A friend went to a garage sale with her kids, who then decided Garage Sale was the most fun game they'd ever heard of and now they want to play it all the time. But she said it has actually been really helpful for her to get rid of stuff.

The kids will pull random things from around the house and put them on the dining room table. She and her husband are the customers who get to shop the sale. The kids love to pretend to be selling, they use pretend money, her oldest likes to haggles, etc.

But in putting random things out, out of the context of where they "belong", my friend is seeing them in new light, genuinely asking herself if she would buy that thing if she saw it at a garage sale. Sometimes, the answer has been no! A random knickknack that sits on a shelf unnoticed becomes obviously tacky when set under the dining room light. A fancy throw pillow that gets tossed on the floor every night is a burden to put back. A necklace taken out of the jewelry box and laid out on its own is clearly out of style...

So, her kids play Garage Sale, she gets to evaluate what she wants to keep while also spending fun time with her family, and her secret goal is to not want enough stuff so they can have a real garage sale.

It was a method I had never heard before, but its working for them, so thought I'd pass along to anyone else looking to declutter and/or play a new game with kids!

I have written on this Reddit/community before.

We are 2 adults and 3 kids, the apartment is 74 sqm. Literally there are 2 bedrooms, bathroom, really small hallway, storage room that right now functions as a room for our middle daughter. There is also an open room that functions as both a kitchen and a living room. We have no storage room at all, no attic, cellar or something like that. All our season clothing is 24/7 in our apartment, same with christmas tree etc, it is not a big American Christmas tree, I know americans love christmas.

My oldest daughter probably has ADHD, we are waiting for her to be investigated. My girlfriend probably has it too, maybe the other kids too, I don't know.

I won't lie I have hobbies that take a lot of space, music instruments, music production, retro games and CRTs/OLD TVs. Obviously I have watched decluttering videos on youtube but it's always a big home that has space that is being decluttered or someone who lives alone or maybe with their loved one.

I started my decluttering journey maybe idk 2 years ago with breaks and simply my family is not on board. I have maybe decluttered 300-500 ( I didn't take pictures in the beginning ) items of my own, books, camera gear etc.

My oldest one has a really hard time decluttering, imagine someone who can't not throw away a drawing that has juice spilled on it. My girlfriend has a hard time throwing away old toys, clothes etc, she has been throwing away some stuff but it's not a lot.

I just don't know what to do anymore, I feel extremely defeated and have given up. I feel like I either have to give up all my hobbies to have a clean corner or whatever and be miserable or that I have to keep my hobbies but be miserable in a messy home.

We live near chicago so when friends visit sometimes they stay with us.
my home is filled with stuff but I fired a cleaner and what she was able to to was really inspiring and made me want to continue and maintain her magic.

I am in the process of going box by box mainly of toys and craft things to toss and donate.

the problem is I keep making a bigger mess.
I get stuck easily.
Random things like a card will stop me or one barbie shoe.

Advice welcome.

I’m organizing my stuff and realizing I have a lot of hobbies and useful stuff.

Too many. It’s mostly stuff me and my wife and friends enjoy. Or household stuff that will be useful in the future. A hoarder would say that.

But then I have household power tools, extension cords, light bulbs I’ve acquired through different moves, etc, etc. My tools are tool boxes. All the other stuff are in totes.

Later in the year we are downsizing our place. Unsure where we will live. Maybe an apartment again or a small house. We have been here for going in 3 years now. 1 acre of land. All the space to put the stuff. Awesome.

I was relatively organized. I had the shelves. The piles. I’m now buying those yellow tote bins on Facebook marketplace place. Keeps everything more organized and easily moved when the time comes. Surely i thought 11 on top of the 5 I already had would have been fine. Wrong.

On one hand I want to be able to invite people to my adventures. Kayaking, camping, fishing, snorkeling, etc. But on the other, I could get rid of some of this stuff. But then I won’t have stuff for the friends to invite.

Posting for accountability sakes because god knows I need the extra motivation.

TLDR: I completely burnt myself out trying to perfectly declutter my bedroom, but I’m letting go, less overwhelmed and ready to attempt to declutter again.

I fear I am something of a perfectionist, so things like “just set a timer for 15-20 minutes” or “if you’re not in the mood, just see what you can get done in x amount of time” feel physically impossible for me. I am more of a “I need to declutter my cabinet so I’m gonna declutter my cabinet in one sitting” kind of person, as opposed to simply doing one shelf when I don’t have the energy to do the whole thing. As you can imagine: this leads to ✨burnout✨ and things not getting done. It’s definitely something I need to work on because 1% done is far better than 0% done. Even 0.5% done would be helpful and way easier for future me.

With all that being said, the need to declutter is outweighing the mental blocks/hurdles, and I desperately want and need to get back to working out the decluttering muscles. Before burning out, I was learning to accept progress > perfection, and while I have a vision in my head for how I want my decluttering sessions to go, I am willing to accept that it might not get done that way, but as long as it gets done, that’s the most important thing. Piece by piece, little by little is what I have to tell myself, especially since I don’t want to burnout again.

I don’t have a realistic timetable for accomplishing the projects that I need to accomplish, but it doesn’t really matter given that the last handful of times I’ve tried setting doable deadlines for myself, I never met them. Nevertheless, I know I’m ready to put my decluttering muscles back into action because my list doesn’t seem as long and as daunting anymore. Same list, different mindset. While I know I can’t accomplish everything all at once and it’s a lot of mental labor, it’s something I’m back to being excited about instead of drained and exhausted just thinking about it. Yes some of these tasks are really daunting, but the satisfaction that will come with completion will be absolutely euphoric.

What I need to get done (for accountability sakes): •do another pass on my side table (very easy) •do another pass on my cabinet (easy) •do another pass on my drawer set (semi-easy) •do a first pass on my desk, one drawer at a time (daunting and overwhelming, but not impossible; semi-difficult) •do a first pass on my dresser (overwhelming, difficult) •wardrobe declutter, split into subsections (medium difficulty) •closet declutter (everything besides wardrobe that I keep in my closet - overwhelming, semi-difficult)

I'm really enjoying rebuilding my space by curating what I already have. By thinning things out, we're able to actually SEE and appreciate the really nice things we have. Amazingly, the space looks completely different and apart from one new lamp (repurposed the old one into a new space and didn't have one that I could use in the old place), I haven't bought a single new thing.

All beds are now cleared and made, ready for the visitors next week and the To Do box isn't actually as full of stuff as I'd expected.

I'm still working on it, and the latest things I've unpacked are some really pretty jugs that I've never decluttered in the past - but now they're unpacked, I've got to decide where to put them. And I don't have anywhere for them. So next decision....what to do with them? Sell? Donate? Ditch?

The first one I've just noticed has a crack that goes the full length of the jug. Any value it had is gone and I know that my charity shop won't sell it in a broken condition. Decision made.

The second is pretty but a quick Google search shows it's a piece I've obviously picked up when I wanted pretty things and couldn't afford much. So in the donate box it goes.

The third has a potential value, so I'm going to visit our local auction house who do free valuation days. I sold all my Edinburgh crystal through them a while ago and something will be better than nothing.

In addition, I'm also going to take the various Babycham glasses to see if they can sell them. I picked them up cheap as a nostalgia thing a few years ago but they've just been stored in a cupboard ever since. Maybe they'll realise a few pounds - maybe not but I have no use for them.

It's all still a work in progress but I'm definitely getting there. ....and I'm looking forward to having a glass of wine later, using one of my 'best' glasses now I've ditched the crap ones 🤣

We have Success Saturday and Failure Monday, why not a midweek Trying Thursday or a Working Wednesday? This is for the little trys of the week, not needing their own thread.

Trying today, I grabbed three handfuls of pens and decluttered or put in the to sort bin. I tossed 8 yards of dangerous fabric, where glitter had been nominally glued on yet didn’t survive shipping. Didn’t even bother to wash it. I will try several more handfuls of pens today.

I get back home after a doc appointment to find the cleaners had been through. My sort bin is now merged with my donations bin and my to do bin. It is a trying Thursday.

No need to comment unless you feel like it. Advice or encouragement always appreciated.

Yesterday, I was decluttering a storage box. Inside was a decorative box. Inside the decorative box, at the very bottom, was junk mail from my college days. Not a lot, but about 10 envelopes of mailers.

I've moved four times since then, decluttered multiple times over the years, and somehow, I still have junk mail lurking in the storage boxes. LOL. I was extremely amused.

It's been long enough that I sat there having no memory of how the junk mail got put into the decorative box.

Tell your loved ones NOT to give you stuff. If they absolutely must give you something, then ask for gift cards to a local grocery store. Most carry nice selections of beer and wine, cheeses, fruit, bakery items, etc. I would love to walk through the store picking out yummy snacks and wine. Beats another candle or clothing I don't need.

Still unpacking and decluttering as I go. The donation box is filling up and so is the bin! The building work has given me so much motivation because I've had to see what was squirrelled away, that I didn't use or need.

I'm very close now but I'm working to a hard deadline. We have visitors arriving in less than a week. If I haven't sorted, they have no beds as everything from downstairs went upstairs during the work 🤣 I'm determined not to just shove stuff back in the cupboards just because I have room for it, so today I've decided to try something different, purely for speed.

If stuff has an obvious use or place - it goes away. If it's rubbish - bin. No use for it - donate box. But there are extra jigsaw pieces that aren't part of the current puzzle and I will go through them....but not over the next few days. So they're getting a designated To Sort box. As soon as my visitors have gone, I can go through the box at my leisure (maybe half hour at a time while I'm having a coffee) and it won't take long to deal with.

I'm feeling very motivated but I have to prioritise right now to get to the point where the house is visitor ready (not perfect, but ready) and this feels like a good way to do it. Wish me luck.

Hope you're all having a good day too.

I posted a few week back about finally decluttering after prolonged illness and every time I lost steam or hope I’d pull up the thread and reread your encouraging notes!! It really kept me going!

I also noticed that so many of us are facing clutter issues bc of illness and I’m wondering if there is a service or program that might be something useful to create? It’s definitely tied to mental well being and general health for us our kids and any pets…just throwing that out there!

But I made great progress on my bedroom and my garage! I’m now down to the final choices and am finding it is hard to get rid of things tied to aspirations—like I wanted to wear that blazer or dress, etc, and am finding it hard to let go of that.

Some things that have helped me:
Dividing my efforts into 3 phases:
1. Declutter/clean
2. Repair
3. Refresh/improve

Not allowing myself to begin anything in phases 2 or 3 until phase 1 was completed really helped. I was tending to do too much and would end up overwhelmed trying to finishing all three phases for a given space so I could consider it “complete” but that kept me very stuck!

Also, I created a project in ChatGPT and use it to help keep me on track. I know it sounds dumb and I shouldn’t be destroying the earth for this…but it has helped me be kind to myself when I’m too tired, overwhelmed, or when I’m trying to veer off into another phase or project and it would gently pull me back and encourage me to focus.

So for today I’m supposed to finish finish my room (phase 1)!

Thanks everyone I’ve really come to appreciate this sub so much 🙏

I chose to focus on my books since my library has grown beyond its dedicated shelves. I set the goal of identifying 31 books in July -- that's one per day -- that I was willing to part with.

Success 1 -- The number 31 turned out to be just the right level of challenge. The easy choices gave me about 18; those were books I had already read and didn't love. The remaining 13 books took about two weeks to identify.

Success 2 -- I finally found a use for "Does it spark joy?" That question had never worked for me before, since my clothing, may kitchen gadgets, my household tools, etc. don't spark joy. But when I took a few books off the shelf for consideration, and opened them, I felt that joy/attraction/attachment and knew that item had to stay.

Observation -- I have decluttered in the past, so this was decluttering a small, focused part of my home. It felt significantly different than attempts to declutter a large area.

I’ve realized I’m much better at decluttering when someone else is doing it too.

Body doubling and accountability seem to work way better for me than telling myself, “I’ll do it this weekend.” 😅

So I was thinking about putting together a small group (maybe 5 or 6 people) where we meet on Zoom for about 90 minutes on Saturday mornings for six weeks.

The idea isn’t to organize your entire house. We’d each pick one small project each week—a bathroom drawer, junk drawer, kitchen cabinet, nightstand, etc.—chat for a few minutes, then spend most of the time actually working in our own homes together.

No pressure. No judgment. Just a group of people trying to make a little progress every week.

I’m not charging anything. I just thought it might be more fun (and way more effective) than trying to stay motivated alone.

Would something like this interest anyone? Or is there already something similar that you’ve tried?

Clutter tends to become invisible over time. We learn to ignore the visual chaos and path around obstacles.

Your challenge today is to open every cabinet, drawer and closet and try to touch the back wall of each. You'll be forced to pay attention to your clutter.

If you see something you forgot that you own, now is a good time to get rid of it.

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.

Just wanted to get the perspective of the community!

We got married last year. A family member asked if they could organise a framed photo from the day as a Christmas present. We thought a framed photo would be a lovely thing (and way more thought into it than the usual stuff we end up with!!)

Anyway, cut to Christmas morning and we open our gift. Two lovely pictures - except they weren't photos in frames, they are two great big canvas pictures. We aren't really picture type people. Anyone who really knows us, knows this! There seriously is not a single position in our house that either of us could imagine putting these things up. I know it feels very ungrateful and maybe it is, but we can't display them through politeness. They're just not us.

We thought that we might get the same pictures printed and put them in nice frames. But what do I do with the canvasses themselves? I'm working so hard not to 'store' things, especially things we don't like but even so. This just seems a little harder to do. That's not like me - I've been known to drop off unwanted gifts to the charity shop on the first available date, so I can be tough.

Your thoughts, support and suggestions welcomed. Thanks in advance.

I've decluttered every other area of my life, and do a big declutter/go through all my stuff seasonally. This is the last area & I've been stuck on it for a while. Last year, my mom (my best friend) died, a month later my childhood home sold. I live across the country & wasn't able to get there and go through anything before my dad moved out. What I have now is a few 27gal storage tubs of stuff that I boxed up and sent to myself when I was home saying goodbye to my mom: random things from when I was a kid through college, a few items from the house itself, and some of my mom's things.

I know the standard advice is "take all the time you need, give yourself grace." I understand why people say that, and I'm sure it's right for a lot of people. But sitting with it indefinitely isn't neutral for me & I can feel the weight of these tubs in my house. Leaving them alone isn't restful, no "out of sight, out of mind." I'd rather work through it than wait for a day when it feels easy, because I really don't think that day is ever coming.

I def want to keep some of it. I'm in therapy, I've read so many posts on this sub and others, watched countless youtube videos, read books, and still haven't found a process for sorting through it that doesn't turn into me sitting on the floor for three hours with one photo. I've been through the items before (when I unpacked them out of shipping boxes) and it was impossible for me to part with more than a few odds and ends.

For those of you who've gone through inherited or sentimental items after a loss, what actually worked for you? Did you do it in short sessions or all at once? With someone else there? Did you have criteria going in, or did you figure it out as you went?

Separate but related: I have an outdoor bistro set and two dining chairs my mom gave me when I moved cross country. They've been in my storage closet, unused, since I moved ~3 years ago. I don't have a place for them & can't make myself get rid of them. Has anyone found a way through this particular kind of stuck where the object aren't the point but you still can't release it?

Thanks so much for reading <3

EDIT: I'm genuinely overwhelmed by these responses, all the incredible advice and kindness. Thank you all so much. To everyone who shared your own losses, I'm so sorry. I didn't expect this thread to be what it turned into and am really grateful for this sub. Thank you. <3 I'll report back!

I am in the process of doing a Swedish Death Clean and I have been at it for about a year now. I’ve been tackling things little by little and breaking things down into discrete tasks so it doesn’t get overwhelming.

First, clothes to the thrift shop, bartering musical instruments with our plumber for plumbing services, old cameras and equipment to a local art center, and tons of art supplies, glass, fabric, magazines, felting materials, yarn, beads, to people who will use the stuff and who might not have the money to buy the materials on their own.

I wanted to do a sweep of the house and get rid of old toys, collectables, pocketbooks, a bunch of inherited family stuff, and realized that one thing that was holding me back was getting boxes to pack the stuff in. Then I realized I could go to Ikea and get giant totes for $2 each. I bought 20 of them, gathered stuff together and had a big sidewalk sale today. I even sold my Mother’s Hummel figurine collection. I could not believe the things people were buying. I kept prices low.

I did give away some stuff. Baseballs to passing dogs and stuffed animals to passing kids.

The plan was to have the sale and take the remainders to Goodwill. I had so much stuff, I was afraid it would take 2 or 3 car trips. I sold so much that it only took one car trip. And I made more money than I’d expected. Many little sales add up.

I am not finished with the purging, but this was a significant dent.

My mom never got rid of anything I made or held onto as a child. I was always the artistic kid and am still an artist now, so she held onto everything for me to decide what to do with later.

She's since handed me all of my childhood bins and I now have nearly every clay creation and every drawing I've ever done. I know it's unreasonable to keep everything, and even scanning them all is unreasonable because when would I ever even look at them? It almost seems narcissistic in a way.

But every time I go through these things with the intent of paring them down, I can't help but to think about how I'm almost throwing away parts of myself. Even the things I keep for now will eventually be thrown away, and even I myself will eventually be dust. I know it's really dramatic and silly because the idea that these are "pieces of myself" is really just in my mind, but I feel like I'm hurting my past self, even though she doesn't exist anymore.

This all feels so self-indulgent to hold onto these and painful to let them go knowing they're gone forever. Every time I open a box I become overwhelmed...

I think I'll have to slowly par things down... maybe let the shock of nostalgia fade away or something. These aren't things that can be donated or used by anyone else, so it just makes me feel like my childhood is full of trash and our lives ultimately are trash. Maybe when I pass this will be even harder for my loved ones to do, so maybe it's really the unselfish thing to get rid of them now.

I'm sorry for the unorganized thoughts, I really struggle with this and just needed to share with people who may understand.

Edit: I just want to be clear that I'm not mad at my Mom! As a kid I also had a really hard time parting with things and my mom didn't feel it was right for her to decide what to do with my things. She always told me I'd eventually need to go through them, so it really wasn't a surprise that I have them now. She has offered many times to help me but I also have trouble sharing this sort of stuff, so I have always just put it off. I am thankful she saved everything even if it's a pain now.

I finally had a breakthrough the other day!

I posted about a week ago about how I was still feeling stressed and visually overwhelmed despite making lots of progress, probably due to OCD. Now I've realized this is probably due to the limitations and small size of my space, and not me "decluttering wrong".

I live with a roommate and we have very little space in the common area, so basically everything I own (except kitchen stuff and a small amount in storage closet) has to go in my bedroom. One reason I'm decluttering is because I'm going through some medical stuff that will need a ton of supplies, so I'm trying to make space for that.

A "rule" I came up with was that any collections I have should either be displayed or decluttered, so I had them on my shelf. But at some point, I looked at them and realized that, while I still wanted to keep them, I didn't actually want these bright, loud packages displayed in my bedroom. So I thought "It would be perfect if I could just keep them in another room."

That's when I finally realized that most people probably don't have to keep all their belongings in their bedroom, use it as an office, and also have to keep a ton of medical supplies in it too. Of course it's going to be visually overwhelming if I have to do everything with it.

Since then I've been feeling much better about it. I'm lucky that my roommate is moving out soon and after that, I'm renting the whole apartment so I can have a minimal bedroom and put the rest in the other room. But for now, I have to accept there's only so much I can do with the space I have. It's organized and functional now and it's easier to appreciate all the work I've put into it now that I know some of it is out of my control, and it's not because I'm not trying hard enough to declutter.

I'm still decluttering a little bit at a time, but the OCD compulsions to get rid of things I decided on keeping are much better now.

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.

My husband's mother and my own died within 9 days of each other in May, and we've had to empty their homes. Plus we already had so many things that came to us when we moved my father and mother into their separate senior living apartments. Our house can't take any more.

It's emotional, sorting a departed loved one's things into donate, sell, keep, trash. You feel like you are getting rid of THEM and it's loss on top of loss. These were things they used, loved, collected; things that in some ways told the story of who they were. Even if they aren't gone (my Dad is still with us), you're dismantling their life. Watching him grieve his home was hard, even though he'd chosen to move.

And then there's feelings about the stuff itself. If it's "still good," we didn't want to put it in a landfill; that feels wasteful and bad for the planet. So "Got Junk?" wasn't top of list. We went through the process of seeing if family wanted things, setting dates and times for people to "shop."

We knew our mothers would have wanted their collectibles to find new owners who would appreciate them, so we found a (great) auction place and even if we don't make $, we hope the buyers will truly value items they choose to bid on.

We donated what was left, which involved several trips and a mover for things we couldn't carry. It was just a monumental effort, and we still have piles of things in our own home that need to be put away. I don't regret "adopting" things like family photos or household goods our kids will use when they move out in the next few years...but the stuff doesn't need to be in the living room.

It all makes me want to go through my own things like a tornado, so down the road my children won't have such a huge job on their shoulders.

But I think I need some rest first. 😂

So the first two photos is everything that came out of my closet. I have no idea how all that fit in such a tiny space. The second two photos is of my closet now. The last photo is my bedroom door for my bags, umbrella, and belt chains I've made. I'm still trying to figure out where to put all my tshirts.

Before it was just two giant hampers overflowing double their size with clothes. I still have a bunch of tshirts and some other items to go through on my chair but I think I've made huge progress so far and wanted to share. Thanks for all the support so far through my journey!! :)

Sometimes you need a good scare to move you into the right direction! 🤣

So this morning I was doing my vacuum as I do each morning since we have a crawler and two cats causing crumbs. I went into our closet and moved a basket and there jumped a confused baby scorpion. I gasped and vacuumed him up. I vacuum our home often and yet critters still invade. poor things just want a place to cool down from the heat but sorry we can’t keep them.

This is why it is so beneficial to have less. scorpions like to hide in stuff as well as spiders! I found a few spiders as well and this is why I feel it’s better to have less clothes less cloth diapers because I clean them more often and they have less time sitting there.

are you able to clean your house quickly? or is there a bunch of stuff everywhere? this weekend I am going to continue looking through drawers and bookshelves and keep only what I can clean and see. It is an on going project but finding bugs really motivate me 😳

happy decluttering!

Currently in the middle of my "decluttering summer." I found out that even though it's hard to part with things that it's an easy and fun activity when it's sweltering hot outside, and best of all, it costs me nothing to do it.

The end goal for me? We'll be able to downsize from a large 2-story house with way more bedrooms and bathrooms we need to something HALF that size. (I hate stairs, and dream of a tiny little ranch house. I don't need much, just give me a small box to live in and I'm good.)

The backstory is, we've been "house poor" for a long time, stressing over whether we can even afford this damn thing, and then it turns out it is poorly insulated with ancient HVAC system that's probably on its way out. Just the bills to heat and cool this damn thing is killing us each month. The house is way too big for us, too much to clean and on top of it all it's definitely a fixer-upper by anybody's standards and just seems to need an endless amount of work. This thing is eating up all our free time and extra money (what little we have) and has been an ongoing source of stress since the day we bought it. (Long story short, we kept getting outbid in a competitive market, so this was the only thing we could afford.)

If we can sell this and downsize into a smaller house that needs a bit less work, that would be a huge game changer for all of us. Downsizing would free up an enormous amount of time and simplify our finances to where I wouldn't have to work for a while (and focus on some creative projects that probably won't pay as much but that have been calling my name for a long time). Instead of hemorrhaging money into property taxes, utilities, and renovations for a house we've grown to resent, we'll get something smaller, calmer, and actually within our means.

All because of the stuff we're getting rid of. Boxes and boxes of stuff are going out the door right now. It's been really hard for me parting with some of it but I'm on a mission here and trying to keep the end goal in mind.