Major decluttering - who's done it?

[mrcharlie]

Last autumn I decided enough was enough.

Having spent years consumed by consumerism, with debt from CC, OD and Personal loans and all I had to show was a house full of clutter.

 

I went on a massive purge (still at it now)

Managed to sell enough junk to clear the CC and OD...,Yay!!

Now steaming towards clearing the loan 2yrs early.

The house is in an horrendous state, with items dragged out of cupboards, wardrobes, garage, shed, loft etc etc

 

I can't believe I aquired so much stuff in the space of 18yrs (time we've lived here)

 

Has anyone else done something similar? I'm hell bent on getting rid of EVERYTHING that's duplicated or no longer used or needed.

 

Cannot wait for the simplicity of open empty spaces.

[davyboy]

Yes. We have just had wood floor laid which meant we had to empty wardrobes, chest of draws etc.

Whatjust came out of my "computer room", book case, chest of draws, required my wife's car to come out of the garage to store the "junk"

I am in the process of sorting it all out.

Do I scan all my family history paperwork into my Mac and get shot of the filing cabinet?

I spent many trips to London over a period of 20 years getting info on paper that is now available on the net.

Edited April 1, 2018 by davyboy

[Halibut]

I think it's a great idea mrcharlie and I'd love to do it, but my wife is a great one for 'it might come in handy some day'.

I think if an item hasn't been used for a year, one probably doesn't need it.

[mrcharlie]

Thumbs up to you both

 

I/we hit the big Five-0 next. I seem to be going through a change of what's important and what's not.

I yearn for simplicity. The biggest slowdown is the time it's taking to sort through and either sell, tip or donate. If I won the lotto I'd just hire a 10 ton skip and bin the lot. But I haven't won the lotto and I can't afford to give away everything. Can you believe that since last autumn my purge has raised over £7k!! Admittedly it's now slowed down to around £3-400 a month. It's hard work when working full time too. So I've decided what's left by this Autumn will be skipped. It will then have taken a year to get my life back and hopefully turn over a new leaf.

 

Best of luck to you both

[scousemouse]

I moved house and had to have clear out. Got rid of furniture, (downsized) bags of clothes, pictures, ornaments, have kept the things I really loved, and housed them in a new unit. That said even after moving, I have still had three skips!!

[mrcharlie]

I moved house and had to have clear out. Got rid of furniture, (downsized) bags of clothes, pictures, ornaments, have kept the things I really loved, and housed them in a new unit. That said even after moving, I have still had three skips!!

 

Serious question

Have you managed to keep on top of it or has the clutter problem resurfaced?

[cressida]

I'm a hoarder as well, lots of clothes - I try to give a lot to charities, sons buy cds and dvds for themselves a lot - hope they've not got this consumerism from me!

 

Shopping is so much fun and everyone seems to enjoy it, being a mid-ager I don't go out at night like I used to so it's become a hobby.

[Jomie]

Mrcharlie:serious question

Have you managed to keep on top of it or has the clutter problem resurfaced?

Mrcharlie - that is a good point because the desire to acquire things is the root of the problem. Deal with that first and the clutter will hopefully not resurface. I’ve never been able to stand clutter but am some way from William Morris’s instruction to “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” These days I don’t go shopping unless I want something in particular and I don’t bring anything into the home unless I am certain that it is really needed. Simplicity is the goal.

 

Well done for making this huge effort to declutter - I hope that you will soon come to the end of it.

Edited April 1, 2018 by Jomie

[mrcharlie]

Thanks to all for taking the time to reply.

I agree shopping is easy.

I've always hoarded stuff, firstly with the classifieds in the Star, moved onto FreeAds & AdMag then discovered eBay (groans) with PayPal along with Amazon apps.

It is just too easy to buy, set up a OD with my bank and have basically lived in it for the past decade. The house is still cluttered but it's going down s l o w l y.

I hate the sight of the stuff, I spend my lunch breaks reading about clutter and how it owns you, dictates how you live and even where you live. Yet what I've discovered since selling it, is that by and large no one wants it! The attachment we place on clutter and its perceived value is simply misleading (for me anyway)

 

As I said previously, I'm hell bent on shifting it all once and for all. I haven't bought anything since buying presents before Xmas! Since the start of the new year I've learnt it isn't that hard to save money, you just need to see through the attraction or temptation and actually 'see' what you are tempted to buy.

Advertising is incredibly clever these days, they attack the subconscious mind into believing we need certain things.

 

Consumerism really does consume.

[Jomie]

Re the post about clothes, I read that we only regularly use 20% of the items in our wardrobe. If true, it’s a lot of wasted money.

 

Mrcharlie - it might not be of any comfort but you are not alone. Hoarding clutter seems to be a common problem these days. I too have read various articles about the subject and still don’t know why we do this. Possibly it is a deeply rooted, psychological issue due to varying and different causes.

 

You are right - possessions can come to possess us if we are not careful. Occasionally I watch the house programmes on television and I am always amazed at the retirees (usually just one or two of them) who want a big house in the country to contain their possessions. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that within a short space of time, it will be too much to manage. Old age is a time for clearing out the clutter from our lives so that we don’t leave it for someone else to do. Margareta Magnusson has written a book on this very subject - The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. If you can crack this hoarding tendency as a young person then you will be free of it for the rest of your life. Good luck.