De cluttering - help!

[soupyspoon]

I live with a hoarder and its very difficult to throw things away. I have some hoarding tendencies, usually because I like to go back to things (clothes/shoes/bags usually) later, some years later and re discover things

Sods law every time Ive got rid of things, a few months later I'll find out I wanted it or need it, then need to rebuy

But I would like to make a start on books, DVDS and CDs

I dont know where to start

The charity shops dont seem to take stuff, we have hundreds of these things.

I know that if I say Im going to sell them, they'll sit there for years and years more, I dont have the head space to do all that.

Apart from the car we dont even have CD players in the house now

But I also still feel grieved about a record collection that got lost in a house move aobut 20 years ago, Im still upset about how many original 60s LPs and rare 12 inches I lost, but then I dont have record player either so dont know the relevance of that.

Where do you start with this sort of thing, particularly with someone who is going to argue about every little thing

We have tons and tons of ordnance survey maps, and the 'Lonely Planet' and 'Rough Guide' books to nearly virtually every country in the world. All way out of date now of course

Well done OP. Sounds like you're doing great despite an awkward partner in the house! You've inspired me and I've just started doing a WOB pile.... an easy £20 so far so thank you v much!

One thing I heard that helps me was from Marie Kondo I think (too extreme for me but this bit helped) ...when you are struggling to get rid of something, hold it and thank it for its 'service', and that you have finished with it now but you are grateful for the good times it provided. Or something along those lines!! I'm sure it was worded better than that. Sounds a bit bit woo but I do find it works for me.

We just did a MAJOR de-clutter this Christmas. I did one room at a time. I was a bit ruthless - I’d just pick out everything I needed in the room and simply bag up everything else to GO. What seemed good to waste went in a donation bag. Everything else in black bin bags so I don’t even see them again. DH would quickly deal with the throw/don’t know bags and get rid of them.

focussing on what I want rather than don’t want made it much easier easier to rid myself of clutter.

With books unless they are signed / first additions you get very little if you try to sell .
I looked at online selling places for books that you scan the barcode and,it gives you a price , they do reject quite a few and you get pennies for the rest of maybe 30/60 p if it's published within a year or two . I wasn't prepared to do all that for such a small amount .
Yes you are correct about charity shops not always wanting them .
What I did was call into my local second-hand book shop and offer my boxes to him for free . That way I got rid of them and hopefully he will make some money from them .

I do that instinctively anyway, I think 'you've done your job and it was a good job and now its time to say goodbye'

So far I did the CDs, have put together a small bag of some scarves, a handbag, some jewellery

I have shoes to put in another bag

Tthis weekend I want to make a start on the plastic pot cupboard

Then move on to the books, not sure if I can do that all this weekend

Im not sure how to navigate the books because I wont be able to put them in one box, so they'll need to be different 'baskets' on that WOB site. Then when I get to the shop to drop the box off, Im going to get confused about what box is for what email bar code, which means its going to be slow going

And two drawers

So back to this to say that its a bit more faff than I thought in terms of selling the books

I have 3 bags for life size piles of books which I scanned this morning and they are already 'traded' with their respective order numbers

But then Ive realised you have to get a certain size box and Im going to have to buy boxes as we didnt have any hanging around, looking online the boxes are quite pricey, I didnt realise they would be so much and I also need packing tape.

You cant click and collecrt them from the Range you have to order online so my hope of getting them out of the house today is scuppered and thats going to make me feel despondant.

Then the books that I couldnt sell, I tried to take them to the book bank and its full up so the only other alternative was the paper and card recycling so they went in there. Such a waste. Honestly you just cant give this stuff away.

I have more shelving to go through today but now Im going to end up with bags and bags of books sitting around until I can box them up

I sorted out all the children’s’ collections and donated to the local library - they were so grateful…
They didn’t want any other category though

Honestly the ‘you can’t give this stuff away’ is exactly what strengthened my resolve to see through my declutter and be far, far more mindful of what I buy in the future. Everyone has too much stuff. No one wants anyone’s old stuff, because they have enough of their own stuff. There’s too much stuff on the planet.

Im now in a faff with the books

I have 6 separate trades of books as I was keeping each trade enough to put in one box each

On the final box for some reason, it only came up as a collection option with DPD. I didnt want a collection as I work full time, we're not here in the day so the thing will never be collected

Ive picked a date where I might be able to work from home but its never guaranteed so Im anxious about that now

But now I have 5 other heavy boxes to take to the local shop, when if I'd known that Im forced to get them collected by DPD, I would have chosen that option for all those as well to try to justify being at home if I had more to collect. Now I find I cannot change the collection/drop off options on the first set of boxes, theres no method to do that, and the 'live chat' is with a bot so am getting no where

Im pretty pissed off. All this work today and its very awkward.

And I still dont have my boxes

And I cant log in on the laptop because I have no password. The app on the phone doesnt have a password on it on the account section. On my laptop it wont let me 'change password' because it doesnt recognise my email address.

It wont let me change my password on the app on the phone because there is no original password.

In that case, abort the book plan and just pass to charity shop. Today. Don’t let this derail progress

Ive ordered a load of boxes to pack the books in and I cant get to the charity shops until weekends in any case.

I was an earlier poster @soupyspoon
how’s it going? If those books are still cluttering up your house, you need to dump them once and for all!

The books in the boxes I had were sent in the end, even with the stupid DPD faff

I have a couple of more shelves to do tomorrow

The tupperware cupboard has been de cluttered

However a problem occurred the other day, I was looking for some small glass containers, I knew I had 8 of them but couldnt find any. Then I realised I had a clear out last year and got rid of half of them, so Ive only got 4 but have given them out to people with things in them, not yet returned and in fact I cant account for one of them so now I think I only have 3

Really annoyed I got rid of them last year and its that sort of thing that always happens, I try to declutter and then realise a few months down the line I needed the thing after all

Going to have to buy some more now.

I have bags of shoes in the car for when the charity are taking again and some old sheets for the rag bin the charity wont take old bedding.

Although again, this leaves us with no 'old sheets' for when you need an 'old sheet'.

Oh dear - well and truly sounds like the decluttering momentum has dried up!

Does it, how?

Keep going @soupyspoon , sounds like you're definitely getting there even if you're having a few niggles about what to let go and what to keep!

Since my last post I've managed to get rid of a couple of carrier bags worth of stuff to the charity shop/bins, and even did another 27 items clearout in the bathroom! But my resolve is weak at the moment coz I haven't been well and I've got an essay to write (which I've mostly been procrastinating over 🙄). Hoping to pick up where I left off before too long.

Best of luck to anyone still in the swing, or hoping to be soon 🍀

Yes nearly finished. Unfortunately Ive been ill today so havent been able to do the books. Thats all I have left now except putting the other things to the charity.

I already did some some makeup bits and jewellery, the bedding and old sheets, a few drawers.

It is hard to see the difference though as it hasnt made any difference to the appearance of the house, because on the surface its clutter free everything was in cupboards anyway!!

Yes but there's a good chance that once the dust settles you'll start to notice you're not haunted by that old 'putting it off indefinitely' feeling anymore, and you'll know that the cupboards look and feel 'lighter'. You actually got around to doing it, and it's still only February! 😃 🥂

I did laugh upthread though when you said about worrying there'll come a day when you'll realise you have need of an old sheet after all 😄 I think it's definitely OK for us to find space somewhere for one of those!

Hope you feel better soon 💐