We just spent 8 days holiday (!?!) clearing out an already converted loft that had turned into rammed dumping ground and a falling down shed. It took 6/7 car loads to charity shops and two to the tip. First day up in the loft I was totally overwhelmed and couldn’t work out where to start. I can’t do the whole kondo does it bring joy thing unless I’m dealing with genuinely sentimental items. But I love her notion of take one type of thing. So don’t sort all clothes, concentrate on just socks for eg. If you’re in the mood to keep going, then fine, if not, we’ll youve done your socks. I had an amazing time doing Jam jars once, collected them from all over the house, shed, and made an incredible amount of cupboard space. So for the big loft attempt, I picked the most accessible box in loft and it was dvd’s And vids. Gave myself some criteria, we never use these we use amazon and Netflix etc, and only kept sentimental or hard to find arty movies. Then I did cds, then cassettes etc etc. It became easier and easier to make decisions about what to keep or Chuck and why. I got unbelievably good at it. Which is amazing as am totally indecisive and a massive procrastinator. Also terribly guilty of Rainey day, might use that... sometime. Went through bric-à -brac, fabric, bed linens etc etc. Doing it together helped too as you could sort a box and say I’m happy to chuck/keep those nd then the other one would say really, why? Left ds baby stuff and toys TIL the end as knew it would be emotional but boxed lots of his up in the end. Dh must have ditched about 800 books (shame emoji) some of which were still boxed up from three moves ago, 17 years ago (more shamed emoji).
My house is much much tidier - the job now is to keep it that way! But it’s the mental relief that’s incredible, I feel like I can tackle smaller jobs now as I’m not so overwhelmed.
So I’d agree to always have a charity bag on the go and ditch it often. Don’t wait for it to be full. Channel Flylady, Make a decision on one thing when it’s in your hand, or when you look at it. don’t overwhelm yourself by making it a massive job, five mins decluttering is five more than none. If you’re getting dressed and find yourself saying no, not that top today, it’s not as comfy as x, or I don’t like enough to be arsed to iron it, in the bag it goes. If you don’t regret it in a week’s time the bag goes to the charity shop. And if you can take the time, doing it for a week in a concentrated styleeee is just earthshatteringly liberating mentally.