After the '94 earthquake I ran into a neighbor whose entire china collection, save for one teacup, had been broken. She was thrilled! Positively gleeful! She hated the family member who had given her the china and hated having to use it and maintain it, etc. talk about family pressure! She planned a special display shelf for the cup with a little label that read something like "lone survivor 1994 Northridge Earthquake" and then she was going to buy the china that she wanted....so sad that she had spent 20 years transferring hate to an object.

i have been decluttering for about three years and feel good about what is left (save one beautiful solid mahagony Spanish revival buffet that weighs so much the charities won't take it...and I can only barely clean around it....) I really recommend decluttering, especially if you haven't moved and are unlikely to do so. It takes a lot more effort when you are staying in place.

Clutter and things I don't use make me uncomfortable so I am a over-zealous decluttered. I am sure there are things that I have given to Goodwill that I may have used again but I can't think of them so I have no regrets.

We recently moved and I donated lots of stuff before we moved. Now the new house, which is contemporary, does not lend itself to lots of my stuff from the old house, which was much more traditional. I had one room in the new house that I had all the stuff from the old house that I could not work into the new space. After months of walking by and seeing all that stuff with no where to use it I loaded it into my car and took it to the consignment shop. Whatever the consignment shop did not take I dropped at Goodwill. I now feel less burdened and am happy that someone else can have a nice thing at a good price that make them happy.

I scan my DS school papers, pictures and report cards and at the end of the school year I make a photobook on Snapfish. That way I don't have tons of old papers stashed in a folder but I nice book to look through.

Five years ago we moved out of our house for a whole house reno and got rid of so much stuff. I was ruthless about getting rid of things but I'm don't attach emotional weight or the idea that "I have to keep it because so-and-so gave it to me" to things. If I like it then it stays and if not out if goes.

It's the paper that permeates the house that bothers me. And both my kids have flown the nest in the past year and their rooms are calling us to clean them up.

We moved several times in fairly rapid succession; 93, 96, 98, 98, 05, 07. My DH remarked recently that our current house is our longest ever. And, our time here is winding down.

Because of the pate of frequent moves, I developed a clutter aversion. But, becasue we have been here so long, I have noticed 'things' accumulating more than I am really comfortable with. Part of that is due to my MIL down sizing recently as her stuff was stuff I had to deal with. My DH is also a pack rat so I do the best purges when he is not looking....

Gosh I feel like I wrote that article in response to posts here about keeping an attic full of hand me down________. One thing growing up in the military gave me was the ability to THROW CRAP AWAY, decide what I need vs I want and if I make a plan I getter done!! We have four cases of photos we "inherited" from the death of my in-laws. Each sibling took four. The assignment was to weed through them, take the best or most representative of each event, copy it to a Disc or now cloud...and share. So far we all have our four boxes virtually untouched. If it were up to me they would be thrown tomorrow--after 6 years no one gives a crap!!!-obviously.

Books, keepsakes and old family stuff actually make me happy, within reason. What makes me unhappy are piles and piles of paperwork, photos and teaching supplies I still have to sort and go through and organize.

Next in line would be old carpet that should be replaced with some kind of solid surface. My number one hate is the blue shag carpet in my dining room, which not only does not go with anything in the room, it is old and I am a messy eater and the whole area gets in and out traffic so it just needs to go. Just waiting to see how long I end up staying here before replacing it with wood. I hate my "Little Shop of Horrors" gold Audrey chandelier with the floral sconces, but it won't come out until the floors get done and the whole room gets a redo.

The second is the wrong color, particularly walls. And wallpaper, if you have it, that you don't like. My master bedroom in my old house had nasty 80's teal trim and a hideous teal and mauve and pink iris wallpaper border around the top of the wall, which I never fixed because it never reached the top of the priority list. Plus nasty worn acoustic tile on the ceiling. Nothing like staring at a ceiling you hate every night before lights out. Nasty curtains are easy to get rid of, but repainting and re-flooring, after you've moved in, are not easy or fun.

Right now I also hate my slowly rotting deck with its jail-bar railing blocking whatever nice view I might have. I think a lot of folks hate their bathrooms or kitchens, but live with them until the time is right to redo. My kitchen is all builders white and ubiquitous oak cabinets, but it's small and functional so not much point in redoing it. I hate my electric flat cooktop, it pulses and is horrid to cook with, so I might someday reasonably get a gas version to improve that.

I hate clutter, so I'm overly organized when it comes to storage. The problem with having storage space is it ends up full. I'm currently decluttering. DD2 is selling DGS outgrown clothes and toys, while decluttering her house for a move next month. DD1 has been selling things on ebay for a few years now - she moved in with us and no longer needs all of her things, or has outgrown them mentally. My sister bought some of my things this weekend, and will be getting a few from DD2. A local two booth antique store tenant is suppose to come see what I've collected the last 35 years and am ready to part with. Not that I didn't have a HUGE moving sale 10 years ago... and donate to a local charity on a regular basis (mostly clothes though). We will most likely be movin/downsizing in the next year, as we've been looking for 2 years now and it's time for the right house to come along.

As far as family items, it depends on what it is. I tend to keep photographs because I love them. But have donated a teacup collection and a few other things for others to love.

Until last Christmas I was ready to sell our wedding china, but used and enjoyed. But I would like to sell my grandmother's crystal along with some Mom gave me one Christmas. I just don't use.

Wow have I changed. Before I was surrounded, some would say drowning in stuff. Every day I'm getting rid of more of that stuff. Post migraine most of my desire to display everything so I could lie on the couch and admire them is gone as are most of the things. I've kept copper containers and blue glass but won't display them until I get my new curio. :)

Next I'm weeding out my Xmas stuff down to a few favourites. I'm also on a buy one get rid of 5 path in the clothing section.

In my home what makes me unhappy is how small it is. I still do beading and "need' a dedicated room for that. We have no closet for our coats and shoes so the are on hooks in a corner of the living room. Our bedroom closet is inadequate in size and awkward to utilize so we use armoires which is more visual clutter. We have a small dining area open to the slightly larger LR. It really only fits 2 people comfortably so we don't use it. I have my computer desk in the dining area. And since I will be getting a treadmill it will be even more crowded.(: o :).

I also inherited family pictures that have never been dealt with....

My mom has a dresser full of photo albums that she has inherited from various relatives. When we moved my mom into the retirement home, all of them got packed up and brought along. But when my mom dies, my siblings and I will have to deal with them, and I so don't wan't to. Many (probably most) of the pics are unlabeled, and I don't know what to do with a picure of an unidentified man from the 1930s. I hate the idea of dumping them, because they were personal to someone, and they are bits of history. But I don't want to be the keeper of all that. We've talked about hiring a service to scan them all.

My unhappiness is that the person who built this home put in a 6ft wide laundry room, with a door at one end that serves as the back entry. The door was placed in a way that allowed for the washer dryer to be placed on the perpendicular wall and the door could open. Well, appliance sizes grew and I could no longer get a w/d to fit in the space and open the door. So I bought a compact stackable set and put them in the space where the dryer was originally so the door could still be opened. But I have a king size bed, with large bedding to wash and it is very difficult to wash, plus I have to do a million loads. There is NO way to increase the size of the room without altering roof lines, ruining deck/porch traffic flow, rerouting the waterlines and shutoffs into the house and on and on. With the deeper w/d it leaves a tiny space to walk through the room and forget about hauling in groceries or other items and having a place to put them until they are put away. It's always an obstacle course where I feel as if I'm going to trip and kill myself.

I have looked at a zillion options for moving the w/d but there is no space anywhere else. Everything that might be a solution is impossible without a major remodel....and the best spot sits over the septic/drainfield, so that's out. It literally (well, ok, not literally) makes me crazy trying to figure out a solution.

I have spent lots of time decluttering since I left my job in February. I feel good about that and intend to do more once we bring out the Christmas decor. The thing that is bothering me most right now is my current paint colors. I'm ready to go back to neutrals. Hopefully I can do that in 2017.

I recently moved and relentlessly consigned/threw away stuff...er, treasures. However, when Allison0704 is ready to release some stuff...er, treasures, I'm up for a road trip. Anyone in the Baltimore/Annapolis/DC area with me?

Just throwing things out does not mean one will not have a cluttered home. The old clutter will just be replaced with new clutter because the owner of the home is not a particularly tidy person. If one just puts things away when they are through using them, and throws out junk mail, ones home will be less cluttered.

Toys belong in specific rooms. It's one of my biggest hatreds of "open concept" floor plans. I never wanted my children playing with toys in my living room, whether or not I could see them. It was an "adult room" and toys did not belong in it. We were lucky that the house we lived in when our children were small, had a basement playroom (do NOT think "Nice finished basement for family TV watching!). If they didn't want to have to pick up a toy (blocks, Fisher Price villages etc), the toy was kept in the basement. Every couple of weeks we'd have a big pick-up and start over. In the meantime, I could just close the door to the basement (they were required to keep a path to the laundry area clear!). Toys in their bedrooms had to be picked up every night before bed. It really was not very hard - my DD did pretty much the same thing as did my DS.

I don't have a clutter problem. Never have and God willing, never will. What makes me unhappy about my house is the kitchen cabinets. They are 35 years old. The walls and kitchen cabinets are the oldest thing about our home. We remodeled the kitchen in 2002 but didn't want to borrow money so the cabinets stayed. They don't look BAD, but I don't like the color they've turned. Other than that, I'm very pleased with everything else :) I'm even getting used to the "purple paint with multiple personalities" we just recently painted in the master :/

I have a washer and dryer in my already small kitchen. I always think if I just could move them and put a pantry there, my kitchen would be much more functional. But it is an old house and there really is nowhere to move them. At least if I'm cooking dinner or pouring a cup of coffee I can hear the dryer chime go off!

I really purged when we moved across the country in 2014. Then when we found a house to buy here, did another round of purging as we acquired new things for this house. Since then I take every chance I get to get rid of things. I've really worked at my closet (and DH's closet of late) to where I've ALMOST gotten rid of the things neither of us wear anymore. We have very few decor things anymore, really just three collections: Indian pottery and rugs, my Brush-McCoy New Art Vellum pottery from the '30s, and a smallish collection of 1929 New York Worlds Fair items. I try to scan and archive any important paper so I'm not keeping paper around. DH is different, though. His man cave is separate from the main house and it makes me itch to go in there. Piles and piles of paper. Two big baskets full of random cables and wires. I used to try to dust and vacuum in there for him, but it's just not possible lately. Thankfully I don't have to go in there much.

I could live very, very simply. Not tiny house simply, but less than 1,000 square feet simply. I actually found a house last weekend that I would love to have. 1BR/1BA in an area walkable to all the places one would want to walk to. Small private walled yard in the back, mostly patio. The house is about 800 SF. It also has a big 2-car garage, and probably half of that could be taken in to add another room and a second bath. I could easily live in it as is by myself, but of course DH would want to live there with me . . . the idea of having to look at/deal with/accept his man piles on a daily basis keeps me from seriously pushing to downsize even more.

Popcorn Ceiling in living/dining room. i hate it. I think I'd like to cover it with those country looking planks.

There's a lot of things I love about our house and most of the little things I don't care for can be changed, but the shape and dimensions of our living room can't and it's a nightmare. It's too long and narrow and has only 1 (long) wall that hasn't got a door or window in it. I also really miss having a fireplace, a natural burning fireplace that we could use during the cold winters.

Well for me I'm in the same place as localeater with MIL's stuff and a DH who is a pack rat, I try to let it go when he is not watching too! We have a lot of storage space upstairs but the stairs are not that wide and every time I have to go up with a box I wished they were wider,:( The other siblings do not want any of MIL treasurers and I feel weighed down with them, so a BIG sale will happen.

I really wished we would have put transoms over our stained glass windows in the front of our house, I love to open and get a cross breeze when the weather is nice.

And right now our deck is ugly, some of the boards need replacing. One of the best things we built that I Love is our wrap around porch :))!

I might get blasted for this, but it's something I've thought of lately re kid stuff everywhere. I don't have kids of my own, but I've been a kid and I always had a lot of toys. Dolls, stuffed animals, games, drawing paraphernalia - I loved to draw - but it wasn't strewn all over the house. I was required to keep my room neat and clean, and although I was certainly allowed to play with my toys in any room in the house, they weren't left or kept all over the place. I was required to put them back in my room, in their proper place, when play time was over. Seems like the "kid stuff" is a primary lament on many of the HGTV shows where homeowners are looking to move or remodel due to lack of space. It's probably done for visual effect, but there are always mounds of kid clutter in the public living spaces of the home. Why must that stuff stay there instead of being put away in the child's room? If it won't all fit into the child's room, perhaps that's speaking to the fact that there is just entirely too much of it and it needs to be weeded out.

Then again, perhaps I'm completely out of touch with how modern-day parenting works in this regard. Not that I believe by any means that children should be relegated to their rooms, but I don't understand letting them just take over the home with their clutter either. I don't think that's doing them any favors when it comes to teaching them several things, including respect for space shared with other people.

ETA: Lest anyone say that this is easier with just one child, I have younger brothers who had even more toys than I, and those toys were stored in their rooms.

Ida, I am also not a parent, but I agree with you. When we were kids we picked up our stuff when we were done and put it where it belonged.

I have the same kind of feeling when a dog owner complains that the dog destroyed the furniture. Seems like the dog should be taught not to chew up furniture.

Donna

Well, I am a parent(and was a kid lol)..I also happened to work with kids, at some point in my life..and I definitely agree about toys/books/dress up/games going to their places after playtime.

I noticed there are two different forms of chaos..one is a-middle-of-the-play-chaos, it's great because it inspires creativity and creation..as chaos should do lol..and it's the one that's necessary to have for a normal development and happy childhood.

Another one though is kind of purposeless, semi-permanent, always-there chaos..it's not a magic anymore-it's clutter, because the magic wasn't respected enough and was left around (not talking about big, taking time to finish projects-these are something else and should be left there as long as one works on them and takes pride in it). With this type of chaos, kids start getting unquiet..nothing can be found anymore-so not much inspiration to really play..the play with friends turns to be more rough..the general tiredness is very visible.

That's my observations.

and another one (also from the time I briefly was a cleaning lady..))-kids always come to play to the cleanest spot in the room..:) And they look the happiest then, excited and with shiny eyes..all the treasures can be seen now! It's also spare-spareness feeds imagination. Yes, it's a bit bumming since we've just cleaned:) but let them. They're kids. Just teach them to put everything back after. Some are very easy in this regard, some hate it..but in my experience, most can be very successfully taught doing so. You can turn it into a game even.

OK..coming back to my senses..that was a long off top ..:)

Ida, I'm with you and others on the 'kid stuff'. I had 2 younger brothers. You know, the green army men were everywhere as were the Lincoln Logs. I played with them as much as I played with my own stuff but we always had to put our things away. The only time I can recall we were allowed to keep things out in the family area was at Christmas when we were given a 'pass' for a few days to enjoy a new game or toy in the living room. Later, my parents added on a big den and an extra bath so we had a larger area to use, but we still had the rules about putting stuff back in our rooms.

Edited to stay on topic: I purge best when DH isn't watching and making sure I'm not getting rid of any of 'his' stuff. Guess who the is the pack-rat? The man won't part with anything he thinks is vintage. I need some huge black plastic bags so he doesn't see what's in them.

I am not a parent but I imagine part of it is just time and energy: with two working parents and kids in a zillion activities, it's probably hard to choose to spend precious family time together policing stuff especially if clutter management and organization aren't your strong suit.

I'm a naturally messy and cluttery person and it's something I have greater and less control over depending what else is going on in my life and how busy/tired/crazy I am. My house does not pass the inlaw inspection without a few dedicated hours of cleaning. I can't wait until we have $$ to have a housekeeper again...that was a complete joy for me.

On the other hand my husband is cleaner, but a bit of a hoarder, so we both have strong and weak spots. He's better at daily tidying up and I'm much better at the occasional sort/purge/organize a room.

I am not a parent but I imagine part of it is just time and energy: with two working parents and kids in a zillion activities, it's probably hard to choose to spend precious family time together policing stuff especially if clutter management and organization aren't your strong suit.

Yeah, probably true. It's just been striking me as odd that the "solution" (well, at least in the HGTV world, and we know what a bunch of hooey that generally is) is to redesign space instead of curtailing stuff, activities and/or behavior. Of course, that plays right into what we're supposed to be doing as good little consumers, right? ;-)

Spend-spend-spend / Busy-busy-busy. ::sigh::

It's really not that hard; we were very busy working young parents, I was working full time plus working on my master degree..and we had two young kids..you'll be tired anyway, I was deadly tired by the end of the day.. but you'll be tired less in a clean organized space. You'll be less angry. Both you-and the kid.

5-10 min are usually a time difference between a job well done-and a job done not so great. With everything, but especially with simple stuff like picking up.

You also have a responsibility to bring up a human being that's ..taking care of his planet, yes? Starts with toys, yes..but means so much more in the long run.

Yep, everybody s different..that's true. Some kids will hate it. My own daughter did:) And yes, she's that type of a person..it's really harder for her than the most. But now I reap some fruits of my labor..because now when in the dorms she tries to be tidy and clean after herself, and think about other people too, not only her precious time, tiredness, needs, etc. Everybody's busy, and everybody's time is precious just the same. That's what I was taught, and that's what I believe. Right, for some people much much harder (like my daughter)..well, some other things are extremely hard for me too-but I work on them. You wouldn't know:)

As for this HGTV 's redesigning instead of donating two thirds of the toys-it's just ridiculous, agree with IdaClaire.

No need for zillion activities as well if you ask me, A kid(or a grown up) needs to be healthily bored from time to time; needs to dream; needs to just be left alone too, to play, to think, to imagine.

You don't need a house full of toys for that; you don't need zillion activities as well. You need some toys, and some activities. You'll do perfectly fine. You'll also cherish whatever you've got much more.

Where were you aprilneverends when DH and I were preparing to list our home and move!

"Which implies "oh it's too much emotional weight"

But who said it's bad to have emotional weight? You'll have it anyway. You're a human..

You can have emotional weight-and still be free, you know. Or you can have none-and still be a prisoner to your mind."

I wish I had been able to articulate this concept as concisely as you did above, but alas, could not, and thus many items I would have preferred to hang on to were donated. DH had this weird "decluttering" frenzy going on, and I was just swept along in the undertow while I was mentally preparing myself for leaving a home I LOVED. Ah well, done now, but it would have been so much better if we had known what our new house would be when decluttering. Our well-loved furniture, perfect for an old Cape, is not right for an open-plan ranch. Better to have ditched that stuff early on!

Thanks also to Annegriet for the plank idea! Our new place has lots of potential, but I loathe the popcorn ceilings. I would love to get rid of them, but the idea of the expense and huge mess scraping them would create just deflates me. But a plank ceiling......

Thank you mabeldingeldine..where I was..I won't be surprised if I was also preparing to move lol.

No storage space, at all, and one wing is on slab so uses all electric energy, which is very expensive here.

Man this hits close to home. My mother and both of my in-laws died within two years of each other and my husband and I got a LOT of boxes full of STUFF. It was a bit easier for me because, A: my sister moved into Mom's house, so B: I got to pick and chose what I wanted to take home with me from there. Kicker: My sister and I are STILL trying to rid Mom's house of STUFF (she had a bedroom FULL of knitting supplies that never were used. Thankfully, that all got taken by willing parties or donated to Mom's knitting circle). As for my husband's parents' things, his step-siblings would not let him into "their Dad's" house to go through his Mom's papers, heirlooms, whatnot. They would just drive to our new house, in a new state, and dump boxes upon boxes of her things on our front porch, rain or shine, hot or cold weather. Picture books, books, photos (sans the silver frames), clothes, bedding, you name it, it was on our porch. Many of these things are still in boxes in our garage or in my husband's office, and it's kind of depressing.

The list missed my biggest one right now which is deferred maintenance. We have been in our home 10 years now and there are a bunch of little things that bother me. I am hoping to make 2017 the year to deal with things like patching the stucco, touching up paint, caulking certain areas, etc. They are all little things that are easy to overlook but are now piling up.

I think that is also what often happens with kid's stuff. There are some things that are easy to overlook for a time that eventually builds up. My kids stuff is not taking over the home but they are just as guilty as their parents about papers ended up in various areas, books being left out, etc. Part of it comes to things being in transition, the kid is done with it, the mom needs to look at it, but the mom puts it off. Then there is the problem of kids going through stages. We had a lovely little oak table that was perfect for the kids to sit at for homework in the living room. Eventually, the last kid outgrew it but it was quite a while (as in probably a year or more) before we finally decided to put it away. I also think that many of the newer homes are not designed well for storage. I really wish we had thought to put a closet in the dining room, etc. It would have helped to have a good place to store all the craft supplies.

It's location. In the United States.

(ok just kidding)

Sort of.

No, really.

I guess.

My stove. But now it's on the fritz - the last power surge seems to have blown the oven circuits, as it no longer heats consistently. Pushed me into finally emailing my contractor today to see about replacing it with a 24" Bluestar range.

Still have too much saved sewing supplies, but those are up in the attic and out of the way (it requires a ladder to access, so we seldom go up there.

We decluttered quite a bit last year when we reremodeled the MBR and had to subsequently move furniture around in the LR and front bdrm as well. We still have a lot of books, but many more go to the public library donation pile, and the majority I now buy are e-books.

Still too much paper around, but I'll get to that eventually [smile].

We're very happy with our home, but we've spent a lot of $$$$ and 26 yrs customizing it the way we like. I designed the remodeled layout in 1989 and it probably contains as much storage space as the official square footage. I have huge or multiple closets in every room - in fact, we have more closets than we have rooms!

Every woman alive can relate to a 1989 conversation I had with our partner when I was first laying out the design for what had been a very modest, starter 3bd 2 ba cottage (it's now 2bd, 2 ba with an incredible MBR suite):

Partner: "And the front spare bedroom has a nice large closet. It's at least 6', so that's enough."

Me: "Dan, only a man would call a 6' closet big - we're taking out the linen closet to the side and making this into an 8' long closet!"

My mother and I have already had the conversation about what will happen to her things when she's gone. She has two 7' tall bookcases and probably a dozen file boxes full of her genealogy "research" over the last 20 years. She copies everything! Imagine her dismay when I flatly stated neither my sister nor I is interested in taking any of that paper. Most of it is on ancestry.com.

Clutter weighs me down. I've never had a problem staying on top of that. Having the house in disarray due to home improvement projects is the number one thing making me unhappy about this house. I had a friend over and I apologized for the place looking like a furniture store. I've been living there almost 10 years. Due to previous owner's deferred maintenance I have two more big projects ahead of me. Feeling I'll never have a house that doesn't have some part of it torn up makes me sad. Finishing up my dining room will make me very happy, tho (targeting the end of December to have it all done).

Lack of storage and still remodeling and gifts from other people. Oh and no shop/garage. And mismatched hand me down furniture (I guess there's a lot that bothers me!)

We've been purging throughout our remodel and storage has slowly been added as we go. however there are still so many books in boxes (that I regularly have to dig out for reference) and as as fast as we purge well meaning in laws buy us more stuff. Ugh! There's also other stuff that has no home like tools and winter coats and random stuff like that.

Even though it has slowed us down I have insisted on built in storage as we go--- but omg having almost every room full of boxes and remodeling stuff is so icky!

Interesting article. I wish my daughter will not notice if any of her toys goes away -- she's the kid that notices if you took a few goldfish from her full bowl. And yes, we are buried in toys as a result. I tried to point out she no longer plays with some of her baby stuffies, so we should let them go, and she told me that she will play with them in 99 years! (she's 6). Guess that's how pack rats are born :) My personal nemesis is paperwork. I swear it breeds while you are not looking.

Interesting. My son is a very, very tidy kid..not chaotic like his sis. But at the same time he gets very attached to "his" things-while she's ready to happily give to everybody almost anything she owns. They were born like that-very different.

They were never buried in toys I must say, but the reluctance of my son to part with anything was very very visible..he would cry even upon suggesting donating old t-shirts that were too small. He's a very kind boy; and he would never take other kids' stuff, wouldn't touch it even..so wasn't interested in quantity. but his connection and attachment to things was totally different and very very strong..more like mine I'm sorry to say, lol..

What helped-I secretly picked out several of his beloved t-shirts that were too small on him, and sent them to a nice lady from Etsy. She made a wonderful quilt using these t-shirts. And we gave him this quilt as a birthday present(he was already 12 at that time)

It was like a switch. Not that he totally changed of course, he's still tidy and very sentimental))..but he became much calmer in relation to parting with stuff, and donating became easier too.

It was like saying to him "no worries...your memories stay with you. beloved things change their presence in your life..but they're not completely gone. even if they are gone. "

Several references to scanning. How is this done? Do you buy a special machine? Once scanned how is it sorted?

The baseboard and casing finishing. The painting people we hired did a poor job and we kicked them out before they finished as to not make it worse.

We need someone to come and just pretty it up. My DH thinks it should be me. Ha!

April, I'm glad it worked. This attachment to things is definitely genetic - DH and his father have the same tendencies. DH has gotten better with age, oddly enough, but he had to work at it. And all three of them have excellent memories; they remember when they got each thing and all that happened at the time and how they used or stored each thing. I tried suggesting pictures to DH but apparently that is not the same thing as the actual object in any shape or form, and it's somewhat insulting to even suggest it. He'd rather give it away without taking a picture of it. And clothing usually doesn't rate such strong attachments (thank god!). I don't quite get the whole thing, but I have to respect it and work with it. It's the only way to get clutter under control while letting everybody feel they have control.

Kathleen, there are apps that help with that. For example, Artkive helps scan kid's art (take a picture, basically) and store it.

kathleen squires -

Many of the all-in-one printer/copiers are also scanners. There are also the old-school flatbed scanners. Those come in handy for oversized documents (we use an old flatbed for copying music, which is often folded and oversize). I have a ScanSnap scanner (the predecessor model to this one) that was decommissioned when I closed my office a few years back. For light household use the ScanSnap may be overkill, but it's fast, easy to understand and use, and durable. You have a driver/software on your mac or PC that controls it and it's simple to save the documents once scanned.

There are some others out there designed for home use that are supposed to do some of the organizing/labeling for you (Neat Desk?) - you might look at some of those, too.

"tishtoshnm Zone 6/NM

The list missed my biggest one right now which is deferred maintenance. We have been in our home 10 years now and there are a bunch of little things that bother me. I am hoping to make 2017 the year to deal with things like patching the stucco, touching up paint, caulking certain areas, etc. They are all little things that are easy to overlook but are now piling up."

I am dealing with all of this here now. Hubby was sick for almost 4 years with cancer then passed in August. PHEW did a lot of things get put on hold. I could only do so much and taking care of him was priority. So far the biggest worst issue was calking the seams on the house. It is the cement board and the seams needed the calk desperately. I also painted over the calked areas and yes it is very noticeable. I plan on painting the house next year if I can afford it.

Second was getting the whole yard finally fenced in. We put up a nice dog yard as we were moving in and later I fenced in a side yard. Finally getting the lower yard done. One more gate to get the wire on. And some small fill in areas where the ground is not level.

I did paint a little more than half the inside of half the house in the last year. The three rooms not freshly painted were painted three years ago and in good shape. I will have my hands full of painting doing the house.And YES I am doing it myself I can not afford to hire a painter. Also doing the fence myself. I am 67 so things take me longer than some one younger.

Clutter. UGH I forced myself this morning while waiting for the fog to lift before going out side to clean inside. Vacuum and pick up everything.Fold the laundry. I am not a paper keeper but do have one file folder I do keep out of the current bills. I am still working on figuring out my financial situation with hubby gone. He always did the bills. I was putting the folder away then spending too much time dragging it back out so I made a place for it in my side table. Hopefully I will be able to tuck it further away soon.

I have been purging for years and feel pretty good about my progress. My biggest thought now is about the kitchen stuff. I cook very little for myself now. There will never be another man in my life to cook for. I rarely have company and I am wondering why I keep all the cooking stuff I used to use? I do not need the storage space in the pantry or kitchen cupboards. But it kind of bugs me to keep stuff I will never use.

I do not remember who said they had a laundry room issue of no space. I got rid of my dryer after hubby died. I am a total clothes line gal and when the weather is not good enough to dry clothes I just hang them on rods over the guest bath. I hardly ever used the dryer and it was taking up valuable real estate in my laundry room. I have not missed it.

We chose our house and had it built for us to age in place. So I do not have much to not love about this house. Maybe the hall way closet could be larger. but do I really need 6 jackets? Well in winter shoveling snow I can easily get one or two jackets wet.

Deferred maintenance/unfinished projects are at the top of my list, too. Years ago we had part of a wall removed to open up the kitchen and dining spaces. What was supposed to be a two day project turned into weeks. By the end of it I was so sick of the guy doing the work I just asked him to leave even though the baseboards on the kitchen side had not been replaced. So I've got a five inch area of no baseboards--for six years!

We had to have the glass in one of our french doors to the patio replaced. The glass guy didn't "do painting" so the trim around the new panel has never been painted. We have one taupe French door and one Taupe French door with white trim around the glass. Also for six years.

Our house had a flag bracket on a front porch pillar when we bought it. We're not flag people so I removed the bracket. The paint underneath the bracket was a different color. Easy fix because the previous owner left all the cans of paint. But wait--I'd have to walk all the way to the back of the garage and sort through those cans. Seven years later--still a different color of paint in the shape of the flag bracket.

What is the point of spending 3,257 hours online shopping for the perfect rug when you have 15 of these easy fixes staring you in the face for year after year? I can't tell you. Too busy shopping for rugs!

A few houses ago, we moved to an area that did not have many home choices so we ended up buying house that we weren't crazy about. We made the inside really lovely but no matter what we did with the front and yard, we could not disguise the fact that the exterior was an ugly McMansion.

So, every time I drove in the driveway my heart sunk a little. Since that house, I have put curb appeal near the top of my house hunting list.

Two things about my house I hate: the interior doors and the kitchen countertop. Our last home was a large, elaborate, well-built house, but we sold it to downsize. The house we bought is very nice with an excellent location, but has a few builder-grade features - the interior doors and kitchen countertop. I'd dearly love to replace all, but DH says there's nothing wrong with them. True. I just don't like them.

Mentioning DH - that's another problem. I believe it is against all he stands for to see a clean, bare flat surface and LEAVE IT THAT WAY. He is a hoarder, a stacker, a piler-of-stuff. He can never find any of his things, of course, so if he can't find his good leather gloves, he goes out and buys another pair. Ack. Once in a while I get brave and throw some of his stuff away. Here's what I have my eye on for the next trash day: a grocery bag full of condolence cards and letters received upon the occasion of his mother's death. 22 years ago.

I've been getting rid of some things recently that I purchased for entertaining when I moved into my home 12 years ago. My tastes have changed. The local charity store loves me. I've been bringing them some really cool stuff. Crystal, china, a teacup collection, brass tone charger plates, a whole collection of stainless flatware that's just too fancy for me now, even a huge chandelier that weighed a jillion pounds. I thought about selling it, but my time was worth more to me, so I donated. It's been so freeing. I do feel lighter. The emotional kicker for me was to stop thinking I had to keep within the norm, but instead make the house into what works for our lifestyle and the way we like to live.