I've been cutting back on clutter for 35 years. LOL

Seriously, it's an ongoing process. I hope to succeed well enough so that my children won't have too much to deal with someday. After my parents passed away I was grateful to my dad for his organizational skills (which I apparently did not inherit).

YUP! We downsized from a large house to a very small house, added in my MIL's stuff when she passed and we are extremely cluttered. I'm going crazy trying to keep this place clean and tidy. Too much STUFF! I've watched too many Hoarder shows. I'm changing my collector habits now. I don't need all of this stuff! If we have to move, I really don't want to pack it all up yet again.

There are only two of us....how many sets of dishes do I really need? My coffee mugs have had babies. Do I really need them piled 3 deep and 3 high in my cupboards? ARGHH It is time to declutter. If I haven't used it in a year, out it goes.

I've made quite a few carload trips to the Nearly New store run by the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Association and have quite a bit still to sort out for them.

I learned when we cleaned out my parents and inlaws homes I was getting my crap together and getting rid of stuff. I don't want my kids to have to do this when I go.. I have been surprised at what I have actually let go of..

Me too ! We downsized from a large house back to our smaller one too. I love to watch the Hoarders shows because it keeps me from ever becoming one ! I keep less and less, and have learned you can get by without so many things I once thought was so important.
We have 2/40 foot containers on our property so if I have clutter, it goes in there and someday we will have one giant garage sale.

I've been decluttering a bit, and posting and lurking at The Organizing Forum. I'd join the toss 10, but fear failure or not being able to keep it up for very long. I'm still holding onto 'some' things and I haven't figured out the attachment or been able to let go....Maybe if I lurk there some more, or read some old threads I can come up with a solution.

I down size quite often
We moved from a large house to a smaller one.
I find things that we moved and don't need.
I donate all the stuff to the Big Brothers & Sisters.

I want to desperately. It seems that years ago, when I made moves to other houses, I did. But I've been here for 28 years in a big old rambling three story farmhouse with a big carriage house and a garden house as well. Need I say more? Yesterday I took some clothes to the Salvation army . But my major dilemma is compulsive antiquing I did for 40 years. I went to weekly auctions and usually came home with stuff. Now I love the clean look, but also like my stuff. It never goes out of style like other things do. I don't want to clear rooms out and then what?. People who go to yard sales expect to get things cheap. You can't have $100 price tags on items. I had a few sales years ago and did pretty well. My mother lived in a ranch and it took us a weekend to pack up her stuff and go. I left some things with the house, took the valuables, gave kids what they wanted and sold the rest. It will take my kids a year to go thru this place if I don't do something soon.

I did my first down sizing 6 years after my DH died. I was not a hoarder, I guess only because the term was not used then. But I did have a lot of stuff, because I was an avid Auction/yard sale goer.

I bought either good pieces to use, add to my collections, or redo and sell. It was a hobby and I did make money with it. I had a lot of to-do things in the attic.

I started downsizing by having a "Packing and Pizza Party." Invited friends in to pack the things like china, glassware, and other breakables. It was fun, and we got a lot done and time passed and they realized it was time for them to go home and fix dinner for their families, so they by-passed the pizza. I was disappointed about that! I love Pizza!

Sold the house, had 2-3 yard sales and an auction that included all the attic stuff, plus what I didn't have room for in the smaller house I bought.

Stayed there 16 years. Now rewind and replay that tape. I had a yard sale, but first let my DD and DGD take what they wanted, and sent a lot of things to an auction.

Moved here to the Retirement Community. I don't cook big meals any more (my kids bring the food when there is a birthday/holiday.) Had one last yard sale here and sold most of my cooking utensils, etc.

I have downsized for the last time.

I look around here now and wonder what my kids will do with the leftovers! Not my problem!

Sue

I try to and would love to finally have a clean basement and garage, but DH has a different idea about what is "junk" or "garbage". The rest of the house is organized and considered my domain. LOL!!!

from a 1800 sq ft house to 560,there is a lot of downsizing still happening here...now I am considering knocking out a wall to accommodate my living rm furniture that I just cannot part with.
Stuff that I no longer need/use,is gone or going..my son is after me to "hi-grade" as he calls it..lol

I gave away lots of stuff 5 years ago when I moved from CA to Iowa. I can't believe how much "stuff" I still have. My family room/dining room is so cluttered I can't use it. In the next couple of weeks I am going to have some friends help me carry some of the stuff to the basement and some out to my car so I can donate or recycle.
After the August flood, I did throw away lots of junk that was in my basement.

lily316,
Have you considered having an auctioneer/appraiser come to your house? I see you live in PA...this is a great state to live in if you love to buy or sell antiques!
I work part time for an auctioneer and he often pulls several folks collections together to make a larger, more attractive sale bill.
You may be able to consign a few things and see how it goes. If you have valuable pieces, I would not try a yard sale.

I've ben doing it the last couple of years. I donated almost all of my craft materials and kept only what I knew I would eventually use like toolds etc. Had a sale a while back and advertized 40 years of Chritmas and other decor it went well. I have a lot more to do but our city has imposed new garage sale laws which only allow for two a year with permit and no rain dates.
I buy very little decorating items anymore If I see something in a catalog I like I clip it look at it for a while and eventually throw it yout not buying it
I had collections of turkeys, pigs, Noah's Arks, Pilgrims etc all gone now but lots of photos of them

I've never been a collector. I think I'm just too lazy to dust all that stuff! My closet is about half-full -- never been a clothes horse. I don't have my own branch of Costco in the back hall closet.

We built our current home ten years ago and sold our 'starter' home (of 30+ years!). I gave away all the 15+ year old furniture except our MBR suite, one twin bed, a wing chair, a desk and chair, and a few side tables. The old house was modern and our new one is more traditional. Bought new furniture for LR, DR, Library (AKA TV room/den), Kitchen, Guest Room. New low pile wool orientals -- not 'fine', just pretty.

People say, "Don't you miss your old house? Don't you miss that pretty DR set?" Nope.

Yet, I still have too many unused 'things', like three sets of china, a lot of silverware, crystal, linens. However, these are packed up, not cluttering the house. Our attic has a few odds and ends; not much. Guess I should unload the silver while prices are high, eh?

I have spent the last couple of years downsizing... and actually have considered downsizing our living quarters as well. But I love our home, mostly because Hubby and I designed and built it ourselves...

However, I have actually succeeded in a couple of areas already. I started with myself and lost a bunch of weight, and then got rid of every article of clothing that was over a size 12. I donated it all to homeless missions.. (I did hate to part with my Tommy Bahama silk slacks though)

Then I moved on to stuff I have not used in 3 years or more.. That got rid of a huge chunk of stuff... Then I took a break, and just took a mental inventory of stuff I hadn't used in over a year. Out that went too with the exception of heirlooms and stuff with a huge sentimental value. Most of the heirloom stuff I am distributing to my heirs now, so I can watch them enjoy the items.

We recently got busy on hubby's workshop that he no longer uses except to smoke it. We redid one room already down there and have all new flooring put in and the "stuff" given away or sold and proceeds donated back to our community. Still working on that one. I have decided to clean out a mess of our Christmas decorations we have collected since forever... The real heirlooms ... again will go to our heirs now while we are still living... and the rest.... ....sold in a garage sale...

It is positively liberating to do that and purge all unneeded junk out of our lives... and now I am extending that to people as well.... if they are toxic to me and affect my life in a negative way, then out they go... I am tired of taking all the BS from a certain few that just cannot stand to see someone happy... Life is far too short not to experience joy.

Carolyn

I got rid of a lot of STUFF two years ago and I can say, once you get rid of something -- "Out of sight - out of mind!"

Don't worry about making $$$ off it - As long as you keep it you don't have $$$ so go ahead a sell/give it away, and you still have either the same value or more!

Space gives you a woderful feeling of freedon!

I don't collect things and dislike clutter. I would prefer to only have the things that I use regularly and nothing else...that's a little dream of mine.

Unfortunately for me, my husband loves to collect things, all things, things he doesn't use or need and never will. I think of it all as a burden, but he thinks of it all as assets.

So I have trouble downsizing, though I would like to very much. :)

salgal..Friends and I have been talking about how the younger crowd doesn't seem to love the antiques as much as we did/do. At shows, it's mostly greyhairs walking around. My own daughter likes mid=century and that's not 19th like I like but 20th which I lived thru. A woman I know had an auction 18 months ago of her husband's extensive collection after he died. It was at a prestigious main line auction company and the items were bringing half what he paid for them. I guess it's the economy.

I am one to get rid of things I don't use- clothes, household items or anything else. DH does hang on to things too long, but his stuff is under the crawl space, and it's very neatly organized. I just don't like too much stuff here. For example, I recently went shopping and bought a bunch of new clothes for work (I was in desperate need- I'm not into clothes so I always wait too long to shop), and promptly came home and purged my closet before I put the new stuff in. I have just never seem the point in hanging on to stuff. Purging is ongoing here.

We're in the process of doing this, correction, I am in the process. My DH doesn't throw anything away, and it drives me crazy. I read something about this subject once. It said people use attics to store things from the past, the basement to hold things for the future, and the living area is used for today. Interesting thought, and true.

Ive been organizing mainly to try to make life for me a little easier,?i need it now,?I got big plastic bins and some smaller ones at lowes.

I would like to downsize, declutter, thin out all the stuff, but one of us likes all the junk, and it's not me!

I had two garage sales. The first one I had tons of good stuff, lots of baby items, and my husband contributed stuff from his record and camera collection .I made $150. The second one, done jointly with a neighbor, we didn't sell much but had fun eating bagels and drinking coffee. I don't want to have another garage sale. Anything little I'll just throw out or donate to local charities. Big stuff I'll put on Craigslist as a "curb alert". I don't want to attract crazies.

We had a nice little tax deduction on all the furniture we donated to a church's big annual sale. No fuss with a garage sale. No watching my DH practically pay someone to buy an item at a garage sale! LOL No back strain. Church volunteers picked it all up. We've also donated to Salvation Army -- same easy out-the-door and a tax deduction.!

The garbage gets its share. No sense 'donating' junk.

Our apartment building has sleeves built into the wall below the windows for the a/c. Sleeve a/c are very expensive and very hard to find. Pretty much all of us put the a/c in the window.
Every year we take the a/c out and just store it in the sleeve for the winter.

This summer my a/c bit the dust and we found out today the new one is too big for the sleeve. What to do with the a/c?

I have my armchair out from the wall from the corner. I have tall plants behind it, as well as my larger empty flower pots. (I also love flower pots). We decided we'd store the a/c behind the chair out of sight, and it would be below the window for next summer. Hubby said we have too much stuff! I did find room for the flower pots AND the a/c and it's all out of sight.

Well, we'll just have to buy a house, so I can have a basement!!

We are looking for a travel trailer, a link to this blog about decluttering was posted there. Looks like we are all cleaning up and tossing out! I love the last question!

Here is a link that might be useful: Decluttering!

jasdip, don't do it! Soon that basement will be full of unwanted stuff too! Trust me on this! I want to rent a dumpster for a weekend and just pitch stuff into it. Then call and have them take it away! That way there is less chance of "someone" going through the stuff and deciding they just can't part with it!