I need to have a clear out and it's going in the bin.

[FindingMeno]

I have stuff that's been in storage for years trying to find an ethical way to deal with it.
Lack of transport and time has meant its still there and weighing heavy.
AIBU to bin it, get rid of the burden, and commit to not accumulating again, and being a more conscious consumer going forward?

@SomebodysMum jumble sale ( cancelled twice because of covid). No transport to take to a charity shop and lack of space to gather it to await a collection. Tried looking into selling on line but not very computer literate. Not somewhere I can put outside free to anyone.
Reaching dead ends, but it's a weight round my neck

Get in touch with British heart foundation, they collect furniture for free.

Contact your local domestic or homeless refuge if they want any of the household goods. Often when clients are rehoused, there's not much money for kitting out a new home.

My sil donated all her gran's household goods to a local refuge, nothing was wasted and it went to a good cause. I thought it was a lovely way to honour her gran.

www.bhf.org.uk/shop/donating-goods/book-furniture-collection-near-me

Just get rid. Free your mind. Promise to do better.

[quote FindingMeno]@SomebodysMum jumble sale ( cancelled twice because of covid). No transport to take to a charity shop and lack of space to gather it to await a collection. Tried looking into selling on line but not very computer literate. Not somewhere I can put outside free to anyone.
Reaching dead ends, but it's a weight round my neck[/quote]
If I was you I would try one more thing, and if this doesn’t work give yourself permission to dump it -

If you can, take a photo of the room or whatever that it’s in and post on freecycle and gumtree with the words ‘free assorted stuff. Must take all, happy for whoever collects to sell anything for their own profit’.

I would give it 2 weeks to see if you get any takers and if not I’d then dump it.

That’s just what I’d do personally. I’m trying t to have a clear out of the house and it is laborious getting rid of everything but I have more means to do so than you do. I do feel though that the more effort things are to get rid of, the less likely I am to accumulate stuff again.

Good luck!

@bofski14

You could spend the mental effort of taking pictures, uploading them, sorting them for charity and many people here will tell you to do just that and not be wasteful. But IMHO your mental health comes first. If it's bothering you, bag it up and bin it. Start afresh and don't feel guilty. Home is the most important place in the world and your mental health takes first place.

OP hasn’t says anything about having mental health problems though, has she?

I did just that recently. Really random stuff, from old tools and boxes of screws/stuff used for doing up an old house to clothes, old curtain poles, decorating stuff, 10 year old water pistols/nerf guns etc.

Clothes to the clothes bank and everything else in the appropriate container at the dump.

Worked for me, I am time poor and don't want randoms coming to my home for 'stuff'. I am not on Facebook, work full time as a single parent with uni obligations and whatever I do needs to be minimal effort for me.

Get it out. That is the priority.

I don't have any major mh problems, but this is a stressful background noise.
I'm pretty minimalist in the home but this stuff is the elephant in the room.
I'm also very aware that we don't know what life might throw at us, and I want to get shot while I'm able.

Bin it.
The longer it’s in your possession the more likely you are to put it back and keep it.
Put it in the bin and cover it with something disgusting.

I got the impression all the stuff is in one place and based my advice on that. Sorry if I’ve misunderstood

@GoodnightGrandma

Bin it. The longer it’s in your possession the more likely you are to put it back and keep it. Put it in the bin and cover it with something disgusting.

Fabulous advice ....

Put it in the bin and cover it with something disgusting

Could you sort out stuff that could go to charity and book a taxi and take it. With a stop at the clothes bank on the way?

If the stuff’s at a storage facility, will there even be a bin there. Will you not have to take it home to put in your own bin? Or if it’s large items, you will need transport to take to the tip. If you’re time poor, not looking to sell, then you need house, clearance, auction room or a charity that will come and take the lot,

Bin it. It’s going to end up there eventually. You are just putting an extra step in

If it is at a storage facility, ask them if they can get rid of it for you. They might have good contacts for house clearance people.

Just do it, OP, bin it and free your mind. It's not worth the guilt. The world has too much stuff (including many poor people. Many council houses have their front garden overflowing with cheap tat they no longer need. Developing countries are buried in unprocessed "recycling")

Overproduction and overconsumption is not your doing. It's the direct consequence of worldwide capitalism. You didn't event that system. You're just one of its victim. Bin that mess and move on.

I recently binned all my clutter . Trying to even give stuff away is a pain as people rarely turn up

OP, if you can afford a skip, ditch everything out into a skip. Skips get sorted and anything that can be recycled is sent off for recycling so that would assuage some of your guilt.

If you can't afford a skip and this clutter is like an albatross round your neck, then get rid. Allow yourself this one off purge and free yourself from the clutter, but you absolutely must commit to bringing less into the home or doing a small monthly purge where you pick an area and assess whether you need everything in that area (eg for Feb look at your bookshelf and see if there is anything to send to charity shops, in March look in your kitchen and is there food that's in date that you won't use so you could donate to food bank before it goes out of date etc).

I'm in the process of doing little and often charity shop trips and it's really working very well!

I know you want to be ethical, but sometimes releasing yourself from the burden is more ethical.

Can you book a skip? A small one will be around £150. I know it's a lot of money but it's the only way to get rid of a lot of things fast. Knowing you have spent £££ on a skip and it's your only chance to get rid of things should spur you on. Be ruthless, ask friends to help, they'll be less sentimental. The skip company sort through the waste after collection so some should be recycled.

You could offer as much as you can on Facebook Marketplace etc for free, and if it's not gone by the time your skip comes, it goes in the skip. Offer job lot items, bags of clothes suitable for car boots, home ware items. Anything you think is good quality and will be worth something you could do a few small carrier bags to take to the charity shop.

That should say:

I know you want to be ethical, but sometimes releasing yourself from the burden is more more important than being ethical.

Oh goodness me, even my correction needs correcting!

Just stick a post on Facebook saying free to anyone who can collect, i expect within an hour you'll have someone round who would gladly take the whole lot for free. Just make sure you specify they must take everything. But yanbu to just get rid of it all without trying to get money for it or whatever. Just please don't chuck it, it would be incredibly wasteful.

Thank you, you lovely bunch for your great suggestions and lack of judgement.
I'm going to try to be mindful and ethical even if only small amounts go that route, and set myself a time limit of 3 months for it to be gone, one way or another.

Good plan OP.

I have given away quite a lot of stuff via olio and people do turn up. If they don't you report them to the app and they get kicked out.