Sort your life out BBC1

[Ulysees]

New thread in case there isn't one?

See, I wouldn’t have thought about taking stuff to a care home!

I liked the one where they got Rob in to help declutter some DIY type things, he was binning stuff but explaining why, like the glue was too old or something like that.

Completely disagree with you. People don’t need more storage - that just helps them keep more clutter.
storage hides things out of sight and out of mind and enables the hoarding where you have cupboards and drawers full of random stuff you never use and you don’t even know you have it.

I specifically wanted less cupboards in our recent extension to encourage us to efficiently use the ones we already had.

I'm not convinced that they donate as much as they say, because why would you shovel all the sorted stuff into a mixed heap?

I think they should do it the other way round; pick what they want to keep from the beautifully laid out warehouse, and then show some people from the charities coming and taking away what they can use or sell.
And then admit how much ends up in landfill.

There has to be a happy medium though. We have no garage and no loft. We have an airing cupboard, one small built in cupboard in one room, and one small cupboard in the hall that's big enough for a few coats. We don't have a huge amount of "stuff" but we do have things that spend most of the year in storage like Christmas decorations and suitcases, plus necessities like a large heated airer, a hoover, ironing board etc, and really struggle to store them. It's not just a clutter issue. There are so many new builds these days that don't have any storage at all and people are always going to need somewhere to put their hoover.

I couldn't live without my garage now. So much stuff I wouldn't have anywhere else to put it all.
Next door had to their one taken down years ago apparently. Madness , although it did make for a bigger garden for them and may have stopped the hoarding/ buying maybe?
( I have lived in houses without a garage and you just end up buying a bigger shed )
Most people rarely use them for cars these days

I find that blue they used really depressing but it was her favourite colour I think they said. I find a lot of the colour schemes they use slightly 'nursery.'

A lot of these make over shows have dodgy colours on the walls or strange lay outs.
I suppose they are up against the clock or maybe money constraints, but I often think it can look a bit naff. Not that I live in a show home and have painted walls that didn't come out as I expected!

Oh completely agree with you. We have a new build and no garage and no loft (used as bedroom - extension). We keep suitcases in the eaves storage and Xmas decorations. A cupboard downstairs for coats and hoover. An airing cupboard for linens but I’m glad we don’t have too much more storage like my mum does as it enables her hoarding. They have 4 freezers between the two of them. She calls one her Christmas freezer. Most have food in from before Covid. She also has 3 hoovers only one works but she won’t throw the broken ones away. She always tells me she doesn’t know how we cope without a garage. Hers is a triple garage full to the rafters like on SYLO. It just means they can store crap.

i wish she would watch sylo. She watched it once and said it made her sad as people were throwing things away they needed and would probably buy again in a few weeks time. The concept was lost on her!

I admit I have too much bed linen / towels etc( nothing fancy) and despite a cull I still seem to have a lot of it in plastic boxes. Storage for things like that is difficult if you don't have a spare cupboard or bedroom to put it in.
Also there is the whole ' might come in handy ' mentally or can't be bothered with another trip to the charity shop or the tip etc so it gets left.

It's not an opinion

The uk does have the smallest houses in Europe.

www.theguardian.com/money/2017/feb/11/welcome-rabbit-hutch-britain-land-ever-shrinking-home

Americans can't even call a room a bedroom unless it's got fitted wardrobes.

Lofts & garages used to be the norm now they are often converted.

Do Mumsnet still do celebrity web chats?

Dilly would be fab!!

I'd love a walk in wardrobe and an en suite too
Probably never happen.

They’ve done this before. Had a charity come and see what they wanted in the warehouse.

I think you and @maximalistmaximus are both right, @LenaLamont. I think developers have prioritised building lots of houses over building houses that are big enough for people to live in - better for the profit margin to build a few extra houses, than to build fewer houses, but give them adequate storage.

But I do also think we have slipped into wanting, and getting more and more stuff that we don’t necessarily need or enjoy. I know that I have to actively resist buying stuff that my magpie brain tells me to buy, because I could easily buy too much stuff just for the endorphin rush of acquisition. I have learned to buy less but buy things I will really enjoy having, and use, but I do understand that it isn’t necessarily an easy thing to learn.

I would love to have the option to do what they do - lay out everything in one big space, and weed out all the things I don’t want back in the house, but if the SYLO team tried to get me to get rid of 50% of my books, they would have a fight on their hands! I do go through my books every few months, and get rid of ones I don’t read, but the ones I love would have to be pried out of my cold, dead hands - and I can hold a lot of books!

Big heaps of junk make for better tv I imagine

I must admit it makes me wince when they just throw whhelmbarries of stuff into the piles.

Perhaps it’s psychological. Plus as it’s not neat maybe it’s less appealing to rescue.

I know when I’m putting things on vinted and take good photos of item it gives me pause!

I would love to have the option to do what they do - lay out everything in one big space, and weed out all the things I don’t want back in the house

It’s essentially doing what Marie Kondo says, but they do it all at once in the same space, and she says do it one at a time. They spread things out like for like, all the Barbie’s together, all the shoes together etc.

I always look at the warehouse shot and have a brief moment of ‘that’s not a lot actually’ so I don’t know if my brain just refuses to accept it or what 🥴.

I think I’m okay for most things, numbers wise, but I have two massive areas where I just don’t know where to begin. One is clothes, all the smaller things that I hope I will fit into by next month. I’ve been hoping this for years 🤦‍♀️. The other is sewing stuff. Fabric, clothes to mend, stuff to turn into something else, ribbons, it’s all stashed away somewhere. These families never seem to have a particular weakness, it seems to be a lot of everything.

I reckon all that stuff goes to the nearest tip.

I'm sure it's been mentioned before but it's essentially a rehash of a (Canadian?) programme called Consumed. I've never been able to find and rewatch it all but the twist in that one is that they remain living in the house with a handful of essentials and a couple of non essentials each while all their stuff is in the warehouse. That's so they can feel the emptiness and appreciate how little they really need.

If anyone finds it anywhere to watch it, please hit me up 😁

I always look at the warehouse shot and have a brief moment of ‘that’s not a lot actually’ so I don’t know if my brain just refuses to accept it or what

I’m the reverse - I look at it and think “you could chuck three quarters of that!”

I think we’d all be surprised to see quite how much we actually have, because it’s easy to gloss over the stuff we don’t use or see regularly. I said I had three pairs of jeans, but that didn’t count the 5 pairs of different sized ones in the back of the cupboard 😳

I've been looking for it as well @BigBoysDontCry it was on Netflix for a time but it went off. Some of the participants are unwell I think but there was one really aggressive man in a blended family. I will keep looking

I thought it was getting too much into the emotional stuff this series but I then we were watching an older episode and it was similarly intrusive. Maybe I'd just forgotten those bits!

I'd love if they set up the family's furniture like their own wardrobes/bookshelves in the warehouse and the family have to use them as the container for their stuff. (Only the #of books that will fit etc) Then showing the one in- one out method when they are out of space. Obv for built in wardrobes it would have to be a temporary rail as substitute, but have one with exactly the same amount of hanging space.

The programme you mentioned (Consumed) sounds really interesting. I checked on JustWatch and it’s not available over here but maybe elsewhere on a VPN?

When I’m on holiday and I have less stuff, just the stuff I really like, I do feel much lighter and there is always enough space. I’m not knocking over stuff like at home.

we have a great local recycling group on Facebook and nearly everything I post (for free) goes, even if it’s a half full hair product.

Rather like the revelation that Strictly on Sunday is filmed live on the Saturday, I've come to the conclusion that there's no way the warehouse is sorted like that in a day - a week at most, especially for all the fiddly bits and then they are counted.

That was upsetting at times to watch last night but I'm so pleased they got it sorted. Lovely family.

I'm sure it's all edited a lot and many more people are around to do a lot of the work.
The warehouse is so beautifully presented , it must take days to sort into different areas.

I reckon they’re in that warehouse all night too, sorting.