile up indiscriminately in corners and on any available surface things are just sentimental possessions.

Ditto coconut. I Could never sponaneously invite my friends to my house as parents were hoarders so I vowed that when I grew up my children could bring friends home anytime without having to do a weeks’ worth of clearing and cleaning and then being blamed for not finding a newspaper cutout from 8 years ago. My parents throw nothing out and everything “will do” and “might come in handy”. I don’t have much furniture to put things in or on but I do love books - my one weakness. However I have now learned to even get rid of some of my books. It has helped that I have moved many times making sorting compulsory.

Books, lamps, cushions, pictures, stuffed birds in glass cases (2) ornaments, photos in silver frames, those fragrance sticks in a bottle. Definitely no candles, make me cough and now I know why, they are polluting the air we are told.
A Tibetan singing bowl on its pretty cushion which I love playing with, sounds beautiful.

I think if something gives you pleasure, then it's not clutter. If 'stuff' makes you feel agitated and unhappy, then it's clutter.

My 91yo mother was minimalist before the term was invented. I recall coming home from school once to find that she'd given most of my toys away including some beautiful fairy story books with illustrations by Arthur Rackham. The day after my father's funeral she phoned me to say she'd managed to get rid of all his clothes to a charity shop and had found people to take his personal possessions, too.

She's still a minimalist today and I'm pretty sure has thrown away unreplaceable family papers etc which I had expected to receive at some point.

I personally dislike minimalism, (no disrespect to those of you who do, we are all different, thank goodness), so my home has “things” in it, but each thing has meaning to both me and DH. It might be seen as clutter to some, but I don’t care about that. All these “things” hold special memories, either of places we’ve been to, family ( living and dead) and friends. In addition, they make my home just that - home. ?
I suppose the problem arises when clutter becomes hoarding and can lead to health and safety issues, but that is, I think, different to “things” that have a designated place but aren’t obstacles to getting around the home.

I have had a bit of a clearout. But I love little china bowls and I am looking for a laughing Buddha have seen one in a local charity shop but he’s not really smiling. Apparently they are lucky.

you just need to get rid of the things you never use and probably never will.......

my heart rejoice now I know there is people like me
I do have clutter (that's to other people not to me) we love it lol

William Morris all day long .... I hate clutter ..hate it! My kids ‘stuff’ they made me at school is in a big box in loft. My Grand Children’s stuff is up on wall in kitchen (confined to one wall ) I don’t call it clutter. So far they’ve not brought me ‘ashtrays’ or clay models of Eiffel Tower . Knowing I or their granddad don’t smoke maybe I’ll be saved that. My kids did make me an ashtray each even though they told teachers we didn’t smoke.i use one for trinkets on my dressing table...and one for messy spoons on worktop ( it was a very big ashtray), and it’s lasted 25 years. My loft is even reasonable free of junk. If you have anything you treasure from kids or grandkids then take a photo of it and keep the photo.

I have a few ornaments and photos, but mainly books, books and more books (neatly on shelves) and in the kitchen I've a shelf with at least a dozen cups and saucers and mugs.
I asked my sister, "Do you think this room is cluttered?"
"Well, you've got a lot of books" was her response.
I don't consider books to be clutter, do you?

In my book clutter is all the stuff we don't use, don't like, don't want but are too lazy to get rid off.

If I like it, it isn't clutter, but a keepsake, an ornament etc.

I have an antique glass cabinet in my hall containing lots of small collectables - ornaments, glassware, silverware - many of them inherited. My GD asked me what I use them for (they don't really have collectables in their home). I said I don't use them I just enjoy them, either for their own beauty or because they hold a memory of someone or something. I told her about a few of them and she was fascinated. I asked her what item she would keep to remind her of me. She thought for a moment and said 'a cotton reel' (I sew a lot). I love that idea. Yes I have lots of 'clutter' around the house but each time I look at them or pick them up to dust (not very often) they make me smile. I can't think of a better reason for keeping them.

It's home, SillyNanny.
A lot of my collections have been handed down through the years not just for the sentimentality of items but their value too as my family can sell on if they so wish, I won't be caring once I'm not here.
I sit and " grieve " sometimes about all the items that I did throw out after my in-laws died. I daren't think about what went on the tip ! 100's of books ( whatever they were ) a heavily beaded flapper dress and other clothes from the 20's/30's-------before ebay

I hate clutter and clamour as it makes me uncomfortable and anxious. Luckily the DH is the same as me and we are tidy-warts. We never leave a room untidy.

We do have things and stuff. But it is pared down to a minimum and we chose carefully the beautiful things we like to have visible and carefully placed. On my mantelpiece is some gorgeous eighteenth century Worcester china and a lovely clock my DH's grandfather made. It give me pleasure every time I look at it.

I don't mind other people's clutter, though. It is temporary (for me, at least) and interesting.