Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Sometimes I long for the 70's and 80's when you just binned stuff you didn't want without a second thought about the environment.

159 replies

LimitIsUp · 09/12/2020 14:08

Ugh. Perhaps some of you can relate to this problem.

Lots of clutter - yes its in the spare room and in the garage and loft so its not in my face, but I still feel burdened by it

So much stuff

A lot of it is good quality bits and pieces that could be used by others and shouldn't be tipped, but we simply no longer need it or require it. I just don't feel able to send it to landfill (the guilt!)

I probably could, if so inclined, make money from selling it but we don't need the money and I don't need the hassle.

What I really want is it all gone - in a none time intensive and hassle free way - but I don't want it simple disposed of when its not broken or tat. I absolutely don't want to spend time on sorting it (so no ebay, no garage sales, no car boot sales and probably no charity shop trips either because of the volume of stuff) but hiring a skip . refuse tip wouldn't be good either

What do I do? Other than procrastinate

OP posts:
HardAsSnails · 09/12/2020 14:11

Pull everything out of the garage you want to keep, then go around your house (and shed and greenhouse if you have them) and put everything you don't want in the garage. Place a few easily re-sellable items in view and then get a house clearance firm to clear the garage.

Original poster
LimitIsUp · 09/12/2020 14:26

That's a sensible approach.

Will the house clearance firm just dump everything they find in the garage (in our don't want pile) or do they recycle?

OP posts:
TheSpottedZebra · 09/12/2020 14:31

Do you know any teens that would sort it- and keep any money from ebay etc? With a wodge of money on top?

ElizaLaLa · 09/12/2020 14:33

You have to pay house clearance people who then sell your stuff. Pisstaker if you ask me.

If you are going to put it all in the garage you could that and then hold a freecycle event where you offer everything for free.

RandomUsernameHere · 09/12/2020 14:35

Take photos and stick it all on a local Facebook page for people to come and collect for free.

Original poster
LimitIsUp · 09/12/2020 14:37

I quite like the idea of a freecycle event to clear a lot of stuff in one hit (post vaccine roll out I suppose) with photographing the rest to post on freecycle

OP posts:
Original poster
LimitIsUp · 09/12/2020 14:40

Re the teenagers - I have a couple of those but they are not very enterprising and couldn't be relied upon to do it

OP posts:
EBearhug · 09/12/2020 14:41

We didn't all just bin stuff. We always separated rubbish (compost, paper, burnable, dustbin.) Newspapers used to go to nursery school well as being used to cover the floor for shoe cleaning and so on.

There was always a collection bag of old clothes and toys on the go. Known as "the Oxfam bag", it would actually go to the next school jumble sale or whatever other collection was happening, and not often to the Oxfam shop itself.

There are just more places to get rid of things these days.

ChonkyLamp · 09/12/2020 14:50

I would definitely recommend Freecycle or Freegle or whatever you have in your area. It's absolutely amazing what people will want when it's free. And while they're there, they'll probably see some other bits and bobs and take them away as well.

I agree... it was so much simpler when we just binned stuff. Terrible, of course, but so EASY. Now I wash up the day's glass and plastic recycling every night, comb through all the old clothes (textile recycling, or good enough for the charity shop?), and sort, clean and photograph the kids' outgrown toys and then arrange a time for a freecycler to pick them up. Getting rid of stuff is a whole job of work now.

Having said that, our local dump (or "recycling centre" as it now says on the sign) has a special Re-Use corner for stuff which is too good to go into landfill or recycling. You just leave stuff there and anyone who fancies it can pick it up. I suspect most of it gets sold on Ebay by the dump workers, but I'm fine with that. Maybe yours has something similar? I've got rid of loads of stuff (including some hideous inherited garden gnomes) that way. Sometimes I've even made a second visit an hour later and it's already been taken.

MorrisZapp · 09/12/2020 14:53

Depending on where you live, you just stick stuff outside and people will take it.

Tristatearea · 09/12/2020 15:00

OP. Get a skip. Clear your house completely so it feels empty and clutter free so you don’t want to mess it up.

And then stop buying crap. Delete your Amazon app, take your cards off your phone and out of sight so you have to move to get them/enter details. If needs be block websites that you buy from or change your route home/weekend plans so you don’t buy stuff in the first place.

There’s no point selling things/recycling if you just keep the cycle going by refilling your space.

Hiccupiscal · 09/12/2020 15:03

I am queen of the resell, the giver-awayer, and horder.

If your in Birmingham ill come and take it all and sell/give it away, lol, I live for this stuff. Im currently sat in the middle of a room FULL of clutter, ill be gone in the next few days, and ill start again.

Anyway op,

  1. Shpock is your friend. List for free, people will collect. Likewise Facebook. My friend says there's a group called "swish and gift" dont know anything about it, as I don't do Facebook but I am sure there's loads like it
  1. Put it all outside, on your drive or pathway, Mark with "Free please take"

It WILL go, people take anything. Especially if you can leave it outside as it gets dark. People who won't take items in the daylight certainly will in the cover of darkness.

Don't put up with clutter, get rid, its honestly as simple as leaving it outside.

My sons old bike the dogs bit the pedal and saddle off is currently outside with a label marked "free"

It won't be there in the morning.

To add i live on a side street, so not even a main road.

And to answer your questions, yes I would love to throw away items with no guilt. One reason I live with so much clutter and have to declutter all the time, is it just find it so guilt inducing to throw anything away.

murbblurb · 09/12/2020 15:19

British Heart Foundation. As long as it isn't actual rubbish (and it sounds very far from it) they will take the lot. May be a wait for the collection but they will do it.

wimhoffbreather · 09/12/2020 15:20

Not everyone just binned stuff back then! My mother has been a preachy environmentalist since the 60s

TeacupDrama · 09/12/2020 15:30

in the 70's and 80's most broken stuff was repairable ( irons, kettles toasters) so it was only fit for bin if above didn't work

most people had fewer clothes and wore them until worn out or outgrown
furniture, most soft furnishings, china and cutlery was expected to last a life time people didn't really get rid of these big ticket items they maybe painted or wall papered to change things

kids only got toys at christmas and birthdays again would be past on

you got money back on glass bottles and milk bottles were washed and refilled

so there simply wasn't that much to throw away

but you are right people would just chuck tin cans newspapers tea bags etc all into one bin for collection but I think in general less stuff was thrown away

MrsMoastyToasty · 09/12/2020 15:37

Put a listing on Facebook Marketplace marked Free to Collector and your local community pages too.

I've had items collected within half an hour of listing by doing this.

JimmyTheBrave · 09/12/2020 15:57

Stick it on Facebook marketplace, you can make a few quid if you wish and people will collect, it's really easy.

lookingatthings · 09/12/2020 15:59

Theres an excellent FB group called Preloved to reloved for postage. You post what you have and how much it would cost to post plus paypal fees. Buyer pays that, you get rid of your crap.

poorbuthappy · 09/12/2020 16:00

I can't give stuff away at the moment - we ended up cutting up and tipping a cream sofa with years of worth left in it as nobody on Gumtree or Facebook wanted it for nothing.

CaptainMyCaptain · 09/12/2020 16:03

@EBearhug

We didn't all just bin stuff. We always separated rubbish (compost, paper, burnable, dustbin.) Newspapers used to go to nursery school well as being used to cover the floor for shoe cleaning and so on.

There was always a collection bag of old clothes and toys on the go. Known as "the Oxfam bag", it would actually go to the next school jumble sale or whatever other collection was happening, and not often to the Oxfam shop itself.

There are just more places to get rid of things these days.

Quite.

Some of us cared about the environment even in the 70s. Some of us didn't have the budget to just throw stuff away either.

TheChosenTwo · 09/12/2020 16:06

I just put things on my front drive when we no longer want or need them. It all goes!
Shelving units, drawers, toddler beds, a cot, random ‘stuff’, anything we’ve outgrown or have no further use for just goes on the drive with a little sign saying to help yourself.
I couldn’t be arsed with selling or advertising beyond that.

Elfieishere · 09/12/2020 16:07

I just bin anything I don’t want.

We just cleared my nans house after a death in the family and we just hired skips and everything went in that family didn’t want. We just don’t have time to piss ass around selling and getting rid of it any other way as the house has been sold and it all needs to be gone quick.

I don’t keep stuff I don’t need. I normally just chuck it. We don’t all have time to freecycle stuff.

DanceWithYourBalloon · 09/12/2020 16:10

I moved recently and just put all the stuff (furniture etc) in the kitchen and got a clearance guy in. He took what I put out for him no questions or sorting. He took it for free too!

CaptainMyCaptain · 09/12/2020 16:12

@DanceWithYourBalloon

I moved recently and just put all the stuff (furniture etc) in the kitchen and got a clearance guy in. He took what I put out for him no questions or sorting. He took it for free too!
Hopefully he didn't just dump it down a lane somewhere.
MargosKaftan · 09/12/2020 16:13

Look for local Facebook groups for selling things and mark as free if collected by Sunday. (Give people the weekend to get round to you).

I did this with a lot of stuff, we had work done and had to empty the loft and one of the bedrooms, meaning the dcs had to share so the dc's room they were both going in had to be cleared of grown out of clutter as well.

Took photos, listed items for free and gave a deadline to collect. Most things went and the rest went to the tip.

One thing though, our local tip do sort out items into groups, recycling wherever possible. Have you checked if yours does?

Swipe left for the next trending thread