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

We just put it outside and it's gone within an hour

Thirtyrock I think part of the issue with kids clothes is the quality is poorer, so don't last as well and relatively speaking they are cheaper.

Even kids school clothes M&S trousers are about £10 a pair or you get them 20% off if you buy at the right time. That doesn't seem that much more expensive than the 80s.

I know the theory about handing school clothes down but I never seem able to. DS1 wrecks clothes, trousers get holes, tops get stained, no amount of vanish seems to do it.

@CorianderQueen

We just put it outside and it's gone within an hour

But surely that only applies to genuinely useful stuff and if you live in a busy area?

I was surprised when our broken dishwasher disappeared in under 3 hours when we had only put it outside to make space for the new one, with some vague idea about taking it to the tip at the weekend, but the fridge that we needed rid of stayed there for weeks due to multiple fuck ups by the council who were supposed to be collecting it. We have a regular scrap fairy, but obviously there's no demand for fridges.

Over lockdown, one of the houses on the main road through our village built a giant bookcase on their front wall and filled it with DVDs to give away and from my observations on my daily walks, hardly any seemed to be taken.

I can think of lots of things I'd like to throw away that are useful or valuable to no-one and would languish there forever.

No-one wants DVDs, video cassettes or the random bag of unidentified cables that we dare not throw away because the second we do, some long forgotten electrical item will reappear and it'll be in need of its unusual and impossible to replace cable.

Or those slightly chipped and faded plates that you're bored of, are not fit for the charity shop and they could be used for gardening or kids painting, but that takes effort and organisation to match up with a new owner and would lead to dealings with armies of illiterate cheeky fuckers who expect them delivering to the next town if you try to use any of the online community give away sites.

I suspect that's what the OPs referring to - the conflict between just putting actual rubbish in the bin and being done with it and the guilt that she didn't make the effort to find someone who wanted spare chipped plates to use.

British Heart Foundation offer house clearing services around here if that is an option.

At the school fayre they used to do a plate smash stall, so good for getting rid of crockery with chips.

Now it tends to go in garden for plant pots or smashed for drainage in pots

OP sorting out your possessions is part of being a grown up. Unless it's a serious mental health/hoarding problem (IMO you get a dispensation for hiring a skip in that case) or you have some other difficulty, then you do need to sort it out. Especially if your kids have outgrown a lot of toys.

Useable stuff on Facebook - the more local the group the better. Our immediate area group only allows free items but they invariably go to someone.
Domestic/kids stuff offer to womens refuge.
Small saleable items to charity shop
Similar items as bundles "Box of old crockery" "Big bag of towels and bedding" "bag of camping items" "bag of knitting wool and patterns".
Sort out tat and rubbish to recycle by type - it's very hard to get anything into the landfill skip at our local recycling place by the time all the wood, card, metal etc has been taken out.
Mention upcycling for anything old or vintage.
Dead electrical stuff and DVDs I'd just take to the tip but keep leads, conectors etc until you are sure you don't have something it belongs to. Things that might work like kitchen appliances, sewing machine etc try and find all the parts and offer on Facebook.

We've done this when we down sized, and you have a few weeks of things lying around in bags and trying to weed out time wasters but most things do go to a good home, a few even caused a bidding war! It's not fun but like any cleaning and tidying you're glad you made the effort afterwards.

Absolutely Vivarium

My Mum's washing machine lasted 40 years, that was through 4 children's worth of growing up, (including much more formal school uniforms), after us all wearing cloth nappies, plus at least one, sometimes two full teams worth of football kits washed every week for years as well as usual bedding, towels, clothes etc.
You are lucky to have an appliance last more than 5 or 6 years during this century. I remember my washing machine repair man saying ages ago how they are designed with sealed units so you can't get in to mend bits, and that replacement parts price repairmen out of the market, comparied with the cost of buying a new machine.

@BarbaraofSeville - I think this must depend where you live. Anything and everything goes where I live. Indeed, I put some DVDs outside in the Summer and they all went, in dribs and drabs but over 2 days. That is a long way from the things that have gone that you might actually consider 'tip-worthy'.

I've log said that it would make sense for Local Authorities to have a big barn or warehouse next to the tip with a big disclaimer on it for liability purposes, where people could leave things that others can take for free (they could leave a charity box as an added bonus but the main point would be to prevent stuff going to landfill). Every month, staff could chuck stuff that had been there more than a few weeks, but I bet you'd get a good turnover. Whenever I have to go to the tip, I am horrified at what some people put in the skips to be thrown out.

would lead to dealings with armies of illiterate cheeky fuckers who expect them delivering to the next town if you try to use any of the online community give away sites

I've given away loads and this has literally never happened to me. The trick is to advertise only in very local sites, I think. Don't stick it on the general FB marketplace, just in your town/village group.

I've also received things for free that someone had no use for, which have been really useful for me.

Same here ReceptacleForTheRespectable

I've used various Free giveaway sites for over 15 years, and have only ever had people who turn up and are really appreciative. I've used Freecycle (first) then it turned into Freegle, but these days any number of local recycling community sites and never had any issues.