Help how do you declutter.......

[Dickorydockwhatthe]

I am fed up of moving junk and clutter from once place to another.
But what do we do with...

Kids work old school books
kids paintings?
all the paperwork from the last ten years in no discernible order
toys that they all want to keep and shit loads of them
clothes everywhere, dont even know what I have and its not all clean
dvdsbooks
things
stuff
bit and pieces like pens, batteries

theres just stuff everywhere how do I get rid of any of it?

we all seem to want all of it
how do we choose?
where do you start
its all a mess

[cheekyfunkymonkey]

You need loud music, several different colour bin bags ( black for bin, white for charity shop etc), timer (to stop you taking trips down memory lane) lots of tea and an 'if in doubt chuck it out' attitude. Good luck

[littleblackdress26]

nothing to add but some good tips here !

[LadyCatherinesshades]

My mother kept school books and artwork etc for us, we flew everytime we visited for years because if we had taken the car she would have filled it with stuff.
Your children probably won't be interested in filling their own lofts with this stuff.
We are back in flight mode since my father passed away as she has caught the decluttering bug. DH has hording tendencies and is too scared to say no to her

[bimbobaggins]

That's a great idea bernard, I wish I'd thought of doing it at the time but now it's too late. I'm so ruthless with everything else too.

[BoffinMum]

Martha Stewart's website has very good sections on how to archive kids' art and so on. One post, but there are lots She suggest keeping the best bits in poster tubes with the ends labelled with their school year, for example

[Leeloo2]

Omg, the Martha Stewart link linked to port!

[Leeloo2]

Argh, porn, not port!

[BernardsarenotalwaysSaints]

Thank you Bimbo but I can't take any credit a friend with 7 dc gave me the tip I like Boffin's link too (it's not porn when i click it).

[BoffinMum]

It's a page with tips for kids' art and a picture of MS with her clothes on. What has your computer been looking at recently?!!

[BoffinMum]

But if this rocks your boat, what can I say?? I do not judge you

[BoffinMum]

I mean, storage is exciting but surely not that exciting?????

[WorkAccount]

I haven't seen the photo suggested yet, if you are keeping something bulky for "memories" then find a photo with it in, or take a photo, print that photo and keep that instead.

[abbsismyhero]

haven't rtfl sorry but i take the photos out of the primary school workbooks and chuck the rest it means i have a record of what they did at school but not the major clutter that comes with it im organising a scrapbook of it