Help me to throw out...

I dont know about your bags Nanabelle, but my plastic ones that I do have, could not manage a refill of groceries. They are awfully thin.

I agree that it is the quantity of some useful items that is my problems too. I dont need 15 whatever, I need barely 5. So I will try and keep to that regime.

I sometimes get a home food delivery from my supermarket. Comes in loads of plastic bags!

I am a bit sad to see that so many of us have loads of plastic bags. Don't you take your own bags to the shops? If you have old curtains, or material, or duvet covers, please check out www.morsbags.com and discover a very easy way to make bags out of old material - saving the oceans and wild animals from the masses of plastic bags that are out in the world.
But … although I nearly always use my own bags, dh likes to get the plastic ones to take the veg peelings etc down to the allotment compost bin (we don't have a garden).
We seem to have loads of used envelopes in the desk drawers. Now, they do come in useful, but not in the amount that we actually have!

I have the same problem with dh and glass jars for nails, screws etc. Can't get into our garage for all his saved stuff. And bags of rags! What for?
oh dear, need to de clutter seriously then this year!

I spent two hours in the lean-to today and only cleared out a quarter of it. It's a wonder I can get in there at all. The next section is all the large trays that meat sits in when you buy it from supermarkets - I thought they would be useful for seed trays and propagator lids. So tomorrow will be spent matching them up to all the 'family-sized mushroom' containers I have been collecting as seed trays, as they are half the size exactly of a large seed container and fit inside nicely.

I think I may have to stop buying mushrooms for a bit. And buy more meat from the butcher instead.

After reading this thread I just threw out a load of plastic bags which were packed so tightly into the bag holder that I couldn't get anything out.

I dont have gc yet loobylou, but I have kept a bit of old linen.

If you donate your stuff to Oxfam, and Gift Aid them, you get a nice warm glow twice - once when you give the stuff away, and remind yourself how each item will do good for someone in the world. And again when you get an email telling you how much they raised from your stuff (which you get for tax purposes). Can't lose really.

The older I get, the less I want or need. This view dovetails well with my natural minimalist tendencies.

What does it give people holding on to all this stuff? Recycling and charities are there for all sorts of unwanted items, and useful for others in need.

Does one really need the security blanket of keeping things just in case. Just in case of what? For instance, I keep string, because it is useful - but I don't need all the string that is available and comes my way. Same goes for plastic bags, containers, cardboard. Just enough but not more.

Several months ago I went through my wardrobe completely on instinct. I dumped a good half into several bin liners. What was left was a surprise. Old and much loved, practical, interesting, favourite colours and comfortable clothes were left. Everything worked together, fitted and is a pleasure to wear. Why keep anything else?

I have not visited the bin liners since. Shortly all will be donated to Emmaus.

Incidentally soontobe single /double sheets make great picnic blankets as can be easily washed and, if on the beach, they are light to carry, don't collect sand and are gentle on little ones' knees.

Little boxes are just so useful-looking, aren't they? And plastic tubs, which are just crying out to be used in the freezer. Such a pity that they breed so fast though...

Thanks janerowena..

Your halo must be shining brightly Charleygirl, quite !

OMG, reading what you guys hoard, my house is positively empty. My floored loft is empty, I only have 2 wardrobes full of clothes which need to be taken to charity. I decluttered my shed last year, I have cardboard boxes for the recycling bin but little else rubbish wise. I do have heaps of books but I regularly offload them to a friend! I managed to get rid of half used tins of paint which had been accumulating. I have not come to grips with filing so I have a lot of paper, old and new.

I can't bear waste either - which is how we all end up in this state, isn't it! I saved all the tubs and lids originally to cut up and use as labels in the garden and for seed growing, but it wears off too quickly, lolly sticks are better and I get to eat the ice lollies as well!

I used two old tubs just this morning to melt some hardened shoe polish! I should probably just have thrown the shoe polish out but it worked fine and now I don't have to buy any. I do like to make use of stuff - not for the money but just because I can't bear waste. I have a well ordered stock of junk for all my craft hobbies. I console myself that when it is time for the kids to clear out the house it will at least be tidy rubbish and easy to put in a skip. There is nothing more annoying than throwing something out then realising the next day that you do need it!

I think it is because I just found them all in my lean-to...

I found a huge stack of boxes, I found a huge stack of lids. The lids did not fit the boxes. Therefore they must be yours. If you pm me your address, I shall send them to you.

I shall have to retrieve them from the very full black plastic bin bag first, though.

Please can anyone explain why, despite careful pairing up, I can never find the matching lid to a storage container (aka Tupperware)?

The yarn I bought today was a bargain, enough for a jersey for each DGD!

But an unused tub is an unused tub soontobe it could just come in useful one day .....

We had quite a job clearing out MIL's house as she was a hoarder, but I think that we have more. Our junk is just a bit more useful - but she had nothing in her attic. Ours is groaning with stuff.

anniebach your post Thu 05-Mar-15 15:28:38- lol!

I am being very very good and trying to finish unfinished knitting projects!
I nearly finished a 25 year old nearly finished sweater last year (but stopped myself just in time 6 rows from the end!). I don't think I will like it if I finish it anyway.

If you do like the memories, but not the clutter of it, you can always take a photo before disposing of the item carefully.

My dad insisted on giving my sister and I a few bits for the memories. She liked hers. I didnt!

A bit is tupperware rq. But an unused tub is an unused tub? No?
I think that in general, for me, I end up saving too many whatever. Only a few are needed.

I think at the back of my mind is that I recently watched an only child have to clear out his mum and dad's place.
They always said that they needed to clear the loft, but never did.
But he also found that there was a filled garage to go through, a full garden shed of things that had seen better days, a greenhouse which needed a clear out etc. All very sad.
But then again, I am middle age, so I still have plenty of time to leave plenty of things for my children to sort through.
But my husband says that is their job.

DH has discovered my wool stash isn't just a large lidded footstool , but I do quite a lot of knitting and rosequartz, have just bought some more, oh dear!
Other than that (and for some weird reason enough tights to outlast me) I've started being pretty ruthless-including hiding stuff under the usual rubbish in the bin on bin day so His Nibs can't fish it out 'in case it comes in useful'! I just plead total innocence if he asks where something went
I recycle as much as I can or take to the charity shops.
My parents have 60 years of 'useful bits'....... Mum even tried to give me my ancient and decrepit school boater yesterday because she 'didn't like to throw it out so you can have it for the memories' (no bl....y way!)

Dont tell Mishap!

I hoard almost everything mentioned so far!

My granny used to hang teabags on the washing line to dry before re-using!

I can't even start to mention the stuff DBH hoards, I am not allowed to touch it. We have several old computers, tvs, printers, speakers, radios, DVD players, video recorders - none working. Lightbulbs of the old sort that don't even fit our lights. Board games the kids didn't like, but he did when young and refuses to part with them. LOADS of them. Old sports equipment - really ancient tennis racquets that are too heavy, ancient golf clubs. His study outside has racks to the ceiling full of the crap stuff. As for cables - they have spilled over into poor DS's music room/den.

As for his shed - well, you can barely get in it, and it's meant to be a working space. But no piece of wood, no matter how small, has ever been allowed to leave the premises because 'one day it might come in useful'. On the rare occasions when he does find a use for a piece, he crows about it endlessly, but more often than not he surveys what looks like the beginnings of a very large municipal bonfire, and trots off to buy a new bit.

I have to throw out all my old coffee jars before he can lay his hands on them, because he is using them to keep nails and screws in. Old ones, not new ones. Sorted into different lengths and thicknesses. However - last week he went out and bought a whole load of new ones.