Let it GO! Decluttering (simplifying) your life of (people, places or things) success stories?

I grew up in a spotless house. My mom would stay up late cleaning many nights. I think it set an unrealistic expectation for me as an adult. My brain got wired to think it was the way you live .... with zero clutter.

When I got married, I saw that my spouse was messy and loves clutter; i think it makes him feel good. The clutter chokes me. It can be very hard on me emotionally to live in clutter. Our dresser in our bed room is cut in half- his side is covered in receipts, papers, and everything , and my side has a picture frame and a candle. I'm sorry to vent. He's not wrong for being that way, because that's how his brain is wired.
But for me, it's a source of discomfort seeing that junk in piles all over.

I just needed to express myself on this thread. I wont complain further, but i dream of having a clean house with only items we treasure instead of thousands of pieces of junk that isn't valued but still kept.

I can totally relate to this idea, just from a different perspective at the moment.

We are building apartment in my husband's family house and at the moment we live partially at my mother in low part of the house, partially at my parents.
I am enjoying and I am grateful for the opportunity to have a place of our own, but in the same time I feel so overwhelmed with all decisions we have to make, design options, budgeting, searching for right people for the job, etc.
More so, since this is an apartment in a family house, when this is done, there will be some other work to do to fix the yard, etc.
I feel like a fell into same housing trap that I thought that only fool people fall.
I gained around 25 pounds last few months.

In the same time my parents need help in another part of country, so it's extra challenging to make it all work.

I remember how good I was feeling when I was a student in a student campus having nothing more then bed, desk, few books for the semester and just enough clothes to fit into one suitcase. It felt so great! And I was around 40 pound lighter then I am now.

I am sorry for this little rant..I just wanted to say there is definitely some link between gaining weight and feeling overwhelmed, so it makes much sense that decluttering would help with letting go pounds too.

ladyreva78 wrote: »

As far as I'm concerned, ranting is a decluttering of the soul. You remove the excess stuff weighing you down before it has the time or opportunity to fester.

Wooow, that is really an awesome and compassionate thought! Thank you!

I hope I'm not repeating myself here, and I know it's sort of random. But I wanted to say for anyone who may be dealing with (future or present) clearing out a very cluttered/full home of loved ones who pass...do consider auctions!

I know it may vary from place to place, but when my in-laws passed away my husband and I did one thoughtful pass through their home and took out about 3 boxes full of sentimental items that we wanted to keep or disperse to extended family members. My husband then called a local auction house and they did a complete auction of everything for a very affordable sum. They wouldn't include clothing so I bagged all of that up and donated it to a charity thrift shop.

My in-laws didn't have some valuable estate full of antiques. It was a typical middle class home with plenty of junky collectibles, twenty year old furniture and boxes full of craft supplies and holiday decorations. But the auction house was more than happy to do this despite the items not being high dollar (they just earned a percentage) and people showed up and bought all of the stuff, much to our surprise. A cat tree that was pretty shredded went for twenty bucks. It was good.

This is cool. I cut and pasted, because I know if I'm on my mobile, I don't like clicking links in MFP Community and losing where I'm at.


https://zenhabits.net/18-five-minute-decluttering-tips-to-start-conquering-your-mess/

For those who are overwhelmed by their clutter, here are some great ways to get started, five minutes at a time.

1. Designate a spot for incoming papers. Papers often account for a lot of our clutter. This is because we put them in different spots — on the counter, on the table, on our desk, in a drawer, on top of our dresser, in our car. No wonder we can’t find anything! Designate an in-box tray or spot in your home (or at your office, for that matter) and don’t put down papers anywhere but that spot. Got mail? Put it in the inbox. Got school papers? Put it in the inbox. Receipts, warranties, manuals, notices, flyers? In the inbox! This one little change can really transform your paperwork.

2. Start clearing a starting zone. What you want to do is clear one area. This is your no-clutter zone. It can be a counter, or your kitchen table, or the three-foot perimeter around your couch. Wherever you start, make a rule: nothing can be placed there that’s not actually in use. Everything must be put away. Once you have that clutter-free zone, keep it that way! Now, each day, slowly expand your no-clutter zone until it envelopes the whole house! Unfortunately, the neighbors don’t seem to like it when you try to expand the no-clutter zone to their house, and start hauling away their unused exercise equipment and torn underwear when they’re not at home. Some people don’t appreciate simplicity, I guess.

3. Clear off a counter. You want to get your house so that all flat spaces are clear of clutter. Maybe they have a toaster on them, maybe a decorative candle, but not a lot of clutter. So start with one counter. Clear off everything possible, except maybe one or two essential things. Have a blender you haven’t used since jazzercise was all the rage? Put it in the cupboard! Clear off all papers and all the other junk you’ve been tossing on the counter too.

4. Pick a shelf. Now that you’ve done a counter, try a shelf. It doesn’t matter what shelf. Could be a shelf in a closet, or on a bookshelf. Don’t tackle the whole bookshelf — just one shelf. Clear all non-essential things and leave it looking neat and clutter-free.

5. Schedule a decluttering weekend. Maybe you don’t feel like doing a huge decluttering session right now. But if you take the time to schedule it for later this month, you can clear your schedule, and if you have a family, get them involved too. The more hands pitching in, the better. Get boxes and trash bags ready, and plan a trip to a charity to drop off donated items. You might not get the entire house decluttered during the weekend, but you’ll probably make great progress.

6. Pick up 5 things, and find places for them. These should be things that you actually use, but that you just seem to put anywhere, because they don’t have good places. If you don’t know exactly where things belong, you have to designate a good spot. Take a minute to think it through — where would be a good spot? Then always put those things in those spots when you’re done using them. Do this for everything in your home, a few things at a time.

7. Spend a few minutes visualizing the room. When I’m decluttering, I like to take a moment to take a look at a room, and think about how I want it to look. What are the most essential pieces of furniture? What doesn’t belong in the room but has just gravitated there? What is on the floor (hint: only furniture and rugs belong there) and what is on the other flat surfaces? Once I’ve visualized how the room will look uncluttered, and figured out what is essential, I get rid of the rest.

8. Create a “maybe” box. Sometimes when you’re going through a pile of stuff, you know exactly what to keep (the stuff you love and use) and what to trash or donate. But then there’s the stuff you don’t use, but think you might want it or need it someday. You can’t bear to get rid of that stuff! So create a “maybe” box, and put this stuff there. Then store the box somewhere hidden, out of the way. Put a note on your calendar six months from now to look in the box. Then pull it out, six months later, and see if it’s anything you really needed. Usually, you can just dump the whole box, because you never needed that stuff.

9. Put a load in your car for charity. If you’ve decluttered a bunch of stuff, you might have a “to donate” pile that’s just taking up space in a corner of your room. Take a few minutes to box it up and put it in your trunk. Then tomorrow, drop it off.

10. Create a 30-day list. The problem with decluttering is that we can declutter our butts off (don’t actually try that — it’s painful) but it just comes back because we buy more stuff. So fight that tendency by nipping it in the bud: don’t buy the stuff in the first place. Take a minute to create a 30-day list, and every time you want to buy something that’s not absolutely necessary (and no, that new Macbook Air isn’t absolutely necessary), put it on the list with the date it was added to the list. Make a rule never to buy anything (except necessities) unless they’ve been on the list for 30 days. Often you’ll lose the urge to buy the stuff and you’ll save yourself a lot of money and clutter.

11. Teach your kids where things belong. This only applies to the parents among us, of course, but if you teach your kids where things go, and start teaching them the habit of putting them there, you’ll go a long way to keeping your house uncluttered. Of course, they won’t learn the habit overnight, so you’ll have to be very very patient with them and just keep teaching them until they’ve got it. And better yet, set the example for them and get into the habit yourself.

12. Set up some simple folders. Sometimes our papers pile up high because we don’t have good places to put them. Create some simple folders with labels for your major bills and similar paperwork. Put them in one spot. Your system doesn’t have to be complete, but keep some extra folders and labels in case you need to quickly create a new file.

13. Learn to file quickly. Once you’ve created your simple filing system, you just need to learn to use it regularly. Take a handful of papers from your pile, or your inbox, and go through them one at a time, starting from the top paper and working down. Make quick decisions: trash them, file them immediately, or make a note of the action required and put them in an “action” file. Don’t put anything back on the pile, and don’t put them anywhere but in a folder (and no cheating “to be filed” folders!) or in the trash/recycling bin.

14. Pull out some clothes you don’t wear. As you’re getting ready for work, and going through your closet for something to wear, spend a few minutes pulling out ones you haven’t worn in a few months. If they’re seasonal clothes, store them in a box. Get rid of the rest. Do this a little at a time until your closet (and then your drawers) only contains stuff you actually wear.

15. Clear out your medicine cabinet. If you don’t have one spot for medicines, create one now. Go through everything for the outdated medicines, the stuff you’ll never use again, the dirty-looking bandages, the creams that you’ve found you’re allergic to, the ointments that never had an effect on your energy or your eye wrinkles. Simplify to the essential.

16. Pull everything out of a drawer. Just take the drawer out and empty it on a table. Then sort the drawer into three piles: 1) stuff that really should go in the drawer; 2) stuff that belongs elsewhere; 3) stuff to get rid of. Clean the drawer out nice, then put the stuff in the first pile back neatly and orderly. Deal with the other piles immediately!

17. Learn to love the uncluttered look. Once you’ve gotten an area decluttered, you should take the time to enjoy that look. It’s a lovely look. Make that your standard! Learn to hate clutter! Then catch clutter and kill it wherever it crops up.

18. Have a conversation with your SO or roommate. Sometimes the problem isn’t just with us, it’s with the person or people we live with. An uncluttered home is the result of a shared philosophy of simplicity of all the people living in the house. If you take a few minutes to explain that you really want to have an uncluttered house, and that you could use their help, you can go a long way to getting to that point. Try to be persuasive and encouraging rather than nagging and negative. Read more about living with a pack rat.

“We don’t need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it.” – Donald Horban


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I definitely have a problem with 2, keeping my no-clutter zone clear!

It's because it's MY no-clutter zone, but my husband's place to dump his work stuff. Need to work together on this.

Today, I found a space for the cat food in a cupboard so now I have a clear side table.

It all happens bit by bit.

I just finished listening to the audiobook of Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight by Peter Walsh. A really good take away for me was the idea that once I designate a place for a certain type of item, when that place is full I cannot have any more of that type item. For example, in order to organize my shoes, I bought 50 clear plastic shoe boxes and filled them up. They fit in my closet and that is all the room I have for shoes. If I simply must have a new pair (it happens) I have to let go of a pair that I have. The bottom line? Infinite amounts of stuff just won't fit in my finite space.