Neat has NOTHING to do with clutter, especially when you have good hiding places!

Good luck with your 'paring down'.

It IS sad, isn't it? I'm helping two friends declutter, as well as working on my own collections, and when I see the amount of waste of money and resources, it's rather revolting.

I know how I got so much stuff-I said "yes' too much. Like my MIL who gave me a set of her old dishes. They had chips and stains and pieces missing and I never used them, so they went in the attic. And my SIL who gave me a quilt. It sat on the floor in my bedroom, the cat peed on it, and I finally threw it out. People meant to be nice to me, but I should have said "No, donate it to Goodwill."

Ditto. I accepted a lot of things older relatives gave to me and felt obligated to keep them. Right now I have my grandmother's china that is service for twenty. It sits in the attic. I've never used it. Its not even expensive. Its ugly pink roses with gold lace trim. Somebody tell me to get rid of it! I just can't.

Dilly dally....

GET RID OF IT!

Seriously, it is doing you NO good in the attic. Pass it on (via donation or sale) to someone who WILL use it.

waste of money and resources

This always amazes me, too, how much of those things I have wasted--and other people, too, when I saw the stuff leftover from neighborhood white-elephant sales.

Godeonsmom, you're not alone. I don't know if that's any consolation.

Gideonsmom, I feel the sickness, too. And I can't blame my situation on other people's hand-me-downs or gifts or flower-delivery vases. I won't put the blame on QVC or HSN or catalogs, because I made the decisions to give them my credit card number! Right now, I am putting all my undesirables into the finished basement, sorting them into "tag sale," "craigslist," "ebay" and "trash." I've got 6 bags of trash (not garbage, just things that i don't want to bother asking 50 cents for or things that I'm sure nobody will want). But I have so much stuff I want to sell. It's bad enough looking at it--I would never want to tally the amount of money I spent on this stuff, thinking, once upon a time, that "THIS!" would make my home perfect or "THIS!" is what I need to make my life happier. It's a hard lesson to learn after several decades of life, but I think I might have a clue now! I'm trying to focus on the fact that someone out there might get some usefulness out of the stuff.

I've got 6 bags of trash (not garbage, just things that i don't want to bother asking 50 cents for or things that I'm sure nobody will want).

When I have a yard sale, I have a section for free stuff. I would rather give it away than add to the land fill.

thinking, once upon a time, that "THIS!" would make my home perfect or "THIS!" is what I need to make my life happier. . . . It's a hard lesson to learn after several decades of life,

Sadly, some people never figure it out. Many elderly people are still in acquistion mode.

"Many elderly people are still in acquisition mode." That's my Mom. She's 85 yet in her bedroom has several large stuffed toys she bought as Christmas gifts for her grandchildren. Problem is, the youngest of her grandchildren is 19. He doesn't need a stuffed Tweety Pie.

I have been going through things in drawer, closets, etc. I don't have stuff out in the open but junk cluttering up different spaces. Yesterday I went through manuals for the TV, fridge, etc. I had two grocery bags full of them to through out as some of the things I got rid of 7 or 8 years ago.

Dilly dally, I send that to get rid of the dishes.

What counts is that you start purging and letting go of the stuff; start the cycle of liberating your spaces of things that just gather dust.

I'm taking a long and hard look at what I am keeping in my new kitchen, it's much smaller than where I was before; even kitchen ustensils won't fit in one drawer and I have to make it fit.

I sympathize with you and wish you luck in your purging !!!

I KNOW how I got so much stuff - we've lived in the same house 16 years! I think everyone should move every 4 or 5 years to force a major purge.

"Many elderly people are still in acquisition mode." OMG both my 73 y.o. MIL and my 72 y.o. mother are still in acquisition mode. MIL more than mom - shops all the time for junk she doesn't need, buys tons of stuff from Home Shopping Network & QVC, buys tons of jewlery when her hands are wrinkled and her neck certainly doesn't need any attention drawn to it! My mom is slightly better - for her it's mainly dressy clothes she only wears to church on Sunday. She just keeps buying and buying - her walk in closet is as big as my bedroom & full!

I bought a purse last Saturday and have been agonizing over whether to return it. I don't keep old purses and limit myself to 1 new one a year - use it up and throw it out, then replace it. Well, my current one still has tons of life left, I just saw this new one and liked it. It's totally against my values to buy it, but the "child" in me says "I WAAANNNTT IT!" It's till in the bag with the receipt - we'll see who wins, me or the child within!

Yep, I'm right there with you! Last Autumn we had our kitchen gutted and completely remodeled. I had to pack up pretty much everything from the kitchen, dining room (which became our temporary kitchen for the duration), family room (which opened into the kitchen and became the work & storage room for the crew) and our living room, where we basically lived and ate for two months. Everything went into boxes . . . and I'm embarrassed to say that one side of the garage is still filled with many of those boxes. I unpacked the necessities and some of my pretties when the kitchen was completed, but the rest is still out there waiting for me. There's so much STUFF and I don't want to clutter up the place again, so I've flat-out just been avoiding it. Now, with cold weather heading our way soon, not to mention the #*%^! packrats that are trying to build nests on top of DH's car engine, I'm out there everyday trying to get rid the boxes . . . . and I'm asking myself that same question, "How did we get so much STUFF ?!?" (Sigh!) Like the rest of you, I'm forcing myself to pare down, but it's hard and it's painful, too. I am finding though, that once the trash truck has come and gone, or another load has been dropped off at our local charity, I don't miss it. It's the deciding and the letting go that's hardest for me.
Lynn

I have gone through almost everything I have ornaments, collections, holiday decor and really cleaned it out and priced everything most of it is over at DS's house in storage until we have a garage sale I still have my Easter stuff and fairies and a few other thing that are hard todo right now.
I already got rid of most of my craft supplies (donated to a lady in charge of crafts at a scout boys club)
I kept my rubber stamps and card stock supplies. and some sewing equipment
It feels good.
I just have to get what 's left in some kind of order.

I don't feel like the mass decorating I used to do . I do decorate my front porch and plan to put up a small Christmas tree this year.
I've just lost any desire to do it anymore.
Now when I see something in the store that is irresistible I just look at it a minute longer and walk away.