What do you keep in your loft?

[practicallyperfectinmyway]

I've been trying to have a declutter / clear out the last few days and realise I'm a bit of a bag lady (as my Dsis calls me!). I keep misc "useful" things and in a small house, it's getting out if hand now.

My loft is nigh on bulging with -

Seasonal clothes, shoes, bags
Excess towels and bedding
Kids toys, artwork and school books (from primary)
Sports clothes from an old hobby
Boxes of photos, DVDs, vhs tapes and CDs
Old electrical equipment, portable tv.

Plus the usual Christmas decorations, suitcases, golf clubs.

I did (miraculously) retrieve my old vinyl from loft for my DD last month which she's v pleased with - which makes me happy that I kept it for these intervening 30 years!

Any tips for streamlining my loft / life? Need to get on top of this soon!

I've recently decluttered mine and I love going up there now!
I got rid of old hobby equipment, the last of my old childhood toys, all my old vhs tapes, which was a tough one, but realistically would never get them transferred to discs or want to watch them again.

I keep 1 box of clothes for younger sibling, sleeping bags, suitcases, loads of Christmas, Easter, Halloween decorations, a few baby keepsakes, but decluttered most of them, school stuff, but periodically declutter school stuff as well so each child has just one box full, toys they've outgrown but I don't want to get rid of yet, and my old music/vinyls collection.
Everything is stored in clear plastic boxes and it is so much easier to go up there and get something.
I don't have excess towels or bedding. We have 2 sets per person and that is enough.

My daughters

Rats, rat poison, and a lot of rat corpses.
No idea how the little fuckers keep getting in, but every few months there's a week of scuffling, the sound of poison blocks moving round the loft, then it all goes quiet again.
I daren't look up there now.

Just Christmas things for us and the odd box of childhood bits. I get rid of anything we won’t use again and can be a big ruthless. My mum is trying to give me my childhood schoolwork and I’m resisting, she obviously wants to clear space but bar a few bits it’s not got that much meaning to me. It would literally just sit in the loft forever more.

Easier said than done though if you have lots of things there already. I kept favourite dvds and got rid of the rest on music magpie.

My wedding dress, Christmas decks and all of the hand me down clothes that are destined for DS2.
Everything is boxed and bagged to guard against fibres from the loft insulation. It makes me itch to think of people just dragging down boxes of stuff from the loft which haven’t been properly covered/stored.

Mostly spiders...

Our stuff: some boxes of Christmas decorations, box of old cd/DVD’s, an electric fan, spare folding chair, a box of old school stuff, old photos etc. Not much really.

The rest of the loft is full of other peoples stuff (we rent this house) presumably left by former owners. I had a good look when we moved in a few months ago. There’s a boxed antique typewriter, a big box of LP’s from the 80’s, a big rotting leather hold-all full of old door locks and handles, an old VHS player, an old sky box, a brand new unboxed printer which still has the receipt taped to the box - 1996. Lots of tiles. And a box full of wedding congratulation cards, wedding cuff links and other wedding bits and bobs. Guess those people got divorced.

The bodies.....

Lol it's a conversion into our bedroom.

Nothing. We've only just moved to a new house and the loft too scary high up for us to go into

Absolutely nothing apart from 2 wasp nests

Christmas decorations, spare wallpaper and carpet pieces, some of DSs stuff as he lives in shared rented accommodation.

We used to keep much more up there but since DS has left home there is now more space in the bedrooms for stuff.

Ours is far too full and I'm desperate to get up there for a sort through, but there is always something else more pressing to do. I would like to aim to go through one bag or box a week this would still take all of 2018 and then some to do.

We have Xmas decs, other seasonal stuff like fans, camping gear, skiing/snowboarding gear, DD1's clothes waiting to be handed down to DD2, a load of my old toys and books to hand down to the DCs as they are old enough, wrapping papers, and huge packets of loo roll from Costco. All of which I am happy to be stored up there.
There is also a ton of 'accumulated life stuff' from both DH and I that we need to clear or at least go through, and loads of my late DMs things which I had to clear from her house quickly without the time to sift through properly. It all had to just be bagged/boxed, brought back then stacked in the loft, and with 2 small DCs I've not had the time or headspace to start it

Nothing. It is blissfully empty.

We have a fair bit of stuff that needs de-cluttering but I can't physically get up there anymore. DH put down poison for mice hopefully just mice and we have bats. I have considered getting someone ( lad was going to has major injury) to floor some more and build a room up there to keep bats from shitting on stuff and hopefully keep mice out.
Bet there are clothes from the 80s &90s up there. Might be the year that we DO it. A bit out of site out of mind and the effort required to do it.Christmas decks are in Really Useful boxes which are great. Going to reorganise those before putting back. Maybe I should ask DH to bring down one a month until all done probably by next Christmas. Sounds like a plan! OP you have inspired me!

I've bagged up all the Christmas decorations this eve. Before they go back on the loft, I'm going to get a few boxes of CDs, VHS tapes & Dvds down in the morning to have a sift through.

My loft hasn't much headroom with lots of low beams and I keep banging my head up there!

This year is the year of a loft declutter as well !

I'm jealous of you all, I have a pretty big loft but only soggy insulation in it! Need a new roof desperately and I can barely get my head in the loft after an electrician fell through the hatch, broke it, and replaced it with the tiniest hatch ever...

Just Christmas and Hallowen decorations, suitcases, camping equipment and ski kit. Ds1's outgrown clothes sit on a shelf in Ds2's wardrobe

We have a 26 foot long loft, easily accessible via a door in our bathroom. You can just imagine how much of a dumping ground it is. I'm a bit of a minimalist in the rest of the house, but it all goes pear-shaped beyond that door.

We have big IKEA shelves near the door, with things we use fairly often - suitcases/bags, spare bedding and sleeping bags, wrapping paper and cards, presents, spare looroll/washing powder, lightbulbs/batteries, the hoover.

Then further back there are out-of-season clothes (including a six-foot rail), furniture, household/personal bits and bobs we don't need right now, dressing up clothes, Christmas decorations, stuff ready to eBay and a MASSIVE pile ready for the next car boot sale.

It's out of control!

Shelves sounds very organised ours is dumped in suitcases and boxes. I soon realised that clear boxes are better you don't have to open them all to find what you are looking for although I did have red / green ones for Christmas decs!

Wilko do a roll of large bin liner size of see through plastic bags which are very useful for storage in the loft

www.wilko.com/bin-bags+bin-liners/wilko-drawstring-storage-bag-clear-10pk/invt/0400393