Long and ranty - apologies in advance!!
Every year, I get rid of a load of junk, several tip runs etc. I also do car boots quite often, aand donate to charity shops and I'm always getting rid of stuff, or at least I think I am. If you came into my house you would think it neat and tidy and uncluttered because that's how it looks.
However, I'm thinking of redecorating the whole house this year, starting with my bedroom, so I was sitting here on my bed, looking around thinking of colours and where I could move furniture etc, and I noticed my bedside cabinet could do with a paint job, so I absent-mindedly leaned over and started to have a poke around in it. 
I then moved onto a jewellery box, and one drawer of my dressing table and now, in just a few minutes ... I've got a mountain of useless shit on the floor to throw out.
Bedside cabinet produced a moth eaten puppy dog soft toy bought for me by my first boyfriend decades ago which I've carted around for years (no idea why, sentimental value I suppose). A large hard back Collins English Dictionary with torn cover with 'to Fontella with love' written on the flap, bought for me
pre-internet by another boyfriend. A load of paperbacks and other books that I will never read, even some newspaper cuttings that I am completely bemused as to why I cut out in the first place and reading them now, gives no clue?! The jewellery box wielded up (some broken) earrings, beads and bangles, old watches and all sorts, some of them nice admittedly, but things I haven't worn in years and am never likely to. The drawer has produced several make up bags (some used some not) a couple of purses, plus soaps. lotions and potions going back years, that I will never use either.
How do we accumulate all this stuff? Why do we hang onto it for so long? Just because it's hidden from view in drawers and cupboards it's still useless clutter that we don't need and now I've started, I just want to get rid of the whole fucking lot!!
Just sitting here thinking about it, I feel hemmed in, surrounded by it - and it's the most horrible feeling. Even the airing cupboard is full of (neatly folded admittedly) piles of duvet covers and pillow cases and blankets and throws and dozens of towels, lots of which I've had for years and probably use about 10% of. It all looks very organised and tidy when you open the door, but the fact is, the same bedding gets washed and re-used while 9/10ths of the pile sits there untouched. Likewise the towels.
So why have I got enough bedding and towels for an army dormitory? Why? Why do I keep all this shit? I've got drawers and book cases and CD racks, and bathroom cabinets and cupboards in various rooms that I know are full of more things I never use, plus stuff in the loft that never sees the light of day from one year to the next.
I can see now that my previous decluttering has always been cosmetic, just skimming the surface, and that hidden away in my 'neat and tidy' house/life, is a whole load of crap that does nothing other than fill space. I want to order a skip and just hurl the whole lot in.
I want to get rid of it all, even the 'sentimental' stuff. It's just all shit, that when I die (as we all must some day) my kids are going to have to go through it all. I used to volunteer in a charity shop and people were always coming in with bin bags and boxes of stuff when a parent or relative had passed away - whole CD collections, pots, pans, ornaments, clothes - the whole paraphernalia of someone's life.
I want it all gone, the whole bloody lot of it, and in its place - just empty space and neatness and knowing my dressing table and airing cupboard and bathroom cabinet only have things in them I actually use, not a whole load of other shit that just lurks there doing nothing. I don't know what has brought this on, or why I feel like it, but I want to do it, so bad.
Has anyone else felt like this and if so, did you do it - a really, ruthless clear out of even sentimental and nostalgic items that you've kept for years?