How much "stuff" do you have in your loft?

[7catsisnotenough]

Having sorted out DM's loft several times in the past few years and then again when she downsized I realised how much "stuff" we have in our own loft!

Do you actually know what's in your loft, do you need what's in your loft, or is it "out of sight, out of mind...OMG what have we kept that for?!"

Fascinated to hear your loft horror stories, whether it's your own loft, someone else's loft or bizarre things left behind by previous owners/tenants...

Please tell me that I'm not the only person with virtually a spare house full of "stuff"?!

Our last home had a massive loft which we filled to the brim 🙈
We're now in a new house and it's not floored so all that is in it is our TV Ariel. Don't ask about my garage 😂😂😂

Nothing. I can’t bear clutter and we opened our ceilings to the rafters.

Ours is horrific. I can't even think how to start sorting it out. There are skis (20 years since we skied), children's old toys, the list goes on & on. I'm sure it will all fall in on us one day.

We’ve got suitcases, Xmas decorations, and empty cardboard boxes that go with various appliances that we’re keeping as we know we’ll want to move in a couple of years.

So much stuff. Decades worth of stuff. Surprised the ceiling hasn't collapsed from the weight.

Very large loft, empty apart from dead wasps nests.

Our garage however...

Looks like garages are the new lofts 🤣

Sorting out the "stuff " is definitely on my list...somewhere! It keeps slipping further down the list though, I guess because it's not actually staring me in the face all the time like the stuff in the house 🤣

I recommend moving house every couple of years, it helps with keeping stuff for the sake of it..

Like children's stuff 'for grandchildren'. 25+ years of storing something just in case. My parents kept a load of old children's books for example... But 1980s Noddy Books make uncomfortable reading now. And the Thomas books were too fragile. Only a few very actually usable.
I admit the Lego was a good keep though.

Appliance boxes... Well microwave boxes are particularly sturdy. But anything smaller isn't much use. TVs...they have special padded bags for them.

The loft needs tackling again. I got rid of all the baby stuff about 5 years ago. But there is some definite junk.

The only good thing to come out of lockdown was we finally got round to decluttering the loft! Personally I don’t think we would have ever got round to it otherwise. I can’t believe how many trips to the tip we did.

Last big sort out here was about 5 years ago when DH moved in...EXMIL's roll of carpet got the boot along with boxes of videos (apparently they're a big fire risk), also managed to repatriate lots of the DC's stuff to them and their lofts 😉

When I saw the heading I actually shuddered. I know the Christmas trees and decorations are up there, tools, boxes etc etc etc. My dh thinks most things are useful (another shudder). Also we have been in this house 48 years ( perhaps there is no hope).

Not too much, camping equipment, Christmas decs, hand me downs etc.

Do any of you keep some baby clothes you can't bear to part with? I have a (thankfully) small box full. Mostly gorgeous gifted impractical dresses for DD that were worn once. Keeping them for future dolls or grandchildren but really will they be decent after 25+ years?

I could turn them into a keepsake teddy but that seems a real waste.

When I'm getting towards my dotage I will make it a mission to clear out stuff so DC don't have to do it on my death!

We only have eaves storage as we have a loft conversion but it is still fairly big so we have quite a lot in there. I know what is there - xmas decs, memory boxes (photos etc), spare bedding for camping and then quite a lot of DHs crap. It's pretty well organised and I do a chuck out every few years (of DHs crap mainly).

The (now teenage and not all still living at home) dc have loft bedrooms with cupboards in the eaves - these are full of old GCSE & A-level notes, outgrown books and toys and lord knows what else. Dreading cleaning those out when we move. And we have another unconverted loft over the back of the house stuffed full of boxes we put up there when we moved in and haven't thought about since. If and when we do move out of this house it will be a retirement downsize, so we will have to spend months going through it all.

I have a few clothes and sentimental bits and pieces from their babyhoods saved in a special box elsewhere in the house, so I'm keeping that!

1. sensible stuff that is used but needs storage

Christmas decorations camping stuff

1. things which we are keeping in case we need them

kids outgrown toys (for the grandkids???) hand me down wellies/coats/waterproofs

1. I run a kids camp every sumemr and it all lives in my loft, 10-15 large boxes. Dh is not happy, he says that the joists are not strong enough and so it is carefully spread out.

I would love to make it into a proper storage sapce with shelves, but cannot because of the joists

We had a loft conversion so everything went into the garage. The garage is stuffed full of crap and as it's damp most of it is ruined. It's 90% my husband's crap. We're talking old floppy disks (boxes of them!), Comics, empty boxes for TVs etc, old gadgets etc etc.

I have 2 lofts and fill both of them. My access to them is very easy which doesn't help as a store everything all the more. I need to sort it!

Ha, what isn’t up there!
Mine is practically a museum of childhood. The DC are 30 and 31 now, and the loft contains everything from their pram, high chair, bath, etc, through all their toddler toys, hand knitted jumpers, massive dolls house, whole sets of Lego and Sylvanian families kits, plus 90 feet of bookshelving for all my overflow of books, about six large suitcases, old curtains, a replacement water tank, and the original (leaking) tank which is too big to get out through the hatch. Not to mention a birds nest in the eaves, and several over-wintering queen wasps!
I really ought to declutter it, but long covid fatigue and a frozen shoulder make it difficult.

My parents downsized from a house with massive, massive loft space.
They spent the whole year before they moved going through the whole house and sorting and getting rid. A lot of that was emptying the loft.

There were boxes of stuff from both of their parents and they sold quite a lot (had the antiques auction people come round about 3 times) they made a few hundred pounds. (china, bits of furniture etc)

There were boxes of our school books that my mum had carefully kept for us. She kept arriving with these things and after she left I put mine in the bin!

There were things she had stored for other people, one of whom now lived overseas, so that took a while.

There were loads of doubles of things they had in the house. Charity shop got lots of those.

Just Christmas decorations.

I've had to clear put relatives' lofts and there's no way I would subject anyone to do that on my behalf. It's back breaking and everything just goes in a skip.

I'm not creating that job for anyone - I don't think my relatives meant to do it they just never considered it, time moved on and it became someone else's job.

It's finding time, energy and motivation all at the same time isn't it? Rarely happens and, when it does, something else always seems more urgent.

I know there are at least 4 Christmas trees up there, including a massive one with individual branches that is never getting used again...🤣

Oh, and a dented antique copper samovar that is probably worth something that I never quite get around to doing anything about!

Oh my goodness. So much stuff. So MUCH stuff.

It's boarded out and I've actually bought shelving for the attic. We have a concertina ladder so that fits inside the loft hatch.

As well as our stuff we store stuff for other people. I think we're storing stuff for at least 4 other people?

All my military kit and two swords are up there. Kites, Star Trek stuff, memorabilia for the kids, filing cabinet, spare clothes (to grow into, to hand down and to hand on). Lego. Sylvanian Families stuff. Star Wars stuff. CDs, DVDs. Stuff we might need one day.

All the stuff. We have all the stuff.

At the moment it's not a problem. We don't intend to move anytime soon. We're also still fit enough to handle it. We want it clear before we can no longer handle it!

My loft is empty. The garage on the otherhand!! Could easily furnish another house with the amount of stuff that's in there! Including boxes still full from when we moved in...3 years ago! We even appear to have brought baby stuff with us even though youngest is nearly 6 and we aren't having more children!