30 bags in 30 days decluttering method

I’ll be okay, once I actually start, it’s getting the motivation to do that!! 🥹

Hope I can be motivated just where to start? but a brilliant idea, good decluttering to you all and won't you feel good in 30 days

But….am I a hoarder….I have four trophies that are / were my daughters, can’t bear to throw them away. Surely I need to save them for when she realises she wants them ……. Help me?

Why is it that we become so sentimentally attached to stuff?!

I try so hard to declutter …

At the weekend I braced myself to sort out the zillions of mugs, glasses etc in the kitchen cupboards in order to free up space to put all the stuff currently on top of the cupboards.

I did really well 😇😇 until DH came into the kitchen! “You can’t get rid of that, or that …!” (Mugs that he’d never used, had even forgotten he had and had no sentimental value whatsoever!) I should have known better and hidden them until he was at work!

He’s worse than I am! If he can’t find something straightaway he buys a replacement, so we have duplicates of his clutter. Actually, make that triplicates 😱

I’ll join, please, I need the nudge that you lot will provide!

VB000 Thanks for that link, that could help a lot.

Please can I flag up charities/centres that work with/for homeless people. Our local "Homeless Centre" will accept clean, warm clothes, towels, toiletries, etc. They are particularly glad to have warm coats, socks, and strong footwear: both"men's" & "women's". (Underwear can also be accepted if in a decent & clean condition.)
On a different note, we pass on cardboard boxes and "packing materials" to a local charity shop: they're always glad of these for when people buy crockery, glassware, ornaments, and other breakable items. (We simply enquired whether they could use this stuff!) Clean jam jars (with lids) go to another charity where there's someone who makes jam and chutneys for fundraising. (Not forgetting Freecycle/Freegle! IMO this is a brilliant way to give away all sorts of "stuff".) I speak from experience: a few years ago we "downsized" (and cleared out lots of stuff) and I can honestly say that little went to the tip.

This is a mystery to me, I’m apparently an alien.
I don’t keep anything that’s not being used. I know where everything is. I couldn’t find something unexpected in a cupboard because I could name every item in every drawer or cupboard. Nothing is left in the wrong place or lost. I don’t think I could fill one carrier bag with unwanted stuff.
I imagine this makes life easier but perhaps you hoarders lead happier lives and I should try to be more like you.

I started with a cupboard. When I had cleared the cupboard and got rid of all the broken/useless/unidentifiable items in the bin and put everything away where it was meant to be or given it away I was able to use the cupboard to store things that had no home. By the time I had done all the cupboards (months!) there was a lot less clutter sitting around and the rooms were easier to clean as most things had a home.

I found about 10 empty shoe boxes in one cupboard 🤨 I covered them with lovely contact papers and used them to house small things.

Ah, the doombags and doomboxes

I've used that approach to 'tidying' since I was a child, and it's a hard habit to break. All the small things that don't really have a home get stuck in a bag or box 'for later' and then the bags/boxes go in a cupboard and I forget what's in them. Sometimes I end up buying another item as I can't find the original (Sellotape being the most likely item for this treatment).

I've bought some felt cubes to go inside cupboards and the intention is to keep similar items together so I have more of a chance of finding them, and when any cube is unable to take more items it will get cleared out. I'm good at coming up with systems like this, but hopeless less good at sticking to them, or even getting to the point where they are actually in place.

I have a pathological horror of having stuff that I don’t need or use. I’m on a permanent Swedish death clean!

Well done !

My New Year resolution is to have a major daily declutter .

I admit it -I'm a terrible hoarder - things end up being shoved in plastic bags and boxes and forgotten .

I started off with the kitchen and found a lot of stuff past the sell by date .
My father has food crazes and it's probably why .

I've given a lot of in date food away .

Then , I started on the conservatory and I've decided that the next time well meaning friends bring stuff over which they don't want , but I do ( ! ) - I'm going to say no politely , but firmly .

I found a lot of things which someone brought over , because he thought I'd like them . And some huge space consuming broken old boxes have gone .
The charity shops wouldn't accept them
I've wondered if he tried to dump them there and having no luck gave them to me !

And a huge unwanted shop display unit went out too .

Tedious and boring -I'm making myself do an hour a day .

Everytime my will weakens - I watch one of those programmes about hoarding !

I will join you too. Have made a great start by donating 4 carrier bags full of good quality books, and now have a huge pile to be sorted out for my next trip. Clothes next, but I have to be in the right mindset.

I'm in from this weekend, roughly.

When I moved from a four bedroomed house to my wee bungalow, I shed masses of stuff to the charity shops.

Last year, when I moved from my wee bungalow to my even weeer supoorted living flat, I shed masses more.

Hopefully this weekend I'll be moving within the complex, and have shed masses more - and yet..... I've had most things packed since well before Christmas (delays in building materials for the refurb) and I've only once had to dig into a box for something, I've missed none of the rest of it. So I feel sure I can do another 30 bags!

I take mine to the local Hospice Shop.

Yes. Great thread. Count me in.
A bag a day sounds reasonable.

If you find the 30 bags in 30 days "crash course" in decluttering a bit overwhelming, some of you might prefer the more gentle "Bin, Charity Show, Tip". method. If you have things to sell you could add that in too.
You commit to doing this every week and it is surprising how easy it is. I did this last Spring & Summer and got rid of quite a bit of stuff, think I will start again as there is more to get rid of

NotSpaghetti

VB000

I've mentioned this charity before, but they will collect most items from your driveway if they're bagged. Money goes to an eye tumour charity and a lot of stuff is sent overseas.

anglodoorstepcollections.co.uk/

They say 60% of proceeds go to charity.
I think their charities change.

Thanks NotSpaghetti - I found this site in October last year, and it was the same charity then, but as they point out, they sometimes change the nominated charity.

Just thought it may help people who are less able to travel, or have items that other charity shops don't want, such as books etc.

Our local charity shop usually has a sign to say they're not currently accepting donations! If items end up at the tip, even 60% is better than nothing!

I'm hoping it will get easier as it goes along. I think it will, as the task will gradually (very gradually in my case!) become less overwhelming as having clearer surfaces will look nicer, and having cupboards/cubbies to put things in will make it all so much less stressful.

I’m finding myself nodding along to all your stories. I too have lived in this house for 40-odd years, have amassed stuff from deceased parents’ home, have kept my children’s toys etc. to pass on to grandkids (Why??? They’ve turned up their noses at them!)

Anyway, I’ve accomplished Day 1. My plan of taking books to the charity shop has been put on hold. Instead, I took a pile of newspapers from a corner of the living room and dumped them in the recycling. They had festered there for months, waiting for me to sort through them and cut out recipes, diet plans and other lifestyle articles which would never get looked at again.

So, a painless start to the mammoth task ahead. Barely touching the surface, but it WAS a carrier bag’s worth. So, I’m chuffed.

I moved house about a year ago and brought all my clutter with me! So am still unpacking boxes of stuff (no other word for it), I too will have a declutter. Trouble is I am sentimental and keep a lot, of things that are no use to anyone and they stay in boxes.
Onwards and upwards in the de-clutter gang. Good luck everyone

VB000

I've mentioned this charity before, but they will collect most items from your driveway if they're bagged. Money goes to an eye tumour charity and a lot of stuff is sent overseas.

anglodoorstepcollections.co.uk/

They say 60% of proceeds go to charity.
I think their charities change.

I have a close friend who has done something similar only she selected one item a day that she popped into a bag and that bag was out by the end of the week. Just saying as it's very doable and not overpowering to stick to longer term

It's a shame that books are sent to the tip, as with libraries closing there must be a lot of people who would get pleasure from them. I understand that they take up space though, and I suppose that markup has to be taken into account. We've recently had a wall of bookshelves built, and I have a lot of books to get rid of, but I'd hate to think of them being pulped. It's good to see that the people in VB000's link upthread will take them. Some of the old textbooks will probably be pulped anyway, but even if they just get a few pence for them it's all to the good, and at least I don't have to bin them myself. They might find a first edition in there (unlikely!) that makes up for the ones that sell for 5p each.

I've just checked, and they can pick up from me in the middle of February, which would give me time to sort out other things to go, too. It looks as though the middle of the month is their time for collection here, so I could aim to have at least something ready each month - having a deadline is always good for me. 60% of the value of collected items go to charity, which seems to me likely to be on a par with high street shops? Overheads are going to be high whichever method of collection is used.

I've already sorted the sideboard drawers! Still the cupboard bits to go, but I've earned myself a coffee break. I've kept bags of old photos (the ones from the developers). I resisted the temptation to go through them, as that way madness lies. I'd still be here at midnight, reminiscing and taking photos of the photos to send to the family WhatsApp group and bore the children with 'do you remember this?' . I've committed the cardinal sin for declutterers and moved them from one drawer to another. I will have to sort them out one day, but that's Advanced Sorting, and I'm still on Level 1.

Whoops, sorry for the thread diversion!

I’ll join in. I took a bag of unused toiletries to our food bank collection point yesterday, so there’s day 1 done. Today I’m dropping off a bag of magazines I’ve saved for a friend who enjoys them.

MerylStreep

I’m at the other end of all you ladies: I can’t bear stuff.
I use my urge to get rid of stuff by sorting in a charity shop.

Today I have to take a mountain of books ( donations) to the tip. We have so many and non of the 3 charity shops near us want them.

Please remember that charity shops have to pay for rubbish to be taken away. Our skip costs £60 per lift. We sometimes have 2 a week.

But if some charity shops don’t want books, why don’t they have notices up telling us that?

Our local shop always welcomes them, but then they have a huge and quick turnover at 5 for £1. Apparently they make a lot of money from them.

On the other hand I went to one shop recently that was trying to sell them at £1/£1.50 each - they had bags crammed full of books at the door waiting to be collected for the tip. I had a bit of a rummage and there were newly published books in there that had obviously just been donated. They should have been turned away so that others could benefit from them.

I'm in! I look forward to joining you, and thanks for the link VB000.

I've mentioned this charity before, but they will collect most items from your driveway if they're bagged. Money goes to an eye tumour charity and a lot of stuff is sent overseas.

anglodoorstepcollections.co.uk/