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.

Feels great doesn't it. I did the same and how much lighter I felt without all the stuff. Birthday cards, mother's day stuff, 'sentimental' baggage, all gone, feels so good. Well done OP. People keep hold of stuff they don't need, store it in the attic, what's the point? It's staying there until you die and someone else chucks it away.

@Spreadingcudweed read the life changing magic of tidying by marie kondo. It will tell you where to start.

Having said that I dont know what to do with DS' drawings.

Aren’t the baby memory boxes to pass on to your children? I always thought that was the concept.

I apply the Kondo principle - do I need it, and if not, does it bring me joy? So I would never get rid of scan photos etc. And TBH the thought of having no books makes me feel a bit sick.

You say that it’s so your children don’t have to do it after you are dead, but don’t you think it will mean something to your children to know you cared enough to keep those things?

When my grandparents died and we went through their things, yes it was hard, but also seeing that they’d kept all our first drawings, first ballet shoes, locks of hair from our first hair cuts etc was lovely - it was a physical reminder of how much they’d loved us all and how proud they had been.

I'm not particularly sentimental but I think you'll regret getting rid of scan pictures and baby memory boxes (are they not for your children anyway?).

Good for you OP, YANBU. I’ve recently been doing similar, reducing the number of books we have to enough to fill one average sized book case, de-junking the loft, sending unworn clothing and unused household items to charity shops and even thinning out the amount of furniture we own. The house feels better for it, and we have freed up tons of storage space for the stuff we actually want to keep.

I dont keep any cards or pictures really at all.

I couldn’t dump my kid’s artwork

Seriously?

If I kept all my kids artwork I would have thousands of pieces of paper.

My kids are at University now, I have kept some choice items and artwork from the earliest stages and throughout their childhood- but to keep every piece of artwork is unthinkable.

Er, you can buy a box of Christmas cards from the pound shop! Reusing cards, who does that?
You are sounding very odd and not thinking properly.

Yes but not the ones with ‘husband’ ‘sister’ ‘son’ etc. They are all £2+

My grandparents did the same. Just put the same card up and redated it for a new year.

So you cross out the old days and write a new one? Really odd.

What’s the point in opening the same old Christmas card every year?

My mum did this just after her mum died. I would have liked to have helped as I'm sure there was stuff she threw that I would have wanted to keep. I guess it is a common reaction judging by some of the comments.

I think that when I feel like doing something similar I will involve my children.

But I don't think you have done the wrong thing for you at the time.

I did a clear out and kept scan pics and my favourite bits of art DD has done. We also have her nursery journals.

My mum hates hoarding, so all of her important stuff is kept together in some boxes under her bed. So me and my siblings dont have to turf out a house full of crap.

I am reasonably ruthless when it comes to keeping stuff. A lot of the children's earlier art work went into 'that' special place - the recycling bin - but I've kept a few pieces.
I couldn't do quite as much as you.
We've kept Lego (and Dh's from his childhood) and the Brio train track and the children have kept a few.
I've got 2 boxes each for the children - personal and school papers - which I sift through now and again.

When my mum died we did have to sort out a fair bit of stuff (she'd moved 5/6 years before so we'd done a huge proportion of it already) but most of it was fascinating. Letters to/from family and friends; diaries - very interesting!; photographs; etc.

DH and I do intend to leave with most of this sorted. What is done with it when I die, I don't care. I'm not here!

@redexpat download google , scan them then transfer the pics/scans to a USB stick?

@hoardernomore Card Factory family cards can be as little as 29p okay they're maybe not as nice but you really don't have to spend a fortune.

I couldn't get rid of scan photos etc... but I do think it's good to get rid of clutter. Have just done similar following a House move.

That should say google photo scan app.

I don't even bother giving my kids or husband a Christmas card! We live in the same house, so I don't see the point. Kids get enough from school friends.

I love a good clear out, but like others, I kept my scan pictures, a few baby bits, and they have one school tub each in the loft, and when it gets too full I go through it and chuck out some more bits from it.
I don't have a kindle, but only own about 10 books, as I still prefer to use the library.

I've got almost none of that stuff, but I never kept in the first place.
I do have quite a few books, plus lego and a wooden train set, and a few baby toys for visiting children.

I've never kept much in the way of cards, artwork etc and I don't even know what a "baby memory box" is! Photos are almost all digital these days, so not sure why you would have more than a few printed out to display.

The thing with scan photos is they all look the same. I couldn’t tell which was which of my children unless I looked at the date.
They aren’t very interesting.
I think I pre date scan photos but if my mum did have one of me I wouldn’t find it particularly interesting.

Our music is all stored digitally too, so no CDs. I do have one box with children's old school books etc in. I should probably give it one sort out given they are teens now so won't be adding to it.

Nah, it's fine. My mum has a weird relationship with stuff and so is unable to move out of the house she lives in because she can't go through her stuff and cull what has served its purpose.

I do have a box in the loft of memory stuff and good artwork/homework writings but I try to prune it to fit into that box.

Separately from the box, I write a journal of significant moments or funny stories for each of my dcs. I don't make many entries, maybe 15 a year for each child. It quotes what they said, sometimes my musings or describes developmental leaps. I also described by pregnancy and dcs' birth in case dd asks when it is her turn.

My day-to-day life is very hectic and I fear I will forget everything and have no memories to pass to them in my dotage. My mother remembered almost nothing of us growing up and I feel there is a gap in childhood in my life as I remember so little myself (must be genetic!).

I used to keep too much stuff. I still have some old letters and I've kept photos, but I never kept kids' drawings anyway. My grown up children have shown minimal interest in anything like that if I've come across it. They have been interested in old class photos, school reports and so on.

A couple of shoe boxes of stuff is enough.

I struggled with books, and still have a couple of shelves of them, but I have also moved over to a Kindle.

In the past, I used to box and bag stuff up, put it in the loft and kid myself I was decluttering. When I was younger, I didn't mind an untidy house, but now it drags me down and I want clear surfaces and to be able to see the thinks I like and love.

When the loft was cleared, I was at work. I trusted my husband to sort the stuff he thought I'd want. I've never asked what he got rid of - I haven't missed it.

I've been in the process of a massive home decluttering for several months. I've been genuinely shocked by the amount of stuff that I've acquired and retained over the years. So much of it is just stuff. I hit on the mantra "If I didn't own this, would I buy it now?" That's enabled me to give around 50 bags of stuff to charity, offload various things on Freecycle and have several trips to the Waste Centre. Feels good to get rid of pointless things.