De-cluttering, the never-ending process

Thankyou fancythat,noted down!

Nansnet ! and !

keepcalmandcavachon - it is Series 5 Episode 6

fancythat, sounds like a good plan ... if only I had 12 crew to help me! I need someone like Stacey Solomon!

It's a nightmare for you Susan. I am ruthless at getting rid of stuff because I want to make my daughter's life easier when she has to sort out my house. I do a Swedish death clear every January and I've started this year's. I'll hopefully finish it tomorrow.

Thankyou Fancythat, I'm happy to re watch Love it or List it too. I find this programme fascinating , all of the emotions bound up with staying/leaving a house. Can be true of decluttering too.
Ok, so it's Stacey for decluttering , Phil & Kirsty for home seeking , just need to find someone for decor.!

No. Though she may have done that as well.
The programme I watched was an older one of Phil and Kirsty. Love it or list it. Series 4 or series 5? I can find out which if you want me to.
The family were trying to "spend their way out of the clutter" as one of the presenters put it.

I agree about Stacey.

I hadnt watched either programme, until a friend mentioned the Stacey one and thought I would enjoy it. And I came across the Phil and Kirsty one quite recently, so am working my way through.

Was that Stacey Solomon fancythat? I think she's great - funny, non judgemental and empathetic. Exactly who you would love as a decluttering buddy.

Forgot to add, it took about 12 tv crew to help as well.

Nansnet
I dont know if it would help, but on one of the property programmes, a family had to do a big declutter. The presenter made them put everything outside, and then decide, if it were to rain quickly, which things would you grab to save and take indoors.
Obviously it was a nice weather day when that happened!

Thank you, Cabbie21. I managed to make a start today and sorted out my bathroom, and my dressing table area ... a whole black bag of 'stuff' to throw away already!

Doodledog, pretty much everything in the UK house will be going, apart from any sentimental items, which is ridiculous as they'll probably just end up in our new loft!LoL
My father passed away during Covid, and that was quite a task too. The house clearance companies were charging a fortune, so what didn't go to family went in a skip! I think that will be the case with us, as the furniture is so old and dated. Plus, we have a houseful of furniture here to ship back!

Susan56, I can understand how your SiL feels. It's very difficult letting go of your parents belongings, and all the memories. Thankfully, my lovely DD sorted most of my dad's, so I didn't have to deal with that. Otherwise, I'd be hanging on to another house full of 'stuff' to sort out!

My MIL died at the end of December and the amount of stuff to get rid of is unbelievable.They moved in in 1977 and apart from the weekly refuse collection I don’t think they have thrown anything away🤦🏼‍♀️We decluttered in lockdown but seeing MIL’s house I realise I need to do more.

Unfortunately my husbands sister doesn’t want to throw anything away so after a week of not getting very far we have come home.DH has told her very nicely to pack everything up and take it to her house.

It’s a sad and heartbreaking situation and not one we want our children to have to face.

We will be back to MIL’s house in a few weeks.We have asked all family members to go and take what they would like then sadly it will be a skip and then a house clearance.

The loss of his mum and now the massive task of sorting her house has taken its toll on DH.If you can declutter please do it and save your children the heartbreak.

Do you want to keep everything that is in the UK house? If not, and you just want it cleared so you can sell it, what about getting in a house clearance company? That way you’d only need to think about what to bring back with you and you won’t end up with two of everything.

It is a huge task, no doubt about it. I wish you well.

I'm feeling rather overwhelmed after reading much of this thread! DH will be retiring next year, but we're soon to complete on what will be our new home in the UK. We've been living/working overseas for many years and we've accumulated so much stuff during that time, which I won't want to take back with me, and I don't know where to begin! Not only that, we have our old house in the UK still to sell, which also has so much stuff in it to get rid of, from old furniture, to a loft full of goodness knows what! We still have all my ACs toys, etc. up in the loft from when they were kids! I dread to think what I'll find up there!

I've been procrastinating on this huge task for far too long, but I really must make a proper start now. I did embark on the task a few months ago, and started to sort out my DDs old bedroom (she has her own home now in the UK with her fiance, and just visits occasionally), but it already seems to have accumulated more 'stuff'! It seems to be a bit of a dumping ground for when I don't know where to put 'stuff'!

I'm off upstairs right now, with many large black bin bags, to tackle my own bedroom. I am not looking forward to this! Wish me luck!

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

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.

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 playlists are on the ipod, playing random selection now

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.