Yay! Good for you! The relief is unbelievable.

We are pretty much decluttered here (it is literally ongoing, and geting rid of things is as easy as taking it to church on Sunday or even Thursday, or to work the very next day, or calling my sister to see if she wants it and can drop it off almost imediately) but recently I decided that since I don't wear makeup at all the last five years (at least) why am I keeping this stuff? So I chucked it (it was probably too old anyway). If I ever want to wear it for some special occasion I can always get some from my sister.

Also found a natural way to clean and moisturize my face (massage in extra virgin olive oil and wash it off with a hot wash cloth - heavenly!) so I'm giving my sister a face wash gel and a bottle of toning lotion. Nothing big, but I'm so glad everytime I get rid of something, no matter how small!

Do you find it helps that you've got some distance between yourself and those items having been in storage so long? Or does seeing them again bring back more sentiment?

I've joked with DH that I need a shed to make life easier- a place to dump things until I can get myself to donate them. I know better than that though- if it were to go into a storage situation, I probably don't love it enough to bother with it. Still...

I am constantly "accumulating" in a spare room and do regularly have one of the charities come and pickup. (Usually whichever one happens to call or send a postcard when I am in the mood.in fact had a pickup yesterday). This is pretty much pertaining to clothing and obvious housewares- linens etc. I am very good at that BUT it's the sentimental stuff and or the grown adult children's stuff that I have a hard time with. We do have a big house and there is plenty of room, but I know moving is in the future and the thought of having to go through it then is just too much. I am fine with holding some stuff, but I have a daughter who lives across the country and I have to confess I have at times tossed stuff without asking.............and it has only been missed once. ( it was magazines so nothing so personal really). When she does come home which is rare (we go visit her - by plane so not much of a way to bring stuff) she is never in the mood to go through stuff.

I guess I am looking for encouragement or strategies going forward. I do love the motivation and the feeling afterwards is always a very rewarding one for me. Some people are troubled at getting rid, but I find it very empowering. ((just need a little more of it)).

Hi Sheilaaus122, sentimental stuff is always the hard stuff, isn't it?! I am doing better with letting go of such things, but it is because I've learned to identify why I feel sentimental, and whether the feelings are still holding up now, or I just want to feel the way I did when I got the item. I recently read a book- The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up- and it's been a turning point for me as far as making those decisions. Not sure if I can explain the thought process the author walks the reader through, but after reading the book it became clear to me that you don't look for things to discard, but rather decide which items you absolutely love and must keep. There is a difference.

I too have trouble with my DD. Mine is still quite young and not able to fully accept donating an item and not seeing it again. She is getting better as she gets older, but I have a tendency to slip her outgrown clothes out to charity. She would keep everything and we would drown in unused things that won't age well. I'd never get rid of anything that has sentimental value to her, and I wish she were capable of making those decisions at this point. What is idealistic and what is realistic in my world are two very different things.

For an adult child, would it be possible to get a box of items together and email your DD about what you have- ask her if she wants you to donate it to charity or send it to her? That way you could get her things out of your house bit by bit. My mother had a number of things that were mine, that I had forgotten about. When she asks me about a specific item, 99% of the time I tell her to go ahead and donate it.

When she does come home which is rare (we go visit her - by plane so not much of a way to bring stuff) she is never in the mood to go through stuff.

I think about the third time my kid was "not in the mood" (a grownup is "not in the mood"?), I'd be saying "OK, then I'm simply going to throw it all out as I see fit. This is my house, and you don't get to decide that I can keep storing your stuff because of your moods." That "I'm not in the mood" would make me really mad. I hope she's not really saying that to you!
I wouldn't care that I "have room," for several reasons:
• Now is when I have the time and energy; it if sits there, it's going to be something must be deal with right at a point when I don't have time and energy.
• Clutter saps energy. Its mere existence in my house is emotionally/ psychologically/ mentally damaging.
• Stuff needs maintenance. You have to move it around, shift it out of the way, deal with it if it gets damaged.
• I can't use that space for my stuff; because my child's stuff is on my attic shelves, I have to forgo using that space for something *I* would like to put there. Even if I have a sizeable attic--maybe I'd like to spread out my own belongings onto those shelves.

In fact, I'm about to get really stern with my college-age DD over this very issue. I ask her to deal with stuff like this while she's on break, even just one box, and she says, "I will but not NOW, Mom," and then she doesn't do it at all.

She's going to get the "Take care of this box today, or I will consider that to be my permission to do whatever I want with it."

I've got to figure out when her spring break is and try to get a couple of days off during that time frame so I can make her help me with her junk.

I've already told her: "Set aside two days to help me with this--I'm tired of it being back-burnered every time you come down." I just need to make good on it from my end.

quasifish asked, Do you find it helps that you've got some distance between yourself and those items having been in storage so long? Or does seeing them again bring back more sentiment?

The answer is, yes. It helps a lot, actually. Oh, there are still things that I waffle on. But it was so much easier to say, "This can go."

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I am so glad to read this. I have the exact same issue with my DD. She is currently living across the country finishing a fellowship and I've been in trouble for tossing TShirts from concerts from 10 years ago. She wanted to wear it at the most recent reunion of that group. I have about 10 boxes of clothing and other stuff of hers piled up in her bedroom. I will say that she will go through a box or two when she comes home but is usually only home for a day or two and does not have time to go through everything. I've also learned I can't overwhelm her and if I ask her to go through a few boxes every time she will generally get through 2 or so. DH feels like it's fine to have stuff piled up but it makes me crazy. I want to move just go I have an excuse to get rid of stuff!

I appreciate all the suggestions- but I guess I might not have been very clear. Her stuff is in her room, which is not used for anything. It's not boxes and boxes of stuff, in fact the closet is pretty empty. It's more books on bookshelves and photos and some toys and games. But everything is neatly displayed and where it was when she was growing up. So, it's not in my way at all. My thoughts are that when we go to sell the house in a few years, that I would probably be fine having the stuff there but I would--------as soon as the house is sold or I know our moving plans--- at that point know mentally what I will be tossing. I don't know if I am explaining it any better? As I said, we do have a large house with plenty of storage- I have both attic and basement which have stuff but to most people's standards, they are not cluttered but do have stuff.......

Old letters! Just one of my declutter categories. I have a big box of old letters going back forty years when we used to write letters. Over the years I've put them in order by sender and re read some of them. I still feel like I'd re read SOME of them. My sister, also a letter writer, once received a box of her own letters from a friend who was decluttering. That sounds like a good option for those friends you are still In touch with but I am still not up to that job. Oh, and I also have about a hundred journals of my own. I would like to go through them and find the GOOD stories, and there are some good ones, and pitch them so nobody has to decide whether to pitch them or read them after I'm gone!

I'm on a campaign at my parents'. Last summer my brother and I emptied their winter home: donated a ton, consigned a few hundred dollars worth, gave some to people. Yeah, 5 boxes of stuff were shipped home, too. Not all of it is unpacked, but most and we are distributing that stuff in the same way.

Now I am working on their house. Every few times that I'm there, I ask if I can declutter a drawer or a closet, and the answer is usually "yes". They couldn't say that a few years ago, but on either side of 90, they confess they aren't entertaining or doing projects any more, and decluttering is one of those projects, so they are relieved to have me doing it.

Makes me rethink the things I have in my house!

Good luck, bpathome! I know what you mean about dealing with someone else's clutter making you rethink what you have in your own life/house/space.

My parents moved to another state when I finished high school and I (and my stuff) moved in with my grandmother for a year and half. When I moved from her house to go to college out of state I moved everything of mine with me with the exception of two smallish boxes of mementos stashed in the back of a long empty closet. Years later my parents took over grandma's house and on a later visit I realized they had disposed of my boxes.

I can't blame them. If I really wanted those things, I could have collected them many times over the years. Still, even decades later I sometimes wish I had my high school yearbook and perhaps the scrapbook I kept as a teen. I wish they would have consulted me first before getting rid of them. So I very much agree with the suggestion of either having adult children come over and go through/take their own stuff, or asking them what they want to keep if they live far away and plan how and when they will get it.

When one understands how much space old t-shirts, books, recordings, prom dresses, childhood collections, etc. take up in THEIR home is when they realize what's important to them and what isn't so much.