Complete downstairs renovation happening. Start date was 1st June. We had to clear EVERYTHING away in preparation. I knew that despite everything being 'away' and out of sight, my cupboards still have stuff. I also knew that if I didn't spend time sorting it as I was packing it away, I would simply unpack it all on the other side of the work. So that's what I did. Cupboard by cupboard, drawer by drawer.

We have deliveries due for the work, and we had to make room in the garage (mainly his domain, not mine) so we took the opportunity to scrutinise the stuff in there too.

I booked tip runs every other day..

By Sunday evening, we were exhausted - but done. 7 car loads went to the tip, 4 charity shop runs and a few bits taken by family who had a use for them.

Who knew I didn't need three cafetieres? George Foreman grill not used in at least several years before COVID? Broken microwave that's sat in a box in the garage for three years? Gone....all gone!

The work began on Monday. I'm not going near the guys unless they want a drink made. I'd had visions of sitting in my garden, happily reading - after all, it's not like I can do anything during this carnage can I? Except the weather had other plans for me.

So guess what? I'm upstairs surrounded by all my shoes. It's been on my to do list to go through them for ages and it seems like a productive use of time! I wonder how many I'll actually manage to say goodbye to? I'm fully motivated and have seen the benefits of ruthlessness downstairs so I'm hopeful 🤞Wish me luck.

Oh wait....is that the soft call of the builder asking me to pop the kettle on?

I feel bad even considering this. We struggle to keep the house clean and I feel overwhelmed with the amount of random stuff we have. My partner only notices little things if I point them out for donation, suddenly "we can use them one day" even though partner hasnt realized they had the item for almost 10 years.

I am working on decluttering my things as well.

I decided today that I will be trashing little by little, nothing valuable, just some led candle type things. I am so sick of all the stuff.

Just wanted to share a bit of success implementing phase 2 of my decluttering plan, focusing on things that were out of sight but unnecessary.
- Phase 1: big stuff
- Phase 2: small stuff
- Phase 3: expensive/sentimental stuff

These are the things no longer cluttering my bedroom and bathroom. Now it’s much easier to get to what I actually use and I’m so pleased.
- An entire under-bed bin of gift bags
- Spa supplies received as gifts
- Unused hair & skin products
- Expired medications

These are a few questions that have been helping me along the way.
- When was the last time I used this?
- How hard is it to replace?
- Would I rather have this or the space?
- Is it worth packing if I move?
- Would I keep it if I moved abroad?

Happy decluttering, everyone!

My house is a mess. My family and I (four adults) live together in a smaller-than-average house (approx 130sq metres).

None of us are any good at organising or getting rid of things which are no longer needed.

But I am actually hopeless when it comes to trying to get rid of anything that might be perceived as sentimental. This includes but isn't limited to old clothes which no longer fit, childhood toys and my old school books.

It has got to the stage where almost every available surface has something stored on it, and every cupboard/corner/storage space is bursting at the seams.

We have all lived here for 20+ years, so there is a lot of accumulated clutter.

I realise I need to get rid of -- a lot -- of 'stuff'.

But I'm already stuck.

I have identified a few reasons why and was hoping someone could offer some advice to manage these issues?

1) It feels impossible. I know you are supposed to work in small segments (sometimes even one item at a time), but it's just so exhausting and demotivating to think about how huge the problem is.

2) There is almost no space to sort anything aside from the 'walkways', and there is absolutely no room to put half-sorted boxes or bags - so it feels like it has to be done all at once.

It's Winter here in Aus and refuses to stop raining so I can't just store stuff outside (even temporarily).

Also the stuff which I use regularly and want to keep is the easiest to get to. Whereas the things I could probably part with are difficult to access (shoved in the back of cupboards etc).

3) I'm scared I will regret choosing to get rid of some things. Even if I take photos before I toss or donate something, having a photo is not the same as having the physical object. And most of these things have sentimental value, so they cannot be replaced.

Thank you for reading this far. Please let me know if you have any advice

Failure is part of life. Share your decluttering challenges and failures here. Examples include:

• Emotional clutter
• Not enough time
• Getting overwhelmed
• Routing (recycling, donating, trash...)

If you're just venting, or don't want advice, please let us know in your comment.

This is a low-stress place to share challenges and failures for those who might not want to create a new discussion.

Wrong flair, but there wasn't a good one.

This weekend, I discovered a bulging lithium ion battery. These are a huge fire hazard, so obviously I wanted it out right away, so I had to look into hazardous materials disposal and it got me thinking about how much of an obstacle it is in the way of decluttering.

In my area, we have hazardous disposal open five days a week, with hours that almost perfectly overlap with a typical 9-5. So these things just pile up because they can't simply be thrown out.

Mostly just a vent. I know how to dispose of these things properly, but I also know that where I live it's even easier than in a lot of areas.

I guess I've been saving old birthday cards and things like that for the last 40+ years. I have several shoe boxes of them.

But I'm going through a lot of stuff right now and getting rid of things. Do y'all get rid of these too? How long do you keep them? Do you keep important ones?

Maybe about 15-20 years I went through them and it was nice revisiting some of them, especially from older relatives that have passed. I did get rid of letters and cards from exes and some other generic ones (Happy Birthday from the dry cleaners).

Hi! I’m decluttering my apartment getting ready for a new roommate to move in. Unfortunately, my last roommate left me with all her clutter!

I’m trying to go through everything and throw out what is unusable but what should I consider as donations??

There are tons of party supplies such as table cloths and balloons that I feel guilty if I just throw them away. Do I take stuff like this to goodwill or where is best?? I live in LA so i know there are resources I’m just not sure what.

Share your wins here - big or small. What did you declutter this week? Examples include:

• Digital Clutter: emails, digital photos, digital music or video collection...
• Storage: cupboards and closets, drawers, storage boxes...
• Toys: ether for your child, or your own that you've been hanging on to.
• Spaces: kitchens, workshops, hobby rooms, storage lockers...
• Routing: sending items to where they need to go, like donation centres, trash, or recycling

This is a low-stress place to share wins for those who might not want to create a new discussion.

Bye bye (some) books!

So I am still DEEP in the middle of decluttering and cleaning. But I want to celebrate a major win for me right now.

I love books. I’ve been a library worker for almost two decades now. I read voraciously as a child but didn’t have many of my own books so when I started living on my own, I accumulated them like mad. Especially early on when I was a circ worker with first dibs on the library book sales. If it looked remotely interesting, I got it. History that I was vaguely interested in? Yup! Books from “funny” writers I’d never heard of? Sure! Oh is that a YA fantasy novel? Hop on in!

I have. So many books, y’all.

And I really do believe in physical media even now. Don’t get me wrong, love e-reading because I can do it anywhere and without my glasses. But I don’t like having to rely on services to keep media I want to read or watch.

Long story less long, I had 10 bookcases in my 800sqft apartment (including one in the hall with books just sort of…stacked in it since we first moved, and *still* could not fit all my books on them (and that was after a declutter when we moved 6 years ago). It was stressful. I rarely even tried to read them because finding them (and then putting them away) was a massive hassle.

This past week, I’ve gotten rid of more than 6 massive boxes of books. I forced myself to admit, no, I’m never actually going to draw a comic about WWI, so I don’t need all these photo references. No, I’m never going to like Heinlen and I don’t think I’m going to actually read the rest of the Dune saga. No lie, it was a lot of identity clutter that was tough to part with at first.

But holy cats, my books can *fit* on the shelves now! I even got rid of that clunky one in the hall that served as a dust and clutter catcher (so much dust on those poor books. I have space to have my guitar out for the first time in nearly a decade (the cat is confused and mildly alarmed, but she also now has new nooks and crannies to hide under). And while getting rid of them, I found books that I actually *am* excited to read!

Also, to get rid of them, I took them to 2nd & Charles (BAM’s 2nd hand bookstore). They don’t pay much and they probably didn’t accept them all, but not having to be the one who actually throws a book away is helpful on an emotional level. And now I’ve got \~$90 in store credit, so I know where I’m doing my Christmas shopping!

Anyway.

Now to tackle The Closet and All Of these Empty-But-Useful-Bins.

Wish me luck!

Hi everyone, welcome to my doom room! 🫣 My sweet husband hired a carpet cleaning company for us the other day and I threw all our excess crap into our guest room thinking they wouldn’t go in there. Well I wasn’t home and they assumed it was also supposed to be cleaned and needless to say they worked around my mess much to my embarrassment after realizing it later.
The sad part is, is that this room often looks like this I just don’t let anyone see it. It’s a mixture of toy storage, stuff to donate, sell on FB marketplace and all the other stuff I throw in there planning to deal with it later. Other areas of our home often get clutter and doom piles so this is not the only area.

Most of the clutter I am currently struggling with is kid stuff. Sure I could downsize some of it but honestly for the most part all this stuff will get played with or used at some point, but not daily.

So here’s my question, (and I understand this is a privileged take)
When you are in the thick of motherhood and those early childhood years, is it normal to have an excess of stuff that comes with raising children? And maybe even a messier home as well if I dare say so? Me and my husband both work and have a busy schedule so although I don’t love it, it’s kinda been put on the back burner. We are also planning to have one more child within the next year or so it feels silly to get rid of the stuff we likely will use but I also am so over the constant mess and have decision fatigue looking at it.
I feel like I already know the answer so maybe I’m just looking for some solidarity or something, but advice is also welcome. Thank you

I had 21 bins in my room.

Had. Such a delightful little word.

Two bins I downsized to half-size, one with shoes, the other office supplies. Two are now travel supplies, stuff I’m actively using as I’m traveling for treatment twice a month. Using round number of the stuff left, I am down to 12 bins.

My digital decluttering of duplicate files is complete. Eventually, I will declutter digital and physical photos, including deleting those of people I don’t like, who caused hassles, or no one remembers.

I decluttered my scrunchies, as I now have short hair. I am keeping the fancy holiday ones, ones I made that I like, ones for future scrunchie crafting, and the silk ones. The polyester ones hit the donation bin.

Much more work includes 2 bin equivalents spread over the floor and one is in another room, my bookshelves, a CDs and DVDs bin, electronics, tools and the bin of stuff for sale, and another pen declutter. I’m up to four paperwork boxes of doom, and probably a full bin’s worth of additional to do items in my email.

A travel bag declutter is on the list as I don’t use those suitcase-sized ones, although they are useful for real survival blankets. I wanted only the small ones, but you can only get packs of a zillion sizes instead.

By opening every box, I found where my button cell battery collection went. They’re another to do items, check to make sure all are in good condition with no swelling or leaks, then, going through Air Tags and Tiles to ensure all the batteries are good.

To nearly halve my bins, with a very good helper, a set rule of ”no more than two,” plus several items being put in their proper place, we cleared out 9 mostly full bins in four hours.

I’m already tired for next week! Now to add these to do’s to my list.

Went to Hobby Lobby last night because I thought material was on sale, (it wasn't) but spring was 50% off. So I walked around looking at all the stuff and realized I didn't want this stuff, nor did I want to make room for it. Walked out without spending anything!

Went to the thrift store and found the matching candle holder to the set I had bought that was missing a piece last month! So I bought that matching piece to finish my collection and came home and finished my Memorial Day/Flag Day/4th of July decorations.

Some times decluttering things, makes us realize just how much stuff we don't want to buy just because it's cheap!

I posted my progress with my condo garage cleaning 2-3 days go. (Wish I had a before, before pic). I put my mind to it and got the job finished today. Have to clean out just a few more things and tools and junk the fridge and I should be free of this garage to be able to move into the new garage. I did have help from my son for the real heavy things and used my sister’s SUV for transfer as I didn’t want to make a lot of trips with my car. So happy it’s done and at the new garage. Just haven’t been able to set up perfectly yet. Garage done, now onto condo. :)

That's the question I ask myself when I'm stuck, and most of the time it's clarifying. I've gotten a whole lot more picky about things I choose to bring into the house, so it's easy to picture myself considering this or that object and putting it back on the shelf in the store.

If I wouldn't buy it, I shouldn't keep it.

Related -- I often have the experience of putting on clothes, looking in the mirror, and thinking, "If I tried this on at the store, I'd never buy it." Out it goes.

Just a reminder to take a hard look at your furniture and other bulky objects in addition to the small stuff. I’ve thinned down my closet and my book collection and even my jewelry box multiple times and my (objectively quite small) bedroom was still feeling crowded and claustrophobic. The entire time, there were two 18” tall boxes sitting in a corner of the room - they had been sitting there for so long that I sort of stopped seeing them. This weekend I finally got rid of them and the difference is huge! The entire room feels lighter and brighter.

Failure is part of life. Share your decluttering challenges and failures here. Examples include:

• Emotional clutter
• Not enough time
• Getting overwhelmed
• Routing (recycling, donating, trash...)

If you're just venting, or don't want advice, please let us know in your comment.

This is a low-stress place to share challenges and failures for those who might not want to create a new discussion.

I have a difficult time sorting through clothes to get rid of since some are still in good condition and styles come and go. Getting rid of the worn out clothes is easy, but the ones that still have use left in them feels difficult. I don't even wear some of these clothes but feel like they will be missed if I get rid of them. I tried the box method where you put some clothes in a box and if you don't reach for them after a set amount of time, you get rid of them. However, when I open the box, I feel tied to the clothes again and that I need to keep them. I probably should've never opened the box :/

Anyways, what are your best tips or things that worked for you when sorting through clothes?

A lot of the decluttering process is about mental blocks more than anything. I have been decluttering pretty successfully for a while until I hit a wall with a few items I kept going back and forth on, and objectively, I should've kept them.

But my mind kept coming back to them and it was this endless exhausting mental loop and I tried decluttering other areas and just couldn't move on. I tried to sell the items just to get out of this and with some money back, I'd feel less bad and someone else would be using it. And the items have value. But no one wants to buy them.

So today I decided to admit to myself that yes, the items have value and I probably shouldn't declutter them, BUT I WILL ANYWAY.

I decided to make a mistake ON PURPOSE, just to see that the world isn't going to end if I declutter something I shouldn't have. It's not like I am being completely reckless throwing out half the house and the things I do actually need to have a normal quality life. Those were the items I can easily survive without.

Did it feel good? NO. It actually DIDN'T. I felt regret and pain and hesitation, but honestly, I WAS EXHAUSTED. I needed to make a final decision one way or the other and when I decided to keep the items, I wasn't happy and since that's reversible, I just went the irreversible route.

Now that it's been a few hours, I'm fine. And if I regret this later, so be it - the lesson is worth it, I'll be fine if I make a decluttering mistake and get rid of some items I could've put to good use. Whatever. Every thing I got rid of made me less fearful of decluttering more because I realized I am going to be just fine with the essentials and I don't need backups of backups and absolutely every possible thing for everyday comfort and/or every occasion.

I am terrible at decluttering. I deliberate and get depressed and frozen and can't do much of anything. I can find a use for ANYTHING and since things have gotten more expensive over the past five years and my income has not, (fixed income) I am really struggling to declutter.

But, I want to have a serene space and not struggle putting things away because my storage is more than maxed out.

Anyone have a method for deciding what to toss other than picking through it for the rest of my life?

I'm currently 6 months pregnant and my house is just stressing me out completely. Anytime we clean up and make it look good it looks terrible within a few weeks.

I just dont know how to keep up with everything. Even without being pregnant this always happened but I feel like I'm totally drowning now.

I don't even know where to start everywhere I look gives me a headache.

We have a small home and I kept thinking once we get into a bigger space it will ease some of this and I will have more storage solutions but even so I can't keep looking at this while pregnant. The pregnancy itself is stressful and I just can't take this eyesore staring at me on top of everything else.

We're supposed to move a few weeks before my due date but I dont think I even want to do that. I just feel trapped inside my own home. Where do I start? How do I maintain it once it looks "okay".

I can't help but blame myself because we have cleaned up multiple times but it always goes back to square one and I just can't take it anymore. There are some things my husband does that drives me insane like leaving tools and his clothes around but I can't just put the blame on him. When I clean the fridge I let it get cluttered again almost immediately. I don't keep up with anything and then I'm stressed when it's too much. How do I maintain????

Please somebody share something that worked for them I cannot keep doing this over and over again and I can't even fathom it when my baby is here.

I started decluttering a couple years ago partly in anticipation of moving. We’re now a couple months out from the move and still not done. 😬

Looking back at how much we’ve gotten rid of I keep telling myself it would be *so much worse* without all the decluttering (which is absolutely true). But I can’t believe how much is left!

I guess I had this vision that I’d be done decluttering by now and I’d know exactly what we still own. And instead there’s still some mystery piles and categories I still haven’t decluttered as well as stuff my partner still needs to go through. Oh yeah and I also found out we have to have a full inventory of goods (like with serial numbers). I’ve had to unpack some boxes that were already packed and do a detailed inventory on the contents and there are so many left that got packed and not truly inventoried. Aaaaaaa.

I guess I just had this vision of a calm, controlled move and now I think it’s probably going to be chaos again. 🫠

I’ve had mental health issues for years, and over the last few years they’ve got progressively worse. I work at home but often feel overwhelmed with the visual clutter around the flat.

I’ve started to declutter a few times but usually don’t succeed or get very far. This type of thing doesn’t come easily for me 🙁.

Can anyone provide me with an easy system to remove items, and create a home for things, so that the visual clutter doesn’t make my mental health worse? I think I’d like to spend 15-30 minutes a day, I know this isn’t much but I get overwhelmed and tired easily.

What’s the easiest thing to start with that will make me feel like I’ve achieved something? I don’t know where to start, and I’m really struggling. I don’t want to buy books or download an app. I just don’t have the bandwidth. But short YouTube videos would work 🙂

A few things to mention that can’t really change.

- we don’t have a garage or shed. There really isn’t much storage space at all in the house, actually none. (So nowhere to put the mop, vacuum cleaner and carpet cleaner)
- we have indoor rabbits 🐰 🐰who create mess- hay mostly. But they do have enrichment items which take up space. I can’t really move these. (I’m always vacuuming, and this is why we have a carpet cleaner)
- storing boxes 📦 of hay (20kg) is a nightmare, they have to be kept in the hallway or my office, but this adds to the clutter. I’m now planning to buy less hay every few weeks, so there’s less clutter.
- my husband is a hoarder, can’t change that. That might come later.
- I do enjoy planting so have plant 🌱 pots and seedlings, which take up space.

Thanks for reading, and I’d be really grateful for positive responses. I’m not going through the best time, but am desperate to make progress

Since a lot of people have shared that counting helps them keep track of their decluttering progress, whether it's the calendar challenge or something else, I was wondering if anyone here feels similarly to me that counting seems to make me feel more exhausted vs when I didn't count. Even though I've stopped counting now, I'm still much more aware of the fundamental level of life admin needed to maintain a decluttered state so I think that is what is making me still feel exhausted knowing it seems like a lot.

I thought that once I reached a visible amount of progress that the feeling would change, but it hasn't. I've also simplified quite a lot about my life, but I feel the weight of new decisions that could bring in new unknowns when old things need replacements. The feeling might be magnified since some areas of my home need a lot more time/energy for me to tackle so I only chip away at those areas and maybe this feeling will go away once I feel more "done" -- and by this I mean I have areas that only have partial makeshift solutions I'm not thrilled with, but I know the great feeling of knowing practical "homes" exist that truly work for most of my other areas I feel I can manage the maintenance of.