De-cluttering, the never-ending process

I am just about back onto the decluttering again.
I can see it will be bags/boxes/party bags type things next.

What do people do with large and left over gift bags?
They have been hanging around for a while. Didnt use many over Christmas.
It is supposed be everything in a place, but in my reality here, they dont really have one.
Even large paper bags from supermarkets I am not keen on, as I dont know what to do with them when emptied of the groceries.

Mine are in a large Santa bag in an upright position behind the sofa . I am not the best example though - more of a terrible warning.

!

Thanks anyway.
As my gc say, the back of my sofa is full of "lovely soft squidgy things". It actually has spare cushions, spare throws, that type of thing.
A santa bag there, for me, would get ripped in a few seconds.

I tried googling.

Some put on a shelf - i dont have spare shelves high enough, without crushing them.

Some put them in those green stow away christmas tree bag things - most of my large bags are not christmas ones.

Corners of house - I am trying to clear corners, not add to them.

4th option is to get rid - am considering this, if I cant find a suitable answer for this particular house.

A more practical suggestion than stashing them behind the sofa is to invest in reusable foil gift bags (available in large packs online) as they pack away small and don't crush in the way the card ones do. I've used them for the past couple of years, and they are a lot easier than wrapping in paper, and look as though they will last for ages. I just collect them in after the gift-giving part of Christmas day, and they get put away with the rest of the decorations until next year.

Sounds interesting. Never heard of them or seen them.

These are the first ones to come up with an Amazon search

They come in all different sizes, and some are more tasteful than others

Thanks.

I keep the gift bags from birthdays and Christmas in a large plastic box with lid, which fits under bed.

Pick out the largest bags and put all the Christmas in one, birthday in another etc.

I also keep a ream of rainbow tissue papers in there to sometimes use as gift wrap.

I am trying to deide whether I will ever want to play any LPs again ever. If not, I can let go all of DH's hi-fi kit- that amounts to about 7 items and four speakers in the sitting room. I can play CDs elsewhere and have other radios around the house.

Of course my family stream everything but I am not quite into that yet, though I do play music on my laptop from YouTube etc.
Or I could buy one of those modern all-in-one things I see advertised if I want to keep some LPs. I am not getting rid of the CDs of which there are hundreds ( classical music ), though if I were eventually to move into a flat I would not have room, I expect. Decisions are not easy.

rtshop.radiotimes.com/collections/radios/products/steepletone-5-in-1-compact-music-system
A compromise?

Recently I have started making a serious effort to declutter, partly because I see myself wanting to future proof within 5 years by downsizing - not that our present house is large, but I can already see that several factors would make it unsuitable as we age. Unfortunately, every time I make a space by getting rid of any superfluous things of my own , Mr Oldnproud immediately fills it with more of his junk. It is really getting me down. 😔

I know what you mean. I think Mr Cabbie hated any space unfilled.

I've found the same. I had cupboards built into the dining room, and Mr D colonised half of them, leaving the rest to be split between communally owned things and my stuff. Similarly, I ruthlessly decluttered a large linen cupboard, in the hope of gaining a lot of the space I'd expected to get downstairs, and guess what?

I know he lives here too, so is entitled to storage space, but he has 100% of the garage, the shed and the broom cupboard for his crap treasured items.

Doodledog

I've found the same. I had cupboards built into the dining room, and Mr D colonised half of them, leaving the rest to be split between communally owned things and my stuff. Similarly, I ruthlessly decluttered a large linen cupboard, in the hope of gaining a lot of the space I'd expected to get downstairs, and guess what?

I know he lives here too, so is entitled to storage space, but he has 100% of the garage, the shed and the broom cupboard for his crap treasured items.

That sounds very similar, Doodledog. If you find a solution, please let do let me know.

I live in a small flat and this is my 15th move in as many years so I'm used to decluttering. I rely on charity shops to take my unwanted stuff; one in particular never turns anything away. I bought a new sofa last week and its size has meant that one of my metal coffee tables was redundant. Also I restuffed it and so the large foam cushion inserts weren't needed. This morning I put both items out on the pavement, packaged and labelled nicely and within an hour both were gone. I live among students so the pavement thing is something people regularly do here.

I have a bed that the mattress lifts up and has storage underneath. That's where I keep gift bags Christmas sacks and wrapping paper. Storage is a big issue in this house, my OH is another who collects things, tools in his case, and hides them away in chest of drawers and wardrobes even though he has a shed and a large outside storage unit and most of the summer house!

But I am glad other people have the back of the sofa as storage. Behind my sofa are piles of old gardening magazines, topped with spare cushions and throws. The cat considers it her special sleeping place but we are about to redecorate so I have to be ruthless now and clear things out.

Freegle is useful for items that you don't want to donate to charity shops for any reason (not perfect, unusual/obscure, too big). You know that your clutter/cast offs will go to someone who actually wants them and will come to collect them.

I declutter for a while and then give up. It seems like so much to do and it's exhausting at times. I'm hoping to get back to it soon.

The advice in articles about decluttering is always to do it in small chunks, so you don’t get overwhelmed by it. A drawer or cupboard at a time.

I’m not great at that, as I probably have ADD, so procrastinate until I have a deadline such as a decorator starting in two days and then have no choice but to work round the clock, but we’re all different, and that advice seems sensible if you can do it. Another idea is to set a timer and do as much as you can in ten minutes- you can do that for ten minutes every hour, or every day, depending on what works for you.

I have managed to get most of the house done over the past couple of years, and am now working on keeping it uncluttered. I never leave a room without looking for something to take with me to put in a bin or put away, try not to leave things on the stairs, but just take them and put them in bedrooms straight away and so on. Very basic things that most people do as a matter of course.

I have a couple of rooms still to do, but having the rest of the house finished is an incentive - it’s so much nicer to be able to put things in cupboards that aren’t groaning with ‘stuff’. I’m never going to be Marie Kondo (and I don’t want to be) but it’s never too late to learn, and small changes can make a big difference.

Cabbie, I too will never get rid of my cds and my 3 old bose items that produce the most wonderful sound. 2 are cd/radios from long ago and without DAB but of immense value to me. The third is an even older one to hold an old ipod. Thankfully I did spend a long long time putting very many playlists on the ipad. I have one of those cd/radios in my bedroom and it has a very handy small remote which I click to give me a turn-off time, in case I am asleep

I keep my cds out of boxes as they took up far too much room and I keep them all in special cases, in a row on a shelf. 3 for cds and 2 for dvds. I am happy with my system

case logic from amazon or direct from case logic. Mine hold 128 or 224 cds/dvds and I printed generic labels for the spines

I am more or less at a standstill wrt de-cluttering. Thankfully a dd has started to knit so I have already passed on some very good items

In my kitchen I am storing nordic ware cake tins and moulds, in top cupboards and there they will stay. Ridiculous I know but I cannot release the ones which are left

I think my next mini de-clutter will happen in the winter/summer clothing changeover. I am purposely wearing the same few things now, so they wear out a bit and I can at least target them. I have a warm but heavy lands end rain -resistant hooded coat, worn a couple of times only. If I don`t wear that this winter, then it will go to the salvation army

Airing cupboard is functioning nicely as are the other rooms but garage, oh dear!! I completely understand people keeping tools in the house, my garage is double skinned and is bone dry so nothing rusts. Many old garages are single skinned and they
(and sheds) will ensure that rust will attack anything stored in there

The playlists are on the ipod, playing random selection now

Little and often is the way I’m dealing with it. Today it will be a drawer in the dresser. We’ll tackle the big project of the garage when the weather improves, and will need to hire a skip for that, although some things will be good enough to take to the charity shop or recycle.

The advice in articles about decluttering is always to do it in small chunks, so you don’t get overwhelmed by it. A drawer or cupboard at a time.

I have also seen it written a few times, start with the bathroom. As that is normally the smallest room in the house.

And once one room is done, it helps to kick start somewhere else.

Thanks for the ideas of storing gift bags under a bed. Good idea.