To ask for your top decluttering strategies

[Clearoutthecrap]

My OH and I are disappearing under huge piles of clutter but we have finally agreed that we are going to hire skip(s) and be ruthless about getting rid of surplus stuff.
He prefers to keep all manner of rubbish just in case it could possible be useful at some stage in the future whereas I get depressed living in such chaos so we definitely need to try to meet somewhere in the middle.
The only potential strategy I have atm is to separate into 4 categories of keep, chuck, donate and sell.
Please can you share any tips or strategies which have helped you move from clutter and chaos to order and calm.

Just have one pile for keep and one for chuck. Hoarding is an illness so don't make life harder by worrying about being green etc.

I like the Kondo method - category by category and get rid of everything that doesn’t “spark joy”. Sometimes the sparking joy is practical eg it’s your only waterproof coat or it’s the only thing you could wear to an interview rather than you actually feeling joy. Don’t keep things that are “perfectly good” if they are duplicates, you don’t need them or don’t like them.

What’s really helped me is the realisation that selling stuff is a gigantic pita. The photos, the listings, the stupid questions, the people at you house, the postage, the people moaning afterwards that their parcel didn’t arrive or it’s not as described etc - if it’s worth over 3 hours pay then go for it but don’t waste your time listing £2 jumpers and 80p books - charity shop (that week) or bin.

Stop and think about why you have the items - for example, today I was at Mums, she keeps all sorts of “useful” things, including 4 torches. 2 are pocket sized, 2 are huge industrial things. Only one had batteries in it. She admitted she hasn’t used a torch for at least 30 years, but remembers the regular power cuts in the 70s, and also that immortal line “but there’s nothing wrong with them?!”.
She now has one torch, with working batteries, and the rest have gone. It wasn’t until it was thought through logically that she could see how unnecessary they all were.

Can you have boundaries around some areas, like most rooms in your main home, and agree that clutter can't be there, in return for accepting the existence of the storage units? I have heard of people managing like that while still working on reducing the other clutter.

Anglo collections online come and pick your charity shop bags up from outside your house

Another vote for Dana K White. Start with her book/audiobook Decluttering at the Speed of Life for the key principles. Her podcast a Slob Comes Clean is really helpful too, but it's better if you know the core principles.

I used to struggle with this massively and her methods have genuinely changed my life. The genius of if is that she hates cleaning and organising, so her methods work for people who grel the same way. Unlike the methods written by people who love this stuff and find it easy which are unsustainable for those of us whose brains don't work that way.

Pick a time period such as 2 years. If you haven’t needed it in that time, get rid. Bin, donate, sell, keep piles or boxes are a good idea.
Also the category idea as once you get all of a type together I.e. toiletries you realise what you actually have

@Clearoutthecrap I really feel for you. It must be so hard when dh isn't going to budge. And sounds like he's getting worse?

@topcat2014 , It's a condition and there are degrees. Calling an illness is negative IMO because it seems to midicalise it.

Just binning stuff doesn't really work, as it creates a space for the hoarder to bring in more clutter.

Why you are hoarding, and why you are decluttering need to be addressed

Sort into categories of what you’ve got - all the tools, all the clothes etc. That makes it a lot easier to see why you really don’t need to keep all 47 identical screwdrivers just in case.

if it's something I have t used in a year, it goes. Apart from paperwork. I keep that separate.

The Marie Kondo 'spark joy' philosophy may be a bit last decade but it works for me. Instinctively you just know on some level whether or not you want to keep something, but so often you rationalise keeping something you really should throw out. It's got sentimental value, you paid a lot of money for it, you 'might need it some day' etc. But with 'Konmari' you just ask if it sparks joy and if the answer is 'no', then you thank the item for its service and get rid, with no guilt!

My husband used to keep all sorts of cables that he thought might come in useful one day. I managed to get him to get rid of them by promising that if he ever needed a need the same as one we had chucked, I would pay for the replacement myself. We chucked a black sack full of old leads and I think in about 5 years, I had to buy one lead. well worth it to get rid of them all.

I take a very gradual but ongoing approach. So most weeks I take a bag down to the charity shops on my lunch break. I only take clothes or toys in good condition, clothes with holes or stains I put in my recycling bin as our council takes them.

I take a very gradual but ongoing approach. So most weeks I take a bag down to the charity shops on my lunch break. I only take clothes or toys in good condition, clothes with holes or stains I put in my recycling bin as our council takes them.

I am always popping up on declutterring threads to mention Dana K White. The slob comes clean book always makes me laugh when I go back and read it again. She has the brilliant container concept ie identify a container for something shelf, drawer, cupboard and you can only keep whatever of that category fits in the designated home. She also talks about organisation - if I wanted this thing where would I look for it? So that’s where it should be kept.

Sounds like your husband is inching nearer to or is now actually hoarding. Might be very importance to say these are the containers for your things no more space so choose what stays. Would he respond positively to setting aside a morning every couple of weeks to repair time something like it is Saturday morning let’s pick one or two things to examine and fix. If they can’t be fixed then time to let them go, perhaps he could list them for parts only on eBay. The labour involved in photographing, writing the listing, working out how much postage needs to cost as well as looking at sold prices might make him think. It might even open him to the possibility of small electrical item recycling at your local tip.

If it doesn't work or fit: bin/ donate/ sell

If you don't like it/ doesn't fit with your look/ decor: donate/ sell

Duplicates: Keep only the best, be brutal

If you've never used it, can it be replaced easily and cheaply when you do need it? Get rid.

I am a bit of a hoarder and guilty of overpurchasing stuff when discounted but I'm also minimalist at heart and will clear out stuff I don't use/ need.

I keep a bin bag in my wardrobe and the second I don't love something, it goes straight in.

Other stuff, I go through cupboards and drawers and if I decide to keep something, it gets a (mentally noted) yellow warning card which is to be used before the next declutter, if not used then red card and out the door it goes.

I did this to my house earlier this year and it took me about 4 weeks of doing it 4 days a week. It was intense. Don’t underestimate the time it will take you.

I opted for tip runs and charity shop drop offs/collections rather than a skip, but a skip would have been easier for sure.

There is something called the 20:20 rule which is that if it would take you less than 20 minutes to buy/order a replacement and it would cost you less than £20 it’s ok to let go of it.

immerse yourself in decluttering content - Decluttering at the Speed of Life is great and I watched a lot of Sort Your Life Out!

I divided my house up into a room/area per day, plus a day for toys and a day for clothes.

Things I bought which helped:
Matalan velvet clothes hangers for my clothes so the wardrobe looks lovely and organised
Glass jars for things like washing tablets so I can see when I’m running low and don’t have loads of half empty packets everywhere
A battery organiser (my favourite thing ever)
A label maker!! Game changer

it’s hard work but so satisfying. You can do it!

If I haven't used it in 6 months it gets thrown away