What’s the best thing you did to declutter?

[OmgImSoTired]

Have 2 small DC and a modest 2 bed home. I also WFH. It feels like there are things everywhere.

what’s the best thing you did or bought to create storage or help you declutter? I feel like as soon as I throw a load of stuff out I’m swimming in more.

I read the life changing magic of tidying. After that everything fell into place.

You have to be strict about stuff coming into the house. You also have to be able to recognize when something that previously worked for you no longer does. A Kindle has limited the number of books that come in. A big problem is DC birthdays - try and ask for garden stuff or experiences.

Does any of that help?

It took me a while to get to grips with it for sure. However, once a month or so I tackled one thing at a time. There's nothing more dispiriting than being too ambitious in what we can achieve all in one go!

TBH it took a good few months to get to a level I was OK with again. I gave most of my stuff away, either to charity, Freecycle (or similar), or binned it. I store Winter and Summer clothes and shoes in plastic storage boxes, labelled! Put away the Summer boxes in the Winter and vice versa. As my late mother used to say (even though I failed to do this for a long time...) "a place for everything and everything in its place"

I'm far from perfect, but it's much better now. The biggest thing I learned from it all was not to buy things on impulse. If I really need something I'll buy it, but something has to go as a result. One in, one out kind of thing. Doesn't always work but it helps.

I have a garage full of crap, so that's next on my list over the Summer.

Hope you get lots of tips here, and best of luck.

Get everything from one room out and retun half of it back.
Bin or donate the rest.
Andfo not allow nonsemseto get in.
Like limit gifts to money for experiences and buy as lityle clothes you possibly can

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale books are a problem, I can't bear to part with them

@vandelier actually you do sound very organised!

I have to crack on this week, if I learn anything I'll update

@CalicoPusscat Marie Kondo addresses this in the book - it honestly changed my life.

After 2 years sorting I feel like I'm finally winning.
My house is always going to look a bit cluttered as I love my books but I'm much more ruthless now in the ones I keep.

The biggest impact for me was buying a cloakroom cupboard. I have a narrow lobby which was always full of shoes, and no utility room.
The cupboard takes shoes, coats, most of my handbags, scarves, basket for gloves and brollies. It fits in an alcove in the dining room. No more shoes in the hall, no more coats on the back of doors and chairs. It's lovely. Made to measure so fits perfectly.
I did have to do a good prune of coats and will store things in the loft depending on the season.
I also try to do a 1 thing in, 2 things out policy.
I no longer keep things 'just in case'
No I'm no longer working an office job I've been able to reduce the amount of clothes and shoes I need. I've also recognised that my overall style has changed so have donated things that don't suit my lifestyle.
Also persuading my now adult son to part with a lot of childhood stuff

Shout at my husband.

Keep a bin bag in my wardrobe. As soon as something doesn't fit or I'll no longer use it, bag it goes. I also do one in/ out with clothes. If I've bought a new t-shirt, I have to declutter an old one.

Other cupboards, drawers etc, I tend to go through these every year and have a clear out. Usually when they are really messy.

Had to pile the entire contents of my small flat into my tiny flat last year for a bathroom and kitchen refit
Threw out pots and pans as new hob is induction.
Decluttered bathroom and towels went to a dog rescue as did duvet.
contents into bin bags. Sofa went to neighbour as needed chairs and a recliner instead.
for you, obviously take a room or drawers at a time
clothes I didn’t want to charity shop and rugs as I have LVT for safety( disabled)
it was chaotic but cathartic
Most importantly nothing crosses my door unless I actually need it.
Any new clothing One in, one out.
That said I live alone now so couldn’t have been as ruthless when my DC were young.
Start small, then you’ll be motivated to keep going
space is more valuable than “ stuff”
Don’t buy more storage until you’ve decluttered
Good luck.

I can be very all or nothing which usually ends up with me doing nothing because 'all' is too much.

Recently I've been being strict with myself about what I attempt at a time. For example, there are some shelves in the kitchen which were a dumping ground for all sorts of crap (partly because of where they are, next to a main route through the house) and had far too many recipe books on there. Time was I would have seen dealing with that as part of the bigger and much more overwhelming task of dealing with the whole kitchen.

So I've sorted out and decluttered just those shelves without letting myself think of it as part of a larger task. They now function as I need them to and, as a bonus, look lovely.

I've tackled a few cupboards since in the same way with similarly good results. I save up tasks which are going to make a visible difference (like the shelves) for when I need a bit more motivation. Which isn't to say, of course, that other family members don't get marched to a newly sorted cupboard to inspect its beauty.

I know that where this can fall down is when we start to just shove things on those shelves again because not everything necessarily has a 'home' yet, but so far this hasn't happened because those shelves now have a much more defined purpose so things which don't fit there don't go there.

Knowing when it's a day you feel like a ruthless cull of clothing or toys was useful to me. If I wasn't on the mood, I knew it wasn't the thing.

Various useful bits of storage.

Foldable fabric ottomans. 2 in DS bedroom one is a stool and has his bedding in, the other is a longer one. Somewhere to sit and to store clothes. When we got a new boiler we lost 1/2 the airing cupboard space. We used to store all the towels and bedding in there. Now the bedding is in an ottoman and the towels were culled to a quantity that fitted back in.

The cottage can't accommodate a lot in the hall. I regularly sort out the shoe rack. I have a slim linen basket thing that I keep hats,scarves, gloves in. It's very dark grey and you can't even see it

Tiny bedroom

Don’t buy more storage thinking it’ll help you declutter.

the only way to declutter is to really, really think about what you need to make your life run smoothly. And get rid of the rest. For instance, I actually made a list of essential vs nice-to-have clothing.

In my case I started by getting rid of at least a third of my clothes and half my shoes. I only kept things that I actually wear, and if I ever need a ballgown I’ll rent one…
Also donated most of my books, especially fiction, how-to and self-help books.
As well as lots of stuff that held memories or ‘might come in useful’.

A good general rule of thumb is to get out ALL of a particular category and only put back what you definitely need/want to keep. Sit with your choices for a week or so and in the first instance only get rid of items you definitely don’t need.

Only work out whether you need additional or better storage once your clearout is nearing completion. Chances are you won’t need much if anything.

Ooh dog rescue is a great idea for duvets! They fill up a wheelie bin otherwise ! I’ve got one that’s fine but just surplus to requirements and bulky to store. Charity don’t take bedding I don’t think so was thinking I’d have to chop it up and throw a chunk out each week!

@OmgImSoTired this thread made me think, I've already bought Xmas presents for people this year (I'm a bit like that!) but perhaps from now on I should focus on consumables as I don't want to clutter them up.

Things that I have bought are like wall clock, necklace, framed art photo of their childhood town. I'll focus on more practical things next year like soap, socks, wine if they like that, cheese, perfume if it's one they'll use. I'm not getting them a bottle of cleaning spray each however 🤣

I declutter best when I realise DS has grown out of stuff, whether it's toys or clothing.
The easiest way to declutter books is to join a library. The library service has The joy of dusting my reading material (I prefer print to Kindle).

For de-cluttering, I use Vinted and Anglo Collections.

I put the best stuff on Vinted. If it doesn't sell quickly then it goes in the next collection. selling on there gives me money to buy DD Birthday and Christmas presents.

I get more ruthless each time I go through the wardrobe/cupboards. I really don't need that skirt that I bought 20 years ago and have never worn, but keep because its really fancy and you never know.....

I went through the whole airing cupboard and threw out a lot of bedding and towels as we had far too much stuff.

Anglo collect from the doorstep - https://anglodoorstepcollections.co.uk/

For DD's bedroom, she has a wardrobe with no doors, which means that we can put other furniture closer to it and fit more in. DD has shelves all over one wall to maximise storage and boxes on top of all wardrobes and under the bed.

I think a lot of us have difficulty letting go of the past. It's something I need to address.

What has helped for me is to start using up what you have and only buy something when you’re down to the minimum. That means light bulbs, pens, skincare, cleaning products, knickers. Everything. It’s so nice only having one or two of anything instead of billions of scrunchies, charging leads etc. When you replace non consumables, buy the best quality you can afford - it will stop you repurchasing.

as for declutterring- start with anything broken, and unusable.

also be kind to yourself

I find having a designated limited space for things help me stick to it.eg I put my summer / winter clothes away in a medium suitcase. If it doesn’t fit I need to prune it

Anything not worn that season- get rid
Toys not played with - get rid
Gadgets etc in kitchen , think when was the last time they were used. We had a coffee machine we used maybe 3x a year. George forman , toasties machine all rarely used all got rid of.

Thanks everyone, some brilliant tips here.

Going to give it a first crack this weekend…

Deciding the dining table and breakfast bar had to be cleared (properly) on a regular basis.

For us it was not keeping things 'just in case' - if we can't remember when we last used/needed it, we don't need to keep it.