How to part with 'things'?

[slleipnir]

So, I want to clean my room from top to bottom, and arrange things nicer. However, I have this problem with keeping EVERYTHING!!!! It could be stupid trash that I probably wouldn't miss, but I can't throw it away. So everything ends up in my room, and it keeps growing, and growing. I just don't have room left for it. I emptied my shelfs the other day, just to move the junk into my closet :o So I have a huge stack of things in there....How do I get rid of it?!?! -hugs her junk-

[vinjashira]

have you tried ebay? you can make money with stuff you no longer need. :)

[K9soul]

I understand what you are saying, I have a hard time throwing out things too. Not useful things but things like papers and cards and even old calendars because I love the pictures and can't stand to throw them away :o. I kept an old desktop calendar and used the pages for bookmarks and as notes and lists. I have an old address book that I've had since my grandma gave it to me as a kid, it is so worn out and outdated and I got a new one and moved over the pertinent addresses, but I couldn't get myself to throw it out. It had a note from Grandma in it and addresses and phone numbers of childhood friends. My husband is the opposite and has no problem throwing out "useless" junk.

I can't give you any advice cause I'm the same way, but I know exactly what you mean :D

[catnapper]

Ahhh... the age old question! I too fight with that problem. But the older I get the easier it gets. I am tired of junk piled in piles, and all I seem to do is move one pile to another pile, and move that pile to somewhere else. *sigh*

Follow these rules:
Make three piles -
Trash
Keep
donate/sell

Look at things critically. Is it broken or damaged in any way tomake it less desireable? trash it

Do you use this item every day, or at least a few times a year? Does it have EXTREME sentimental value? Keep it

Have you not dusted it off or looked at it in over a year? Donate/sell it.


I have all my journals and drawings I've made since the 5th grade stored in my house. They are extremely sentimental to me. the teddy bear I got from my first boyfriend? That was trashed as soon as the relationship was. I still have the ring an ex gave me, but that is in a "someday I'll sell it on ebay" pile... someday I will! I swear! :D

I have clothes beyond clothes in the basement from my "skinny" days. I sorely need to trash them. I'll never be that thin again and they are starting to take on the damp basement odor (PU!)

I have kept my Barbies, but am planning on selling them (any takers, huh? huh? :D) I have recently went through and trashed all the photos of past friends. I have dumped photos with thumbs in the middle of the pictures (why on earth did I keep them to start with?)

Get the idea? Its hard, but does get easier as you go along.

[petslover]

I would love to know the answer to this too! I keep everything from toys from when I was younger, Magazines (I bet I have over 100 magazines), posters that I dont want to get rid of, way to many stuffed animals, but I feel bad when I get rid of stuffed animals lol, and tons of other stuff. I just know your feeling! My room is crowded with junk too!

[slleipnir]

Catnapper: Do you watch that TV show...er, clean sweep? lol Same sort of thing haha, I need them to come and do this T-T

And I think the junk is pretty much useless to everyone. I made a keep in room, keep but somewhere else, and a throw pile. I have A LOT of garbage. Man. This is horrible. I'm like sweating ! lol. Who knew, eh?

[petslover]

Speaking of cleaning rooms, I think I am going to go clean mine right now and try to part with some things! Wish me luck lol!

GOOOOD LUCK AUDREY!!!

[slleipnir]

I don't know about you, but I CERTAINLY need luck for my room! Good luck for yours!! :p Hopefully yours is noticably neater then mine :o

[petslover]

Hopefully yours is noticably neater then mine

:D I wished! Mine has clutter! Let me quit typing and get my lazy butt to work lol!

[DogLover9501]

I have the exact same problem!! I agree with this...


Originally posted by catnapper
Have you not dusted it off or looked at it in over a year? Donate/sell it.

I try to follow that, or if I find something that I even FORGOT that I had then it's not important LOL

[Randi]

Oh dear, I have the same problem - and so has John; but we're getting a little better lately. ;) It' so much easier if you can give it to people or sell it, isn't it!

I have Lewis, Valentino etc. jeans from years ago I don't fit - I hardly wore them, but hoping I'll loose just that little bit of weight so I can zip them up - yeah right! :rolleyes:

We have all kinds of things in the cellar we might need "one of these days" ;) - Oh, it's so hard to get rid of! The sad thing is, that they just don't make that good things anymore, the quality of almost everything was a lot better "back then"! ;)

However, we'll have get rid of most of it soon, as we got a note just recently telling us to empty our cellar before 1st of May, because they're building smaller cellar rooms for us all AND we're loosing our loft room too! :) The people on the top floor have been allowed to build upwards. I'm SO mad!! :mad: It's just not fair!! I want a huge house!!

[CathyBogart]

I was the same way, and eventually I FORCED myself to get rid of anything that wouldn't be useful even again. I went through my room repeatedly until I could bear to part with things that I knew were just going to gather dust. Now I go through it about every two weeks, because I still cling to some of the junk, but I've gotten much better!

[jenfer]

i am same with you. i was trying to clean my room, but end up just "shuffling" things around. i can't throw away my 100+ comic books. no way! but i did donate a bunch of clothes... apparently books are more important to me. lol. another idea is do it quick: quickly throw it in a BLACK garbage bag, so i won't have 2nd thought.

[slleipnir]

If I gave away everything I don't dust then I'd be giving away everything :o I only dust sometimes when it really annoys me and I feel up to it :o

[RobiLee]

Ohhh man!!! I need so much help in this area! I was just telling Anna how bad my house was. Plum full of stuff from our 22 year marriage! It is ridiculous!!!! She pointed out this thread to me. I keep everything!!!! My house is becoming overloaded and is starting to look so bad from it all. It is a major point of embarrasment. Why can't I get rid of things? What is my problem. It is staring to make me feel bad and like my life is in complete chaos! I hate it but can't seem to get busy and throw stuff out! When I make an attempt I always wind up just standing around and reminiscing and never get rid of anything. I think I will try those rules that catnapper pointed out. That will still be hard for me.

I NEED HELP!!!! :p :o

[kt_luvs_kitties]

Haha. I am completely different. I throw out any and everything, and never feel bad for it. I just throw it out, then get something else in its place:D My husband likes to keep everything, even receipts from the taco bell we went to in 1998:rolleyes: Atm withdrawls from 2000. I hate it, so while he goes out of town, I start trashing stuff. When we moved from our Villa, to my parents house, he had 3 trash bags FULL to the brim with receipts. Drives me up the wall!!! And those 3 bags were downgraded from the 10 we had stored in our hallway closet:rolleyes:
I love getting rid of old stuff, and once I toss it out, I NEVER miss it. Never really needed it in the first place. It only took up room, and was another thing to clean up;)

PS- I collect kitty figures, and I never ever ever toss them out, even when the tail falls off, I just glue it back, or leave it alone. That stuff I will keep forever, no matter how much space it takes up. I never have bought one for myself, because everyone close to me buys me them all the time. My mother buys me atleast one kitty figure, kitty bank, kitty carosel, kitty everything, atleast once a week. So going at this rate, I will have to buy a seperate house to keep them all, by the time I am forty:D :p

[slleipnir]

Wanna come help me then? :rolleyes: :p

[wolfsoul]

I have the same problem. I HATE getting rid of things. You should see the junk I could have collected over the years if I finally didn't just get rid of it all.

I found that the best motivation for getting rid of it is to make money off of it. nd for the last three garage sales, I made more money than anyone else in my family lol. One time I made $40! :D Try flea markets -- they are some of the best places to get rid of things.

[BitsyNaceyDog]

I'm in the same boat. I have a box of stuffed animals in my closet from when I was little. The box hasn't been opened in years, but I can't get rid of them. CDs too, I have a ton of CDs that I haven't listened to in years, but I can't throw them out. :rolleyes:

[dukedogsmom]

I am the queen of all clutterbugs. I have very slowly been trying to clean up and am making a little headway. My closets are such a mess that I can't use them as their original use. I've got empty boxes from things I have displayed. I don't want to put them in storage because they would ruin. I seem to collect lots of stuff. Beanie babies everywhere. I love them! They must have a spell put on them to buy them because that's what I do. Mail is a big problem also. I let it pile up everywhere. I don't have a filing system so I never put it up. Ugh. I hate cleaning, too, which doesn't help a whole lot. Maybe we need to come to each other's houses to make decisions for us :p

[4 Dog Mother]

As many of you know, we thought we were moving to Florida this summer, so we (I) began to go through the many, many boxes of stuff we had. It hasn't been easy but we threw lots out, donated some to the Salvation Army, and old toys to a neighbor who babysits. That might help some of you, if you "pretend" you are going to be moving and can't take it all with you. I pitched old magazines that I would SOMEDAY get around to reading, donated outgrown clothes (and yet there is always more).

I have also watched Clean Sweep alot to see how they do things. I collected books by my favorite authors and yet I rarely re-read a book. So I have and still am (as I have a HUGE collection of books) going through books - fortunately I know of two used book stores that will give me credit to buy other books but I make sure it is a rotating and take back the new books as soon as I read them.

One of the ideas they use on Clean Sweep is everytime you buy a new piece of clothing, take a piece out of your closet. I also think if you try to do too much at a time it becomes overwhelming. Tackle your clothing one day, your knickknacks another day etc. Also another thing I have done is gone through the closets once and gotten rid of the things I knew right away I could give up and then a few days or weeks later went back again to look over what I kept and what I now could give away.

Mail is a huge problem I think for everyone. What they say on Clean Sweep is through junk mail away right away. Keep a basket to put bills in and things that need to be taken care of right away and put those items in the minute they come in so they don't get lost in the "other' stuff. And then try to go through the rest at least once a week.

I still have a long way to go - I do crafts and am always starting projects and then have "left over" stuff and can't just give it away as someday I may want to make more. I, too have several boxes of stuffed animals and Beanie Babies.

[Karen]

Those stuffed animals that you don't want to throw away? Give 'em a bath, stitch up any holes, then donate them in nice clean condition to a children's hospital so that children facing painful or difficult hospital stays have someone to cuddle. Don't you think those stuffies will feel better comforting someone than stashed away in a closet?

By the way, I do still have my very first teddy bear - he looks loved, but he was made by my Aunt Dottie, and is unique and was made just for me. But other stuffies have gone to children's homes, and nursing homes, and to the church nursery - all places where they will get more love than my dust allergy and time will allow me to give them.

[Twisterdog]

Ahhhh, I'm the master of getting rid of junk. I do it all the time. Unfortunately, I buy more stuff to replace the junk ... and in a year or two the "stuff" has become "junk" and I repeat the cycle. Sad. :rolleyes:

I donate everything to charity. I feel better knowing my shopping problem is helping someone, at least. Also, I KNOW, if I wait to try to sell it on Ebay, or wait to have a yard sale, etc .... I'll just end up keeping it.

I put it in a bag and IMMEDIATELY take it to the car. Then I IMMEDIATELY drive across town and drop all my junk off at Goodwill. If I wait, I'll change my mind.

Some good things to ask yourself about an item you are not sure about: Does this have special meaning to me, for example, a gift from a loved one or a family heirloom. If not, get rid of it. Also ... would I buy this again, if I saw it in the store tomorrow? If the answer isn't "YES!", get rid of it!

[cloverfdx]

I have the same problem Audrey :o. I am going to try and tackle my room later, i started last night and then got side tracked when i found stuff i had not seen for 6 months lol. And all my old stuffies are in the garden shed, i realy should rehome them.

[Barbara]

I know that problem. Especially with paper stuff, a postcard I had on my desk 20 years ago, some favorite clothes. I allow myself to keep some of these things.

If I start to clean up- like going through my clothes I can come into a real frenzy of throwing away or donating. The first pieces you still think and ponder - but then........:D

In clothes I usually give it away if I have not worn it the last season. Probability I will wear it next summer is very low then.

[Logan]

I think my husband and I might win the award for clutter. After combining two households and continuing on with life, we have not made the time to truly clean out and clean up. We've made some attempts and have carted away a lot of stuff, either as trash or good stuff to Goodwill, but we have a long, long way to go.

Have you heard of www.freecycle.com? There is a group in our area, and I have started using it to rid us of some extra "stuff". I have given away an old basketball goal, a computer monitor, a printer, a computer keyboard, two wheelbarrows that had flat tires, and several other things. At least someone is getting it that needs it and will use it, rather than them collecting dust in my garage or worse yet, being thrown in the trash. I have been amazed at what some people freecycle!

Good luck!

Logan

[Logan]

There's also a website called www.flylady.net . Now, if I could get disciplined and follow her advice, my house would be a showplace! I'm trying, but so far, I'm not as far along as I should be, but my kitchen sink is clean! :)