AIBU for living in a shit hole?

[Cuppaand2biscuits]

Posting here for traffic. My house has got into such a mess, literally every surface or corner is cluttered with crap. Not actual rubbish but toys, clothes, junk.
Can someone please help me and tell me where to start? I need a big kick up the bum.

[Artandco]

Big bin bag. Bin

[hiddenhome2]

Be ruthless. Only valuable or very useful/sentimental stuff stays.

Crap sucks the life out of you and spoils your space.

[Flossieflower01]

Three boxes- throw away, give away (charity shop) and put away. Go round each room systematically clearing as many surfaces as possible then put the throw away in the bin, the give away in the car to go to the charity shop and the put away things where they live (even if it's only in the right room). Hoover all the floors/ mop where appropriate. Change all the bedding and towels. Take regular breaks! But not too long!

[ollieplimsoles]

My house was full to the brim of clutter, we have a new baby and it all got ahead of us.

I can't tell you the satisfaction I felt yesterday when she slept all day and I just blitzed my house with those bin bags.

Do it.

[CremeEggThief]

One room at a time, starting with kitchen or living room and working your way around, removing everything that shouldn't be there.
De-clutter.
Tidy.
Clean.

[mrsmegavator]

William Morris it... If you do not know it to be useful or consider it to be beautiful, it's gone

[gloopygloop]

My house is exactly the same, living in this cluttered home is so tiring, I feel like I can never relax but I don't know where to begin. Watching this thread with great interest, good luck op!

[DisappointedOne]

MarieKondo. :)

[90sforever]

Forget about charity shop pile. You won't do it and it'll just hang around, even if you do it, it's just another task. Just throw away or put away.

Get bin liners - pick up all the rubbish and chuck. Put away the clothes and put all the dirty ones in the laundry basket room by room.

Then you should be left with the permenant stuff - they need homes!

[DisappointedOne]

Disagree re charity shops. I've given about 30 bags to them in the past 2 months.

[witsender]

Fill washing up bowl with water. Chuck stuff in it to soak. Put a load of washing on. Grab bin bag, chuck anything you no longer love or need. If needs be youbcan sort this later into recycling, charity etc. Wash up stuff in bowl while kettle boils, sit for cuppa for 15 mins. Up, start making a pjle for each room. Return stuff to rightful rooms. Then room at a time, blitz. Put stuff away or chuck. If you can't find a home for something have second thoughts as to whether you should keep it.

Take washing out, hang, put another load on. Stop for tea.

[witsender]

I give a lot to charity shops, but key is to be quick about it. Straight out into back of xar when sorted, don't let it hang around.

[Roundles]

I've just."done" my sisters two bed flat. It took two days and 22 bags of rubbish and six bags of clothes / books to the charity shop.
Be ruthless
Make piles - chuck, charity, then: Books, dvds, stationery, important paperwork etc
How many in your house? If three of you and you have 11 winter coats then get rid of some!

Where are you based? I have decluttered a number of houses/flats - help is available.

[Iwanttokillthem]

Sit in your favourite chair and sort what you can reach first.

Ive found that doing stuff 'by stealth' makes it less stressful so I do things like this almost absentmindedly. So if there was a lot of stuff around me I would look it over and section it off in my mind. Then when I was going into the kitchen or upstairs I would take the things that belonged there with me. If it was actual crap it would just go into the bin. Then back to the old chair for a look around the room at another part of the room. Rinse and repeat.


By the end of the day you can have cleared the room without so much as breaking sweat and you have considered what you were doing.

I developed this method when I was stuck at home with a leg injury that meant I couldnt move easily so that once I was in one place i stayed there for a while. When I managed to move I made it count so by the end of the day I had strangely accomplished quite a lot without ever feeling I had done much at all.

[APlaceOnTheCouch]

Marie Kondo is your friend. There used to be a thread on MN for Kondoing and it is fab. It makes a real difference.

[Notimefortossers]

I try my best, but my problem is that my husband is a hoarder. Things that I would scrap without a second thought he refuses to part with!

[Saurus72]

Yes, Marie Kondo. Revolutionary.

[GigiB]

Watching with interest as I'm hopeless at throwing stuff out, and place unfounded sentimental value on inane objects because the trigger memories or once had a value.

I like flossieflower01 mantra of give away, throw away, put away.

I give alot to charity shops. I think i'm bad as i'm a bit OCD about waste and not very good at putting things in the bin incase they can be used by someone, somewhere, somehow.. (which of course they can).

Will repeat the mantra tomorrow when i continue the pre christmas blitz!

[ShebaShimmyShake]

Suggestion - if there is something of sentimental value that is taking up space and you know you won't use it, try taking a photo of it. Then you still have the memory but you also have the space.

And chuck anything if you forgot you even had it. It pains me to admit this but I bet you could set everything in my loft on fire and I'd never notice any of it was gone.

[Rinoachicken]

I struggle with this as well, but my main clutter seems to be paperwork - bills, bank statements, council letters, you name it. None of which I feel comfortable throwing away, but WTF do I do with it all?! It's taken over my kitchen, and bedroom (where I dumped the previous kitchen load last Christmas to hide it from MIL!)

[laughingatweather]

What I do - and I am an expert in having no clutter/minamalism! One room at a time and everything must fulfil one or more of the following criteria:

1 ) Useful - if you haven't used it in the last six months then it probably isn't useful. Power tools etc are expensive and may come in useful in the future but if you haven't used other things (blenders, bread makers etc) in six months - you probably never will.

Same goes for books and CDs, DVDs you haven't looked at in six months or more. You'll probably never re - read or re - watch again so get rid. If at some point in the future you want to, you could pay pennies on amazon or e - bay.

Same goes for those clothes you never wear or think you'll shrink back into at some point. If you haven't worn it in six months and it isn't a wedding dress or a ball - gown, you'll most likely never wear it again.

2) Beautiful. Things that you genuinely love seeing all the time because they are beautiful/inspiring and enhance your existence on a daily basis.

3 ) Sentimental. Things that provoke strong emotions of a time/place/experience/person that you WANT to be reminded of (wedding dress of an awful marriage wouldn't apply!). But you have to be sensible and a bit ruthless. A shoe box full of cards/letters/childhood paintings - fine. Every toy your DC loved/each school uniform/every present bought by a loved one but not useful or beautiful - not needed!.

[squoosh]

'Forget about charity shop pile. You won't do it and it'll just hang around, even if you do it, it's just another task. Just throw away or put away.'

Disagree!


If it's still in good nick DONATE IT! Would be an utter sin to turn perfectly good stuff into landfill. For bigger items stick it on Freecycle or a local Facebook group and get whoever wants it to collect it in person.

[squoosh]

Rinochicken get yourself a shredder. You do not need years of bank statements, council tax bills etc.

Shred!

[ShebaShimmyShake]

Rinoachicken - are you not on online banking/utility bill management? All those statements are held online, you can access them easily - far more easily than digging through endless papers at home, actually. Switch to online and shred them.