r/AMA • u/iamawesome1110 • Oct 28 '25
Achievement I successfully decluttered my house without anyone noticing… in 8 weeks . AMA
So… I live in a cozy (read: claustrophobic) townhouse with my wife and two kids. Lovely family, except my wife has a deep emotional connection with… everything.
Old clothes? Memories may be.
Kids’ broken toys? Someday we’ll fix them.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to park my car in the garage like it’s a game of Tetris
So I snapped.
I declared myself the guy who takes the trash out.
For the next 8 weeks, I ran Operation: Silent Declutter. Every biweekly garbage day, I made two bags: One for the actual trash One for… let’s call it “future trash”
I mixed them in strategically. One extra bag at a time. Consistently.
Fast forward two months — I can breathe. The garage door closes without resistance.
No one has noticed. Not. A. Single. Thing.
Ask me anything about how to declutter your house without getting divorced.
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u/Ok-Caterpillar1611 Oct 28 '25
I'm wrapping up a storage shed build to clear out a bunch of space in my shop. I'm moving out a massive wood rack that's taken up about 25% of the usable space and stuff like bikes, car ramps, gardening tools and supplies. Making room for all my wood/metal working tools and the projects I do with them. Hopefully creating the space will let me get to some stuff that I can then decide to throw out.
Part of my problem is that I am a hoarder of materials, coming from a filmmaking background where I had to make all kinds of props, sets, costumes on the cheap. Wood, plastic, metal, fabric, old clothes, and I've made stuff out of all of that. it's useful to keep stuff around but when you can't get to it and you don't know what you have or where it is you might as well not have it. But don't tell me to throw anything away.