How do I get rid of all my doom boxes?

[coodawoodashooda]

Yesterday I committed to a massive clear out. We simply have too much stuff. I want everything streamlined and simplified with a place for everything. I have doom boxes as part of household administration and in the garage. Any tips please?

Any tips on getting rid of sentimental things?

Take photos

I have a room of doom 😳

I have a house of doom!

I had a Doom Box of cables with no clue what they were all for. Got my tec savy friend to help me figure them all out. I needed 3 out of the mass tangled bundle. No more cable Doom Box. Now I just have to sort out the Doom Boxes that are in every room.

The doom is strong here.
The plan is for everyone e to take a week off this summer and we stay in this house until all this shit has gone. If anyone tries tos kid this week then they're gone too.
As of this summer we are a house of 5 adults yet we are swimming in stuff that goes back to when 3 of them were toddlers. Their Mog books are still on the bookshelves fgs.

Same here. It’s exhausting

Oh thank God I'm not the only one.

So far this year I've bought 2 new sheds to tackle this problem.

So...Now I have a doom house AND 2 doom sheds!

Bugger!

Shame we don't all live in the same area we could have a whole doom street!

I have doom sheds too! Though dh is responsible for buying those. He inherited the doom habit from fil…

I like the idea of a doom street. My neighbours make me feel inadequate.

I've got a whole room of it from my former marital home, I can't face it

I make doom boxes when people are coming and l have to do a blitz clean - l tell myself l'll sort them out and never, ever do. I have doom furniture too! (Glares at random occasional table currently blocking back door ) Preen won't take it because it's not brand new and l can't bear to chuck it ... Aargh! I need help.

I know what you mean. One of my neighbours had cause to walk through the downstairs of my house yesterday, she was very polite in her "I love seeing the different layouts of these houses" whilst not acknowledging the fact she couldn't actually see the layout due to all the stuff!

It will be sorted this year!!! IT WILL!

Oh the people are coming to visit doom boxes. I found one the other day with some unopened post in, the other items in the box were dated 2013!

In my next life I'm going to be a minimalist

Loving the term doom box! I've moved 3 times in the last 15 years and in every house have always had doom boxes, always lying in either the hallway or spare room, getting rotated and hidden out the way whenever we have guests. Mostly full of stuff I no longer need/want but is worth money so I intend to sell it, yet never have time to get round to selling.

We are finally moving to what will be our forever home which I am adamant I will keep nice and tidy and clutter free. It doesn't have a lot of storage space so we literally won't have anywhere to put anything!
Luckily DH is on board and we agree we are not taking anything with us unless it gets used regularly.
Anything we don't use regularly will not be binned or charity shop/given to friends or relatives.
If we find we do need it once we are settled into the new place we will buy again second hand.
I'm sure there won't be anything we miss though.

We don't have too much sentimental stuff, just photos really and they are well organised in one box.

I've read Marie Kondos book (well listened to the audiobook as buying the physical book was just buying more clutter ) and that helped change my mindset quite a lot.

I've had enough of living like this, DH and I both find clutter and mess really overwhelming so I'm not sure how we've let things get to this stage, but we are determined the new house will be a fresh start.
Just got to clear out this house first!

Ruthless declutter, one bag for rubbish, one for charity. Once the charity bag is full, put it in the car and get another one going. Check what time the local charity shop shuts and aim to get as much stuff there today!!
Start in 1 room, in 1 corner and then work clockwise, repeat in each room.

Important paperwork will need a good sort through so aim to do that later or next weekend and make sure you do if.

If stuff doesn't have a place in the house for it to go then do you really need it?

Good luck 👍

I've been working on 1 bin bag a week to the charity shop. It means they don't have too much and it stops me getting overwhelmed.

We also have a useful local Facebook group- which aims to reduce the amount of stuff in landfill. There are people doing exactly the same as you are- they take photo's of their garages, write down what they want to get rid of and people come and take it away.

I've had a bit of a breakthrough with doom. Someone said "what would it be like if you were just less strategic". Strategic is the " well if x happened I might need y and z could be useful when...," type thinking.
I realised that this thinking is what takes up the energy and causes stress and letting go of it ( the thinking) is a relief. Then it is easier to let go of the actual stuff.

How are your photos organised?

Oh sorry @coodawoodashooda whilst I've been wittering on about my doom house I've not really said anything of any help to you. I'll try and rectify that now.

I have found that my head needs to be in the right space to story out these sorts of boxes. If I open one and there's any dithering about shall i keep or throw? where shall i put it? I just close the box again and leave it. When the mood of "that's it i can't stand living with this shit any longer" takes me I try to work through as much stuff as possible before I run out of steam.

It's taking me a while but I am getting there, although it doesn't look like it to outsiders I have managed to get quite a lot of things sorted and homed in the house or removed from the house. I find I'm most active the day before bin day because I know if I regret something gong out it will be to late to go out and retrieve it!

This thread is really helpful. I've started to ask myself, 'Do I want to store this?' That is helping a lot.

I'm going to recommend A Slob Comes Clean as well, especially if you're busy. Any improvement counts as a win and you can make a difference in only 5 minutes. I love the theory of Marie Kondo, but history has shown me I make a bigger mess.
I have an entire garage of doom...boxes untouched for 5+ years...

I have a DOOM DH! I'd happily get rid of most of the contents of our loft, garage and storage unit. The unit is the worst, because it has big hobby things in that he spent a lot on and wants to sell. However, if he'd given it all away 3 years ago we'd be better off in money saved on storage fees than we would by selling it all today! He shares it with in laws and it costs £25 a month, which is £300 a year for things that are now just one big mental load, rather than bringing any joy to anyone.

Drives me mad!

Hi OP,

It won't let me quote your post where you asked about the photo storage, but I have one of these (although I'm sure I didn't pay that much, got mine from eBay)
So I have each little box organised by my childhood, baby photos of DS, holidays etc. I went through them ruthlessly before organising, getting rid of any random landscape or concert photos that actually I don't care about as they have no real meaning. I've only filed about 1/2 the boxes. These are my only old physical print outs, guess any photos taken in the last 10 years are almost all digital and uploaded somewhere. But I do love a good leaf through actual photos