To just get rid of it all?

[Hoardernomore]

So far this week I’ve got rid of 18 bags of rubbish / recycling / stuff for charity shop from our average sized house. I’m still going.
I’ve got rid of christening cards, scan photos, wedding cards, thanks you cards, Mother’s Day cards, baby memory boxes, new baby stuff and momentoes. All gone. Drawings by the kids, photos, hand made stuff from school and nursery.
Also gone are all my books and cds, toys my children don’t use, random stuff we’ve accumulated like wires that I have no idea of their purpose anymore.
My gran died last year and she’d kept so much, and we had to chuck most of it. I’ve concluded it is all just stuff, at some point it has to be thrown away and actually it’s easier for me to do it than my children once I’m dead.

My friend thought I’d lost the plot when I told her everything had gone. Aibu? I just think it’s stuff. It’s all pointless really.

I have seen written so many times “my husband is so stingy he gives me the same Christmas card every year” and never understood it until recently when it dawned on me that of course it would be unlikely you’d keep years of cards/get them out to read years later but taking your perennial(?) Christmas Card out along with the family decorations every year and having a little message for each year going back to your first Christmas together..? Sounds like a really lovely idea to me!

If your P45 isn't for the current tax year, it doesn't matter. You will just be given a simplified return to complete instead to establish your tax code.

OP i dread my DC's having to go through my personal belongings. I imagine I don't have longevity either. I guess it was grief.
The stuff I ripped up could have made history books. Not quite Ann Frank by any means but a record of tricky times as a teenager.
You can get your p45 online through the HMRC website. Fear not.
I still have memories around from when the DC's were young. Slowly and surely they are being gone. At least we still have the real thing. They are in their 20s now so I want to move on to the next phase of our lives.
I hope that makes sense.

I would have chucked everything but kept the scan photos and baby boxes.
My children love looking at theirs and they are much older.

My Grandad threw everything away and my Dad has nothing,no photos of when he was a child or anything hardly.

I love a declutter, very satisfying. However, it has taken us (me, OH, SIL & her OH) most of our weekends over the last 6 months to clear out their parents house. MIL went into a home & we've been trying to clear the house for sale. They were absolute hoarders & it's a large 5 bed house. They never threw anything out, if they bought something new, they kept the old one, "just in case". There were old TVs, video recorders, rooms full of books, clothes, ornaments everywhere! I filled my car to the roof with just blankets, sheets and towels for the local dogs home! It got to the point that the local charity shops asked us to stop bringing things in!
It's made me even more strict about clutter. Seeing all that stuff untouched for decades in cupboards, just made me annoyed at the waste and pointlessness of it all.

Seeing all that stuff untouched for decades in cupboards, just made me annoyed at the waste and pointlessness of it all.

I so agree, or worse, seeing it spoilt by getting moth eaten or water damaged, instead of being used and enjoyed and then disposed of when worn out.

Have loved this thread, although it's taken me days to catch up with reading it. This is exactly what I've been going through - I took a phone call from my DD when I was enroute home after a few days with my elderly DPs telling me we'd had water streaming into the bedrooms and landing during a downpour while our flat roof was being replaced. All I could think was "good, hope lots is damaged so I can throw it out"!
When i surveyed the scene on returning home and everything was fine I knew that I needed to get rid of things while they were in good enough condition to be worth something.
So I've freegled some then decided to do a car boot sale to benefit a wonderful animal rescue charity. Just the process of believing that I might make some money for them helped me to get rid of more. I was able to give them £90 which was everything i made less the cost of the pitch. I still makes me feel good to think of it 😁

A few years ago I went in the loft and find about 15 boxes of mementoes, kids school work, folders from old jobs etc. I culled the lot and kept 2 lidded plastic crates full of the best bits for each of us. I got silica gel sachets off eBay to put in each to stop them going musty. It was really satisfying :)

I keep very little anyway. I don't keep books. Kids have one box of sentimental stuff each. I have one. Dh has endless shit. Shells and animal skulls and stickers and books and ornaments and old toys. He won't even throw out old clothes. He has so much artwork.
I get rid of the kids old toys and clothes etc. If he didn't have so much shit we would own so much less together.

Loving this thread as it’s helping boost my resolve to get on with sorting! Bizarrely it has been the move to a bigger house that has helped - I have space to store stuff but I want the house to be clearer. Over the years I have begun to get less precious about things - I have reduced DD1’s stored school work and drawings to fewer boxes, and will go through again at another stage. One thing I do plan to do (though think I will need to be retired to have enough time!!) is to make photo books for each year, including pics of significant school stuff/drawings etc. Depending how much stuff there is I might end up doing 3 per year, one for each child, with all 3 having the same main photos but different pictures of school work/holiday souvenirs etc

And like the leak above, I began to get less sentimental when I lost some stuff thanks to a mouse. We had put some boxes into our (attached) garage whilst having building work done, and when I brought them out to go through a few weeks later I picked up a cardigan and it fell to pieces. Whole box of baby clothes kept for potential future DD destroyed, and sadly the only piece of my own baby clothing I had. Yes, I cried at the scrap of blue embroidery thread that I knew was the bunny off my flannelette nightie (and regretted that I hadn’t thought to put one of my kids into it briefly to take a pic before storing it - wouldn’t let them wear it as had ribbon ties sewed on and eyelet trim, wouldn’t meet current safety standards). But I still remember what it looked like so having the actual thing is not necessary. And it wouldn’t mean anything to anyone else.

Some of my relatives passed away and it has been hard to sort all their belongings. Some went to charity, some to the bin. I wish I had been given the suggestion to take photos of some of the items that were old and musty/dusty, because they went in the bin. I threw all my hand written school books into the recycling, because I never looked at them once. I moved house a year ago again, so some of my own stuff has been pared down. However, I would like to reduce more.

I am 56.

Recently when my mother was moving house we helped clear stuff out.
She had kept a massive amount of my schoolwork,from primary upwards it felt odd that she had kept so much shite.

Mental arithmetic test books, from when I was 8, spelling sheets when I had scored 2/10, artwork that I clearly wasn't interested in doing, half hearted essays, bad artwork, stacks of the stuff.

Sure one or two of the items were cute, my first attempts at story writing when I was 5 or 6, maybe a couple of certificates, she had no interest - she had not even looked at the stuff in 40 years.
I took 95% of it to the dump.

Less is more when it comes to keeping stuff like this.

In fact keeping lots of devalues the whole thing.

A few things can be precious, it doesn't mean more is better.

I love lots of books, if I had more space I’d have shelves and shelves of them, even if I barely read them!

Now as someone who doesn’t do Christmas cards I’m only really here for more info on the Christmas card thing.

*What is a family Christmas card?
*why is it dated?
why do you get it out each year? Who is it addressed too? Each other? Or has someone else sent it to you and you’ve kept it as the card is nice?

I thought Christmas cards were something you sent to other people. I am really interested to know how this works.

She had kept a massive amount of my schoolwork,from primary upwards it felt odd that she had kept so much shite.

Similar experience - all my school books were kept. Some were nice to see but some brought back some really negative emotions - reminders of difficult times as a teenager. I would rather never have seen those books again.

There's been lots of mention of scan photos. I had a really awful first pregnancy, don't want to go into details, but it was very difficult emotionally, so I can understand not wanting to see scan photos again. I do ahve mine somewhere, but not sure if I'd keep them when I come across them.

Some were nice to see but some brought back some really negative emotions - reminders of difficult times as a teenager. I would rather never have seen those books again.

Same here.

My kids brought home a massive amount of artwork from school- they were not particularly enthusiastic artists and I could tell a lot of the stuff was done because they were told to, had no choice, so made the effort in class to go through motions rather than produce something that was meaningful or enjoyable.

I don't see any value in keeping that stuff.

christening cards, scan photos, wedding cards, thanks you cards, Mother’s Day cards, baby memory boxes, new baby stuff and momentoes. All gone. Drawings by the kids, photos, hand made stuff from school and nursery.

You’ve got rid of all your family photos? All the photos of your kids when they were small ?

I have been decluttering for a few years now. I started when DD stated that she didn't relish the thought of clearing my old stuff out once I'd gone. Hopefully that will be some time in the distant future but she had helped a friends family clear a grandparents house so had seen what was involved and related it to our house.
Reading through this thread has given me more impetus to get going again. This obsession with keeping personal stuff generally only goes back 1 maybe 2 generations ,probably because we mostly have stuff that doesn't get worn out or passed down and it seems a shame to just throw it away. So we keep it until its worthless/dirty/broken and then we can throw it with a clear conscience. Well at least thats the realisation I'm coming to.
I have nothing from my childhood and certainly nothing from my parents. It would be nice to see a few photos or school records but having artefacts would make no difference to my life beyond a brief moment of interest.
So basically I think im saying that I will be more ruthless in getting rid of stuff. I'll try to give things to Charity rather than store them in a leaky shed for years only to throw them in the bin. And I'll get the blasted loft cleared somehow.

What I have done very successfully previously is clear out the real and abvious rubbish. Anything I am unsure if I can remove goes into an unmarked black bag. I put a date on the bag and if I have not looked in the bag within 12 months, then the next time I do a clear out the bag goes, without me even opening it. Obviously children’s stuff is sorted more methodically than anything else and I have 1 of those plastic drawer units for each, 1 pink, 1 blue. If there is anything that I think they might want it goes in there. The rest, I am ruthless.

Ladies, you've inspired me. Two bin bags in and counting....

I’m still going! I’m doing all the drawers and cupboards as well as the loft now. Bags and bags and bags and bags have gone. The kids are playing better with their things because now they can see what they’ve got and their cupboards are more organised.
I need to do my wardrobe. Bet there’s another 4 or 5 bags for charity in there.

I like the idea of the black bag and being systematic with it.

I have occasionally done this with DH's things of vital importance crap not looked at in 10, 20 or sometimes 30 years.

Oh but it's not mine you say, but why should hoarders be allowed to make whole rooms uninhabitable because of the stuff that they can't be arsed to sort out? Keeping it in case their children/grandchildren might want the stuff is mostly an excuse - one or two items maybe but not boxes of old work emails printed off or software manuals for systems which bit the dust in 1992.

But then, I am not a hoarder. A trip to the tip gives me a buzz. I have one lined up for tomorrow......

I’ve just spent a weekend of declutteribg, apart from a small box of memorIes everything has gone, it feels sooooooo good

Your schoolwork and drawings might not matter to you but to us, your mothers, every little thing you have written or drawn is precious. I'm working up to throwing my daughter's stuff away, because it means nothing to her, but it's difficult to part with. I can only think of it because I don't want to leave her a mess to clear up when I'm gone.