How much 'not sure what it's for anymore but it might come in useful one day" stuff do you have in your house?

[choccychomp]

dp's most guilty of this but I'm starting to do it to. We have a big box of adapters/cables, some of which look decades old, little bits of wood/plastic/metal that might be off toys or cupboards, bits of toys that might be put back together one day (but probably won't, especially with Christmas coming up). dp also has lots of 'memorabilia' - old train tickets, books that are out of date so are apparently interesting because of this, old photos and family documents that should be filed away but get left lying around and then get lost/damaged which leads to blaming and arguments. And maps, lots of maps from 10yrs+ ago, surely eventually they become so out of date they're not helpful anymore?

Do other people have this or do you manage to throw away or find good storage for things? Sometimes I go to people's houses and they have nothing in their living rooms apart from furniture and tv/stereo. So why do we have drawers full of things?

We did. And a loft full of clutter. Then we moved and had a major throw out. It was wonderful, I wish we'd done it years ago. I've promised myself never to get clogged up with crap again.

Just chuck it all out and enjoy the space.

I found it helpful to offer this stuff on freecycle so at least someone makes use of it. Got rid of umpteen bicycle brackets for attaching lights and the lights/bits of lights that went with them and the brackets for attaching locks to bike frames (I have never wanted to attach a lock). It was great to find someone grateful for the whole lot.

Im a bit of a hoarder of 'things that I might need one day'

I am working on it.

I am about to have declutter weekend with DH. Shame it won't include him. I am a terrible hoarder of 'things that may come in handy' but have learnt to throw out anything that has been left untouched for over two years. Unfortunately this has not rubbed off on DH who considers clutter to be other people's stuff not his. He still has shirts dating back to the 80s which he is saving for our DS when he grows up. I have pointed out that he wouldn't have been seen dead in his own DFs old clothes when he was in his 20s so why does he think his son will be any different.
I have a cunning plan I move the oldest items to a second wardrobe then to a suitcase and then to the charity shop. This takes some time but so far he has not noticed.

Get rid of and enjoy you home, if you really, really need something then you can always get it again but I bet most of it you won't miss. I have literally got rid of bin bags and bin bags full of 'stuff' I can barely remember what's was in them. Ten you just need to maintain it, I keep I carrier bag with me when I'm vacuuming so I can pick up stray bits that need to be recycled/got rid off. By doing this once a week, I'll never have to do a 'big' declutter again.

'Then' not 'ten'!

What do you do with sentimenal things like wedding cards, baby clothes etc ?

Ive been thinking of getting a skip and spending the next half term week doing the whole house.

Skips are so expensive though! does anyone know, is the cost of a skip for the time you have it, or for the times it's emptied? so if I had it for a week, but after two days it needed emptying, would I pay more?

Thanks

I am fully intending to do a massive purge.

I did one 'shit-drawer' yesterday, and will sort the cupboards and the DC's rooms over the next few weeks, ready to accumulate more stuff on the 25th!

I daren't go in the loft though

I just can't get rid of the baby clothes until I know I won't have a 3rd.

Amber have you googled 'hippo' bags, might be cheaper.
Just remembered, 'magpie' website take old CDs and DVds and will give you money, you just pack them up and send free p&p I think.

BooBoo, I didn't keep old wedding cards, baby clothes, I wanted the space more. I've heard some people take photos of special items as a way of remembering.

There is a nice lady on FB who makes keepsake toys out of baby clothes. They are beautiful :) She's stopped taking orders now though :(

www.musicmagpie.co.uk/

Here's that magpie link incase anyone is interested.

Loft full of crap. i have no idea why I need the DS's first shoes etc but they are up there somewhere. Along with my Duran Duran memorabilia. LPs though we don't own a record player etc.....

The house itself is clutter free apart from the cupboard downstairs full of arty craft stuff for the stupid school projects.

Garage does actually house my car

I must admit, even with two young DC we have quite minimalist Christmas's here now, I didn't see the point of the whole getting rid of stuff, buying more new stuff cycle, seems so wasteful and sad

Thanks Tryingtobuyahouse

Just googled Hippobags, that looks good!

Just did a massive purge after selling our place in Spain. We moved back a year ago but had left a virtual home full of stuff there as we were going back & forth regularly. New owner having almost all the furniture we left.

We had also left a loft load of stuff which we couldn't face sorting before the sale. My DH won't part with his vinyl even though we haven't had a deck for about 20 years

We gave my best friend 2 car loads of stuff, another car load to another friend and 2 local charities benefitted from about 30 bags of toys (our son is 20!), clothes,bedding and books. We are still having 4 cubic metres shipped and that's in addition to all the stuff we brought back when we moved to the UK last year. DH going up to board the loft before it arrives!

We emigrated and hired a ten foot skip.

Was extremely liberating.

The new house here has a storage room which seems to be filling up, it's far too easy to put stuff on an empty shelf.