Stuff is too hard to get rid of

[Clutterbusting]

I want to be free of my stuff. I’m drowning in it. My house is a mess and all that happens when I have a sort out is it gets moved about. I spend money on storage solutions when I need to just get rid.
I want to but where to? Charity shops are picky and I have A LOT to shift. Selling takes too long and I can’t be wasteful so a skip is out. What can I do?
AIBU to think this is just too hard?

BHF won't take everything. Furniture needs to meet modern safety standards and be in what they deem resalable condition.
Glass doors are often not up to scratch.

@Clutterbusting Yes! Excellent that you've made a start. Every time you do 10 minutes, that's 10 minutes you've shaved off the overall time and 10 minutes closer to getting it done. A lot can be done in 10 minutes as well if you just stay focussed.

Thank you so much @Abitofalark for your thoughtful advice - I will defintely think about removing a few pages from certain of the DC's school books and putting them in a display pocket book, perhaps framing a couple of my favourite pieces of writing.
Going to just keep my favourite essays and the dissertation too.

@JackieWeaversZoomAc

A useful way to think about things if you are struggling with decluttering is to know that no matter what you do with the stuff now, it will all end up as rubbish, in landfill or recycled eventually.

So while it may be ideal to re-distribute things and reuse items where possible, it's all gonna end up in the bin or the recycling at some point. This can be very liberating way to think if you are struggling.

Sometimes you just have to get stuff out of the house. You need to keep the momentum going so do what you need to do to achieve that. Resist the impulse to overthink.

But before that some things could be reused many many times?

www.svp.org.uk/donate-items-and-furniture

[quote Nanny0gg]@TowandaForever

In the grand scheme of things, in this person's case, the environment will survive[/quote]
But the amount of people on this thread throwing things away shows that the environment won't.

@2Rebecca

I think you have to landfill a lot as fashions change and listing umpteen things with pics on free cycle or gumtree or ebay takes forever and is incompatible with a job and family life

Textiles can be recycled.

@Clutterbusting

And I’m done for the day! The awful room is still bloody awful but it’s not quite as awful so that’s something. I am one of those people who wants everything to be done and finished immediately but it’s taken decades to get this way and it will take a long time to get out of it. I will take on the advice given and also doing just one or 2 things a day is better than none so that’s something I’ll also take on board no matter how shitty I feel.

@Clutterbusting it's really important to remember that, as you say, you didnt get into a mess overnight, so it won't be an overnight fix. Just like you wouldn't take up running tomorrow and do a marathon next week. Slow and steady, little and often, is sometimes the best approach

Marie Kondo approach works for me. Instead of "what can I get rid of", her focus is "what do I really want to keep?" End result is the same, but it feels more positive

Please be very firm with your parents about not wanting any more stuff. Tell them it is affecting your mental health. I have learned to say no to my parents. It’s taken a long time and my DM gets offended but I figure a couple of hours of her being offended is worth it for not cluttering up my house any more!

I struggle with clutter so much. Our house is full to bursting. I don’t see what else I can get rid of! I need a bigger house!

Some skip companies recycle the contents of your skip.
You get rid of the stuff the easy way - bagged in categories and thrown in a skip
The company take your money and then Make more cash off it through recycling
Everybody wins.

Some of the problem which I’m sure many of you will identify with is the sheer volume of it all. I’ve got rid of things lots of times but it is a small dent in what seems an insurmountable volume of things. Also I procrastinate very badly in all aspects of life - due to mental health which is probably also linked to all this clutter.

Yes, I do something quite similar myself OP. I found the difficult bit is starting. Once you can start, even if it's only a little bit, it feels good. You can then hold on to that feeling and remind yourself next time you have enough energy to start throwing stuff out. The best decluttering advice I found was that if you spend 5 minutes and get rid of one small box, you're still one small box better off than you were before you did it.

Of course, that relies on you chucking stuff out faster than it comes in and I think one of the keys to decluttering is getting a handle on what's coming into the house as much as what's leaving it. I love the one in, two out rule that a PP mentioned. If you're strict and know you really will have to dispose of two things before allowing another one into your home, you really think about whether or not you want/ need that one.

From an environmental point of view the damage has largely been done already because of the stuff already in your home. If some of that can have a second life, thereby stopping the production of more stuff, then that's great. But with some of it you might have to shut your eyes and shove it in black bags. The key I think is being much more careful about what you consume in future.

Good luck OP. My aim for 2022 is to get my house decluttered. I think for a small house, when I moved 3 years ago, a year is a good timeframe. Not so short I feel hurried, but not so long I put it off until the last minute.

[quote NancyDrawed]Has anyone mentioned Ziffit yet?

I have a problem throwing out books. I keep meaning to send a box Ziffit (disclaimer I haven't actually used them yet, I get halfway there then get distracted and start on something else!)

Ziffit have an app where you can scan barcodes and they give you a price for the book. Their website says you box them up and they collect the box and pay you once they've chekced them into their system (it's not going to make you loads of money, but may help with the not being wasteful and you can give the money to charity via the site I think)

www.ziffit.com/en-gb/[/quote]
@NancyDrawed
I have used the ziffit app when I had my big book cull a few weeks ago.

I also used a similar app called webuybooks and actually I found webuybooks slightly better. They both work by scanning bar code or entering Isbn as you say. However webuybooks also has lists of specific categories to search when the book doesn't have an Isbn. For example, Folio society books. I had a few of these I wanted to get rid of and in fact just one of my folio books got me to the minimum amount.

That is the other thing. In both apps you needed to get to a minimum offer amount of £5 to go ahead. I suppose its not worth them paying courier charges otherwise. £5 doesn't sound like much but bear in mind they might sometimes be offering as little as 15p for a book so you may need quite a pile to get there.

And of course they will only accept a fraction of books IME. Maybe only 1 in 10 were accepted.

In the end I sent about 100 books to webuybooks. They tell you how many boxes to use and have very specific guidelines about size and weight. Those 100 went in 5 boxes via Hermes pickup from my local pickup. I got about £88.

I also sent about 50 to ziffit in 3 boxes. Dpd collection from the house. I got about £13 or £14 for them.

Satisfying to get something back but it was very time-consuming doing all the scanning and packing. And I still had a huge number of rejects that went to charity shops and even the tip

@Clutterbusting

And I’m done for the day! The awful room is still bloody awful but it’s not quite as awful so that’s something. I am one of those people who wants everything to be done and finished immediately but it’s taken decades to get this way and it will take a long time to get out of it. I will take on the advice given and also doing just one or 2 things a day is better than none so that’s something I’ll also take on board no matter how shitty I feel.

Sounds like you’ve done a brilliant job!

At my local supermarket there is a Salvation Army large metal bin that black sacks of quality clothing can be put into. Over Xmas I took 6 black sacks of mostly working wardrobe with 9 trouser suits, 7 skirt suits and loads of blouses and jackets. Various sizes from 14 to 18. You could do this op. Someone will be glad of it. Magazines can be recycled or if quite new dentist like them. Drive a few sacks to the tip.

Thanks for taking the time to explain ziffit and webuybooks @5foot5

Someone posted a while ago about Give Back Box in the US. I looked it up and we do have the scheme in the UK. You reuse old boxes and ship for free and it goes to charity. Pasting the list below:

What do we accept as donations?
Good used clothing, no defects.
Toys
Books
Vinyl records, CDs, DVDs
Used phones that you don’t need
Small household appliances
New things at your home. And you don’t need them
Jewelry and watches
Sport equipment

What do we not accept?
Fluids
Flammable materials
Broken electronics
Large kitchen equipment (Microwave)
Worn clothes
Personal underwear
Open cosmetics
Old bed linen and towels

givebackbox.org.uk/

Hope this is helpful to someone, I'm going to try it myself.

I’m in a similar boat. We’ve finally got downstairs straight but now two bedrooms are overflowing. I’m about to start on the small one with the aim of that it will be cleared by Easter (just decided on that deadline .) A local charity allows us to book a drop off at their warehouse which is then sorted and distributed to their charity shops, eBay etc. When working on downstairs I booked slots 2-3 weeks in advance to give me a deadline, sometimes I took a carload another time only 1 box but it made me do something. It’s taken 30 years to get to this state it’s not going to be perfect overnight but I am getting better.

@5foot5

Thank you for that - I wasn't aware of webuybooks and will have a look at them next time I get the urge to purge my books

Why not try a car boot sale or FB market?

Car boots round here - people want to pay peanuts for things, youre lucky to cover the 10 quid cost.

I've put toys/ household goods outside in a box with a note to help themselves and it's always been emptied out by 5pm.

Take clothes to the charity big containers that are dotted around, our local parks seem to have them, they can’t refuse anything as you put them in

@Twinkleylight

I've put toys/ household goods outside in a box with a note to help themselves and it's always been emptied out by 5pm.

I've done that too but not everything goes!

‘Decluttering at the speed of life’ is a great book and I’m really getting rid of a lot since reading it. It totally makes sense for me anyway!!

@hivemindneeded I live in an area where they'd take the clothes off your back if you stood still for long enough!

@thenightsky

Even clothing with original tags still on?

Yes. It’s on you if you can’t be bothered to take them into the shop. Go on a Saturday if you work during the week. Put them on recycle, Gumtree Freebies or Olio. There’s no excuse for fly-tipping.