Honestly, do you need to keep the stuff in your attic/loft?

[ArcticGrass]

We moved house just before Covid to a house that we renovated while living in it. For various reasons we shifted stuff without having a thorough clear out first. There’s stuff in our attic I haven’t looked at since we moved. Pictures that don’t look right in the new house, 2 taken apart double beds and mattress, my late mum’s crockery, a huge speaker system (DH we can’t throw that it cost me a fortune 30 years ago!)….

We use it because we don’t really have any other storage but it’s all stuff we use- suitcases, xmas decs when it’s not xmas, DIY stuff and skis.

Mine is a loft bedroom, so I use it as a spare room. All the Christmas presents are up there, my tall fan, boxes of books that my publishers send me, some rogue coffee tables (which can go as soon as I get around to it) and more duvets than any human being needs (which will go to an animal charity when I get my act together).

Other than that, two beds (because people sleep up there sometimes when I have a houseful), a lot of dust and some life-threatening spiders.

My attic is completely empty. I had it insulated, floored and an extending ladder fitted two years ago but I still haven't put anything up there.
It's the fear of everything filling with giant spiders that puts me off.

Also, once stuff is up there it can't be sorted out and got rid of - it would just stay there, getting full of spiders 😬

When my parents died recently and I had the job of clearing their big house, I was so thankful that despite having 2 lofts, they contained only 4 suitcases and a box of Christmas decorations.

I see photos of lofts in my job and it’s shocking the amount of stuff people hoard up there. Many are rammed to the rafters with old TVs, redundant VCRs, cots, car seats, long forgotten toys and games consoles, bags and boxes of absolute crap.

As someone who is the complete opposite of a hoarder, it gives me anxiety just looking at the photos.

I sorted out mine earlier in the year and I honestly couldn’t believe the crap up there. I’ve got it down to about half now, why on earth did I keep empty boxes and broken vcrs. DVD players without the remote control.
Ive got so much stuff in my house but a lot was my late dhs and then my mums when she died. I just don’t know what to do with it all

@TheNightingalesStarling

Thanks for the heads-up about the computers.

Stuff that you use at a specific time of year, but not the rest of the year, such as Christmas stuff, holiday stuff (suitcases, car roof racks and boxes etc), winter/summer tyres if you change them over etc. - perfect way to use the space.

Precious things that you definitely want to keep, that genuinely mean a lot to you - fine, but try to be selective and always keep them in transparent plastic boxes (also labelled), rather than loose (unless too big) or in opaque containers.

I think it's a waste of space not to board out the loft and use it for storage, as it's potentially a third of the floorspace of your whole house; but it's not a bin, or a repository for stuff that you don't actually, really want. If there is stuff that you do want/need, it may be a more suitable space to store it than anywhere else in your house; but it isn't compulsory to fill it!

Also, it really is the beginning of the end if you fill it so much that you can't actually get to anything there without taking other things out first; you have to leave plenty of space to move around in there.

This is the first loft I've ever had. I can't climb the ladder more than 2 steps so anything up then when my husband ceases to be able to get up there means anything there stays.
There is a lot of Lego up there.

Why do people get so terrified of going in the loft 'because there will be spiders in there'? Spiders don't know which is your loft, living room, bathroom, bedroom... they go everywhere!

Or is it just that they're much easier to see (and avoid) against your magnolia walls rather than in a dark dingy corner of the eaves?!

In my loft, yes. I've got emergency food (tinned, powdered etc) we live rurally and get snowed in. I've got battery powered plug bank whatever you call it, torches and wind up torches, camping stove etc because sometimes we lose power too.

Seasonal stuff and stuff i need for my business.

The loft is very handy.

If you feel theres stuff up there you dont need then go through it and have a clear out.

Suitcases yes.
Everything else, no.

The key reason I liked our house is the attic is converted so there was no where for my DH to hoard stuff...

I've just reached the point mentally where I feel I can let go of some of it (kids just gone off to uni) but now Im starting to realise that if they are setting up their own homes in a couple of years a lot of it like old mismatched crockery, curtains, lamps etc will come in useful and save them a fortune until they can save up and get the things they really want.

Having a skip is great but so expensive now. I told my husband earlier this year I wanted one for Christmas. I do hope for his sake he realises I was joking.

we have an attic and I hate that it is used by most of the household to dump stuff they can't be bothered to properly sort and take to charity / the tip. The attic is one big dumping magnet. I gradually throw everything out. I don't tell DH or the kids.

Do you not keep suitcases? Even if you dont intend on any holidays a small one is useful for hospital stays!

Oh yes! I have a hanging rail with off seasons coats, jumpers. Christmas tree, decorations and my entire sewing stash

Said stash is my soon to be retirement business and, despite what DH thinks, is actually sorted into bags of similar stuff ready to be brought down, sorted into saleable or makeable chunks. When it is all gone I will have the basis of a small but profitable recycling business

When my parents passed away and I was clearing the house I got the local handyman to go up in the loft because it didn't have a pull down loft ladder. As he reached the top of his ladder and looked around there was silence. They were tidy people but hadn't been in the loft for years, so I asked anxiously 'What's it like up there?' The reply was 'It's Britain's tidiest loft!' The contents were a pile of board games and some scrapbooking and memorabilia relating to the teenage years of my late brother. As my brother was much older than me the latter was very interesting. Monopoly, we kept and some of the other board games were sold via a vintage outlet.

Our loft has 2 categories of material in it - stuff I told DH not to put in the loft when DC was born early and he didn't think we'd have time to sort through it and the holiday stuff comprising wetsuits, body boards and beach tent type stuff. The former is still being gradually sifted. Placing things that need sorting in the loft makes them out of sight and out of mind, my advice based on the stuff that went up in our loft is, don't go there

Went through mine a couple of years ago and was ruthless. I’ve never needed anything that I chucked out. The only thing up there now is the kids toys all boxed and bagged up, and Xmas decorations.
If I ever move from here they will have to go through their toys as I won’t be taking them with me.

Ours has seasonal decorations, suitcase, fans, dining room table extensions, 2 extra dining chairs and that’s about it. Our garage on the other hand is full of random shit!

He might have completely misunderstood and arranged for a couple of your close friends to turn the ends of a rope whilst he stands at the side with a bunch of his mates, all singing "Salt! Mustard! Vinegar! Pepper!" with gusto

When I was married we moved house a lot, partly by choice as we earned more and partly due to my husbands job. So we had a rule, if something was in the loft untouched since the last move, it did not move to the next house!

This was a mistake though when I moved after my divorce when I’d been in one house for almost 20 years as the loft was quite full! However, I moved to a bungalow which had no loft space ( converted into a bedroom) so had to make do with building fitted wardrobes in each bedroom. I am pretty ruthless though at going through them regularly to get rid of things, I need to make room for all the gadgets and “stuff” that I keep buying!

My downfall at the moment is my garage! It does get full of junk very quickly as I now have mobility problems so find getting to the tip a hassle so store rubbish in my garage until my daughter has time to help me. It’s currently got a load of old light fittings and lamps in after I had new ones fitted, old garden furniture waiting to be taken apart to fit in a car and the recycling wheels bins that only need to go out every few months! I am having my bathroom refitted next year so might order a larger skip to get rid of the garage junk at the same time.

No. When we moved from our last house we took about 90% of the stuff to the tip as it hadn’t been looked at in years 🤦‍♀️ The loft in our current house hasn’t been boarded out and doesn’t have a ladder so we don’t have anything up there! It’s actually quite freeing to know that if we ever move we won’t have that hideous job.

I’m embarrassed to say that, during one move from a house we’d lived in for a long time, there were still removal packing boxes in the loft. Unfortunately, some photos were up there and were ruined by mould. Lesson learned. There’s so much insulation in our loft now, that nothing would fit.

I moved house earlier this year. When clearing out the old house, the shit that was in the loft after 20yrs was ridiculous. It took an entire skip JUST to clear the loft.

So when I moved into my rented house, I decided not to clutter and not to use it. I haven't even looked inside the hatch. There is a little understairs cupboard which is plenty big enough for Christmas decorations and a few random odds and sods.

It’s a good question . Our small loft does not have a built in ladder so we either add that or accept that as we get older, access will be difficult.
I am about to cull the Xmas decorations so there is less to go back up there , and then gradually work through what’s left.