When a good friend decided to sell her house and move, it made me take a real good look at my house. Our houses are the same style.

I did go through lots of clothing. My problem is one adult DD is back at home and the other still has clothing here!

I look in my basement and everything that I have stored is used and has a purpose, just maybe one or twice a year.

My attic is filled with things that I don't want to part with. My DD's old books and toys.

I guess when I am forced to go through things I will, but I was hoping to get a jump start.

When I cleaned out my parents' house, it was a relatively simple job because they were organized and hadn't accumulated a lot of useless stuff. But it was still not easy, and I vowed on the plane trip home that I would get ruthless about my own stuff so that my kids wouldn't have so much to deal with. I've made a dent in it, but not a very big dent--and that vow was made in 1996!

I live in an old farmhouse with an attic. I have a barn, a shed, a horse shelter, and an ice house. It's like buying a bigger refrigerator, thinking it'll be less stuffed than the old smaller one, but in fact if we have a larger space our inclination is usually to fill it up.

EBay has been my biggest friend in this endeavor. I began selling things in 2004, and I'm still at it.

I am in the process of getting rid of things I no longer use much, like craft items , dishes etc. I sold a couple of large kettles at my garage sale last year. I sold them cheap and after purchasing them the guy told me what they were worth on eBay. I have a couple more so will up the price this year. I buy on EBay but haven't sold yet. Feels good to cut down on the clutter! :)

Our basement is filled with 30 years of stuff. We started to go through it about 1 1/2 years ago but never got back to it! Occasionally DH will go through some stuff and bring it upstairs and ask me.

Whenever I go down there I just get overwhelmed and give up. I did read something not long ago where an organizer said, in order to not get overwhelmed, bring up a few boxes at a time and go through them upstairs, away from all the other stuff.....it won't be so daunting and you can just focus on the things in those boxes.

I'm such a pack rat.......keep things just because it was a gift, etc. I tell myself to get going on clearing it it out, but I guess "myself" is a poor listener.

When my DH passed away, I sold our house and made the move "back home" and built a new house....from 4090 sf to 1638 sf....so I had a three day living estate sale at my old house and sold everything I absolutely could not live without. The people who bought my house wanted most of my furniture, so that made it easy not having to move, store, and move again. I vowed never to collect "stuff" again....and so far, I have done a pretty good job of keeping to a minimum.

It was such a great feeling to unclutter my life and surroundings!

We've been uncluttering, too. Lots and lots of books, clothes, gifts in drawers and closets, business supplies, and so much more. I've been able to get rid of one book shelf so far and love having the space....nice, clean, open space.

Good grief, the art work I've collected over the years stacked away in closets and cabinets.

It's nice to lighten the load, isn't it?

Purging feels so good to me.

We just donated several pieces of nice furniture that we'd been storing but don't need or use anymore.

I find myself made nervous by all the "stuff" we have in our closets, the basement, the attic and garage.

Oh my!

I would love to find us storing only what we really need, so I really should stop collecting Christmas decorations.

We brought back way too much stuff from CA to ND, even though our DD got a lot there. Have given much to GD's and now in asst living, still more to go. If I stay away from garage sales and craft fairs I just might make it.

We have lived here since 1979 and raised 3 kids. My younger son left all his college stuff in boxes in his closet and moved to the other coast within days of graduating. He visits at the holidays, but does not need the stuff he has saved and doesn't go through it. So he told me to just throw it out, which I have done, but after sorting through it. I found scissors, pens, food storage containers, and gave all the books to the library used book sale.

We are in our 70s and so I swore I would go through all our closets, but I haven't. I need to get back to it. I don't want all this stuff left for the kids to sort through some day. Our house is large, and I thought I was not collecting stuff. Then we recarpeted the whole house, and I saw what we all had stuffed into all the closets!

I used to "dress up" to go to work....all those clothes and shoes I still have. :0) I keep telling myself it's not costing me anything to keep them. lol High waisted pleated pants....maybe I should be donating those....lol I donated my roller rink roller skates last week. It's been 20 years since I'd worn those. :0)

When I replace a piece of furniture I throw out the old one when I bring the new one home....so furniture isn't a problem.

Funny, I just made the same comment yesterday about spending half your life collecting things and the other half getting rid of them. I won't worry about leaving too much for someone else to go through though -- there are individuals and businesses that gladly deal with "clean-outs"!

After emptying and getting rid of the contents of my late MIL's house, I vowed to not believe that big of a mess for anyone in the case of our demise. Plus, we've started thinking about where we are going to move to when it becomes too hard for us to stay in this house with all of our property. So little by little, I've been trying to get rid of things. Our attics are almost completely empty which was a big job and a yard sale helped with that a lot. And the thrift shops in our area have benefited greatly. It seems like a never ending job but I joined a group on Facebook for decluttering and that keeps me motivated.

Flamingo would you be willing to share which group on FB? That sounds like something I would like. I for sure need motivation. If you cannot that is fine too and thank you for your time.

After my husband passed away, I stayed on in our large house, with the attic, garage and basement filled with stuff, some good, some other wise. I had been an avid auction buyer and yard sale customer and was a knowledgeable buyer. Still using many of those things today. But finally I had everything that I knew I would never use taken out to the side yard and auctioned off. Some years later I moved to a smaller house, and finally here to the Retirement Community. Looking forward, I gave many of the larger pieces of furniture, odds and ends, etc. to my kids and grands, if they wanted them. There is a family joke now about my DGD whose home has become sort of a reflection of my former home. Now I have told them that when we are all here for my birthday and Christmas, including in-laws, that I will give each of them a notebook to write down whatever they would like to have after I'm gone, and I will decide who gets what, before then, of course. There is one exemption: I have always believed that gifts should be returned to the giver, if they should want them. So that is my plan, and I'm "sticking to it!"
Sue

Sue, that's how we did it with our parents, gifts went back to the giver. To me it is more special to have the things that Mom gave to me before she passed away. Of course there are things that you are still using that you cannot part with. Your idea is a good one, you find out what they want and then have it spelled out so no squabbling. What if more than one kid wants the same thing?

Flip a quarter.

I need to remember sometime during the day to bring the flashlight from the bedroom to the kitchen/living room, or wherever I'll end up at the end of the day, so that I avoid stubbing my toe, falling over stuff, or getting otherwise entangled after I turn the light off at bedtime to head to the bathroom/bedroom.

o j

What's really ironic? I look at my house when I leave sometime (trips, gone for the day) and think, what if I had to tell someone to come get stuff for me if I ended up in a hospital or died for some freak reason? Would I be embarrassed? It's almost what y'all are saying. I don't want to leave it for anyone to deal with, not even for a moment. So I am really ruthless. I have no storage save our two personal bedroom closets and one chest of drawers for each of us. We keep it really cleaned out. Donate constantly.

I think, if, Godforbid!!!, my mom died tomorrow, we'd likely choose among ourselves a few keepsakes without fighting, because we just did that with my grandparents, and it was really civil. The rest would get donated. Because my mom moved out of her parents house and into her own, we figured out, garage sales probably won't bring in much money where we are. The stuff isn't in high enough demand and eBay wouldn't even work. So donation is it. We'd just claim it on income tax and find the return that way. It's far faster and someone else gets a job with it.

I responded to this last night but I don't see it, grammaj. It's a Facebook page called 40 Bags in 40 Days (official).

I love getting rid of stuff, almost too much! It disappoints me when I see that there is nothing I can get rid of because I actually need what I have. I just love to have room in my drawers and cupboards, it's so much easier to keep track of things and tidying up since I do have room for what I currently have. I actually enjoy the process of picking through though, to see what I can possibly get rid of, and then the feeling of seeing less stuff in that space.

The irony is that the majority of my "stuff" (stuff I don't use and don't want) was given to me by my family members! If I disappear and they're left with a bunch of clutter to clean out, it's their own fault. lol!

Okay, you all shamed me into emailing my DDIL to see if she wants 6 pieces of flannel fabric each 2 to 4 yards. I know I'm not going to use them and if she doesn't want them I know a quilting group who will use them to make quilts for babies.

Keep it up ladies, I need encouragement. I have donated tons of stuff, but can do more.

flamingo, I saw the FB post last year about the "40 bags in 40 days" and it sounded reasonable so I tried it..... it really does work great because you can choose a manageable "space" to tackle and you don't feel so overwhelmed. My 'bags' were just grocery-size plastic bags or something the equivalent in size -- a bag of papers to shred (actually 3 for me!), a bag with a few shirts/sweaters, etc. It takes very little time/effort before you see results. I think I got to around 30+ bags (having missed a few days here and there), but then the weather got so nice that I dropped the process. It's time to fill some bags again! :O)

Else, you said that you love giving things away and getting rid of things. Might I ask you, where/who do you give things to? I think this is my biggest issue. I have a bunch of things that I don't really use but I cannot see throwing away perfectly good stuff...to me that would just be a sin or something to do that! I don't have enough for a garage sale. I really don't want to hassle with a buy sell trade group and having someone come over to my house to get things or to have to drive somewhere to meet someone to give them a coffee pot(for example) that I'm not using...ya know? It leaves me scratching my head. HA!

I give all my items to 3 different thrift shops. One benefits the local humane society, one is for local health care for the uninsured and another feeds hungry people. They sell the items.

I'm not a hoarder but I also could stand to get rid of some more clothes and junk. Our worst spot right now is the garage and Woody's room that has all the tools and fishing stuff. Huge mess to me, but he knows where everything is. I just don't want to get stuck with it at some point.

I'm trying hard to pare down my belongings. Our house is small, the kids have flown the coop. I have a garage and attic full of "good stuff" I put away, hoping either to sell or give to my kids/future grandkids. Well, I recently tried to give my pregnant daughter the baby bassinette ( a sort-of baby bed) we had used for our two daughters. She did not want it, saying it's old and moldy, it's probably dangerous. My feelings were hurt but I got over it. I'd donate it but I heard no one (no charities) want used baby items because they may be unsafe. I certainly wouldn't want someone to get hurt. So I'll save the bassinettte and let my grand-daughter to be use it as a toy for her dolls.

we just had our first yard sale and unloaded a lot of stuff. We even had a free pile of things that went quickly. Now our next sale is going to be a collectible sale. My hubby did not realize how much stuff he had saved over the years. I'll be doing a lot of homework to see how much some things are worth. slowly but surely we're downsizing.

Three years ago I moved from the house where I'd raised my family into a two bedroom apartment.. It was a lot of work but I got rid of an awful lot of stuff. Some things got sold, some got donated or given away, and some ended up in the dumpster. You have to be ruthless and not let sentiment get in the way. The only stuff I still have too much of is sewing and quilting supplies, but I still use them thought not as often as I used to. It really is cathartic not to be burdened with a lot of possessions.

Hey ... mebbe I could find stuff that I need without a half day of looking!

o j

One of my biggest issues is that I am very crafty and MacGyverish, so everything I stash away thinking that I can use it to make something sometime down the road. It's really hard to throw away something that looks useful. I am always finding new uses for "useless" things. I do try and compile these things in one area so I can find them later. I guess I'm an organized pack rat...HA!

Arkansas girl, could you just buy them at a thrift store or a yard sale, for one project at a time? Have a garage sale, get rid of what you aren't currently using, save the money and buy again what you need for your next project, after you finish the current WIP.

arkansas_girl, About If more than one wants the same thing: I'll use my "common sense and logic" plan which I base a lot of decisions on. Usually works.

Sue