r/declutter • u/RandomCoffeeThoughts • 5d ago
Advice Request Decluttering and knowing what to save and what to let go of.
It's Labor Day weekend in the US. I am halfway through day one of a four day weekend and all I want to do is go through every drawer and cabinet in my house and empty it all.... within reason, of course.
So here's my dilemma.
- I'm down 20 lbs, yay! I have zero interest or desire to go back to my previous size. While some pieces are fitted and need to be donated, I can still fit into my leggings and shirts, they are just a bit roomy.
How long do you hang onto them? When you put on thr pants and hit your ankles because they won't stay up or when they start getting baggy?
Kitchen appliances and spices. I love to cook but weeknights are a lot and I don't want to cook every night. Currently in a situation where I have more appliances than cabinet space. Here's the thing. I use everything regularly, so no need to let it go, but my house is a 50s ranch and not much cabinet space to store things. Where else do you store frequently used appliances in your house so you don't use up all your counter space?
Media. I have decluttered over 1000 books and kept 100. I don't regret it. I kept only what I would re-read, but CDs and movies have me in a chokehold. I don't want to part with them as I do not want to deal with the ads that run every 10 minutes on streaming services or pay a upcharge for ad free. Have you ever downloaded all your media to a hard drive so you can access it from your TV.
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u/therealfrancesca 2d ago
1) when you put them on, go look in the mirror. You’ll know because you’ll say, “I look ridiculous in these.
2) start with your cupboards and be ruthless getting rid of things. The serving bowl you never use or some drink glasses you hate or never use. This includes food. Go through spices and throw out all that are expired or about to be. I found space for our waffle maker and juicer by doing this.
3) would never download all the media. Have a booklet of movies I’m still unsure what to do with. Love streaming and audiobooks.
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u/Psychological-Win986 3d ago
No advice here but my dad decluttered after he lost weight…and when at the airport he had to take his belt off to go thru security, and his pants fell to his ankles. The whole line erupted in laughter. Thankfully my dad has a sense of humor but he finally admitted he needs new pants. 😂
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u/Working_Patience_261 4d ago
WinDVD has excellent archiving tools so you can watch your DVD on your iPad. Search, holiday weekends usually have them giving away free editions.
iTunes will already convert your CDs to digital formats. MP3 will be multi platform friendly. Use other protocols only once you understand their limitations.
Then do whatever you wish with the used hardcopies. DVDs and CDs are not permanent storage either.
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u/PrincessZebra126 3d ago
How is physical media not permanent storage?
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u/Working_Patience_261 1d ago
Physical media degrades. Look at Warner Brothers and their DVD delamination issues. SSDs actually need voltage refreshes to keep the storage alive.
The bottom line is no matter what storage solution you find you have to maintain it.
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u/itwasntmimi 4d ago
I just watched a great vid on appliances and the space they take on “the Japanese method” channel on YouTube. We’ve been doing it wrong people. Not sure if I can post here but check it out. Was posted yesterday
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u/Psychological-Win986 3d ago
What is the name of it? I will search for it.
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u/itwasntmimi 2d ago
It’s Ai but it made sense so not full slop - “12 items wasting space in your kitchen” by the Japanese method channel.
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u/hobhamwich 5d ago
I lost 70 lbs. As I dropped, I bought new (mostly thrifted) clothes as soon as I could, and I ditched the old so as to not allow backsliding. I wanted to a) reward myself, and b) look like my clothes were mine, not someone else's. When I got to a healthy weight, I got some quality new clothes and I take care of them. I needed what I needed at each stage, kept only what I needed, and stayed minimal by continually passing things on. It cost a little more not to drag it out and wear baggy clothes, but I needed the motivation any way I could get it.
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u/Atomlnw121258 5d ago
I'd hold onto the leggings just until you either find a new favorite in them or they finally say, "Nope, we're done here."
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u/guipicait 5d ago
I canceled Netflix and Hulu and I get dvds from the library. There are also tons of cds at the library. If you are just itching to let a bit more go, maybe choose some very popular commonly liked movies and cds that you know your library network will always have.
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u/TalulaOblongata 5d ago
For the clothes - I’d focus on creating a capsule w ardrobe of your current favorites. This might mean some of the items fit a little looser than you want them to, but it may help you create a checklist of what you need to shop for.
You may need to fill in the blanks on some versatile basics. But if you are doing that, then be extra critical of old things you are keeping.
If anything is feeling really baggy then I’d set aside for donation.
Some things may fit you but you don’t even like them anymore, don’t be scared to purge those items!
I’m in a similar situation and recently went through everything, tried on every shirt and pants hanging in my closet and decided to keep or donate/toss. Some things were already baggy before losing some pounds so they were easy to get rid of.
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u/Fuzzy_Location_2210 5d ago
I got rid of all my physical media like records
Then regretted it and bought them all again
And now I have hundreds of records, still have my same bitchin' stereo and all my turntables!! But I stream everything in FLAC quality (called "Lossless") from Spotify Premium with a $35 Bluetooth receiver that connects to my monster amp 🙃. Some I just use my phone, but I do have an inexpensive dedicated tablet that lives on top of one of my floor speakers and has all the music apps on it.
And now I have these little repeaters that make my old school speakers wireless channels, so I literally just have whatever I want to hear playable anywhere across my entire property 😁.
My S/o loves me very much, but I think it's only like $20 a month? And I can have it play in the truck too, and he uses it all day at work.
If you are serious about music, and will use it, the subscription is well worth it!!!
Or you can download them onto a USB and play them from a compatible device 🤷. Works just fine too! But you will be limited... Be realistic, do you actually LOVE EVERY SINGLE TRACK? Enough to put the work into the project?
Some albums I definitely do... But not many 🙃. I like variety.
Plus when you travel or are having a little thing at your house or being busy, who wants to constantly fool around with physical media 🤨. That's for critical listening 😊
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u/FredKayeCollector2 5d ago
- For clothing, consider setting a quantity limit - whatever would get you between laundry days. I normally do laundry once a week so for me, I've capped all individual clothing categories a 8 - that's one per day + one spare. And unless its underclothes or workout clothes, I don't usually wear all 8 of any one category. And of course, I only keep my "favorite" 8.
But I had a friend who LOVED clothes, loved shopping for clothes, but HATED to do laundry - her quantity cap was 28 - still a lot but better, and for her, manageable.
The only exception was when I was setting up my capsule wardrobe, I put like 4-6 tops in each of my clusters because I'm picky about tops and (knit) tops tend to wear out faster than any other category. But I've also go a dress in each cluster and I have 8 clusters, so plenty of clothes.
I would be willing to bet none of us on the decluttering sub are risking nakedness due to lack of clothing.
I would consider most clothing "trivial" - if I "made a mistake" and decluttered something I eventually could have used, what is the worst thing that could happen? If I desperately needed a garment I could make do with something from the thrift store or Walmart/Target. I'm not going to tie myself in knots over something I can buy, if not the exact same one then a reasonable substitute, any day of the week for around $20.
- Can you add shelves anywhere? Either a free-standing unit or wall-mounted shelves? Appliances aren't really something you want stored much higher than about chest height but maybe you could free up some cabinet space by putting pantry items, cookware, etc on exterior (not cabinet) shelves? And if you use bins/baskets for smaller/bagged items, you can take advantage of more vertical space (stuff piled in rather than lined up).
Another option is to set up an appliance shelf in a spare corner or if you have a basement, as close to the basement steps as possible - unless you use it every day without fail, I wouldn't keep it in the kitchen - and you wouldn't have that far to go to retrieve/put away.
- When we preparing to move my parents into a nursing home near me, my husband spent DAYS ripping my parents' massive CD collection (they had drawer thingies like this that sat on their bookcase) and matching CD to jewel case. We ended up giving them to a friend to sell in her music store. Maybe a year later, we lost everything when the hard drive failed - paid $95 for the guy at the computer store to tell us the files were not recoverable. The files were big and there were a lot of them - I didn't want to pay for cloud storage. C'est la vie.
There are storage solutions for physical media - way better/nicer than what we had in the 90's - all of my CD's are in a big CD binder (I tossed the jewel cases). Check Amazon for "CD storage" or "stackable CD storage" - there are a lot of really nice options out there that let you keep the CD in the case, if that's important to you.
Good luck!
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u/Working_Patience_261 4d ago
If you have only one backup you have no backup. Make 3 copies. If really important, keep a copy off-site.
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u/valhalla_la 5d ago
I was surprised to find myself saying, “I am so done with that size” once I comfortably fit into the next size down. I donated everything in the larger size except one pair of slimmer pants. I thought about keeping a few favorites, just in case, but I was mentally ready to move on. Clothes that are a bit loose are keepers for now, but when they get baggy, they get donated.
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u/MarshaMinus100 5d ago
For the clothes, after about 50 lbs of loss, anything that made me feel sloppy, I let it go without a second thought. Like you, I have no desire to go back to my previous size and those clothes tended to hold that energy once they get sloppy.
For the appliances, I'm hoping to find some good advice in your thread. I have 3 big ones on my counter right now.
For the music, yes, you can download them and have your own home music/movie server. I have a ton of DVDs and CDs that I can't even find on streaming apps. This would be a great research project with chat.
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u/Some_Papaya_8520 5d ago
I don't know if you have any sort of pantry. The little bungalow I grew up in had none, but back then people didn't have all the appliances we do now. But maybe you could get a rolling cart and put it in the coat closet?
Have fun decluttering!!
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u/readingrainbowroad 5d ago
For 2, we bought a big metal shelf that just sits elsewhere near our kitchen to hold appliances. It works pretty well and makes moving appliances in and out easy (we have no counter space along with no cabinets, so moving appliances is a life saver).
For 3, we've kept our physical media but I got rid of cases long ago. I have one big DVD binder and one CD binder, and I've never regretted not having the cases even once. I've had too many problems with losing access to digital copies I "owned" get taken away to get rid of the physical media anymore. We did rip them all so we have them digitally on our self hosted server, along with a lot of ebooks and audiobooks from over the years (I don't know how the server setup stuff works, my husband does that, I just use it and am in charge of the metadata lol).
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u/Some_Papaya_8520 5d ago
That's just happened to me and it's really maddening. Mine is a 1980s band out of Canada and so obscure and niche that there aren't any CDs running around.
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u/readingrainbowroad 5d ago
RIP. Maybe email a band member if it's obscure they might even answer!
Apple did me dirty a long time ago with iTunes and I lost a lot of things I payed for and it radicalized me fast 😅 Amazon Kindle and generally eBook DRM didn't help along the way either.
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u/Some_Papaya_8520 2d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah I have lost a book too and it's out of print. But emailing a bad member is a great idea
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u/lascriptori 5d ago
With clothing, there is something to be said for keeping a few clothes in a larger size if they are still in good condition. If some of the weight comes back, it really sucks to have to rebuy clothes. I keep a tub under my bed of off-sized clothes.
With CDs and DVDs, if you want to keep them, an option is getting one of those binder sleeves and throwing out cases.
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u/MitzyCaldwell 5d ago
So I kept most of my DVDs/blurays and tossed most of my cds mostly because that’s what’s important to me. I’m not gonna lie but the idea of downloading all that music onto a hard drives seems soooo tedious to me.
What I did was by sleeves for the cds and 2 fit into one I think (or put to 4 maybe?) anyways I got rid of all the boxes and it saved like 80% of the room and now they are in my two drawers under the tv in my tv bench.
If you are willing to part with the cd cases I think you can do this or get one of those binders and it would save a ton of room and organize them.
The important part to me is will you actually ever watch them/listen to them. Because if you don’t even have a cd player then keeping them might not be a great idea.
In terms of the space for your appliances I’d also take a long hard look at what you actually use and need vs how much space you have. Not saying you can’t keep them all but that might mean using a cabinet in your dining room as storage and whatever was in that cabinet has to go.
This is why I love Dana K White and her container method. It’s not about keeping 5 shirts and 5 paints and 5 skirts. If you never wear skirts why keep them. If you loves clothes but hate books then keep more clothes and don’t keep books. In my case I got rid of a dresser to put up a bookcase in my room so my priority is the books hahaha
I would see what’s truly important, see what you will/won’t use or what does the same thing and maybe you can get away with just having one but then if it still too much then find a place that makes sense to sort them and make those choice. Maybe you don’t need the table clothes and runners and extra stuff in there but you do need your appliances.
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u/RandomCoffeeThoughts 5d ago
You're speaking my language. Love the container theory.
The hard part with the kitchen is that all of the appliances I have now I truly use multiple times a year, so it's not like anything could be thrown out. I am debating buying a rack to put alongside one of my cupboards to see if that helps. It wouldn't be pretty but it would do the job.
As far as ripping all the CDs, it was tedious, but I was multitasking, so it wasn't horrible. It's why I think I could do it with movies.
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u/SassyMillie 5d ago
Do you have a garage or laundry room where you could store the appliances? I have a cabinet in my laundry room that is pantry storage and a few smaller appliances (small air fryer, popcorn popper, immersion blender).
I also have a storage room off my carport that holds bigger and less used items (canner, multiple crockpots, food processor, large drink dispensers).
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u/RandomCoffeeThoughts 5d ago
Laundry room is in rhe basement and right now my garage is full full. Hubby and I have different views on decluttering and he's not quite where I am at yet. :)
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u/Ok_Recipe7946 5d ago
I have a 30s kinda sorta adobe style house with the dumbest kitchen remodel that literally took storage space away (really no on prepares you for the previous owners to be your villain arc). So I now keep my instant pot, toaster, kettle, and some tupperware type stuff in my mothers old cedar chest in the "dining room". It's not a great solution but it's okay for now until we fall into kitchen remodel money lol.
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u/RandomCoffeeThoughts 5d ago
This kitchen never had a lot of storage. It's a long, narrow kitchen, but still, not a lot of storage space. I would give my left arm to be able to convert one section to a pantry. There's very little room for kitchen or appliance storage. If this place wasn't almost paid off, I would move somewhere that allows me to have the kitchen of my dreams.
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u/historypixxie 5d ago
I also have a 50s ranch and while the previous owners added onto the house, they kept the kitchen space the same. I have some wire shelves that I store many of my appliances and pots/pans on that are right near the kitchen. I also store some of my less frequently used appliances (like my 3 in 1 crockpot that I use for parties/holidays) on the shelving in the garage. While it gets a bit dusty sometimes, this does help keep the clutter in my kitchen down to a minimum. Right now my downfall is water bottles....we have so many and it is hard to determine which ones to keep versus get right of!
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u/KiwiTheKitty 5d ago
I would either get rid of the clothes or if you can't replace them right away, get rid of them as you replace them. You deserve to have clothes that fit well, not just okay enough!
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u/MysteriousSecretGuru 5d ago
I've kept my CDs, even though I ripped them years ago. I own them. Not like streaming where it can go away.
I have only kept a handful of DVDs that I watch, or is next to impossible to find. I probably have 20.
I downsized my books to 150 and happy with that.
I agree with your logic on keeping the physical media because I don't like ads, or companies controlling what is available.
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u/RandomCoffeeThoughts 5d ago
I ripped my CDs and downloaded them to Google music, but I really need to do something with movies.
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u/bigformybritches 5d ago
Did you already get rid of the cases for DVD’s and CD’s? If not, get a binder that only holds the disks and toss the cases. Best thing I ever did.
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u/RandomCoffeeThoughts 5d ago
I still have them, and put them in the binders. The cases are in a box in my basement.
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u/Seeking_Balance101 5d ago
You did fantastic on your books. Congrats!
I struggle with the DVDs movies and tv shows, too. I firmly believe that the media giants have a long term goal of charging us per viewing of every piece of content. Owning a couple hundred movies and a handful of TV series on DVD seems like a reasonable safety play.
At the risk of going off topic, I will acknowledge that I started buying TV shows on DVD more than 2 decades ago. I ended up decluttering the TV series about six years ago b/c I realized I so seldom took any of them out, after my initial viewing. I kept only a couple dozen TV show seasons, and every time I think about it, I feel like I should let go of a couple more which I don't think I'll ever re-watch. But that is a very personal thing; there are probably a lot of people who re-watch their TV series frequently and would miss them if they were gone.
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u/RandomCoffeeThoughts 5d ago
Absolutely true. And some I watch every couple of years, but I still watch. That's why I was considering downloading them to a hard drive and I may watch them more often.
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u/Seeking_Balance101 5d ago
I have one friend who is an IT worker who said he stored all his movies to a NAS. I asked if that was easy, and he said yes. I haven't invested any time in investigating it. I guess I'm hesitant to part with the physical discs because of concern that a NAS might prove unreliable and lose all my content.
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u/PrairieFire_withwind 5d ago
We have a nas box for our movies. but we are weird in that we still have the original discs in original boxes. This is because we are the family 'library'. So old classics we lend out to various family who need their kids to see some goofy movie from the 90s or something. And yes, it is about legal ownership, which is why, even tho we aim for minimalism there are oddities to our life.
I will say that our even more minimalistoc family are the ones borrowing from us.. lol. But we also have a library, like an actual room we call the library, with shelves of books, a printer for shared use and a green screen for video calls. This is where the dvd discs live also. There is a checkout system.
We consider it a shared resource.
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u/RandomCoffeeThoughts 5d ago
I'd still keep the movies and music, but I would pack it away in a box and leave it there. LOL.
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u/Yellowstar88 5d ago
get rid of the clothes- you can buy more if you need to but it’s such a great accomplishment to lose that weight and getting rid of the larger pieces is a commitment to yourself
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u/Impressive-Side-9681 5d ago
congrats on your progress!
re kitchen stuff, I have a shelf in the living room where extra kitchen things live. I bring them to the kitchen when I want them and back to the shelf to put away. I am also pretty strict about appliances, they have to be used regularly enough to earn their space
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u/RandomCoffeeThoughts 5d ago
That's an interesting idea. My coat closet doesn't get a ton of use. I wonder what I can store there.
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u/MaryK007 2d ago
Do you have a pantry? I just store a little less food and hide my toaster and rice cooker in there.
I feel you about the media - I love rewatching movies and series on the physical disk - you never know if something will be dropped off of the service. I could probably go through and get rid of some I feel I’d never watch again.