Would I be awful to get a skip and clear out?

[OnAMatOopEre]

Every cupboard, drawer and other available space in the house is just crammed with stuff. Not like absolute hoarders but I could see it looking that way in a few more years.

So im thinking about hiring a skip and having a massive no-mercy clear out. However, there's probably quite a lot of stuff of all sorts of genres that would either fetch a small amount on selling sites or would benefit someone on free cycle etc but... I just dont have the time or the energy to list things, negotiate with buyers, wait for them to turnup etc.

Theres a lot of clothes/bedding and the likes, and these I will send to charity, but for everything else - am i a bad person if I just get a skip? And just lighten my mental load as well as the physical? I feel like I cant breathe. Am I awful to send it all to landfill?

Yanbu. Sometimes you just need a reset. X

Can’t you give most of it to a charity shop? Anglo doorstep collection were great when I had to empty my mum’s flat. You’d need to check it they operate where you are. They took everything that had any value and you could choose from three charities. I chose the one I thought my mum would have liked. Then they collected it all and took it away. Job done, no guilt.

if you can afford to
they are quite expensive
what about booking the tip?

I would do 3 drawers a week and Freecycle it. I wouldn't bother trying I sell. Just do a "pot of cutlery free, needs to go today". Put a sticker on each drawer you've done to stop yourself adding stuff into it.

I find 90% goes that way. I once even got rid of a mirror I thought no one would want and was scared to take to the tip in case it smashed in the car. An art student needed one for a project. It feels good to see things reused!

I wish I did this last week.
Had a massive clear out. Was fed up with not being able to open a drawer!

20+ black bags and plenty of other bits taken to the tip. A skip would have been easier!

Surely you will attract skip raiders and most of it will be gone if it’s stuff that has a purpose anyway. Judging from what I’ve seen in my area.

Do it OP! I love getting a skip. We are having building work done so we ordered one and I keep popping things in ours. When we last moved we had one. Filled it up. It feels so good!

Have you posted many times before? And even considered doing this?

Skip sounds a great idea, you usually have it for a few days. Do you have a community/street Facebook group. Things you could pass on I would put out the front on a table with a photo saying free/no saves and if it doesn't go chuck it in the skip at the end of the day 😊

Seems very wasteful, can you find a local charity which will collect things? or pay for a house organiser by selling stuff, so you actually get everything sorted properly

Just bag up stuff that's reasonable and call a charity shop for a collection. We have one locally that will collect furniture and larger amounts.
Rubbish in a skip.
At least try to lessen the impact on the planet.

Is this all your “stuff”?

There’s people/companies out there that can do it all for you

@chrom I dont understand the tone or meaning of your messages

Thanks to everyone else. I do want to try and lessen the impact on the environment so I will look into the suggestions made - thank you.

I just need to also lighten my mental load and being in a house that's full to bursting is not helping me. (Other crap stuff going on in my life) I think a skip, a focused weekend and being absolutely brutal about what stays/goes will be cathartic. I dont want it to take weeks / do it bit by bit, because I know life will get in the way and I wont get it all done.

Im a good person, I promise!

But surely that’s a relevant question.

Is this your stuff? Or others? And if it belongs to other people… are they on board with a skip??

This is my dream.

There are people who make money out of collecting up unwanted things and selling them on. That would be better as at least less would end up in landfill. Ask on your local Facebook group.

People around here will put everything on their driveway and then put a post on their local Facebook saying they’ve done so.

A bit of effort to try to do this in a less wasteful way would be worthwhile. I know it’s a pain as I did it when I put our house on the market. I did a mixture of selling stuff that I knew would sell easily and listing stuff on a local giving away page.

We used Anglo too. We had a pile of clothes, books, paintings and CDs, and neither of us drives anymore so we'd been taking a bag or two at a time to charity shops. We cleared the lot in one afternoon. And the Anglo driver has a tracker so you can see roughly what time they'll arrive.

I think you'll end up overwhelmed trying to do it all and waste money on the skip.

Because sorting also needs you to arrange not just chuck. For example, sellotape, doesn't need chucking, probably is in a random drawer. Ideally you would reorganise and have a sellotape, wrapping, scissors drawer.

If you try and do all that in a weekend then you're going to be a right mess with stuff all around you on Monday.

Go room by room week by week.

I'm downsizing, literally half of my belongings are going.

I haven't found giving to charity shops easy, they refuse donations, only want things in pristine condition and are generally a bit difficult which I don't understand in a cost of living crisis.

Local selling sites - well, I put a £1200 garden furniture set on there for £75 - lots of 'please may I get this' responses ..... no cigar. Literally six people 'wanted' it. No follow through at all.

I don't have time for advertising and people coming round/not coming round (work out of the house for 55 hours a week), so I have either taken things to the dump and also paid someone to come and take lots away.

Do whatever makes it easy for you OP is my advice, these things don't owe you anything.

I agree with giving it all to charity, well everything that can be sold on. I could never live with adding a skip load to landfill when I could just as easily have everything collected or fill up my car with stuff and drop it off. Clearing out can be hard work so getting a break whilst driving back and forth from the charity shop is quite nice. Or, take them to the tip but hand them into the place where you leave things that can still be used. I am not sure all tips have that but our did. Then you throw all the clothes in the clothes bins and the books in the world of books bin.

Charity shops will only want decent stuff, I'd imagine they can't or won't take a lot of clutter and people shouldn't see them as a recepticle for unwanted junk.

You could advertise the bagged stuff for car boot stuff and it will be collected.

I feel your pain, I have a week booked off work in 2 weeks to sort my house.

If you are completely overwhelmed, I say get rid of it the best way you can - then get good at not bringing more into your home. If you get a skip they don't just tip the lot into landfill. Part of what you're paying for is them sorting and recycling correctly at the other end. It's a legal requirement for businesses, which skip hire companies are.

There are some very good blogs about living more minimally, ie Becoming Minimalist, The Minimalists ( who have a film on netflix too) Zenhabits, Be More With Less etc. Good luck!

Do it room by room and Freecycle it. 'Box of kitchen items', 'Part-used make-up and skincare', 'Car boot items' etc. It will go.