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.

[LimitIsUp]

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 you have my permission to bin & not feel guilty!
Unless the stuff is nearly new it will end up in landfill anyway
Don’t get the mindset “it’ll do somebody” - it won’t.

We put unwanted items, curtains, furniture, bric a brac, tools, plant pots, everything unwanted, outside the front gate with free help yourself signs and it's usually gone within half an hour. Most things will do for people who have very little, and sometimes people just want a chair, or plant pots, candle holders etc.

[quote DanceWithYourBalloon]@CaptainMyCaptain No, it was local business that I trust. Have been in his shop quite a lot. It's an Aladdins Cave of treasure (& crap 😂).[/quote]
Actually, I think, the fly tippers make you pay to take it away.

My philosophy when doing a major declutter recently was that it's ok to get rid of stuff as long as you don't just replace it with more stuff you then need to get rid of, it's the conveyor belt consumerism that's the problem, buying the latest poor quality trendy household items that are out of fashion or broken in six months.

People didn't accumulate so much stuff in the 70s. Consumerism is the problem. Stop buying stuff. And do the free cycle garage event.

Back then we used to repair things till they were completely beyond repair. You could get replacement elements for cookers, kettles etc. Furniture was bought to last a lifetime or handed on through the family, most of ours is antique stuff that my great grandparents had. My dad had a last & used to resole & heel our shoes. Milk was delivered in glass bottles that were left out when empty to be collected by the milkman who’d delivered them, beer bottles could be returned for money. Schools used to collect jam jars for charity or to use as paint pots & foil milk bottle tops for Guide Dogs.
Our local Scouts collected old newspapers to sell to a dealer to raise money. Clothes were bought to last longer than now. I even remember as a child clothes were bought in exchange for donkey stones, to whiten the steps, by the rag & bone man who came round with a horse & cart as did the local farmer with milk churns who you bought jug fulls from & a lorry selling big stone jars of pop ( fizzy drinks) like dandelion & burdock, that you returned when next he came.
There just wasn’t the waste. It wasn’t long after the war & people didn’t have so much disposable income to spend on buying new things.

If some of your things are good you could take them to your local auction house. Most are still holding general auctions if only online.

Local auction house - now there's a thought

I have similar issues lots of bits around to get rid off some rubbish but some useable
Spoke to a clearance guy i have used once before to take some brokem furniture ( fully licensed)
He will come and take it he said and them sort through , recycle what can be and tip the rest
Yes it will cost me but saves me going to tip and stuff
Lots if old electronics so need disposing carefully but may be useful , unit full of old lotions and make up etc . Too much for my bin.
Kids clothes I give away
But so many of us even in the 90's threw stuff in bin old electronics , batteries etc ( my neighbour still does )

Auctions are good - they’ll “vet” what you bring in, and things they don’t want you can charity shop (or bin). If they don’t sell item then they’ll take to charity shop or “dispose of” on your behalf. You won’t get much ££ but it’s hassle free.

What a terrible thread title. We were more environmentally friendly in the 1970s

But if you don't need the money, why is it hard to box it up and give to charity and recycle the rest in one trip to the tip?

Some charities will even collect.

Its a bit of a non-problem I think, sorry not to beore sympathetic, but I really don't see your issue. We all have homes to look after, just get it done and enjoy the space afterwards.

Well everything gets binned eventually even if it passes through 3 owners before being binned, unless it's biodegradable then I suppose you could put wooden things outside and they would eventually rot away.
So I'd bin if it's stressing you too much - passing it on postpones the inevitable but could mean some other item isn't purchased new, if someon'es now got your old one to use.
It's not buying in the first place which is the main thing.

I think we had less disposable income to buy stuff in the 70s, 'things' seemed more expensive. I don't think much was made in China, more likely here in the UK or Taiwan for plastic goods.
I doubt we were more environmentally aware - if we all had been we wouldn't be drowning in plastic now.

@AlizarinRed

Well everything gets binned eventually even if it passes through 3 owners before being binned, unless it's biodegradable then I suppose you could put wooden things outside and they would eventually rot away. So I'd bin if it's stressing you too much - passing it on postpones the inevitable but could mean some other item isn't purchased new, if someon'es now got your old one to use. It's not buying in the first place which is the main thing.

This is illogical - the passing on of secondhand things may prevent someone else buying new.

Also not everything gets binned in the end - they get recycled - which is far better.

The point is it isn't inevitable. We each have a choice.

We definitely didn't buy so much shite in the 70s and 80s. We used a lot more and mended a lot more (anyway still darn socks? Most people did then).
Anyway I feel your pain. Lots of charity shops will do a pick up for a lot of items.

Put all the decent stuff you want to take to the charity shop in one place (ie garage if you have one) and find a local charity shop who does collection.

I'd either ask a charity shop to pick it up, or advertise a weekend yard sale (or giveaway) on your local next door or Facebook, or just put notices on a few trees, and put it all out the front.

Or you just said auction so maybe go for that.

If you were brought up by the 'waste not want not' generation, then you didn't just bin stuff in the 60s and 70s

Houses had one small dustbin, nearly everything was reused and recycled. And people mended things - TVs, radios, white goods etc, and passed on children's toys and clothes. And just owned less stuff in the first place.

What a terrible thread title. We were more environmentally friendly in the 1970s

I agree with this. We didn't buy nearly as much stuff, and what we did buy lasted longer, could be mended, repaired etc., and there was not nearly as much plastic rubbish.

I'm not in the UK, but I worked for a while at the local tip. Anything which could be used was dropped off at a shed and sold for a pittance in their recycled goods shop - and it didn't have to be in great condition either, it was amazing what people would buy. In fact one of the local charity shops would send us all the stuff they didn't want.

My mum kept everything that could be re-used; paper, string etc. (My dad actually hoarded but kept that to his 'office').
Yes things were made to last or be fixed, and there wasn't loads of single use plastic in those days; milk and fizzy drinks were mainly in glass bottles.

I long to fill the car and take it all to the tip, but I’m actually slightly neurotic about recycling and can’t bear for anything to go to landfill if I can help it. Hence my horror show of an attic.

I don't think your premise is correct that in the 70s and 80s people just binned things they didn't want any more. That is a much more recent phenomenon.

@Rainallnight

I was thinking exactly this today. I’ve got old towels and quilts and stuff I need to get rid of and I feel a bit sick to think of them in landfill.

I’ve had quite a lot of success getting rid of stuff via a local Facebook group which has been good. And the Young Planet app is good for getting rid of baby stuff. Very user friendly.

@Rainallnight

Homeless shelters / local vets / animal refuges often take old towels and quilts.

Ask on your local FB community for advice.

Locally people have been putting it out in their front gardens on a rug and taking a photograph then putting it on the local Facebook page. It goes in no time at all!

We didn’t just bin stuff! Even then it went to jumble sales and oxfam. Paper was burnt. Stuff was fixed. You rarely bought new furniture.my dad fixed anything he could. We just didn’t have much rubbish and we were a large family