To think that everyone has this much “stuff”

[Mumonthedge]

Im moving next week. It’s me, my husband and my DD1. I have lots of clothes but I don’t like to accumulate lots of stuff. My husband has lots of clothes and lots of “stuff”. Hates throwing anything away.

I have a tiny house at the moment but didn’t think I had THAT much stuff. Please tell me I’m not alone in feeling overwhelmed by the amount of things that you own when moving!

We moved into a house with a transit van and two car loads of stuff. Two kids later we moved out with a 14 ton pantechnicon lorry struggling to make tight turns in the estates narrow roads.

One of the removal men was chatting to me about how he truly believed in minimalism as he was packing up pur kitchen. He wasn't being an arse he just genuinely saw excess stuff as a hindrance. "I mean so much of it is just artefacts". When I unpacked it all at the other end I saw his point.

I have started decluttering. Anything broken or unusable gets chucked straightaway.

If I have too many of anything, eg socks. I keep the newish ones aside, and replace with these when the others get lost/thrown.

Pare down. I am never going to need 6 pairs of skinny jeans, I am down to one of each colour. The rest went to charity or eBay.

Only replace when you are down to the last few of anything, unless it's a bargain or a consumable that you are bulk buying. Yes to sunflower oil on offer, no to gym vests or pyjamas when you have 3 similar already.
If you see a jumper you love, and have 5 at home, think if which one you need to sacrifice. Most of the time, I don't make the purchase. If you have 5 serums, don't buy any more until you have used/chucked/passed on/donated/sold any and you are down to the last one. The beauty hoarders anonymous thread has taught me this but I still slip up, especially with hotel freebies.

Get selling. Once the pennies come rolling in, you'll soon be ready to part with stuff

Chuck the storage with the stuff.

You'll save a fortune and cleaning and tidying will be so much easier.

Moving always reveals the sheer amount of STUFF. Storage is a con and a trick: cupboards and drawers and attics and such just allow you to shove your stuff out of sight and pretend it doesn’t exist. I’m on a ruthless declutter to get rid of 90% of my stuff and it feels wonderful – lots going to Olio and Freecycle and people seem delighted with it. I’m delighted with the space and lack of dusting I gain.

I had stuff that went out of date before we moved!

@Oysterbabe My husband is the same! Even kept a job application for a job he never got “to motivate him”. I think some of his old school work might have to go missing in the move haha

You need to be ruthless before you move! We moved house after 10 years and having two kids and got rid of so much crap. I would've been devastated if we brought it with us.

It’s OK to bring it with you: just don’t unpack it. Straight to the charity shop/tip/Olio/Freecycle. All nicely boxed up to make it easy.

It's truly overwhelming unless you are one of life's true minimalists (and it's basically impossible, or very unfair on the child, to be that minimalist, if you are a parent).

It is possible to run down food and cleaning materials, get rid of worn out and unneeded things to charity, recycling, ebay or the bin, and really make a good dent in it, and to pack well so you aren't paying to move air plus things you don't need to move. IF you have enough time and energy before the move. That's a big IF and there's still a lot left over. 😮 I managed all the above once. The rest of the time, not so much.

Before my OH moved in I went through my whole flat to make room for his stuff.

I was gobsmacked at the amount of shite I had. Some stuff I wasn't even sure how it got into my flat. No memory of buying it or bringing it in.

It's insane how it happens!

Stuff is my nemesis. My enemy. I hate it with a passion.

I can't keep it under control. I dream of going back to my uni days when I truly only had my own items, and not much of anything.

DH is convinced that if something is sold/given away/thrown out then someone will buy an exact replacement. He won't acknowledge that 4 years of doing without an item needing to be stored could be seen as a positive.

We moved into a large house with 3 small children and family was keen for me to just ignore the existence of certain rooms until I needed them. I had underlying stress about the fact that there were boxes of things and stuff. Stuff and things.

Right now the biggest issue is that DH is convinced that everything has value. If we don't want it it should be sold or donated. Half of what we don't want no one else does either. Or not locally. I wish that weren't true - but I've tried give away pages and opp shops. I have listed for sale what should be sellable with no results. And I just want some more clear space so I can enjoy the things I actually like.

I packed the toys our family had outgrown but that I was connected to into plastic containers in the attic. To be truthful, if we only had what is left out and had a toddler it would probably still be enough.

Yes. Stuff is awful and encroaching and yet I very much doubt minimalism is for me. My tendencies towards collections make that impossible.

When my grandma passed my mother inherited an entire cupboard full of alcohol which were presents my grandad had received. He had passed nearly 10 years earlier. That’s a great example of an unwanted gift. I think we just have to accept that there is a point in life where we don’t need anything else. Some homemade gingerbread for example is a great gift if the person likes it and it’s enough.

I got rid of lots of stuff when I moved two years ago, we had lived there over 20 years so had accumulated a lot.

I think I got rid of 8 car loads of stuff to the tip.

Somethings we gave away on top of this.

Now I live in a smaller home, downsized as I divorced. I try to keep on top of stuff because I have no loft and much less space.

A friend of mine has some of my stuff for safe keeping that I dont want to get rid of but have no space for.