To wonder how you get rid of your clutter?

[PastelPompoms]

We are in the process of decluttering the house. There is lots I want to go from clothes to toys, towels etc.

I am finding it hard to let go of some things that are new e.g. clothes with labels still in etc. I have tried selling but not much had much luck and I’d rather the things just went than hung around waiting for someone to collect who never shows. I am planning to donate to charity and then take the rest to the tip that’s not worth the charity shop.

How do you get over the thought of losing money by giving so much away? My DP wouldn’t be pleased to know I was giving it away rather than selling due to the money that was originally spent and I think that’s making me hang onto more than I want to.

I can’t think of a better way to try and sell it than eBay or Facebook though.

Rather than repeatedly trying to sell stuff, just give it away to a charity you like. The money is long gone anyway and the time you would spend trying to sell it probably isn't worth the small amount of money you would get.

We also have a local buy and sell group on Facebook and people often list as "free to uplift". It's good for larger items and saves a trip to the charity shop or dump.

I hate clutter but my husband tries to keep all sorts of junk!

Your local playgroup might appreciate toy donations.

We're moving house and doing a huge declutter. I've found a local community Facebook page where people give things away for free, much more reliable than the free pages on Facebook or gumtree and means I've been able to move things on that charity shops may not have accepted but I would have found wasteful to throw away so kept holding onto (for example last year a lovely lady took my excess collection of gift bags/wrapping paper for a church bottle raffle).

Anything worth more than £5-10 we've had a go at selling, the rest goes to charity. I've found clothes go better on Ebay in small bundles, household/baby stuff sells well on our Facebook selling pages. Pricing cheap means it goes quickly so I can't change my mind, and it's more likely people turn up if it's a bargain, but at least we get something for it. So if other people are selling an item for £10, we price for £5-7.

Gum tree is good for selling bigger items.

However maybe you need to put a limit on selling. If things don’t sell within a fortnight they go to charity

Kids stuff - the NCT do big sales of kids stuff which are well attended

I give away things that could be sold to homeless family charities. The mothers have often unfort been victims of domestic violence and might have left with only the clothes on their back and their children. A few pounds sale is nothing to me but clothes / kitchen items etc to reset up house is everything to them. Your local council will know if you have one.

What do people think is the best selling site nowadays?

Ebay? Scpock? Vinted? Facebook local selling sites? Other?

Just think of it all as a generous charity donation rather than lost money.

Do you have an organisation that provides clothes for interviews for people on low incomes or something? If you have good, new clothes that might be a nice way of doing it

You have to see the value of the cleaner uncluttered way of living rather than the commercial £ of what you have wasted money on

Freecycle, or freegle, anything that isn't suitable for the charity shop. It's much easier to get rid of stuff when you are passing it to someone appreciative who needs it.

I know now that I will never actually get round to listing things on ebay or wherever, so I just charity shop stuff that is decent, and bin anything that's not. For a while there I was really struggling with my mental health and the sheer amount of stuff in our little flat, especially during lockdown when we were all at home, was making me feel quite claustrophobic.

I did a drawer or cupboard at a time, 2 bags, one for binning, one for charity, and sorted everything out. Once it was possible to donate again I sent my adult daughters around to the charity shops in town with various bags of stuff. We still have too much stuff really, but that's because our flat is the size of a toddler's shoe box.

@wirldsgonemad

Read Marie Kondos the magic of tidying, it will really inspire you to declutter!

It really didn’t (other than I Marie Kondo’d the book)

@ButtWormHole

I’ve ordered a free bag from I Second That. You fill it with clothes, they list them for 100 days and give you a commission for everything that sells.

List on eBay for low start prices. BNWT clothing for £4.99 or £9.99 for bigger brands. Bundles. Job lots.

Changing my mindset to thinking ‘the money is already spent’ helps me to let go of things.

That’s helpful to know

I'm in the exact same position at the minute! Luckily, I very rarely buy new clothes (I'm a charity shop girl) but I have ended up with so many clothes; two wardrobes full, my 'floordrobe' and a box under the bed!

Have you tried vinted? Managed to sell some clothes and ( old , worn ) shoes on there... sellers don't pay fees- maybe worth a go? Children's clothes and shoes seem harder to sell- even when still in really good condition- people either don't want to pay much for them at all- or don't want second hand for their dc...
Agree with PPs- try and limit buying new things in the future- but I do think that the whole de-cluttering thing needs to be done carefully- have done this before and have regretted having thrown some things away, which I later needed....
Plus, it's for people who can afford to replace things later when they're needed- not everyone is in that position...

Don’t forget that any low grade unsaleable items can be textile recycled at M&S or H&M who will give you a voucher to use for something you do want/will wear in the future. (You don’t need to use it but at least you’ll part with a few more items without feeling guilty!)

@Unsure33

What about books ? We have boxes of books from a house clearance. Many good quality.

My local charity shop asks for largeish quantities of books NOT to be donated without giving them a call in advance. Seems they take up a lot of space, don’t sell well and don’t generate that much money. (Or maybe I just live in a non reading area )

Look for a buy nothing/free stuff group in your area; there are lots of people who’d be glad of the things you don’t want anymore. I hate waiting in for people, so once someone’s agreed to collect, I just leave the stuff in my front yard. I’ve decluttered loads of stuff this way!

@1Morewineplease

We had to empty a parent's house and that process alone changed our views completely on what to keep and what to pass on.

We don't need as much as we think.

Google Swedish Death Cleaning!

I vote for Freecycle. I’ve got some really good quality furniture, garden equipment, household items from there, and then got rid of some of my valued items on Freecycle too. People on there are generally nice. One guy was giving away his late mother’s dressing table, he offered it to me. He wanted to know that it was going to a good home.

I need to de clutter too. I try to keep on top of things but it's really hard to let go. I like most of my stuff. It either has memories or I think it might come in handy though. I have success on eBay. Probably around £4-5 K over last 10 years. Only been trying to keep count over the last year or so and its around 1k. But I sell at realistic prices and it takes effort - that's why I've got a load to go up now. Last item was my 25 year old wedding dress which I sold for £35. It was a lovely dress but no point in keeping it. Have the photos of course.

With the cash for clothes type organisations, use them to offload half decent clean heavy clothes like coats.Charity shops can't get rid of them, so will sell them very cheaply.

The cash it actually quite crap if you donate good, sellable clothing. At least if you give it away, you get some good feeling out of it, but my one trip to CfC made me feel grubby and I wish I'd donated it to a charity shop.

Echoing others - choose a charity that you like and donate it to them. Think of someone finding your item in the shop and being happy to wear it. Much better than it sitting in your cupboard! And think of the money being used by the charity to do good things.

I heard the following on the Marie Kondo programme and it resonated with me: stop thinking of the clothes with tags on as a waste of your money. Instead they have taught you something valuable about what you like to wear and what you don’t. You now know that despite what you thought you don’t like to wear clothes like the ones still with the tags on (or you’d have worn them!). So now you know in the future not to buy things like that. This will ultimately save you money and space in your home.

In our town there have been a couple of weekends when there have been community yard sales. One of the admins on our local community Facebook page started it. Everyone has a yard sale the same weekend and she publishes a map so you can walk around the town and get to see all the stalls.

Should add - what is nice about eBay is you get a bit of cash back and often a nice message from the buyer so you feel satisfied that someone else is getting joy or usefulness from your item. Also you can register with some Charity shops so they can also claim the tax on your donation. Scope does this. Then you get a letter and they tell you what they made from your items. I like receiving that letter, although I suppose you could argue it is extra work for them to do all that tracking.