Getting rid of ‘stuff’

I find that our village Facebook page is good. I put an old Scrabble game on yesterday, pointing out that the box is damaged but that was quickly collected from our porch.

Our local vet was happy to take a big pile of surplus towels.

I was so busy decluttering I forgot to come back on this thread.
So thanks MerylStreep for your kind offer.
I have had help but people only touch the surface.
I do care where things go to. I know my husband would not have wanted me to just bin all the things he had lovingly rescued.
I have begun with his clothes but in covid times it isn't easy to get things to the right people. I was thinking of refugees in those cold camps but no-one can deliver at present. The charity shops aren't accepting donations yet.
Freecycle or local facebook perhaps though having to photograph everything.....

My DS took away all our old cine films, dirty and forgotten and took them to a company in Newcastle on Tyne who have restored them and put them on a memory stick to be shared with each family member. Not quite the same as all sitting around the screen and giggling but better than the dusty box.

Well done GrannyHaggis how are your moving preparations going?

Grammaretto
I would love to come and help you because I love ‘clearing out’
I don’t mind helping people do it because I have non of my own.
I get my ‘clearing out’ fix by working in a charity shop ?
But I warn you, I’m ruthless ?

I've used freecycle quite a few times. There's usually someone whose left home and just setting up a new one and in need of household items. It's got to be worth a try.

EkwaNimitee It's always worth trying Freecycle - when we had out kitchen done a few years back I decided to get rid of all the stuff we didn't use, including an almost complete (but old) dinner service, cutlery service and loads of pans and pyrex.

The lady who took them all had lost her house in a fire (council house I think) and although she had a new house she had nothing else. She said when she replaced them eventually with new she would pass everything on through Freecycle.

Great stuff. Good luck ?

The skip is arriving tomorrow and 30 years of 'stuff' will go in it! As DH has been in hospital, DD has been helping me clear the house in readiness for our move. Hopefully I can get it in the skip without too much 'interference' from him.
Have sold some stuff on village FB page, taken some to Emmaus and either binned or taken bits to the tip. Sadly, you have to book a slot and can't just turn up there at the moment.
Don't have a moving date yet, but at least I know the stuff we're taking is stuff that we'll use and need and there's enough there to hold happy memories.

I’ve been sorting stuff out to go quite successfully but actually getting it out of the house may not be so easy. I rang one charity shop this morning to make sure they were accepting stuff. Answer... clothes, yes but my varied selection of cookware and glassware, no. It’s not selling. It’s not battered old stuff but good. I guess I could try Freecycle but am not sure if anyone would bother to come round for odds and bobs. I’d feel too bad chucking good stuff in the dump. Guess the kids will have to inherit after all!

I have been busy decluttering since my DH passed away. He was a hoarder and had the largest bedroom in the house as his man cave. It was hard but i had to do it as the room could not be used for any other purpose. Some of his most treasured items i have kept and they are in a cabinet. Doing this has made me realise how difficult it would be for my children to do when i leave this earth. I am living here so can potter for a couple of hours a day then shut the door on the room and go about my other chores without travelling or having to do it in a rush. Imagine if you were still working, had a family, had to travel to the property, organise skips, or charity shop collections all on top of grieving for a deceased relative. It has made me determined to tackle every room in the house plus the garden shed so it will all be so much easier for them.

Yes I'm guilty I find renovating a 100 yr old house on low pension keeps me so occupied I haven't got time to sort through things to throw out

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And yet more stuff .... yes all those photos somewhere in ‘the cloud ‘ . My daughter takes very few photos, even of her child. She says she would rather just enjoy the moment than be having her phone or camera out. Digital has made it soooo easy !
Easy to delete to though. I’ve tried to sort out some slides of my mum and dad this morning . I ended up in tears ..... what a silly sentimental thing I am. I’m also getting cold feet about moving - but that’s another story ! At least I’ll have no clutter ...

I have a lot of digital photos up in the cloud, some on my PC and some on an external hard drive, but I worry about future technology making them difficult to get to.

I had loads of stuff, can’t actually remember what anymore, on Floppy Discs............so Ive kept my dozens of photos albums, taking up a whole cupboard.

Can you come and help me now please Humbertbear ?
I am in the same position as Fiorentina except I think we have even more than you because I seem to have acquired the contents of the attic of the local coop when it closed down and the archives of various organisations DH belonged to felt sorry for.
Note to self: never downsize to anywhere with spare space.

fiorentina51

To be fair, I didn't realise her fossil collection was still around until I unearthed it during the great de cluttering. She's moving house in the next few weeks so I might just deliver a little housewarming gift.....?

Well, she’ll either pounce on it with cries of joy, or perhaps it will find a new home in the bin.

?

Probably not helpful to you but I had to move into a very small flat in between selling the family home and moving into my new place. It needed tons of renovation so I was in the flat 7 months. I put most of my stuff in storage. When I came to take it out I suddenly found I didn’t want or need most of it. I took lots of it straight to the dump. Made it so I couldn’t retrieve it if I changed my mind. Have missed nothing.
Another help was getting my grown up kids to empty the loft into a skip. I wasn’t allowed near. I honestly have no idea what most of it was and again haven’t missed it.
Good luck. Am sure you’ll find your best plan for you. Exciting times tho!

Selling things to friends for low prices is great. They get something cheap, you get a little money and space back. Just sold a dog grooming table and a large scarifier. The garage seems so much larger now. Much better than faffing with eBay.

Sorry - meant to add that I also digitised a lot of photos and sent them round to family. I’ve also shared photos with younger members of the family who have not inherited albums.

To be fair, I didn't realise her fossil collection was still around until I unearthed it during the great de cluttering. She's moving house in the next few weeks so I might just deliver a little housewarming gift.....?

Ive whittled down 65 years of photographs (plus ones I inherited) into four large albums which I am going to give to my DS. I have made sure all the family members in the photos are labelled as are the events which they depict. I decided that if I didn’t want to look at photographs of ‘Crete 1994’ my Dc and GC definitely weren’t. I was worried that the more important photos that told our family history would be discarded along with all the holiday landscapes. We have given away/ sold over 1000 books and 500 CDs. I keep telling my husband that even if we don’t downsize (and he is not keen) then the DC will have less to clear out should anything happen to us.

What to do with my daughter’s fossil collection?

Give it to your daughter.

My friend was saying how her utility room was so cluttered with her daughter’s ‘stuff’ that she couldn’t get from one end to the other. Her DD has her own property now, I think I would be suggesting that she could now house her own ‘stuff’.

I have to disagree with those of you who say you would rather take sentimental items to a charity shop than see them sold for very little at a car boot sale.

I found it quite comforting to see Mum’s bric a brac being given a new home by someone who genuinely looked thrilled to be buying it.

In the 10 years since I retired we have had to clear 4 houses due to the death of close family members or their moving into care homes. We have been living in our current home for almost 48 years and, as you can imagine, we have accumulated an awful lot of 'stuff' of our own without including items from the house clearances.
Fortunately, we have a lot of storage space so it was easy to just put things away to deal with later. Trouble is, we never did!
Lockdown, made me get my act together and I made a concentrated effort to sort out the clutter.
I sold quite a few things online, gave away other items to friends or family and have got lots of things for the charity shop.
I have boxed up and labelled other things, particularly those that belong to my children..who left home 20 years ago!
Still, what The heck am I going to do with, amongst other things, 4 sewing machines, 3 dinner services, 2 tea sets. My daughter's fossil collection, great granny's plant stand and a grandmother clock?
Think I'll leave that for the kids to deal with.

I think I have so much because I don't throw things out. DH had a tendency to "rescue" things too.
Your attitude is noble marymary but I know what you mean by the weight of all the stuff.
About 30 yrs ago I offered to do a shift of sorting clothes donated for Bosnian refugees and a huge warehouse was the sorting place.
I wish I had a photo of the massive piles of clothes being sorted. We were told to discard anything imperfect with zips missing or slightly scruffy - even crumpled items weren't good enough.
Perhaps they were going to be sold on at markets in other countries but many of the things passing through my hands were better quality and newer than anything I or my family owned.