Advice on a pre-Christmas declutter?

[Lavenderlights]

I am after some advice about sorting and organizing please! I have too much stuff and end up keeping stuff becuase I’ve paid money for it and don’t like to waste money. (I am more frugal now but some of this stuff is going back 20 years). I know people often say the money has already been spent but I can’t help but think it!

How do I decide what to keep? I always think either maybe I’ll use it one day/I could sell it/it seems a waste to throw it.)

Advice please! 🤞🏼

Give it to charity. The money has gone and you haven’t sold it. You need what is important important, having more time and space or stuff. Neither is wrong, you just need to decide what you want.

I think if you haven't used it in a year or two let it go.

I find giving anything in good condition to charity helps. I think of it as though the item itself would much prefer to be used by someone else than stuck-in drawer/cupboard (weird, possibly, but it works for me!).

Think of it as a way to make a donation to charity /others with less?

(Only send nice stuff though)

Stuff you aren't sure about - box it up and put it in the attic. If it hasn't been used after a few years it will be easy to donate /give away

Don't just bin stuff, something that is useless to you may be welcomed by someone else

Have a quick google of the sunk cost fallacy

Clutterbug on youtube is great for kicking my arse into gear when it comes to the process and motivation

Sell stuff on Vinted or FB marketplace to make a few quid back.

I just grab a black bag and don’t stop until I’ve filled it up. There’s always lots of stuff you haven’t touched, that’s dusty, that you won’t wear again. Yeah you’ve ’spent money’ to get it but now it’s actively making a negative impact by being in the way and cluttering up your home. You’d be doing yourself a favour by getting rid.

It’s a few days before Christmas. You aren’t going to tackle the whole house.

choose 1-3 areas that are really bothering you. Is everything in your kitchen ‘away’ or ‘in place’ or are you struggling? Do all your clothes fit in your wardrobe? Then tackle those areas.

If you want some money you can make up car boot job lots to sell on marketplace. You won’t be able to charge much but you can use the money for a treat like wine or chocolate for your effort.

Thanks all. It’s mainly kids toys and books, srt and craft stuff etc.

I'm a dreadful hoarder but decided to do a swedish death clean as I was getting depressed with all the old shizz cluttering my house & energy up. I made a sell, keep, donate list. Things were sorted & boxed up in the shed ready for sale or crated up & stacked in the house. Ive made around 1k recently selling clothes and collectibles on eBay. I gave stuff away on market place & to a friend who'd just got a flat but doesn't have much £££, put bits out on our front wall (we call it Wall-mart) & stuff went quickly. Washed a load of clothes & donated to cancer research, BHF & Salvation army bins. I was surprised at what sold. Still a way to go but I can breathe now & feel positive as hoard has greatly diminished. I'm now nagging partner to get rid of his crap.

Think about how easily you could replace it if you ended up needing it. Look at duplicates or what your children choose to play with. E.g. I've just more than halved the amount of play-doh accessories. My girls do sometimes choose to play with it but we don't need 6 rolling pins and 40 cutters. There are boardgames that are fine and fun but never chosen, so they can go. I've gone through colouring and sticker books and got rid if more than half done.

Perhaps stock take and see if you can get them to use things up in the next couple of months, and declutter for Feb half term. If not used in winter months, unlikely to be.

I haven’t got very far with it all. I am just looking at it all and it feels overwhelming.

Pop over to the Housekeeping threads, loads of advice and support there. There are long running decluttering and hoarding threads:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/housekeeping

Start seeing them as still wasting your money, on an ongoing basis. You're paying for each square foot of your house in rent or mortgage, and currently, lots of the space you're paying for is being wasted as storage space for loads of crap you don't need or want.
Think about what you could use that space for if it was cleared, or how you could decorate it, so that your money was being spent on a space you enjoy living in.

@Lavenderlights It's very very overwhelming, I concur as I'm exactly the same. I found watching these hoarder/decluttering programmes motivational & I would chuck out a couple of things, ponder who needed stuff then I had push myself to list one or two things to sell online. Box up stuff for charity. Don't do anything if you hit a brick wall but just have a think about the next thing to go & make a list. Just start gradually with small wins & it will gather momentum as you start reclaiming your space. It's quite therapeutic. Good luck!

@NameChange1936 That's a brilliant way of looking at it!

It is overwhelming. Despite moving 3 times in 4 years I've still got too much stuff and too much makes me anxious. I'm a minimalist and I prefer the unlived in look. I've thought of it as a process. You didn't get all that stuff overnight and unless you ruthlessly throw everything out you won't get rid of it overnight. I too felt sick at the money spent but at the moment you are using your house (and your head as it's getting you down) as a storage facility and you deserve much more!

I've tackled it lots of ways and continue to tackle it. I've kept what is useful, what I love and what we use. So only 4 water and wine glasses. Then I've either given to charity, given away on the free stuff facebook pages or thrown out. The other side is to not bring it in. I read on here ages ago that if you see something you like think don't think about whether it will spark joy but whether you can be arsed to keep it clean!

It's a huge job that needs continuing but by this time next year we will all be in a better place.

We have a " Before the Tip" fb group in our village and it works very well.

I've just done a charity collection. I got rid off three boxes of stuff. I felt a pang of regret as some of it was ornaments I'd had for years but they were in a box.

I'm planning on doing my wardrobe in the New Year.

When I did my first major declutter, I put everything in the sitting room and went through it all. I threw away bags and bags of stuff. I don't even remember what I threw away.

Definitely donate to charity. That way it lives on for someone else 🙂