Getting rid of "stuff"

My husband was a hoarder and since his passing, pre lockdown, I cleared our garage. I did many trips to the local tip and hired a skip. I was amazed at the things he had kept and being a lover of car boot sales, had purchased and never used. What a job and I’ve still not finished. I must admit, chucking stuff in the skip was very cathartic and seeing the floor of the garage was satisfying. Now I just need some motivation to finish the job.

Some local churches will direct you to places where goods can be used. We have a local Share it initiative that helps families in need. Our local charity shops in the north are now open

Annie hip.
I know just what you mean,

I am a chucker and Oh is a hoarder.

I can’t abide having lots of Stuff!! Hanging around, so I constantly feel stressed every time I look at his Stuff!!
It’s no good, he won’t get rid of it, so what’s to do.
Usually, when a certain item is needed for repairs of some sort, he can’t find the appropriate tools. I wonder why?

I do wish we could have a clear out. My problem is DH. We got rid of lots when we moved here six years ago but he keeps expressing regrets for things he was forced to get rid of. We still have far too much stuff. Dare I say, I will have such a clear out once he has died. My own hoard is nothing compared to his. The loft if full of stuff that is never touched, apart from jigsaw puzzles which we rotate from time to time,

Well done Luckygirl. I’ll bet you feel as if a weight has been lifted off your shoulders.
I’m so going to do this. I have things stored in boxes and crates which have been cluttering up the place for years.
Now do I just chuck them without as much as a little peek inside or shall I throw caution to the wind and toss the lot unseen?
How brave am I feeling???

Therein lies the problem Suedonim I rarely use recipes but I love reading cookery books and looking at the pictures .Now and then I do cook something from the but as cooking has always been a hobby I like to improvise ...a lot .

I have spent lockdown clearing out. We are in the process of having our home refurbished. We are on our third skip (new cloakroom, new flooring, the old ones have to go somewhere) and probably took forty boxes and bags to charity shops. My husband has strong hoarding tendencies so it was very hard work. It looks lovely now and, best of all, all the excess is no longer here.

catladyuk thank you for the help we did realise that some are fake. We always use the local Air Ambulance one that we know is bone fide.

No one would want any of my cookery books - the ones I use are disgusting as they are covered in fat, gravy, curry and various other splashes. Or they have scribbles all over them saying double that, none of this etc.

Please, please do not use these bags
catlady I use them to fill up with stuff to take to the charity shop. It gives even more satisfaction to do that. [wmile]

Paddyanne take a photo of your favourite recipes (which you can later print out if you prefer to use a hard copy recipe) and then you can bin the books.

I am such a pack rat.
It’s horrible.

I’m working on it. I never feel freer, I just feel what if I’ve made a giant mistake lol

When my Mum died, we sorted everything into 3 piles-keep, charity shop, and dump.

Our house seems to be the narrow end of a funnel, the crap from deceased relatives houses is all here, when my husband died in March I went through a lot of stuff, albums of people I didn't know, eg the adopted family who raised his aunt who died in the early 70s! Why did every man of a certain age who served in India during WW2 have a photo on a balcony during leave in Candy, Ceylon (then)? Do I need his old school reports? They're not exactly a testement to hard work!
There are all kinds of old cigarette and tobacco tins in the garage that came from my father's garage, it goes on forever and I can't bear to throw it out.

Well done Luckygirl it’s good to move house without too many “trappings“. We have moved lots and got rid of more “stuff” each time. Certainly concentrated our minds when we cleared parents houses.

I am in a local neighbourhood network called “Nextdoor”. It has national links, and I have given away and sold quite a few things on there. Doesn’t cost anything to post and goes to reasonably local people so transport not usually a problem.

I have hundreds dont know what happens to words on here they disappear

thanks ccI have and tend to stick to a few although the nice ones are great just to browse through .I'll start working through them today

I find clearing out therapeutic but DH can't bring himself to throw anything away. He has a garage full of things that "might come in useful one day". These include bits of wood, wire, pieces of old carpet, a chair with two missing legs, and enough jam jars to make industrial quantities of jam.

My lockdown clear-out has focused on sorting over 50 years of photos. I've kept family photos to pass on to DDs and have heavily pruned holiday albums to reflect some of our travel experiences (in case we feel like a nostalgic trip). Hundreds of photos of unidentifiable lakes, mountains and beaches have been binned. Very satisfying.

One day I will throw out the jigsaws we have accumulated during lockdown (currently on our sixth 1,000 piece one). We think of them as "A Story of Lockdown" (subtitled How We went to Pieces).

@paddyanne we have a local Oxfam shop which does nothing but books and music. They tell me that they can use virtually every cookbook that they receive.

We hope to move soon and my DH has been clearing and throwing. I have real trouble doing it, either I get stuck on one item, thinking about where it came from etc., or I want to keep something because it might be "useful one day". Now he is basically sorting out the things which he thinks can clearly be thrown away and I go through them which is more productive.
At the moment we intend to move to a flat from a very large house, reducing out floor space to a quarter of our current size.

The skip company that I am using are a recycling company. They will go through everything and recycle where possible - only a very small amount will go to landfill.

I have just thrown away a pile of plastic box lids - I have carted these lids about for years, with no clue as to where the actual boxes might be!

My research shows that very few charity shops round here will collect. I am not able to lug the stuff about unfortunately, so that is a problem.

I decided yesterday to cull my cookery books ,but I dont know if people use books now when recipes are easily found on the net.I dont really want to bin them

Eighteen months ago my mother passed away and I had to clear her flat, which made me take a good look at my own flat and I did a major declutter, throwing away things I had kept for years and were of no use to anybody. Just recently I had to clear my spare bedroom to have a new carpet laid so I was very careful what I put back and got rid of loads more stuff. It's a really great feeling to see everything so neat and organised and I can find the things I really need. On emptying my wardrobes, I found 3 packs of knickers and two pairs of slippers that I had forgotten about and 6 pairs of socks I had never worn!

... I did a bit of a blitz last summer ..ditched the folding garden chairs as not used in 10 years .... but of course I have now needed them ...Grrrr

I need to do this too, there's only two of us (he's bedridden) so all of the clutter is mine, also thinking ahead (although I'm not ill lol), I want everything ship shape for my daughter. I would hate her to come in the house and be faced with a mountain of stuff to shift. I stand around looking at it and thinking I really need to make a start but have no motivation.