Downsizing

My 94 year old father-in-law is a hoarder but thinks it’s funny that we will one day have to sort it all out. I wouldn’t mind getting in house clearance people as I worry that my husband will want to tote half of it to our house. Thinking of my own children I have started to get rid of stuff which I don’t want or need, even though we aren’t down-sizing. It’s a great feeling to see tidy cupboards etc, but husband not so keen!

My husband and I have a box each, size chosen to fit into the top of our fitted wardrobes, where we are allowed to store small objects that have sentimental value. He has some tee shirts and beer mats, I have a few things my mother and children made etc. Friends have been instructed that it's chocolates or flowers only for gifts, so we don't have anything to store long-term.

Iam64 I have had no trouble getting rid of books! I inherited my parents' excellent library that included classics, reference books, first editions etc as well as having built up my own. When I saw that the internet had up to date reference materials, and my reference collection was no longer accurate, I got rid of all those. When ebooks came out, I got rid of the fiction too! Now I have only about 12 physical books, chosen for their sentimental value.

Little and often I would say. Have a chuck out session about every six months and then move on. Consider that you may eventually live in one room in a care home and start thinking about what items you'd want to keep for life.
I have thousands of photographs and need to reduce them + digitalize them into smaller books - Snapfish is good.
Give grown-up children a deadline for removing their old school/childhood stuff.
Resist the temptation to buy 'nonsense' that attracts you as you pass pretty shops.

We moved from a 5 bed 3 bathroom to a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom - I thought I had got rid of a lot of stuff until we filled the loft here. I had to get ruthless and sold things on a local selling site and got a buzz of the amount I was getting in the pot which allowed me to go and get some new thing for our new home. i would like to add we are SO happy since we downsized and just love our smaller home.

janeainsworth what a great idea!

Cannot part with my music & books though all my music is on itunes & my ipod. Have slimmed down some to my charity shop but only ones that i will never read/listen to again. Not many of those as i keep books i will reread. I still have hundreds of viynl albums which i treaure as there is nothing like the feeling of opening a gatefold sleeve, putting the record on the deck, settling back & listening to something i grew up with. I know i'm sad & dont really care!

Perhaps favourite CDs or just tracks could be transferred on to your computer?
Recipe books - there are usually just one or two favourites so I have copied them and now have them in my own recipe file and have got rid of the book. A hard call though!

I part with clothes to the charity shop with such reluctance that I find it painful but, in a matter of days, I've recovered. Now and again I look for a particular item only to remember it's gone and I soon seem to find a suitable replacement. Bit of a necessary evil I guess. Too much 'stuff' is never good and I'm guilty but working on it daily with reasonable success.

I too slimmed down my cookery book collection before our move last year (actually to a bigger house, but that's another story) and found myself re-buying Nigella Lawson's How to Eat! I'd really missed it, as much to read as to cook from.

Ah yes. I was reading about parting with things... according to the professional declutterers... the way to do it is to thank each item individually for the joy and happiness it's brought you.

I found it difficult to get rid of books and am not very good with technology. I only got rid of the ones I probably won't read again. I've still got plenty on the shelves.
As for cook books I wrote out my favourite recipes and put them into a folder. I've got about ten cook books now which I won't part with. I'm not good with throwing things out.
Good storage is key.

Yesterday I finally finished sorting out all the recipes I have cut out over the last few years - huzzah! This afternoon I am at work but tomorrow I start decluttering the study. We too are moving nearer to family, hoping to go before Christmas, and have thirty years of stuff in this house. I have been doing the Swedish death cleaning thing for about 18 months but only very gradually. As they say, keep nothing that is not beautiful or useful - will the charity shop take DH then? Only joking!

CDs - get an I Pod. I put all my music onto an IPOd and bought a docking station so can listen when I like - never looked back re CD throwing!

Perhaps selling your books and cds will help. You could use the money for something that might not have been possible otherwise! There a several sites and it is so simple with a smart phone, you don’t even pay for postage.

I prefer cd's and books to their digital counterparts. I'll never be a minimalist but I enjoy a bit of clutter - otherwise known as bits of ceramics that were grannies/mums, shells or pine cones the children collected, plus boxes of photographs. I've culled lots of photographs but there are so many of want to keep. Maybe I can start putting them into albums, or would that take up more room than the boxes under the bed?

I dont MissAdventure I really like taking a CD at random off the shelf and reading the sleeve notes I dont get the same pleasure from digital music.....old school .I have around 2000 collected over decades although when we were supposed to be moving a couple of years ago I gave my Jazz collection to a friend of my MIL,around 100 remastered fabulous albums .Then theres the massive HI FI and speakers that are about 4 feet tall I'll be buying a HIFI magazine to see if theres a one box option that will still sound good .The more I think of this the more I stress ...

Do you have spotify, paddy?
You can make a playlist of every single album, and it will play radio songs based on them, so you get to hear new stuff.

Hi Paddyann
Amazon as well as eBay sell zippered storage cases for CDs
Some are expandable to hold over 200 CDs or DVDs.
You just have to remove the disc from the plastic case, and keep the cover which has the song info. I didn't have a very large collection, but used the zipper storage cases when we moved 6 years ago.
Cookery books are a whole different story. I hate throwing books away.. I would save the favorite books and take photos of the recipes you want from the others and keep the photos on an iPad or other device. I take photos of recipes on my iPad, then save them for use later.
Moving and downsizing is a lot of work. We have done it 4 times in 52 years. Can't remember half of the stuff I used to have.

I got rid of all my books a few years ago when the local school library was burned down,we donated over 2000 books to them.Its great that many of the books I loved are still in use .Its just cookery books I have now as I tend to pass on anything I've read with the exception of maybe half a dozen that I wont part with.Leon Uris' Trinity,To Kill a Mockingbird,a copy of Our Town that I've had since I was at school. A signed copy of A Prime Minister on Prime Ministers by Harold Wilson and a couple more .I'll find it harder to part with a lot of my CD's many bought at gigs and signed by the artist Stevie Wonder ,Erik Bibb. Eddi Reader ,Hugh Masakela amongst them .No ornaments but tons of tableware and kitchen equipment ....where to start ?

I have an empty loft and a very tidy almost empty shed. All my junk and rubbish is in my house and one of these days I will make a start.

If I could come to grips with the amount of paper I would be more than half way there. As I have said before, file is not a word I recognise.

We downsized two years ago from a large 5 bedroom house to a much smaller four bedroom. In the end, it has proved a relief to shed possessions, things kept for the sake of it and without thought for the children who will one day be faced with having to clear our clutter!

It made us realise exactly what music we listened to and which books we had read and were remotely likely to read again. It also made us aware of how the digital world has changed our habits. We still have a hifi and a selection of cds but we listen to music now on ipods, Amazon Echo or computer. Similarly, many books are read on a Kindle and films watched on the computer.

I've also been one for keeping cards and keepsakes, souvenirs, boxes of photographs, cookery books, articles, favourite clothes now not worn and so on. I feel saved from the absurdity of it all now and glad to have had a massive clear out, I really don't miss anything. As has been suggested, you can always photograph things and take the process gently. I think the number of things we genuinely need to keep is, in reality, tiny and it's good to have reason to notice that.

Lots of good ideas here. Yes, it’s a challenge but not an impossible one. I was 65, Mr C 7O when we made the move. Our loft took forever to clear, the rest of our home of 30 years was easier. Taking photos of things we let go of, taking the recipes we actually ate from books and putting them in labelled files and storing music digitally all worked for us. Books were reduced to those that felt important and those linked to my professional life, I was still working. Clothes were fairly easily paired down. The kitchen was straightforward, did we really need 36 dinner plates? Actually no! Much of the content of the garage and shed were an accumulation of ‘stuff’ rather than necessities. We were left with decisions about items with sentimental attachment. They were heart decisions. We did bring far too many boxes with us. Rented some self store until we’d renovated our new home, realised there was little in store we needed or had missed and then culled again. A smaller space works for us. Be brave, all will be well.

We moved about 8 years ago and though we intended to downsize are living in similar space. We did get rid of 1/3 of our books..but have since replaced them with others.
DVDs & CDs were easy to lose as now so easy to download for a re-viewing/listening
A good way to save some treasures is to get some framed to hang on the wall: e.g. a collage of kids handmade cards, favourite book covers , vinyl album covers etc! DH also chose four covers from his Private Eye collection to frame.. he sold the rest! I have seen people frame their DCs bootees!

We did decide not to put anything in the new loft but we do have a huge sturdy shed which is very useful but we are careful not to use it too much for 'just in case' items!

Why not storeallyour CDs digitally ?

We downsized from a big house to a small bungalow 15mnths ago and despite a huge declutter before we left we’ve had todo it twice more since we moved.

I don’t suppose we’re done yet .