Decluttering Decisions Please!

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I'm a sentimental hoarder and terrible procrastinator. Help me decide whether to keep or chuck:

• cards: engagement, wedding, DC births, subsequent birthdays...
• good quality pre-DC clothes that I aim to slim back into
• gifts (from this Christmas) that I know I will never use, wear or display
• a beautiful pair of Carvella boots, 10+ years old but in good condition (just don't really have the occasion to wear them now)
• DD's nursery art work, a whole folder's worth but from when she was only 1-2
• pretty coffee table books we never look at

Eek that's quite a lot! Any advice gratefully received

oooh waiting for the advice of the experienced declutters on this as I am in the throes of many similar decisions!

Keep cards, wedding stuff

Clothes get rid even if you could wear them would you want too, as they will probably be horribly out of date.

Get rid of gifts you know already you dont want them.

Boots get rid only keep what you will wear.

Keep art work.

Keep books could have value later on.

Cards: keep wedding, birth cards, chuck the rest (scan them first if you're really going to have trouble getting rid of them).

Edit the nursery art folder. Keep perhaps a third of it. Enough to give you the gist of her skills!

I'd sell everything else, or donate it. Unopened gifts might be good for school raffles.

• cards: engagement, wedding, DC births, subsequent birthdays... only keep the ones that feel special to you. throw the rest. Oh and check with dcs re theirs.

• good quality pre-DC clothes that I aim to slim back into...keep, but only if you still like them.

• gifts (from this Christmas) that I know I will never use, wear or display...charity shop.

• a beautiful pair of Carvella boots, 10+ years old but in good condition (just don't really have the occasion to wear them now) not sure!

• DD's nursery art work, a whole folder's worth but from when she was only 1-2...keep a selection, ditch the rest

• pretty coffee table books we never look at...look at them, decide if good, keep or chuck on that basis.

cards: engagement, wedding, DC births, subsequent birthdays...

Edit down to one shoe box full.

• good quality pre-DC clothes that I aim to slim back into

Only if they're style classics.

• gifts (from this Christmas) that I know I will never use, wear or display

Regift, donate, or eBay

• a beautiful pair of Carvella boots, 10+ years old but in good condition (just don't really have the occasion to wear them now)

eBay

• DD's nursery art work, a whole folder's worth but from when she was only 1-2

edit to the best four or five, so there's room for dds later artistic achievements in the same one

• pretty coffee table books we never look at

donate, use as gifts or eBay

Coffee table books - you could see if you could sell any of them on webuybooks.co.uk

I don't like getting rid of books but find it surprisingly easy if I think I might get money for them

Here's how to find good homes for them, which always makes decluttering feel better:

• cards: engagement, wedding, DC births, subsequent birthdays...

Edit down to a small selection, rest into the paper bin. Maybe keep wedding and a few for the births, but birthday cards GO because you will get more.

• good quality pre-DC clothes that I aim to slim back into

If the last baby is more than three, it's not happening. Ebay.

• gifts (from this Christmas) that I know I will never use, wear or display

charity, freecycle or ebay. And implement a no-present pact for next year. If the stuff has no use three weeks after Christmas it wasn't a waste all round.

• a beautiful pair of Carvella boots, 10+ years old but in good condition (just don't really have the occasion to wear them now)

ebay.

• DD's nursery art work, a whole folder's worth but from when she was only 1-2

recycling. She won't care and nor should you after the initial admiration. The nursery gives it to you to show that the kids are constructively occupied, they wouldn't keep it!

• pretty coffee table books we never look at

charity shop or the books site IF they have ISBN numbers, that way you can get a quick valuation.

• cards: engagement, wedding, DC births, subsequent birthdays...

Keep wedding, Birth, and 1st birthday. Keep any from family if you want to, but I'd bin all tbh.

• good quality pre-DC clothes that I aim to slim back into

Ebay

• gifts (from this Christmas) that I know I will never use, wear or display

Ebay/charity shop/regift

• a beautiful pair of Carvella boots, 10+ years old but in good condition (just don't really have the occasion to wear them now)

Ebay.

• DD's nursery art work, a whole folder's worth but from when she was only 1-2

Take photographs or scan each piece, and put in an book/photo album. You could create a photobox book

• pretty coffee table books we never look at

Keep.

I like the idea of a photo book thats great. Steals idea for myself

Thank you for all your thoughts and suggestions! I really think I am holding on to the boots and clothes as they remind me of my pre-DC life, which is ridiculous as I will never be a single, twenty-something party animal again

Have spent a constructive hour while DD is at nursery having a purge. specialsubject you're right, of course, re DD's artworks. If the nursery had given me a picture a day, I would never have kept them. Will weed out a couple of better ones and ditch the rest. She churns out creations constantly!

For the last couple of years I have asked for vouchers to buy clothes, spa treatments etc for my birthday/Christmas but family don't seem to think that's a good present and always buy me thoughtful tat trinkets, especially my lovely MIL.

• cards: engagement, wedding, DC births, subsequent birthdays...

scan and then throw away

• good quality pre-DC clothes that I aim to slim back into

keep for 1 year

• gifts (from this Christmas) that I know I will never use, wear or display

charity shop

• a beautiful pair of Carvella boots, 10+ years old but in good condition (just don't really have the occasion to wear them now)

Charity shop

• DD's nursery art work, a whole folder's worth but from when she was only 1-2

Digital photograph each piece and then throw it away

• pretty coffee table books we never look at

Charity Shop

With the cards , just keep the engagement, weddings and DC birth's ones, scan and then throw away the rest. Also select the art work you would want to keep and again scan and throw away the rest . If it is not possible to regift the Christmas presents, then could you have do a bootfair, where you sell these gifts , the pre DC clothes, boots, books and anything else ?

• cards: engagement, wedding, DC births, subsequent birthdays...

• weed them out, scan others and throw away

• good quality pre-DC clothes that I aim to slim back into

• Look at them objectively. Keep those truly classic items then Ebay the rest. The money raised can go towards new clothes when you have slimmed back down.

• gifts (from this Christmas) that I know I will never use, wear or display

• Ebay or charity shop. You can regift them (but keep a list of who originally gave them to you - to avoid regifting back to them )

• a beautiful pair of Carvella boots, 10+ years old but in good condition (just don't really have the occasion to wear them now)

• Ebay or charity shop - or is there someone amongst your family/friends who may find them useful?

• DD's nursery art work, a whole folder's worth but from when she was only 1-2

• Go through it. Be rational. Pick those really special pieces (maybe one or two pieces per year group) to keep. Could photograph others, or scan suitably sized pieces.

• pretty coffee table books we never look at

• Ebay? Amazon (as a seller)? Charity shop? Present?

Thanks for this post and all the useful (straight-talking) replies! Am trying my best to declutter our house, with a 3 yo DD and 5yo DS, (and all the utter crap that comes with DC) and being sentimental is my downfall too OP! I managed to get 3 bin bags to our local co-operative last week of toys / clothes / unwanted gifts, but have boxes and boxes of cards, 'art' work, baby toys, baby clothes etc. that I'm struggling to let go of! Also, all the pre-DC-me clothes yes, I was slimmer once!!! i've found it a lot easier to get rid of books / CDs / DVDs via music magpie and others - the pain eases greatly on making cash.

DD is fairly ruthless and tells me when she's finished playing with something, as it was a 'baby toy', but DS is totally attached to all his stuff and doesn't want to part with any of it, clothes included. I need to take drastic action now, or the house will become a shrine to DS's childhood . It'll be like the scene from friends when the Gellers garage flooded, all of Ross's stuff was saved and Monica's stuff was wrecked to save the porsche!

Another constructive day, 3 bin bags of clothes for charity, one for the bin and another to try on again in 3 months (DS is only 6 months so going easy on myself and WW going well so far).

I have been ruthless with the cards too. Kept some that remind me of why I married lovely DH and found a guest book all our wedding guests signed, so no need to keep cards too.

Throw away all cards
Give clothes/shoes that you haven't worn for 3 years to charity (recycling bin)
Give unwanted presents to a charity shop
Throw all but one or two pieces of baby artwork away
Keep your coffee table books if you like them!

I have this one: I have a box full of stuff from our wedding
Other folk have their table plans/photos of every guest but we didn't have that.
I dont know why I don't want to get rid of this stuff

I have thrown away the £££ wedding dress box I kept for 10 years -dress now just hanging in wardrobe in a dry cleaning bag thing. I did use the train as a christening robe for DC

• cards: I would recycle/bin

• good quality pre-DC clothes: I would keep

• gifts (from this Christmas) ...: charity shop

• a beautiful pair of Carvella boots: flog on ebay

• pretty coffee table books we never look at: flog/ebay/charity shop