We are getting new living room furniture next week - well a new sofa and replacing a chair/ottoman. We have friends who have two sons that are like our own children. The youngest son is getting married in June, has recently bought a small house. We are giving our sofa and chair/ottoman to this couple. Still in excellent shape, we've had for several years and wanted something different. We recently had new countertops installed and they were able to use some of the old materials in their kitchen (house is pretty small - great deal on a foreclosure). So it has worked well for all of us!

tina

well - I burned a bunch of books this weekend (I live where this is OK to do) Old textbooks I've hauled across three states, and will never use. I hate the idea of distroying books, but they were too old to be of any use, and not old enough to be of any value.

I've got a rule now, nothing new in the house unless something old goes out. Right now I'm looking at finding homes for a few bookcases, three folding plan shelves, a full length mirror and an almost new stainless sink with high reach faucet.

I've got a load of home decorating stuff that needs to go - things that were for the last house that don't fit into this one.

trailrunner, I need to do the same thing. Been in this house for 7 years, brought too much with us that doesn't fit and just want to be rid of anything extra. Thanks for the inspiration to just do it!

Planning to do just that soon. Once DS is home, I need to get the guest room cleaned out. I may just load it all up and bring it to a thrift store...I'm not up to waiting around for people to show up.

I called a shelter for pregnant young woman to unload all my baby clothes. Unfortunately they are closed for Christmas and won't take anything until Jan 9th. My youngest is two and I want it all gone! Can't wait.

Great reports :) I am glad that I am not the only one that couldn't breath LOL. We actually have very little comparatively speaking...we have no storage units rented or otherwise and can't have a yard sale as we don't have enough to even make a decent showing.

I love consignment and get my clothes there or Sierra Trading post...I like good quality and USA made as much as possible and old clothes are the way to go in that respect...vintage is even better.

I am going in now and line up the clothes for consignment..you guys have inspired me to keep going . c

Trailrunner,
I have found the lighter my load, the easier my life! Does anyone else follow Flylady.net? Great web based program for helping you declutter and keep your home. I am not a religious follower, but find her to be really helpful.

We had a five-bedroom home that we inherited from DH's family. We used it as a weekly Summer rental for about 10 years, then sold it a few years ago. When it came time to get rid of furniture and stuff I listed most of it for free on Craigslist and Freecycle. For the most part I was careful to try to give the stuff to people who needed things, more than dealers. It sure made me feel better about the whole process knowing things went to people who needed them.

Our basement is in need of a good decluttering and I plan on organizing this winter and getting rid of it all in the Spring.

Beth P.

It's a constant process. I love freecycle for this. In our old house, it was even easier. Put things on the sidewalk, retreat to the living room to watch from behind the drapes and take bets on how long it would take for someone to pick it up!

We are on a relatively untravelled road now, but I swear by the local goodwill. It is open all day every day, and you just pull up and they empty your car!

I think all of us feel a mixture of guilt and regret over our excess stuff --- it is so satisfying to see it put to use!

We've recently unloaded on Craigslist a couple of round Bombay Co tables, a leather sofa, chair and ottoman, a television, and put out at the curb for pick-up a couple of old wood chairs, a wicker chest, and some old shutters we had never used. I currently have a bag of children's toys to go to Goodwill. Since we sold our cabin a couple of months ago, we have had to find places for a lot of furniture we had there, so we had to dump stuff we had here. We also have a Huntinghouse House like-new sofa, a wing chair and a Hitchcock table set in the garage waiting for my daughter to pick up. If she doesn't soon, it's also all getting craigslisted!

We just have too much stuff, and are trying to get rid of at least one item every trash day. There's a man in an old pick-up who drives down our cul-de-sac the night before and generally takes whatever we put out.

It does feel freeing. But, I also find myself passing by most "oh, isn't that cute/intersting/fun/elegant" items I would have bought five years ago so I'm also not adding to what I have.
Dee

Me. too! Last year I had insulation blown in the attic and moved everything from there into a guest bedroom, where it sat for ages. My son and his GF were coming to visit so I had to clear it out. I used that as a chance to really get rid a few things once and for all. I had two Eileen Fisher skirts I bought on sale awhile ago and never wore (bad me), so some lucky person at the thrift shop got them along with tons of other stuff.

I took a partial swipe at my walk-in closet, but that needs even more attention. The basement and garage are full of useless carp, too. The basement will be my New Year's project. I hate to tell you how many times I have cleaned out the basement and garage and they just fill up again.

Sometimes I simply move stuff I intend to get rid of, or stuff I don't know what to do with to the garage. I am taking a vow not to just relocate stuff. Either I use it, give it to a relative or friend or it goes to the thrift shop, or even the dump.

I've had a really nice unused kitchen pendant listed on CL but no one has gone for it yet. I'll renew that listing after the holiday.

It's such a gift to your children to sort things out before your death (hey -- we all die) and while you are capable of making decisions and physically able to get rid of the stuff.

I do try not to haul in more stuff and generally I am pretty successful at that, but once in awhile I give in to temptation.

We did this in the barn/workshop and in the shed back in the fall. But I still need to make another sweep through the barn and deal with some old paint and stain and with little scraps of wood that DH swears he will use "some day" (when is that, exactly?). I also have in the barn about six medium-sized boxes of "smalls" from back when we had an antique booth. They don't work in our house, there aren't enough of them to warrant getting another booth, they're not of interest to my hippie/itinerant stepsons or my Kirkland's-obsessed stepdaughter, but they're not the kind of thing that goes in yard sales around here. If I knew someone would USE these things, I'd gladly give them away. But all I seem to find are other dealers looking for something for nothing, and frankly, I'd just rather keep them boxed up.

My brother and his girlfriend are coming for Christmas and are actually driving (15+ hours) rather than flying. My hope is that they will announce their engagement (she is WAY too good for him and he needs to lock her in to a lifetime contract!) and then I can foist off on them the family china and crystal that has remain boxed up since we moved into this place in 2007.

I need to do a sweep through my closet and will resolve to do that over the next few weeks. Otherwise, we don't have a lot of "stuff" anymore. One advantage to living in a mid-century home with spare furnishings is that you don't acquire too many goo-gaws.

Yes, absolutely we are clearing out. 2 sons moved this fall, and I weeded out what was left behind. I am not a storage locker for for their childhood stuff. Third son is getting married & setting up in a new apartment this week, so I'm giving him some furniture that never worked in this house plus some household goods.

#3 son came home for Christmas and asked, "Why is the house so clean?"

My nesting instinct is diminishing. Is that due to menopause?

No....just the opposite. :0) Our 35" tube TV went out, so we went on CL & got a free 32" Sony tube type free. :0)

Love reading all these posts...when we retired a little over 3 years ago, we moved from a home where we had lived for well over 20 years and we had a large basement (in So. California no less)....so lots of things accumulated over the years although I did purge every few years.

When we moved to Kentucky, I got rid of an incredible amount of things - some I wish I hadn't....but then we moved into a house that was almost twice the size of our previous house and, well nature abhors a void. I have two large (and I mean large) walk-in storage closets in our walk-out basement - one leads to another - a huge long closet with floor to ceiling shelving on both sides - that closet leads to a very large walk-in cedar closet....things have really been piling up.

Last week I gave about 25% of all my Christmas decorations to a young family in our church - felt great. I have been giving lots away and throwing some away and plan to continue on.

The storage closets are completely organized and neat now - even a little sparse looking (yeah!). The most wonderful thing is I can find everything I need to now. I will purge like crazy this spring - I want less - it is freeing this paring down.

Yes, here too. I've been on a house purge mission for the last 4 months or so. I've given away clothes, furniture, decor items. It is such a freeing feeling. I have reached my less-is-more stage of life. It feels good. I even gave away most of my Christmas decorations because the visual clutter was more than I can stand. Funny... just last year, they were perfect. I've definitely changed.

It's cathartic. We started doing it in the initial stages of the remodel/addition 6 years ago. Too much of a hassle selling things. I'd rather just donate.

My...I sure struck a chord. I do believe it is the "end of life" thing kicking in too...and I just turned 61 LOL! I have the good stuff for DD as she does want it...my Mother's china and Grandmother's china and silver. She hasn't married yet...29 and counting .

Things were just SO different when I was my kid's age and my parents were my age. It was expected...and we wanted , to go home for holidays and to see the grands and to have the family stuff...good bad and indifferent..and believe me there was plenty of bad.

Now there is absolutely no interest at all in spending time traveling to see us for a couple days. If the kids have a day off they are going to sleep and regroup and call ...maybe. Also money is tight for some of them. Way too much family stuff for this discussion .

I am glad to see others in the mode to clear out and clean up and tighten the ship !! c

I was on my own by the time I was 18. I think I only managed one visit home during the holidays before I married and none after. Both of our parents came to visit us on a couple of holidays, but it was never something we considered important. A visit was a visit no matter what time of year. I learned that early on with dh's line of work.

I decided this year that I would REMOVE one piece out of each room -- which in some rooms led to another and yet another. I like the house without as much clutter. DH likes more clutter and when he asks why I moved it out -- I just tell him it's easier to clean . . . and he can't argue with that for he never helps me clean!

Trailrunner, I also saved too much for when the kids came to visit, or to pass on to them. Well, my mom started it. She has two gorgeous sets of china (Limoges and Spode) plus a full set of silver. I have a set of china, but not so good as hers, plus silver I got when I was married. Almost none of the stuff gets used. Lifestyles have changed. Some new houses don't even have formal dining rooms!

My older son announced that he and his GF would be spending all Christmases with her family. They live a little closer and I think she really wants to be with them. My son doesn't give a hoot, just wants to make the GF happy. So all my visions of family Christmases went poof. Son #2 lives nearby, but is not married -- yet. I hold out hope that he will settle down close by with a nice girl. For awhile he was dating a girl who had no family at all and the first thing I thought was Yay -- I get them every holiday. Too bad that didn't last.

So this is very OT for the thread. Guess I'm saying not to hang on to too much stuff, counting on your kids to take it. I do think my three nieces will take some of Mom's good stuff and I would be happy to see it find a good home, although they all live very casual lives, as most younger people do now.

We need a reverse Santa -- one who would come down the chimney and take things away instead of leaving more STUFF.

This year when I had a few more people on the Christmas list to go but money was running short, I started looking around my house and realizing how many things I have new in the package and never used, things I picked up at sidewalk sales and garage sales because the price was too good to pass up. And then I had taken them home and put them away in drawers where they were promptly forgotten. So this year I shopped in my own house for Christmas gifts for some of my office friends and saved money and decluttered my house in the process.

Good idea Bluemoon...re-gifting ! :)

Don't get me wrong I have not hung on to " things" for the kids to take. No one is interested in my possessions ...turned wood bowls, Oriental rugs, Native American artwork, books. I have them because I love them and they bring me joy. I told DH as we crawled into bed tonight...you realize that if I live as long as Momma ( she was 88 when she passed) I will have 27 more years to look at the empty rooms we have created ???!!!

I then told him it will give me time to find more Morris chairs LOL...I love those things. I want one with a foot stool for each of the bedrooms...so keep your eyes peeled for me :)

As far as family heirlooms...DD and DS2 are interested but have no place...since I have 27 more years...things could change.

I really enjoyed selling the things and giving away the other things to my fellow church members. It was great having them come to the house. I met some folks that I didn't know and also had some great conversations with others. I also met a woman that wants to be friends !! It was a very rewarding experience. They all told me that they will love thinking of me and the story surrounding the item that they got from me...these are UU's ,so very touchy-feely :)

It has been great reading all the stories here too. We have a really nice group of folks here and it is fun to see the forum names and associate you with the stories you tell. Thank you for sharing your feelings too. c

Long time lurker here--but I had to chime in on this one! We just completed a huge downsizing. Sold a large, custom built colonial with lots of storage and bought a 70s brick ranch that is about 1,000 sq. feet smaller. Our new home is in a very desirable area with excellent schools and a thriving walkable community offering lots of cultural, shopping and dining opportunities. It's the perfect area to "age in place"--which was our plan now that we only have one child still at home and are hoping to retire within 8-10 years. But the stuff we had to get rid of! We made about 10 trips with a completely filled van to the Goodwill, Salvation Army and Savers. Gave away lots of kids things-swing set, climbing equipment, toys, etc. through Craig's list. A garage full of unwanted furniture was distributed to friends and relatives for their kid's apartments, vacation homes, etc. At the end, we still needed to get a dumpster because the house sold very quickly and we had to get rid of the stuff that no one, even the thrift shops, wanted. Yes, it is a freeing experience! Even though we do have lots of storage in our new home (it's a full walk out basement with lots of closets and storage rooms) we have vowed that we will never go through this weeding out process again (almost six months of non-stop work nights and weekends). People who have visited our new house comment on how "comfortable" and "peaceful" it seems. I agree, and am convinced that this is a result of having so much less "stuff".

Ah, such a timely and inspiring post, trail !! We are moving from Mtl to Calgary so another move will happen soon, and it's been on my mind to declutter again.
I did a huge purge 4 years ago when we sold the big family home to go condo.
But I realized recently that I hung on to too many things.

As we are turning 60 next year, I am looking forward to a life simplification,
and having less stuff is a good way to start.

Right now I am on vacation till february 1st in Florida, but you're making me think ahead to my future purging and move. I must make myself get back in the "present" , lol.......

i am ~10 yrs younger than you, but i already am 'feeling' my mortality more than ever before! not in a depressed sense, but more in a matter of fact way...

i tend to be a packrat---i have lots of stuff! recently though when going through our basement, i found that i was less 'attached' to certain things than i used to be-such as baby toys, clothes, etc that i was saving! i was happy to discover that! i will try to tackle the basement maybe in the spring and see if i can purge!
for some reason, i have a hard time getting rid of old clothes of mine--- don't 'love' alot of it, but if i don't hate it (which is mostly the case...) i hang onto it. so, then i have a closet full of clothes, but when an occasion requires dressing up alittle (but not too much-that in between look-lol), i find i don't like any of it--- but, then when i go to 'purge' my closet, i can't get rid of most of it! very frustrating!

Yes, yes, yes! I started about 2yrs ago. Feels so good!!!

Finally, I have a bit of time to go through older discussions....over the years, we've gotten rid of SO much stuff. With SO much yet to go! We lived on a busy street, in a desirable town, and garage sales were easy (OK, relatively easy): set up, and the cars would stop, and people come running. I never advertised and never bothered with signs. I did sales for several years, and they were invariably successful. One year, made over $1000, but that only because I had an antique desk among the items. The year before that, I'd made about $600. But note that I said the sales were "easy" -- I did not say they were a good use of my time. To the contrary. I'd hate to think of what my hourly wage would have been, but not one of those sales really was worth it. However, they were fun in a way, and that's part of the reason why I did it.

So toward the end of our time in that town, I was dropping things off at the local charity thrift shop. Tons of stuff left the house, including ~25 cartons of books in preparation for our move and sale of the house. We also made frequent use of a charity that would come to the house to pick up large items, like furniture. We knew someone on the charity's board, so we could always move stuff out of the house that way.

And, like mtnrdredux, we'd put things out on the curb prior to garbage day, and they were always gone before pickup actually occurred. Plus, clothes to either consignments shops or the charity thrift store. Usually the latter, because my things rarely sold at consignment due to the size of my things. (I still have a Burberry raincoat in a closet that nobody could fit into. I'd consign it, bring it home, consign it, bring it home. Maybe Craigs List? - maybe someone will buy it for a teenage daughter? It was once "previously worn" or "gently used"; now, it's "vintage" or, no!, it's "antique"!) For a while I was actually bringing the best stuff to resale shops in New York, but that was a ridiculous waste of time even with errands and appointments combined with the trips.

What we got rid of over the years is mind-boggling. Those books. Huge numbers of magazines, to the charity thrift store. Office supplies. Carpets. A couple of bikes. Chairs. Home office furniture. The antique desk, undoubtedly a big mistake. A complete set of china. All sorts of housewares. All sorts of antique bits and pieces one seems to accumulate, you know, a china plate here and an old pitcher there, a few pieces of mismatched silver-plated things, some old glass, some with chips. Old office equipment. A vintage office chair. Art and frames. Curtains, carpets, blankets, blinds and shades. Table lamps. A ceiling lamp, fake Tiffany. (I hope it was fake!) A ceiling medallion. Plants. Paint in cans, still good. Tools. Building materials. Even a huge bag full of old towels, some with set-in stains and torn, that someone wanted for car washing. And on and on and on.

I HATE the idea of throwing away and thus am so glad that almost everything we no longer wanted went to someone, somewhere.

Of course, when a guy in a Bentley came to a screeching halt in front of our house to ask about that antique desk, I knew I'd made a big mistake in selling it. But by then it was already promised to someone, and I wasn't about to go back on a promise. Oh well, only stuff. Live and learn, right? At least that's what I tell myself.

Not to mention, good memories, like a young woman holding a book about decorating in the Victorian style with such delight in her eyes. I like to think that she wanted to decorate her very first house, and that that book was exactly what she'd been looking for. An old man clutching an entire handful of ties, Armani, Hermes, etc., not that he cared about that, and got the whole shebang for a few dollars. He was so happy....

The only people who come down the road we're on now live on it, so I probably won't do any more garage sales. So getting rid of more things will be quite the challenge.

Yes! About a year ago we had a dumpster because we were having some work done (roof replaced and some other minor things). DH said we couldn't return the dumpster until we cleaned out the basement. Yay! I'm all for it. Spent my week off between xmas and new years cleaning the basement. Threw away SO much stuff. Felt great! However, DH got really busy with work (or so he claims) and wasn't able to help. So, I did what I could but a lot of the boxes are his from when he was a kid. I would have loved to just throw them out (hey, he hasn't opened them in the 16 years we've been married so how important can they be?) but I knew I couldn't do that. And, apparently, there's some valuable items in there somewhere (coin and stamp colections). A year later, and he still hasn't done his part. Very frustrating!

Interesting that when I was going through my stuff, I also had much less of an attachment to things. I went through boxes and boxes and boxes of pictures. Saved the good ones, but threw away at least 70% of those pictures. Who needs 10 prints of the same thing!? Not me, but for some reason I was never able to get rid of them before.

When we had that October snowstorm and couldn't go out for the weekend, I insisted we clean out our walk in closet. Must have given away 20 huge black garbage bags to charity. My closet is SO much bigger now. I love that feeling.

I still have some more closets to clean out. Next week is the perfect time! Thanks for motivating me!

"I also have in the barn about six medium-sized boxes of "smalls" from back when we had an antique booth."

Momentary digression from the topic: jakabedy, what the heck are medium-sized boxes of 'smalls'????????????????????? Have been wracking my brain and cannot figure out what you are talking about here :).

Ann

We've been sifting through and clearing out for the last six months. We know we have one more move in our future (sometime after DH retires), almost certainly to a smaller house. We figure it makes sense to start letting go of what we know we won't want to move, rather than waiting until the time comes.

I keep a pile of things in the attic that I'm planning to get rid of, and I keep adding to the pile. I get several boxes of stuff together every time a charity calls for a pick-up. I've taken a couple of pieces of furniture to local antique stores, and other furniture I've put out on the curb (always a few days before trash pickup, and always it disappears before trash day). I've taken boxes of books to a local used book store and a car load of house parts to an architectural salvage store. Next weekend, I'm taking my grandmother's china up to my niece. She's young and just starting out on her own, so I'm hoping she'll love to have her great grandmother's good dishes.

I'd love to see all the things I've cleared out in one big pile. That would be so satisfying! It just feels so good to be making progress on getting things under control.

Such a timely post; I think it's natural to feel more cluttered than ever at this time of year.

Usually DH is loathe to part with anything from his past or his closet, but I guess there was a Christmas miracle because when I asked him for castoffs this morning he rummaged through and pulled out four whole shirts. I was so surprised but tried to act natural in hopes it would encourage him to do the same next time!

running...I am pretty sure she means things that sit on shelves etc...you know "small" items...vases and stuff like that. I have heard them called "smalls" in the trade.

I just got back from the consignment store. They took 2 suede jackets and a velvet blazer and 2 long suede cloth skirts and a gorgeous pair of boots that I can't wear anymore. So will see how that goes. They split 60/40 , they get 60. I have some things to go to Goodwill and then that is it. I have so little left anymore so think this WInter cleaning will be the last for some time. Next would be an estate sale...and I won't be there for that...IYKWIM. :)

Glad so many others are in the same mood to clear out and lighten up. c

I'm in the middle of the process. As the prez of a tiny nonprofit, I know just where to donate things. Only probleem is, then I have to help mark them for our annual yard sale! In fact, I'm so determined to get this place cleaned out I've delayed my knee replacement surgery until the end of January just so I'm sure I'll have it all done. Down with clutter!!

Happy Holidays, everyone.

Susan

I've been working on this for yrs! after dragging stuff around with me thru various moves.

I'm moving into a larger place soon (I hope) and am weeding more out as I prepare for the move. It's amazing what I have stashed over the last decade that I've been sick and unable to use or get rid of things - or remember where I put things I've bought! Like I KNOW I had most of this yrs Christmas purchased early last yr - yet I can't find the stuff or even remember what I bought back then. hopefully will find during the move and have for next yrs Christmas! I'll have the space in the new place to put it in a logical place and hopefully have it clearly marked!

On the other side of the coin my sister has had to merge 2 households and I am her favorite 'charity'... every time i go there I leave with bags of stuff for my new place - ! AND I've found that shopping at the local GW is the way to go when I need something. I do hope it balances out eventually that I've gotten rid of much more than I've taken in - lol!

My lifestyle has changed a lot tho and I know the prev 'needed' computer station and entertainment center will go and not be replaced. I have several printer type 'stands' that will do fine to set a tv on w/o covering a wall floor to ceiling. I have a storage cab that will be used to house 'parts' (printer paper and misc computer stuff). I have enough bedrooms to use one as craft and storage. If it doesn't fit in there, I don't need it anymore.

I'm sure there are people out there who will love to have the computer station and ent center for free - just come and get it! There are so many people just starting out or who are going thru hard times - anything I can contribute to their need will make me very happy!

I figure anything that doesn't have a good use or 'home' in my new place WILL find a new home with someone else!

I surely do want to clear thru things, organize and mark what i can while i'm alive and fairly able to think rather than let it go for my kids/family to deal with later.

DS will be taking some things back with him in a week - cannot wait! But then DD1 moved back in with us (temporarily?). Luckily, my parents have a lakehouse across the dam from us, so most of her things are in their unfinished basement that has HVAC. She has moved many things out of the guest room she is inhabiting, so DHs laundry/storage room has become a bit cramped. She started selling on eBay before she left CA, and since her boxes/furniture arrived she relisted. I'm going to see what I might have for her to sell.

After DS leaves, I will be digging out that box with 2 VCRs and taking to the Hanna Home/Kings Ranch truck. Whatever DS and DD2 do not want is gone! Problems are two large rugs and two large paintings. All I've ever gotten for the rugs on CL are bogus offers.

A few weeks ago, I started feeling a bit overwhelmed. I wasn't exactly sure why, but the feeling intensified over the next couple of weeks, and then just a few days ago, I realized that our home is making me feel this way. We have three daughters, 5, 3, and 2 and we still have stuff packed up from when we moved here 3 1/2 years ago. In those 3 1/2 years I've been collecting "stuff" for a new home, or to fix up the current home, and what I didn't want to leave in the shed, I was hauling up to the attic. It was taking days to clean the house, even when I was cleaning one room at a time, and it never felt clean. So two days ago, I grabbed a box of trash bags and some cardboard boxes and started in the kitchen. Threw in some old pots and pans that I never use, a couple cookie sheets, and a muffin tin. I felt better. Moved on to the dining room. I have an old Hoosier cabinet in there that seems to be the drop off point of everything that comes in this house. I cleaned out the entire thing, filling up trash bag #1. Moved on to the laundry room, where I went through all of the clean clothes, all of the clothes that I had put up for the season, and filled up 3 trash bags there. That took me the better part of a day. I tossed out things that I thought I could never get rid of, and I've never felt more relieved. Today, my back is killing me, so I don't know how far I will get, but my goal is to take at least one bag to the porch every day until January 1st and then see if I need to continue. I really feel like this is what I need to help calm my nerves, and I think it will take down some of the stress around here.

There were three recent events that pushed me into getting rid of a ton of "stuff" collected over the 37 years we have been in our home. The first event was when a small pipe leading from the base of the toilet into the wall leaked for over ten days while we were away and caused major flooding and damage to our home from the top floor, down to the first floor and on to the cellar. Everything I hoarded as a valuable item, some truly valuable and other things not, were vanquished to the trash bin. Everything had been soaked and ruined. With the exception of pictures, I can't say I have missed a thing.
The second event was seeing a huge stack of home posessions on a sidewalk outside of a home. This is exactly what happened to my mother's precious things when the house had to be sold. No one wanted the items, not even the thrift shops, so on the corner it went. A life time stacked on a sidewalk. So sad to see perfectly good things, of value, left to be picked over by a stranger.
The third event was when my younger son commented on how much stuff I had in the house. He said, "I hope you get rid of everything and spend every dime you and Dad have so I won't have to be burdened with the issue of who gets what!"
First these events gave me pause and then it caused me to pick up the phone to the Disabled Vets, the Salvation Army, Big Brothers and Big Sisters. I watch the trucks arrive at my home, pick up my "treasures" every day. I'm making progess, slow progress, but it does feel good.
I so enjoyed reading this topic...it always makes me feel better to know there are others in the same boat!

DH is off work the next two days, so we will see what we can clear out. It's a great week to take things to Goodwill and other places to get the charitable tax deductions. Of course, MIL brought us even more things yesterday, some beautiful, but some things I literally don't know where I'm going to put them.

My mother was great about decluttering. She finally made the decision at age 85 to move out of the house to a senior apartment, so she got rid of even more stuff. Unfortunately, she became ill with cancer and never made the move, but it made cleaning out so much easier, mostly for my siblings, since I live 600 miles away. My mother also gave away the "valuables" several years before because she didn't want them in the house in case they could be stolen (her neighborhood was getting increasingly more crime), and that she was able to ensure that everyone got what items she wanted them to have.

Lindabarbara, we got some awesome vintage things from an estate auction. The owner was almost 100 when she died, and her "kids" were in their 60's and 70's and didn't want the items either since they felt they were at the point where they wanted to downsize. The auctioneer said they felt very good knowing that the items went to people who will continue to cherish them. I'm sure the extra cash didn't hurt either! The house was built in the late 50's and all the Drexel LR and DR pieces were ordered new and never left the home.

Love this thread - makes me want to put stuff on the curb right now!

We did a huge clear out last summer at the end of a long renovation - we had to put everything we owned in the garage or basement - we were really picky about what came back into the house (we had been saving things for a few years in case we needed if "for the addition" ...) but after all those years of holding on to stuff - we didn't need that much of it anyway. Emptying out the house was a good exercise - I should probably do it every 5 years just to be intentional about what is in my house.. (but I am too lazy)

We had a garage sale where nothing was over $10 including nice lamps, chairs, and all the accessories were a dollar. Everything sold and we made a little money - it was amazing to see it all walk away - so freeing! I have tried to keep things fairly minimal - but it is a battle! It is funny when people come to our house, someone usually asks "where's all your stuff?" cracks me up and makes me feel good that we have not succumbed yet! :)

After a fire in 2005, I learned what was important and not.

When we got over 300 boxes back from the restoration people, I went thru them. Got rid of at least 50 boxes of packing material, so it wasn't that much.

However, God bless Freecycle.
I gave away furniture.
Boxes and boxes of books arranged in collections.
Two, F-250 extended truck beds of clothing to Suited for Success.
Several sets of dishes.
Nick-knacks I didn't like anyway. I'm not a nick-knack person.
A brass candlestick collection.
Walls of bookshelves.
Boxes and boxes of quilting fabric.
Tons of curtain rods.
Two mattress sets w/ their sheet sets.
A couch and loveseat.
A coin collection.
6 computer systems I built from others' discarded systems. to Animal rescues.
I gave away 13 different collections of cookbooks from DH's father's collection. They spanned 50 years. I did this via a Yahoo cooking list to people who collected and would appreciate them. I asked if they were to post them online, if they'd list them as "From the Collection of Wm. A. Muehling". Online, one lives forever.

And much more.
There remains a chant in my head, since much of this in subsequent years is also getting rid of my STBX' stuff that carries memories. "I'm lightening my life." Like an incessant mantra.

I live alone in MD. My mom and grandkids are in MI. I've started taking family things home to them. Furniture, family jewelery, books, kids' stuff like Barbie collections and other stuff we saved "for our kids someday" that will never be appreciated by someone not family. Another way to lighten my life. When something happens to me, I don't want some of those things being lost. It's up to someone to whom they're passed on, to lose them. [LOL]

I haven't built closets yet, so it's easy to try to get rid of stuff when you have plastic bins stacked all around you! :)

I'm on it today, as a matter of fact.

This thread is inspiring! I am dying to just clear out crap (or not so crappy stuff which I still feel is weighing me down.) We're going to try to sell our house next year and move back to the city, so we will need to get rid of a lot of stuff.

Books... no one brought up the issue of bringing them to a library, so I thought I would broach that topic. As a librarian, I have to advise against this! I cannot tell you the CRAP people bring us. Most people are well-meaning, imagining that we can use as many books as we can get. A fair amount of people, though, bring thing to us which are obviously junk, leaving boxes outside the building when we're closed, rather than making the effort to go through things and then bring the junky stuff to the dump. Even the well-meaning people almost invariably end up making more work for us. Even in small libraries with limited budgets, space is usually an issue. And, librarians would rather be able to use the precious space for new items they've selected themselves, in keeping with their Collection Development policies. At best, we can store the donated books and try to sell them in a book sale. Usually, though, the donations make more work for us and the return on the "investment" (of effort) is not high. Most librarians want to create and maintain goodwill in their communities, so they will rarely turn away anything but the worst donated items, but in every library in which I have ever worked, they turn around and gripe to their colleagues. So please... use other avenues (like Got Books? in the northeast) to get rid of your books.

Burning books... it sounds horrible, so Fahrenheit 451. But really, very, very few books are precious. There are so many copies of most books, and so many books become obsolete quickly. Others simply aren't in good shape. Don't feel bad about burning your books. Sure, if you have some books which are not on topics which can become outdated, and they're in wonderful shape, consider donating them to a charity which specifically requests book donations. But otherwise... you are not harming anyone or anything by burning books.